The Future of NFC Includes Wireless Charging For Earbuds and Smartwatches (engadget.com) 24
It might soon be much easier to buy a smartphone that can charge small devices like earbuds or smartwatches. From a report: The NFC Forum, responsible for near-field communications tech, has unveiled the Wireless Charging Specification (WLC). That will allow devices like chargers or smartphones, equipped with a single antenna, to transfer power to compatible devices at up to one watt, the organization said. At the same time, NFC devices equipped with the tech would also be able to communicate with each other. While it doesn't seem like a lot, one watt is enough to charge up a smartwatch or wireless earbuds relatively quickly. And since most smartphones come with NFC, it would be easier for manufacturers to implement this type of reverse charging.
"NFC wireless charging is truly transformative because it changes the way we design and interact with small, battery-powered devices as the elimination of plugs and cords enables the creation of smaller, hermetically-sealed devices," said NFC Forum chair Koichi Tagawa. The standard could work with other NFC-equipped devices besides smartphones, including chargers, PCs, tablets and even gaming controllers -- the Wii U gamepad has an NFC chip, for instance.
"NFC wireless charging is truly transformative because it changes the way we design and interact with small, battery-powered devices as the elimination of plugs and cords enables the creation of smaller, hermetically-sealed devices," said NFC Forum chair Koichi Tagawa. The standard could work with other NFC-equipped devices besides smartphones, including chargers, PCs, tablets and even gaming controllers -- the Wii U gamepad has an NFC chip, for instance.
The only thing dumber... (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing more ridiculous than making headphones be unnecessarily wireless, with an ultra-limited battery capacity, is charging those headphones with another device that is also wireless and has limited battery capacity.
I mean seriously, does anyone think that charging headphones with a cell phone makes sense? What's the realistic use case here that can't be better solved in other ways, like power banks with earbud slots?
And no, 1W of power actually does sound like a lot, given that a typical cell phone has on the order of a 10 Wh battery. One full charge of AirPods at 1W would take 1.5 hours, and would drain 20% of your phone's battery, assuming 75% charge efficiency. (Yes, I realize you don't have to fully charge them to use them, but still....)
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Each AirPod contains a 93 milliwatt hour battery in its stem. Your math doesn't make sense,
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Ah, I think I was looking at the case. My bad. So you're burning .25 Wh to charge them, which is only 2.5% of your battery life. That's slightly less horrible.
Either way, it still doesn't make a lot of sense. How often do you think, "Oh, crap, I forgot to charge my AirPods, but I can put them here on top of my cell phone for fifteen minutes and then use them?" If the answer is "often", then Bluetooth earbuds are a bad idea. If the answer is "never", then making your phone capable of charging them make
Re: The only thing dumber... (Score:1)
The actual catch is that now you have to charge them all the time, since they don't last long, as opposed to a 90s walkman which lastes up to 80 hours on a single charge/battery!
Why not make the battery replaceable, so you can charge one while using a second one anyway?
I remember that I could listen to music for an hour each morning and evening, for a *month*, before having to recharge the battery! Yes, a month!
And with a just one more battery to carry, I could listen to music during my wake hours for an en
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So you're burning .25 Wh to charge them, which is only 2.5% of your battery life. That's slightly less horrible.
"Slightly less" as in not horrible at all, and damn convenient. I think you've convinced that I want this.
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Seems to me it's a lot more inconvenient to use your phone than the charging case, because it runs down your phone, it requires you to have a surface on which to leave your phone with the earbuds on top (which increases the risk of leaving it somewhere, rather than having it safely in your pocket), etc.
The only advantage this provides is that it works if you've forgotten your charging case. But most people carry their wireless earbuds in the charging case, so... when would this be used, exactly? When you
Less clutter in the pocket (Score:2)
What's the realistic use case here that can't be better solved in other ways, like power banks with earbud slots?
