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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#201

Post by Bud »

Hamuko wrote: post #156
gfosco wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is ignoring the fact that very few people have issues with these keyboards overall.

How many people are very few people? There's 35,000 signatures on a petition to recall the keyboards. There's two class-action lawsuits. There's how many different online writings about the issue?

There were a lot of "online writings" about WMD in Iraq, too.

Anyway, I'm not disputing that that keyboard has some issues. I agree with you. It's a crappy keyboard. But I was trying to discuss AirPower and the fact that it's a laudable, good-faith decision to just admit you failed with your engineering effort and you can't build the product you hoped to build.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#202

Post by ksec »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

The whole AirPower saga is a weird event in product development. AirPower compatibility was highlighted as a feature in the packaging of the just-released AirPods 2 : https://twitter.com/itsnicolenguyen/status/11106569269650636... There has to be something that caused this abrupt cancellation.

>There has to be something that caused this abrupt cancellation.

They could have sold a Wireless Charger just like others with their mark up. Instead we got nothing.

Also admitting MacBook Pro Keyboard Failure. I believe there is something happening to Hardware Engineering in general.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#203

Post by redfern314 »

ryanmcbride wrote: post #152
derefr wrote: post #133

Something I don't understand about induction charging: why is it even necessary if the device and charger are still expected to be in flat contact with one another (with at most a few millimeters of separation)? Is the point just for arbitrary positionability on a flat charging surface? If so, I feel like there are simpler ways to solve that, just with clever solid-state connector design. Imagine a BGA processor that…

I've always felt it was unnecessary too. A company I worked for a few years ago spent thousands to install wireless charging pads directly into the tables in every meeting room (4 floors worth of rooms). This was before any iphones had wireless charging though, so they also had these wireless charging adapters that plugged into iphones so that they could use them. That means that to charge your phone, you had to plug…

Some Starbucks did this for a while as well, provided adapters for USB micro / Lightning and had chargers at the center of every table. Not sure if they still do.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#204

Post by dionian »

slg wrote: post #4

It is a slimy move to wait a week after the wireless charging Airpods were released before announcing this. You can't tell me that Apple didn't know this was coming. What percentage of people who have bought new Airpods in the last week wouldn't have made that purchase if they knew AirPower was never going to be released? EDIT: Several people are responding that other manufactures make wireless chargers, so what is t…

If they felt they could not deliver a quality product, and decide not to release it, what is the big deal

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#205

Post by jdietrich »

derefr wrote: post #133

Something I don't understand about induction charging: why is it even necessary if the device and charger are still expected to be in flat contact with one another (with at most a few millimeters of separation)? Is the point just for arbitrary positionability on a flat charging surface? If so, I feel like there are simpler ways to solve that, just with clever solid-state connector design. Imagine a BGA processor that…

It has been tried in commercial products, but it's harder than it looks. Pogo pin type contacts don't have a lot of current capacity and there are some fairly serious issues with surface contamination and corrosion. The layout is easy, the electronics are easy, but the metallurgy of the contacts is an unsolved problem.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#206

Post by ascagnel_ »

threeseed wrote: post #177
Hamuko wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My 2018 MacBook Pro works great. No issues with the hardware at all and I love the TouchBar. What exactly is wrong with them ?

You're one of the lucky ones; my 2018 laptop has unreliable "o" , "s", "h", "j", "k", and "e" keys (can you tell I'm a heavy vim user?), and the black plastic around the "K" glyph has started to wear away.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#207

Post by vbezhenar »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #130

I haven’t found a situation where wireless charging is superior to wired charging, especially for my iPhone w wireless charging. The only situation is if you’re out and about and don’t have your cable with you, and in that case the only public wireless charging I’ve ever come across is at a certain Starbucks places, but it wouldn’t make sense in that situation why your own wirelessly mat would help since you probably…

I have charger on my table and I just put phone there. It's not THAT MUCH better, but it's more convenient. Also I don't put lightning port to stress which is hopefully will prolong device life. I liked it so much that I recently ordered wireless charger even for my car, so I don't have to tinker with cables.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#208

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

nkkollaw wrote: post #106
tambourine_man wrote: post #33

Instead of reliable WiFi routers and induction chargers, Mac Pros and you know, laptop keyboards that you can actually type on… We get a credit card, news and streaming service that no one wants or understands. I really don’t get Apple's priorities recently. Which is a shame, since few companies step to the chalange of serving the expensive high quality tech stuff market. And what happened to the company that wouldn’…

Apple's priority is money (which they used to get from iPhones, now services since people don't upgrade their phone anymore). Since most power users/HN users still see Apple as a company that makes good laptops, we don't get what's going on. The truth is that Apple is not nor want to be a computer company anymore, and even if it does sell computers it doesn't make good ones anymore. I bought a Surface Book, and it's…

That's great that you love your Surface Book. But to me, the hardware is only half the equation. I will absolutely not buy a laptop that runs Windows. Sure, I could put Linux on it, but then I'd lose the touch optimized UI. Plus, I prefer MacOS 100 times more than Linux, which I prefer 100 more times than Windows.

So even if Microsoft has made better hardware recently, there are still a lot of people like me that buy Mac for MacOS. And I don't see most power users abandoning that for a touch screen.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#209

Post by gfosco »

Hamuko wrote: post #187
gfosco wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get signatures and file suits for almost anything, that's pretty meaningless. If it wasn't an insignificant percentage, they would've done something about it.

So your basis for the "very few people" is Apple's inaction?

They're really the only entity who knows how widespread this is, and is financially incentivized to address it. Additionally, my employer has probably 30,000 of these keyboards in service and it's not a significant issue.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#210

Post by vbezhenar »

andyfleming wrote: post #5

It seems like they could have cancelled the multi-device charger and just released a single-device charger branded as AirPower.

There are plenty of chargers out there. I don't think that many people would buy overpriced Apple ones, unless they would introduce some proprietary lock-in, but it seems that it's too late.
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