Apple Reportedly Testing Wireless Charging Coils for iWatch Ahead of Fall Launch

chrisbru said:
Do people really wear watches to bed? A charging station on the nightstand sounds perfect... I'll take it off and lay it on the charger when I go to bed. I hardly see that as inconvenient.
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I've gotten quite nearsighted, so yes I absolutely still wear a watch to bed. Lots easier to lift my wrist to my eyes, than to try to roll over my wife to see something on the nightstand :)

That said, I now wear a Gear Fit, which I have to take off every three days or so for a couple of hours to recharge it. Not so bad, since I also take it off during a shower, even though it's water resistant and should be fine if left on.

Still, I've often said that it's be nice if there was a way to do an instant recharge while on your wrist, or even have a hot swappable battery somehow.

Samsung's reference SAMI device has an interesting take on this scenario. It uses a temporary "shuttle battery' to carry the juice from a charger to the watch. I.e. you snap the shuttle battery (that's been in a charger all day) onto the wristband when you go to bed, and it recharges your watch while you sleep. Then in the morning you unsnap it and put the shuttle battery back on its charger. Pretty clever, and you never have to remove the watch. Just like a snap on battery charger for a phone.
 
slash7844 said:
And if they do, will everyone here point at Apple for copying?
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Nope. Everybody will be more than happy that Apple has finally caught up, at least WRT wireless charging, to the top of the competition. Even the ones that call wireless charging / Qi a useless gimmick now (and certainly don't know what they don't talk about...).

EDIT: the last part of the above should have been "(and certainly don't know what they are talking about...)", obviously.
 
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kdarling said:
I've gotten quite nearsighted, so yes I absolutely still wear a watch to bed. Lots easier to lift my wrist to my eyes, than to try to roll over my wife to see something on the nightstand :)

That said, I now wear a Gear Fit, which I have to take off every three days or so for a couple of hours to recharge it. Not so bad, since I also take it off during a shower, even though it's water resistant and should be fine if left on.

Still, I've often said that it's be nice if there was a way to do an instant recharge while on your wrist, or even have a hot swappable battery somehow.

Samsung's reference SAMI device has an interesting take on this scenario. It uses a temporary "shuttle battery' to carry the juice from a charger to the watch. I.e. you snap the shuttle battery (that's been in a charger all day) onto the wristband when you go to bed, and it recharges your watch while you sleep. Then in the morning you unsnap it and put the shuttle battery back on its charger. Pretty clever, and you never have to remove the watch. Just like a snap on battery charger for a phone.
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That's a really cool idea, I'm interested to see how it works in real life.
 
dragje said:
I wonder how safe this wireless charging will be. I'm not being paranoia here, I don't believe all of the rumors that WiFi could be dangerous or the phone connector points where some people are complaining about stating it gives them head pain among other things, but to put your phone or in the near future close to your head while sleeping to "measure" your so called sleeping patterns while being charged with a device ranging closer then one meter away from your brains.... makes me wonder how "safe" all of these things will be...
Especially when being used on daily bases.
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Why do you wonder if they are safe? What do you base this concern on?
 
Wireless charging up to a meter away?!

If true that would make it easy re battery life. Have the charger on your bedside table, charges while you sleep. Although i wouldn't want to be woken up with the unit over heating on my wrist!
 
SlCKB0Y said:
Why do you wonder if they are safe? What do you base this concern on?
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Well, I don't. I just wonder where the safety is based on. I'm no scientist, and I don't want to jump to conclusions because I've no reason to do so but I do wonder 'if' this all is safe. To be more precise, what's the basis to state this all is safe?
 
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