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Luke Westaway/CNET
Coffee behemoth Starbucks is caffeinating your smartphone, bringing its wireless charging pads to 10 shops in London.
Wireless charging does exactly what it sounds like, and lets you power up your gadgets without the use of irksome cables, or the hassle of hunting for a wall socket. Starbucks’ implementation of the technology sees glossy pads embedded in its tables, which funnel power wirelessly into your phone.
To benefit from Starbucks’ benevolent offer of free power, Brits will need to borrow a charging dongle from the shop itself. There’s no fee or deposit required for borrowing them, but if you’d rather save time on repeat visits, Starbucks will sell you one for £10. Dongles with micro USB and Apple’s Lightning and older 30-pin connectors are available, so the vast majority of smartphones should be compatible.
Luke Westaway/CNET
Wireless charging company Powermat is supplying the hardware, which uses the PMA standard, rather than the rival Qi standard, which is more popular among smartphone makers who add built-in wireless charging tech to their mobiles.
The battle for standardisation in wireless charging is still raging on, but the dongle you’ll be using in Starbucks gets around this issue, making almost every phone compatible — but of course this does mean you have to use a chunky accessory instead of just resting your phone on the charging pad.
London is the first international destination to get the wireless charging tech, which is already being added to 2,000 US outlets, following trials in Boston and San Jose. For now only 10 London shops will be equipped, in a roll-out that’s happening this month. “Our plan is to go from there,” said Scott Eisenstein of Powermat.
