Similar to the Powermat, the phone will be required to have a special backplate or battery door and will need to be placed on the special charging plate that will be placed in the middle console on the Dodge Dart. The difference being it doesn’t have to be aligned perfectly and will just work. According to Chrysler it will work with “a variety of smartphones” although pricing will be a little steep.

The wireless charging option will run buyers of the new Dart an additional $199 or more and that doesn’t include installation or the battery cover. With phones like the iPhone 4S we’d imagine this will be a case, and a new battery cover for phones with removable batteries. This simple charging solution will be stylish and easily accessed from the center console of the car, and will be available starting with the all new Dodge Dart in the second quarter of this year. Who wants one?

[via The Verge]

WildCharge has announced that it has hit a milestone by working in conjunction with other providers to offer 100,000 wire-free charging products under various brand names to the market in the remainder of 2009. The company reports that it is on track to exceed 500,000 products by the end of the year.

WildCharge is talking up the signed agreements that it has in place with partners and distributers in several countries. A new Mark of Interoperability has been developed as well to show when partner products are WildCharge-compatible.

In fact, there’s even some talk of putting the charging pad – which connects to a suitably WildCharge-equipped gadget via charging nubs on its case or adapter – into the lid of a laptop, which would mean you could feasibly recharge your phone, Bluetooth headset, Kindle or other gadget just by sitting it on top.  That would mean you could recharge your phone in the car, at your desk or at home just by setting it in a suitable universal cubby.

According to WiProwess principle Craig Kinley, the company has already seen interest from the medical, hospitality, automotive and office furniture industries.  Products to wirelessly charge cellphones such as the iPhone together with various other devices are already on sale.

Press Release:

WiProwess, LLC Becomes First WildCharge “Certified Design Center”

Agreement expands ability to integrate wire-free power technology into any business or consumer application

ANDERSON, S.C., (September 8, 2009) — WildCharge, Inc., the leader in wire-free power technology, has signed two significant agreements with WiProwess, LLC a wire-free power design and integration firm. The first agreement designates WiProwess as the premier Certified Design Center for WildCharge, giving WiProwess the authority to provide design, development and integration services to companies that seek to integrate WildCharge’s wire-free power technology into their products. The Technology Licensing Agreement allows WiProwess to design, develop and market products embedded with WildCharge technology.

Wire-free power is a more efficient way of charging electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops and hand-held gaming devices. The patented technology designed by WildCharge allows multiple devices to charge at once while using just a single electrical outlet. The technology not only saves energy and space, it also makes re-charging more convenient which diminishes the occurrence of battery down-time.

WildCharge is the first company in the wire-free power industry to have products commercially available, as well as the first to have wire-free products developed and commercially launched by licensees of its technology. As a Certified Design Center, WiProwess will accelerate the introduction of products featuring convenient WildCharge wire-free technology into the market and hands of anxiously waiting consumers.

“We’re very excited to get in on the ground floor of the explosion in wire-free power, and to do so with the category leader,” said Craig Kinley, principal of WiProwess. “WildCharge is clearly the front runner in the race to provide viable wire-free power solutions around the world. It is the only company to have the technology commercially available now, and they’ve made it extremely cost-effective and easy for our customers to begin integrating the technology into their own products.”

Kinley cited the medical, hospitality, automotive and office furniture industries as having taken an early interest in implementing wire-free power into their product/service offering.

Dennis Grant, chairman and CEO of WildCharge, said, “WiProwess is a great partner to WildCharge and they saw immediately that the applications for our technology are endless. From gaming consoles to furniture to appliances, our technology can easily be embedded into countless solutions. We are excited about expanding the adoption and use of our technology through our relationship with WiProwess. Our goal is to develop integrated product solutions that will simplify the consumer experience when it comes to charging.”

