Apple Officially Cancels AirPower

[Baymowe335]

IT seems that you got stuck in the Commodore 64 designs... That you are programming computers does not mean you understand about design. I also have been using Apple since SE30 and today Apple's policies towards both innovation and upgrading are insulting, especially to the Pro users.
If you understand something about computers, you know that 2 years is quite a lot of time.
Well, upgrade cycles have been stretch to 4-6 years.
Mac Mini after 5 years they came out with the same box design that has heating issues and 65% more expensive.
Macbook Pros were great until 2016. 2016+ are a complete failure both in quality and design.
Mac Pro...6 years and counting after the trashcan upgrade also was a failure.
iMacs same 10 year old design. Not even cars keep the same external deisgn after 10 years.
I have grown up, you just need to take your sunglasses and see Apple products for what they actually have become sadly...
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FYI, Apple missed last quarter revenues.
Sales of both computers are ipads are declining.
In the last quarter Apple reduced the prices of iPhones on China, Japan, due to lack of sales.

You can see how Apple is innovating based in the pathetic upgrade announcements they did before the recent Apple news event.

What is innovating about creating a credit card? Althoug it might be great, is not product innovation, and further more when you are partnering with Goldman Sachs a company that has defrauded thousands of customers.

YOu said it well Innovations are NOT features. Innovation is something like the iWatch. But the entire computer line up is outdated and overpriced.
Where is the innovation when computers are upgraded every 4 years? and even then no true innovation has been really incorporated??
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I bought the Jabras, and I had no problem whatsoever on pairing. Furthermore they have wasy much better sound isolations than the airpods and way much better reviews.
And the design of the airpods are really ugly, making you look you have anthennas coming out of your ears.
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Sadly, Apple have become a luxury phone company, that wants to milk its users for every penny designing disposable appliances more than computers.
Furthermore the upgrade cycles of 4years+ show you how far behind Apple is in both design and innovation.

In 2016 I had to buy a Macbook Pro for my son and was waiting for the 2016 model. Once I saw what they released I bought the 2015 right away. And history proved me right. The Macbooks Pro 2016+ were a disaster.
Many Pro studios got tired of waiting building hackintoshes for actually twice the power and half the price of a Mac Pro or iMac Pro.

Does Apple creates great phones and iWatches, yes. Computers... not anymore. It is just sad believing that innovation is creating a credit card, animojis, or Iwatch bands...
This past event was one of the worse Apple presented and the previous week upgrades showed you how much Apple cares about creating innovative computers.
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Homepod came late and overpriced. In addition Siri suks big time. Regarding Airpower, A product that does not lunch it is not innovative. It is a failure.
It does not matter how cool a car design looks if you cannot turn it on and drive.

You aren’t breaking news. Everyone knows the story last quarter and it was almost entirely a China story.

One quarter isn’t a trend and for the trailing 12 months, China revenue was still up.

iPad and Mac both hit revenue records. They are mature products and you won’t necessarily see unit sales growth forever. That’s fine.

Wearables and services are growing double digits.

 

[I7guy]

IT seems that you got stuck in the Commodore 64 designs... That you are programming computers does not mean you understand about design. I also have been using Apple since SE30 and today Apple's policies towards both innovation and upgrading are insulting, especially to the Pro users.

Maybe as you are suggesting to the other fellow that programming doesn't mean understanding of design that equivalently because you have been using apple for a while doesn't mean your personal definition of innovation matches reality?

You can see how Apple is innovating based in the pathetic upgrade announcements they did before the recent Apple news event.

No that meets the definition of innovation. Put an nfc chip in the phone. Some people said it was typical apple, too late and too restricted. Brand a pay system call apple pay. Some people said it would never work. (well it is). Now build a financial services ecosystem around apple pay. Some people are saying the same thing about this as they about Apple pay. They'd be wrong now also.

What is innovating about creating a credit card? Althoug it might be great, is not product innovation, and further more when you are partnering with Goldman Sachs a company that has defrauded thousands of customers.

See above. You may not be the target market for this credit card, but I'm sure there will be many others.

Sadly, Apple have become a luxury phone company, that wants to milk its users for every penny designing disposable appliances more than computers.
Furthermore the upgrade cycles of 4years+ show you how far behind Apple is in both design and innovation.

You may not be the target demographic for apple products today. According to many there is great competition. If you are an investor, see the products, keep the stocks and follow Buffet's lead.

Homepod came late and overpriced. In addition Siri suks big time. Regarding Airpower, A product that does not lunch it is not innovative. It is a failure.
It does not matter how cool a car design looks if you cannot turn it on and drive.

The calendar and price have absolutely nothing to do with what innovation is about. Like some who scoffed at Apple Pay, the home pod will be that same level of success. The homepod, like apple pay, may not be for everybody, and that is okay.

 

[Arran]

Quick question.. how do you place Apple Watch with metal bands flat on Airpower?

You can't... hence Airpower's concept was flawed from the start, Nomad's works on all and the fact that it's magnetic gives you a pleasant experience that it snaps into place.

