Cars are becoming increasingly high-tech with all sorts of gadgetry all over the place. The Mopar division at Chrysler is introducing an industry first this summer by adding an in-vehicle wireless charging system.

The idea is going to be a familiar one to most readers of Mobile Magazine. There’s a special case for your phone, an inductive charging mat, and no need for a wire to connect the two. This is much the same kind of technology that we see with products like the PowerMat, except this one will be installed directly in the center console of your car.

As a $200 option, the wireless charging system will be first offered this summer in the 2013 Dodge Dart. I imagine they’ll eventually roll out the option to other Chrysler vehicles too. I certainly hope that the mat has been designed with some special non-slip material, because I’d hate to see phones flying all over the place when you take a hard turn, accelerate quickly, or brake suddenly.

[Source]

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Google has multiple low-speed EVs for short-range travel as part of their employee car-sharing program. The company has plug-in charging stations on campus. To be able to use the wireless charger, EVs must be refitted with ta Plugless Power vehicle adapter. Once refitted, drivers can pull into a parking space, or even their garage, and refuel without having to plug the car in.

Google will be using the wireless charging station to charge a retrofitted EV. If the trial is successful, Google has shown interest in expanding the technology to its other plug-in EV vehicles.

A plugless charging system might encourage more people to consider purchasing an EV, especially if the system is installed in the driver’s garage. The automatic process would make it easier to charge the EV, and eliminate the possibility of forgetting to plug in the car and finding it empty the next morning.

Evatran is currently looking for other trial opportunities with corporations and municipalities. Most EV models are eligible for Plugless Power, but must be retrofitted. Evatran is also working with car manufacturers to integrate the Plugless Power technology into mass-market EVs by 2012. This would be a great intermediary technology until 3D film batteries appear on the market.

[ZDNet via Plugless Power]

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One company thinks it can take charging our gadgets to the next level – by pulling power out of thin air.  Airnergy, from RCA is harnessing small amounts of the signals that are being broadcast by wireless internet.

The Airnergy, resembles a 3G dongle with a complex series of circuits, it takes the energy from wi-fi signals and stores it in its own rechargeable battery. Being demonstrated at the CES this year, the device’s, was able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% power to full power in roughly 90 minutes.  The speed that it can recharge at will greatly depend on the strength of the nearby Wi-Fi signals. Since wireless internet is so prevalent, the company mentioned that it could essentially provide “free energy” by working off ambient electromagnetic noise.

Airnergy is scheduled to go on sale later this year for about $40 .

Source:  guardian.co.uk

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Instead of forcing you into an unnecessarily bulky case, Powermat is now offering swappable batteries. You simply pull out the OEM battery from your chosen device and switch it for one of the Powermat ones. From there, you can place your phone (or whatever) onto the mat and it’ll charge.

This obviously won’t work with the iPhone and iPod, since they don’t have user-swappable batteries, but it should work for most other devices. Powermat says that the batteries will be made available for HTC, BlackBerry, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson phones.

The receiver cases are still going to kick around, but they’ll be changed for silicone version instead. The Powermat chargers themselves will be offered as Powermat 1X, Powermat 2X, and Powermat 3X, corresponding to the number of charging spots each one has. There’s also a Powermat 3X Netbook that’ll charge a netbook and two other gadgets.

Source: Gizmodo

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How can you rectify this situation? Well, let’s turn our attention over to jvalal of Instructables for a more contemporary take. He took the all-black power mat induction charger and modified it to fit inside a wooden board. It may look like a cutting board for your vegetables, but it’s just as functional as the regular power mat.

It’s not like it was the easiest of processes, of course. Jvalal removed the “electronic guts” from the power mat charger and then manually mounted them on the underside of a gutted out piece of wood. But that wasn’t the hardest part.

The hardest part was making the wood surface thin enough that devices placed on top would get a positive lock on the charging coils below. Cut it too thin and you’d poke a hole in the wood instead, effectively nullifying its clean appearance.

Watch the video below and then hit up the original post for step-by-step directions.

Source: Lifehacker

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