Skip to main content

PopSockets wireless phone charger to debut at CES 2020 today

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is officially underway, and among the devices set to debut is a new wireless charger from PopSockets that will finally allow those with PopGrips on their phones to charge their devices wirelessly and quickly. 

According to TechCrunch, PopSockets plans to debut its PopPower Home wireless charger at CES today, January 7. The charger features a circular hole in the middle that allows you to place your phone with a PopGrip onto the charger and still have it touch the back of your phone to charge. 

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The charger is already available on PopSockets’ website ahead of its CES debut and will set you back $60. Both Apple and Samsung phones are compatible with the charger — as are AirPods cases — and you can choose from three different colors: Matte white, mountainscape and cosmic cloud. According to TechCrunch, more colors and styles will be available later on this month.

Recommended Videos

The charger is able to work with phones that have phone cases up to 5mm thick. Other specs of the charger include up to 15-watt charging and a bedtime-friendly dimming LED light, a six-foot charging cable, and foreign object detection.

The PopPower Home will work with most of PopSockets’ standard PopGrips, except for ones made of metal and the PopGrip Mirror. The charger’s description also advises that PopSockets’ PopWallet products be removed before charging the phone, since exposure to wireless charging can  credit cards, causing them to not work.

Compared to other wireless phone chargers, the PopPower Home is slightly pricier, but it will allow you to quickly place your phone on the charging base without having to take your phone case off or remove the PopGrip. Like other wireless chargers, the PopPower Home isn’t technically fully wireless, since it still must be plugged into a wall outlet, but it does free you from your nightly plug-in.

Like other PopSockets’ products, you’ll also be able to find the PopPower Home on Amazon, reportedly as soon as February.

PopSockets will officially debut the PopPower Home during CES today, and if today is anything like yesterday, we can expect a lot more tech debuts and surprises. 

Follow our live blog for more CES news and announcements.

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more
Apple TV+ just got a price slash that’s tough to resist, and it won’t last long
The Apple TV main screen.

Apple has just quietly announced that it will be slashing the price on its Apple TV+ offering for a limited time deal.

While Apple prices the service at a standard $9.99 per month usually, it has just cut that way down to $2.99 per month.

Read more