If Intel has its way, you’ll never have to scramble around with your laptop looking for a power outlet at the airport ever again. CNET reports that Intel announced during the Computex conference in Taiwan this week that it’s working on a next-generation wireless charging platform for personal computers that it says could eliminate the need for PC cables by 2016 at the earliest.
During its presentation at Computex, Intel gave a demonstration of wireless charging technology based on A4WP standard Rezence that you can install under a table surface and can charge your laptop through up to two inches of wood. Even more impressively, the technology can charge multiple devices at once, which could make it particularly useful for crowded cafes where lots of people now crowd into small spaces competing for power outlets.
In addition to wireless charging, Intel also showed off a new wireless docking system that will let you beam what’s on your computer screen to other screens wirelessly without the need for a clunky docking system.
All told, it sounds like laptops are going to be getting even more mobile in the next couple of years, even if they aren’t the kind of laptop-tablet hybrid devices that Microsoft has been pushing with the Surface Pro 3.