Drone shopper Walmart nabbed a patent to make shopping in its giant stores one step easier—letting drones peruse the aisles instead of shoppers. The retailer's drone fleet would zip from one part of the store to another, picking up goods and bringing them back to checkout areas for consumers to then buy. Fortune reports that the drones would mainly fly over shelves (instead of directly over a shopper's head). But to keep safety at a high, each store would have its own network to track the drones and ensure they don't crash into each other—or the electronics aisle.

Wireless charging We already send information wirelessly from our smartphones: that's the crux of how they work. But what about sending an electric charge from one device to another, just through the air? That's the technology described in one of Sony's latests patents which uses Near Field Communications to send power from one consumer electronic device to another. While wireless charging stations are slowly gaining traction, the ability to actually send a charge from one gadget to another, wirelessly, is not a consumer feature. Sony clearly aims to change, or at least explore, that option.

Electrocuting iPhone A British man was electrocuted by his charging iPhone while taking a bath, according to a coroner's report from the UK. While hairdryers and other electronic devices have sent deadly electrical shocks to people bathing, these incidents are rare, according to The Guardian.

Virtual shopper Virtual and augmented reality are already changing the way we make purchases, letting us virtually walk through an open house, for example, or even test a new couch in our living room without leaving our apartment. How much more will mixed reality support our shopping experience? We have the goods.