AirPods Wireless Charging Case Said to Work With Any Qi-Certified Charging Mat

[PickUrPoison]

A charging mat with 22 coils, controlled by an SoC running an embedded OS.

Apple innovation at its finest! I hope it prices closer to $119 though.

 

[Elmo1938]

It will be available in a few months. I'm holding my comments until then!

 

[acorntoy]

Apple knew their product line up, they really should have just shipped AirPods as QI enabled. Even if it would have been the first apple product to do so.

 

[PickUrPoison]

That and it’s never going to be released?

I was beaten to it

I wouldn’t bet on that if I were you; Apple has a pretty good track record of releasing products they’ve announced.

 

[digitalexplr]

But if I'm understanding you correctly, then the AirPods already do right now exactly what you are describing?

You don't need to go into settings and go through the whole pairing process again. Thanks to the W1 chip, you can just jump into the audio output menu in Control Center from anywhere and select the AirPods there, as long as they are paired with another compatible Apple device on the same Apple ID and within Bluetooth vicinity. So the AirPods already work pretty much exactly how you describe, if you pair them to one Apple product they are automatically paired to all of your Apple products and must only be selected as an audio output.

This!

Also, at least on iOS 12 my AirPods already recognize, "Hey Siri" on both 8+ and iPP.

 

[bingeciren]

Perhaps ok for home use but not practical for travel. I have a small multi port usb charger for travel which can charge 6 devices simultaneously. This setup is lighter and smaller than the charging mat with its associated adapter.

One more thing regarding Apple watches with link bracelets or Milanese loop bracelets; you cannot lie the watches flat on the mat with those braceletes unless you detach at least one end of the bracelet from the watch. Nuisance.

 

[Ilikechainrestaurants]

Quality Qi charger sells for about $35 each, so if the rumored price tag of $149 is true, you have 3 devices that needs to be charged regularly, and if it can provide 7.5W power to all 3 devices, it's not a bad price.

Having said that, AirPower isn't shipping yet and we do not yet know the details of its charging capabilities.

$35? Nah

 

[twistedpixel8]

Otherwise, I was thinking it may be cheaper to just buy 3 individual wireless chargers vs. 1 of these.

Not to mention: way more convenient.

 

[shyam09]

What I hate about my Airpods are they don’t synch automatically between iPad and iPhone. I always have to into setting and reconnect. If Bluetooth is always on they should always connect instantly. It seems once you connect to one device it disconnects from the other device and you have to reconnect. It’s not a good user experience. Airpods should automatically know Apple products and just connect.

1. Open Control Center.
2. Press deeply or touch and hold the audio card in the upper-right corner of Control Center to control audio.
3. Tap
   
   , then choose the device you want from the list.

(this simplifies it).

I do agree though. I believe BT 5.0 solves this (somewhat).

 

[manu chao]

I bought a wireless charging case for the AirPods case! Sounds bizarre but it actually works. The Apple AirPods case fits inside the other wireless case. When it is all assembled it just looks like a slightly bigger and fatter AirPods case.

£10.

Bargain of the century.

And if that wireless charging case were also charged wirelessly, you'd have three wireless charging transfers. Even without that, we have Qi charger charging the AirPods case wirelessly which itself is charging the AirPods wirelessly.

 

[The Game 161]

good news as i can use my mophie wireless charger for the air pods and my samsung standing up charger for my phone if i decide not to get the air power

but who am I kidding I will most likely...i hate having so many cables so least air power gets rid of this.

 

[Glideslope]

Anyone else notice that convenience type features and products always seem pretty expensive for the utility that they provide over conventional means? Idk if it's just me, or if there are hidden premiums behind convenience based products, vs. actual innovation (revolution vs evolution)

The key is “notice vs acknowledge.” Pretty sure it’s a known in the Apple Ecosystem. Ease of use and commonality have always been part of the ecosystem. IMO, there is still some innovation in spurts, but is it worth the cost? People will decide. The Home Pod is a good example. 1 million in sales vs the 3 million expected. Was the design worth the cost? Ease of use? Same for the AirPower.

 

[Polpol1]

Is it really going to look that way? Tastes differ but I find it a very ugly thing

 

[Spendlove]

And if that wireless charging case were also charged wirelessly, you'd have three wireless charging transfers. Even without that, we have Qi charger charging the AirPods case wirelessly which itself is charging the AirPods wirelessly.

That makes my head spin!

 

[Piggie]

Every PROPER article I've seen in the past where they really know their stuff, explains how wireless charging is much worse for the battery than normal charging.

Heat kills battery, heat for a long time in really bag.

Wireless warms up the phone/battery as as it's much much slower, the phone/batter sits there hot for far far longer.

A much much shorter higher power boot via a wire is actually much kinder, as the battery is subjected to charging heat for a much shorter period of time.

I would love to see PROPER further explanations of this when Apple's product launches
By people who actually know their stuff scientifically, and not just, ohh isn't this cool type reviews.

