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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#301

Post by mises »

This kind of stinks, but it's good to see Apple doing right by its customers. Telling them something will come that won't isn't right. And if they simply can't deliver a product, then they shouldn't make a half-baked attempt.

They've recently caught flack for the problems with their keyboard, which is a hard thing to get right. This time, they chose not to deliver a marked-up, fiddly, overheating mess to their users, and we ought to credit them for it.

It takes a lot of guts to admit you can't do something; a little more corporate humility might just be a good thing.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#302

Post by eridius »

ksec wrote: post #202
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.

Apple doesn't release products that have no distinguishing features other than "made by Apple in Cupertino". Accessories without distinguishing features they prefer to just work with third parties on (such as Belkin). In fact, I'd wager that this particular Belkin charger was done in cooperation with Apple: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HLZ42/belkin-boost-up-spe...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#303

Post by scarface74 »

bredren wrote: post #288
julianozen wrote: post #259

I suspect Apple's launch plan was to ship last week's AirPods with the new mat for last holiday, and that as of ~Sept 2018, Apple assumed AirPower was possible (which is why last weeks AirPods were manufactured with AirPower documentation placed into the box) I spent sometime working on a hardware team at Amazon and we had an expression "hardware is like fruit" meaning the longer it sits unsold, the more stale and ob…

Apple has pulled off some reported last minute hardware changes while stretching timelines. The 2016 MBP which had a 500+ day update cycle was apparently supposed to have the terraced battery used in MacBooks. [1] That got chucked last minute and led to a lot of battery complaints early on. I returned a loaded 13” due to limited battery life. The company ended up working SW systems to squeeze more out of what it has…

The most famous example has to be that the iPhone was introduced with a plastic screen, but after Steve Jobs noticed how easily it scratched, they changed to a glass screen.

I can’t find it now. But Apple even had a press release that they were changing to a glass screen.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#304

Post by scarface74 »

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’…

Because the former Netflix executives Apple hired could be working on the Mac Pro.....

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#305

Post by trimbo »

mises wrote: post #301

This kind of stinks, but it's good to see Apple doing right by its customers. Telling them something will come that won't isn't right. And if they simply can't deliver a product, then they shouldn't make a half-baked attempt. They've recently caught flack for the problems with their keyboard, which is a hard thing to get right. This time, they chose not to deliver a marked-up, fiddly, overheating mess to their users,…

> problems with their keyboard, which is a hard thing to get right

Not sure what you mean here. They got the old keyboard right, and made it worse!

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#306

Post by julianozen »

scarface74 wrote: post #303
bredren wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has pulled off some reported last minute hardware changes while stretching timelines. The 2016 MBP which had a 500+ day update cycle was apparently supposed to have the terraced battery used in MacBooks. [1] That got chucked last minute and led to a lot of battery complaints early on. I returned a loaded 13” due to limited battery life. The company ended up working SW systems to squeeze more out of what it has…

The most famous example has to be that the iPhone was introduced with a plastic screen, but after Steve Jobs noticed how easily it scratched, they changed to a glass screen. I can’t find it now. But Apple even had a press release that they were changing to a glass screen.

Still, the plastic iPhone was never made and put into boxes before the switch was made. It's surprising how late in the game this product was canceled

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#307

Post by jeremyjh »

vbezhenar wrote: post #190
chrischen wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe it was working but then yesterday one burst into flames during testing which was the final straw. They don’t want to pull a Samsungs now do they?

Why did they cancel the product rather than delay it? If they are cancelling the product, either the issues are unfixable and it means that something is very wrong with their engineering, because they are expected to understand whether the product is possible a little bit earlier than some months before production. Or managers are just acting impulsively which is as wrong.

I could imagine something like the project manager had successfully swept all the problems under the rug to that point, despite the fact that the engineering manager was sending emails to compliance and risk management. When it caught on fire, an exec is like "WTF?" and gets a dump of all the data, and cancelling is easy.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#308

Post by asaddhamani »

saagarjha wrote: post #175
untog wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why this is being downvoted. You could excuse the first model using the butterfly keyboard as them not knowing the issues, but multiple revisions have been released since and the keyboard was untouched. That can't not be deliberate.

I mean, they clearly did try to fix it, as evidenced by the membrane they added to the newest revision. The fact that this didn’t actually resolve the issue is unrelated.

Ugh they should really get rid of that keyboard

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#309

Post by ninkendo »

andyfleming wrote: post #161
bluthru wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why Apple thought people were willing to spend $100 more just so they wouldn't need to be precise with how products were placed on the charging pad. Just make some indentations for the watch and airpods and be done with it.

Yeah, I agree that would be fine. It's not quite as elegant, but I think consumers would have been ok with it. There are also similar solutions already out there. Example: https://www.amazon.com/Bestand-H05-Grey-Aluminum-Charging-Qi...

I fail to see how using that is any more convenient than a dock-style stand that plugs into the lightning port. What's "wireless" really doing for you if you have to position it just the right way on a dock anyway?

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#310

Post by ip26 »

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 had a phone w/ Qi for a couple years. It was finicky, requiring I develop the habit of aligning the phone on the charger.

But once I got used to it, it was subtly very nice. No fiddling with cables at all. Nothing to wear out. Pick the phone up and go.

It feels a little like a technology of ten or twenty years from now that is not technically necessary but will be nice & convenient. Think of WiFi compared to Ethernet. Right now we can see the future & taste it just a little, but we haven't quite got there yet.

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