美国国家公共电台 NPR A Future Of Gadgets Without Power Cords? Not So Fast

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The first wireless¹-charging laptop is on the market. Some say wireless power could transform consumer electronics as much as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth have. From member station WBUR, Asma Khalid explains what this new laptop could mean for our gadgets².

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Frank (ph), your grande, two-pump classic iced coffee.

ASMA KHALID, BYLINE³: If pop into Starbucks, you might notice these little circle power mats on the table. They're for charging your cellphone, specifically Samsung phones that came out after 2015. Borui Lee has one of these phones. It's sitting on a power mat. I ask him how often he uses one of these pads, and he starts laughing.

BORUI LEE: Like, zero (laughter).

KHALID: So I just happened to catch you at Starbucks.

LEE: Yes. I come to Starbucks maybe, like, once a month, and then I use it if I have my phone there.

KHALID: He says when he first bought this phone, he was so excited, he went on Amazon and bought a personal wireless charging mat.

LEE: I used it for about three months before going back to my wired charger.

KHALID: He says using a real cord is just so much faster. But a tech company that spun⁴ out of MIT about a decade ago says it's developing wireless power that is faster than what you see at Starbucks. The company, WiTricity, has collaborated⁵ with Dell on this new laptop. Here's how Morris Kesler explains it. He's the chief technology officer at WiTricity.

MORRIS KESLER: The power source, which is the pad that the laptop sits on, creates a magnetic field that the laptop uses to charge.

KHALID: So you don't have to put your laptop on the mat perfectly⁶. You can angle it. But here's the catch. You can't exactly wirelessly⁷ charge on the go. The mat has to be plugged in to function.

KESLER: So the idea is that you might have one of these on your desktop⁸. You might have one in a conference room where you just put your device down there, and it charges. You might have one at home.

KHALID: But that adds up. Each mat costs $200. The thing is, Kesler says this laptop is just the beginning. He imagines this utopian future where wireless charging is all around us. You drive your electric car into a garage where wireless charging pads are on the floor. Then you open the door to the house, throw your cellphone on the kitchen counter, and it starts charging immediately because wireless tech is built into the countertops. That future of course is still far off, but this laptop could be an important step for the industry, according to David Green. He's an analyst⁹ with IHS Markit, and he monitors the wireless power sector¹⁰.

DAVID GREEN: 2016, there were just under 240 million devices worldwide shipped with wireless charging, most of that for mobile phones. But growth can be massive. You know, by 2025, you'll be talking over 2 billion devices a year will ship with wireless charging.

KHALID: But even if a phone or a laptop comes with wireless charging built in, Green says the hardest part is going to be convincing people to give it a try.

GREEN: There's a bit of a chicken and an egg situation - right? - whereby a consumer doesn't really want to know about something convenience-based because they feel what they do right now is fine.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Grande iced caramel macchiato.

KHALID: Back at Starbucks, Borui Lee says even though he usually uses wires, he thinks there's definitely an appetite for a world without them.

LEE: But I'm not sure if table charges is the way to go because with my phone, with my laptop, it's, like, we're so highly mobile. Maybe I want to, you know, carry it on my lap.

KHALID: Lee says what he really wants is portability, essentially¹¹ the freedom to charge wherever and whenever. But for now, that is still sci-fi. For NPR News, I'm Asma Khalid.

1 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

2 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。

5 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 wirelessly   

不用电线的，用无线电波传送的

参考例句：

• I heard it on the wireless. 我是从无线电收音机里听到的。
• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio. 收音机里有许多无线电线路。

8 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。