[LINK] 'Wire-free' electricity juices mobile devices

[George Bray]

'Wire-free' electricity juices mobile devices
http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,75489,00.html

By Matt Berger, IDG News Service
OCTOBER 29, 2002

A company that claims to have solved the "last wire" dilemma 
announced yesterday that it's working with Acer Inc. and other 
manufacturing partners to deliver early next year a pad with a 
conductive surface that can power computing devices resting on top of 
it as if they were plugged into an electrical outlet.

The "last wire" dilemma refers to the power adapters that juice 
computing devices, which remain one wire that can't been replaced by 
existing wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11. 
MobileWise Inc. in Los Altos, Calif., yesterday previewed its 
"wire-free" electricity technology that could cut loose mobile device 
owners from their power cords.

[...]

The technology can also transfer data, and could eventually replace a 
notebook docking station, which is used to distribute electricity, as 
well as act as the connection point to the Internet and peripheral 
devices, Goren said. In that case, a user could place a digital 
camera on the pad and have images stored on that camera automatically 
transferred to the hard drive of a computer also placed on the pad. 
Similarly, it could be used to synchronize data between a handheld 
computer and a notebook.

Like most people who see the pad in action, Enderle summed it up: 
"It's a real cool technology."