Qi fan fanDespite my initial skepticism, I’m now sold on wireless Qi chargers that add integrated fans to keep your phone cool while charging. I figured they’d be too loud, or too weak, or too gimmicky, but I’m a convert after spending a week with the new $59.99 Kuxiu D5 Qi2.2 charging dock. Its active cooling system has kept my phone from heating up, unlike every other Qi charger I’ve tried. Good thing, given my own history with an overheating phone.
Last year I fried the logic board on my titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was on a sweltering train and trying to edit a 4K video on my phone, which was charging from a magnetically attached Qi power bank. Oof, my iPhone is getting really hot, I thought, just as the screen went forever blank. The repair bill was €660.33 (over $750), for which I paid nothing because it was just inside the two-year warranty. Apple’s “genius” wouldn’t say if the phone overheated, but I’m not keen to tempt fate twice.
Heat is the enemy of batteries
Heat is the enemy of batteries. High temperatures accelerate the chemical degradation of lithium-ion cells, permanently reducing how much charge they can hold over time. The electromagnetic induction employed by Qi chargers is inherently inefficient, producing far more heat than transferring electricity through a cable plugged into your phone. That heat can cause phones to throttle the wireless charging speed in order to protect the battery.
Despite knowing this, I keep coming back to Qi charging docks and power banks because they’re so damn convenient. I’m also addicted to Apple’s StandBy feature that turns my phone into a desk or bedside clock and widget machine when docked and charging in landscape orientation.
Fortunately, companies like Anker, Aukey, ESR, and Kuxiu have started building active cooling systems directly into their Qi chargers. They feature tiny heat sinks and ultra-quiet internal fans that actively blow the heat away from the back of your phone while it charges. This keeps the battery significantly cooler and allows for faster charging speeds. Powerful magnets ensure perfect alignment between the phone’s receiver coil and the charger’s transmitter coil to maximize efficiency and minimize heat waste.
The display on the D5 shows the charging status of up to three devices, and whether the active cooling is enabled.
A look from behind at the cooling fan beneath the Qi2.2 phone charger.
This button lets you switch off the display, switch off active cooling, and retract the watch charger.
The 45W GAN charger is a great in-the-box addition for such an inexpensive Qi2.2 charging dock. Here the watch charger is shown recessed.
The fan inside the Kuxiu D5 operates silently, but it can still be turned off if you want. The display is useful, but the little winky-faced screensaver is not. I do like knowing the time and how much charge each device is pulling, in addition to the total power draw, but the animated movement is distracting when caught out of the corner of my eye. It’s also a bit too bright for my taste when perched on my nightstand. Fortunately, I can turn the display off with a tap of a button.
I like that the Kuxiu D5 ships with a 45W USB-C PD charger in the box. Otherwise, you’d have to guess if whatever charger you have lying around will support the dock’s max total output, which can deliver up to 25W to Qi2.2-compatible phones, 2.5W to Qi-compatible watches, and 5W to Qi-compatible earbuds. It’s compatible with several generations of phones, watches, and earbuds sold by Apple, Samsung, and others.
Kuxiu calls the D5 a “5-in-1” charger, which I find misleading since it’ll only charge up to three devices simultaneously. It seems to include the display and fan in its total. By that count, I’d be happier if this was a 4-in-1 device, since the added cost for the display won’t add much value for most people, and it can only cause issues down the road.
The watch charger is also a little silly in its over-engineering. A long-press on the dock’s sole button kicks off a tiny motor to slowly push the watch dock out the side. I guess it adds to the blocky dock’s durability when traveling, but not by much, and it can only be retracted when the dock is plugged into the wall.
1/9Works great with Apple’s StandBy mode for photo slideshows while the D5 keeps your iPhone cool.
Overall the Kuxiu D5 is a fine Qi2.2 charging dock made better by active cooling. It’s equally at home on a desktop or nightstand, and priced below similar docks from Anker, ESR, and others.
Active cooling on Qi chargers is a good idea whose time has come. Phones sold by Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo have supported wireless charging speeds of 50W and above for years. But that’s only possible when placed on proprietary charging docks capable of whisking away all the extra waste heat. Now the body responsible for Qi is working on a global 50W standard for release by 2028. Manufacturers will likely need to adopt active cooling to reliably sustain those higher charging rates.
Fine by me. Whatever it takes to keep that vital Qi life force flowing.
