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Apple Admits to BMW Wireless Charging Issue With iPhone 15 Lineup, Promises Fix Later This Year
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I don’t have a iPhone 15 but my 14 Pro get extremely hot very fast with my BMW qi charger, and browsing through forums reveals many others with the same problem, not just iPhones. So I think the chargers are a bit crap as well, enhancing this issue.
One overcharges you for a cellphone while the other overcharges the actual phone.
Payment card data passes through the Secure Element (which takes full control of the NFC chip) so you may be on to something
It's even smaller. BMW drivers are very conscious and smart. They use wired charging.Worldwide BMWs are a very tiny number of vehicles sold...so they aren't lying when they say it's a small portion of users.
They should just say owners need to pay a subscription to use their NFC, BMW owners won't have a problem with that.
So, it's a small portion of a small portion.
So…what’s non-compliant about these wireless chargers? And how far out of spec are they that a firmware update to the phone would possibly fix it?
I guess no one at Apple drives a BMW if this wasn't picked up before launch. Jobs favoured Mercedes of course. I wonder what all the top execs do drive actually...
I have noticed that car wireless chargers (not only in BMWs) tend to heat up iPhones more. I guess this is because we use our iPhones for streaming and navigation while charging, or perhaps car wireless chargers push more power to compensate for car movement?
It seems that way. The charger combined with the heat probably triggers some sort of tamper protection "software fuse" (maybe as part of secure enclave?) that can only be reset with special software only Apple and other certified repair shops have access to.
It can't be permanently damaging the hardware if they can likely fix this via a software update.
I have a quite new Ford car from 2021 and none of my MagSafe iPhones have been working on the wireless charging mat in the car. Like my old iPhone 11 charges fine but nothing above iPhone 12 charges. It always says the device isn’t placed correctly and interrupts the charging process. Kind of ridiculous
At least it doesn’t kill any chips I guess
At least it doesn’t kill any chips I guess
Happy to hear that the issue has been acknowledged and that a fix is coming soon
Can I also add - I've had nothing but problems with intermittent charging of my iPhone 15 in Tesla Model Y. iPhone 13 I came from would charge flawlessly. Same footprint.... same charger. Don't know what apple changed in the 15 series for wireless.
I'm guessing its a lot easier to fix this via Apples software than exchanging built in chargers in delivered cars.
Looking at a few different cars it seems like there are a few different ways on how people implement QI chargers.
On some cars I just toss the phone on the charger and it works and in some cars it has to be put exactly on the spot or even worse, I have to take my case off.
Would be interesting to find out more on how BMW have implemented their charger, manufacturer and the design choices they made than can cause this to happen. Could also serve as a lessons learned for other car manufacturers.
Edit: Another challenge with these sort of problems is that the old school car manufacturers are notoriously bad at updating software. Not saying this would solve this particular issue, but in the past I have to nag everytime I service the car so that I get an updated software version for my media system in the car.
Looking at a few different cars it seems like there are a few different ways on how people implement QI chargers.
On some cars I just toss the phone on the charger and it works and in some cars it has to be put exactly on the spot or even worse, I have to take my case off.
Would be interesting to find out more on how BMW have implemented their charger, manufacturer and the design choices they made than can cause this to happen. Could also serve as a lessons learned for other car manufacturers.
Edit: Another challenge with these sort of problems is that the old school car manufacturers are notoriously bad at updating software. Not saying this would solve this particular issue, but in the past I have to nag everytime I service the car so that I get an updated software version for my media system in the car.
Considering the possibility of BMW using different chargers from another supplier at points in production, after all no manufacture tends to be reliant on just one provider of parts in cause of supply chain issues. it could be some are out of spec, also the iPhone 15 I think is capable of Qi2 but Apple worded that vaguely, 'the iPhone 15 line up supports MagSafe and future Qi2 wireless charging'
Maybe Apple also use different suppliers for parts hence iPhone 15's are having this weird issues but the iPhone 14 is not also specs change for charging. Apple like any other company with each version of a new device will look to make cost reductions in manufacturing if they can, see the new PS5 slim <cough> for details as Sony remove parts from the box to turn a profit that were included in the original version, so it costs new consumers more to have what was previous buyers had as standard with the original version.
As the price of other parts increase, or to just to turn a better profit, sometimes using possibly different components can come back to bite any company. That's why I detest the 'latest and greatest' term, because how do you know the parts in whatever new version of whatever new device you bought are not inferior to last years version just to save money and with Apple over the number of units made a small change can save a huge amount I imagine. The same goes for BMW. Phones and computers don't keep getting better without cost savings somewhere.
So if a major part in say a computer like the SoC price rises something in the device may be bought from a different supplier and maybe tighter specs are slackened to allow cheaper components for a batch or a entire run. No comany is making the best device at the greatest cost to themselves for our benefit, corners will always be cut over time to make a greater profit, while the device looks to be superior in every way but we are not privy to the cost of all such component changes internally. Thats when you get devices not working nicely with each other.
Maybe Apple also use different suppliers for parts hence iPhone 15's are having this weird issues but the iPhone 14 is not also specs change for charging. Apple like any other company with each version of a new device will look to make cost reductions in manufacturing if they can, see the new PS5 slim <cough> for details as Sony remove parts from the box to turn a profit that were included in the original version, so it costs new consumers more to have what was previous buyers had as standard with the original version.
As the price of other parts increase, or to just to turn a better profit, sometimes using possibly different components can come back to bite any company. That's why I detest the 'latest and greatest' term, because how do you know the parts in whatever new version of whatever new device you bought are not inferior to last years version just to save money and with Apple over the number of units made a small change can save a huge amount I imagine. The same goes for BMW. Phones and computers don't keep getting better without cost savings somewhere.
So if a major part in say a computer like the SoC price rises something in the device may be bought from a different supplier and maybe tighter specs are slackened to allow cheaper components for a batch or a entire run. No comany is making the best device at the greatest cost to themselves for our benefit, corners will always be cut over time to make a greater profit, while the device looks to be superior in every way but we are not privy to the cost of all such component changes internally. Thats when you get devices not working nicely with each other.
Wouldn’t this mean apple NFC has issue ? As usual, apple pushing the responsibilities to other party.
So… the next there is a crack on iPhone led screen, apple is gonna fix with a software update too?
😆