AirPower Cancelled Four Years Ago, But Remains on Apple's Long-Term Roadmap

[currentinterest]

I love my MagSafe Duo for traveling. I have no problem charging my iPhone 14 Pro Max in its Apple leather case and Apple Watch Ultra. I agree that an update with faster charging and USB-C would be nice, but since it is mostly a night time charger, slower is not a deal breaker.

 

[Apple118]

Cyber Wireless Charger is everything Airpower couldn't be

Yes it's EXPENSIVE

Wireless Charging Platform

Inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of Cybertruck, our Wireless Charging Platform provides 15W of fast charging power per device for up to three devices simultaneously. Its sleek design is composed of an aluminum housing, premium alcantara surface and a detachable magnetic stand...

shop.tesla.com

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...This solution already exists from many Chinese manufacturers and third p

Cyber Wireless Charger is everything Airpower couldn't be

Yes it's EXPENSIVE

Wireless Charging Platform

Inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of Cybertruck, our Wireless Charging Platform provides 15W of fast charging power per device for up to three devices simultaneously. Its sleek design is composed of an aluminum housing, premium alcantara surface and a detachable magnetic stand...

shop.tesla.com

View attachment 2180210

View attachment 2180211

These multi coil chargers are already available from a wide array of accessories makers. I've got one from Satechi. The magic of AirPower was the promise to charge three devices including an Apple Watch - which is still something none of these chargers can accomplish because Apple still hasn't built qi charging into the watch.

 

[jmgregory1]

People always mention cost. So let's calculate the cost of charging:

Electricity here in BC is cheap:CAD 0.095/kWh. Let's say waving hand a phone use 20Wh charging and we do that once daily, that's (20*365) /1000 = 7.3kWh a year. so 7.3 * 0.095 amounts to $0.69. So it costs less than a dollar a year if you charge your phone daily - so rounding up crudely, let's say $1, for a year worth of phone charging.

Now with wireless charging if we say it's only 50% efficient (magsafe is a lot better actually, ~75%), we'd still sit at less than $2 for an entire year worth of charging.

So cost wise in the first world, it's not an issue. Energy wise, for a whole population ofcourse it's a bit more but it's many orders of magnitude less than dryer/washers, heating, ovens/stoves, air conditioners, EVs, etc. Phones are really nearly nothing in your home.

Anyway, I've use Qi since my Samsung GS6 and never had problems forgetting to charge and now Magsafe can add some extra juice in half an hour. So the crucial bit of your statement is "To me..." - that's exactly right, it's not good for some but that doesn't mean it's not good for anybody and that's why Apple and others like Samsung are offering it, a lot of people enjoy it.

What we pay for energy isn’t the only cost that is paid. And when you take these “small” costs and multiply them out by hundreds of millions or billions of units, it’s a HUGE waste of energy and the fossil fuels we generally use to produce electricity. Would you be ok if your car lost 25% of the gas you fill the tank with each time? I’m guilty too of using MagSafe every night, and we all as a modern society have gotten pretty lazy about doing things the right way for the betterment of our world and fellow man.

Qi charging is but one small example of this laziness.

 

[svish]

Hopefully Apple can launch it sometime in the near future.

 

[neuropsychguy]

If only Apple had more WFH at the time, this would have launched.

/This is just a tongue in cheek counter to all the people who blame anything on WFH

 

[retroneo]

Why would you build layers of coils that overheat when you could just have charging zones that devices snap to instead?

There are endless no-name charging pads that have overlapping coils that work just fine - and have existed for much longer than AirPower was announced. There has to be more to it. Perhaps it's patent infringement - they couldn't licence the patent on good terms. That's why there have always been endless ones on AliExpress with 6-12 coils - but strictly speaking they probably infringe on some patent. I took one apart years ago.

 

[joekun]

What Apple really needs to solve (and I hope they are trying) is true-wireless charging.

This! The current “wireless” charging is rather unspectacular. I only really appreciate it for reducing the types of chargers I need for various devices, and the fact that I can plug up the port on my phone to keep it from getting dirty. Real wireless charging on the other hand would be something to get very excited about.

 

[_Spinn_]

This doesn't seem needed anymore with MagSafe charging.