Palm's Touchstone wireless charger and the Lumia 920

Update: To clarify, the Touchstone charger doesn't actually charge the Lumia 920. It just actives the charging protocol but due to a mismatch in frequencies, it does not actually do anything. In fact, as webOSNation's Derek Kessler tells us, it could even damage your phone were you to leave it on there for an extended period of time. In other words, don't do this!

The Nokia Lumia 920 (and 820 with backplate) uses the Qi standard for wireless charging. In simplest terms that means universal charging plates (as opposed to some proprietary system) can be mass produced and the 920 will work with future products. It also means that past wireless charging systems, like Palm's Touchstone charging dock also work with the Lumia 920 as demonstrated in the video above.

That video, posted by Nokia Developer Ambassador Rich Dunbar, clearly shows the 920 instantly charging with the Touchstone...

Even more cool is the fact that Touchstone docks can be found for less than $6 on Amazon. The downside though? Palm's dock was smartly angled so that you can view the phone was charging. They accomplished that by having alignment magnets in it which would secure the phone to the pad (something we lamented in our review as missing on the 920). In other words, we do not recommend you go and pick up a half dozen Touchstone chargers as your slippery Lumia 920 will just slide off. 

Sure, we imagine some of you may hack up a chin to keep it from sliding but that's not exactly ideal either. Hopefully some third party accessory makers though will get creative as Qi catches on e.g. an all-in-one toilet paper dispenser and charger. Eh? Maybe not.

Source: Twitter; via Windows Phone Daily; Thanks, Rob E., for the tip

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.