Future iPhone May Use Customized Wireless Charging System Made in Partnership with Broadcom

[Johnny907]

I still think inductive charging on a phone is less convenient in most cases but I guess it's a selling point.

I agreed until I saw the 2018 Ford Expedition will offer a built in charging pad right in the center console. No more fumbling with plugging in cables, just lay your phone down on the console like you would anyway and boom, wireless charging and wireless connectivity via Bluetooth, including CarPlay.

 

[Fenez]

No one will actually be forced to use wireless charging. You can always just plug it in and charge that way.

 

[truthertech]

I hope Apple removes the lightening plug, seals the whole thing, and goes with proprietary wireless charging. That way, at least some of the people laughing with glee over the removal of the 3.5mm plug, would feel the pain as well.

Unlikely that they would do that since the Lightning plug and port makes makes a whole lot of new technology possible that the 3.5mm didn't. You may not have seen Pioneer's announcement the other day that they are starting to release Lightning equipped headphones because they can offer a lot more. Witness these exciting new ones they are releasing.

https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/14/pioneer-smart-lightning-headphones/

It's a brave new world with Lightning

 

[Kajje]

Wireless will be long range and you'll be able to pay for a charge via iTunes credit.

 

[Analog Kid]

You could also think about the fact the long range wireless charging is not in the iphone itself. So the inductive charging is built into the iphone, but the wireless long range charging will be done in the charging pad/matt.
So when apple finally releases a long range wireless charging matt, it will work with the iphone 7s/8/x, you would just have to buy the pad/matt. So for now you can enjoy inductive charging with a cabled matt/pad and when tech is ready, you can enjoy wireless charging without a cabled matt/pad.
A year after apple will release a case which acts as a base station.

No way this tech will be in the phone itself for the next 3 years.

I'm not following... Maybe I missed something along the way. How do you use the same system for "short range" and "long range" (and how does long range even work)? Why doesn't the "long range mat" need to be cabled?

Apple should look at technology like this
https://singularityhub.com/2017/02/...oom-and-it-will-wirelessly-charge-your-phone/

five years ago, and they would have something to put into iPhone 8.

Now we will most likely get pad-charging.

You saw the part about needing a room made from metal walls, right? Any idea how a cell phone is supposed to work in a metal room? And as happy as I am that they found the specific absorption rate is "at or below" the safety limit, I don't want to spend a lot of time standing in a metal room with kilowatts of power coursing through all of the walls being subjected to fields at at that limit.

 

[Jsameds]

I think it will be both standard and propitiatory, like the Airpods and that Beats range both use W Chips that build on top of Bluetooth whilst still leaving support for vanilla bluetooth underneath.

 

[ValO]

I'm not following... Maybe I missed something along the way. How do you use the same system for "short range" and "long range" (and how does long range even work)? Why doesn't the "long range mat" need to be cabled?

You saw the part about needing a room made from metal walls, right? Any idea how a cell phone is supposed to work in a metal room? And as happy as I am that they found the specific absorption rate is "at or below" the safety limit, I don't want to spend a lot of time standing in a metal room with kilowatts of power coursing through all of the walls being subjected to fields at at that limit.

Ok, sorry, i can see the confusion.
In this post i mean that there will be inductive charging on every iphone (7s/8/x) and that the charging matts/pads this year will have a wire.
Perhaps next year apple will release a charging matt/pad that is completely wireless(long range) but will still work with the 7s/8/x.
So it will be the charging matt/pad that wil have the true wireless hardware it won' t be build into the iphone.
Etc, etc

 

[raghu8912]

Custom. Smh. Another proprietary bit of mullarkey from Apple instead of going with a universal standard. Lovely.

Except Lightning port/cable and probably Apple Watch wireless charging (I am not sure about this) nothing is proprietary in Apple hardware (All hardware not just Phone).
MagSafe was good even though it was proprietary, but that is gone now.
[doublepost=1487622769][/doublepost]

As soon as I cannot use the phone while charging, I won't support that so-called wireless charging.

And it looks like Apple cannot bring a solution to wirelessly transmit power in the next generation of iPhone.

iPhone can still be charged using lightning port, so you are safe.

 

[Analog Kid]

Ok, sorry, i can see the confusion.
In this post i mean that there will be inductive charging on every iphone (7s/8/x) and that the charging matts/pads this year will have a wire.
Perhaps next year apple will release a charging matt/pad that is completely wireless(long range) but will still work with the 7s/8/x.
So it will be the charging matt/pad that wil have the true wireless hardware it won' t be build into the iphone.
Etc, etc

Is there a particular technology you have in mind here? A wireless long range charging mat seems a bit fanciful-- the power has to come from somewhere, doesn't it?

 

[ValO]

Is there a particular technology you have in mind here? A wireless long range charging mat seems a bit fanciful-- the power has to come from somewhere, doesn't it?

Watch macrumors, appleinsider , 9to5 mac , search for energous or google it.
Can't see how you missed this....

 

[Fenez]

Watch macrumors, appleinsider , 9to5 mac , search for energous or google it.
Can't see how you missed this....

I've been watching energous and reading everything I can find, do a little research and you will quickly see that their technology will probably never be rolled out.

