Advances in technology have been mind-numbingly speedy. A good Orange County example is Lake Forest’s Western Digital, which hit the 100-gigabyte mark in PC hard drives in 2001. Today, the company is at 2 terabytes — that’s 20-times 200-times (corrected 10/14) larger! Same goes with computer chips, memory, flash drives, Wi-Fi, broadband — speed or size has tripled, quadrupled and seemingly infinitoopled.

But when it comes to power, few improvements have been made.

Until now.

This week, Duracell began selling its first wireless charging pad. The myGrid can charge four gadgets at the same time — no cables required. If this looks familiar, it is. Duracell licensed the technology from Boulder, Colo.-based WildCharge, which has offered the pad since 2007. Duracell is now taking this technology mainstream.

Just set an iPhone, BlackBerry or other compatible device on the myGrid mat and the gadgets start charging.

One cable is needed for the metallic pad, which measures about 6-by-8 inches. It’s plugged into good ol’ electricity.

Every gadget also needs an adapter, which Duracell provides in a handy black sleeve or clip with tiny metal electrical contacts on the exterior (click image on right to enlarge).  Adapter sleeves are available for just a handful of other gadgets, including two BlackBerry phones, the iPod Touch and some Motorola and Nokia phones.

Duracell sent me a myGrid to play with and … I loved it. It was so nice to put an iPod Touch and BlackBerry on the mat without hunting for cables and spare outlets. My friend with the BlackBerry was in awe. Think about how this could help the gadget-laden traveler who forgot to bring along a power-strip.

Unfortunately, there was no adapter for my phone (Google’s G1 Android phone), my cameras, headsets or any other device I charge regularly (so much for a traveler’s dream come true). Also, look at the photo below. There’s not much room for more than two gadgets. MyGrid says it can handle four simultaneously.

And if you use the clip instead of a sleeve, your gadget increases in heft. Not many women I know wear their phones on their belt.  When the gadgets were charged, they still kept charging. So far, there’s no sign that this will destroy the gadget’s battery as some gamers discovered when using a different type of wireless charging technology. Those have been recalled.

Still, we’re in the early stages of Duracell’s rollout. More adapters are expected — mini USB and Apple adapters are coming in early 2010. I was impressed by how fast the gadgets charged. I had expected charging to be more like the sluggishness of charging via my laptop’s USB port. And once myGrid can handle a person’s gadget arsenal, we can dump all those extra chargers, charging stations and spare cables.

I first saw this at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where I spotted other potentially cool wireless chargers. I wrote about two of them — the rival technology Powermat and mentioned the Palm Pre phone’s Touchstone. I never got around to writing up the ones that look exactly like the Duracell pad. (Duracell licensed the technology from WildCharge).

While wireless charging is far from new (how long have cordless phones been around?), this offers a new way for consumers to organize and control multiple gadgets. Duracell’s myGrid uses conductive charging technology, which charges a device just as fast as standard chargers. Competitive technology, such as Palm’s Touchstone, use induction charging technology which can be more expensive and not as energy efficient, according to Duracell.

The company adds that other benefits are that devices can be placed anywhere on the pad. Other technologies require a device to be placed in a certain spot or orientation for the most efficient charging. The Duracell pad also won’t try to charge a gadget that doesn’t have the proper adapter.

Some other wireless charging technologies:

While limited today, myGrid has great potential. WildCharge, the makers of the wireless technology, is making its way into all sorts of gadgets so users won’t need an exterior adapter. Other devices the wireless technology has been added to: video-game controllers (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii), Amazon Kindle, Last month, the company said it is on target to be in 500,000 devices.

The myGrid is available at Amazon.com for about $85, though its suggested price is $80. Adapters for various devices are around $35 each.

The Duracell myGrid has Power clip adapters for these devices:

• BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Series, Curve 8300 Series, 8800 Series, Bold
• Motorola RAZR Series, RAZR V3 Series, MOTOQ Series, W385, W370
• Nokia E71 Series, #2610, #6085, #6061

Power Sleeves are available for these devices:

• BlackBerry Curve 8300 Series
• BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Series
• iPod touch

Other gadget posts:

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