All my current phones can charge with the Qi charger. I just don’t need another Bluetooth speaker. I have more Bluetooth speakers than I can use in a lifetime all from meh.
@cinoclav Aww, I wish I could be even more at your disposal, but getting keys to the house in one hour and it was so up in the air we couldn’t even pack until last night!
@rprussell Has anybody ever launched a thread of truly meh movies? It seems we’ve had representation for pretty much everything from drink recipes to the singing cowboy and Jason’s awesome playlist, but I’ve never seen a meh movie list. We could make some criteria like “no movies rated over 10% on Rotten Tomatoes” as a start.
This may be a dumb question but does it charge the speaker and phone simultaneously, or is there just one qi charging spot? Do you have to move the speaker from its “docked” position to where the phone charges to charge it?
That instruction manual link shows as just text on my iPhone. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be viewed as a PDF. Oh well. Didn’t want to read it anyway.
@thismyusername I am around but…I’m not able to get it to work either. I think I’m just going to remove the link until the morning when we’ll see if we can find the actual pdf.
Once it a while my Note5 in a case doesn’t sit exactly right and it keeps connecting and disconnecting, which is annoying because the phone beeps, but if I move it a little it’s fine.
I find qi charging handy. I also have found little cheap qi chargers I’ve bought very picky about how I place things on them.
It isn’t the fastest way to charge a phone, but I use it overnight, so no biggie.
I guess the good news with Apple adding qi charging is that there will be a lot more qi chargers on the market now and in public spaces.
The bad news is that they will probably be priced for people who spend a thousand bucks on a phone.
@mrkenneth I didn’t believe it so I checked your story. I still don’t believe it. I’m a business owner and do price comparisons between regular Amazon and Amazon Business all the time. In this case, it’s still $69.44.
@RedOak yes. The only reason I have an Amazon business account is to get lower prices on some products. Most of the products are the same price but occasionally you’ll find one cheaper with an Amazon business account.
If I wasn’t super poor right now, I would totally get one or two for Christmas presents! Thanks to you meh, I’m kind of known for my unique gifts! I’m So ready to make enough money to splurge on fun things like this, again!
The three women in my home have iPhones; I have an LG G6. Wonder how long before it disappears into one of their bedrooms…
/giphy galvanic-dogged-front
Sad to say I’m one of those loser millenials whose phone rarely leaves their hand so Qi has fairly little value for me. And for overnight charging… I just plug it in the charger.
Hard to buy for second son has upgraded his iPhone within 2 months of release since the second generation. Christmas is 3 months away. Seems like a risk worth taking. Just sad I’m not buying a touchstone charger. Let’s see. Swipe interface. Card based app management. Wireless charging. Yup. Had it all in 2009 with webOS. Apple is such an innovator.
Does the wireless charger charge BOTH things at the same time? Or do you have to move the speaker down from its comfy perch to the lower platform for it to get Qi’ed?
There are endless dead bluetooth speakers sitting around the house as the gf uses them and rarely recharges them. This will make it easier for her to just plop it back on the base. At least my order phrase predicts so…
/image forthright-moaning-psychic
/giphy forthright-moaning-psychic
okay, just checked Amazon.com; Black is $69, White (which is what I bought) is $99. MEH is STILL a substantial discount off either one.
Also, have you considered that now that APPLE and SAMSUNG both have QI charging on their top of the line phones, it will become the standard? Due to economies of scale, it will soon be on even cheap phones.
It pays, in this case, to buy one and HOLD it for your next phone. That way, you will be ready with a second (because the phone will come with one) QI charger.
@comics360 That’s part of the reason I bought one. While I currently have an iPhone 7+, even if I don’t upgrade to an 8+ or the X this year I know I’ll upgrade next year and I’ll be set!
Damn it! I was all set to buy one of these until you mentioned candy corn in your description. I’m all out of melted blobs of sugary goodness and now I can’t think about anything else. I’ve completely lost my interest in everything and I can’t go on until I get more candy corn. Damn you Meh!
So does this have 2 Qi chargers in the base then? So someone could say… put their phone on the lower part and maybe an Qi chargable watch on the part where the speaker would normally go?
One important caveat you should be aware about: this charger doesn’t seem to be Qi certified. Quirky’s marketing materials say it works with a “Qi-compatible mobile device”—this phrasing is typically used by manufacturers because it allows them to imply compatibility without getting certified (notice how the phrasing in no way implies that the charger itself is Qi-certified or even Qi-compatible).