About WiProwess
WiProwess was formed in 2008 to bring forth exceptional wireless consulting services and create sound business relationships that lead to rewarding synergies between various technologies and business partners. WiProwess integrates wireless technologies with products and services to not only have the ability to review, analyze and optimize the current infrastructure and system, but also deliver the concentration of what is on the forefront of the technological curve. www.wiprowess.com

About WildCharge
WildCharge is a Boulder, CO based company that is revolutionizing power delivery to portable electronic devices by commercializing – through licensing partnerships – its proven, wire-free power technology. WildCharge is the first company to offer commercially available wire-free charging technology that works with multiple devices across multiple brands. WildCharge’s Technology Licensing Program provides the design and manufacturing guidance allowing original equipment/design manufacturers to quickly and cost effectively integrate highly efficient, wire-free, technology into their products. For more information on WildCharge products and licensing capabilities, go to www.wildcharge.com.

If the Duracell Smart Power kit looks familiar, then it’s probably because you’ve seen WildCharge’s conductive charging system. Duracell have seemingly licensed the WildCharge setup – which uses a base-station pad laced with power strips, and a selection of cases and adapters with studded contacts – and thrown in not only a selection of device-specific “Power Sleeve” cases (or “skins” as WildCharge calls them) but a few extra things that better align with the company’s own range.

These include a conductive-charging flashlight, a rechargeable battery charger and a number of portable power packs that can be used to top up standard NiMH cells, phones and PMPs. Most of these come with a USB to mini-USB adapter. Meanwhile there are the same Power Clip adapters – which bridge the conductive charger to the power port of BlackBerry, Motorola and Nokia phones, together with anything that hooks up via USB or mini-USB – and cases for the iPhone 3G/3GS, iPod touch 2G, BlackBerry Curve 8300 and Pearl 8100 smartphones.

One instant frustration is the lack of a micro-USB adapter anywhere in the box. With many manufacturers not only making the switch from proprietary connectors to USB, but to micro-USB specifically for its compact size, it seems strange that Duracell have made mini-USB their smallest plug. It’s nothing an adapter can’t address, but if you’ve picked up the myGrid starter kit for $79.99 it would be nice if it were compatible with a pretty mainstream port from the get-go.

Otherwise, the system works pretty much as we expected from our time with the WildCharge pad. Phones in the Power Sleeve or hooked up to a compact Power Clip attachment charged just as they would if using their regular, wired adapter, only without needing to do anything but drop them – studded contacts down – onto the myGrid base. You can charge as many devices simultaneously as you can feasibly fit onto that base, and we found no real disparity in how long our test phones took on the myGrid versus the wired route.

Duracell also threw in a couple of their other power products, which either charge up standard AA or AAA NiMH batteries, or supply juice directly from their own internal power-pack. Duracell supplied us with the Instant Charger ($29.99), a slim candybar-sized Li-Ion battery (that unfortunately doesn’t charge from the myGrid base) that offers up to 35hrs of top-up power to any mobile device with a USB or mini-USB connector, but they also offer the Pocket Charger ($19.99), an even smaller version with a flip-out mini-USB connector intended to add up to 60-percent more talktime to a cellphone, and the Powerhouse Charger ($49.99), a bigger external battery.

They also sent us the GoMobile ($29.99), an AA/AAA NiMH charger that takes up to four batteries at once; there are also four batteries in the pack. A smaller version, the GoEasy ($12.99), is also on offer, which takes two batteries at a time. Finally, they threw in an LED flashlight for us to test out the batteries, which worked as you’d expect an LED flashlight to do.

Perhaps the biggest complement for the Duracell system is that it’s easy to forget you’re using it. Dropping your device onto the charging pad is certainly quicker than fiddling with a cable, especially when you’re using one of the more integrated kits such as the iPhone 3GS case. The Power Clips – though useful in that they add myGrid compatibility with a far larger range of gadgets – are a less aesthetically pleasing solution, especially if the limited articulation of the connector – it rotates, but doesn’t bend or flex – means the conductive charge section won’t sit flat against whichever device you’re using it with.

Meanwhile the battery charger and the external power pack are no different from their non-Duracell counterparts, at least in terms of general use. It would be handy to be able to top up the Instant Charger from the same base station as your smartphone, though we can’t really say the same for the battery charger.  After all, with a footprint around the size of an iPhone it occupies a fair chunk of space and does just as well with a standard AC plug.