All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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#fan #fanAccessory Reviews,Reviews,Tech
Despite my initial skepticism, I’m now sold on wireless Qi chargers that add integrated fans to keep your phone cool while charging. I figured they’d be too loud, or too weak, or too gimmicky, but I’m a convert after spending a week with the new $59.99 Kuxiu D5 Qi2.2 charging dock. Its active cooling system has kept my phone from heating up, unlike every other Qi charger I’ve tried. Good thing, given my own history with an overheating phone.
Last year I fried the logic board on my titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was on a sweltering train and trying to edit a 4K video on my phone, which was charging from a magnetically attached Qi power bank. Oof, my iPhone is getting really hot, I thought, just as the screen went forever blank. The repair bill was €660.33 (over $750), for which I paid nothing because it was just inside the two-year warranty. Apple’s “genius” wouldn’t say if the phone overheated, but I’m not keen to tempt fate twice.
Heat is the enemy of batteries
Heat is the enemy of batteries. High temperatures accelerate the chemical degradation of lithium-ion cells, permanently reducing how much charge they can hold over time. The electromagnetic induction employed by Qi chargers is inherently inefficient, producing far more heat than transferring electricity through a cable plugged into your phone. That heat can cause phones to throttle the wireless charging speed in order to protect the battery.
Despite knowing this, I keep coming back to Qi charging docks and power banks because they’re so damn convenient. I’m also addicted to Apple’s StandBy feature that turns my phone into a desk or bedside clock and widget machine when docked and charging in landscape orientation.
Fortunately, companies like Anker, Aukey, ESR, and Kuxiu have started building active cooling systems directly into their Qi chargers. They feature tiny heat sinks and ultra-quiet internal fans that actively blow the heat away from the back of your phone while it charges. This keeps the battery significantly cooler and allows for faster charging speeds. Powerful magnets ensure perfect alignment between the phone’s receiver coil and the charger’s transmitter coil to maximize efficiency and minimize heat waste.
The fan inside the Kuxiu D5 operates silently, but it can still be turned off if you want. The display is useful, but the little winky-faced screensaver is not. I do like knowing the time and how much charge each device is pulling, in addition to the total power draw, but the animated movement is distracting when caught out of the corner of my eye. It’s also a bit too bright for my taste when perched on my nightstand. Fortunately, I can turn the display off with a tap of a button.
I like that the Kuxiu D5 ships with a 45W USB-C PD charger in the box. Otherwise, you’d have to guess if whatever charger you have lying around will support the dock’s max total output, which can deliver up to 25W to Qi2.2-compatible phones, 2.5W to Qi-compatible watches, and 5W to Qi-compatible earbuds. It’s compatible with several generations of phones, watches, and earbuds sold by Apple, Samsung, and others.
Kuxiu calls the D5 a “5-in-1” charger, which I find misleading since it’ll only charge up to three devices simultaneously. It seems to include the display and fan in its total. By that count, I’d be happier if this was a 4-in-1 device, since the added cost for the display won’t add much value for most people, and it can only cause issues down the road.
The watch charger is also a little silly in its over-engineering. A long-press on the dock’s sole button kicks off a tiny motor to slowly push the watch dock out the side. I guess it adds to the blocky dock’s durability when traveling, but not by much, and it can only be retracted when the dock is plugged into the wall.
1/9
Overall the Kuxiu D5 is a fine Qi2.2 charging dock made better by active cooling. It’s equally at home on a desktop or nightstand, and priced below similar docks from Anker, ESR, and others.
Active cooling on Qi chargers is a good idea whose time has come. Phones sold by Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo have supported wireless charging speeds of 50W and above for years. But that’s only possible when placed on proprietary charging docks capable of whisking away all the extra waste heat. Now the body responsible for Qi is working on a global 50W standard for release by 2028. Manufacturers will likely need to adopt active cooling to reliably sustain those higher charging rates.
Fine by me. Whatever it takes to keep that vital Qi life force flowing.
All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
![Europe got its own TBPN-style live show, and everyone’s angling for a guest spot | TechCrunch
The European answer to TBPN is here and ready to go live five days a week, starting June 27.
Luke Knight and Ronan Chambers first launched the London-based European Technology Network (ETN) last October, breaking down tech trends and news during a two-day-a-week live stream. Right now, the show is live-streamed on X and YouTube and has garnered more than 5 million views.
On Monday, the network announced a .6 million seed round from top players in the media ecosystem, including Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE (which owns Business Insider and Politico), the popular media publication LadBible, and angel investors from OpenAI and DeepMind. With this fresh capital, the network is announcing its largest expansion yet.