 

[blacktape242]

new case will retail for 100 bucks and the mat will be 149.

I'm calling it now.

 

[parseckadet]

Here's the thing, AirPower needs to some how be better than this Ikea thing:

If it costs more than the $60 this thing does, it needs to justify that. And the ability to not worry about alignment with some slick animations is going to be worth about $20-$30 in my book, making for a final price of $80-$90. Seriously doubt that will happen.

 

[Abazigal]

Here's the thing, AirPower needs to some how be better than this Ikea thing:

If it costs more than the $60 this thing does, it needs to justify that. And the ability to not worry about alignment with some slick animations is going to be worth about $20-$30 in my book, making for a final price of $80-$90. Seriously doubt that will happen.

Will that charge the series 3 Apple Watch? Because my understanding is that you need a proprietary charger for that.

 

[Ghost31]

I think there should be a Super AirPower mat that charges the regular AirPower mat that charges the AirPods case that charges the AirPods that also charges your iPhone and watch.

CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think not

 

[Phone Junky]

Every PROPER article I've seen in the past where they really know their stuff, explains how wireless charging is much worse for the battery than normal charging.

Heat kills battery, heat for a long time in really bag.

Wireless warms up the phone/battery as as it's much much slower, the phone/batter sits there hot for far far longer.

A much much shorter higher power boot via a wire is actually much kinder, as the battery is subjected to charging heat for a much shorter period of time.

I would love to see PROPER further explanations of this when Apple's product launches
By people who actually know their stuff scientifically, and not just, ohh isn't this cool type reviews.

My 8 month old iPhone X, that has been wirelessly charged every night, since day one, on a cheap Amazon wireless charger and is still at 100% maximum capacity, disagrees with you.

 

[afir93]

Here's the thing, AirPower needs to some how be better than this Ikea thing:

If it costs more than the $60 this thing does, it needs to justify that. And the ability to not worry about alignment with some slick animations is going to be worth about $20-$30 in my book, making for a final price of $80-$90. Seriously doubt that will happen.

It'd be interesting to see how they compare quality-wise as this can also wildly vary over different kinds of wireless chargers. But as someone else pointed out above, the ability to charge the Apple Watch aswell would probably be the main difference apart from what you already pointed out. So if we add the $35 for an Apple Watch charger on top of your $80-$90 in the calculation (and obviously ignoring for a second that one Apple Watch charger can only charge one Apple Watch at a time, not three of them like the AirPower mat), then we end up at $115-125, which isn't too far from the rumored $149 price point.

We also don't yet know what wall plug the AirPower mat will come with. It's safe to say it'll come with a Lightning cable (another $25); and if it comes with one of the new USB-C outlet plugs that are rumored to come with the new iPhones, then that might very well be another thing to justify the asking price, especially since this USB-C plug for iPhones is rumored not the be available separately at launch. But obviously, that is still speculation.

 

[B4U]

What I hate about my Airpods are they don’t synch automatically between iPad and iPhone. I always have to into setting and reconnect. If Bluetooth is always on they should always connect instantly. It seems once you connect to one device it disconnects from the other device and you have to reconnect. It’s not a good user experience. Airpods should automatically know Apple products and just connect.

At least, it connects to one of the devices...
Mine never connects automatically.

 

[ke-iron]

Going on vacation in 5 days. Would’ve been nice to be able to pack 1 charger for my devices smh.

 

[code-m]

LOL!
An accessory charging mat announced a year ahead of time... still yet to be released. What's the deal?

Shipping 31 Dec 2018 in very limited supply, to keep with Apples promise. Caution hardware bugs and product defects may crop up sooner rather then later.
[doublepost=1534296248][/doublepost]

I bought a wireless charging case for the AirPods case! Sounds bizarre but it actually works. The Apple AirPods case fits inside the other wireless case. When it is all assembled it just looks like a slightly bigger and fatter AirPods case.

£10.

Bargain of the century.

Ives is furious that you mentioned the “F” word.
[doublepost=1534296416][/doublepost]

A charging mat with 22 coils, controlled by an SoC running an embedded OS.

Apple innovation at its finest! I hope it prices closer to $119 though.

For something that is a want vice need, ah that is nice. Single purchase for nightstand, is this Apple’s answer. Let get rid of Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, etc bring in AirPower. Priorities smh.

 

[Böhme417]

Quality Qi charger sells for about $35 each, so if the rumored price tag of $149 is true, you have 3 devices that needs to be charged regularly, and if it can provide 7.5W power to all 3 devices, it's not a bad price.

Having said that, AirPower isn't shipping yet and we do not yet know the details of its charging capabilities.

Hmm... $35 x 3 = $105
If priced at $149, I feel like the market for this is very narrow. You would have to own all three of these devices and want to charge all of them at the same time for this device to make sense.

Heat kills battery, heat for a long time in really bag.

...what?