In action: the Powermat wireless gadget charger

Plenty of comments already (on the general principle)

Already plenty of comments on the general Powermat (and WiTricity) principle on an El Reg Hardware article earlier today, for some reason not listed in the "related articles" list... computer not working?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/01/08/powermat/

Utterly pointless...

So, instead of plugging the mobile phone (or whatever) into the wall, we plug a power plate in, buy an adaptor, then plug the phone into the adaptor, then onto the power plate.

Nice in theory if it just charged things if everything was compatible with it. Sadly though, nothing is and thus its a longer, more drawn out and utterly pointless device.

What?! No!

$140 for what is, in reality just the world's largest charger? Why on earth would I want to spend so much money when at the end of the day, I still have to physically attach the gadget A to charger B and plug charger B into the mains C. Even if they embed the receivers in the devices and make the external ones redundant, it's still just a glorified and extremely expensive mains charger.

Incidentally, what happens to your credit cards if you put your wallet down on it? Will people really want something on their desk that's probably going to turn the bottom corners of CRT monitors pretty shades of red and green and nuke any credit card accidentally dropped on it by their children?

No thanks.

It takes up too much space, too expensive, you can only charge up to 3 devices at a time, and from the demonstration video it looks like you have to get the dock/charging add-on in just the right spot on the charging bed or it wont charge. Furthermore how energy efficient is this method of charging compared to what people normally use?

Anyway, I and many others have much easier & cheaper solutions to charging a significant amount of our gadgets:

USB!

Retractable USB cables for charging gadgets are dirt cheap and don't clutter up your desk/laptop bag when not in use.

What?

What a pointless device, surely the point of making something wireless is that the receiver doesn't have to be touching the transmitter.

Video is BLOCKED

Any chance of some text/pics to accompany these videos that many of us are not permitted to see at work? Since the advent of the iPlayer and YouTube many companies now block all kinds of stuff, something that you obviously didn't think of.

PowerMat

This is an amazing concept. I can't wait until this hits market and I no longer have to carry all of my power cords back and forth from the office.