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Xiaomi clutching at thin air, are they?
In a way, yes. Unlike traditional wireless
charging, which requires a charging stand
or pad, Mi Air Charge is truly wireless.
It utilises a remote ‘charging pile’ that
detects the location of your device and
beams energy through the air. According
to Xiaomi’s best and brightest, the pile has
“five phase-interference antennas built in,
which can accurately detect the location
of a smartphone”. And then? “A phase
control array, composed of 144 antennas,
transmits millimetre-wide waves directly
to the phone through beamforming.”
There’s a lot of jargon there, but essentially
it’ll charge devices within a few metres. No
cables, no pads, just automatic wireless
charging taking care of itself.What gadgets will it work with?
Well, clearly the device being charged will
need to be fitted with the relevant tech to
convert those millimetre waves back into
electrical energy. We’re assured Mi Air
Charge will be compatible with a wide
range of phones, and Xiaomi claims
the tech will eventually work with
smartwatches, speakers, desk lamps
and other products in the connected
home. It’ll even charge multiple gadgets
simultaneously, so it could feasibly keep
an entire smart home ticking over while
you do something productive, like dust
your Cliff Richard record collection.So we’ll soon be un-wired for sound?
Hmm, maybe. As always, there’s a catch
with these things – and while Xiaomi has
been more than happy to wax lyrical about
its latest technological revolution, the
company has been less forthcoming with
a launch date. So you won’t find it on the
Xiaomi Mi 11, for instance. Right now we
don’t know when – or indeed if – Mi Air
Charge will be rolled out to consumers.
It’s likely there’s still a bit of fine-tuning
to be done, but Xiaomi’s proclamation that
“today, we enter a true wireless charging
era” implies the company is confident it’ll
become a reality soon enough.WTF IS MI
AIR CHARGE
TECHNOLOGY?
That Polk isn’t dummy any more
POLK REACT
As Tom Jones once sang, it’s not unusual to find a soundbar with Alexa
on board these days – but Polk reckons its new React is more advanced
than any other. What does it have to back up such outlandish claims?
Well, it’s got four far-field mics and supports Alexa’s Communication
features, so you can use it to make calls and announcements to Echo
devices, while Alexa Multi-Room Music means you can pair other
equally skilled speakers to form a musical network throughout your
gaff. It works with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 to make things sound as
lifelike as possible; and while there’s no Atmos support, you can add SR
wireless surround speakers (£159/pair) and a React Sub (£179).
£249 / polkaudio.com
Lantern it on again
TRANSPARENT LIGHT SPEAKER
They loved a lantern in the Lord of the Rings trilogy – hobbits
daisychaining them at Bilbo’s birthday party, Harry Goatleaf the
gatekeeper of Bree illuminating shadowy strangers, elves swinging
their Fëanorian lamps about – but if they’d all had access to the
Transparent Light Speaker they could have ditched the matches
and stuck on Now That’s What I Call Middle Earth at the same time.
This 5W Bluetooth speaker is a take on the traditional outdoor lantern,
only rather than an actual candle, a sound-activated ‘vibrating
bass-and-light element’ creates the glow. Omnidirectional sound
comes from a 2.5in full-range driver and a 3in passive radiator.
£290 / transpa.rent