The Sony Xperia Z is a very sexy, and very capable smartphone. Arguably, this is the best phone that Sony has designed in years. That said, it is missing one important feature that many new devices seem to be shipping with these days: wireless charging.

The good news is that accessory maker Ipan Ipan has announced a solution that solves this problem. Their accessory not only works as a protective case for your Xperia Z, but it also works as a wireless charging device that plays nicely with Qi wireless charging platforms.

According to the accessory maker, creating the smartphone accessory wasn’t easy. The Xperia Z has a non-removable battery and the back is made from glass, so it was impossible to simply replace the battery cover door with a wireless charging variant. Instead, they used the 2-pin connector designed for the Z’s docking station.

So how much will it set you back? It costs €39 for just the case, or €89 for the case an an included charging pad. What do you think, interested or not?

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Samsung’s response to the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S3, is also expected to compete against the iPhone 5. But it won’t be easy for the S3 to survive as LG’s D1L smartphone, which is said to be coming with some very powerful specifications, is also expected to arrive soon. The D1L is believed to have a 4.7-inch HD display, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor with LTE like the latest One X, and also Android 4.0 ICS. Now we can add one more feature to that list.

Korean website DDaily says that the handset boasts built-in wireless charging, a feature that will also be available with the Galaxy S III, if rumors are to be believed. According to the website, the D1L will be available in South Korea at the end of May via all the three major carriers, but no hints regarding its global availability.

As you might know, Verizon’s LG Revolution also features wireless charging, although that requires the user to buy an optional backplate that makes the handset a bit thicker. But there won’t be a similar problem with the LG D1L as it will come with the feature built in.

We will keep you updated on the D1L, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can leave your thoughts below. Do you think that the mobile industry as a whole should adopt wireless charging?

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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.

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Evatran, the company that claims to have developed the world’s first wireless EV charging system, has partnered with Yazaki North America, a Tier 1 automotive supplier to commercialize their Plugless Power technology. Back in March, Google tested out the plugless chargers at the Googleplex in California for their short-range EVs that employees use to get around campus. The EVs had to be refitted to use the plugless chargers, and any EVs that qualify for the technology would have to be refitted.

Evatran hopes that with Yazaki, they can market the technology to manufacturers as a factory or dealership option, which would make it easier for EV users to adopt the technology. It’s not like you could stroll into any mechanic shop and ask them to retrofit the car, but even without the manufacturer installation option, maybe Evatran could set up something similar to Tesla’s Mobile Service Rangers where they come to your home and install the system.

The Plugless Power system transfers up to 3.3 kilowatts of power at efficiencies of up to 90 percent, allowing plug-in vehicles to recharge as quickly as they would with some Level 2 wired chargers. To use it, you would just park over the floor-mounted charging pad, which would alleviate fears of forgetting to plug in the car and finding the battery completely zapped in the morning. Not to mention that if companies installed these things in their parking garages, EVs could get charged during the long work day. Evatran hopes to see the wireless technology in mass-marketed EVs by 2012.

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Engineers from Duke University in North Carolina suggest that metamaterials could improve wireless power transmission to devices like laptops, cellphones and even electric vehicles (EVs). The issue with transmitting small amounts of power over longer distances is that most of it will scatter and dissipate before it reaches the receiving device. Not to mention that if the energy is increased, radiation becomes a problem.

However, metamaterials may be able to improve energy transfer over long distances. Metamaterials are unique materials made by humans that can be engineered to exhibit properties not readily found in nature. In the case of wireless charging, a metamaterial would be situated between the energy source and the recipient device, and could greatly refocuse the energy transmitted towards the recipient. Theoretically, the metamaterial would make it seem as if there was no space between the transmitter and the recipient, resulting in a minimal loss of power.

How this works is by using a property displayed in metamaterials called a negative refract index. This means the metamaterials can refract light in a way that nothing found in nature can, resulting in a “superlens” design that give researchers greater control over light. The same theory applies to any electromagnetic waves, so wireless power transmission can also make use of the phenomenon. The theory is that metamaterials placed between the transmitter and the receiver would create a kind of lens that focuses the energy so that most of it gets to the device being charged.

A close-range wireless recharger is being tested for electric vehicles, though it eliminates the use of wires, the EV must be refitted with a vehicle adapter and has to be parked directly over the charger for the power to be transferred. Metamaterials could make it possible for more people to take advantage of one centralized charger, or an EV low on juice could get charged on its way home to prevent a drained battery. Not to mention the  scenario where you need to charge your laptop but can’t get a seat next to the outlet. You could charge it from halfway across the room, and prevent any tripping hazards.

The wireless power transmission metamaterial would be similar to that used for cloaking, using thousands of individual thin conducting loops that can be arranged in an almost infinite variety of configurations. The system would be tailored to the specific recipient device, as the source and target would need to be tuned to each other. The arrangment of matematerials could help make wireless power transmission systems more focused. The results of the Duke research were published online in the journal Physical Review B.

Photo Credit: David Schurig

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Wireless charging isn’t exactly a new thing, but it also hasn’t taken off as much as we would have expected. You can waltz into any number of electronics retail stores and find that they are selling Powermat or some other variation on the inductive charging thing. The problem is that you have to buy a special adapter or case for every device you want to charge.

Texas Instruments is apparently trying to change that with the bqTESLA kit. This is the industry’s first Qi-certified wireless power development kit and it should be able to work with smartphones, digital cameras, and all sorts of other portable devices. Unlike Powermat, this solution is designed so that the receiver is already built into the target device.

No need for proprietary adapters for charging. By working with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), the Qi certification on this TI development could work to promote standardization among wireless power systems. The charger takes electricity and converts it to a wireless signal. The receiver gets this wireless signal and converts it back to electricity.

The bqTESLA development kit is avaialble now from Texas Instruments, offering up to 5 watts of power at a time. TI says that you don’t need any additional software to make it work. If you’re feeling like MacGyver’ing together your own wireless solution, you can pick up one of these kits for a cool $500.

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Figure 4. Charging multiple devices at a distance

When I first heard about the idea of wireless charging, I thought that I could leave my cell phone just about anywhere near the charging device and the battery would magically get topped up. And then they crushed my dreams with the inductive charging system. Well, Fujitsu has just renewed my hopes again with its latest development.

Figure 2. Prototype mobile phones with built-in wireless power receivers

You see, it seems that the Japanese company is indeed producing a true wireless charging system. It’s not like the Powermat solution where you have to make physical contact with the charging mat and have a receiver attached to your device; this is actually completely wireless with no requirements for any physical connection. Sounds like the old Wardenclyffe tower Tesla had made nearly a century ago, although Fujitsu’s system won’t work at such great distances. “The drawbacks are that the method only works over short distances, and the power transmitter and power receiver need to be in alignment, so it is effectively no different than using a charging station with a wired connection.”

Fujitsu is saying that their wireless charging solution uses a “magnetic resonance method” that will allow it to charge multiple devices at the same time without having to be in physical contact with anything. The charger also happens to be more efficient, topping up batteries in 1/150th of the time. When will we see such solutions become commercially viable and affordable enough for the average consumer? Who knows, but this looks very promising. Let’s just hope JP Morgan doesn’t get involved.

Figure 1. Principles of wireless power transmission methods

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