Well folks,

Today I saw something really different – a wireless charger for the iPhone! It read something like “forget the clutter and wires, just drop your iphone on the base and it charges!”. Here’s the description:

Wireless PowerPlate Induction Charger

I was so captivated I went home and looked it up. It turns out it uses a system called “Wireless Electromagnetic Induction”. Well if you’re like me that doesn’t really help anything. How the heck does this work? Of course this is patented but I’m just curious.

So I go and do a quick internet search. Here’s what I found – on wikipedia of course (it’s accurate, I looked at the references).

The action of an electrical transformer is the simplest instance of wireless energy transfer. The primary and secondary circuits of a transformer are not directly connected. The transfer of energy takes place by electromagnetic coupling through a process known as mutual induction. (An added benefit is the capability to step the primary voltage either up or down.) Thebattery charger of a mobile phone or the transformers in the street are examples of how this principle can be used. Induction cookers and many electric toothbrushes are also powered by this technique.

The main drawback to induction, however, is the short range. The receiver must be very close to the transmitter or induction unit in order to inductively couple with it.

That explains the “set it down anywhere on the base to charge”. Otherwise cellphones would already be all wirelessly charged, possibly with a backup battery.

Digging deeper… I really found a jackpot when I hit howstuffworks.com. Their explanation actually makes sense.

Any time electrical current moves through a wire, it creates a circular magnetic field around the wire. Bending the wire into a coil amplifies the magnetic field. The more loops the coil makes, the bigger the field will be.

If you place a second coil of wire in the magnetic field you’ve created, the field can induce a current in the wire. This is essentially how atransformer works, and it’s how an electric toothbrush recharges. It takes three basic steps:

1. Current from the wall outlet flows through a coil inside the charger, creating a magnetic field. In a transformer, this coil is called the primary winding.
2. When you place your toothbrush in the charger, the magnetic field induces a current in another coil, or secondary winding, which connects to the battery.
3. This current recharges the battery.

You can use the same principle to recharge several devices at once. For example, the Splashpower recharging mat and Edison Electric’s Powerdesk both use coils to create a magnetic field. Electronic devices use corresponding built-in or plug-in receivers to recharge while resting on the mat. These receivers contain compatible coils and the circuitry necessary to deliver electricity to devices’ batteries.

It’s basically is based off the theory of electromagnetics. Here’s a diagram.

Electromagnet Diagram

First you take some object that already has a magnetic field. Metal is good for that, such as a nail. Then wire is wrapped around the object, shown above. Then power is run through the wire, (electricity is basically magnetic – you need to really study to understand that though), spinning and spinning and spinning to make the magnetic field of the nail spin and become stronger.

Electromagnetic Induction takes this idea and applies it to transmission. So you’ve got this high power spinning field right? Okay. So say you make another electromagnet just like it. The electrons are just sitting still in the wire, nothing going on there. But when you bring it close to the other spinning field, it pulls the electrons from a standstill into movement, creating a electric charge and charging the battery. This is why it’s so short range – it has to be within the range of the electric field.

Until next time…

Christian Stewart

Like I said in my last post, I will be giving out 15 google wave invites to get everyone into the spirit!

One thing that dampens my spirit is that recently I found out that Apple recently revealed their dark side in pulling the plug on a official Google Voice dialer app for the iPhone and iPod touch that would let you make free calls from the phone. Being desperate to find some sort of way of linking the two, I found this method. It worked amazingly for me. Here’s the instruction guide to link Google Voice, Gizmo 5 and TruPhone [YET ANOTHER bummer, TruPhone disabled your external SIP number. I found a simple workaround, just use iSip instead of TruPhone.] for the iPhone and iPod touch together to form a free calling extravaganza.

EDIT: Google recently bought out Gizmo and is working on new features for it. They have temporarily suspended signups, but you can join a list for news on the reopening. If you had a previous Gizmo account, you can still use it for this tutorial. As you can see if you actually read the above text, TruPhone is also not a possibility, but download iSip to get around this problem.

1) = Buy a microphone: https://secure.easyanswer.net/truphone/

2) Install the TruPhone iSip software from the App Store.

3) Get an account and note your SIP number (you can find it online)

4) Sign in to your Gizmo5 Account

5) Note your SIP number – you can find it on the first page after you log in.

6) Go to “Call Forwarding” and set the type to “Forward All Calls” and set the phone type to SIP phone – enter your TruPhone number.

6) In iSip, go to Accounts->Add New. Select service provider “Gizmo”. Enter in your account information and save.

6) Log into Google Voice and create a new phone called Gizmo (or iPod, iPhone, whatever) and make it of type Gizmo. Enter in your Gizmo SIP number in the “Number” field.

7) When it asks you to enter the comfirmation code in when they call you, simply pick up the call from TruPhone and enter the comfirmation code and you’re done!

7b) To dial directly like a phone, go to the google mobile page – http://www.google.com/voice/m and enter the phone number. Simply go to the “More” tab in iSip and select GVoice, then enter the phone number to call.

If you want to be able to run other apps (such as a game, etc) while TruPhone is still online, you will need to probably Jailbreak your device and download Backgrounder from Cydia or Icy. You can then run the app in the background while you run unlimited other applications as well. [MOD ADDITION: Use blackra1n to jailbreak in about 20 seconds.

I hope you found this guide usefull! It really made my day

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Holidays all!

I’ll be giving out 10 invites to google wave! The only requirements are to post your email address here as a comment, and then waiting until I choose randomly from the list!

EDIT: The offer still stands for the google wave invites! The augmented reality ecard and christmas counter are down because the holidays are over, but come back next year to see new ones!

I’m also proud to announce that Kidovate has produced a Augmented Reality holiday card using the latest technology that has been buzzing around Esquire magazine and GE.

You can view the Augmented Reality ecard here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~Christian S.