It’s now moving into a big studio in Kings Cross (where all the hot London AI startups are situated), expanding the team (right now of just eight), launching a newsletter, and is, starting today, moving into a five-day-a-week live show schedule, which will soon see Knight and Chambers interview the likes of George Robson (a partner at Sequoia) and Rishi Sunak (former UK Prime Minister and senior advisor to Anthropic and Microsoft).
Speaking to TechCrunch, Knight and Chambers said ETN has already become a hot stop on the press tour for European startups — they’ve spoken to the founder of Synthesia, the CFO of Legora, the founder of Granola, and Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s first AI Minister. They’ve even had American investors stop by the show when they are in town, including one from Andreessen Horowitz.
“ETN was born out of a gaping hole in the industry,” Chambers told TechCrunch. “It’s centered around pace.” He said the current media ecosystem in the UK cannot keep up with how fast the tech scene is moving. For example, so far this year, London startups have raised .7 billion according to Dealroom. Six companies have raised more than 0 million: Wayve, Superintelligence, ElevenLabs, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs, the latter three of which were founded by DeepMind alumni.
“These are things that have never happened in Europe before,” Chambers continued, referring to the speed at which capital is flowing through the ecosystem. As the show became more popular, Chambers said they were getting around 70 pitches a week from guests looking to come on the show. They would try and cram 12 interviews into two hours, twice a week, but eventually it got too much. “We needed an outlet that could move at the pace of that,” he said of both the interest in the show and how fast Europe’s tech ecosystem is moving, “which is the reason we’re going from two days a week to five days a week.”
The five-day format will look quite similar to the two-day format. There will be a live show from 12 p.m. UK time to 3 p.m., breaking down trending stories, and then for two hours, they will have guests on the show talking about whatever they want. Chambers said they also want to start hosting debates, roundtables, and a Shark Tank-style pitching session on the show.
“We want to make it as useful as we can for the ecosystem,” Chambers said. “There needs to be more discourse around AI in Europe. There needs to be more discourse around venture capital and cash flowing into the ecosystem. There needs to be more discourse around the amazing things that are happening in the tech ecosystem, and our role is to be the stage in which people can shout about all the amazing things they’re doing.”
The show makes its money from ad dollars, like most media publications, and big-name sponsors already include prediction market Polymarket, blockchain company Base, and the AI audio darling ElevenLabs.
When asked about the influence TBPN has had on them, Knight and Chambers said they indeed do look at John Coogan and Jordi Hays, founders of TBPN (which recently sold to OpenAI for what some say was a nine-figure sum), as pioneers of this new tech media ecosystem. The show became a place for tech guests to appear and chat with friendly faces, announcing new product releases, hires, or funding news. “My thinking was, if we can have an ITV and a BBC, why wouldn’t we have a regional version of this?” Chambers continued.
Europe is a big place, though, with more than 40 different countries and over 200 languages spoken (24 of which are recognized by the European Union). Chambers said that although ETN will report from London, he and Knight are making an effort to bring on guests from across the continent. Aside from bringing guests into the studio, they also travel to the hottest tech conferences around Europe. For example, they’ve broadcast from the Panathenaea Conference in Athens and from inside the Louvre in Paris for the RAISE AI Summit.
“You have all these different cultures, these different minds coming together and creating different products,” Chambers said. “You get a taste of what makes [Europe] a superpower.”
With all this, they said they would never turn an American founder away should they want to come on the show. “It’s a European technology network, but we think there’s massive [global] opportunities,” Chambers said. Knight added to that, noting how often conversations pit the European tech ecosystem against that of the U.S.
“We are globally optimistic,” Knight said. “We are pushing global prosperity from Europe. Wherever you want to go and build your company, wherever is the best place to go and build that company, go and do that, and we will shout for you to go and do that.”
He and Chambers also don’t necessarily see themselves as journalists; rather, they consider themselves tech insiders curious about what is going on and why. They also don’t see themselves as replacing traditional media and instead intend to work in tandem with those publications. “We rely on traditional media,” Chambers said, adding that is how they find much of the news that they to talk about on ETN.
Overall, the duo hopes to help document the stories coming from the new wave of European success, from ElevenLabs in London to Lovable in Stockholm, to help the upcoming generation understand that technology is one way to drive a nation forward.
Discussing the impact of European success stories, Chambers said, “It riles up the next generation to the point where it’s no longer cool to finish university and go into banking or consulting. People want to leave university and go straight into building a startup, and I think that’s an amazing thing.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Europe #TBPNstyle #live #show #everyones #angling #guest #spot #TechCrunchEurope,London,UK](https://i3.wp.com/techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ETN.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 "Europe got its own TBPN-style live show, and everyone’s angling for a guest spot | TechCrunch
The European answer to TBPN is here and ready to go live five days a week, starting June 27.
