Tag Archive for iPod

| September 15, 2011
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Wireless Charging for iPhone

Wireless Charging for iPhoneApple Computers (AAPL) has fired an opening shot in the wireless charging patent warfare. Patently Apple reports that the now Jobs-less firm has filed for patent protection on inductive wireless charging for iPhone, iPod, and iPad. The patent “Using an Audio Cable as an Inductive Charging Coil,” is available at the U.S. Patent Office website.

TApple logohe patent application in typical Apple style, calls for a “wireless” charging solution that uses wires. Apple wants to use headphone wires rather than supplying a power cable. The wired wireless charging system includes a tower that would sit atop your desk. According to MIT’s Technology Review, to charge an iPhone, specially designed earphones must be wrapped around the tower multiple times. Finally, the earbuds are to be placed on the device, where special conductive metal mesh would begin funneling electricity to your device.

Apple Inductive Charging Patent

TR says the charging tower is an eyesore, wrapping earphones around it would be a hassle and the whole thing is decidedly un-Apple-like in its unwieldy and cumbersome nature. Other opinions are “Incredibly impractical,” “ridiculous,” “like an iPhone scratching post,” “Tolkien-esque.”

WiTricity logoTR and Gizmodo believe this patent application is a “red herring” and Apple has other things in mind. Back in May 2011, MacRumors noted Apple’s interest in WiTricity, As MacRumors pointed out an international patent application filed by Apple which cites the original MIT paper as the foundation of WiTricity’s business plan.

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I have already covered wireless electricity a couple of times. The obelisk charging patent is so out of character for Apple design that I believe it is a head-fake. With their closed eco-system, Apple can create a closed version of the WiTricity technology and charge a premium for it.

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 26, 2011
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Alternative Energy for Tech

Alternative Energy Ideas for TechA couple of recent articles about greener alternative energy sources for tech caught my eye as I sat in my Bach Seat. First, TES NewEnergy, based in Osaka Japan has come up with a new way to charge your mobile phone by heating a pot of water over a campfire according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hatsuden-Nabe thermo-electric cookpotThe Hatsuden-Nabe thermo-electric cookpot turns heat from boiling water into electricity The pot features strips of ceramic thermoelectric material that generate electricity through temperature differentials between 550 degrees Celsius at the bottom of the pot and the water boiling inside at 100 degrees. The pot feeds the electricity via a USB port into digital devices such as Apple (AAPL) iPhones, iPods, and Garmin (GRMN) GPS‘s.

Chief executive Kazuhiro Fujita said the invention was inspired by Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami, “When I saw the TV footage of the quake victims making a fire to keep themselves warm, I came up with the idea of helping them to charge their mobile phones at the same time,” Mr. Fujita said.

“Unlike a solar power generator, our pot can be used regardless of the time of day and weather while its small size allows people to easily carry it in a bag in case of evacuation,” said director and co-developer Ryoji Funahashi.

The company says the device takes three to five hours to charge an iPhone and can heat up your lunch at the same time.

rb- The thermo-electric cookpot sells for 24,150 yen ($305) which seems sort of expensive to charge an iPhone when the towers are also put of power and down. TES NewEnergy also plans to market it later in developing countries with unreliable power grids. Their best bet is probably REI for all the extreme suburbanites.

Aussie greener alternative energy idea

According to PCAuthority.com Aussie scientists have developed a way to power electronics by harnessing the energy of the keyboard. Using piezoelectrics, which converts pressure into an electric current, and a thin-film technology found in microchips, researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne believe laptops could become self-powered just by their user’s typing.

power electronics by harnessing the energy of the keyboardThe new energy source needs more work before it’s practical for low-cost laptop integration, but Dr. Mandu Bhaskaran, the co-author of the research, believes the development is a step in the right direction. “With the drive for alternative energy solutions, we need to find more efficient ways to power microchips,” said Bhaskaran.

