PureEnergy (Formerly WildCharge) Demos Wireless Charging for Netbooks

PureEnergy (the company formerly known as WildCharge) has been working on wireless charging for awhile. Up until now, the formula’s been the same (and is one we’ve even seen mimicked by other companies, such as PowerMat): you plug a single wireless charging pad into an outlet, and then plop your gadgets on top, forgoing whatever AC adapters they came with. The catch? You have to buy special cases and charging tips in order for it to work. Not exactly the pure inductive charging we’ve been hoping for. To be fair, the PowerDisc doesn’t involve inductive charging either, but it’s still a more elegant solution. Just plug it into your netbook’s AC port, and drop the disc onto the charging pad (sold separately, of course). No need to wrap your notebook in any custom charging case. PureEnergy hasn’t finalized a price yet, but a rep told me that he expects it to cost less than $40. That’s par for the course, really; PowerMat’s accessories (iPhone charging cases, for example) cost about the same. You might wonder what makes this disc a netbook accessory, in particular. According to PureEnergy, it’s all about wattage. So far, the company has learned how to charge devices consuming between 35 and 40 watts (e.g. a netbook). A  notebook, which consumes more power, would require a different product, one that’s not available yet, but that PureEnergy says it’s working on. The company claims that charging a netbook with the PowerDisc will take about as long as it would if you used the AC adapter that came with the netbook. It also says there’s no specific number of charging cycles the charger can withstand. One thing PureEnergy doesn’t claim is greenness. PowerMat, a competing product, for instance, cuts off power  fully charged gadgets. I think I’d like to see that kind of intelligent power management even before inductive charging (real inductive charging) finally becomes a reality.