Apple Still Working to Allow iPhone to Wirelessly Charge AirPods and Other Devices

goonie4life9 said:
Folks, this isn’t about figuring it out but rather a road map for how to stagger the release of features. Apple learned an important lesson with the first HomePod: if you make the initial product too great, there is a limited opportunity for short-term iterations of the product. Year-to-year iterations are Apple’s bread and butter and let’s them keep their margins near or above 40%.
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The first HomePod was so “great” that didn’t sell and it was discontinued quickly, and even months after discontinuation it was easy to find it in stock in several shops…
 
I wonder if this will only work when the device being charged is positioned on the back of the phone, or could it work on either side?
 
I've had a couple of phones now with this feature and I've never used it. I don't see the need for it personally but I know some people use this feature from time to time. I'd never be that desperate to need to charge my ear buds on the back of my phone and if someone else needs to charge their phone they had better have a charger or a power bank with them haha.
 
User 6502 said:
The first HomePod was so “great” that didn’t sell and it was discontinued quickly, and even months after discontinuation it was easy to find it in stock in several shops…
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You’re conflating “great” in terms of consumer demand and “great” in terms of product features. There was no clear iterative upgrade path for the original HomePod.
 
I have my personal idea of what Magsafe “2.0” for iPhones could look like:
- Qi2 compliance
- but also proprietary faster than Qi2 charging
- ultra-short-range wireless data transfer! (on the 60GHz band, that’s already how Apple Watches 7, 8 and Ultra are serviced in the back of Apple Stores!)
- built-in in car dashboards!
- “wired”-like CarPlay via the 60GHz data band when the iPhone is docked in the car dashboard

…AND reverse charging on top of that.

So my bet is that they’re waiting to add all these features in the next major Magsafe iteration, all at once under a “Magsafe 2” marketing umbrella. Otherwise it would be too confusing to keep track of which iPhone support what wireless charging feature.

Magsafe1 is from 2020.

Magsafe2 maybe in 2023 already?

Hints
- first actual chassis design departure since the iPhone 12
- the new chassis style is coming to both the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15
- Apple needs to add support to the new Qi2 standard anyway by the end of this year (that’s the timeline the consortium mentioned)
- this year more than ever Apple needs to generate hype and excitement around Magsafe because usb-C is going to eat their MFI lunch!

So you read it here first, I’m betting on Magsafe2 on the new iPhones this September.


ps: before anyone make that joke, I fully realize “Magsafe2” was a Macbook port from last decade, thank Apple for the confusion
 
MacRumors said:
When attached to an iPhone magnetically, the MagSafe Battery Pack is able to charge using passthrough technology when the iPhone is plugged into a Lightning cable. Charging for AirPods and other devices could eventually work in the same way, connecting to the back of the iPhone and charging at the same time an iPhone does.
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This would make more sense than just reverse charging on the go and draining your iPhone battery.
 
Unless the iPhone has a really high capacity battery, I personally don't see the point. The phone is what needs to have power. That being said, I don't know how much of a drain on a phone would occur by charging AirPods. If it's minimal, then it sounds like a good feature.
 
Why would I want to charge my other devices from mobile wirelessly? If I am on run, it's not possible unless I am resting for at least for half an hour and not touching my phone.
If I am camping, I definitely got a powerbank with me or I must save the battery as long as I can. But Apple gonna show us ads like adventures in Amazon.... a woman goes to sleep in a tent with her apple watch ultra and Airpods pro on her iphone to charge, getting up in the morning with fully charged accessories and 90% battery life left in iPhone.
 
They've already developed the basic technology; that's not the problem here.

What they're stuck on, is trying to develop the flourish that makes it only compatible with their own line of products; and/or the products of their licensees.
 
Reverse charging in its current state is nothing more than a gimmick as its extremely inefficient, we need better density batteries to utilize this. I could see apple limiting the feature to just AirPods and Apple Watch at most, dont expect to start charging each others phones anytime soon.

I tried to charge my iPhone Pro Max from a Pixel 6 phone.....let me just say by the time I got my iPhone turned back on, I had almost two phones without battery....my Pixel 6 lost incredible amount of charge just to give me 10% on my iPhone...I could have just kept the pixel for the entire day up and running if I hadn't attempted to charge my iPhone.
 
contacos said:
Either this or placing your app icons anywhere on the Home Screen will be released before 2040
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This will probably come first. The headset will have all icons top left aligned and humans will develop a new neck shape to accomodate always looking up and to the left.
 
Allthings-I said:
Reverse charging in its current state is nothing more than a gimmick as its extremely inefficient, we need better density batteries to utilize this. I could see apple limiting the feature to just AirPods and Apple Watch at most, dont expect to start charging each others phones anytime soon.

I tried to charge my iPhone Pro Max from a Pixel 6 phone.....let me just say by the time I got my iPhone turned back on, I had almost two phones without battery....my Pixel 6 lost incredible amount of charge just to give me 10% on my iPhone...I could have just kept the pixel for the entire day up and running if I hadn't attempted to charge my iPhone.
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Efficiency doesn't matter if you have the phone plugged into the wall charger, like you would overnight. Then you'd have your phone charging, with the airpods case sitting ontop of it charging too. Two devices getting charged in tandem.
 
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