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Adoption of wireless charging has been fairly slow, but it could pick up if it worked over longer distances. Now, engineers at Aalto University have developed a new system that can allow more efficient wireless power transmission over longer distances.

Currently, wireless charging requires that a device be left on a pad or dock, which isn’t much better than wired charging. The ultimate end goal for wireless charging would be where we no longer even have to think about charging our devices – they’d just top up wirelessly while we’re in our homes. It’s the same way we don’t have to plug our phones in to receive data, since Wi-Fi takes care of it without us thinking about it.

The problem is, wireless charging efficiency drops off very quickly as the distance between sender and receiver increases, and radiation from the sending and receiving coils interferes with the transmission. So for the new study, the Aalto team developed a new dynamic theory of wireless charging that allows them to increase efficiency over longer distances.

The team tested the idea using two loop antennas, each 7.2 cm (2.8 in) wide. By tweaking the currents in the antennas, they were able to suppress the radiation resistance in the loops and increase the efficiency. Even when placed 18 cm (7 in) apart, the power transfer efficiency remained high at over 80%.

 

Tensions are rising once more at Reddit with fresh protests against the company’s management, and the company expelling rebel moderators.

Earlier protests have seen many of the site’s communities—or subreddits—turned private for extended periods by volunteer moderators, effectively taking those communities offline. Others have amended rules to mock the site’s management. For example, r/pics is only allowing users to post pictures involving the comedian John Oliver.

Now the sites users are continuing to display their anger on Place, an interactive artwork in which each user of the site gets to place one pixel on a huge graphic. Last year’s Place turned into huge collaborative artwork that was sometimes disrupted by organized factions trying to overwrite each other’s artworks.

This year—rather predictably—users are working together to deface Place with artwork and messages that attack the site’s owners. Earlier today, Place was showing a graphic of guillotine, under which an avatar of the site’s CEO was placed.

 

The messaging app, used by over 800 million users each month, raised the capital by issuing bonds worth $270 million. “Because interest rates have gone up significantly since 2021, the bonds have a different issue price,” John Hyman, Telegram Chief Investment Adviser, told TechCrunch.

Telegram is still not profitable and the new financing is aimed at taking it closer to the “break-even” point, said Durov, claiming that his app was “closer to profitability in absolute numbers” than competitors including Twitter and Snap.

Telegram has grown fast in recent years even as new social offerings continue to mushroom. The app has added over 300 million users in the past two and a half years and is attracting 2.5 million new signups each day.