Think of this like an iPhone charger that isn’t Made For iPhone-certified. It may work now, but it might have compatibility problems in the future. Future devices might use different signaling and cause chargers that haven’t passed certification testing (like this one) to fail.
And because this isn’t Qi-certified, you should be especially careful to avoid foreign object interference. Modern Qi-certified chargers can detect foreign objects and disable charging. This Quirky charger might not be so smart—so don’t try to use it if, say, you have one of those car mount magnetic stickers on your phone. It could interfere with charging or, even worse, heat up to dangerous levels.
“… It’s a specially packaged Duracell Power Ring, which plugs into the charger port on the phone and is placed over the wireless charging spot on the table. If you’re a regular, you may decide to buy one of the rings, but for casual use, Starbucks offers the adapters to customers for free. …”
@cfg83 I’m not sure if this is still the case, but those rings used to all be PMA (“PowerMat”), which is a different inductive charging standard.
I think Starbucks is moving towards charging stations that support both Qi and PMA. But I’m not sure if the rings have been updated to support Qi (because the charging stations will continue to support PMA).
@thismyusername Haven’t tried with aux in since my phone doesn’t have it but Bluetooth audio sounded great when I was listening to a podcast. I’ll report back with music & aux tests off my computer.
Got mine today. It’s pretty slick but I don’t know about the speaker sounding as good as a Jambox. It’s not very loud at all and better suited for podcasts or audiobooks than music. Very little bass at max volume. The sound is very clear, though, and distortion is not bad.
The wireless charging speaker is a neat novelty but it’s kind of meh overall. Appropriate, I guess.
Up and running - first impressions. Out of the box you must charge the speaker for part of the day before attempting to connect Bluetooth. After that, It connected to my galaxy 8+ with no issues. Can’t say I agree with it being as good as a jambox either. High’s and midrange are good, but lacking in bass. Needs to broken in.
Let’s face it - this is meant to be a bedside/desk speaker. Not a party machine. Keep your quality with increased volume expectations down. I am quite happy with the purchase.
My phone sits on the charger with no slipping as someone else stated. I like I don’t have to fiddle with my qi disc charger finding just the right spot for it to charge anymore.
Surprisingly, I received 3 of these. I fucked up that order, as I meant to get 2. So after the kids getting one, I have one leftover for a xmas gift.
We will talk more about my fucking up orders as it appears I fucked up the next thing coming too
@mfladd I too have noticed the wireless phone charger is pretty trouble free, better than the one I normally use that could be finicky about positioning. I hadn’t used that yet when I posted about the speaker. It gets a thumbs up.
I’ll trade you a photocopy of a picture from the internet + a QTip which was used to clean the inside of a Phillips Norelco shaver + a screaming Woot monkey with a picnic cape (red with buregr and apple) in exchange for the 3rd recharger?
I received mine a few days ago. Very disappointing.
After setting it up and plugging it in nothing seemed to work. The dock didn’t charge my phone(Samsung Galaxy Note and the speaker would not turn on. I didn’t see any lights anywhere, so I couldn’t tell if the base was being powered or even if there was any way to tell if was receiving power.
Next, I unplugged it from the powerstrip, removed its weird little two prong thing that clicks into the power adapter, put it back in the adapter, then plugged it firmly back into the powerstrip. After moving my phone around on the dock a bit it started to charge. My phone displayed a notification that it was charging wirelessly. It also displayed that it would take about one hour to charge to full(from 50%), which is about as fast as the charger my phone came with. Looks good.
I found that there is a tiny little white light on the front of the dock on the left. The power button on the speaker lights up.
However well it seemed to work after getting it to work didn’t last long. My phone slides in the dumb angled dock very easily. The position is somewhat forgiving as far as getting it to start charging, but if it’s not sitting just right on the dock it slides out of position in the slightest bump or breeze. I put my phone on the charger overnight and was surprised to see it at only 60% in the morning. I’m thinking a notification in the night caused it to vibrate and move down the down and out of charging range.
