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What Finally Killed AirPower

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Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#181

Post by nickflood »

jackpeterfletch wrote: post #173

One major benefit that I've come to appreciate is that it can't break. My S8 usb-c stopped working about a year ago. Wouldn't have considered a wireless charger before then.

Writing this just in case it might help. My S8+ had started to lose contact with the charging cable as well within about a year. I thought it was wearing out because I never had any other phone's connector be clogged up, but it really was pocket lint that jammed into the connector. Once I cleaned it with the needle it was like new and very grippy. Since then I've had another friend make the same assumption and "fix" his port like that, so do give it a try if your port does not "hold" the cable as it should.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#183

Post by baq »

oska wrote: post #104
JonathonW wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wireless charging’s nice to have at home— it’s pretty convenient to just be able to throw my phone on the charger at night and have it charged in the morning, without having to mess with a cable. The real killer app for me, though, is wireless charging in the car. I’ve got a Qi charger built into my car (and Qi phone mounts are readily available as retrofits for cars that don’t) and it’s really handy (and likely safe…

> and it’s really handy (and likely safer) to be able to just throw my phone in the pad if I realize it’s low while driving Why are you doing anything with your phone, including ascertaining it's on a low charge, while driving ? Plug your phone in at the start of your trip if it needs charging.

Plugging the phone in the car is the most irritating thing to do in my car. Maybe with CarPlay it’s better as I wouldn’t have to fight the mount and the cable.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#184

Post by oe »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #146
azinman2 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people are not like you. I personally don’t plug in at my desk even though a cable is there, as it’s one more thing to do. It’s also then tethered, meaning I have an extra step if I want to walk away and bring my phone with me. It’s also tethered meaning I have a loose cable now dangling in my way, which aside from functional issues is also ugly to look at. I know many who almost never charge their phones, essen…

All of which is covered by having a dock as the act of picking it up breaks connection. With the added advantage they were cheaper than wireless, and unlike AirPower actually available.

I had a dock and replaced it with wireless charger as soon as they were available. The ease of just placing your phone on a surface vs. lining up your phone with the dock is well worth it.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#185

Post by xtiansimon »

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?

A wired charger is a personal item. A charging mat can be a communal space--pads in restaurant tables, bars, and other community spaces. Charging everywhere.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#186

Post by dorkwood »

oblio wrote: post #167
rexf wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know many who almost never charge their phones, essentially always living at 5%. That's amazing since I'm the opposite. I always try to be near or at 100% (both phone & laptop) while I'm at my desk.

That's called (mild) OCD and ordinary people don't suffer from it. Don't feel bad, I do the same, it seems to be a common trait in IT (anyone writing code kind of has to have it...).

If I don't keep my phone at 100% while at my desk, and then I go out somewhere after work, there's a chance my phone will run down to 0% while I'm out, potentially stranding me somewhere.

I don't think that's OCD. It's just planning ahead.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#187

Post by neotek »

OriginalPenguin wrote: post #79
sneak wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>That's 43.5 billion right there.

Apple's filings show that less than one half of one percent of their revenue comes from the entirety of the MFi program, which includes not just the first-party cables they make, but every single licensed iPhone-compatible accessory of any kind anywhere in the world.

It seems silly to me to think that Apple would jeopardise the value of the number one consumer electronics product on the planet, the product that produces 60% of their revenue, by nickel-and-diming customers on cables.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#188

Post by Retric »

durability wrote: post #147
benj111 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument could equally apply to some kind of dock/cradle. With the added advantage of it being propped up into a better reading position, and the possibility of a wired data connection. They never seem to have taken off though. My only guess is because it would only fit one phone/ trap a manufacturer into a form factor.

The difference is with a sock I need to consciously put it in and take it out. Getting a text message with the phone at an angle so I can read it doesn’t matter to me because I still need to pick it up and carefully line it back down to respond. Yes it takes less than a second but you know what’s even more effortless? A wireless charging mat that I can just set my phone onto. Not sure what’s so hard to understand abo…

I can’t use it on a wireless charger. That kills the only use case where I might actually need to charge the device during the day. Playing movies while sick.

Any point where I can’t just charge at night in normal useage means a larger battery is going to win over easier charging.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#189

Post by dwighttk »

wizzard wrote: post #46
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?

I was of the same opinion until I got a charging pad from Costco for Christmas. I decided to try it out to be polite, and was surprised at how much I like it. I don't have to fish for the cable, I don't have to try to plug it into the speakers a few times in the dark before finding the right port, and if I want to pick up my phone to check something really quick I can just do it without unplugging or having to hover…

Yeah I bought some wireless charger off amazon (I think it supports up to 10W, but you know how amazon is) just to try it out and haven’t stopped using it. I really thought it was going to be super gimmicky and that I was going to just keep using a cable.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#190

Post by dwighttk »

Fezzik wrote: post #92
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 not entirely fail-proof - I imagine many people here, including myself, have seen smoldering Apple branded mag-safe, 30 pin, and lightning cables. Moving energy from one place to another, quickly and efficiently, at the small-scale of modern electronics, is tough. I prefer cables for charging, too, but as others have posted wiredless-ness sure is convenient, a la AirPods. I swore by wired headphones until…

Smoldering? What? Your cables are burning?

I’ve seen cracked plastic around the end of the cable, but never burning.

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