7 ms·

The problem is that our devices need frequent charges, not that plugging in is especially inconvenient; this battle will be won on the battery-life front.

• nodata 13y ago
  Have you used a wireless charger? You don't really charge your phone, you just put it on an allocated area of your desk.
  • prof_hobart 13y ago
    That's still something that a) you need to remember to do (my phone currently lives in my pocket at work when not in active use) and to undo - i.e. pick it up again when you wander off b) needs you to be near your desk at some point. I can often be away from any power source for many hours at a time - more than long enough to drain an average smartphone's battery with reasonable use.
    • nodata 13y ago
      True, but it's a lot better than fiddling with a cable when you're trying to concentrate on something else.
      • prof_hobart 13y ago
        True, but it's still a lot worse than having a battery that will comfortably last a day regardless of what usage you throw at it.
• deletes 13y ago
  Imagine a charger that homes in on your mobile devices and charges them to a certain distance, without harming objects in between the source and destination. That way you could have them everywhere and battery would be hardly needed.
  • simonh 13y ago
    Because what I really need in my life is high energy radiation beamed directly at an object I generally keep a few cm from my reproductive organs.
    • StavrosK 13y ago
      You luddites are why we're never getting supermutants.
    • deletes 13y ago
      Technology and people change. What was considered dangerous in the past is today made possible with advanced technologies. When the risks are made negligible by reliability and advances such devices will be used.
      • forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
        "What was considered dangerous in the past is today made possible with advanced technologies." What was considered dangerous in the past is dangerous today. It is what was not considered dangerous in the past what we know today it is dangerous, like x-rays(they used it with pregnant women and basically killed a lot of people for ten years), powerful RADAR, tobacco(yes you can see advertisements on youtube of how innocuous it was), benzene, asbestos, pfcs, nuclear radiation(Curie couple died from that). It was only after being proven that a technology kills thousands of people, that this tech is controlled. For me it is a great idea to find guinea pigs for testing new technologies, but don't test it with me against my will sending radiated energy in the air.
        • deletes 13y ago
          By recognizing what materials/radiation are dangerous, we get to know how to use them in a better and safer manner. It would take a ignorant person, to state that as certain technology improves, it becomes more dangerous.
    • akiselev 13y ago
• venomsnake 13y ago
  On the speed of charge front. Current battery capacity is fine. What we need is the ability to charge it for 30 seconds. So maybe supercap based batteries?
  • rplnt 13y ago
    > Current battery capacity is fine. If it is, then consumption is too high. Few hours of use is not "fine". Sure, if I use it as just a phone it can last week.. but once I use it as a computer, it drains pretty quickly.
    • venomsnake 13y ago
      If I have 30 second charge time, any battery lasting longer than 2 hours on usage is fine.
      • ikurei 13y ago
        It would be very inconvenient having to recharge every 2 hours, even if it is just for 30 seconds. Your smartphone would be of no use in a trip to the beach, or climbing a mountain; and it would be very easy to forget about it quite often. I agree that battery life doesn't need to improve that much if we could recharge it in a dramatically more convenient way, but 30 seconds charge every few hours sounds insane to me. Anyway, smartphones last way more than 2 hours unless the battery has been abused for years.
        • venomsnake 13y ago
          I said two hours of usage. For me usage is something that requires serious burn rate. Why would I play temple run when hiking? And you could always bring juice with you if you have to use intensively for long periods your phone outside of civilization for some reason. Just pack eight 2700Mah Eneloops and you are fine. You need very simple transformer and usb connector.
          • rplnt 13y ago
• gnur 13y ago
  When I was using the Nexus 4 I would always put it on my desk when working. I put a wireless charger at that position and had no need to plug it in for at least a few months. I never had to think about the charge because I was at my desk often enough for my phone to get charged.
• beggi 13y ago
  If we're talking about day-to-day battery issues in regards to devices like phones and laptops, the battle can be won on number of fronts, for example: 1) Batteries get enough capacity so you only need to charge them once a month. 2) Batteries can be fully charged in a short period of time, say one minute, we wouldn't bothered very much to have to plug them in once a day. 3) Carrying around a device at home or work for few hours a day will keep the device charged for a whole day (via the "superlens"). Any of the aforementioned solutions and perhaps few others would solve the issues we have with batteries in our handheld devices today. For cars, trains and other battery uses, that's another thing.