Along with the keyboard, there’s one major advantage the Palm Pre has over the iPhone, and that’s the fancy Touchstone wireless charger. Throw the Pre at the desktop pebble and it sticks, via magnetic magic, and charges without a plug.
Now, though, that lead has been erased, albeit in a slightly clunky way. Wire-Free will sell you a gel-skin for your iPhone or iPod Touch which contains the necessary inductor circuitry to provide the iPhone with power, which itself comes from a large, flat charger pad. The problem with an aftermarket solution is immediately apparent from the picture. It has a nubbin sticking out on the bottom. That, though, mightn’t be a problem for many.
What might be a problem is the price. The case costs $35, but the charger pad is another $50. There’s a kit available for $75, though, and the advantage over the neat, built-in Pre setup is that you can get adapters for other cellphones and toss them all onto the same pad. The Touchstone is neat for the Pre and all, but it doesn’t eliminate proprietary charging solutions from your desktop. IPhone version available in a week or two, iPod Touch version available now.
Product page [Wild Charge]
See Also:
- Palm’s Touchstone: Not Just a Wireless Charger, But a Whole Line …
- Wireless Power Energizes Many Devices – Video – Wired
- Space Geeks Seek Wireless Power
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