Imagine a world where all your portable devices can be charged and powered simply by placing them on a desktop. Chip manufacturer MobileWise has gone well beyond imagining such a world and this week unveiled "a conductive solution" that it believes can make it all possible.

During a mid-day press conference in chilly New York City, MobileWise showed off a handful of functioning prototype powerbases and retrofitted mobile devices that all use the company's new MobileWise chipset and enable "Wire-Free" electric power. One chip, the tiny Adapter Controller, goes inside the mobile device and the other, the Contact Controller, gets built into the power base station. These power bases, which were shown in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors, are each covered in an array of gold-plated contacts. The retrofitted mobile devices also have a pair of contracts. With properly configured handheld devices, the bases can, according to company CEO Andy Goren, change any flat surface into a charging/power station.

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