IKEA Unveils New Line of Furniture With Built In Wireless Charging for Phones

More phones are arriving with wireless charging built in. Nokia pioneered the tech in the Lumia line, Samsung has made specialty back plates and built it into the GS6, and several Nexus phones have incorporated the technology.

Even with growing support from phone manufacturers, it’s still largely regarded as a “geeky” tech, and utilizing it means buying a special charging pad. IKEA is looking to make the adoption of wireless charging easier with a surprisingly comprehensive live up of products.

IKEA Wireless charging Qi lamp

IKEA Wireless charging Qi drill kitLamps, desks, end and bedside tables, stand alone pads, they’re even providing a kit to help consumers drill holes in existing furniture to build in their own charging pads. This is not a company dipping a toe into the tech market, they’re betting big on being first to market.

Each product will feature a small circle with a + sign on it. Plop your phone down on that and it’ll start charging. No more fuzing with charge cables.

Based on the Qi standard, this line of products should be compatible with most of the phones that have wireless charging built in, and for iPhones and Galaxy S phones that lack wireless charging, IKEA will have cases available that will add the charging coils.

IKEA Wireless charging Qi desk

You can see the whole line up via the IKEA press release, and the collection should be available later this Spring.

IKEA to start selling Solar Panels in the UK – Weird Little Wrenches Included

solar panelsOk. I don’t actually know if those awkward little hex wrenches will be needed to install these panels on your home.

IKEA will soon begin offering solar panels at stores in Great Britain as a test market to see if this program can be expanded worldwide.  Great Britain was selected as it offers a good balance of energy pricing and state programs designed to offer consumers incentives when investing in solar.

Manufactured by the Chinese company Hanergy, the panels being offered will cost around $9200 for a 3.36 Kilowatt system, and IKEA estimates that it should take around seven years to pay them off. During that time, consumers should enjoy reduced energy pricing. In select markets, where IKEA can offer those services, any excess energy created might be able to feed back into the local energy grid. Depending on market pricing (which I’m sure will drop quickly if many people start producing excess power) you could even turn a profit faster than seven years.

While other big box consumer home improvement companies have offered panels before, IKEA looks to be taking a slightly more proactive approach to aiding consumers in the consultation and installation of their products.  That, and you can get some delicious meatballs while shopping for those panels. Lowes and Home Depot should really look at partnering up with some gourmet food trucks…

(via AP)