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Magnetically Attached iPhone 12 Wireless Charger Unveiled Ahead of Apple Event

AdpSydney said:
There are too many messages to sift through so maybe I missed this already being said, but the main advantage here if the charging puck is truly light and tightly secured with magnets is that you can finally continue to use the phone while it’s charging. It’s close to impossible to use the phone in your hands while it’s on a regular contactless charger at the moment. I personally will be very glad if that’s the case.
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All of this clunky breakfix "ingenuity" to what, emulate charging via a cable? Which is already cheaper, faster, efficient and universal. Sure, why not. Let's just please stop pretending they do it for the user or for the "future" and not for their own bottomline.
 
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Mildredop said:
Whilst I wouldn't be surprised if Apple removed the port (it a very Apple thing to do), I've literally just bought a £50,000 vehicle that has Android Auto/Carplay and the phone needs to be plugged in.

What would happen in this case? Because I'm not going to change my vehicle in order to keep using Carplay.
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Well, yeah, buy a new car. :D Or you can just get an older iPhone.
 
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AdpSydney said:
There are too many messages to sift through so maybe I missed this already being said, but the main advantage here if the charging puck is truly light and tightly secured with magnets is that you can finally continue to use the phone while it’s charging. It’s close to impossible to use the phone in your hands while it’s on a regular contactless charger at the moment. I personally will be very glad if that’s the case.
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True... but you can also do that with the existing cable. I use my phone plugged in quite often. Magic! :p

I see your point though.

One downside to magnets is when you lift your phone off the charging pad. Will the pad stick to it? That's the opposite of what I want from a charging pad. I want the pad to stay on the table when I grab my phone. That's the point of these types of chargers.

The Apple Pad better be heavy enough to stay on the table when you lift the phone. I don't want to be fighting with my charging pad every time I grab my phone.
 
To all the “wireless charging” crusaders... The magnets are actually opposite so the phone is flying above the charger providing the “zero gravity”-like experience. It’s call “TrueWireless”.
 
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I don’t even want to think the scratches this charger will make, but if the magnet can still hold with the case, then problem solved... I guess :p
 
ethanwa79 said:
uhhh wireless CarPlay?
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I have 3 vehicles with CarPlay, two 2017, 1 2019. All "high end". None of which support wireless CarPlay. So yeah, wireless CarPlay is the future, but I will bet less that 5 percent of current vehicles support it.
 
otternonsense said:
All of this clunky breakfix "ingenuity" to what, emulate charging via a cable? Which is already cheaper, faster, efficient and universal. Sure, why not. Let's just please stop pretending they do it for the user or for the "future" and not for their own bottomline.
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Well, like the previous iPhones, the 12 will offer BOTH wired and wireless. So we can save this and let it further marinate for when this actually happens. I for one an fine with it. Cables and their connections have failed me too many times to be as rabid.
But where is comes to this wireless gizmo, having magnets sounds like such a great and obvious idea tht i am surpised we haven't seen these on chargers before now.
 
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This misses the point of a 'power mat' wireless charger. I still need two hands to undo the magnetism from the charger. It's the same thing as unplugging a wire. Im confused.....

(unless the magnets are weak and wont require much force to break the bond)
 
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azentropy said:
"Wireless" charging was never been wireless charging. It should be called portless charging.
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Very true.

But the idea is that there's no wires going into the phone... even though there is definitely a wire going from the wall to the charging pad.

Think of WI-FI... it's also called "wireless" networking since there are no networking wires going into your laptop.

Even though I can definitely see a wire going from my cable modem into my router. :p
 
Oh man, I'm so disappointed in the tenor of these comments. Something like this could be so cool.

First of all, as I sit there's an iPhone (out of its case) on my desk sitting having slid off of my charging dock. I want my G-D phone to stay put. Having magnets in it at all ensures that this will never be an issue on 3rd party charging docks.

