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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#361

Post by ehsankia »

_bxg1 wrote: post #77
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.

Especially weird for Apple, who aren't known for vaporware. And even Google wouldn't come out and say "we can't make this work", they'd just stop talking about it until it was eventually solvable down the line, or let it evaporate altogether. It's very odd to see a tech giant just hit a technological wall.

They usually only announce things that are being released in a week, or at most in a month or two. They've been breaking that rule a lot recently though. The whole services keynote was very strange for that reason.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#362

Post by squarefoot »

eridius wrote: post #357
icedchocolate wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I agree. AirPods really have almost no distinguishing features from other earphones. They’re generally worse. The only “feature” is seeing their charge on your phone, which is a pretty lousy differentiator.

You are, in all seriousness, the only person I have ever seen declare that AirPods are worse than other competing earphones. AirPods have one of the higher consumer satisfaction ratings ever, and anecdotally everybody I've ever seen talk about them absolutely loves them, even people who are normally very critical of Apple.

I never tried the AirPods so I can't comment on their quality, though I'm all for wired ones so it won't happen anytime soon. Quality aside, psychology can explain a things or two on why people absolutely love what they spend money on.

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/19/fanboyism-and-brand-...

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#364

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

Bud wrote: post #201
Hamuko wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Not sure if that's true or not, but wouldn't a lot of people have complained about that too, had they malfunctioned, or even been used, a la Macbooks?

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#365

Post by fogetti »

raverbashing wrote: post #70
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. Well, there is no way of getting 30W wirelessly (to the device side) without a lot of heat. I guess someone thought they could solve this with smarter power management (and per the John Gruber article this was an issue last year, or even before) but it frankly it does not seem possible (unless Apple discovered room temperature superconductors). It seem…

I am not sure why are you downvoted. There is a whole literature on mismanaged software/hardware projects and the culprits of those failures. Not in a small part the reason is often very bad management/design decisions.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#366

Post by arusahni »

_bxg1 wrote: post #77
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.

Especially weird for Apple, who aren't known for vaporware. And even Google wouldn't come out and say "we can't make this work", they'd just stop talking about it until it was eventually solvable down the line, or let it evaporate altogether. It's very odd to see a tech giant just hit a technological wall.

Maybe not as notable as the AirPower, but, in addition to the Nexus Q, Google also promised object removal in Photos (demoed by erasing a fence between the camera and a little league player). That was at I/O 2017.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#367

Post by School-Cotton »

ianai wrote: post #354
urda wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I much rather have a company like Apple just flat out say "we can't make this work to our standards, to our customer standards, and we're not comfortable with releasing this product this way." Versus say Google who'll just never mention it again or launch a broken version only to kill it off within two years.

I hope it’s a sign of change to come. Their hardware has been actively moving from what users want to what their designers want (thinner is always better, ne legacy ports, no finger I’d, etc).

What makes you think you know better than Apple what most of their users want?

I suspect you just know what you want, and why you want it, and are extrapolating from that to everyone else.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#368

Post by squarefoot »

spullara wrote: post #252
_bxg1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially weird for Apple, who aren't known for vaporware. And even Google wouldn't come out and say "we can't make this work", they'd just stop talking about it until it was eventually solvable down the line, or let it evaporate altogether. It's very odd to see a tech giant just hit a technological wall.

This sets appropriate expectations. If they don't know when it will reach the quality that they want to ship it is better to cancel it.

My guess is that it's not about quality but efficiency. Assuming the product works as advertised, someone might have pointed out that the power drawn is a lot more than the power supplied to the devices being charged (which to some extent is true for every wireless charger out there), and in a world where being sensitive to green issues is becoming the norm, this might have brought some bad press to Apple.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#369

Post by adtac »

mjsweet wrote: post #319

Is it my understanding that induction rings can't overlap? You can't just plonk a phone, watch and AirPods case anywhere on a charging pad and expect them to start charging right? The coil in each device needs to be fairly well aligned with the coil in the Qi charging pad. The proper way to do this is to have three individual coils with visual location targets for each device to charge. I wonder if Apple was trying t…

Following up on this, why is it impossible to use just one coil that's more powerful? IIUC To transmit power, you just need a temporally varying EM field to induce current on the other end, so why not have one that produces enough power? (My Electromagnetics course was 2-3 years ago, so forgive me if I'm missing something basic.)

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#370

Post by chessturk »

culturestate wrote: post #241
ctphipps wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has much less consumer friendly return policies in many non-US markets. Take Hong Kong for example: "All products purchased at Apple Store in Hong Kong cannot be returned or exchanged. Exceptions for exchange will be allowed for defective products only." https://www.apple.com/hk/shop/help/exchange_return I'd have a hard time arguing that the AirPods are defective because the non-bundled mat on the box didn't sh…

This is...exactly the same as nearly every other retailer in HK. Off the top of my head - of places I’ve bought from recently - only Ikea allows random returns in HK. Everyone else is the same as Apple. Unlimited returns for any reason at every store is quite an American thing.

You can even return marijuana to a pot shop. It's hilarious.
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