Writing about gadgets all day long sometimes makes you wonder why do most companies keep releasing meaningless devices onto the market, some of them serving no real purpose besides another reason for the company to issue a press release.

Stumbling upon the the Psyclone TouchCharge, I began to wonder if anybody would really find this useful. The device is a simple flat board which is designed to charge wireless gaming controllers and other mobile devices when placed on its surface.

Although it's called a wireless recharger, this isn't really the case with these kind of devices, since they need a wire so they can draw power from the wall socket. The only way to make something like this truly wire free would be to design it with something like solar panels so it can draw “wireless energy”.

As far as the usefulness of such a device I'd have to say there aren't many scenarios I can think of. I myself place my gaming controllers on my (crowded) desk or somewhere near the console. Wii users might place this board on the surface of the system, but only if they keep the system horizontal. The fact is that I really don't think this device would work with a Wiimote. As I can see from the press release photos, the PS3 controller uses some kind of adapter which in fact makes contact with the board's surface in order to draw power. So I'm pretty sure there are some devices that won't work with this technology.

In the case of the PS3, users have no option to place the charging board on their console and are forced to find a free area in order to place the device. Of course, if you look at the thing as a way of forcing you to keep the house in order (as in coercing you to place your devices on the board in order to get charged), then it just might make sense to invest $49.99 in the Psyclone TouchCharge.


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