The Samsung Galaxy IV and the new iPhone will both be arriving this year, and the feature race is on. One feature will apparently be the ability to…wait for it…wirelessly charge your phone.
Wireless charging isn’t anything new, particularly. Working on the principles of magnetic induction, it’s pretty much just making your phone and the charging station two halves of an electrical transformer.
The rumors, however, are unsurprisingly pretty spotty about what this might actually entail:
“Apple is likely to adopt the wireless charging technology developed internally,” the report said, “but it remains unknown if the next-generation iPhone will come with built-in wireless charging capability or with other attached accessories.”
The details on Samsung are more specific, claiming that the Galaxy S IV will feature Qi wireless charging technology run by the Wireless Power Consortium. Users will reportedly be required to buy replacement back covers and an accessory charging pad to be able to recharge their handset without plugging in a cable.
That first part frankly seems unlikely: Apple likes everything crammed into one light, thin, neat package, so if they can’t work wireless charging into the overall design of the product, they probably aren’t going to do it.
Samsung, on the other hand? Slam dunk. Samsung works on the principle of volume and being on Android, so it seems likely they’ll feature this as an optional accessory to help their phone seem more futuristic. It seems likely this will be an accessory.
So, guys, we notice the whole idea of charging our gadgets by blasting them with lightning from Tesla coils remains untapped. Maybe work on that next?