Tables that charge your phone, no wires required
When looking for a coffee table, it used to be about finding the right color and style.
Now, there is a growing interest in shopping for furniture that is smartphone friendly.
The more we use our phones, the more they need to be charged, so companies like Ikea are starting to build wireless charging stations into their home products. Just lay your phone on top of the plus sign and the battery starts charging.
"I think what we're starting to see is the very beginning of a trend that will gather a lot of steam later on and that is wireless charging will become everywhere that we are, in the home in the office and maybe even coffee shops and airport lounges, places like that," CNET's Jessica Dolcourt told CBS News' Hena Daniels.
Janice Simonsen, a spokesperson for Ikea Design, said the table chargers work about as quickly as a standard device - and don't have all the wires "so you don't have to worry about things to plug in."
"People are really excited about the product," Simonsen said.
But there is a downside with the furniture. Some phones - including the iPhone - do not have wireless charging capability built in. Customers have to buy a separate adapter case to make it work.
"Wireless charging in devices right now is sort of hit or miss, some phones have it, some don't," Dolcourt said.
A shopper at an Ikea store in Brooklyn, Kelly Donovan, gave the new end table a test drive. She liked what she saw.
"I thought I would give it a try to see if it was worth it or if it was going to work with my phone," she said, adding that she was planning to take a table home after seeing that it worked with her LG phone.
- In:
- iPhone
Michael Casey covers the environment, science and technology for CBSNews.com
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