TechEye correctly identifies the biggest challenge to this alternative energy source will be to get the power demands of computer chips down to be able to use the technology. Despite the best efforts of chipmakers like Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD), the power drain for chips is still too high for this sort of technology.

rb- Maybe the Aussies want to bring back WordPerfect and DOS so you have to type all the time otherwise your laptop will run out of power. Image the rush to buy these devices as the green police get credits for taking more computers off the grid.

TV as an alternative energy source

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a self-powered, wireless paper-based device that runs on scavenged ambient energy from the environment. The GATech alternative energy system collects electromagnetic energy transmitted by television transmitters, mobile phone networks, and satellite communications systems. Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the GATech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering told Gizmag the new technology can be used to power small electronic devices such as networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors, and communications chips.

energy scavenging technology can take advantage of frequencies from FM radio to radarThe GATech team has been able to build the system by combining sensors, antennas, and energy scavenging capabilities on paper by using inkjet printing technology According to the article, the energy scavenging technology can take advantage of frequencies from FM radio to radar. So far the team has been able to generate hundreds of milliwatts by harnessing the energy from TV bands. Gizmag reports that multi-band systems would generate over one milliwatt, which is enough to run small electronic devices, including microprocessors. The Professor explains that multi-band systems can exploit a range of electromagnetic bands to capture more energy.

The Gizmag article says the system works. The researchers have successfully operated a temperature sensor using electromagnetic energy captured from a television station more than half a kilometer away. They are now preparing another demonstration where a microprocessor-based microcontroller would be activated by holding it in the air.

The researchers say the technology could be used with other electricity-generating technologies like solar. Scavenged energy could help a solar element charge a battery during the day while at night, scavenged energy would continue to charge the battery.

The Georgia Tech team believes that self-powered, wireless paper-based sensors will soon be widely available at a very low cost. Gizmag says the autonomous, inexpensive sensors would be attractive for a range of applications, such as chemical, biological, heat and stress sensing, RFID and monitoring for the military, manufacturing, shipping, communications, and smart grid applications.

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I wrote about something similar here. It is important to realize that this new alternative energy source has so far been wasted.

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What do you think?

Which alternate energy source for tech looks most promising to you?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 20, 2011
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Tablet Notes

Tablet NotesiPad sold three million units in the first 80 days after its April 2010 release. Its current sales rate is about 4.5 million units per quarter, according to Bernstein Research. This sales rate is blowing past records. iPad is outselling iPhone and the DVD player, the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product.

Apple iPad Will Fail in the Enterprise

Dell logothe Apple (AAPL) iPad would ultimately fail in the enterprise. That is what Andy Lark, Dell‘s (DELL) global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations told CIO Australia.

… longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary [Apple has] done a really nice job, they’ve got a great product, but the challenge they’ve got is that already Android is outpacing them.

Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.

Mr. Lark claimed Dell had taken an enterprise approach toward tablet PCs. This approach will ultimately give Dell an edge. Dell has a major stake in Microsoft Windows and the desktop PC market. “We’ve taken a very considered approach to tablets, given that the vast majority of our business isn’t in the consumer space,” he said.

The cost of Apple products was another deterrent to iPad deployments. Dell’s Lark claims that the economics on a fully loaded iPad did not add up. “An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse, and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,” he claimed. “That’s not feasible.”

Despite the company’s history with Microsoft, it had embraced both Windows Phone 7 and Android operating systems “…Our strategy is multi-OS,” Lark said. “We will do Windows 7 coupled with Android Honeycomb, and we’re really excited. We think that giving people that choice is very important.”

Outlook on the iPhone and iPad

Pst Mail an iPad appHelp has arrived for Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPad owners who need access to their Microsoft (MSFT) Outlook e-mail. AppScout says users can check their email even when they don’t have an Internet connection.Pst Mail from Arrow Bit is an iPad app that provides offline access, potentially saving money on the user’s data plan. With the app, you can carry around a year’s worth of messages with you. Pst Mail can interact with the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad to reply to or forward messages. It can also open pst files created with any version of Microsoft Outlook.