Two problems solved:
- From a product design point of view: switching the charging from Qi to NFC (which is something already supported by the earbuds anyway to make bluetooth pairing simpler anyway) means one license [wirelesspo...ortium.com] less to pay and thus more money into the pocket of the product maker.
- From a user experiences point of view: the power banks is yet another object that you need to remember taking with you, and that you need to carry around. If NFC charging is implemented or if a smartphone can
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- From a product design point of view: switching the charging from Qi to NFC (which is something already supported by the earbuds anyway to make bluetooth pairing simpler anyway) means one license [wirelesspo...ortium.com] less to pay and thus more money into the pocket of the product maker.
Not really. 1W isn't enough to charge the phone, so the phone will still end up charging with Qi if it has wireless charging. Same for the case. So now the AirPods case would have to be dual-licensed instead of single-licensed, and the earbuds would just have a different license than before, unless you want to be able to charge them outside the case using your charging mat, in which case either the earbuds or the charging mat end up being dual-licensed, too. Either way, the customer pays.
- From a user experiences point of view: the power banks is yet another object that you need to remember taking with you, and that you need to carry around. If NFC charging is implemented or if a smartphone can work as a Qi donor, it makes one less object that clutters your pocket (*) or can work as an emergency/backup solution if you do have a powerbank but forgot it home/in your other jacket/in your other purse/in your other girlfriend's purse.
Also not really
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"I mean seriously, does anyone think that charging headphones with a cell phone makes sense? What's the realistic use case here that can't be better solved in other ways, like power banks with earbud slots?"
Or a very long extension cord. It's the coolness factor dud!
Nobody in that industry has any sense, they make their phones and tablets thinner and thinner and we buy bigger and bigger covers for them.
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The only thing more ridiculous than making headphones be unnecessarily wireless, with an ultra-limited battery capacity, is charging those headphones with another device that is also wireless and has limited battery capacity.
I agree. However you are ignoring the many situations where headphones have become *necessarily* wireless, and due to their small size they *necessarily* charge with another device that has a less limited battery capacity.
Not everyone sits in-front of their PC gaming. Some of us spend our passtimes sitting in the gym watching and laughing at people who fling their phones across the room because their headphone cables get caught. Some of us go outside and sit in the park laughing at those people constantly f
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I agree. However you are ignoring the many situations where headphones have become *necessarily* wireless, and due to their small size they *necessarily* charge with another device that has a less limited battery capacity.
Not everyone sits in-front of their PC gaming. Some of us spend our passtimes sitting in the gym watching and laughing at people who fling their phones across the room because their headphone cables get caught.
Pro Tip: If you drop the cord through your shirt, it never gets caught on things.
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Wireless charging headphones from your phone seems to be becoming quite popular now, probably by necessity.
It's not that bad though, with a 5 hour battery life an extra hour of playback is only going to take a few percent off your phone.
What is a royal pain in the arse is having to use the headphone case to charge. You can't charge the buds directly, you have to charge the case which charges the buds so you have to carry the case around with you too.
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Welcome to deafness and tinnitus!
No reason for it (Score:1)
Abandoned wireless charging tech (Score:2)
so...unlimited charging of small devices via NFC (Score:3)
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Can we at least get an app that shows the devices sucking my battery down by NFC?
There's already an app for that, it's called turning your phone around. If there's no device literally within a cm of the back of your phone, then there's no device being charged. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what the 'N' stands for in NFC.
No such thing as "wireless charging". (Score:1)
If you look closely, there is a wire coming out of the charging pad you put your device on!
The only difference is that now you can't keep using the damn device while charging, unless you plan to "charge" your head too. ;) (I mean go lay it on the charging pad so you look like a moron.)
As opposed to just sticking said cable in directly, like a sane person.
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If you look closely, there is a wire coming out of the charging pad you put your device on!
Every day I think that it's not possible for you to be any dumber. Every day you redefine that standard. This is the dumbest post I've seen on the internet and I remind you Trump tweets on the internet.