In the end, we feel the same about Duracell’s myGrid conductive charging system as we do WildCharge’s; namely, that we want to see far more device-specific cases on offer. The Power Clips do the job, certainly, but they lack finesse and feel like a workaround in order to tick compatibility boxes. As for the rechargeable booster batteries, as anybody who has cursed their iPhone for prematurely expiring after a particularly heavy day’s use will know, sometimes a shot of external juice feels heaven-sent. It’s worth noting, though, that the included USB and mini-USB connectors with the three booster batteries won’t be enough to hook up to your Apple device without another adapter.

A gimmick, then, but a potentially useful one. We assume Duracell are waiting on WildCharge to produce cases for a broader range of devices; if you’re an iPhone or iPod touch user (or a Pearl/Curve owner, for that matter) and you constantly forget to plug in your device, then the myGrid may be your salvation. Considering the $34.99 price for the Power Clips and adapters, though, anyone else could do well to wait for a dedicated rather than workaround option.

We found out this week that owners of the T-Mobile G1 may be out of luck down the road when large updates for the Android OS are offered. Apparently, the G1 is running out of memory to store significant updates. T-Mobile maintains the device has plenty of memory for updates. An iPod touch was spotted in the wild Monday sporting a camera. The device is said to have been recovered by an electronics recycler who acquired the device after Apple threw it away.

The results of a report published this week found that the Xbox 360 has a massive failure rate of 54.2%. The survey was of 5,000 people and if the numbers are accurate, more than half of the consoles sold have failed. Redbox unveiled its plans for game rentals this week and has pilot programs in place in Reno, Nevada. I love renting flicks form Redbox, but I am not sure about game rentals.

Sprint’s 4G WiMax service was rolled out in Portland and Las Vegas for consumers to buy for $69.99 per month. That’s a $10 premium over 3G service, which isn’t too bad really. I can’t wait until 4G is available nationwide. Microsoft unveiled a new webcam for those who want to show themselves online in HD glory. The LifeCam Cinema cam has a native 720p resolution sensor and can record at 30 frames per second.

Rumors that the Palm Eos, the next handset to run webOS like the Pre, might be delayed until 2010 have surfaced. My money says that the sales numbers for the Pre aren’t that great and Palm is playing a wait and see game before it tosses another handset into the mix. Lenovo offered up a new home server called the D400 and new nettops this week. The machines are reasonably priced and should be appealing to users looking for storage or a cheap desktop PC.

Finally some good news from AMD, the company was able to grab the lead in the discrete notebook GPU market from NVIDIA with a solid 53% market share. I am sure all the defective NVIDIA discrete GPUs in notebooks didn’t help NVIDIA grow. Kmart jumped the gun on Tuesday prior to the PS3 slim being announced and started taking preorders for the console. I bet Sony wasn’t too happy with whoever pushed the go button early.

It wasn’t too long after Kmart started taking its preorders early that Sony officially announced the long rumored PS3 slim. The new console lacks PS2 support, has a 120GB HDD, and will sell for $299. I wonder if the game devs will be happy now. Dell whipped out its Inspiron 11Z CULV ultraportable notebook at $399. The little machine looks like a worthy replacement for the DOA Mini 12.

Logitech unveiled the ominous sounding Darkfield laser mice this week. Two products come with the new laser tech called the Performance Mouse MX and the Anywhere Mouse MX. The big feature is that the mice can track accurately on clear glass at least 4mm thick. We ran a feature story this week giving you all the details you could ever need on the new PS3 Slim. If you have PS3 Slim questions, that feature is where you will find your answers.

Acer offered up a new nettop for business users called the Veriton N260G Wednesday that sells for $399. The rig is designed to be freestanding with an integrated prop or it can be attached to the rear of an LCD. New rumors about the Apple tablet surfaced mid-week that claim we should expect not one but two Apple tablets. One is said to be a 6-inch Kindle competitor and the other a larger device possibly running OS X. The rub is the things aren’t supposed to hit until 2010.

Canon offered up six new point-and-shoot digital cameras this week, the most interesting of them is the G11. The device offers RAW + JPEG mode and a slew of manual controls. All six of the new cams are set to debut this month and next. Wednesday we reviewed the cool new Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth headset. The device is one of the cooler looking Bluetooth devices I have seen, even if it is a bit feminine.

