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Report Claims AirPower 'Doomed to Failure' Unless Apple Can Resolve Multiple Ongoing Engineering Issues
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I'd rather buy my power from Anker anyways; I don't really see the value-add from an assuredly premium-priced Apple power mat.
But even before the recent i9 issues there have been so many occasions where Apple have prioritised form over function which resulted in thermal throttling
I don’t see any wires between the charger and the phone. It is wireless. No need to be obtuse.
I don’t think Apple wants to bring a simple “me too” product to market. They wanted something better, more useful—and something they could charge a premium for. They may or may not be able to do that. They obviously thought they’d be able to last September, though.
It's either you own an old version of Apple Watch or you bought the wrong version of Qi charger. Amazon is actually selling a wider Qi charger that looks like the AirPower and charges Apple Watch and iPhone at the same time. The only missing is the special effects prompting on iPhone charging status, that thing has no practical use anyway. Save your money don't just throw them to Apple your just giving the ideas that you're willing to pay premium mentality.
Apple wants to build a place your device anywhere charger. Apple doesn't want to do a similar design because everyone already does that. They want to build something that no one else has. Something that stands out. Unfortunately, if rumors are true, their reach exceeds their grasp. Philosophically admirable, but probably should have kept that goal to themselves until they had it more fleshed out.
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Apple's idea is probably that the user doesn't need to think about how they place their apple devices on the charging pad. Just put it anywhere and it charges. It's certainly more than just 3 wireless chargers glued together. I mean, heck, it even runs its own OS!
But I guess past a certain point, the effort entailed may simply not be worth the benefits here.
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Forgot the sarcasm tag? Apple devices are pretty much the only electronics in my home for which I have to buy new chargers every 1-2 years because the old ones get frayed and wires are exposed. Same thing on iPhones and Macbook chargers.
I understand that wireless is better than wired, but when the tech required to achieve it is this complicated and probably very expensive, I don't know if it's really worth it. Right now it sounds a bit silly that we'd be too lazy to physically plug the device in to charge once a day, using extremely simple and cheap technology.
I think that something that replaces an existing solution should:
I think that something that replaces an existing solution should:
- Present a significantly better solution, not just a slightly better one
- Be priced according to how well it performs in replacing the previous product.
In the end, Apple got a bit too ambitious with the AirPower charger. Most other wireless pad charges charge one device at a time, not multiple devices at a time.
I don't get how they can build highly complex products like the iPhone but can't manage to get a charging mat to work.
For me the issue is that I can no longer trust something will ship until it ships in mass quantities. I replaced a Galaxy S7 with the X, and a huge part of that was due to wireless charging. Thankfully I can use my old Samsung Qi chargers, but as someone who also purchased airpods and an apple watch, I was really excited for this single mat charger. I was particularly excited for the airpods charger. Apple announcing AirPower definitely influenced my decision to buy.
And before someone goes all "buy you still got a lot from the device, or you can still use other Qi pads" understand that I don't care. I wanted the simplicity of a single-cable wireless-charging location for all of my devices. And that desire is not unreasonable because Apple showed it to us.
For me the issue here isn't "darn they couldn't do it - at least they didn't ship a crappy product" but rather "never trust us because we will kill a product we promised before we let it lower the bottom line".
There are multiple charging stands that eliminate the placement issue. You can't place your phone in the wrong place one these stands... unless you're intentionally trying to place it in the wrong place. Charge landscape or vertical. You can't miss the charge area.
So are you going to line 3 versions of those up on your bedside table (or wherever your hypothetical AirPower would go), and plug them into a power strip? Apple seems to have taken on too much, engineering-wise, but their solution would be way more elegant for use cases where there are multiple devices.
"Because Apple." Making it device- and location-indifferent externally causes it to be much more flexible and broadly-appealing IMHO. It is all mental manipulation based on customer satisfaction with the ease of use of the thing and how they interact with it every day. Hard to explain, perhaps. But a consumer doesn't have to worry about having an exact inventory of devices to maximize the use of the thing, and they're not constantly reminded that they are missing "a watch" or "the second phone" by looking at the "clearly marked" locations. It's aesthetic overkill, but that minimalist attitude is where Apple has been for a long time.
I get why they are designing it they way they are (though like I said, maybe it's hard to explain), and I think there would be a niche market for the thing (on the level of HomePod, maybe) - but luckily, flops (or even still-born products) in these smaller market areas aren't going to tarnish the brand that badly. I agree with others that I would not have announced the product so early if these reports of engineering challenges are true.
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I’m actually glad this happened to teach them a lesson. Apple has gotten far to cozy in recent years announcing stuff that ships late (messages in the cloud , AirPlay 2, etc etc etc ) or now this product that probably won’t ship at all in its current form for a long time. They need to just stop with all the preview garbage. Announce it when you can get in peoples hands in a few weeks.
Incoming Steve cliche except this time it’s dead on. He would have never allowed a pipe dream like AirPower to be announced so early. And he would have used his laser eye focus to burn whoever came up with iPhone XS MAX
Incoming Steve cliche except this time it’s dead on. He would have never allowed a pipe dream like AirPower to be announced so early. And he would have used his laser eye focus to burn whoever came up with iPhone XS MAX
Exactly - the language used was not accidental as Apple won't want to run afoul of the law on forward-looking statements (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward-looking_statement)
I'd be happy to just get the soothing wireless charging sound they showed with AirPower when wirelessly charging with a normal Qi charger.
No inside info, but if they WERE at 90% or higher in their testing, then they need to re-evaluate their testing milestones instead. Either way, they ****ed up.
Considering the Apple premium placed on it's products it's a foregone conclusion that it will be expensive. Apple rarely makes products for the budget conscious consumer. Apple is a luxury brand.
I thought the same thing, until I saw my wife place her phone X on the Belkin charge pad, vs me plugging in my iPhone 7 plus. It's a quality of life item. I wouldn't classify it as useless - i'd place it in the same category as wireless headphones. Are they necessary? No. Using a wire is just fine. But wireless are sure nice to have. I'd even submit that once you go wireless it may be hard to go back.
That's the iterative process. One day the idea of charging a battery will be a thing of the past. Lifelong batteries or batteries that perpetually charge themselves. The future is limitless.
Sure, that would have been best, especially now that it’s getting to the end of their availability window and it looks like they’re probably not going to make it.
But being over-optimistic is not really the disaster some of the posters here have made it out to be. Apple will be just fine, even if it turns out they bit off way more than they could chew and it never ships.
Apple is not the type a company that will make a statement about the cancellation/delay with the Airpower. But what we do know, is that it likely was announced _way_ too early in September 2017, which is why it likely never had any marketing behind it there after, because of the technical issues that arose that may have led Apple to believe that this would never surface to the consumer.
Regardless, it did sound like a promising product and perhaps it does have a future if they can effectively work out any manufacturing difficulties. But since it has been removed from their website, obviously It won’t be in 2018 anymore.
Regardless, it did sound like a promising product and perhaps it does have a future if they can effectively work out any manufacturing difficulties. But since it has been removed from their website, obviously It won’t be in 2018 anymore.