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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#111

Post by covercash »

ghaff wrote: post #83
gumby wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wanted you to just toss some devices arbitrarily on the mat and have it "just work". The one you discuss requires alignment, like all others -- for a reason! There's a reason the watch has a magnetic alignment setup. I thought you might be able to use a 2D array of small loops but a little bit of modeling shows that to be a pretty dumb idea.

That’s what you really want to get too. A big charging mat you just toss everything on. TBH I don’t find wireless charging today a particularly big win. It’s a bit easier than plugging in a cable. Of course, in the watch, it eliminates a port which is a win for other reasons.

I find Anker 24w fast charging bricks and 10’ lightening cables are a pretty reasonable way to quickly charge Apple devices while still using them. I bought a cheap 5w wireless charging pad to throw my phone on while I sleep.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#112

Post by cogman10 »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #71

I wish we could get some kind of writeup or interview from the RF engineers who worked on Airpower. Overlapping charging coils have been dreamed of pretty much since the origin of induction charging but there must be tons and tons of issues we can't even think of. I'd love to hear their stories.

I wonder how you could do it without seeing some pretty big losses. Wireless charging is already pretty lossy, Dynamic coils though? I mean, I guess you could do it mechanically, but that would still result in less than ideal coils and a noisy device.

If you did it through transistors, somehow, then you'd end up with a lot of loss at each transistor. Too few and you don't make a good field. Too many and the losses would be really high. The cost would be crazy as well. For the transistor approach, I don't know, maybe a big silicon wafer? Maybe just a load of transistors and wires. Who knows.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#113

Post by ihuman »

griffordson wrote: post #105
eridius wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that no one wants Be careful, just because you don't want this doesn't mean no one wants it. The HN crowd isn't Apple's target demographic with this stuff.

I would love to have something that competes with YouTube TV but respects privacy and doesn't funnel even more data to Google. The other live TV services all have absurdly arbitrary DVR limits. Not that Apple's streaming service will compete with YouTube TV, but I wish it would. Also, YouTube TV doesn't work all that great on Apple TV and I'd hope Apple could get that right too.

If you want to watch live TV without tracking for a one-time cost (but with no DVR), you could just get an OTA tv receiver and antenna.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#114

Post by Bud »

Hamuko wrote: post #49
jmole wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be a slimier move to release a $200 charging pad that doesn't work well.

That's nothing for Apple. They have released $2000 laptops that don't work well.

But not on purpose. In this case, after a sustained engineering effort, Apple finally and reluctantly concluded that they could not build this particular product up to their standard, so they decided to just not build it at all, instead.

We should applaud that. That's how things should work.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#118

Post by MBCook »

Angostura wrote: post #75
Hamuko wrote: post #34

Should Apple stop announcing products before they're sure they can ship them?

Is this a frequent thing?

No. It’s EXTREMELY rare for Apple to announce something with more than about a week of lead time unless it’s likely to be leaked by a 3rd party (iPhone and FCC, media companies and Apple News/TV).

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#119

Post by Bud »

phinnaeus wrote: post #99
thamer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new AirPods can be charged on Qi chargers, that are available on Amazon for $10. No one bought wireless charging AirPods because of AirPower.

> No one I did. I don't want to add another cable to my nightstand, I wanted to replace my Apple Watch puck with Airpower and gain the ability to charge my headphones there too, and then if I ever get a wireless charging iPhone be able to get rid of the lightning cable as well. I don't mind trading the lightning cable between my phone and Airpods, but I imagined I wouldn't have to for long with the AirPower releasing…

Nomad makes a very very nice nightstand charger that will do all that for you.

https://hellonomad.com/products/base-station-apple-watch

I don't have this version, but I have their other base station that charges up to 4 devices at once: 2 wirelessly, and 2 via cables. I'm extremely happy with it.

https://hellonomad.com/collections/power/products/base-stati...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#120

Post by mikestew »

stetrain wrote: post #63
mikestew wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I briefly considered buying some when they were announced, with the idea of "hmm, AirPower must be coming out soon". Sucker for Apple products that I am, it would pair well with the iPhone XS and Watch I have, and they can all live on the AirPower mat. And then I said, meh, I'll buy some when I see the announcement for AirPower, given the problems they've obviously had bringing to market. How many others are less ske…

I have the Studio Neat Material dock which charges all three (Airpods via lightning) and it's pretty convenient. Nomad has a new Base Station that can change multiple Qi devices plus an Apple Watch as well. Basically at this point there are a lot of alternatives on the market, and some of them are actually nicer because they hold the Watch up in the right orientation for Nightstand mode and work with loop style bands…

Thanks for the pointers. I may just ignore the sunk cost of the $79 Apple Watch stand and go for the Nomad Qi Apple Watch dock. Pricey, but that's some nice looking kit for some thing I'll have to look at on my nighstand every night.
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