If you like electronic gadgets but hate tangles of chargers and charging cords, you're not alone. Apple engineers feel your pain.
For years, they've been trying to figure out better ways to charge portable electronic devices. They've experimented with better battery management, solar power and, most recently, wireless power.
On Tuesday, Apple received two patents related to wireless power. The patents, which researchers filed more than two years ago, describe a system that would let you power up your mouse, keyboard and possibly iPhone, iWatch, etc. simply by plugging your Macbook Air into a power supply.
The idea is that the computer would create "a charging region" that would transfer wireless power "to any number of suitably configured devices." The technical term for this is near field magnetic resonance or NFMR. It would include an area about one meter wide.
Apple isn't the first company to figure out how to beam power through the air. Scientists have been working on the problem for more than 100 years, building on a theoretical framework described by visionary inventor Nikola Tesla. The US Patent Office has granted hundreds of patents related to wireless power. Qualcomm alone received more than 40 patents, and startups like WiTricity and Powermat each has several dozen.
Inductive charging -- think electric toothbrushes -- has been around for years. The Palm Pre, released in 2009, came with a wireless charger dubbed the Touchstone.
Today, if you're eager to try out wireless charging, you can buy a Duracell Powermat charging case for your iPhone and top off your battery at a nearby Starbucks.
But wireless charging has yet to catch on widely, and that's why Apple's new patents are so important. If Apple includes wireless charging capabilities in the next generation of its devices (as is rumored), there's a high probability other manufacturers will follow suit.
With time -- and a universal wireless charging standard -- our dependence on chargers and charging cords will wither. Electricity will be built into desks and table tops, allowing devices to automatically recharge themselves.
