"Energous’ technology involves more than just a charging mat to lay devices on top of. The company’s transmitter broadcasts proprietary waveforms directly to receivers and then surrounds those receivers with a radio frequency “pocket” that charges devices. The signals can travel up to 15 feet, and up to 12 devices can be charged at once."
>The signals can travel up to 15 feet, and up to 12 devices can be charged at once.
Wow, so if this technology became ubiquitous and transmitters were installed en masse in public places... we might in the future simply not even THINK about our device battery levels.
Indeed. Microsoft broke with standards, and introduced the non-standard IXMLHTTPRequest API for their browsers. It later became a standard, but it certainly wasn't when it first happened.
Major innovation doesn't come from standards bodies, it comes from operational implementation and later opening up the implementations for standardisation. Unfortunately, Apple has not demonstrated a lot of interest in the latter part in technologies where it would be really really nice for end users (FaceTime, iMessage), but has in other areas that may benefit developers (Swift).
... Bloomberg reported that Apple was exploring the possibility of including a novel form of wireless charging in upcoming iPhones, one that works at a distance and doesn’t require contact between device and power source. An analyst at Disruptive Tech Research (DTR) followed up by providing clues that Apple was working with Nasdaq-listed Energous to employ its WattUp technology for that very purpose.
This quote sums up the difference