Anyone know how different this is from e.g. powermat?

Powermat has no plugs either. By the "closest thing to magic" comments, I would guess uBeam can charge your phone while still in your pocket (whereas powermat and similar systems require ~2mm distance from the charger).

Which, if true, is kind of scary -- it means that a bug or bad estimation would target nontrivial energy to your groin (5W charges your average modern phone; that might not sound like a lot, but cellphones are limited to 0.6W so that they don't raise your brain or skin temperature too much, and most phones in most locations use less than 0.1W when talking, about 0.01W on average in standby. 5W is a lot)

edit: pressed submit permaturely.