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Wireless charging comes to Apple's iPhone
- Thread starter Eminemdrdre00
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Who here scours the house for the AC adapter? Yeah, that's what I thought. We all use that antiquated Civil War-era USB cable attached to our computer.
I didn't see the point of this with the Pre, and I just don't see the point of it anywhere. Is the total inconvenience of plugging in a cable worth that $80? I mean it's not really wireless. Your iPhone is just covered in the wire. When I can sit my iPhone 10 feet away from whatever is charging it, THEN it's wireless.
I'd much rather have wireless syncing over WiFi. It would be slower than USB, but I could then have any given dock on a counter somewhere and sync overnight.
I didn't see the point of this with the Pre, and I just don't see the point of it anywhere. Is the total inconvenience of plugging in a cable worth that $80? I mean it's not really wireless. Your iPhone is just covered in the wire. When I can sit my iPhone 10 feet away from whatever is charging it, THEN it's wireless.
I'd much rather have wireless syncing over WiFi. It would be slower than USB, but I could then have any given dock on a counter somewhere and sync overnight.
I think it would be cool if Apple would have built the iPhone for a magnet charger/USB connection like the MacBooks use.
I don't see the point either.
It's like this:
Having a 5cm USB charger cable or
Like having an Airport Extreme that only works when your laptop is sitting on top of it.
It's like this:
Having a 5cm USB charger cable or
Like having an Airport Extreme that only works when your laptop is sitting on top of it.
I like that idea as well, but it probably has to do with the seemingly thousands of devices with the iPod dock built in. To add MagSafe would probably mess that stuff up, and Apple probably doesn't think MagSafe is worth making thousands of third-party products obsolete.
As for sammich, you summed up my thoughts exactly. Probably the funniest analogy I have seen in a while.
Along with that, its much more expensive. Each Macbook charger costs 80 bucks ish.
I will bother when the inductive coupling is built in, not before.
For the WildCharge solution I either have to keep an ugly case on my phone at all times, or deal with taking it on and off when I want to charge. Neither of these things are going to happen, even if the device is FREE.
For me, avoiding the simple act of dropping the phone on my dock, or plugging in a cable, once a day, is not worth either $80 or the bulk and appearance of this "solution".
On top of which, syncing CONTENT currently requires a wired connection (not buying, SYNCING), so I am going to be plugging the thing in anyway. It is a rare day that I do not do this at least once.
Just not seeing the point of this as an add-on. Or, without wireless syncing, that much of a benefit to the iPhone at all. For a normal phone it is a reasonable convenience, but then still only if it is built-in.
...
My bad, the damn thing is not even inductive, it just a clever arrangement of powered conductive elements and contacts on the device/skin that incorporate the device-specific voltage/current conversion circuitry.
What happens when my cat hops up on the place I have the pad and knocks any of the devices off the contact strips? I wake up to an uncharged device is what ...
For the WildCharge solution I either have to keep an ugly case on my phone at all times, or deal with taking it on and off when I want to charge. Neither of these things are going to happen, even if the device is FREE.
For me, avoiding the simple act of dropping the phone on my dock, or plugging in a cable, once a day, is not worth either $80 or the bulk and appearance of this "solution".
On top of which, syncing CONTENT currently requires a wired connection (not buying, SYNCING), so I am going to be plugging the thing in anyway. It is a rare day that I do not do this at least once.
Just not seeing the point of this as an add-on. Or, without wireless syncing, that much of a benefit to the iPhone at all. For a normal phone it is a reasonable convenience, but then still only if it is built-in.
...
My bad, the damn thing is not even inductive, it just a clever arrangement of powered conductive elements and contacts on the device/skin that incorporate the device-specific voltage/current conversion circuitry.
What happens when my cat hops up on the place I have the pad and knocks any of the devices off the contact strips? I wake up to an uncharged device is what ...
I see what you mean, however it's a good concept. Imagine in the future being able to just set your phone down on your cars center console, office desk, kitchen table or nightstand and it automatically start charging. I like the idea, but the product, not so much.
Good concept, pointless implementation.
Done right all devices would have the necessary inductive coupling built in, and you could have any flat surface in the house have an inductive charging panel just below its visible surface, as well as in the car etc.
THAT would be wonderful.
This technology is NEVER going to be that. Not unless you like your furniture and surfaces covered with visible electrical contacts anyway ...
One of WildCharge's technology selling points is supposedly how cheap it is to implement. $80 for a bit of plastic with some metal contacts on it and a power supply, then a cheap looking plastic case with $2 worth of voltage regulation and contacts on it ... does not seem "cheap" to me.
Yes I am aware of the need to recoup R&D dollars and of what it costs to get a product to market.
The inductive model (which is not what this is) does not care a lot about orientation, just proximity (power transfer drops off in a ratio equivalent to the square of the distance between source and current in a PERFECT implementation, which is physically impossible anyway).
WildCharge's comments about "not using magnets" (true) and "safe for hardrives" are a bit misleading though. Even if it was inductive, which is an electromagnetic model, it would have to generate a magnetic field strong enough to prevent you picking the drive up in the first place to do any damage whatsoever to the data on the drive.
It would simply not be safe to put anything ferrous near if hard-drive damaging-strength magnetic fields were invoved.
But hey, since when did physics matter to marketing?
bingo, too large of an addition to my night stand as well.... and I couldn't justify using this exclusively as an overnight charger, since I always use my phone while it's charging.