The sliding issue could have been resolved by putting something under the front, but during later charging I found another issue. I placed my phone on the dock at about 53% power and my phone displayed that it would take about two hours to charge to full. Wireless charging is nice, but if it’s going to take twice as long to charge than my wired charger I’m not going to bother. Also, it was a little worrisome that the charge time was different than early testing. When I immediately plugged my phone into its original charger the phone displayed a charge time of about one hour, which I would expect.
In conclusion, I packed everything back into the weird foam block the dock came in and put it away. Maybe I’ll use it as a charger on my desk at home or work, but certainty not as my overnight bedside charger. The inconsistent and slow charging rates also makes me feel less confidant that it won’t do something bad to my phone.
I received my wireless Qi charger/speaker this past Saturday, and I must say that I’m partially satisfied. Simply because as someone posted a few days ago,the charging dock slants down on an angel,which makes my new iPhone 8 + unable to stay put. I find that quite disappointing being that a team of innovators would overlook that issue as not important.
However, other than that issue,everything else operates fine.
I didn’t expect the speaker to blast as loud as a pill speaker, do to its size being obvious that it’s for like a desk speaker to sound off the alarm in the a.m. Or, to hear a movie on a mobile phone just a bit louder.
Now, if I may make a suggestion,the innovating team should consider correcting the issue w/ the charging dock not being able to keep the mobile phones from sliding off. I suggest you add some type of magnets inside the little charging dock to prevent the phones from sliding off. I personally improvised and used two tiny pieces of clay placed at each end of the charging dock and it worked. But not I, nor any other customer should have to do that .
@Selenailoveu1 I really don’t get the people saying their phones are sliding off. It’s not like it is slick plastic - it has foam. My 8+ never moves. It must be the cases. But my case is shiny clear plastic and still never moves. I will consider myself lucky.
@therealjrn honestly I’m not gonna bother trying to fix it for my use. I’m not really sold on the idea, but I figured for $20 I’d try it out. Plugging in isn’t a dealbreaker still.
@adamselby I lovelovelove wireless charging. This one is my 3rd. Qi charger. It is SO MUCH EASIER than plugging my phone in like it was 2015 or something.
fwiw, one night we had the ‘bumped the nightstand and the phone moved enough to stop charging’ issue, so I doubled up a nano pad (sticky thing I had from a previous Meh purchase, I think, but anything vaguely shim-like would work), which mostly leveled out the ‘ramp’ and we’ve had zero issues since.
I’m obviously very biased (since I’m trying to sell these, as well as buying two myself), but from my point of view the silly ‘ramp’ design flaw is probably why we got these cheap, and I’ll take a large discount in exchange for a fairly fixable flaw. (And I’ll sell these again if I can find any more.)
@dave I find it funny that everyone is complaining (including you), about the slant, except me. I really like this thing and I have no complaints. Something is not right in the world.
@mfladd If we sell this again and I’m explaining this stuff and mentioning that you didn’t have the same issues, are you ok if I refer to you as “our resident curmudgeon”?
@dave If there happens to be one laying around, or if you reeeeally only need one… and wouldn’t mind trading it for a box of awesome MI craft beer, hit me up!
@marklog Are you really sure you want one? Really, really sure? I have one (white), unopened, if you want it. Contact me at my favorite color barney001 at the Gee mail. Does that make sense?
Specs
What’s in the Box?
1x Ohm Portable Speaker
1x Wireless Charging Dock
1x 2ft 3.5mm Auxiliary Cable
1x 2ft USB to Micro-USB Cable
1x AC Power Adapter Wall Plug
Pictures
Colors
Black
Speaker
Watch not included
White
Charging
Desk
Definitely to scale
Price Comparison
$69.44 at Amazon
Warranty
90 Day Mediocre
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Now if only any of my devices had wireless charging…
@JFed We’ve always had wireless charging. It’s called food.
@mehcuda67 I have a Nexus 6 so I think I could use a wireless charger but don’t need a speaker…
/giphy nexus 6 wireless charging
I wonder what image I will get
@mehcuda67 You know, I never thought of it that way…
/buy --color black -q 2
Now hopefully I manage to get an iPhone X before 2018.
@dave It worked! Your order number is: shocking-disgusting-cherry
/image shocking disgusting cherry
@dave Don’t you get free stuff? If not, I would re-negotiate your contract if I were you.
@mfladd No, but I do set the prices for things, so I guess that’s a form of an employee discount?
