Newsletter 
Unless you have been living under a rock, you must know by now that Samsung has two new smartphones – the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge – flooding the market. This can mean only one thing, that Samsung’s media is in full-speed ahead mode as a barrage of videos and advertisements are hitting the mobile airwaves…or should I say, wireless mobile airwaves. Each new video highlights one of the new Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge’s features. We have had one describing their great cameras, one on the new phone feeling and one on the display, etc…you get the picture…well, the latest video highlights their built-in wireless charging capabilities and the tagline: “Use our cables to recharge yourself. We don’t need them anymore.”
The video’s main theme tells us the since the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge employ wireless charging and we no longer need our cables…”what can we do with them instead?” Samsung suggests that we use them to create real design objects, and their suggestions go from using the cables to knit something, to weaving a huge hanging chair (which took more than 150 cables), to making a hammock (which used more than 3 km or almost 2 miles of wire in total). Samsung then places the chairs and hammock in a park to see how passersby will react. Some look a little puzzled, while other people decide to try them out by sitting or lying down to relax and of course, to take a few selfies and read the Samsung propaganda hanging on the items.
There is a lot of information flying around out there, regarding wireless chargers – some of it true and most of it is false. Some say that the battery will not last as long…of course, some people say that about the new quick chargers as well, but for the most part it will not affect the life of your battery. Another advantage to wireless charging is that it will help extend the life of your microUSB port…a common failure in smartphones and tablets from the constant plugging and re-plugging. The actual circuitry needed in a modern smartphone for wireless charging is less than $5, so the cost should not skyrocket the price of your device…of course you have to buy a wireless charging pod, which could set you back $60. There is definitely some power loss in transfer from the pod to your device, but most devices are better than 70-percent efficient. Some wireless charging pods will not charge as fast as if you had it directly plugged into the wall, but a good one will. The only thing Samsung is overlooking in this video is that the wireless charging pad itself NEEDS a wired cable to plug into the wall…so don’t start knitting that sweater quite yet.