On Wednesday, a press release from Israel-based wireless charging company Wi-Charge detailed plans for a partnership with Belkin to launch a consumer product with true wireless charging technology this year. Belkin is now tempering those expectations.
Scharon Harding for Ars Technica:
On Wednesday, TechCrunch interviewed Wi-Charge co-founder and Chief Business Officer Ori Mor. The TechCrunch reporter wrote that Wi-Charge “told me it has just inked a mysterious deal with Belkin, and we can expect the first wireless power device to show up from the accessories manufacturer later this year.”
Mor stoked hopes of domestic cable- and pad-free wireless charging by saying that the Belkin product in the works is “a center-stage consumer product” and that Belkin had chosen “a perfect application.”
However, a statement Thursday from Belkin spokesperson Jen Wei suggested that Belkin is further away from a Wi-Charge-based product release.
“Currently, our agreement with Wi-Charge only commits us to R&D on some product concepts, so it’s too early to comment on the timing of viable consumer products,” Wei said in an emailed statement to Ars Technica… Wei said that Belkin is still “fully committed to the wired-to-wireless transition and believe[s] in a future of cable-free charging.”
MacDailyNews Take: On its website, Wi-Charge says its technology uses infrared beams to send up to 1 W of power to devices within a range of up to 40 feet, but it seems that consumer products delivering such capability aren’t coming in the foreseeable future.
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Just got to find those missing notes of Nikola Tesla and how he wirelessly lit light bulbs miles away.
This is a myth at best. The laws of physics are against it a besides, even if it made sense from an energy standpoint, you’re limited to about 15km due to the line of sight from the curvature of the earth.
In that case the most likely design Tesla had was to have towers every few miles. It’s possible the original idea of cell towers came from Tesla’s work.
Demos have been out for almost 10 years for over-air-charging. But no real successful product yet. For those interested, a recent Wired article covered the topic coinciding with the 2022 CES. https://www.wired.com/story/distance-wireless-charging-ces-2022/
Dave Jones does a good job talking about these sorts of things.
So it seems Wi-Charge’s hype presently sounds familiarly similar to those so often voiced by another Israeli businessman so delightfully portrayed in We-Crashed. Perhaps Rebekah is doing the pr.
Yes, true wireless charging happens only when breathing normally 😉