@dave you should hold out for the iPhone Xs
@thismyusername Just one? I say save up for a whole passel of Xss. AKA, an Xssive amount of money.
@dave I think @shawn can give you a coupon - e.g. EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT. Mehbee save you a buck.
@sligett I already gave him free VMP, let’s not get greedy
@shawn Whoa that’s a big employee perk! No wonder everyone wants to work at Mediocre.
/dontbuy
@phatmass It worked! Your order number is grateful-happy-wifey
/giphy grateful happy wifey
Since a phone can sorta dock (to charge) and this is a speaker …
DOES THAT MEAN SPEAKER DOCK FRIDAY IS BACK?!?
@narfcake exactly what I was thinking. Everyone knows this is a speaker dock right?
This actually has some good reviews. Good price. Oh shit. Now I might have to buy it. Damn it meh!
@mfladd yeah…I broke down and pulled the trigger…
@mfladd Fakespot does not like the reviews. Fakespot isn’t perfect, but it’s a data point.
@craigthom Hopefully I am happy with my purchase. I will know soon.
Here this heavy bass music will surely make us buy one.
DID YOU NOTICE:
The eggs in the video but no eggminder®, tsk tsk missed synergy opportunity.
@thismyusername Wait, I can do my smart watch that I can’t find my charger for right now? Sold.
Yessss
Speaker dockssss
All my current phones can charge with the Qi charger. I just don’t need another Bluetooth speaker. I have more Bluetooth speakers than I can use in a lifetime all from meh.
Magnets!
Now I know your next question is… “Fucking magnets! How do they work???”
NOBODY FUCKING KNOWS.
/image magnets how do they work
Damn it!
limp-pompous-salamander
@mfladd That looks like an axolotl …
/image axolotl
@mfladd limp and pompous, yup sounds about right
@KittySprinkles I see you have crawled out of your hole.
@mfladd
What the fuck you know about my hole?
@KittySprinkles
As for your hole… (it’s scary)
@mfladd @KittySprinkles I needed you two today.
@mfladd Okay what’s the epilepsy-inducing crawling gray dude from?
@mfladd @KittySprinkles Awesome…
Unbelievable, but still awesome.
Everything is better now.
@cinoclav Aww, I wish I could be even more at your disposal, but getting keys to the house in one hour and it was so up in the air we couldn’t even pack until last night!
@mfladd you’ve no idea
@KittySprinkles
@rprussell Ok, apparently it’s from the 2002 movie Darkness. Never seen it.
@mfladd OH MY GOD - rated FOUR PERCENT at Rotten Tomatoes!!
I will have to check this one out. Thanks!
@rprussell Has anybody ever launched a thread of truly meh movies? It seems we’ve had representation for pretty much everything from drink recipes to the singing cowboy and Jason’s awesome playlist, but I’ve never seen a meh movie list. We could make some criteria like “no movies rated over 10% on Rotten Tomatoes” as a start.
A wireless speaker dock. This does not look like a dumpster find. Has meh actually advanced in their sourcing ability?
Oh, I have to ping @Sohmageek for this one.
Speaker Docks!!!
@mfladd I was about to do the same.
This may be a dumb question but does it charge the speaker and phone simultaneously, or is there just one qi charging spot? Do you have to move the speaker from its “docked” position to where the phone charges to charge it?
According to the description on Amazon, the speaker charges from the dock position.
It’s also available for $50 and prime eligible from a different seller which still makes this an excellent deal.
Agreeable-petulant-medic is on the way.
/giphy Agreeable-petulant-medic
That instruction manual link shows as just text on my iPhone. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be viewed as a PDF. Oh well. Didn’t want to read it anyway.
@shortman yea that is um… yea…
hey @dave you still around? check that manual link up top.
@thismyusername I am around but…I’m not able to get it to work either. I think I’m just going to remove the link until the morning when we’ll see if we can find the actual pdf.
I just checked, and my last woot purchase, over a year ago, was an Oregon Scientific qi charging alarm clock that projects the time and temperature on the ceiling.
Once it a while my Note5 in a case doesn’t sit exactly right and it keeps connecting and disconnecting, which is annoying because the phone beeps, but if I move it a little it’s fine.
I find qi charging handy. I also have found little cheap qi chargers I’ve bought very picky about how I place things on them.
It isn’t the fastest way to charge a phone, but I use it overnight, so no biggie.
