Ikea Wireless Charging Furniture — A Huge Step

Ikea is introducing wireless device chargers that will be built right into your nightstand or desk lamp. Your phone will automatically charge while it’s in your pocket–no plugging in necessary.

Wireless charging is the yin to Wifi’s yang–the final frontier of connectedness. Now that we can be connected (mostly) everywhere, we need the unlimited juice to take advantage. Solar charging has made some progress, but it doesn’t fulfill the great hunger for power that our device-addicted culture craves. Ikea’s answer is a brilliant one. At first it may run into some issues with industry standards: the Qi charging that will go into Ikea furniture may not win the industry standard battle, so it might not work with your next phone. But hey, it’ll work with the new Samsung 6! Live in the present.