Innovators Shine At CTIA Wireless Conference

CWmike writes "The CTIA Wireless conference this week brought in larger crowds and more vendors than last year's event, but that probably isn't saying much, considering the recession had begun to hit hard in early 2009, Matt Hamblen reports from Vegas. The uptick pleased vendors exhibiting at the event, especially some of the smaller, lesser-known companies that sometimes offer the most interesting products, even if they never go gangbusters with the public. Matt highlights top innovative firms and products from the show, including W PhoneWatch (yes, a GSM phone watch for $199; see video), AT&T's Zero Charger (ends 'vampire draw'), Connectify (turns your laptop into a hotspot), and Line2, a Wi-Fi calling app for iPhones and iPod Touches (look out cellular voice service revenues)." Android made quite a strong showing at the conference as well.

"Zero charger" defies the laws of physics?

[dgatwood]

The only way I know of cor the so-called "vampire draw" to be "100% eliminated" is through a mechanical switch. Any circuit that detects the presence of a device on the other end must necessarily draw power from somewhere, and the device sure isn't going to provide it over USB. That's a violation of the spec. AFAIK, the USB device doesn't output any signal on the wire until interrogated by the host.

And even if you got past that somehow, you would still have some sort of trickle power available to power the power-switching circuit itself.

So basically the only way I can imagine this working is if they did something like putting a microswitch inside the USB connector, which is fine as long as you remember to unplug the cable at night, but that's hardly any different than unplugging the charger. You're just moving the problem a little farther down.

Am I missing something, or are these claims exaggerated somewhat?