{"id":402544,"date":"2017-09-19T18:27:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2017\/09\/19\/pi-charger-wireless-charging-beyond-qi-mats\/"},"modified":"2017-09-19T18:27:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:27:31","slug":"pi-charger-uses-qi-standard-to-extend-wireless-charging-reach-beyond-current-mats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/pi-charger-uses-qi-standard-to-extend-wireless-charging-reach-beyond-current-mats\/","title":{"rendered":"Pi Charger Uses Qi Standard to Extend Wireless Charging Reach Beyond Current Mats"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple added inductive wireless charging support to its mobile devices for the first time. While the feature brought Apple’s phones up to speed with existing Qi-compatible charging standards<\/a>, the announcement fell short of some expectations that this year Apple would introduce technology<\/a> allowing iPhones to be powered wirelessly at a distance, rather than having to use a charging mat.<\/p>\n

However, Pi<\/a> is a California-based startup that aims to break from that limitation with the Pi Charger \u2013 a cone-shaped tabletop device that combines Qi-based resonant induction with a special beam-forming algorithm that allows it to charge multiple devices within about a foot in any direction.<\/p>\n

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The Pi might not reach the distances claimed by Energous’ WattUp technology<\/a>, which uses radio frequencies to charge devices from up to 15 feet away, but it does offer more flexibility than existing pads that devices must be directly placed upon.<\/p>\n

In a demo at TechCrunch<\/a><\/em>‘s Disrupt event, the company showed that up to four Qi-compatible devices can be placed within a foot of a Pi and they will start charging. Devices can be located anywhere within a 12-inch sphere of influence around the charging hub and in different orientations. The closer the device to the Pi, the faster it charges, with a gradual drop-off in charging speed the further away the phone is.<\/p>\n

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“Magnetic fields are the best way to send meaningful energy to phones, tablets, and other portable electronics,” said Lixin Shi, Pi’s CTO and co-founder. “The hard part was figuring out how to make magnetic charging more flexible, multi-device, and extend its useful range. It took us over a year to complete the mathematical proof that makes it all possible.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The team behind Pi said they’ve yet to settle on an exact price for the charger, but they expect it to ship for under $200 sometime in 2018. As for Apple, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence<\/a> to suggest it has partnered with Energous to work on bringing a truly wire-free, over-the-air charging technology to its consumer devices, but we’ll likely have to wait for at least another year to see the possible fruits of those labors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple added inductive wireless charging support to its mobile devices for the first time. While the feature brought Apple’s phones up to speed with existing Qi-compatible charging standards, the announcement fell short of some expectations that this year Apple would introduce technology allowing iPhones to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":402545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[68,69,59,26],"class_list":["post-402544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-macrumors","tag-media","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}