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Mobee Introduces 'Magic Bar' Induction Charging Station for Apple Keyboards and Trackpads

Tuesday April 12, 2011 12:33 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

Swiss company Mobee today announced the upcoming debut of its new "The Magic Bar" induction charging station for Apple's Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. Replacing the devices' batteries with induction charging cells, the docking station connects to the user's computer via USB and wirelessly charges input devices sitting within the station.

The Magic Bar is the world's first Inductive Charger for the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Magic Trackpad.

Composed of a specific cylindrical battery pack, a stylish aluminum-made base station and a micro-USB cable, The Magic Bar will easily be placed in front of your iMac or Apple Led display and will become the place where you leave your Apple input device when you leave your office.

The Magic Bar will require six hours to recharge each device and provide up to ten days of power, considerably less time than standard AA batteries but a tradeoff that could be acceptable to users given the ease of recharging.

A companion to Mobee's well-regarded "The Magic Charger" system for Apple's Magic Mouse, The Magic Bar is priced at $59.90 and Mobee will begin taking pre-orders on May 15th for delivery beginning in late June. The system contains one charging station and one battery pack. Mobee will presumably also be offering individual battery packs for replacement purposes or for users who have both a keyboard and a Magic Trackpad, but the company has yet to announce specific plans or pricing for any such offering.
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Princess Cake
15 months ago
Neat but I think I'd rather pay $10 for a 4-pack of Energizer Lithiums and get 3-5 months of uninterrupted charge for my magic mouse and wireless keyboard. :rolleyes:
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Arbuthnott
15 months ago
So, let's get this straight. You take a wireless keyboard (no USB), with battery power. You buy (at some expense) special batteries and a charing station attached to your computer via USB. You place your keyboard on the charging station, effectively connecting your keyboard to the computer by USB. The whole purpose of "wireless" therefore being lost.

... and people are going to pay for this?
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roland.g
15 months ago

So, let's get this straight. You take a wireless keyboard (no USB), with battery power. You buy (at some expense) special batteries and a charing station attached to your computer via USB. You place your keyboard on the charging station, effectively connecting your keyboard to the computer by USB. The whole purpose of "wireless" therefore being lost.

... and people are going to pay for this?


I think the idea is that you are only going to leave it in the bar for charging. However, it creates desktop clutter. Truth be told most people don't move their KB far enough to need wireless, we just like a cableless design. Some notebook users and iPad users would benefit more from this because of the portability aspect. I have no desire to have my KB or TrackPad in a charging bar, that I would either hide or leave out when not in use. 10 days is not enough of a reward. Sorry, but the Apple charger with 6 batteries takes care of my KB, TrackPad and Magic Mouse. The one that gets low easily gets charged overnight and lasts much longer than 10 days.

The only thing that is somewhat interesting is the charging station for the mouse, and I still don't see getting that.
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RHatton
15 months ago
Until TRUE wireless charging exists I will stick with batteries. Honestly at the point that wireless charging exists for mouse and keyboards it would make more sense to just be wirelessly feeding power to the device with no batteries. I can see wireless charging being valuable with mobile devices i.e. walk into a restaurant or your office, set your phone down and its charging in the air. That'd be nice.
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baryon
15 months ago
I don't see the point of a wireless keyboard. You aren't going to move it from your desk, so why remove the two USB connectors from the sides, make you have to either buy new batteries all the time or keep recharging them, just to get rid of a single cable that doesn't even restrict you from moving your keyboard as you would never move it anyway?

I'm all for wireless but having to change/charge batteries all the time for 3 different devices is extremely annoying. It's a wasteful approach to the environment as well, as it produces more pollution as even rechargeable batteries eventually die permanently.

The last thing you want is "oh damn I don't have any more batteries and I can't use my computer".

Induction charging would be great if your iMac could supply all the power needed for your keyboard and mouse wirelessly over a distance of 20-30 cm. But we're not there yet.
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kiljoy616
15 months ago

So, let's get this straight. You take a wireless keyboard (no USB), with battery power. You buy (at some expense) special batteries and a charing station attached to your computer via USB. You place your keyboard on the charging station, effectively connecting your keyboard to the computer by USB. The whole purpose of "wireless" therefore being lost.

... and people are going to pay for this?


I rather have a chip in my head personally. I wonder if I will have to put a power cable like in the movie Johnny Mnemonic.
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kiljoy616
15 months ago

So, let's get this straight. You take a wireless keyboard (no USB), with battery power. You buy (at some expense) special batteries and a charing station attached to your computer via USB. You place your keyboard on the charging station, effectively connecting your keyboard to the computer by USB. The whole purpose of "wireless" therefore being lost.

... and people are going to pay for this?


Its still wireless this is just to charge it, same thing as their mouse product. Its for people that don't like to change batteries. I am included in that demographics;).

Charger for Magic Mouse is probably more of what people would want that said I don't use that mouse I use Razer Orochi Bluetooth Notebook Gaming Mouse. Feels better than apple mouse just not as cute:rolleyes:.

I for one feel that having to add battery every month or so or cables on my iphone/ipad is very old school that could have been removed but considering Apple latest patents I think we will be stuck with the cable for a long long time. :rolleyes:

One day I want to see one power cable and that all. Everything else wireless no exceptions. Maybe 2020 will be the year:(
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mentaluproar
15 months ago
This would be great for HTPC mac mini users, but its doesn't look like it's compatible with the magic wand.

Did Apple release a different keyboard or the the keyboard used in the ad purposely different?
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steadysignal
15 months ago

Neat but I think I'd rather pay $10 for a 4-pack of Energizer Lithiums and get 3-5 months of uninterrupted charge for my magic mouse and wireless keyboard. :rolleyes:


agreed - this is to much. i don't see the value in it - when the devices look so good by themselves, there is no need to add to them
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mgipe
15 months ago
Clever, but a solution for a non-existent problem.
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