Duracell SmartPower MyGrid Wireless Charger [Charging Pad Juices Electronics Without Wires, Sorta]

True wireless charging certainly seems like somewhat of an elusive prospect. To-date, there haven’t really been any marketable innovations when it comes to being able to actually charge your electronics without having to connect them to some type of power source. Maybe if Tesla hadn’t been shut down by the electricity magnates of his time we’d be closer than we are today and we wouldn’t have to settle for devices like Duracell’s SmartPower MyGrid charging pad. The charging pad lets you charge your electronics, up to four at a time (if you can cram them on the pad) by laying them on the charging surface.

An almost carbon copy of the WildCharge Inc.’s WildCharger pad, Duracell appears to have bought into some type of licensing agreement with them in order to market the SmartPower charging pad. The basic gist of the product is this: you plug in a mousepad-looking thing to your computer or other powered USB port, you attach a “receiver” to your electronic device, you lay said device on the pad to charge it. I guess it’s an interesting technology at best, seeing that you can purchase like chargers that are simply multi-port USB hubs. I mean, you still need to purchase the right adapters for your devices and you still need to plug in the pad, so is it really wireless?

When I think of wireless charging I think of something like a wireless router that beams electrons through the air in your house. You connect some type of receiver to your iPhone or Blackberry and it charges your electronics no matter where you are as long as you’re within range of the transmitter. OK, so maybe that’s a bit far-fetched at the moment, but that is the main reason I am not all that impressed by things like the Duracell SmartPower charging pad. That being said, it’s the best we have at the moment and it just might save you from having to deal with all of those cables under your desk.

The Duracell SmartPower MyGrid charging pad is expected to go on sale sometime in October. There is no word yet on pricing, but given that the WildCharger pad kit retails for about $65 I would expect it to be somewhere in that neighborhood. Head over to www.duracell.com for more info.