AppScout says to find messages in large pst files, Pst Mail includes an advanced search feature. You can search by sender, recipient, subject text, message body, or even attachment name. You can also limit the search to a particular time frame. The developers offer a free lite version of the app in the iTunes Store, which has all the same features as the full version but is limited to the number of messages a user may open in each folder. The full version costs $9.99 in the iTunes app store.

GoToMyPC: iPad App

GoToMyPC Citrix (CTXS) has launched an Apple (AAPL) iPad version of GoToMyPC, a remote desktop application that lets you log in to your computer and control it on the go. Up until recently, you needed a PC to log in to a remote PC using the service. But the iPad app lets you do it anywhere you can get an internet connection on an iPad.

Mobilputing says GoToMyPC is hardly the first app of its type for the iPad. LogMein, TeamViewer, Parallels, and Splashtop all offer similar apps. But the GoToMyPC app has tight security features including 128-bit AES encryption, user authentication, and dual passwords, oriented for business.

Apple Sued Over Apps Giving Information to Advertisers

Apple is being sued over the collection and sharing of user data with outside companiesApple (AAPL) and Apple app developers have been sued over the collection and sharing of user data with outside companies (which I wrote about here). Two suits were filed in the Northern District of CA against the iPhone and iPad manufacturer. Apple is named in Lalo v. Apple, 10-5878.

Lalo seeks class action and claims that iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they’re used, and for how long. “Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political views,” reports Bloomberg’s BusinesWeek.

According to Wired the second suit, Freeman v. Apple seeks both monetary damages and a court order to stop the profiling by app makers being sued are Pandora and Dictionary.com, Toss It, Text4Plus, The Weather Channel, Talking Tom Cat, and Pimple Popper Lite.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 10, 2011
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Wireless Electricity for Car Charging Coming

Wireless Electricity for Car Charging ComingThomas Lee at Xconomy reports that Delphi and WiTricity of Watertown, MA demo’d a wireless  electricity charging system for cars at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annual World conference in Detroit. The demo was the result of a seven-month partnership between the firms to use WiTricity’s technology to wirelessly transmit electricity via magnetic waves to charge electric cars.

Delphi logoThe charging system developed by Delphi and WiTricity would enable cars powered with electricity to reboot without having to plug into a power source via a cord according to Xconomy. It would only need cars to park over a wireless electrcity source on the floor of a garage or embedded in a paved parking spot, which would then transfer the power to the vehicle’s battery charger.

WiTricity, founded by MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic in 2007, has designed a transmission coil that connects to a small electronics module and converts the traditional electric current found in a home or office to a higher frequency and voltage, to create an oscillating magnetic field around the coil. The article says if a separate coil designed to resonate to the same frequency is close enough to the source, power is transferred between the two coils.

The article quotes Mr. Sumner who says the prototype generates about 95 percent efficiency, meaning only five percent of the power being generated gets lost in transmission. Delphi hopes all cars equipped with the technology will get at least 90 percent. The pad powering the Chevy prototype was transmitting about 2.6 kW, or 16 amps, of electricity, about the equivalent of Delphi’s current Level 2 wired chargers.

Randy Sumner Delphi’s director of global hybrid vehicle business development says WiTricity’s technology enabled Delphi to design much smaller coils and achieve greater distance between the bottom of the car and the charging pad. In theory, this could allow bigger trucks and vehicles to also use the technology. In an interview, Andrew Brown, Delphi’s executive director, and chief technologist says wireless charging will go a long way to boosting the popularity of electric cars. Wireless charging pads could be installed in home garages, parking lots, offices, shopping centers, he says.

“It will eliminate this range anxiety,” says Mr. Brown, referring to consumers who worry they will run out of juice before finding the next charging station. Also, he says, “The average consumer is not accustomed to electric cars. [They worry] ‘Am I going to get dirty?’ or “Will I get electrocuted?’” Wireless charging helps with both those issues. All consumers have to do is “park and charge,” Mr. Sumner says in the article.

The author notes that Delphi still faces a long road from lab prototype to mass production. The company needs to work with OEMs to figure out how to best integrate WiTricity’s technology into cars. Delphi envisions a car that can be charged both by wired and wireless charging stations. The company also needs to find ways to shrink the electronics and reduce overall cost. Delphi officials estimate the first cars using it will roll off the assembly lines in 2014 or 2015. “This is real,” Mr. Sumner says. “This works.”