Luke Knight and Ronan Chambers first launched the London-based European Technology Network (ETN) last October, breaking down tech trends and news during a two-day-a-week live stream. Right now, the show is live-streamed on X and YouTube and has garnered more than 5 million views.
On Monday, the network announced a .6 million seed round from top players in the media ecosystem, including Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE (which owns Business Insider and Politico), the popular media publication LadBible, and angel investors from OpenAI and DeepMind. With this fresh capital, the network is announcing its largest expansion yet.
It’s now moving into a big studio in Kings Cross (where all the hot London AI startups are situated), expanding the team (right now of just eight), launching a newsletter, and is, starting today, moving into a five-day-a-week live show schedule, which will soon see Knight and Chambers interview the likes of George Robson (a partner at Sequoia) and Rishi Sunak (former UK Prime Minister and senior advisor to Anthropic and Microsoft).
Speaking to TechCrunch, Knight and Chambers said ETN has already become a hot stop on the press tour for European startups — they’ve spoken to the founder of Synthesia, the CFO of Legora, the founder of Granola, and Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s first AI Minister. They’ve even had American investors stop by the show when they are in town, including one from Andreessen Horowitz.
“ETN was born out of a gaping hole in the industry,” Chambers told TechCrunch. “It’s centered around pace.” He said the current media ecosystem in the UK cannot keep up with how fast the tech scene is moving. For example, so far this year, London startups have raised .7 billion according to Dealroom. Six companies have raised more than 0 million: Wayve, Superintelligence, ElevenLabs, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs, the latter three of which were founded by DeepMind alumni.
“These are things that have never happened in Europe before,” Chambers continued, referring to the speed at which capital is flowing through the ecosystem. As the show became more popular, Chambers said they were getting around 70 pitches a week from guests looking to come on the show. They would try and cram 12 interviews into two hours, twice a week, but eventually it got too much. “We needed an outlet that could move at the pace of that,” he said of both the interest in the show and how fast Europe’s tech ecosystem is moving, “which is the reason we’re going from two days a week to five days a week.”
The five-day format will look quite similar to the two-day format. There will be a live show from 12 p.m. UK time to 3 p.m., breaking down trending stories, and then for two hours, they will have guests on the show talking about whatever they want. Chambers said they also want to start hosting debates, roundtables, and a Shark Tank-style pitching session on the show.
“We want to make it as useful as we can for the ecosystem,” Chambers said. “There needs to be more discourse around AI in Europe. There needs to be more discourse around venture capital and cash flowing into the ecosystem. There needs to be more discourse around the amazing things that are happening in the tech ecosystem, and our role is to be the stage in which people can shout about all the amazing things they’re doing.”
The show makes its money from ad dollars, like most media publications, and big-name sponsors already include prediction market Polymarket, blockchain company Base, and the AI audio darling ElevenLabs.
When asked about the influence TBPN has had on them, Knight and Chambers said they indeed do look at John Coogan and Jordi Hays, founders of TBPN (which recently sold to OpenAI for what some say was a nine-figure sum), as pioneers of this new tech media ecosystem. The show became a place for tech guests to appear and chat with friendly faces, announcing new product releases, hires, or funding news. “My thinking was, if we can have an ITV and a BBC, why wouldn’t we have a regional version of this?” Chambers continued.
Europe is a big place, though, with more than 40 different countries and over 200 languages spoken (24 of which are recognized by the European Union). Chambers said that although ETN will report from London, he and Knight are making an effort to bring on guests from across the continent. Aside from bringing guests into the studio, they also travel to the hottest tech conferences around Europe. For example, they’ve broadcast from the Panathenaea Conference in Athens and from inside the Louvre in Paris for the RAISE AI Summit.
“You have all these different cultures, these different minds coming together and creating different products,” Chambers said. “You get a taste of what makes [Europe] a superpower.”
With all this, they said they would never turn an American founder away should they want to come on the show. “It’s a European technology network, but we think there’s massive [global] opportunities,” Chambers said. Knight added to that, noting how often conversations pit the European tech ecosystem against that of the U.S.
“We are globally optimistic,” Knight said. “We are pushing global prosperity from Europe. Wherever you want to go and build your company, wherever is the best place to go and build that company, go and do that, and we will shout for you to go and do that.”
