Comments on: Will “Witricity” save us from cable clutter?

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:55:52 +0000

I’m glad somebody brought up Tesla, I hate when “new” tech comes around and everyone pats themselves on the back, when it’s been done before, and about a century ago to boot.

By: ShawnJ

ShawnJ — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:33:47 +0000

Ok, gonna be a bit of a curmudgeon here… sorry. WiFi and wireless power are all ideas (stolen) from Nikola Tesla. The poor guy died broken and under appreciated. And yet, though he had these ideas, designs and theories over 100 years ago, it’s taken this long to produce devices based on his work. Perhaps they did this to either a)take long enough for most people to forget about him, or b)his stuff really was as dangerous as people feared and had to be re-engineered. Still, I think we’re going to start seeing more of this WiFi tech, and then realize the problems with them; i.e. WiFi ‘open-source’ (lol) power can easily be stolen (just like WiFi internet, imagine that). And the EMFs might prove to be more hazardous than realized. It’s still a wonderful and scary new world for this tech. Seriously, though, even though I like WiFi (to some degree) I still prefer most of my devices to require corded power in some manner.
Think about our reliance on tech devices, like these. What happens to our world when the power goes dark?
For a novice technophile, I do still have some reservations bordering on technophobia; however, mine is more fearful of our sole reliance and subservience on electro-tech. We need to retain some ‘manual operations and overrides’, no matter how auto-electric things get.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:24:21 +0000

Imagine how inefficient many staples of modern life must have seemed at the time of invention or harnessing: the airplane, electricy, the firearm, and on and on. Any major breakthrough such as this tends to become astronomically cheaper and better within the span of a few generations.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:09:13 +0000

they’re going to have to work hard on this because I predict that with a home full of wireless electricity, there is going to be major interference with cordless phones, FM receivers, etc

By: roothorick

roothorick — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:13:22 +0000

People pointed out the inefficiency, but I’d also like to mention that it’ll never be economically feasible. Devices using wireless power would cost on average $100 more than their wired counterparts because of the equipment involved. You’d also have to wire up your entire home in EMF resonators. And finally, all that EMF will cause HUGE problems for any sensitive electronics (read: any computer) and they would have to be shielded, adding EVEN MORE to their cost.

In short, it just isn’t practical.

By: Tom Karches

Tom Karches — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:45:12 +0000

Power is just part of the problem. Audio cables. Peripheral cables. It’s going to take the computer manufacturers’ involvement to fix this problem. I like the pegboard idea.

By: WirelessThief

WirelessThief — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:31:22 +0000

Just like with wifi, though, do this in the apartment next to me and I will be stealing the hell out of it.

Probably to power a chocolate fountain, btw.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:12:02 +0000

Heard on NPR about this: it's VERY inefficient. I just saw today on lifehacker this cool solution http://lifehacker.com/software/gadget-management/under+desk-pegboard-gadget-mount-redux-268839.php Use a pegboard to organize cables and power bricks.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:29:02 +0000

I can just imagine a cordless home. No stringy wires. No clunky power blocks. No stupidly-placed power outlets. Pure wireless bliss.

I’m sure that extent of wireless is years away, though.

But hopefully simple power stations for our devices won’t be that far away.