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The idea of wireless electricity is not new. I have followed wireless electricity since 2008, here and here. Look Ma! No wires!

What do you think?

Can a car be wirelessly charged like an iPod?

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Cars | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| March 14, 2011
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Wireless Charging Amped Up

Wireless Charging Amped UpThose of us tired of dealing with tangled cord and bulky wall warts may get some relief in the near future. iSuppli Corp. is predicting that a flood of new electronic gizmos with wireless charging capabilities will be inundating the market. The market research firm believes that the global market for wireless charging devices for smartphones like the RIM (RIMM) Torch, tablet computers such as the Apple (AAPL) iPad2 media players like the Apple iPod Touch will drive the global market for wireless charging devices to 234.9 million units in 2014, up 65% from 3.6 million in 2010, according to iSuppli.

iSuppli table Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless research at iSuppli told Itnewslink.com, “Over the next five years, wireless charging devices will find their way into an increasing number of applications, including mobile phones, portable media players, digital still cameras, and mobile PCs.”

Mobile phones will drive wireless charging acceptance according to Ms. Teng, ” …mobile phones will contribute the largest share of revenue to wireless charging-not only because of the large volume of mobile devices expected to benefit from the technology, but also because of participation by name brands in manufacturing the device, providing much-needed market recognition in the process.”

“Genius of Electricity,” 1915, Gilded Bronze, Bedminster, NJ. Photography Lee sandstead"Despite the optimism, iSuppli believes there are still barriers to the widespread adoption of wireless charging. Manufacturers will have to make wireless charging in their devices down to the circuit board level which will drive down costs. The wireless charging industry will need to adopt a common standard to ensure interoperability among products. Currently, all products are proprietary. Skins made by one company, will not work with the charger pad of another. “Until the industry finds a standard to follow, the wireless charging industry will be fragmented, and consumers will hesitate to adopt any solution that could be compromised by the rival companies,” Itnewslink.com quotes Ms. Teng, “However, an open, standardized system will create a healthier competitive environment and prompt manufacturers to join forces-which will enhance consumer awareness and lead to adoption in the markets.”

There are four wireless charging technologies. The wireless charging technologies include Near-field magnetic resistance, Far-field magnetic resistance, Conductive magnetic resistance, and Inductive magnetic resistance wireless charging systems.

  • Far-field magnetic resonance, a technology that has raised safety as well as health concerns and for which no commercial products are available for the time being.
  • Inductive wireless charging uses the principle of electromagnetic induction where current generated from the induced magnetic field in the receiver coil charges devices is the most widely wireless charging technology adopted by the value chain.  the technology enjoys wide support from semiconductor vendors, device manufacturers, accessories makers as well as retailers according to the Wireless Design and Development website. The most successful proponent of magnetic induction is Powermat, a Michigan-based company which I wrote about in 2010, that also owned 62 percent share of the wireless charging market as reported by Wireless Design and Development.

iSuppli notes that most companies are not ready with commercial products yet, several high-profile manufacturers are looking at producing wireless charging solutions. The companies include Texas Instruments (TXN) and ST-Ericsson from the semiconductor side; Nokia Corp (NOK) and Research In Motion Ltd. from the device manufacturer side; and Logitech (LOGI) and Case-Mate from the accessory manufacturer side.

Product-specific wireless charging systems consist of a charger as well as a so-called “skin” or receiver sold for specific devices. These product-specific devices contrast with aftermarket solutions, which are universal chargers and various skins that can be used with multiple consumer electronics. Growth is also projected for aftermarket wireless charging, with revenue rising at a massive five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 133.4 percent.

Rats nest of cablesrb-

I hate the cluttered cluster of cables on my desk. The wireless chargers should clean up that mess, but until the manufacturers get their act together and build in some interoperability from the factory, they still got a problem.

What do you think?

Is wireless charging a practical technology?

Do you have a wireless charging rig?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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