Is Palm’s new wireless charger really wireless?

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When will we break free of wires forever?. Credit: XWRN via Flickr

If you’re like the typical geek, you probably spend a decent amount of time on your couch with your cellphone plugged into one wall socket, your computer plugged into another, your iPod plugged into your computer and your camera plugged in somewhere else. Mamma Mia!

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone super smart figured out a way to charge devices without all those wires, much in the same way that Bluetooth technology allows you to talk on your phone from across the room?

There are a number of companies that will tell you -- in press releases and photos -- that they’ve come up with such a device. One of the big selling points of the Palm Pre, the new wunderphone coming out soon, is that it can charge ‘wirelessly’ with a new Touchstone wireless charger. Photos show a wire-free charger where you can just set down your phone and it will magically be charged.

Impressive, sure: Palm is apparently the first cellphone company making a big push on inductive chargers, which are the same kind that charge electric toothbrushes. But beware the word ‘wireless.’ Although the photos don’t show it, the Touchstone still has to be plugged into a wall, and the phone has to be touching the charging dock. So if you were envisioning some sort of charger that would give more juice to your phone as you walked around the room -- or even entered the bathroom -- your dream is dashed for now. You’re still wedded to the wall.

Same with the Case-Mate FUEL for the Blackberry Bold and iPod, a carrying case and phone charger which shouted out to me from my e-mail inbox this morning, ‘You can now avoid being tethered to the wall when your battery’s down to one bar.’ Well, kind of. The FUEL is not a charger, per se, but an extra battery pack powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery.

So will we ever be able to break our cords to wall outlets and roam freely around while still charging our devices?

Yes, says John Shearer, the founder of Powercast, a Pittsburgh company that is working on a technology that sends power wirelessly to low-power devices. As phones require less and less power, he said, the technology is getting more powerful. He doesn’t see the technology becoming mainstream for another five years, however.

‘It takes a long time for big companies to adopt new technology,’ he said. Cellphone makers, for instance, have to build phones that can use this type of charging. Currently, he said, you couldn’t just go to a store and buy this type of charger to work on any devices.

In the meantime, Shearer said, other wireless chargers will have to do. As long as you realize they’re not truly wireless, no matter what the pictures show.

‘Don’t believe those photo-shopped photos,’ he said.

-- Alana Semuels