After a market test in the U.K., Aircharge is part of McDonald’s Experience of the Future (EOTF) makeover in 450 restaurants in 15 countries, including the fast-food chain’s flagship eatery in Chicago, said Aircharge Wednesday. Aircharge supplies McDonald’s restaurants its Qi-based surface wireless charging technology -- including an Orb adaptor with a Made for iPhone-certified multi-head connector with micro-USB, Lightning and USB Type-C connectors to charge non-Qi devices, it said. It also offers McDonald’s access to its real-time data monitoring platform, it said. Other features of the 6,000-square-foot Windy City McDonald’s EOTF: an electronic wall map with golden arches that illuminate when an item from a specific country is featured on the menu; “enhanced customer experiences” with table service, mobile order and payment; and McDelivery with Uber Eats, said McDonald’s last month. McDonald’s plans to upgrade most U.S. restaurants to EOTF by 2020.

Avido launched on Indiegogo Wednesday an $89 dual-charging wireless power system for smartphones. The WiBa has a stackable design: users place WiBa’s power bank on the supplied Qi-based pad to charge wirelessly and set the phone on top of the power bank to charge both simultaneously, said the company. The 5000mAh portable power bank can charge a phone without a cable and is said to have capacity for two phone rounds on one power cycle. Bank, pad, USB-C cable and Quick Charge 3.0 AC adaptor are included.

The Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center and Mojo Mobility developed a fast-charging wireless power transfer system on a test fleet of Kia Soul electric vehicles, said the companies Monday. The three-year project, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, paves the way for the future of electric vehicles "in which plugs are no longer necessary," they said. The compact wireless charging system can transfer more than 10 kilowatts to a vehicle for fast charging with a target 85 percent grid-to-vehicle efficiency, they said. The system uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two coils -- a transmitter on the ground and a receiver on the bottom of the vehicle. The driver parks the car above the transmitter to begin charging, and energy is sent through inductive coupling to an electrical device, which uses that energy to charge the electric vehicles' battery, said the companies. For convenience, the system allows for some misalignment between the transmitter and the receiver, they said. Although there are no current plans to offer the wireless charging system on production vehicles for sale to consumers, the success of the test project "suggests similar systems are possible on future Kia electric vehicles."

Dollar and unit sales of wireless charging mats more than doubled in Q4 vs. the year-ago quarter, attributed in part to Apple including Qi wireless charging in the latest edition of the iPhone, NPD Group reported Monday. NPD analyst Stephen Baker compared wireless charging devices’ sales growth to that of wireless headphones after Apple’s removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. Sales have slowed since Q4, Baker said, but January dollar sales were more than double the dollar sales for January 2017, with wireless charging an 11 percent share of mobile power market revenue. Wireless charging revenue totaled $132 million in the second half of 2017, Baker told us. Since the iPhone 8 launch, average weekly sales for wireless charging were nearly three times higher than in the quarter before the phones launched, with Belkin and mophie among the biggest beneficiaries, Baker said. NPD expects the category to continue having high revenue growth as more companies deliver innovative products such as the “highly anticipated” wireless charging pad from Apple. Despite rumors that the Apple AirPower charging pad -- capable of charging an iPhone, Watch and AirPods simultaneously -- would ship in Q1, the product hasn't hit stores. Apple didn’t comment Monday.

Integrated Device Technology's latest Qi wireless charging receiver and transmitter chipset is inside Xiaomi's flagship MI MIX 2S smartphone and wireless charging pad, IDT said. The Xiaomi smartphone uses the Qi Baseline Power Profile with a proprietary mode for faster charging, it said. Xiaomi is entering "a new era with wireless power," said Zhi Yuan Zang, product marketing director.

Wireless charging furniture company goCharge introduced a line of commercial Qi-based wireless charging furniture for rent or purchase, it said Wednesday. The company supplies cellphone charging stations for conference venues, sporting events, restaurants and music festivals. Apple’s inclusion of Qi wireless charging receivers in the latest generation of iPhones will help change consumer attitudes about mobile device charging, said CEO David Walke, citing the beginning of an “industry shift to wireless charging.” The goCharge furniture also includes USB ports and charging cords for standard charging on request, said the company. GoCharge recently launched the Canvass data collection platform that incentivizes consumers to participate through surveys, app downloads, ads, sweepstakes and customer loyalty programs.

Case-Mate began shipping the Power Pad, a Qi-based wireless charger for the iPhone 8 and X models and and the latest Samsung Galaxy phones. The charger includes a stand that displays a phone in portrait or landscape mode, said the company. Price is $60, and charger comes with a two-year warranty, it said.

Smartphones, small appliances and wearables drove a 40 percent surge in wireless charging devices in 2017, IHS Markit reported Tuesday. Some 500 million devices with wireless charging shipped in the year, led by Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphone and the latest iPhones. Adoption remains relatively low, with 29 percent of respondents to an IHS survey saying they used wireless charging. Awareness is expected to increase this year on Apple’s support of the technology. Apple Watch led wearables, and cordless toothbrushes led small appliances.

Scosche bowed at CES Qi-based wireless charging solutions for the car, home and office. MagicMount products can charge at 5 watts or at 10 watts with adaptive fast charging, said the company. The home/office version sits on a counter or nightstand, and in-car chargers can be mounted in the window or other dashboard with a suction base, to a vent or using a CD slot, said the company. It also launched the portable Qi Dock Powerbank, which can charge a Qi-enabled smartphone and the backup power unit wirelessly and simultaneously. Prices weren’t given.

New WattUp chipsets from RF wireless charging company Energous and its manufacturing partner and investor Dialog Semiconductor will enable Energous to bring wireless charging to consumers “on a massive scale,” said CEO Stephen Rizzone in a CES announcement Monday. New chipsets include a beamforming IC, the DA1210, and the DA3210 power amplifier IC. The company also updated the DA4100 transmitter IC and the DA2210 to support the 900 MHz frequency band to complete WattUp near-field and recently certified power-at-a-distance mid-field wireless charging systems, it said. Dialog is exclusive distributor of the chipsets.