Patent For New IPhone/IPad Contact-Less Dock Appears

In March, an interesting patent was filed by Apple in the U.S Trademark and Patent office. It wasn’t for anything as juicy as a new iPhone, or iPad.

Rather interestingly though, it was for a brand new dock design that will allow you to charge/sync your device whatever way you place it on the cradle; contact-less style! Now it has been leaked…

From the pictures it appears that it will work in a similar way to Powermat, with no physical connectors being placed in the phone. Rather the device is simply placed on to the stand, and it charges and syncs wirelessly. (Apart from the wires which I presume will connect the dock to your PC/Laptop.

Advantages to having this induction coil system instead of the current system with electrical contact points include:

  • Better looking device – Imagine an iPhone without the large 30-pin connector slot in the bottom end. No more Kleenex dust for me!
  • No rusting – Anyone who’s had the misfortune of power adapter’s and water will know that the metal contact points are prone to oxidation. With the new system no metal contacts means no rust.
  • Place your phone however you like – Unlike the current dock where you have to line up the insert connecter in to your device, you can just place it on the cradle without a second thought.
  • Lanscape or Portrait orientation – you can watch a music video or whatever media you like in landscape mode while it’s charging, without having to hold it. (YEY!)

There clearly are no details as to when Cupertino are planning to implement this across the board of iOS devices, but I for one, cannot wait. To think, I was almost tempted to buy Powermat.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *