A Wireless World, Bound To Sockets

Our telephones - even landlines - are wireless, our Internet is wireless, our television remotes are wireless, and our handhelds can even communicate with PCs wirelessly. But are we really a wireless culture?

According to the linked article (and I've run across this in daily life), wireless access to services does not completely remove cords from the operation of all of our gadgets. You see, the gadgets themselves still need wires in order to get power. Laptop computers, cell phones, and handheld computers still require frequent doses of electrical current in order to remain operational, and currently the only way to get that current into the devices is through the wide array of charging cords that tether us to walls for hours at a time while "juicing up."

And every device has its own power cable... that is, until iGo came on the scene. iGo makes accessories and adapters for all of the gadgets that we use. The power adapters have an "empty" cord, to which any number of "intelligent tips" (itips) can be affixed in order to provide electricity to any number of devices. iGo makes itips for almost every widely-used portable electronic device, so that mess of charging cables can be reduced to one iGo cord (and its accompanying set of itips).

This seems like a really cool solution, for now. I'd love to have one of those cables that would make my plethora of charging cords obsolete. However, I think there is something even better on the horizon: wireless power. Well, it might not be quite "on the horizon," but I'm sure someday somebody will find out how to convey AC and DC power across RF, infrared, or WiFi. Or maybe even create some new standard protocol. But I'm sure, eventually, it will be coming.

And then Starbucks will have to offer wireless power outlets in addition to wireless internet service, if yuppies are going to get anything done...