I guess the good news with Apple adding qi charging is that there will be a lot more qi chargers on the market now and in public spaces.
The bad news is that they will probably be priced for people who spend a thousand bucks on a phone.
@craigthom the 8’s also have wireless charging.
@thismyusername
OK, then priced for people who buy Apple products.
But maybe only the white ones will cost extra.
@craigthom Well, you could buy a Samsung Note 8. That one is only $950.
In other words, don’t think Apple is the only one charging out the ass for their products…
@craigthom Newer Samsung phones have a fast charging Qi capability.
damn you… I already have 3 of these.
Dammit @dave! #2 (ok, you did nail this one)
One for the kids to share. And no, I am not getting them each one!!!
deafening-trained-maid
Hazel!!!
Interesting, the Amazon Business price is 2 cents lower than Meh’s.
@mrkenneth That is interesting. I’ve not done much comparing between Amazon and business, but that’s a 50% discount by that seller.
@mrkenneth I didn’t believe it so I checked your story. I still don’t believe it. I’m a business owner and do price comparisons between regular Amazon and Amazon Business all the time. In this case, it’s still $69.44.
@cengland0 it’s not the seller linked by meh, it’s the seller I linked a few posts above. $24.98 with prime shipping.
I also learned last night I can share my personal prime with my business account.
@cengland0 Looks like the seller with the $24.98 price is back. Largest Amazon Business discount I have seen yet.
@djslack
@cengland0
Are you saying that Amazon Business account is good for something other than the free Echo Dot we got for signing up our business?
@RedOak yes. The only reason I have an Amazon business account is to get lower prices on some products. Most of the products are the same price but occasionally you’ll find one cheaper with an Amazon business account.
@RedOak I missed the free dot
If I wasn’t super poor right now, I would totally get one or two for Christmas presents! Thanks to you meh, I’m kind of known for my unique gifts! I’m So ready to make enough money to splurge on fun things like this, again!
The three women in my home have iPhones; I have an LG G6. Wonder how long before it disappears into one of their bedrooms…
/giphy galvanic-dogged-front
@AmazingChicken You should buy multiple units then.
Uh, the price for this at the QUIRKY site is $129.
MEH’s price is $25.
It’s an impressive gift for an unimpressive amount of money. Just as good as the Jewelry that MEH sells.
Even if you don’t PERSONALLY need one, Christmas / Chanukkah / Eid (eventually…) / Kwanzaa (okay, so it’s not a book or handmade…) are coming.
Just saying.
@comics360 I grabbed one for my gift stash, I have only 1 bēm Range Strum in reserve!
Sad to say I’m one of those loser millenials whose phone rarely leaves their hand so Qi has fairly little value for me. And for overnight charging… I just plug it in the charger.
The “desk” picture looks like a shower…
@Pa1adin4 well, someone doesn’t have a standing shower desk.
It’s qi-azy functional! ba dum diss!
I’ll see myself out…
@ishoppe247 How are you pronouncing “qi” for that to work?
@craigthom “Qi” is pronounced: Chee. You’re welcome.
@MrSilv3r I knew that, and you didn’t answer my question, which was how @ishoppe247 pronounces it to make the joke work. So, no thanks.
What has happened to me? Second Meh purchase this week.
/giphy foolish-narrow-love
I have no music on my phone, but, inexplicably, I want it.
HELL yeah, something worth buying!
/image loyal-hilarious-crow
/giphy loyal-hilarious-crow
yeaaaaaah it had galaxy 8+ on the compatible list … there’s another drunk order!! Because you yeah your iPhones! blah blah blah
@bish I fucking love my new 8+!
Yes… you basically robbed the supplier here, guys and gals. Good work!
/giphy shocked-pungent-bike
Hard to buy for second son has upgraded his iPhone within 2 months of release since the second generation. Christmas is 3 months away. Seems like a risk worth taking. Just sad I’m not buying a touchstone charger. Let’s see. Swipe interface. Card based app management. Wireless charging. Yup. Had it all in 2009 with webOS. Apple is such an innovator.
@Frcal I do miss aspects of my palm pre.
@Frcal Yeah, if it weren’t for the fact that they are years ahead in CPUs, Apple would have nothing to crow about.
SERUIYSYS KWESTCHIN:
Does the wireless charger charge BOTH things at the same time? Or do you have to move the speaker down from its comfy perch to the lower platform for it to get Qi’ed?
