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iPhone 11 Lineup Said to Include Two-Way Charging Hardware, But Software Disabled

Marzel said:
The charging efficiency is probably very bad. People are complaining about the Samsung Powershare feature as well. Basically, 80% of power is completely lost as heat (Example: one phone loses 15% battery while the other only gains 3%). It might be ok to charge small devices like an apple watch or the airpods but definitely not a phone.
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So if my phone is 100% charged and yours is at ten percent, we'll end up both with 25%? That's not particularly useful then.
 
If these phones are eventually jailbroken, I wonder if the feature could then be turned on. On a side note, I also wonder if iOS 13 has any software references to the two-way charging feature?
 
gnasher729 said:
Any Samsung users out there who could use it, and have actually used it? How efficient is it? If my phone is 100% charged and a friend's phone is on 10%, how much do I lose to get him to 50%?
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I use it all the time for my Samsung earbuds. Works very well for that purpose. The feature turns off automatically once the device device is fuly chraged. Much better than pullng out a protable battery and fumbling around with cords.
 
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Jsameds said:
It only has to be once to make it worth having.
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And would that one time be worth it, if the tradeoff was the FAA banning the phones on planes or in checked luggage because its a battery with charging capability?
Im not saying that was for sure an issue, but we just recently saw Macbooks get travel restrictions due to the batteries, and i remember reading something about charging capabilities being a concern related to lithium-ion batteries.
 
gavroche said:
And would that one time be worth it, if the tradeoff was the FAA banning the phones on planes or in checked luggage because its a battery with charging capability?
Im not saying that was for sure an issue, but we just recently saw Macbooks get travel restrictions due to the batteries, and i remember reading something about charging capabilities being a concern related to lithium-ion batteries.
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Any laptop with USB has charging capabilities.

I don't think that's the reason for the ban. It's because some older Macbook models were recalled due to risk of an unstable battery.
 
randyhudson said:
This seems unlikely. If the hardware were there, why not enable wireless charging when the iPhone is being charged with a lightning connector? You could charge the phone plus another device off one cable. Efficiency isn't an issue for a phone being charged.
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There's no place at my home or at work where I have a single charger. I have one 5x charger in the living room, one in my office, and one at work. Wherever I can charge one phone, I can charge five.
 
Hopefully the cost for the chip and circuitry of this disabled feature isn’t being passed on to customers. Of if it is, it had better be enabled via software at a later date. Just think of how much including this hardware is costing Apple. Even if it’s 10 to 15 bucks per phone, multiply that by millions and that’s some serious scratch, and knowing Apple I don’t think they are going to want to eat that cost.

If it is truly never to be used by Apple, I would image that at some point (maybe already) they’ve retooled a new version of the 11 Pros that don’t have this hardware. Would make financial sense, unless again they’re just passing the cost onto the customer or it would cost more in the long run to retool an iPhone to not include this hardware.
 
G5isAlive said:
It would be a great feature if it worked. How often do you hear a Samsung user bragging about how well it works for them? Never. How many people say they are underwhelmed with the reality on their Samsung? A lot.

It doesn't work. Apple doesn't release half baked products.
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Can you provide links for this recent survey that's been carried out? Maybe a round up of numbers involved.. etc.. you know, the usual stuff to back up claims that you portray to be fact!!
 
Phones batteries on average are already really bad. Why waste that precious battery on other devices is beyond me. Maybe if they are as quick as USB-C charging which takes minimal effort it might be a convenient option.
 
gnasher729 said:
So if my phone is 100% charged and yours is at ten percent, we'll end up both with 25%? That's not particularly useful then.
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It would be if you were both on a trip and planning to meet back up in a few hours but only one of you would have a working phone by then.
 
MarkB786 said:
I use it all the time for my Samsung earbuds. Works very well for that purpose. Have also added a couple hours to my Active watch on a long business trip. Much better than pullng out a protable battery and fumbling around with cords.
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Same here. Powershare works excellent on my s10+ for my galaxy buds and for my Gear S3 watch. Charges pretty quick and doesn't lose so much on the phone. Handy when I don't have my watch charger. Not sure about charging someone else's phone though. The 4100mAh battery still has loads left after charging the watch or the buds. Helps the battery has a huge capacity.

On another note Dolby Atmos sounds terrific on films and music. Have it switched on almost permanently on the s10+. A good addition to the new iPhone.

 
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gnasher729 said:
So if my phone is 100% charged and yours is at ten percent, we'll end up both with 25%? That's not particularly useful then.
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you don't have to be an electrical engineer to see that but there are very few remaining marketable features left and this looks good and "useful" on TV commercials.
 
So obviously we’re paying for the hardware that is unusable. Define efficiency standard!! What is currently making it less efficient and by how much?
 
gnasher729 said:
Any Samsung users out there who could use it, and have actually used it? How efficient is it? If my phone is 100% charged and a friend's phone is on 10%, how much do I lose to get him to 50%?
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it’s not a Charger, to 20 makes sense ... more not.
It would take forever and you have great drain on your side.

what could make sense if he has no charger but You have. Then You only need a lot of time.
 
Optheduim said:
So obviously we’re paying for the hardware that is unusable. Define efficiency standard!! What is currently making it less efficient and by how much?
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To be fair, that would’ve even be the case if the hardware wasn’t inside. What you’re paying is basically the R&D, the hardware is worth nothing basically (with rare exceptions like FaceID). You‘re also paying for the R&D of all the features that will end up in the iPhone 11S/12 with the purchase of the iPhone 11. That’s just how economy works.
 
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Sasparilla said:
I think its more likely Apple realized they were loosing potential Xs / Xs Plus customers to the much cheaper Xr because it had such great battery life in comparison and Apple wanting to fix that profitability drain. Once the Xr came out last year sales of the Xs dived. JMHO...
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Either way to support charging another devices the pros would need more battery length so support your phone and charging another for a bit.
 
I've been looking at tests of PowerShare on Samsung phones and the efficiency seems to be in the ballpark of 20%. If that's the case Apple's decision makes sense.
 
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