Wires wires everywhere. Looking briefly at my desk I see an iPhone dock, a wireless mouse charging station, my son’s Nintendo DS, a USB cord winding around my monitor from my keyboard, 10 miles of speaker wire, and an iPod that needs to be plugged in. That’s a lot of wires, and if I could get rid of even a couple of them, my desk would look a lot more professional. The Powermat will get rid of four of these problems immediately.
Powermat the company began in 2007, and positioned itself to take advantage of all the new electronic devices that were being rolled out every week. One thing they all had in common was they needed to be charged. Powermat the gadget allows users to hook their devices to a receiver, and then simply set the device down on the mat. Plug in the receiver once, then never have to plug your device in again. The purpose of this product is to remove clutter and end the need to constantly plug-in and unplug various devices. Surprisingly, the Powermat works very well.
Powermat uses inductive-based charging technology, also called wireless energy transfer, to do its job. The company pioneered this particular market and leads it in almost all categories. The devices that can be charged using the Powermat are:
- BlackBerry Tour 9630
- BlackBerry Bold 9000
- BlackBerry Bold 9650
- BlackBerry Bold 9700 series
- BlackBerry Curve 8300 series
- BlackBerry Curve 8500 series
- BlackBerry Curve 8900 series
- BlackBerry Curve 9300 series
- BlackBerry Pearl series
- HTC EVO 4G
- HTC HD2
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 3G / 3GS
- iPhone (Original)
- iPod touch (2nd & 3rd Generations only)*
- iPod (All Docking Models)†
- Motorola DROID X
- Nintendo DS Lite
- Nintendo DSi
That’s a long list of devices and the list keeps getting longer at an ever increasing pace.
The receiver that attaches to the device and allows for wireless charging is ergonomically designed, and fits in the hand about as well as one of the immensely popular iPhone cases. This does add some weight to the device, but after a few moments I found I was unable to really tell my phone had one on.
Once my phone was easily hooked up to the receiver, I began checking out the mat. The Powermat specs are:
- Output Current: 0.83A
- Standby Current: 0.011A
- Adapter Power: 15 Watts
- Dimensions: .625″ x 12.25″ x 4.5625″ (HxWxD)
- Input Voltage: 100-240V AC, 50-60Hz Universal
- Output Voltage: 18VDC
The set-up for the mat is actually easier than the receiver. Plug it in and it’s pretty much ready to go. A single mat can charge up to three devices at once, so this gadget can really help clean up a workstation fast.
The only downside to this technology is you need to purchase a separate receiver for each device, unless you swap back and forth between two of the same type of device. For example, the iPhone receiver won’t work on a Blackberry or iPod. With receivers costing around $29.00 USD this isn’t going to cost a fortune, but it can add up. The mat itself starts at $59.99 USD.
In the end, it took me less than 20 minutes to set up and test the Powermat. The device looks good on my desk and cleaned up a great deal of clutter, while also charging up my devices with ease. I’ll have to get used to not plugging anything in.
About the Author:
Jon T. Norwood is a managing partner at High Speed Internet, a site dedicated to providing information on Internet providers and technology. Jon can be reached at jon@webexordium.com.
