Ikea's $40 hidden wireless charger will recharge your iPhone through your desk

AppleInsider

Ikea has introduced Sjomarke, a Qi-compatible charger that can turn desks and shelves into a wireless charging point, by being secretly installed underneath the surface.

While there are a number of furniture products and devices with embedded wireless charging coils on the market, there are relatively few options for people who want to add wireless charging to an existing piece of furniture, without using a visible wireless charger. With Ikea's latest release, it aims to solve that with the Sjomarke.

Priced at $39.99, the wireless charging pad measures seven inches by three inches and is encased in plastic. Though not necessarily great to look at, the intent is for it not to be seen in regular use at all.

The idea is to mount the Sjomarke charging pad on the underside of a desk, shelf, or another surface, and for it to automatically charge any wireless charging compatible devices placed and aligned with the unit on the opposite side. A cross sticker is supplied, to denote where on the top of the surface users should place their iPhone for charging.

Mountable with tape or screws, the system requires a desktop or shelf that is at least 8mm to a maximum of 22mm (5/16 inches to 7/8 inches) to work properly and safely. Ikea warns that the charger should not be used directly with an iPhone or other devices, as it is intended for indirect charging through material like wood or plastic.

A six-foot-long cable is supplied for power, as well as the power supply itself.

Ikea lists the Sjomarke Wireless Charger on its website, but it is currently out of stock at all U.S. stores, and is unavailable for home delivery at the time of publication.

The hidden wireless charger is Ikea's latest move in tech. The furniture giant has an extensive range of smart devices, with many including support for HomeKit and AirPlay 2.

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neilm

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

timusca

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

itguyinsd

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

The obvious question to me is, how do you pronounce this?  I walk into Ikea and ask for a "ess-joe-markee"? 

slow n easy

timusca said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

I think that is jumping to conclusions. You can’t charge your iPhone directly on the device itself or it sounds like you would wreck your iPhone. You have to have a piece of wood or plastic in between the device and the iPhone by design. So I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it’s inefficient. 

I’m not sure I would like this design, though, because it has to line up perfectly in order to charge. That is why I felt so frustrated with my Belkin charger and why I feel like MagSafe is a game changer for me. I will never again buy a non MagSafe charger.

shareef777

slow n easy said:

timusca said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

I think that is jumping to conclusions. You can’t charge your iPhone directly on the device itself or it sounds like you would wreck your iPhone. You have to have a piece of wood or plastic in between the device and the iPhone by design. So I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it’s inefficient. 

I’m not sure I would like this design, though, because it has to line up perfectly in order to charge. That is why I felt so frustrated with my Belkin charger and why I feel like MagSafe is a game changer for me. I will never again buy a non MagSafe charger.

Absolutely agree. Before Magsafe I always felt that wireless charging was too much a PIA to align that I usually avoided it. Especially for my nightstand. Bumbling around at night to find the puck and having to use two hands while lying in bed to make sure it's centered so that it'd charge was a nightmare. Happened far too often that my wife would wake up with a dead phone because it was never aligned properly.

Magsafe is a game changer. I have those magical pucks EVERYWHERE.

rcfa

slow n easy said:

timusca said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

I think that is jumping to conclusions. You can’t charge your iPhone directly on the device itself or it sounds like you would wreck your iPhone. You have to have a piece of wood or plastic in between the device and the iPhone by design. So I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it’s inefficient. 

I’m not sure I would like this design, though, because it has to line up perfectly in order to charge. That is why I felt so frustrated with my Belkin charger and why I feel like MagSafe is a game changer for me. I will never again buy a non MagSafe charger.

While I fundamentally agree, the beauty of this is: wood can be milled, so the alignment problem can be fixed in an old-fashioned mechanical way…

swedeoftheday

ITGUYINSD said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

The obvious question to me is, how do you pronounce this?  I walk into Ikea and ask for a "ess-joe-markee"? 

Sjömärke means "buoy" and is pronounced something like shuw-merc-eh.

https://translate.google.com/?sl=sv&tl=en&text=sjömärke&op=translate – Google's synthetic voice is close to reality, but the last syllable shouldn't be stressed.

macswithpenguins

ITGUYINSD said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

The obvious question to me is, how do you pronounce this?  I walk into Ikea and ask for a "ess-joe-markee"? 