He and Chambers also don’t necessarily see themselves as journalists; rather, they consider themselves tech insiders curious about what is going on and why. They also don’t see themselves as replacing traditional media and instead intend to work in tandem with those publications. “We rely on traditional media,” Chambers said, adding that is how they find much of the news that they to talk about on ETN.
Overall, the duo hopes to help document the stories coming from the new wave of European success, from ElevenLabs in London to Lovable in Stockholm, to help the upcoming generation understand that technology is one way to drive a nation forward.
Discussing the impact of European success stories, Chambers said, “It riles up the next generation to the point where it’s no longer cool to finish university and go into banking or consulting. People want to leave university and go straight into building a startup, and I think that’s an amazing thing.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Europe #TBPNstyle #live #show #everyones #angling #guest #spot #TechCrunchEurope,London,UK")
![Logitech G Becomes Official Headset Partner for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
The Logitech G series has just announced a partnership with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. In the partnership, Logitech G will serve as the Official PC Peripheral Partner, while the Logitech G ASTRO Series will be the Official Headset Partner for the game. The partnership will also introduce exclusive in-game rewards, creator-focused experiences, and community events for players.
Logitech G will offer all its PC gaming accessories to enhance the gaming experience for fans of Modern Warfare 4. Some of the gaming products include mice, keyboards, headsets, and other peripheral devices. It says the hardware is designed to deliver consistent performance during every match and support both casual and competitive players.
As part of the collaboration, Logitech G has introduced the Play for Prestige campaign. It includes exclusive in-game rewards designed around the Logitech G brand. Events such as creators’ events, streamer partnerships, community tournaments, and game challenges will be part of the campaign. Logitech G will give away gaming equipment during the event as an added bonus to the gamers.
New Features for Creators and Streamers
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOXi9hjss50[/embed]
Creators and streamers will also benefit from the collaboration. Streamlabs provides AI-driven overlays, automatic highlight capture, and custom streaming software. The collaboration also brings interactive features influenced by the game Modern Warfare 4. Logitech G HUB offers customized Audio EQ and LIGHTSYNC RGB.
This partnership extends Logitech G’s long-standing connection with Call of Duty. The company emphasized that ASTRO headsets have been part of the franchise for more than 10 years. Logitech G intends to keep providing its support to casual and professional gamers using its equipment. The company is also dedicated to developing itself within the field of esports.
Launch Date and Availability
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will launch on October 23, 2026. Players can already pre-order the game for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. PC players can pre-purchase it through Battle.net and Steam. The game will also arrive on Nintendo Switch 2, with pre-orders opening later this year.
#Logitech #Official #Headset #Partner #Call #Duty #Modern #WarfareCall Of Duty](https://i3.wp.com/fossbytes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/modern-warfare-4-1.jpg?ssl=1 "Logitech G Becomes Official Headset Partner for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
The Logitech G series has just announced a partnership with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. In the partnership, Logitech G will serve as the Official PC Peripheral Partner, while the Logitech G ASTRO Series will be the Official Headset Partner for the game. The partnership will also introduce exclusive in-game rewards, creator-focused experiences, and community events for players.
Logitech G will offer all its PC gaming accessories to enhance the gaming experience for fans of Modern Warfare 4. Some of the gaming products include mice, keyboards, headsets, and other peripheral devices. It says the hardware is designed to deliver consistent performance during every match and support both casual and competitive players.
As part of the collaboration, Logitech G has introduced the Play for Prestige campaign. It includes exclusive in-game rewards designed around the Logitech G brand. Events such as creators’ events, streamer partnerships, community tournaments, and game challenges will be part of the campaign. Logitech G will give away gaming equipment during the event as an added bonus to the gamers.
New Features for Creators and Streamers
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOXi9hjss50[/embed]
Creators and streamers will also benefit from the collaboration. Streamlabs provides AI-driven overlays, automatic highlight capture, and custom streaming software. The collaboration also brings interactive features influenced by the game Modern Warfare 4. Logitech G HUB offers customized Audio EQ and LIGHTSYNC RGB.
This partnership extends Logitech G’s long-standing connection with Call of Duty. The company emphasized that ASTRO headsets have been part of the franchise for more than 10 years. Logitech G intends to keep providing its support to casual and professional gamers using its equipment. The company is also dedicated to developing itself within the field of esports.
Launch Date and Availability
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will launch on October 23, 2026. Players can already pre-order the game for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. PC players can pre-purchase it through Battle.net and Steam. The game will also arrive on Nintendo Switch 2, with pre-orders opening later this year.
#Logitech #Official #Headset #Partner #Call #Duty #Modern #WarfareCall Of Duty")
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