Gadget Lust: The Powermat Wirelessly Charges Your Phone

When the Palm Pre was released last year, we applauded the Touchstone, which charged the phone just by placing the device on the magnetized dock -- no wires or plugs needed. The only downside? It's only for the Pre, and not everyone has one of those.

If you want to be able to magically charge a device you really do own wirelessly, you should check out the Powermat. The Powermat has been around for a while, offering the ability to charge a small selection of devices like the iPhone and some BlackBerry models. But at CES last week, the company rolled out adapters for a wide variety of new devices.

My favorite part? Powermat is offering -- for some devices -- custom replacement batteries that have an integrated Powermat receiver built in. That means you don't need any clunky sleeves or adapters to charge your device -- just place it on the charging pad, and your phone charges automatically, with the required hardware built into the batter itself. Alas, this won't work for devices like the iPhone, which have integrated, non-replaceable batteries, but Powermat does offer such batteries for some BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola models, among others.

In addition, several different Powermats are now available, from a diminutive pad that charges a single devices all the way up to a skateboard-shaped surface that can charge three devices at once. This is the way of the future, folks.