Samsung, Qualcomm start up Alliance for Wireless Power to take on Qi

Alliance for Wireless Power

Wireless power has until now been closely associated with the Wireless Power Consortium's Qi standard. There's now a second proposed common ground in the Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP. Samsung and Qualcomm, along with some help from Powermat, SK Telecom, Ever Win Industries, Gill Industries and Peiker Acustic, are making an alternative that allows for "spatial freedom" between your gadget and the charging source, although whether or not that's better than the 1.6-inch distance of the updated Qi spec is left to the imagination. The strategy doesn't just let your device avoid French kissing the charger: it lets you power up through a material besides a metal plate, and it reduces the cost by eliminating repeaters. A4WP should power everything from low-power headsets through to smartphones and tablets, although with partnership talk just getting started at CTIA Wireless 2012, we wouldn't hold off on buying wired-power gadgets in the near future.

Continue reading Samsung, Qualcomm start up Alliance for Wireless Power to take on Qi

Samsung, Qualcomm start up Alliance for Wireless Power to take on Qi originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 04:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAlliance for Wireless Power  | Email this | Comments

Tizen 1.0 Larkspur arrives, fuels your open-source phone dreams

Tizen screen captures

The unveiling of Tizen left many mobile open-source aficionados wondering when the OS would reach its all-important 1.0 status. The answer is now: the coalition between Intel, Panasonic, Samsung and a raft of carriers has posted the first non-beta release in both source code and software development kit forms. The finished versions of either carry new features to reward developers for the wait: SDK users get a new browser-based simulator and a faster emulator, while those scouring the source code will find new point-of-interest and route searching features in location-aware apps as well as WiFi Direct and more HTML5 support. About the only wait left is for an actual Tizen phone to ship.

[Image credit: Realnorth]

Tizen 1.0 Larkspur arrives, fuels your open-source phone dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 20:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Tizen  |  sourceSDK, source code  | Email this | Comments

LG’s 5-inch Optimus Vu shipping soon in white (in Korea, at least)

white lg optimus vu smartphone

Just under two months after LG's Optimus Vu got priced for the hometown market, in flies news that another hue will soon be on those very same shelves. The 5-inch, 4:3 ratio'd Android smartphone will soon hit South Korea in white, purportedly targeting the "younger" market -- you know, folks who like "cool" things (a translation for "refreshing," we're told). Folks can look for the device -- which should remain unchanged outside of the external color -- to hit SK Telecom as early as next week, but there's no word on when (or if) it'll spread to other markets.

LG's 5-inch Optimus Vu shipping soon in white (in Korea, at least) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  sourceLG (Korean)  | Email this | Comments