 

[ValO]

I've been watching energous and reading everything I can find, do a little research and you will quickly see that their technology will probably never be rolled out.

I don' t think energous is the answer to long range wireless charging, but i know apple is looking into it for several years now, they have a few patents on this tech and a few weeks back it was rumored the iphone 8 would have this tech build in. So apple is working on that. So my comments were a reaction to the statement the iphone x would have this tech built in. And i think that won' t happen for at least 5 years. I thin inductive charging is here to stay for a while and that the matt/pad or stand and later on a case, will be the true wireless charger that will charge the iphone by inductive charging.

This year we' ll get inductive charging with a matt/pad/stand with a wire, and I believe that apple could release a pad/matt or stand within 2 years without a wire,( but in close range of a plugged-in basestation) that will charge the iphone .
The next logical step would be a case, that can charge the iphone wireless( in close range of a plugged in basestation), and perhaps after 5 years, the tech will be in the iphone itself, instead of a matt or a case.

So the inductive charging is the first step, making the charging pad/matt/stand/dock and later on a case, totally wireless will be the next steps.

 

[Analog Kid]

Watch macrumors, appleinsider , 9to5 mac , search for energous or google it.
Can't see how you missed this....

Energous requires wires to their mat/pad/transmitter. The part that was confusing was saying that the current inductive chagring requires a wire to the charging mat and the future "long range" won't. If it uses Energous, it will.

I've been watching energous and reading everything I can find, do a little research and you will quickly see that their technology will probably never be rolled out.

And I'm still not sure how they're managing to transmit enough power to be interesting within current regulatory limits... Energous hasn't described in much detail how they intend to accomplish power transfer, or under what regulations, but as I read FCC 15.249, it limits the field strength to 50mV/m @ 3m in the 5.850-5.875 GHz band that Energous claims to use. That's a crazy small amount of power. Some number of micro-watts if I'm doing the math right. I think self discharge in the phone battery is something closer to a milliwatt.

I'd love to find someone to go into the details with me, but if my interpretation of the regs and my napkin calculations are right, the only way Energous can accomplish what they want is to change the regulatory regime. This might be why nobody is willing to adopt it.

a few weeks back it was rumored the iphone 8 would have this tech build in.

A few weeks back, Energous said they were working with a major manufacturer and the Apple rumor sites encouraged speculation that they meant Apple. It's pretty unlikely that they did:

"One of the largest consumer electronic companies in the world," he said. "I cannot tell you who it is, but I can virtual guarantee that you have products from this company on your person, sitting on your desk, or at home."

 

[ValO]

Energous requires wires to their mat/pad/transmitter. The part that was confusing was saying that the current inductive chagring requires a wire to the charging mat and the future "long range" won't. If it uses Energous, it will.

And I'm still not sure how they're managing to transmit enough power to be interesting within current regulatory limits... Energous hasn't described in much detail how they intend to accomplish power transfer, or under what regulations, but as I read FCC 15.249, it limits the field strength to 50mV/m @ 3m in the 5.850-5.875 GHz band that Energous claims to use. That's a crazy small amount of power. Some number of micro-watts if I'm doing the math right. I think self discharge in the phone battery is something closer to a milliwatt.

I'd love to find someone to go into the details with me, but if my interpretation of the regs and my napkin calculations are right, the only way Energous can accomplish what they want is to change the regulatory regime. This might be why nobody is willing to adopt it.

A few weeks back, Energous said they were working with a major manufacturer and the Apple rumor sites encouraged speculation that they meant Apple. It's pretty unlikely that they did:

"One of the largest consumer electronic companies in the world," he said. "I cannot tell you who it is, but I can virtual guarantee that you have products from this company on your person, sitting on your desk, or at home."

No, with energous it would not require a wire, on their tech website they are talking about wirefree rf receivers, so if (and they are not) there would be charging matts/stands/pads based on their tech , it wouldn' t have wires.

 

[Analog Kid]

No, with energous it would not require a wire, on their tech website they are talking about wirefree rf receivers, so if (and they are not) there would be charging matts/stands/pads based on their tech , it wouldn' t have wires.

Oh, I think you're talking about this thing: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9143000B2/en ?

That looks like what the folks around here would call a "dongle"... It converts from Energous far field to inductive near field. Doesn't that just make the whole system a little more complicated? Instead of having a cable charging your phone, or a cable powering an inductive mat charging your phone wirelessly, you now have a cable powering a transmitter powering a mat wirelessly that in turn is charging your phone wirelessly?

If Energous worked, why not just embed it directly into the device and if it doesn't, then use a regular inductive charging dock?

 

[LordVic]

No one will actually be forced to use wireless charging. You can always just plug it in and charge that way.

if it were anyone else but Apple, I'd likely agree. Additive features are always great.

But they did remove the headphone port (I don't want to debate good/bad of it). I just point out that they could have had both, but decided to remove one forcing the other.

so, who knows anymore

 

[ValO]

Oh, I think you're talking about this thing: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9143000B2/en ?

