We’ve cut the cord on a lot of things in our lives. You could use an Ethernet cable for network connectivity on your computer or you could just use Wi-Fi. You could use a USB keyboard and mouse or you could get the Bluetooth-enabled equivalent. What if I told you that Intel is working on a wire-free laptop where you don’t even need to plug it in for charging? Well, they already made it.
Intel has unveiled what it is calling the “world’s first no-wires laptop.” This is to avoid confusion with a “wireless” laptop, since you can already get a notebook PC with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Your laptop already has a battery so you can use it without being tethered to the wall for power, at least for several hours at a time. What’s different about this Intel laptop with no wires is that they really aim to make it truly wire-free.
This includes charging. Wireless charging isn’t completely novel — the new Samsung Galaxy S6 supports both the Qi and Powermat standards — but it’s completely foreign to the world of laptops. Considering that the new MacBook is charged over a USB cable like how you would a smartphone or tablet, it only follows reason that the next generation of laptops will also gain smartphone-like wireless charging too. Intel’s hope is that you’ll have a charging platform at home, but you’ll also find them pre-installed in cafes, airports and other public spaces.
But it doesn’t end there. The Intel laptop prototype could really have no wires at all. Want to connect an external monitor? Just use Wi-Di. Want peripherals? They’ll have to be Bluetooth? Want external storage? You could get a Seagate Wireless or you could look forward to future drives with WiGig technology, an emerging standard with wireless data transfer speeds of up to 7Gbps.
Given all of this, it’s quite possible that the future of wire-free laptops could also be a future of port-free laptops. If you’re connecting an external display with Wi-Di, you don’t need HDMI or DisplayPort. If you’ve got WiGig and Bluetooth, you might be able to eliminate USB. And if you’re using some newfangled wireless charging tech, you don’t need a power port. It’s crazy stuff.
The sad news is that this is nowhere near ready for mass market production. For the time being, Intel is only shipping its wire-free laptop to software developers to create apps that take advantage of this wire-free paradigm. If you thought the new MacBook relying on a single USB Type-C port was crazy, wait until you get an Intel Skylake-powered laptop with no ports and no wires at all.
Source: PC World