AHA.
Per amazon reviewer person, yes.
There are endless dead bluetooth speakers sitting around the house as the gf uses them and rarely recharges them. This will make it easier for her to just plop it back on the base. At least my order phrase predicts so…
/image forthright-moaning-psychic
/giphy forthright-moaning-psychic
/buy
@rjaiswal Sorry, this deal contains 2 unique items and I’m not sure which one you want. You can review how to pick one, or just try ordering from the checkout page.
/buy --color black -q 1
@rjaiswal It worked! Your order number is: smart-carbonated-chalk
/image smart carbonated chalk
okay, just checked Amazon.com; Black is $69, White (which is what I bought) is $99. MEH is STILL a substantial discount off either one.
Also, have you considered that now that APPLE and SAMSUNG both have QI charging on their top of the line phones, it will become the standard? Due to economies of scale, it will soon be on even cheap phones.
It pays, in this case, to buy one and HOLD it for your next phone. That way, you will be ready with a second (because the phone will come with one) QI charger.
@comics360 hell. having read your comment, I’m compelled to go back and buy more.
@comics360 That’s part of the reason I bought one. While I currently have an iPhone 7+, even if I don’t upgrade to an 8+ or the X this year I know I’ll upgrade next year and I’ll be set!
Damn it! I was all set to buy one of these until you mentioned candy corn in your description. I’m all out of melted blobs of sugary goodness and now I can’t think about anything else. I’ve completely lost my interest in everything and I can’t go on until I get more candy corn. Damn you Meh!
@trailhunting You might even wonder if we’re hinting at something coming up by mentioning it.
@dave October is Candy Corn Month on meh! All day, everyday!
@trailhunting Thank you, I feel much better now.
@trailhunting
bought!
/giphy meticulous-dangerous-tiramisu
I’ve been thinking of getting another wireless charger. And I just can’t get enough bluetooth speakers. /giphy model-slate-discovery
I have the dock sickness…
/giphy deprived-indented-body
Bought this last night because why not:
/giphy itchy-lofty-wrist
So does this have 2 Qi chargers in the base then? So someone could say… put their phone on the lower part and maybe an Qi chargable watch on the part where the speaker would normally go?
/giphy budding-muddled-cake
Will this charge the Olio watch? It’s not all that great of a watch, but it’s way worse when you lose the charger.
First meh purchase, I finally feel like I belong!
@xn42 And it only took you 1003 days! It’s all downhill from here.
@cinoclav I’ve got him beat @ 1128 days. I feel as mediocre as my first woot purchase.
@modemboy I think I should actually be honored that your reply to me is your first forum post after all those days.
@xn42 Congrats! I am just sad you didn’t heed the warnings.
Pixel is, of course, not on the supported list. Too bad, no Qi for me. Real phones don’t eat Qi’s.
Ebay has some new open box units for $12.99. Ansonelectronicsurplus is the vendor.
One important caveat you should be aware about: this charger doesn’t seem to be Qi certified. Quirky’s marketing materials say it works with a “Qi-compatible mobile device”—this phrasing is typically used by manufacturers because it allows them to imply compatibility without getting certified (notice how the phrasing in no way implies that the charger itself is Qi-certified or even Qi-compatible).
Think of this like an iPhone charger that isn’t Made For iPhone-certified. It may work now, but it might have compatibility problems in the future. Future devices might use different signaling and cause chargers that haven’t passed certification testing (like this one) to fail.
And because this isn’t Qi-certified, you should be especially careful to avoid foreign object interference. Modern Qi-certified chargers can detect foreign objects and disable charging. This Quirky charger might not be so smart—so don’t try to use it if, say, you have one of those car mount magnetic stickers on your phone. It could interfere with charging or, even worse, heat up to dangerous levels.
@d so it could also be a bonus induction cooktop? sweet!
@djslack seems like a perfect re-heater for foil wrapped burritos!
Will it charge my phone to 101% like the ones in the photo?
Do you think it would work with the starbucks ring gizmo or are they different tech?
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/starbucks-wireless-charging-hands-on/
“… It’s a specially packaged Duracell Power Ring, which plugs into the charger port on the phone and is placed over the wireless charging spot on the table. If you’re a regular, you may decide to buy one of the rings, but for casual use, Starbucks offers the adapters to customers for free. …”
@cfg83 I’m not sure if this is still the case, but those rings used to all be PMA (“PowerMat”), which is a different inductive charging standard.
