I was stoked after seeing a commercial for the Powermat, a wireless gadget charger that claims to charge any of your electronic toys without wires, cords, or trouble just by placing your device on the Powermat — finally a solution to my cord-management problems! A few days later I saw the Powermat at my local Best Buy and considered forking over the $100 listed on the price tag for convenience alone. But then reality (and an explanation from the sales rep) set in: $100 is not the bottom line on this super charger.
The Powermat does exactly what it says it does: charges your cell phones, PSP's, smart phones and other gadgets, but it does so with the help of dedicated cases that have a receiver attached to the back. Bye-bye custom iPhone and Blackberry cases — you'll be rocking the Powermat case and battery pack (which sticks out on the back) from now on. What's more, each gadget case starts at $30, and you'll need one for each device you want to charge! For me, this meant spending over $200 just to have all of my daily accessories covered. I walked away a little disappointed, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been fooled by a gadget commercial before. Share your gadget commercial rants, or about the time you bought a gadget and it wasn't what you expected below!
Giuseppe Zanotti
QS By S.oliver
Republic
I did the same thing when I looked into these. For 2 cellphones and a iPod it just wasn't worth it!
1I wasn't fooled by this one. I know that wireless charging is available now for reals, but it has such a short range that I knew this one would be mostly hype... kinda like the "plant stem cell restoration cream" commercial I saw. Looks like it's really awesome super technology, but there's a huge catch (in the Powermat's case, it's that you have to buy clunky, ugly, $30 cases, in the cream's case, it was that the stem cells were literally plant stem cells, as in, it was mashed up plant stems).
I have fallen for hype a lot before, like when I bought a utility to transfer my iTunes music off my iPod and onto a computer... before I found out the trick to it is just clicking the "show hidden files" option.
2Like you I saw the commercial and got exited. unlike you, I bought the powermat and I love it. sure, I spent the money on the mat, the power cube and the Aplle doc, but I consider it money well spent. I only have one wire and charge all devices in one space. We have more than one ipod so one dock is charging them all and the powercube came with different tips so I dont need the cover for the phones.
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