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What Finally Killed AirPower

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Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#71

Post by OriginalPenguin »

samtho wrote: post #19
brian-armstrong wrote: post #11

So my phone is charged by a cable. It plugs into the wall on one side and then plugs into my phone on the other. This system works great - I plug my phone in when I go to bed and unplug it when I wake up. The cable is long enough to plug into my phone even if I want to use it in bed. It's easy, cheap and failproof. What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this?

Cables are subject to breaking (specifically the connectors) and given how hard it is for many phones to listen to music via headphones and charge at the same time, I can see the appeal. Also, jacks are only rated for a limited number of cycles (connects, disconnects) due to the fact that there is mechanical connection taking place. In the future, I imagine wireless charging being built into key pieces of furniture (…

USB-C is rated for at least 10,000 disconnects. That's four connects/disconnects a day for more than six and a half years.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#72

Post by joeblau »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #11

So my phone is charged by a cable. It plugs into the wall on one side and then plugs into my phone on the other. This system works great - I plug my phone in when I go to bed and unplug it when I wake up. The cable is long enough to plug into my phone even if I want to use it in bed. It's easy, cheap and failproof. What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this?

There is a book called Personality Plus[1] that you should definitely read because you're most likely a very detailed oriented person. I have friends that are not as diligent as you are with plugging their phones in and their battery is almost dead all of the time. Them having a Qi charging mat is the one saving grace that no finally keeps their phones above the 5% - 20% low power mode battery area that they usually hover in. The cognitive load is just low enough to get them to charge their phones more often if they can just place it on a mat. I'm like you when it comes to charging my phone, but I know quite a few people that are not.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Plus-Understand-Understan...

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#73

Post by skellera »

_bxg1 wrote: post #53
brian-armstrong wrote: post #11

So my phone is charged by a cable. It plugs into the wall on one side and then plugs into my phone on the other. This system works great - I plug my phone in when I go to bed and unplug it when I wake up. The cable is long enough to plug into my phone even if I want to use it in bed. It's easy, cheap and failproof. What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this?

It takes something easy and makes it effortless . Like AirPods, this has a surprising number of implications that you really don't think about until you try it. If I'm just setting my phone down on my desk and it's at 50%, and my cable is right there, I may not bother to plug it in. Especially if I might get up again in 5 or 10 minutes. But if I can just set it down in a particular place and regain a couple percentag…

Does that have an effect on battery life though? Constant micro charges?

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#74

Post by pg_bot »

Could you put a pressure sensor on the pad and only power on the coils directly underneath the object? I assume with software you could selectively turn on/off areas of the mat to manage the heat problems that come with multiple coils being on at once. I could see it being a problem if they were charging all at the same time but you should be able to fake it and call that good enough. All the devices have to charge, but they don't have to all charge at once. I think you could get tunnel vision and forget that.

Could someone who is better qualified tell me why that wouldn't work?

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#75

Post by judge2020 »

quotemstr wrote: post #36

> The FCC rules for wireless charging devices like AirPower are quite strict, and limit exposure to 20 cm (8 in) above the device to 50 mW/cm^2. Who's to say that 50 mW/cm^2 is the right field strength limit? Remember when we couldn't use cell phones on airplanes during takeoff because of the theoretical possibility that something, somewhere might interfere? As it turns out, there was no interference problem, cell ph…

You would risk even one pacemaker failing in light of 'technical progress'?

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#76

Post by quotemstr »

judge2020 wrote: post #75
quotemstr wrote: post #36

> The FCC rules for wireless charging devices like AirPower are quite strict, and limit exposure to 20 cm (8 in) above the device to 50 mW/cm^2. Who's to say that 50 mW/cm^2 is the right field strength limit? Remember when we couldn't use cell phones on airplanes during takeoff because of the theoretical possibility that something, somewhere might interfere? As it turns out, there was no interference problem, cell ph…

You would risk even one pacemaker failing in light of 'technical progress'?

Well, yeah --- just like I'd risk one person getting hit by a train in order to achieve the "technological progress" of rail transport. Every new technology comes with risks. If we focus on the risks and ignore the benefits, we can't make progress, and it's progress that ultimately benefits more people than any amount of harm avoidance.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#77

Post by kbutler »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #16
kbutler wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Nexus 7 2013 whose USB jack no longer works (probably accumulated damage from bumps/drops/general stressors), but wireless charging still works fine. (High-five ThatPlayer who posted at the same time)

Have you checked the port for pocket lint? Believe it or not, that disables more ports than anything else.

I wish that were the case here, as I've "fixed" other ports by lintectomy (and it has been long enough I had to go check it again!) but this is physical damage to the port.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#78

Post by Drdrdrq »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #50
drcode wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably knew they were close to the legal limit and their engineers probably said on a hunch "we can stay beneath the limit and retain adequate power with the right mix of tricks" and then just ended up being wrong on that hunch by a little bit. The laws of physics are very unforgiving.

That's why we have to bend them so often in real life with tricks. In media they can just make something up, we've got to find real solutions. I'm sure that one exists but it's either too expensive currently or not consistent enough yet. Yet being the key word there. I'm sure this will be an elegantly solved issue at some point, just might require some more smarts on the hardware side.

For example detecting where the device is and adjusting the current in separate coils accordingly?

I don't buy the explanation that this is about interferences. It doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem to me.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#79

Post by OriginalPenguin »

sneak wrote: post #34
slimsag wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to make profit is to introduce both the problem and the solution.

The amount of money Apple makes from selling replacement cables due to fatigue due to inadequate (in their opinion “ugly”) strain relief is negligible. Please stop spreading this inaccurate meme. Apple makes money because they sell metric shitloads of $1200 phones and $600 watches and, increasingly, software and services for them. Not cables.

Apple sold 2.2 billion iPhones and 360 million iPads before they stopped reporting numbers.

Assume for every phone or iPad they sell, they average one extra cable (for work, for the car, because it breaks, whatever..)

Apple charges $19 for an extra cable. Assume it costs them $2 to make the cable (and it probably costs much less).

That's 43.5 billion right there. Which even for Apple is not small potatoes. Especially because cables are probably their highest margin product.

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