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Apple Cancels AirPower Product

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#81

Post by geddy »

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…

My thoughts exactly. This can't be something that was discovered something last night after hours, by someone burning the midnight oil.

Me personally, I've built up a mental "queue" of things that need to line up before I invest in a 1) new phone (that supports wireless charging, 2) an Apple Watch, and 3) AirPods (the new ones). And all of those I planned on getting around the time of AirPower. Now that it's been nixed? I mean, I still dig the Watch but I'll probably keep my current phone and headphones for years, at least while they all still work just fine.

Pretty bummed for the people that got them expecting AirPower, though.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#82

Post by minimaxir »

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’…

Interestingly the reception to the credit card was the most positive of all the announcements on Monday.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#83

Post by ghaff »

gumby wrote: post #50
nickthegreek wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinja posted a deal on a dual powered mat for $35 yesterday. Crazy to think that Apple couldnt crack this to reach some level of product that consumers would find attractive.

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.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#84

Post by mikestew »

tunesmith wrote: post #57
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.

What's the downside of Qi chargers? (Assuming they didn't figure out some hardware problem that Apple couldn't figure out.)

I'll state up front that my experience with Qi is from about five years ago with a Samsung Note 3 with a Samsung induction charging case. But I found it to be fiddly enough (have to hit the sweet spot on between the charger and the coils on the case/phone) to be just barely more convenient than plugging in.

My impression of what AirPower was supposed to do was allow me to just throw my shit on the nightstand charging mat and the phone, watch, and earphones just magically charge without fiddling. Not being a hardware engineer, my impression was also that, in order to pull this off, involved big, hot coils and Apple couldn't get rid of the "hot" part.

So now the solution is to buy separate Qi pads for phone and earphone case, and I still need a proprietary charger for the Watch because it doesn't use Qi. Or just say "fuck it", and plug my phone and old AirPods case into the Lightning connectors I already have by the bed, and use the Apple Watch charging stand I already bought.

In summary, I'm one of those that would have spent the $200 on Apple kit if they could have pulled it off because I don't find Qi to be quite the solution I was looking for.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#85

Post by duxup »

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.

That's what always confused me about this. This was very much an announced thing, not some side research project.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#86

Post by [deleted] »

_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.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#87

Post by eridius »

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’…

> 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.

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#88

Post by fetus8 »

jeromegv wrote: post #66
fetus8 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's abundantly clear where their priorities are right now...and that's Services. I suppose Services make more money and please the stockholders, but damn if it ain't disappointing to their user-base.

Your argument would make sense if services were not something paid by.... that same user base. If customers don’t buy into the services, you think this will bring money?

If users don't pay for a service, the service provider doesn't make money...What's your point? Enough of Apple's user-base subscribe to their current service offerings, and will possibly subscribe to at least one of the new services as well.

Unless the entire user-base protests and unsubscribes to every service on offer, they're most likely going to continue to make a profit off of these services, hence the focus on them. (The HN crowd is definitely not the target audience for these services, I am well aware.)

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#89

Post by badwolf »

sgjohnson wrote: post #42
Animats wrote: post #26

This is a good thing. There were three competing wireless charging schemes. They got together and agreed on Qi as the charging mat standard.[1] Then Apple had to go off in their own incompatible direction. This delayed charging mat deployment in hotels and such. With Apple's scheme out of the picture, everybody can go with Qi. [1] https://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/

All the Apple devices that support wireless charging use Qi.

Except for the Watch :(

Re: Apple Cancels AirPower Product

#90

Post by ihuman »

veryworried wrote: post #29

I don't even know why they bothered making the AirPower so complicated, especially for its first version. Do people even care about device orientation or communication of charge levels? 90% of the purchase decision is based on just having an Apple branded power mat.

People don't care about device orientation, which is why the mat was supposed to work regardless of the orientation.
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