A CES 2008 Engineering and Design award winner, the WildCharge is a small, thin conductive mat upon which a mobile device with the proper adapter need only be laid down to begin recharging.

The secret for a successful power transfer comes from an adapter that plugs into (and stays plugged into) the power inlet on your cellphone or other mobile device, that picks up power from the charging mat whenever it’s laid down upon it. At a price of about $60 for the WildCharge mat itself, and about $40 for each adapter for phones or other devices-which currently include the Motorola RAZR, the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPod nano, as well as Blackberry Pearl and 8800 models-the WildCharge isn’t especially cheap, but it is incredibly convenient and pretty portable. Before CES2008, the only WildCharge adapter available was a RAZR model, but now you can use it with the iPhone, as well as various iPod and Blackberry models.

The WildCharge pad weighs about 6 oz /170 g and is about the size of a trade hardback book (4" x 6" / 100 x 152 mm). It’s only 0.08" / 2mm thick, and pretty easy to transport. This device is incredibly easy to use, and makes keeping suitable devices topped up with juice just as easy as putting them down in the right place. The only cable that needs to be plugged in goes from the WildCharge to a wall socket.

Better yet, the WildCharge is rated at 15 W, and can service up to 5 devices at the same time (equipped with the proper adapters, of course). Coming soon from WildCharge: a 90-W model that will keep a laptop charged, as well as bigger charging pads in various shapes and sizes for more mobile devices. Check out the vendor Web site for more information on these products.