I'm Swedish. The word to look out for in a English-Swedish dictionary is "sjömärke". There are at least two ways to listen to this pronunciation: either by installing the Siri voice for the Swedish language in iOS/iPadOS/macOS, or by using a web-based solution. Google does provide a Swedish-English translation option, and reverse lookup. However, please note that while the pronunciation itself is ... fine .. the intonation is completely wrong. It sounds French – not Swedish at all. SwedeOfTheDay already posted the Google link, though.


And yes .. sjömärke is a navigation mark at sea. Worth knowing about IKEA (pronounced Ih-ké á) : their names are hilarious to Swedes, because they sometimes have nothing at all to do with the product. And yet .. sometimes they do, but a good example is "Socker", which means "sugar". That series has nothing to do with baking or food at all, unless IKEA implies a connection that goes way back to the early 1900s or 1800s. "Kallax" (a shelf) is an airport in northern Sweden, also known for being one of the well-known brands who make Surströmming (the fermented fish you may have seen in Youtube "surströmming challenge" videos). On the flip side, IKEA has got a shelf called "Hyllis", which is what someone in kindergarten would use in place of the more correct word "hylla" (yet another shelf). Also, some IKEA product names seem to be named after product attributes which the designer thought was fitting. For example, the FIXA series contains a hammer, screws, etc, among other things.

Lastly, in regards to the SJÖMÄRKE product, I was looking at the product picture and think they named it a navigation mark because it looks like a map with an X on it, to mark the spot for charging.

edited September 2021

macswithpenguins

When it comes to the Sonos collab, the IKEA SYMFONISK (symphonic) series is literally a word associated with music, while ENEBY is a place outside of Stockholm, where they apparently hold rock concerts annually. On the other hand, most IKEA sofas are named after cities. For example, you have KIVIK, SÖDERHAMN, STOCKHOLM, LANDSKRONA, etc ... all of those are either Swedish cities, suburbs, counties, etc.

IKEA is a subject in itself. I'll just stop there and go look for the iOS 15 update instead ... 

edited September 2021

gustav

slow n easy said:

timusca said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

I think that is jumping to conclusions. You can’t charge your iPhone directly on the device itself or it sounds like you would wreck your iPhone. You have to have a piece of wood or plastic in between the device and the iPhone by design. So I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it’s inefficient. 

That would make it @timusca ;correct then. If it has to charge through wood or plastic, it's going to need more power to charge your phone. Even more than regular Qi chargers, and even more than plugging it into a lightning cable.

fred1

shareef777 said:

slow n easy said:

timusca said:

neilm said:

Interesting. The obvious question is this: how inefficient is it?

No doubt the answer is "extremely". Wireless charging gets more inefficient the further the device is from the coils, which makes this inefficient by design.

I think that is jumping to conclusions. You can’t charge your iPhone directly on the device itself or it sounds like you would wreck your iPhone. You have to have a piece of wood or plastic in between the device and the iPhone by design. So I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it’s inefficient. 

I’m not sure I would like this design, though, because it has to line up perfectly in order to charge. That is why I felt so frustrated with my Belkin charger and why I feel like MagSafe is a game changer for me. I will never again buy a non MagSafe charger.

Absolutely agree. Before Magsafe I always felt that wireless charging was too much a PIA to align that I usually avoided it. Especially for my nightstand. Bumbling around at night to find the puck and having to use two hands while lying in bed to make sure it's centered so that it'd charge was a nightmare. Happened far too often that my wife would wake up with a dead phone because it was never aligned properly.

Magsafe is a game changer. I have those magical pucks EVERYWHERE.

I realize I’m probably in the minority here, but I don’t see the benefit of any kind of wireless charging. If it’s not MagSafe, you can’t pick up the device to look at it or use it. In the case of MagSafe, why settle for slower charging times when you can plug in a cord? I have the IKEA wireless charging puck and after seeing how slowly it charged my AirPods Pro I gave up on the whole thing.