Razer announced a new mouse this week specifically designed for MMO players called the Naga. It looks like the love child of a graphics calculator and a gaming mouse to me. I would never remember where I bound what control on the 17-key rodent. Sony killed off the Vaio TT premium ultraportable this week. The notebook never really made sense considering that it was so much more expensive than the netbooks consumers were buying in droves and was about $4000 more than the average netbook.

The cool little mintpass mintpad is finally coming to America and will be selling through Amazon.com. The little PMP and web surfing device may be the perfect small screen device for the kitchen. We talked on Thursday about the new and faster 45nm Cell CPU in the PS3 Slim. The Cell processor in other PS3 consoles is built on the 65nm process and is cheaper to make and a reason the new Slim is cheaper than the older consoles.

Vizio proudly proclaimed that it had taken the top spot in LCD TV sales in America this week. The budget retailer beat out Samsung and Sony for the top spot in American sales. Bose introduced a new set of noise cancelling headphones this week that you are sure to see on the next commercial flight you take. The headphones are called the QuietComfort 15 and have new active and passive noise cancellation features built-in.

I remember when I was a kid the thing that always threw me when I asked my dad what time it was, was when he would say half past four. If you prefer to tell time like that we found your perfect clock this week called the QLOCKTWO. Instead of numbers, the clock uses words to tell time just like dad did. Apple’s next Mac version is shipping on August 28 so if you have already preordered Snow Leopard, you should be getting a package soon.

Duracell showed off some new rechargeable battery devices and one of them was called the my Grid. MyGrid is a clone of the WildCharge wireless charging device that I have been drooling over for weeks. Suddenly those Walmart bargain DVD players are a hot deal, but not in a good way. Walmart announced a recall of 1.5 million DVD players because of a fire risk. The DVD players sold under the Durabrand name for $29.

PCI Express 3.0 was delayed until 2010 with product said to not come to market until 2011. The specification was expected to be available this year with product coming in 2010, things obviously didn’t work out according to plans. Well, there is yet another week in review, until next week! Goodbye and thanks for the fishes!

Sony had the specs for a pair of coming eReaders leak this week ahead of their official launch. The readers are available in two sizes and look to battle the Kindle for the dollars of avid readers around the country. Apple’s coming new OS X Snow Leopard hit Amazon for pre-order this week. The prices should make Bill Gates blush, an individual upgrade is a mere $29 and a five-user upgrade pack is $49.

Nikon’s VP650 point-and-shoot camera was tipped for launch in September on Monday. The slick camera is the first to integrate a projector into the feature list to allow easy sharing of photos with friends without having to crowd around the screen. Amazon added the Palm Pre to its online catalog Monday at the same $199.99 price everyone else is offering the device for.

OCZ’s massive 1TB SSD appropriately called the Colossus had pricing and availability released, the bad news is the SSD will sell for $2,500! WildCharge unveiled its oh so desirable wire-free charging system for the iPhone this week and me want. The catch is that you have to remove the phone from the included case to sync.

Hardware geeks were thrilled this week when Intel’s new Core i9 32nm six-core beast of a CPU was caught in the wild. The CPU is an engineering sample and said to run at 2.4GHz. An app for the Pre surfaced this week that does something sure to make Sprint mad. The app lets users tether the Pre for use as a 3G USB router. Who knows how long it will last before Sprint sues the maker into oblivion, so get the app fast.

Rumors cropped up on Tuesday that have Intel and Dell releasing a tablet that requires a subscription to battle the Kindle. The tablet will reportedly be given free to users who sign up for one or more subscriptions, presumably to digital magazines and newspapers. Logitech released a USB transceiver this week that will work with up to six different peripherals at the same time. The littleUnifying USB receiver sticks out of the port only 8mm and will let you move from work to home without having to plug in a new wireless receiver for your mouse and keyboard.

