Earth Day – Charge Your Cell Phone Wirelessly

Since today is Earth Day I feel obligated about writing a post about how technology is going to “save the planet”. Therefore I’m going to write about wireless electricity. That’s right, the technology is here today and testing is well in advanced stages to bring wireless electricity to the masses. Although there are many implications for using this technology I’m going to speak about cell phones specifically.

How many times do you forget to plug your cell phone in at night and wake up the next morning with a dead phone? If you’re like me it happens a lot. If you’re a heavy cell phone user you probably have to charge your phone once during the day and again at night. Imagine not having to plug your phone in at all, simply placing it close enough to an outlet so it can charge wirelessly? In my opinion this would be heaven. In the near future you will be able to do this.  The technology isn’t advanced enough where you can charge your phone no matter where it is in the house, but it can charge distances of up to a few inches away (perfect for an outlet near your nightstand). The front runner to offer wireless technology to the masses is Fulton Innovation. You can see the technology in action at eCoupled. There are no specifics of when the device will be ready for sale, but if you look at the eCoupled website it looks like Best Buy is already on board. The future also looks bright for wireless electricity. Within the next 12-18 months technology will be available that will allow you to charge your phone anywhere in your home. Can’t wait for that!

Initially this will not reduce the number of power chargers that are produced, but someday may eliminate the number of produced. As we all know every time we get a new cell phone the previous charger we have never seems to work with our new phones. Therefore, the only thing to do is recycle or more than likely throw out the old charger. Hopefully with this new technology cell phone chargers will be a thing of the past and will not continue to fill-up our landfills.