A Guy Walks into an Apple Store • Hacker News Board

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#381

Post by counterplex » Thu, Oct 29, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

samatman wrote: post #38

Literally every one of the existing options still works. Ok with charging at 5w? Plug your lightning-to-A cable into the little tiny cube charger they've been selling since forever. Already have a faster USB charger? It works. Ok with Qi at 7W? Works Oh, you want the new shiny MagSafe puck system? Great. Buy it. This analysis completely ignores that the new shiny system is supposed to be a better experience . It's co…

> This analysis completely ignores that the new shiny system is supposed to be a better experience

Having used a Qi charger for my existing phones and a MagSafe charger for my Apple Watch, I can say that I prefer the non-MagSafe Qi charger for my phone. It's the one that most gives the illusion of truly wireless charging.

With MagSafe charging now I imagine I'll have to lift my phone and presumably detach the MagSafe puck at the same time, making it more cumbersome than what I do now, which is just lifting the phone off the Qi charger. I verified this hypothesis here: https://youtu.be/XDKPNwC-5D4?t=185

While there will likely be sticky/weighted versions of the MagSafe charging puck to alleviate this issue at some point, this is not a better experience as designed.

I'll likely continue to use a generic Qi charger for my phone

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#382

Post by majewsky » Thu, Oct 29, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

sgerenser wrote: post #372

majewsky wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> few cities have [municipal heat] and the number keeps getting smaller each year I'm assuming by "municipal heat" you mean district heating. Can you explain why those systems keep getting rarer in the US? Over here in Europe, we are investing a significant amount of money in expanding those systems and connecting more houses.

Natural gas is dirt cheap in the US. Except in extremely dense urban environments with the physical plant already in place (NYC is the only one I can think of), it just would never pay back financially to use district heating. And if greenness/efficiency is the goal, using extremely efficient heat pumps and solar are probably a bigger win in most areas of the U.S.

My own district heat is also coming from a natural heat power plant, FWIW. I wager it's more efficient because they also produce electrical power (the heat is what remains in the steam after it's been run over the turbine to generate electricity).

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#383

Post by pavlus » Fri, Oct 30, 2020, 12:57 AM UTC

californical wrote: post #172

ashtonkem wrote: post #143

I really hate arguments about how much electricity wireless phone charging wastes because it makes people feel like they’re doing something when in fact they aren’t. Charging a cell phone every day for a year consumes about 1-2 kWh per phone. The average American household consumes 10,399 kWh per year, meaning that a typical smart phone consumes one 5000th, (0.02%) of a typical home’s electricity (excl. natural gas)…

2-3kWh seemed impossibly low to me, so I checked, and yup, that’s amazing. A phone battery at 5V and 2500mAh (probably about the average) is approximately 12.5Wh of energy storage. Even if you used the entire battery every day, we’re talking 4kW per year, costing ~60¢ in the US. Your phone battery could only power a standard 60W incandescent lightbulb for 12 minutes, but powers your phone for hours. That’s amazing!

Add there losses on battery charging and downconversion from grid, night time charge keeping, and you can easily get 40-50% more, so 2-3kWh is really optimistic, aim at 6-7kWh, and that's on wired charger.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#384

Post by Siira » Fri, Oct 30, 2020, 11:12 AM UTC

MengerSponge wrote: post #159

hombre_fatal wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do notice a certain glee we have when we can frame other people wasting energy in ways we don't happen to waste ourselves. As if wireless phone charging or bitcoin mining or X are the last unturned stones in the pursuit of zero waste. Some condescension we can share on HN before we drive to Walmart for a single gallon of milk. It's weird how tempting it is. I had a roommate that used our clothes dryer daily. I have…

Lol at your false dichotomy with bitcoin. Bitcoin mining uses a mind-boggling amount of power, and we don't get anything useful for all those emissions. I agree that we're quick to look at other people's small wastes with condescension, but bitcoin is not a small waste.

We get a distributed ledger that’s very expensive to tamper with. Coordination is costly, rationality 101.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#385

Post by gizmo » Fri, Oct 30, 2020, 11:33 AM UTC

diebeforei485 wrote: post #184

ashtonkem wrote: post #143

I really hate arguments about how much electricity wireless phone charging wastes because it makes people feel like they’re doing something when in fact they aren’t. Charging a cell phone every day for a year consumes about 1-2 kWh per phone. The average American household consumes 10,399 kWh per year, meaning that a typical smart phone consumes one 5000th, (0.02%) of a typical home’s electricity (excl. natural gas)…

Do we have a % efficiency figure for MagSafe specififally? How does it compare vs wireless charging in general?

It's marginally better because of the magnets that align the charger and the phone precisely.