Android smartphone users got their own Amazon app this week that lets them take pics of things like CDs, DVDs and barcodes and find out how much they can buy the same product for from Amazon. Those rumors about a slim PS3 just won’t die. They resurfaced again this week after the 80GB PS3 was killed off in Japan as evidenced by a leaked letter that final 80GB PS3 orders had to be place before Sunday August 9. The model is expected to be replaced by the 80GB PS3 slim.

Images of that sexy Zune HD that we have been hearing about have surfaced that show a sexy device that looks a lot like the original iPhone with a few more angles to me. Apparently, the device will come in black and silver colors. BFG unveiled some hot NVIDIA GTX 295 and 285 video cards this week that have self-contained liquid cooling units built in. Knowing BFG that will mean that the cards are overclocked significantly compared to stock cards. Expect the cards to be expensive though.

more fuel was thrown on the Apple tablet rumor fire this week when a listing for a device called iProd was unearthed in the code for the iPhone OS 3.1 beta. Speculation has the iProd as the tablet that was rumored again this week. Earlier in the week some leaked photos of the Zune HD surfaced and then on Wednesday CNET got hands on with the sexy device. This is the first Zune that looked like something a technophile would actually want to own.

If you are the sort who has a lot of Apple products like iPods and iPhone lying around, the dock for you showed up Wednesday called the Parat Parasync. The device is capable of synching 20 different dockable Apple products at one time. The much anticipated T-Mobile myTouch 3G went on sale Wednesday for $199.99 to replace the G1 as the top-of-the-line Android smartphone on the T-Mobile network.

Sprint announced new 3G and 4G wireless routers this week that allow up to four or more users to access a WiMax connection or a 3G connection at one time. The devices create mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. Toshiba says that it will be ready to launch its first fuel cell in the next two months. I have been waiting for fuel cells to be available for a while that are refillable and can power my notebook.

A screen shot from Rogers Wireless was leaked this week that shows the 8GB iPhone 3G will be replaced by an 8GB iPhone 3GS. The rub is that the screen shot shows that stores are expected to use all the 3G iPhones before selling the 8GB 3GS. WildCharge unveiled a very strange wired, wireless charging system called the PowerDisc. You have to plug the PowerDisc into your device with a cable and then the PowerDisc charges from the WildCharge pad.

Sony has unveiled a new and odd three-legged tripod device called the Party-shot that uses face detection and 360-degree panning capability to snap pictures of people at your parties without having to carry the camera with you. The upside is that you have an extra hand free to carry more beer if you use this thing. Sony detailed its Memory Stick XC with a whopping 2TB of storage this week. What happened to the Sony getting away from proprietary formats thing?

Samsung unveiled an eco-friendly phone made from bio-plastic on Thursday appropriately called the Reclaim. The device isn’t a smartphone, but it sports a full QWERTY keyboard and is only $49.99 after rebates. Hitachi reveled its highest capacity and fastest hard drive ever with 2TB of storage and 7200 rpm speed called the Deskstar 7K2000. Strangely, the company has 500GB platters, but the drive uses five platters instead of four.

Microsoft unveiled a prototype keyboard Friday that uses pressure sensitive technology that is sure to force us all to learn to type again. The idea is that different amounts of pressure on keys would activate caps, lower case letters, or alternate characters. I can only imagine the illegible text that would result from my use of such a keyboard. The Chimera Killer Special Edition gaming desktop broke cover this week with some very nice specs at reasonable prices. If you have the money to buy a gaming machine right now, this is a machine worth considering.

One of the things I always take with me if I am working from a netbook is a mouse. I hate track pads and especially hate them on netbooks where they are so close to the keyboard. Newton unveiled its thin Mogo Mouse for Netbooks that comes with its own dock for sticking to the outside of a netbook allowing you to always have a mouse with you. The svelte Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T was sighted in the wild this week. The Timeline notebook is one of the latest CULV ultraportables around and should post some nice battery life figures.

We also had another Apple tablet rumor pop up Friday. An analyst claims that Apple could sell $1.2 billion worth of its tablet machines in only a year. That’s assuming the new batch of rumors that the machine is coming turn out to be true.

There you have it, another week down and another week in review completed for your enjoyment. See you next week!