Furthermore, how do you promote your premium-priced wireless charging product when it only works with the "cheap bands"? It would take an advertising genius to pull it off.

 

[cmaier]

Maybe that's why apple discontinued the milanese loop and link bracelet. Seems like a petty reason. Proud owner of series 0 link bracelet here..

The Milanese loop opens all the way up now (since series 4). It has not been discontinued.

 

[Arran]

You can, at least with the NEW Milanese loops. They pull all the way open, unlike the old ones.

Yeah, but that was a backwards step in the evolution of the Milanese. Now you have to thread the end through the slot every time you put it on and there's the added risk of the end slipping out of the loop on it's own and the watch falling to the ground.

And now it's all for nothing.

 

[clauzzz203]

The Milanese loop opens all the way up now (since series 4). It has not been discontinued.

You’re talking about the fabric one with velcro?

 

[Peperino]

I know the above and my reply is OT, sorry.

I got a "late 2014 model" 15 inch MBP in Jan 2015, and I also picked up a 2014 13" MBP last year for something easier to haul around, which of course my son "borrowed" for college since his 2012 15 inch rMBP is also "too heavy" to haul around to classes.

I hadn't seen anything worthy of replacing my four year old 15" MBP until the new quad core 13" MBP that recently came out (I want smaller). Is the new 13" 4-core not a worthy replacement, and why is it a disaster?

The new keyboard on all Macbooks is a failure. They removed one of the best features ever, the Mag Safe.
In addition, they made it a complete disposable non-upgradable appliance. You cannot upgrade neither Ram nor Internal SSD. There are more reasons, but those are the mos important.

 

[Onelifenofear]

This has to do with Apple's arrogance, rather than build on existing technology (Qi), they decide to reinvent the wheel and create their own properitary technology.

I'd say I hope they learned the lesson, but doubt it, they are blinded by their successes.

Sidebar: it looks like macrumor moderation team is taking the news hard! Lol, it's ok, it's just another Apple fail

Er... you know that it's Qi technology they are using. They just wanted to have plate you could drop 3 items on to charge wherever you left them... I imagine 3 iphone xs might have led to heating issues.

Only children use the world fail like this now... it's not 2013.

 

[Peperino]

The calendar and price have absolutely nothing to do with what innovation is about. Like some who scoffed at Apple Pay, the home pod will be that same level of success. The homepod, like apple pay, may not be for everybody, and that is okay.

As always you are putting excuse after excuse of what you consider innovative, and mention wearables and iPhones trying to justify the pathetic upgrade cycles of Apple.
There are many things that you cannot do in iPhones and Watches, such as design, video editing, coding, among many other things.

See above. You may not be the target market for this credit card, but I'm sure there will be many others.

More than the actual service of creating a credit card, I have a very big problem of Apple partnering with a company that defrauded hundred of thousands of customers.
If you are ok with that, then you have a short term memory and seemed to forgot what happened on 2008.

 

[Baymowe335]

I find it interesting that a company with so many engineers and so much money had difficulties creating in-essence a large wireless charging pad. Information suggest Apple tried to use 24 inductive charging coils in a small package and no doubt it had no fans or air vents to dissipate heat from all those inductive charge coils - complete overkill. Reports also indicated the custom ios-based OS control system could not cope either. Information also indicates that engineers at Apple were told "this cannot be done" as effectively is trying to change the laws of physics, yet Apple thinks they know better. Its an example of what sounds good in theory can be very hard to make a reality with the tech these days.

Additionally, wireless charging takes longer than conventional AC adapter charging due to the lower output power of the device, so convenience wise its ab fab, but realistically and time-wise its just an expensive low-powered charger that happens to have multiple charging coils, but alas physics wins this time.

You are just speculating and arm chair engineering. They tried to do something different and it doesn't work to their standards. Move on. They've done tons of other stuff that's amazing and they clearly know how to engineer hardware. Look at the Watch, AirPods, iPad, iPhone....etc.

 

[trifid]

The Milanese loop opens all the way up now (since series 4). It has not been discontinued.

I was doing some more research on this and it looks like nothing metal should ever touch the airpower or it'd cause coils to overheat. Apple did apply for a patent to deal with "foreign objects" but from what I read the technology wasn't mature enough and there were too many use cases/variables to take into account which didn't make it feasible.

https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/25/apple-airpower-patent/

https://www.patentlyapple.com/paten...-for-airpower-that-uses-machine-learning.html

So even the milanese bracelet wouldn't have worked.

I really think the concept was flawed from the start. It needed NASA-grade engineering, a ridiculous amount of coils, it wasn't going to work with metal bands and what was the final price going to be, $300 for what it seemed like a flat piece of plastic to the untrained eye?

In reality other solutions offer the same convenience for 99% of use cases, and in some cases are superior in terms of value/cost, like Nomad's for example which works perfect with metal bands.

