3 ms·

Even better than USB 3.1 is Wigig and wireless charging. Broadwell does support Wigig. Where are the Wigig docking stations now?

seanp2k2 12y ago
Wireless charging is pretty lame in that it only works <1cm from the base, something my toothbrush has done for the past decade. It's useful for devices where a port is undesirable (e.g. Smart watches) but IMO otherwise pretty useless. If they had e.g. Desks which charged your laptop + phone when set on the desk, that might be the slightest bit more convenient than plugging it in, but it seems like a lot of tech for a little convenience. I suspect Wigig will be as popular as WiDi, another Intel wireless technology: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi Keep in mind how long it took Bluetooth to really take off and work reasonably well between devices (4.0 IMO): http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx (Bluetooth is 15 years old). I remember having a Nokia 6600 back in 2003, with a Sony Ericsson bluetooth headset, and getting a lot of questions about it. The phone had 3G and a video camera, web browser, smartphone OS (at the time; Symbian S60) with apps, and the Bluetooth headset I had (HBH-660) had called ID and a button to hang up, was very light, and lasted quite a while on a battery (IIRC, it would connect to Bluetooth on demand, since low-power 4.x wasn't a thing then). It's kind of disappointing to me how this stuff hasn't advanced terribly in functionality in the 10 years since. It's still wearables which work ~poorly, Bluetooth inter-op issues (cars are pretty notorious), battery life struggles, etc.
- 300bps 12y ago
  Wireless charging is pretty lame I've had a Lumia 928 for about 19 months now and I have to disagree. I haven't plugged the phone in - to anything - since I bought it. I find just thunking the phone down onto the Qi charger much more convenient than fiddling with cables. Some day we'll look back on wires in general and laugh at how primitive we were.
  - yoshamano 12y ago
    Likewise, I have a Lumia 920 and I use a Qi enabled cradle in my car. It makes charging my phone in my car much more convenient. Combined with Bluetooth I don't have to deal with any wires into my phone going into and out of my car (which I do at least a dozen times a day).
  - stormbrew 12y ago
    It's really something people don't get until they've used it for a while and have to go back, I think.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    The Nexus 7 does the same without any wireless charging. You just drop the device in the dock, and the POGO pins touch and start charging. Wireless charging is a complex and inefficient gimmick for most devices, in my opinion.
vineeth 12y ago
Wigig docking stations have been out for a while on Dell. Check out the Dell D5000: http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=332-1495 http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=1...
- doczoidberg 12y ago
  It doesn't seem to work reliable with dell laptops even.

seanp2k2 12y ago

Wireless charging is pretty lame in that it only works <1cm from the base, something my toothbrush has done for the past decade. It's useful for devices where a port is undesirable (e.g. Smart watches) but IMO otherwise pretty useless. If they had e.g. Desks which charged your laptop + phone when set on the desk, that might be the slightest bit more convenient than plugging it in, but it seems like a lot of tech for a little convenience. I suspect Wigig will be as popular as WiDi, another Intel wireless technology: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi Keep in mind how long it took Bluetooth to really take off and work reasonably well between devices (4.0 IMO): http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/History-of-Bluetooth.aspx (Bluetooth is 15 years old). I remember having a Nokia 6600 back in 2003, with a Sony Ericsson bluetooth headset, and getting a lot of questions about it. The phone had 3G and a video camera, web browser, smartphone OS (at the time; Symbian S60) with apps, and the Bluetooth headset I had (HBH-660) had called ID and a button to hang up, was very light, and lasted quite a while on a battery (IIRC, it would connect to Bluetooth on demand, since low-power 4.x wasn't a thing then). It's kind of disappointing to me how this stuff hasn't advanced terribly in functionality in the 10 years since. It's still wearables which work ~poorly, Bluetooth inter-op issues (cars are pretty notorious), battery life struggles, etc.

300bps 12y ago
Wireless charging is pretty lame I've had a Lumia 928 for about 19 months now and I have to disagree. I haven't plugged the phone in - to anything - since I bought it. I find just thunking the phone down onto the Qi charger much more convenient than fiddling with cables. Some day we'll look back on wires in general and laugh at how primitive we were.
- yoshamano 12y ago
  Likewise, I have a Lumia 920 and I use a Qi enabled cradle in my car. It makes charging my phone in my car much more convenient. Combined with Bluetooth I don't have to deal with any wires into my phone going into and out of my car (which I do at least a dozen times a day).
- stormbrew 12y ago
  It's really something people don't get until they've used it for a while and have to go back, I think.
- icebraining 12y ago
  The Nexus 7 does the same without any wireless charging. You just drop the device in the dock, and the POGO pins touch and start charging. Wireless charging is a complex and inefficient gimmick for most devices, in my opinion.

vineeth 12y ago

Wigig docking stations have been out for a while on Dell. Check out the Dell D5000: http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=332-1495 http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=1...

doczoidberg 12y ago
It doesn't seem to work reliable with dell laptops even.