Wireless charging is the future (with air-powered gadgets in the far future), but most common devices, like smartphones, still only support regular old cable charging. If you own a Samsung Galaxy S III and don’t mind cracking open the case and engaging in hackery, you can have wireless charging right now.
Images: android94301, xda-developers
While the mod itself, which you can find over on xda-developers, is described as “super simple”, you’re going to need to get your hands on a few materials, including a Palm Pixi charging back, a Palm Touchstone dock and some copper tape. The post on xda-developers links to the required parts on Amazon, though they’re also available on eBay if you’re willing to pay a bit extra for them.
A small troubleshooting guide is provided, if the phone fails to charge after the mod:
If it’s not working, there are three possible reasons. One, you have a bad connection between the terminals and the copper tape. Check it with a voltmeter. Two, the copper tape that goes into the phone’s charging terminals is not making good contact. Fold over a bit of the tape, and gently jam it down into the terminals. (Gently so that you don’t break them off!) The third reason is that the tape pieces from the coil are not making contact with the pieces on the phone, see Picture 16 for how the alignment should be. If you are getting the popup repeatedly, then you have an intermittent connection.
An early version of the hack affected NFC performance, but updates appear to have eliminated this downside. Naturally, you’re going to make your warranty a sad panda by doing this and there’s no guarantees it won’t fry your phone. But hey, what’s a little hacking without a bit of risk?
Super Simple 5 minutes Wireless Charging Mod for Samsung SG3 [xda-developers, via CNET]
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