Second, what I was hoping to see was future speculation that there could be other devices that work with a system like this. An official dock/holder that works magnetically and is always charging would be great. This particular device seems OK, and has more limited use cases. However...

...Third, I'd love to see the retirement of the lightning cable and for Apple to add one (or two) USB-C ports to the iPhone line. The lightning cable should stick around and power accessories like this.

Geez, for MacRumors y'all are **** at speculation and long on shortsightedness.
 
Michael Scrip said:
Ah yes! Good point! 😎
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"Wireless" charging is more or less a solution in search of a problem. Except physically disabled people, every smartphone user should ask him/herself if he/she is so degenerated to be unable to use one hand to hold the phone and the other hand to plug in a cable into the phone... to have a) much higher charging speed and b) much better energy efficiency. But I suspect, some people would prefer to be fed by an iOS-based feeding machine instead of using fork, spoon and knife.
 
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dhoughal said:
"Wireless" charging is more or less a solution in search of a problem. Except physically disabled people, every smartphone user should ask him/herself if he/she is so degenerated to be unable to use one hand to hold the phone and the other hand to plug in a cable into the phone... to have a) much higher charging speed and b) much better energy efficiency. But I suspect, some people would prefer to be fed by an iOS-based feeding machine instead of using fork, spoon and knife.
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Hmm, I don't think this is correct at all. You act like anyone wants to be involved in the charging of their device in any way. I don't need to be involved in how my TV is powered or how my computer is powered. It's annoying managing the powering of my phone and it's just, in my and many peoples' experience, easier to charge a device wirelessly than by plugging it in. See: apple watches vs. fitbits and so on as well.

Edit: Also I've probably physically plugged in my iPhone about 14 times, yet it is currently powered at 100% and has never turned off for any appreciable length of time. By what sorcery have I managed to do this? Or was it this magical solution that is in search of a problem you mentioned before?
 
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rp2011 said:
Well, like the previous iPhones, the 12 will offer BOTH wired and wireless. So we can save this and let it further marinate for when this actually happens. I for one an fine with it. Cables and their connections have failed me too many times to be as rabid.
But where is comes to this wireless gizmo, having magnets sounds like such a great and obvious idea tht i am surpised we haven't seen these on chargers before now.
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You, my friend, are one user. And so am I. If I e.g. like to charge my phone in the shower that doesn't mean anything for product feature decision making en masse.

What kind of cables are you using and you're so bitterly disappointed? My USBc to Lightning cables have not let me down once in the last 2 years. I haven't heard any such issues from friends, colleagues or clients either.

How are magnets "great and obvious" if you have the phone in the same pocket as your credit cards? How does an elaborate inductive charging system equipped with magnets actually help save internal space, which is another (moot) argument for removing the charging port?
 
Sinequanon83 said:
It's annoying managing the powering of my phone and it's just, in my and many peoples' experience, easier to charge a device wirelessly than by plugging it in.
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Yep, and to get rid of this annoyance, let's buy a charging solution which is around 100% more expensive than a cable, produces a lot more electronic and plastic waste, and wastes a lot of energy to warm up your nightstand. Sounds very innovative.
 
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dhoughal said:
Yep, and to get rid of this annoyance, let's buy a charging solution which is around 100% more expensive than a cable, produces a lot more electronic and plastic waste, and wastes a lot of energy to warm up your nightstand. Sounds very innovative.
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lol ok. Like they're not going to produce something. Let's definitely get the whales involved. Brilliant argument. OK.

Also twice as expensive as a cable? On an apple device? Expense? I submit.

(If it's not clear, all the things you said are ridiculous things to say.)
 
Sinequanon83 said:
lol ok. Like they're not going to produce something. Let's definitely get the whales involved. Brilliant argument. OK.

Also twice as expensive as a cable? On an apple device? Expense? I submit.

(If it's not clear, all the things you said are ridiculous things to say.)
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The whole point is to produce something better.
 
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