Starbucks starts rolling out wireless phone chargers nationwide
theverge.com
theverge.com
Seems like Duracell (they are the primary backer) is trying to make another push against the market.
PMA / PowerMat is the odd man out. The only time I see it used is when Duracell pays for it (either in their own Powermat line, or their agreements with folks AT&T requiring companies to make Powermat devices like http://bit.ly/UwhZ2R )
I was really hoping that this wouldn't end up being another drawn out compatibility war, and since 99% of the momentum and device support is behind Qi already, it seems efficient to let Qi win.
Of course, if Apple releases PMA in the next iPhone, PMA will win by default, no matter how late they choose to release it.
Both PowerMat and Qi use inductive charging[0][1].
There are some technical differences, but the two are separated more by licensing and legal/political reasons than by actual underlying functionality and technology.
[0] http://www.dvice.com/2013-11-15/opinion-unnecessary-smartpho...
[1] https://www.andrewmunsell.com/blog/fight-for-wireless-power
From a tech perspective they both use induction. The A4WP product uses magnetic resonance, but I don't think they have a sellable product yet, but in theory they could charge your phone from across the room. I think demos have only shown it work from a few inches away. This solution is very non-green considering the inverse sq law. I have a feeling that there will be pushback if people are wasting 2x or 5x the energy to charge their devices, as well as larger electricity bills. Not to mentionn, Joe User asking about "radiation."
The war isn't over because Apple hasn't picked a side. I imagine they'll go with pm to be difficult and to hurt Android's qi based phones. "Oh, you can't charge here, its iPhone only," seems to be a narrative that helps sell the "exclusivity" of their devices.
I also find it a little hard to believe that Starbucks would invest in all this technology without some kind of nod from Apple that this will be in their next phone. A4WP signed some agreement with PMA recently, so who knows whats going to happen here. It sounded like a desperate move to me, but now I'm not so sure with the starbucks roll-out and the Apple wildcard at play.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/11/5398066/a4wp-and-pma-merge...
Well, plug-in charging is already fairly common in coffee shops, and the cord clearly doesn't provide security. I think wireless charging will be even bigger since you just pull the phone out of your pocket and plop in on the table, rather than bring the charger with you.
> From a tech perspective they both use induction.
One of the other commentators mentions that he thinks Powermat is more forgiving on exact positioning of the device on the mat. Do you know if this is real/important?
I think you're referring to gdilla, who stated (incorrectly[0]) that this Powermat's technology is less sensitive to positioning because it does not use inductive-based charging (in fact, it does).
I've been using wireless charging on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 for a while now[1], and the main factor is simply the size of the device and the surface area of the charger. There might be some subtle difference beyond that, but if so, it's too small for me to have noticed after several months of daily use. I never have to think about it.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powermat
[1] Qi-based, just like essentially all wireless-charging devices on the market
Format and standardization wars benefit literally nobody (look at VHS vs. Betamax and Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD). In this case, it's even worse because it'd be fragmentation for the sake of fragmentation - from an end-user perspective, there's essentially no difference between the two[0], and the main issue is really patent royalties more than anything else[1].
[0] This was not the case with VHS and Betamax - there were clear differences between the two formats [1] http://www.dvice.com/2013-11-15/opinion-unnecessary-smartpho...
Disclaimer: I really dislike Apple and am not likely to ever (personally) own any iDevices in the future (although, I am the Android minority in my household). But I can't really fault them for making their own charge connector that does appear to be superior to the mini/micro USB that is standard on most other phones. It would be nice if all phones used the same connector and if it was the Lightning Plug I'd be fine with that. But if they come late to the game and pick PM or Qi just to be difficult but gain no real tech advantage... well that is just a dick move. Which is exactly the type of thing they would do, sadly. :/
[1]: http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/developers/specificat...
Truth is they make it quite clear which nation in the first line of the article - I think The Verge are a global news source [albeit, yes, with a USA focus] and that they're quite cognisant of that, given the rest of this article.
As I said, the story made it clear it was USA in the first line of the article proper - I'd think that was part of The Verge being cognisant of the web being global and knowing that they get non-USA readers.
Personally I consider it foolish to assume web visitors are from a specific geography and that - in particular - a .com website is only to be read from, or at least in the context of, USA. There is no default country on the web IMO.
.us is the ccTLD for USA. .com is the defacto default for all types of entities from across the world. Verisign call .com "The Global Online Standard". Yes, USA broke the convention and structure to preference themselves - that seems to be a favorite passtime.
Starbucks is in Russia too.