The Future of Recharging Your Phone

We’ve all gone on a trip and forgotten to bring a cell phone charger along—leading to a dead battery and a (temporarily, at least) useless piece of expensive technology.
However, we may not be tied to our cords for much longer: Consider the fascinating possibilities of inductive technology that can recharge your electronic devices.
For example, wireless charging capability can be built into a countertop, lamp, or other piece of furniture. A base station on the underside of the furniture creates an electromagnetic field that wirelessly charges your phone or other electronic device. Starbucks is already exploring the possibilities of wireless countertop charging at 10 stores in Boston and Silicon Valley.

Another wireless charging technology, Cota, does not even require your phone to come in contact with a surface to generate power. The Cota charging station sends a magnetic charge over the airwaves, providing a single watt of power. A single charging station can provide power to multiple devices within a 30-foot range. The company behind Cota, Ossia, is currently seeking FTC approval, and hopes to have the charging devices on the market by 2015—potentially, the technology could be built directly into handsets.
Hatem Zeine, Ossia’s founder, hopes that his technology can eliminate the need to charge mobile devices altogether. "In ten years, imagine there's a Cota charger in the home, in the car, in cafes, in the airport," Zeine told Engadget. "You would never have to worry about battery, ever.”
That's a future we support.