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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#211

Post by gwbas1c »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #197
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…

It is a slimy move to wait a week after the wireless charging Airpods were released before announcing this. Slimey? Really? Slimey is opening a factory along side a river and then dumping the waste chemicals in the river while touting the number of jobs added to the local economy. In Apple's case, they announced a product early, turns out they couldn't deliver on it. No harm, no foul... okay maybe reputational foul,…

Honestly, I was never excited about wireless charging.

Then, on a whim when I ordered my Pixel 3, I put the stand in my cart. I didn't even realize it was wireless. I just like the nice look of a well-thought-out phone stand, and the feel of it in the dark when I read myself to sleep.

I then remembered that I replaced my old Pixel because the port had problems. Less wear on the ports is important.

Wireless is a huge deal for devices that require frequent charging.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#212

Post by Hamuko »

threeseed wrote: post #200
Hamuko wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboards. My 2016 MacBook Pro has had issues with several of the keys. Apple has extended the warranty on the keyboard to four years, but it's not like they will actually give you a working keyboard design, but rather switch out the keyboard for the same design. They're also being sued for the keyboard issues.

I know that they had issues with the 2016 and 2017 models. I owned one. But those issues were fixed in the 2018 one. Which is why they haven't needed to extend the warranty at all.

Not really.

Joanna Stern's article was about her 2018 MacBook Air's keyboard, which has the same membrane as the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#213

Post by kdot »

cogman10 wrote: post #112
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 wo…

One thing about wireless charging is the gap created by phone cases, what does a case do to charging efficiency?

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#214

Post by tolien »

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…

> Two of the primary reasons people buy Apple products are because of the ecosystem and their standard of quality. Now people are forced out of the Apple ecosystem and must buy a product from 3rd parties that don't have the same quality requirements.

This isn't the first time that Apple have decided that ecosystem didn't matter - some of the USB-C dongles (the Ethernet adapter for one) that Apple sell are branded Belkin, they ceded the Thunderbolt display to LG (that LG really Just Worked [1]) and they've abandoned Airport.

1: https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/13/lg-ultrafine-5k-display-apple...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#215

Post by evanmoran »

threeseed wrote: post #200
Hamuko wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboards. My 2016 MacBook Pro has had issues with several of the keys. Apple has extended the warranty on the keyboard to four years, but it's not like they will actually give you a working keyboard design, but rather switch out the keyboard for the same design. They're also being sued for the keyboard issues.

I know that they had issues with the 2016 and 2017 models. I owned one. But those issues were fixed in the 2018 one. Which is why they haven't needed to extend the warranty at all.

Sadly people are reporting issues with the 2018 versions as well. For example, this article hilariously was written without the 'r' and 'e' keys to showcase what's been happening recently: https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-mac...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#216

Post by nkkollaw »

buzzerbetrayed wrote: post #208
nkkollaw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I abandoned Apple not for a touchscreen, but because every time I hit "f", it would type "fffff", and half the time the spacebar didn't work. After fixing it two times at the Apple store, the logic board died with all the data it had on it. Should not happen after paying 1799 EUR for a laptop.

macOS might and is actually great--and hardware might be an afterthought to you, but in a laptop being able to type is kind of an important feature to me.

I run Linux and some Linux distros do have touch optimized UIs if you're wondering. As for Windows, it's a perfectly fine choice as well, and not a lot worse than macOS.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#217

Post by dangoor »

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’…

> 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.

They also released a major iPad mini update, spec-bumped machines and 2nd gen AirPods.

At WWDC, they'll introduce a bunch of software updates for September release. I'm guessing there will be a laptop update, and the Mac Pros as well. Not to mention there will certainly be new iPhones in the fall.

Just because they're _also_ trying to build up a more substantial services business doesn't mean that they're not working to push the other areas forward.

Better that they didn't ship AirPower than to ship something crappy.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#218

Post by Hamuko »

gfosco wrote: post #209
Hamuko wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're also financially incentivised to downplay the issue considering the class-action lawsuits alleging that they were selling defective keyboards.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#219

Post by [deleted] »

Cyph0n wrote: post #167
bdcravens wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't speak to what's available in your country, but I've never had issues returning opened stuff (Best Buy, Microcenter, etc) as long as it's in new condition and in the original box, with receipt (most stores have a 14 day return period)

Heh, that’s almost unheard of in the Middle East for example. You have to fight tooth and nail to even get basic warranty. Not sure about the rest of the world, but I would say that the US is an outlier when it comes to return policies.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#220

Post by usaphp »

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…

I think you are stretching to find a reason to blame them. It did not prevent people from buying iPhone X which had a wireless charging too, what makes you think that it somehow affected AirPods case sales?
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