 

[I7guy]

As always you are putting excuse after excuse of what you consider innovative, and mention wearables and iPhones trying to justify the pathetic upgrade cycles of Apple.
There are many things that you cannot do in iPhones and Watches, such as design, video editing, coding, among many other things.

We disagree on the definition of "innovation", which leads me back to original comment about innovation being a personal definition. Including me. But that is what internet discussions are all about. That one can't do EXACTLY on an iphone, galaxy, oppo, what one can do on a high powered computer is a red-herring discussion.

More than the actual service of creating a credit card, I have a very big problem of Apple partnering with a company that defrauded hundred of thousands of customers.
If you are ok with that, then you have a short term memory and seemed to forgot what happened on 2008.

Goldman-Sachs the last I looked is still a relevant force. That you have an issue with whatever your past grievances are, is not stopping the ball rolling and you are certainly free to NOT get an apple credit card. The horse has already left the barn on this.

 

[Radon87000]

If Steve Jobs was alive, this would have already shipped by now. Cook is so wrapped up in profits that he doesn’t have an ounce of innovation for hardware.

 

[cmaier]

You’re talking about the fabric one with velcro?

No. The metal one.
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Yeah, but that was a backwards step in the evolution of the Milanese. Now you have to thread the end through the slot every time you put it on and there's the added risk of the end slipping out of the loop on it's own and the watch falling to the ground.

And now it's all for nothing.

No, you only have to do that every time you put it on if you actually pull the end out, which you would only do if you had an airpower.

It requires a good tug to pull it out - it's not like it comes out every time you take off the watch. In fact, it took me months before I even knew you could do it.

 

[btimlake]

Am I alone in thinking this is really not a big deal since AirPower was a super-boring product, anyway? I like inductive charging for my phone, but I actually have that charger positioned pretty far away from my watch charger when they're both charging. I know experiences can be variable, and for that reason I'm doubting there really was a huge clamor for one pad that could charge three items (that not everyone has) all at one time and in the same area.

 

[I7guy]

If Steve Jobs was alive, this would have already shipped by now. Cook is so wrapped up in profits that he doesn’t have an ounce of innovation for hardware.

For the first, I highly doubt it. For the second, it seems like a rehash of the usual hyperbole.

 

[imola.zhp]

ROFLMAO

Now go to Amazon and find a charger that works for you. Those that have been waiting on this to start using the wireless charging feature of their devices have been missing out. I have them everywhere.

 

[Radon87000]

For the first, I highly doubt it. For the second, it seems like a rehash of the usual hyperbole.

4 innovative product lines from Jobs which weren't vaporware. What was supposed to be the first innovative wireless charging on the market cancelled. Its quite clear Cook just doesn't have the same drive for hardware innovation now that he has found a new profit source in services

 

[I7guy]

4 innovative product lines from Jobs which weren't vaporware. What was supposed to be the first innovative wireless charging on the market cancelled. Its quite clear Cook just doesn't have the same drive for hardware innovation now that he has found a new profit source in services

Except that Cook has had his own string of innovations and yes, services are now officially a profit center. Something Jobs couldn't do.

 

[trifid]

Except that Cook has had his own string of innovations and yes, services are now officially a profit center. Something Jobs couldn't do.

That's yet to be proven. All the services Apple has right now all center around the iPhone (a Jobs creation), iCloud storage, app store, Apple Music. If the iPhone dies, most of the services will die. So Apple is still heavily dependent on hardware. Apple could branch out with the upcoming services like Apple TV+, and making Apple Music on more devices, but I don't think Apple has yet proven they can do services better than the competition.

Apple Music still doesn't dethrone Spotify. iPod did dethrone everyone else in the world for a long time, competition couldn't catch up. Apple Music doesn't, it was late to the game, the interface isn't the best example good UX, curation and custom playlists are still behind Spotify, the social component of it failed too.

There is still a heavy burden for Apple to truly prove itself in the services area.

 

[SidricTheViking]

I wonder what percentage of the comments in this thread are actually about the article? 50%...less..more?

 

[VictorTango777]

Instead of plain wireless charging pad, I bought a LED desk lamp with QI wireless charger:

https://www.taotronics.com/c/with-wireless-charging.html
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Or the easier answer is - you don't. To me, it's like the people complaining that the AirPods don't fit their ears. Then don't use them, and find another product more suitable for you.

It's that simple.

But then you and others would criticize those people for not buying the AirPods.

 

[Abazigal]

But then you and others would criticize those people for not buying the AirPods.

Why would I?

 

[dotzero123]

I'm just glad they didn't sell us a $200 piece of garbage to complain about. I'm over it already. Have purchased so many substandard tech products in my life I'm happily holding on to the money I might've spent.

 

[Arran]

It requires a good tug to pull it out - it's not like it comes out every time you take off the watch. In fact, it took me months before I even knew you could do it.

Interesting. I need to check this out myself in an Apple store.

I wanted to buy a gold Milanese as a gift when they were first released, but I'd read (here on MR) that the end slips out making it a drop-risk. So the gift was a no go.

I'll be happy if what you say checks out. Thanks!