I wonder what the Ultimate Mobile Phone Charger™ would look like? After all, shouldn’t Nokia and friends be looking at the “whole customer experience”?
Here’s a few starters:
Any more?
Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:59 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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I'd have to switch #3 to "clear iconography to indicate current status" for those not habituated to the meaningless color codes.
Be nice if the phone has additional info on its much better screen. I've had one phone that said "charging complete" but mostly they over-write the battery meter with a charging icon/animation, and otherwise give no particular info.
Similarly, I think I'd rather the phone reminded you when it didn't have enough battery for the next reasonable away-from-home time (when going to bed, it cannot survive till 5pm the next day) and sees your charger in proximity.
Posted by: at December 3, 2007 02:31 AMWould be geo-savvy and warn you to use the right power plug, thus avoiding fried cell phone.
(I've fried one and a laptop also on whirlwind fast global business travel. GB is the toughest area in my opinion to power up and stay charged. Fred Becker at BT and Paul Deane of IPcomm provided memorable instruction. I won't do it anymore.)
Posted by: at December 3, 2007 06:26 PMDisagree with Suzanne, but only in the details; "remind the user" is making us conform to the machine. The device should not accept or pass damaging voltages. Then it can give a warning about changing the plug or switching the switch (whatever) if it cannot do this itself.
Suprised that someone like Nokia with such a world market has not made a more world charger, with world-charger smarts; you'd think the economy of scale for a single charger (or, very few variants at least) would make up for any increase in unit cost. Love to hear someone show otherwise, so we know if they have already thought of this.
Posted by: at December 3, 2007 11:03 PMUSB is the universal charger. When I travel now, I normally charge camera and phones from the laptop, then I've only got one power brick to remember.
Posted by: at December 4, 2007 09:53 AMI would add to this that future chargers should be one size fits all, at least for a given brand of cell phones. It's a pain to have to carry multiple chargers.
Sima
http://kids-communication.blogspot.com/
Have you not heard of wireless electricty?
http://www.splashpower.com/
Posted by: at December 4, 2007 03:47 PMgreat blog everyone. i am particularly interested since i make chargers for a living. my comments are:
> regarding the world charger...one might say that the combination of a wall charger and separate travel adapter meets the market needs. a combo unit would be retail for $35 and be targeted only at a smaller niche of travel professionals. two separate units still meet the market requirements.
> Love the HomePlug idea posted last. interesting....
> interesting point about the iconography of charging state. that can/has been done. An issue with the accuracy of these chargers is that since a wall charger could be plugged into phones with different battery capacity, the charger really does not know how full capacity of the battery....it is an approximation. Charger OEM's don't want their charger to say the phone is fully charged and then the user notices that the phone has 3 out of 4 bars showing....that means charger returns to the store.
> regarding the ultimate charger blog....great thoughts. some of them are phone specific and not charger specific though....or am i missing something?
Why not adding a solar rechargeable battery?
When you have the sun it recharges with it, otherwise you have to plug it...
A greener environment and saving on energy, and also the possibility to charge it without electricity...
Patrizia
http://woip.blogspot.com
Dynamo attachment that can be fitted to bicycle or exercise machine, so that you can generate the electricity yourself.
Posted by: at January 26, 2008 01:04 AM