Powermat brings wireless charging to your gadgets

Like this story? Share it with Yahoo! Buzz You plunk a laptop, PDA, digital camera or iPod onto the table and the devices are automatically charged up. None is plugged in. There are no wires. Ran Poliakine, the Israeli chairman of New York-based Powermat, demonstrated the technology to me about a year ago in a New Jersey Starbucks, using a cellphone and laptop. Now Poliakine insists the promise of wire-free energy is getting closer to commercial reality. Powermat has just struck a deal with a family-owned Michigan maker of personal care products called HoMedics, to deliver products based on Powermat's SET (Surface Enhancement Technology) approach. The technology relies on magnetic induction and RFID. The first products, which Powermat hopes to bring out before Thanksgiving, will be $20 to $40 charging cases for an iPod,... [read full story]