That looks like what the folks around here would call a "dongle"... It converts from Energous far field to inductive near field. Doesn't that just make the whole system a little more complicated? Instead of having a cable charging your phone, or a cable powering an inductive mat charging your phone wirelessly, you now have a cable powering a transmitter powering a mat wirelessly that in turn is charging your phone wirelessly?

If Energous worked, why not just embed it directly into the device and if it doesn't, then use a regular inductive charging dock?

I wouldn' t want to have my phone to my ear while it is charging wireless . That is all.
And i can' t imagine the tech being small enough, when available to implement it in the phone itself.

 

[h4ck]

If it's not long range I don't really see a point in the wireless charging :/

i use it on my iPhone 7, and i think it's amazing. absolutely convenient. I have a cradle at my desk at work, a cradle by my bed.. i just drop my phone on and it's charged. is unplugging a phone that inconvenient? no.....not really. but it's definitely more convenient - i never thought i'd care much about it until i got it. downside is not being able to use the phone in bed while it's charging, so i keep a cable there in case. also, the once-in-a-great-while that i need to copy something off the phone, and it's a huge file.. but otherwise, it's actually pretty neat and convenience to just drop my phone somewhere and it charges. places like ikea are building Qi chargers in to furniture and stuff too.

 

[Mac 128]

Yes, the lightning port is still used for the headphones as the headphone jack is gone. Hope we will go bluetooth in future and loose the port. The one thing I do not like about Apple is the cables, they always break, so I would be happy with wireless charging and bluethooth headsets

And this is exactly why I don't see Lightning hanging around much longer, at least on the iPhone. Apple does not support Lightning audio on anything else. I would not buy a pair of Lightning headphones until Apple demonstrates that they are going to provide support for them on my Mac, and other audio equipment. It's just a wasted investment. If Apple replaces the 3.5mm jack with Lightning on the new MacBook, then I would view that as a commitment. But here we are almost 7 months after the iPhone 7 was released and there's not so much as a rumor of even a USB-C to Lightning audio adapter, much less anything else except iOS devices.

Apple's goal is wireless, not Lightning. And for the purposes of the iPhone, everything Lightning is used for can be replaced with wireless technologies, or a magnetic inductive port like the smart connector, which with an adapter can still use 3.5mm headphones, or Lightning. And if that's the way they're going, that explains the lack of Lightning support outside of iOS, and all the more reason not to buy Lightning headphones.

 

[jujufreeze]

Adopt superfluous Samsung gimmicks and make them proprietary. Great. Don't be too greedy Tim.

 

[h4ck]

if it were anyone else but Apple, I'd likely agree. Additive features are always great.

But they did remove the headphone port (I don't want to debate good/bad of it). I just point out that they could have had both, but decided to remove one forcing the other.

so, who knows anymore

you realize you're saying "i don't want to debate the good/bad of it" and then proceed to argue that i think it's good that they removed it? I'm glad they removed it.

 

[Analog Kid]

if it were anyone else but Apple, I'd likely agree. Additive features are always great.

But they did remove the headphone port (I don't want to debate good/bad of it). I just point out that they could have had both, but decided to remove one forcing the other.

so, who knows anymore

I kind of expect they won't provide both. The only reason I can imagine including inductive charging is if they can remove the lighting port.

I'm in the camp of not caring about redundant features. I don't need many ways to charge, but I need one that I can use everywhere. Right now, Lightning serves that need. If there's lightning and inductive, I'll probably still only use lightning. I take a charging puck for my watch when I travel, and I'd be willing to take 2 if they're that size. I don't want to tote one of those Samsung softballs with me for every device though.

 

[LordVic]

you realize you're saying "i don't want to debate the good/bad of it" and then proceed to argue that i think it's good that they removed it? I'm glad they removed it.

Nothing wrong with that. It's something you are fine without, despite this being the Internet in 2017, you are still entitled to an opinion and I respect that.

All I ask is that is that you (general you, not specific you), respect that I have an opinion that I think the best phone includes as many possible features as possible. Even redundant ones where there is an extremely large and current need.

 

[JGRE]

And this is exactly why I don't see Lightning hanging around much longer, at least on the iPhone. Apple does not support Lightning audio on anything else. I would not buy a pair of Lightning headphones until Apple demonstrates that they are going to provide support for them on my Mac, and other audio equipment. It's just a wasted investment. If Apple replaces the 3.5mm jack with Lightning on the new MacBook, then I would view that as a commitment. But here we are almost 7 months after the iPhone 7 was released and there's not so much as a rumor of even a USB-C to Lightning audio adapter, much less anything else except iOS devices.

Apple's goal is wireless, not Lightning. And for the purposes of the iPhone, everything Lightning is used for can be replaced with wireless technologies, or a magnetic inductive port like the smart connector, which with an adapter can still use 3.5mm headphones, or Lightning. And if that's the way they're going, that explains the lack of Lightning support outside of iOS, and all the more reason not to buy Lightning headphones.

This was exactly was I was saying, why the long comment?:
Yes, the lightning port is still used for the headphones as the headphone jack is gone. Hope we will go bluetooth in future and loose the port. The one thing I do not like about Apple is the cables, they always break, so I would be happy with wireless charging and bluethooth headsets.