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What Finally Killed AirPower

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Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#201

Post by rzzzt »

arvinsim wrote: post #179
lugg wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your buying Apple. Price as an argument is long gone. This whole thread is really asinine. Wireless charging is a seamless, elegant solution to a problem. It is not the only solution. It is not a perfect solution. It is not the cheapest solution. It is not the most cost effective solution. It is likely not the best solution for your battery life. Docks and wires are not an elegant solution. That's all the argument is…

You need to take your own advice. Cables were never old, painful nor requires thought. I see the cable, I plug. Your side is just that, an opinion.

MagSafe was in the sweet spot IMO. Doesn't require too much alignment, symmetrical pinout, disconnects quickly and safely, low mechanical wear from use.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#202

Post by jaclaz »

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.

Yep, and curiously enough it is exactly the way cordless phones have been designed for years.

For someone "on the move" the dock or the wireless chargers are equally unsuitable, for those (most of users I believe) that simply plugin their (smart)phone placing it on their night table when they go to sleep they are pretty much the same, the "you can lay it down in every orientation" doesn't seem to me such a needed feature.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#203

Post by danaris »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #139
_bxg1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is what I never understood, even slightly. Why not just give an iPod / iPhone dock without all the wireless bullshit? I prefer a dock as it holds phone at a handy angle, syncs, and doesn't have the myriad of drawbacks of bluetooth. Smartphone battery life is so shit, on every model, that I always plug my phone in. Even if the cable / socket is only going to be around for minutes. So no saving here. In the days o…

A great many people use cases for their phones.

Very few docks support more than a tiny fraction of the cases available.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#204

Post by nvarsj »

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?

Have you ever tried fumbling with cables in the dark when going to bed? It’s not a huge thing, but wireless charging is a nice quality of life improvement. Try using it for a couple weeks and it will be hard to go back.

The other small benefit is less wear on the charge port. It’s not such an issue for usb-c or lightning ports, but micro usb ports have terrible reliability in my experience. All my android devices developed a broken micro usb port after a year or two of plugging it in over and over.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#205

Post by emilfihlman »

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?

Connector wear and obstruction is real and can make charging or wired interaction extremely hard or even impossible. Connectors also have a lifetime.

For example, my phone's (Samsung Galaxy S6) port has dirt in it that I can't get out, some micro USB connectors wont fit and all of them don't stick in and readily fall out. This is one of the reasons I absolutely loathe and hate micro USB. It's just an extremely bad connector.

Compare this with my Surface Pro 3 (or the magnetic Mac chargers): the magnetic charger is wonderful and Just Works.

Wireless charging is the next step. Sure, you need the pad and it's not as readily movable but damn it's effortless.

Personally I'd prefer magnetic connectors, though.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#206

Post by sfifs »

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?

So I used to think the same until one day I dramatically learned the utility of wireless charging.

I was traveling on a 30 hour journey with two airplane changes from Asia to the US. Some combination of temperature and humidity changes led to condensation in the charging port my phone basically refused to charge from USB C irrespective of what I tried to dry it out. I barely managed to save enough battery to send a "arrived safely" msg home and book an Uber to the hotel since I landed close to midnight. I could buy a cheap burner phone the next day but all data is on my regular phone. I luckily found a mobile store carrying a wireless charger and was able to get my phone going again.

It's happened a few more times and now I never travel without the wireless charger.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#207

Post by fma »

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 have a Samsung phone. Wife has Apple. We can charge using the same charger.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#208

Post by coredog64 »

rexf wrote: post #153
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…

> 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.

I do this too, so don’t take this as criticism.

Isn’t this bad for the battery? ISTR you want to keep the battery between 20 and 80 percent. More than that and it winds up heating up the battery during charge. Or is that just for electric cars?

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#209

Post by Raidion »

bestnameever wrote: post #98
etatoby wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should have a positive effect, because you're avoiding larger charges and keeping your battery at optimal levels.

i've found what I believe to be the heat generated by wireless chargers to have a negative effect on my battery longevity. Personally, I avoid them now after being a huge advocate from them. The reality is, Battery life on phones have improved to the point that I also rarely need to charge my phone anymore other than what I'm about to go to sleep anyway.

It's not the heat, it's the increased use. when you're hardwired, you get enough power that your phone just bypasses the battery. If you use a charging mat, you still 'run' from battery. This means increased cycles which reduces battery life.

Re: What Finally Killed AirPower

#210

Post by Yetanfou »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #139
_bxg1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is what I never understood, even slightly. Why not just give an iPod / iPhone dock without all the wireless bullshit? I prefer a dock as it holds phone at a handy angle, syncs, and doesn't have the myriad of drawbacks of bluetooth. Smartphone battery life is so shit, on every model, that I always plug my phone in. Even if the cable / socket is only going to be around for minutes. So no saving here. In the days o…

> Smartphone battery life is so shit, on every model, that I always plug my phone in.

Buy a better phone next time. I'm currently using a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 which lasts about 5-6 days on a single charge (10-15 hours of screen-on time), before that I used (and still use when doing 'dangerous' work) a Motorola Defy which lasted almost as long on a single charge. Neither of these phones were the newest or thinnest when I bought them, both of them have a relatively large battery (4000 mAh in the Xiaomi, 1750 mAh in the (> 8 years old) Motorola). Neither phone had the fastest SoC when they were launched.

I also removed all bloat from the devices before using them, either by swapping the default Android distribution for an alternative of by disabling/removing unwanted packages. This alone adds a day or two to the longevity.

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