I think Starbucks is moving towards charging stations that support both Qi and PMA. But I’m not sure if the rings have been updated to support Qi (because the charging stations will continue to support PMA).
@d Thanks! I know I can get Qi attachments that will work with it, but they are like flat water bottles. The starbucks one has a better look to it.
I still have two home phones. The fantastic At&t trimline phone.
masterful tenacious bulb
@cfg83 aka ME(h)! Actually, this is very cool. My friend tested it as a speaker for his electric guitar and it was pretty nifty.
/giffy adventurous-sassy-skunk
@LittleLulu I got ya covered.
watch your giphy spelling.
@mfladd thanks. I’m new at this.
@LittleLulu Just keep practicing. It’s fun.
@mfladd what does @mflassy think of it?
@Yoda_Daenerys who? (evil grin)
Use wireless all the time, another never hurts, thought about it all day…
Got home…
No black
Problem solved
No purchase
glad they sold out before i performed an impulse buy
(and then there were 2)
Got mine today… Sure it’s cool, but it’s not flat and is too angled so my phone keeps sliding off. No wonder Quirky is trying to get rid of these.
@adamselby but how does the speaker sound with aux in?
@thismyusername Haven’t tried with aux in since my phone doesn’t have it but Bluetooth audio sounded great when I was listening to a podcast. I’ll report back with music & aux tests off my computer.
The Quirky has hit Morningsave with a price point of $39.
Got mine today. It’s pretty slick but I don’t know about the speaker sounding as good as a Jambox. It’s not very loud at all and better suited for podcasts or audiobooks than music. Very little bass at max volume. The sound is very clear, though, and distortion is not bad.
The wireless charging speaker is a neat novelty but it’s kind of meh overall. Appropriate, I guess.
Up and running - first impressions. Out of the box you must charge the speaker for part of the day before attempting to connect Bluetooth. After that, It connected to my galaxy 8+ with no issues. Can’t say I agree with it being as good as a jambox either. High’s and midrange are good, but lacking in bass. Needs to broken in.
Let’s face it - this is meant to be a bedside/desk speaker. Not a party machine. Keep your quality with increased volume expectations down. I am quite happy with the purchase.
My phone sits on the charger with no slipping as someone else stated. I like I don’t have to fiddle with my qi disc charger finding just the right spot for it to charge anymore.
Surprisingly, I received 3 of these. I fucked up that order, as I meant to get 2. So after the kids getting one, I have one leftover for a xmas gift.
We will talk more about my fucking up orders as it appears I fucked up the next thing coming too
@mfladd I too have noticed the wireless phone charger is pretty trouble free, better than the one I normally use that could be finicky about positioning. I hadn’t used that yet when I posted about the speaker. It gets a thumbs up.
@mfladd
I’ll trade you a photocopy of a picture from the internet + a QTip which was used to clean the inside of a Phillips Norelco shaver + a screaming Woot monkey with a picnic cape (red with buregr and apple) in exchange for the 3rd recharger?
@mflassy Noper. My mom is getting it. I am such a bad son.
@mfladd
I received mine a few days ago. Very disappointing.
After setting it up and plugging it in nothing seemed to work. The dock didn’t charge my phone(Samsung Galaxy Note
and the speaker would not turn on. I didn’t see any lights anywhere, so I couldn’t tell if the base was being powered or even if there was any way to tell if was receiving power.
Next, I unplugged it from the powerstrip, removed its weird little two prong thing that clicks into the power adapter, put it back in the adapter, then plugged it firmly back into the powerstrip. After moving my phone around on the dock a bit it started to charge. My phone displayed a notification that it was charging wirelessly. It also displayed that it would take about one hour to charge to full(from 50%), which is about as fast as the charger my phone came with. Looks good.
I found that there is a tiny little white light on the front of the dock on the left. The power button on the speaker lights up.
However well it seemed to work after getting it to work didn’t last long. My phone slides in the dumb angled dock very easily. The position is somewhat forgiving as far as getting it to start charging, but if it’s not sitting just right on the dock it slides out of position in the slightest bump or breeze. I put my phone on the charger overnight and was surprised to see it at only 60% in the morning. I’m thinking a notification in the night caused it to vibrate and move down the down and out of charging range.
