qi

One of the fascinating things about living in this era is observing how everyday products can become far more useful with a little infusion of technology.

Konica Minolta today debuted a desk lamp with an ace up its sleeve: it features a built-in induction charging pad for devices that support the Qi wireless charging standard (such as the Nokia Lumia 920 and many other products). It appears to be the first of its kind. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Nokia again faces make-or-break point with new Lumia phones.

- CNET First Take: Nokia Lumia 820.

- CNET First Take: Nokia Lumia 920.

- Why Nokia nixed an SD card slot for the Lumia 920.

- The secret behind Nokia's 41-megapixel camera phone.

- Nokia's new PureView image stabilizer is amazingly faked in this promo video.

- 4Chan goes public with its API, boasting 22 million unique monthly visitors.

- Spike Jonze's new film is about a man who falls in love with his phone.

- Kinsey Institute pulls app encouraging users to log sexy time.… Read more

Look, no wires. Nokia's new Lumia 920 smartphone can be charged wirelessly thanks to its own built-in technology.

Known as Qi (pronounced chee), the wireless charging standard lets you place your phone on any compatible charger whenever it needs a boost in power. Designed in cooperation with Wireless Power Consortium co-founder ConvenientPower, Energizer unveiled the first-generation Qi Inductive Charger in 2010.

The Qi standard is now supported by a collection of carriers, service providers, and other companies striving to use the same technology to charge any supported device no matter where you are. Any phone with the right built-in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Wireless charging pads are available now for a selection of smartphones and small devices, but the technology--anchored by the Wireless Power Consortium's (WPC) "Qi" standard"--is about to get a lot bigger.

Here at CES 2012, Fulton Innovation--a founding member of the WPC--has been showing off its eCoupled wireless power system, which can charge a phone or device that isn't physically touching the charging surface. Fulton director Bret Lewis demonstrated the technology for me charging a phone in a cluttered purse, as well as through a thick wood tabletop. Lewis says that a recent breakthrough also allows for a charge to even be delivered to a device through certain types of metal cases.… Read more

Pixel Qi has been showing off its sunlight-readable, low-powered displays at CES for years. But other than a DIY kit for the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, devices sporting the Pixel Qi display, such as the Notion Ink Adam Tablet, seem to perpetually remain in "upcoming" status. Still, the company doesn't seem to be slowing its R&D efforts, and its latest baby is a solar-powered tablet.

The prototype shown in the video below hinges on the low-powered Pixel Qi screens and a computing platform that uses less than the 1W of power generated by the integrated solar panel (which can be embedded in the bezel). While this sounds like a good idea on paper, we wonder if the actual implementation is technically feasible.

For one, the solar panel can only generate 1W under direct sunlight, and we all know how much consumer electronics "love" being left in the sun. Another issue is that of the solar panels used in the bezel. The surface of these panels need to be reinforced since most cheap varieties are easily scratched.

Nonetheless, as an alternative power source this sounds like a great idea, as long as it does not remain in the "upcoming" state indefinitely.… Read more

Led by such companies as Powermat, inductive charging has been around for a few years. In case you don't know what we're talking about, the idea behind inductive charging is to relieve you of the burden of connecting your phone (or another device) to a charging cable that has to be plugged into a wall outlet. Instead, you simply rest your phone on a special pad, and--presto!--the battery starts charging.

For this week's giveaway, we're offering up Energizer's Qi Inductive Charger. As part of the giveaway, Energizer is also throwing in a sleeve (normally … Read more

A select group of registered users on Notion Ink's company blog will be given first crack at preordering the company's long-awaited Adam tablet today.

The heavily optimized Android-based tablet comes in six models, ranging from a $375 Wi-Fi version with a standard LCD, up to a $549 version using 3G and the coveted Pixel Qi screen technology.

If you're new to the Adam, the mythical tablet sports an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a 10-inch screen, a unique rotating camera, and a head-turning design. More importantly, the high-end models are one of the first to offer Pixel Qi … Read more

Three years ago, when Microsoft invested $240 million for 1.6 percent of Facebook, it looked to be just a bit nutty.

Back then, Facebook was an unprofitable three-year-old company with a business model that the ad industry still wasn't fully believing, and the News Corp.-owned social network MySpace was still bigger than Facebook both in the U.S. and internationally. Facebook's paper valuation of $15 billion at the time of the investment was believed to have been embarrassingly overinflated because Microsoft had been in a bidding war with Google over the stake in question, and indeed, … Read more

Updated 12:35 p.m. PDT with additional information and background.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Bing will soon allow searchers to see results generated by their Facebook friends' use of the "like" button on the social network, Microsoft announced today.

Microsoft's Qi Lu, president of Microsoft Online Services, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a press conference at Microsoft's Silicon Valley headquarters to announce an extension of a long-running partnership between the two companies to feature Facebook profiles and a "liked by your friends" section that takes advantage of the way that Web … Read more