That potential, the analysts suggest, is for speed-charging.  They envisage the use of super capacitors to speed up the rejuicing process, turning something like the Touchstone – which Strategy Analytics suggest “came at a high price and offered little benefit to users on its own” – into a true solution to the ongoing battle between functionality, connectivity and battery shortcomings.

Super capacitors are used in camera flashes, where they can output a large quantity of electricity in a short period of time.  Strategy Analytics expect that, if integrated into wireless chargers, they could inveigle 22-percent of the handset market within five years.  Frankly, the thought of a fifteen minute wireless recharge giving my smartphone enough power to last another day’s use (or even half a day, I’m not that fussy) is enough to get me on-board; unfortunately to read the rest of the article I’d have to pony up $899, and that’s enough for quite a few aftermarket batteries.

Press Release:

Wireless Charging is Pointless in Isolation, says Strategy Analytics

Speed-Charging Could Quadruple its Potential

BOSTON –(Business Wire)– Aug 06, 2009 The emergence of two technologies in cellphones – wireless charging and super capacitors – may yet offer the greatest potential to improve the experience of charging our phones. Together, and at the right price, this wireless speed-charging solution could penetrate over 22 percent of handset sales by 2014. The Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service report, “Wireless Charging Will Quadruple its Potential if Combined with Speed-Charging,” reveals that the Palm Pre’s wireless charging solution came at a high price and offered little benefit to users on its own, without the added boost of a super capacitor.

The combination of super capacitors and wireless charging may create an excellent solution to the growing energy gap problem which many cellphone users are experiencing on a daily or weekly basis.

Stuart Robinson, Director of the company’s Handset Component Technologies service, and author of the report commented, “Strategy Analytics predicts that the price of wireless charging solutions will fall to around US$15 by 2014 and, if combined with super capacitors for speed-charging, could significantly increase the value proposition of wireless charging.”

“Super Capacitors have been around for many years and are now just beginning to be designed into cellphones, mainly for camera flash applications where their ability to deliver a high level of power for a short period is ideal,” added Stephen Entwistle, VP of the Strategic Technologies Practice. “Strategy Analytics believes that the technology will continue to mature and will nicely complement wireless chargers.”

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides timely and actionable market intelligence focused on opportunities and disruptive forces in the areas of Automotive Electronics and Entertainment, Broadband Connected Home, Mobile & Wireless Intelligent Systems and Virtual Worlds. Headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, S. Korea and China, Strategy Analytics works with clients through annual multi-client services, management team workshops and custom consulting engagements. For more information, please visit http://www.strategyanalytics.com/

Each PowerDisc comes with seven adapter cables to suit multiple devices, and since the disc itself is relatively compact you can recharge multiple products from the one WildCharge Pad.  It’s obviously a less aesthetically-pleasing (and dare we say less “wire-free”) than the normal WildCharge system, and we’re also not convinced with the price: $19.99 each, or $64.99 for a PowerDisc plus a WildCharge Pad.

Considering the WildCharge Skins are $34.99 and far more streamlined than the PowerDisc, we put it to the company that $19.99 was on the high side.  Company VP of business development, Mike Reynolds, told us the following:

“The price for the PowerDisc includes the seven PowerLink connectors, so many devices can be charged with the WildCharger Pad while not occupying AC adapters. This is a system that travelers especially find convenient when lack of outlet space is always a concern. We agree that a lower price-point should be applied with this product vs. the more elegant skin and Universal solutions WildCharge develops. And you’ll notice it is quite a bit lower, while offering a truly universal solution. Over time, we will continue to drive prices down and create additional value for our customers”

We’ve got one of WildCharge’s iPhone 3GS cases in to review at the moment, and will be getting a PowerDisc soon; our full review will be up as soon as we’ve had a chance to test them out.

