hrmpf caused quite a stir in the rumor community back in February when it reported on Apple's inductive charging patent filing. Well, according to the Mossberg Solution at wsj.com, it looks like a company called WildCharge Inc. beat Apple to the punch on their popular portable devices.
They haven't done inductive charging (like Braun-Oral B does with their toothbrushes for instance) but they have made small adapters that have connection points to the flat surface - which should give similar results. (thx