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Home / News / Apple wireless charging patent hints at cable-less future

Apple wireless charging patent hints at cable-less future

It may be a way off but Apple could be planning a wireless charging future for future products

Apple has held off on introducing wireless charging to its kit – but it could be planning to do away with wires, assuming a patent filed in May of 2010 turns out to be more than just a pipedream.

The patent above deals with the technology of wirelessly charging gadgets within a ‘local computing environment’ – that means your mouse, keyboard and perhaps any other Apple products you have within a metre range. Basically, a power supply with near field magnetic resonance (NFMR) emits electrical current that can be utilised by devices that have a NFMR resonator built in.

As with any patent, this could just be Apple safe-guarding a technological avenue should it decide to take wireless charging seriously at a later date – which it may well do if the alternative system found in the Nokia Lumia 920 and Google Nexus 4 takes off. It could also, of course, be a mark of things to come. Maybe the iPhone 6 will do away with wires altogether? We can only dream.

[USPTO via Wired]

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Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

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Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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