Press Release:

WildCharge Releases PowerDisc to Support Wire-Free Charging for Hundreds of Mobile Devices

PowerDisc is the company’s first accessory designed to work with a variety of gadgets across most major brands

(Boulder, Colo. – Aug. 5, 2009) – WildCharge Inc., the leader in wire-free power technology, announces today the new WildCharge PowerDisc™, its most cost-effective and versatile solution yet for wire-free charging of hundreds of different portable electronic devices. The PowerDisc works with the WildCharger™ pad and other WildCharge-enabled surfaces, allowing for the charging of multiple categories of devices including cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, e-book readers, GPS units, and more. The PowerDisc is also the first WildCharge accessory to work with LG and Samsung cell phones, furthering WildCharge’s compatibility across most major brands.

“WildCharge technology is making the wire-free power experience a reality for everyone, everywhere. The new PowerDisc furthers this vision by opening the door to wire-free power for literally hundreds of devices,” said Dennis Grant, CEO and chairman of WildCharge. “Our licensing partners and consumers have been eager for a low-cost solution that enables them to use the WildCharge technology with a wide variety of portable electronics. We are extremely pleased to offer the PowerDisc as the answer to that need.”

The PowerDisc comes with seven interchangeable PowerLinks™ to provide charging compatibility with not only the aforementioned LG and Samsung phones, but also with devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, RIM, Palm and more. The PowerDisc requires no installation and is incredibly easy to use. Users simply select the correct PowerLink, plug the appropriate end into the disc, and the other end into their device. When the disc is placed on a WildCharger Pad, or other WildCharge-enabled surface, the device will receive a full charge. Because of the PowerDisc’s small size, several can be placed on a WildCharger pad at once, enabling the charging of several devices from one pad or charging surface, without having to occupy multiple power outlets with individual AC adapters.

The WildCharge PowerDisc is part of the WildCharge Reference Design Library, which allows licensing partners to brand the product and add it to their own line-up of product offerings. The hospitality industry in particular, including hotels, airports, restaurants and convention centers, has taken a significant interest in providing a high-quality, wire-free charging experience to guests, and several companies are currently working with WildCharge to make that interest a reality in the very near future. Consumers can purchase the PowerDisc and accompanying PowerLinks directly from www.wildcharge.com > for $19.99. A bundle comprised of the WildCharger Pad along with the PowerDisc and accompanying PowerLinks is also available for $64.99

WildCharge provides the only commercially available technology that enables licensing partners to deliver wire-free charging to a variety of devices that require varying amounts of power. From cell phones that require only a few watts of power to laptops that need over a hundred watts, virtually any device that has a rechargeable battery can be powered from a single, contiguous, and non-discriminating charging surface. WildCharge technology has met the industry’s most stringent regulatory and safety standards, including UL, CE, FCC, RoHS, and has been certified across all of the GSM bands. WildCharge enables licensees to bring new items to market quickly and cost effectively through its reference design library, which features wire-free products that have been conceived, engineered and tooled with a pre-established supply chain.

About WildCharge

WildCharge is a Boulder, CO based company that is revolutionizing power delivery to portable electronic devices by commercializing – through licensing partnerships – its proven, wire-free power technology. WildCharge is the first company to offer commercially available wire-free charging technology that works with multiple devices across multiple brands. WildCharge’s Technology Licensing Program provides the design and manufacturing guidance allowing original equipment/design manufacturers to quickly and cost effectively integrate highly efficient, wire-free, technology into their products. For more information on WildCharge products and licensing capabilities, go to www.wildcharge.com

The base-plate is loaded up with conductive strips that connect via nubs on the back of the included “skin” or iPhone case. What’s really cool here is you don’t have to “hook up” anything. Just set the iPhone in the case down on the plate and you’ll start charging.

You can get the WildCharge Skin and Charge Pad now. The Skin costs $34.99, or you can purchase a bundle with the Charge Pad included for $79.99. A full review is to come, but you can check out our unboxing now.

That could mean that not only will we see a broader range of wire-free charging plates – presumably in different form-factors, such as the Touchstone’s single-device podium  – we’ll also see more choice in compatible cases.  So far WildCharge themselves offer cases for the BlackBerry Pearl and Curve, as well as non-device-specific charging adapters for other devices.

Having acquired “Made for iPod” approval from Apple, that push will likely be even more effective.  The WildCharge “skin” case for iPhone 3GS (and 3G) is priced at $34.99, or as a bundle with the wire-free pad for $79.99.