Wireless Charging for the Nexus 4

Wireless charging or inductive charging is a technology that I have always wanted to prosper. Here it is 2013 and most people don't know it exists, or simply think of it as a novelty gadget.

Recently when showing my friend my Nexus 4 phone charging on top of my Energizer QI charger from Amazon, he said "Oh cool I guess; you must have gotten one of those charging cases for your phone." I was a bit steamed, but it was understandable. I own the Energizer QI mat because it was much cheaper than the official Nexus orb, and it was available, (So much for Google releasing accessories at the same time as phone; Oh wait they cant even launch a phone smoothly... ok back on task.) For most smartphones inductive charging is not built in.

The Nexus 4 adopted the QI inductive charging standard, which from my experiences is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it works fine for me in my every day use. Just picking a charging standard is one of the major hurdles for the Inductive charging industry right now. Much like the mobile payment industry everyone fighting to be "The standard" Square, Google Wallet, Paypal, Intuit Gopay, Apple Passbook... and so on. As it stands these are both battles that will have no clear winner for years to come.

QI to me was at first just a cool gimmick, but it really become a second hand part of every day life. My QI charging mat is on my night stand (err... air-conditioner), which is within arms reach of my bed and my desk. My phone is almost always fully charged when I need it. When I get a call I simply pick up my phone without having to unplug.

This is much better than feeling like your being a bad smartphone owner when you don't immediately plug your phone in, or you feel like you have to use your phone shackled to a three foot USB cord. Or worse you forget your phone is plugged in when your frantically trying to answer a call. You pick up your phone, only to have the charging cord yank it right back out of your hands, and your phone goes bouncing off the desk and onto the floor; all of this happening when the party calling you hears all the scuffling and swear words.... I know we have all done this atleast once (right?!?!)

All of that is a thing of the past for me. Wake up at three am remembering you need to set your alarm to wake you up, no problem pick up the phone and set. No need to figure out how to plug your phone back in in the dark (Yeah its hard, well at least for me. Props to Apple's lighting connector for being reversible.)

No more broken USB charging cords. If your like me, I abuse my USB cords, they typically become bent and frayed at the ends. (Although I do tend to buy the cords that are only ~$0.89 on Amazon.)

I think you get the picture, Inductive charging is not just a gimmicky novelty (something I had to convince myself of first before making this blog post), and can be had at a reasonable price.

Google Indoor maps WiFi geo location

A few days ago I was on the third floor of my campus library, I was passing time until the first class meeting for one of my classes this semester. I knew that the maps app on my Android had most of my campus mapped out. (IE: I can zoom in and find the exact location of room #1599 on my campus.) When I fired up the maps app, much to my surprise the map zoomed right into the third floor, and pinpointed me exactly at the table I was sitting near in the library. My friend sitting next to me was simply speechless.

 I know for a fact that any GPS signal has no chance of making it into this brick building, hell, most Cellphones loose signal inside this building. But, this building itself has a WiFi mesh, easily consisting of over 50 WiFi APs.

It was immediately obvious to me that Google had began indexing wifi APs and their locations inside of large buildings. This library is open to the public, so someone hired by Google with a WiFi sniffer must have walked around and indexed the location of each AP within this building.

My local HomeDepot shows an indoor map when I zoom in near its location in my Google maps app. I actually used it to find the Lighting and Electrical section so I could purchase a new bathroom light fixture.

As it stands right now indoor maps are a look don't touch experience. If you attempt to do a local search for "Bathroom lighting" Google zooms out and shows all light stores in a 30 mile radius for me, instead of searching inside of the building I am standing. I know this is quite a bit to ask, but I expect Google's mapping an Indexing to achieve this level of detail in the next few years. I can't wait until all major brick and mortar stores are mapped out and indexed. Imagine how fast and pleasant shopping could be if your phone knew the exact aisle of ever item you plan to purchase.

As you can see the possibilities are quite limitless for indoor mapping applications, I have not even mentioned large venues or large office buildings.

This is a big effort Google is undertaking, but I have no doubt given Googles track record with similar projects. Mapping the surface of the earth, its seas, our sky, mars and now large building layouts.

 

 

So whats the point of this blog?

  I work with computers every day during my part time job as an onsite technician for small business and residential. By no means am I high on the tech totem pole officially. My Studies as a full time college student for Civil Engineering also keep me busy.
  I have a huge obsession with the latest gadgets and tech news. I love to know what is on the market, and what products consumers actually use. When a client approaches me with a usage case, I love to be the guy who knows the exact product they will need and love.
I am a realist, yet I try to be ahead of the curve in terms of adoption and uptake of new gadgets. I try to avoid gadgets that I know will never take off or have any light of day in the general consumer world.
 By no stretch of the imagination am I a professional blogger or writer. If you see a typo, let me know kindly. But I do have a passion to explain and talk about anything tech related that may be on my mind for that day.

 I may be random, from custom gaming rigs to computer animated Christmas light shows, my interests in the world of electronics have touched every imaginable corner this industry. Cellphones, flash drives, gaming peripherals, speakers & headphones, hard drives/ssds, mmo gaming, routers/networking, fitness trackers, office chairs, and digital wallets are all things that get my nerd senses tingling. (And will be some of the things I will be talking about in the near future.)
 This blog will also cover my rants about computer issues in general, and certain companies and manufactures I particularly despise.