Starbucks now has Powermat charging in San Francisco stores

Since “dead battery anxiety” is now a very real struggle for a lot of smartphone owners, sometimes your choice of eating or drinking place is determined by whether or not they have wall sockets so you can do your charging. Starbucks will make their customers even happier now (well at least those who are living in the area) as they announced that all of their stores in San Francisco are now equipped with Powermat wireless charging. This is just the first step towards rolling it out to the rest of the country and soon in Europe and Asia.

After two years of testing it out in several areas, the coffee shop giant says they’re finally ready to be a haven for those seeking to be recharged gadget-wise, and of course have a cup of coffee while waiting. Certain tables and counters are now designated Powermat Spots where you can just place your compatible device so it start charging. Look Ma, no wires or wall sockets needed! Compatible devices are those from Blackberry, HTC, Huawei, LG, Microsoft, Samsung, TI and ZTE. They’re all members of the Power Matters Alliance, together with AT&T, Qualcomm among others.

But if your device isn’t any of those we mentioned, they have a solution for that. You can buy or borrow their Duracell Powermat Rings which will “upgrade” your device to be able to use the Powermat charging system. Some devices are on the Qi system, so you need to check first if your device is compatible with Powermat and if not, just borrow the ring from the store or if you feel like you’ll need it a lot, you can buy it for $9.99.

This is actually pretty great news for those who go to Starbucks to charge their devices but bad news for those who just want to drink their coffee but will now have to find space among the Powermat hungry crowd. You can check out which stores have Powermat by visiting their website.

SOURCE: Starbucks