The sliding issue could have been resolved by putting something under the front, but during later charging I found another issue. I placed my phone on the dock at about 53% power and my phone displayed that it would take about two hours to charge to full. Wireless charging is nice, but if it’s going to take twice as long to charge than my wired charger I’m not going to bother. Also, it was a little worrisome that the charge time was different than early testing. When I immediately plugged my phone into its original charger the phone displayed a charge time of about one hour, which I would expect.
In conclusion, I packed everything back into the weird foam block the dock came in and put it away. Maybe I’ll use it as a charger on my desk at home or work, but certainty not as my overnight bedside charger. The inconsistent and slow charging rates also makes me feel less confidant that it won’t do something bad to my phone.
I received my wireless Qi charger/speaker this past Saturday, and I must say that I’m partially satisfied. Simply because as someone posted a few days ago,the charging dock slants down on an angel,which makes my new iPhone 8 + unable to stay put. I find that quite disappointing being that a team of innovators would overlook that issue as not important.
However, other than that issue,everything else operates fine.
I didn’t expect the speaker to blast as loud as a pill speaker, do to its size being obvious that it’s for like a desk speaker to sound off the alarm in the a.m. Or, to hear a movie on a mobile phone just a bit louder.
Now, if I may make a suggestion,the innovating team should consider correcting the issue w/ the charging dock not being able to keep the mobile phones from sliding off. I suggest you add some type of magnets inside the little charging dock to prevent the phones from sliding off. I personally improvised and used two tiny pieces of clay placed at each end of the charging dock and it worked. But not I, nor any other customer should have to do that .
@Selenailoveu1 I really don’t get the people saying their phones are sliding off. It’s not like it is slick plastic - it has foam. My 8+ never moves. It must be the cases. But my case is shiny clear plastic and still never moves. I will consider myself lucky.
@mfladd It’s foam? There’s no foam on mine…
I have this issue with an 8, no case.
@adamselby Mine is somewhat rubberized, no foam. I have a S8 with a slick plastic back (no case) and it doesnt slip. I hope @dave can find some more.
But I was at Aldi the other day and they had an assortment of furniture felt pads and clear rubber shims for cheap. Maybe that would help.
@therealjrn honestly I’m not gonna bother trying to fix it for my use. I’m not really sold on the idea, but I figured for $20 I’d try it out. Plugging in isn’t a dealbreaker still.
@adamselby I lovelovelove wireless charging. This one is my 3rd. Qi charger. It is SO MUCH EASIER than plugging my phone in like it was 2015 or something.
fwiw, one night we had the ‘bumped the nightstand and the phone moved enough to stop charging’ issue, so I doubled up a nano pad (sticky thing I had from a previous Meh purchase, I think, but anything vaguely shim-like would work), which mostly leveled out the ‘ramp’ and we’ve had zero issues since.
I’m obviously very biased (since I’m trying to sell these, as well as buying two myself), but from my point of view the silly ‘ramp’ design flaw is probably why we got these cheap, and I’ll take a large discount in exchange for a fairly fixable flaw. (And I’ll sell these again if I can find any more.)
(Pardon the dust.)
@dave Bumped the nightstand huh? Most people just keep it to the headboard, but you go sir, you go.
@dave I find it funny that everyone is complaining (including you), about the slant, except me. I really like this thing and I have no complaints. Something is not right in the world.
@dave you might also be able to just charge through the sticky pad and use its sticky properties to defeat the slope.
@mfladd If we sell this again and I’m explaining this stuff and mentioning that you didn’t have the same issues, are you ok if I refer to you as “our resident curmudgeon”?
I didn’t buy this item and have zero complaints.
@dave Sure. I have been called worse (probably for good reason).
@dave If there happens to be one laying around, or if you reeeeally only need one… and wouldn’t mind trading it for a box of awesome MI craft beer, hit me up!
@marklog Are you really sure you want one? Really, really sure? I have one (white), unopened, if you want it. Contact me at my favorite color barney001 at the Gee mail. Does that make sense?
@marklog We…might…run these again. No promises, but I’ll just say you shouldn’t skip a day checking in if you can.
@dave What are the odds!
Anyone buy one of these they want to get rid of for cash or a craft beer trade?