Wireless "power mat" charging options on the rise

There's nothing more frustrating than fumbling around in a dark room after a long night out, trying to plug your cell phone into the wall, making sure you've got that tiny plug oriented the right way, and getting everything all copacetic so you can hit the hay. And God help you if you didn't get the adapter pushed in quite far enough... why, just about anything can go wrong in the delicate process of plugging stuff in.

But what if you just had to take your phone out of your pocket and lay it down on the counter so it could charge wirelessly? It's been a dream of many a gadget maven for years, and now "power mat" charging solutions are finally becoming a reality, with numerous such products hitting the market in time for the holidays.

Powermat was perhaps the first company to enter this space, and it's still going strong with a sleek charging pad and fairly good device support. Like all such mat-based charging systems, you can't just take any electronic device and drop it on the pad to get it charging. You have to add a sleeve or adapter of some sort to your phone or other device in order for it to be able to work with the plug-less charging system. Users generally leave this sleeve affixed permanently to their phones. In the case of the Powermat sleeve, it adds a bit of bulk to the handset, with a small square piece jutting out the back of the phone.

Powermat is not alone: Duracell's new myGrid offers much the same type of charging solution, again with a sleeve setup that lets the base unit interface with the handset directly. A single mat can charge four products at once. There are even specialized charging systems available for specific devices, like Energizer's mat designed to wirelessly charge your Nintendo Wii controllers.

How well do they work? I'm still waiting on my review samples for the latest round of chargers, but users seem generally pleased with them. The big advantage, of course, is that cable clutter is eliminated, and fussy Virgo types like myself get a real kick out of getting rid of exposed wiring in the home. Some aren't thrilled with the bulk added by the sleeves, however, and the Wall Street Journal recently surfaced complaints that wireless power mats waste energy even when they aren't charging anything. Prices can be on the high side, too.

Will wireless charging go big-time? The Palm Pre offers a wireless charging solution, no adapter or sleeve required, that users seem to like -- but it will probably take more successful products, and hopefully some industry standards being developed, to push integrated wireless charging solutions into the mainstream. I'm ready!