A First Look at the Spira: A Magnetic iPhone Charging Dock

Induction charging, which involves no plugging of wires but simply placing your device on top of a charger to initiate charging, is no doubt nifty, but admittedly still a technology yet to receive mainstream adoption. The fault lies in the slower rate of charging through induction, not to mention not being able to pick up your device lest you halt the charging process. Cue the Spira, a magnetic iPhone charging dock that also functions as a clock and art piece, which doesn’t solve the problem but instead designs around it, making it so that you don’t mind not using your iPhone as it fills up on juice. Comprised of a specially designed case and a wall-mounted base station, the Spira is only a one-off project by students at the University of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (ÉCAL), but it is an interesting exercise in technology as art.