Now That’s Something That’s Useful (and it won’t kill us!)

Nanotechnology has been promising life-altering advances for several decades.  And – AT LAST! – it has arrived! (Almost)

Well, perhaps not so “life-altering” as I would have hoped – and, in fact, not life-altering at all as far as my life goes. 

My first inclination was to start the last sentence with “Not So Fast . . .” but, in this case, it’s all about fast.  StoreDot Ltd (a Tel Aviv start-up) has developed a prototype phone charger that will charge your smartphone in (get this) about 30 seconds!

That’s right – 30 seconds.  Now, perhaps that’s a wonderful and incredible discovery for some, but I honestly don’t think my phone has ever run out of battery more than once or twice in my life.  Perhaps I’m not connected enough –but my phone charge happily lasts until I head off to bed and plug it happily into its regular charger.

So why write about this?  Because as much as I see promises come close to fruition and then peter out (why hasn’t Joule come up with anything so far better than a “partnership” with a major auto manufacturer? [See my blogpost here] Although I note they have updated their website and still tout the ability to make fuels from CO₂ – maybe there is hope yet), this is a product that appears ready not only to go to market, but to do so without breaking the bank.  The charger is currently the size of a laptop charger (?!  I thought we were talking nano?!) but they have determined how to half that.  And the expected cost?  $30.  While twice as much as a typical charger, it is considerably less than extended batteries and other methods designed to keep one’s smart phone up and rolling.

Actual commercially available products won’t be available until 2016.  That will give me time to find out if, in fact, the company is able to produce a fast charger, or a batter that charges quickly.  In reviewing the various sources, it is clear that StoreDot is workign on batteries.  It’s also clear that they have charger that can fully charge a near-dead batter in 30 seconds.  What is not clear from the written articles (and their own website is silent on the product altogether) is whether StoreDot is developing a combo or have moved from the combo to a simple charger.  The demonstration video from StoreDot clearly shows a non-standard battery on the Samsung phone.

Oh well – looks like won’t be changing for anyone else too soon either.