Apple ditches AirPower

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GSManiac

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#248537 30-Mar-2019 08:30

Announced in 2017 for a 2018 release, the much delayed product has officially been cancelled by Apple.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/29/apple-officially-cancels-airpower/

Apple is a bit of a mess these days. Steve Jobs was the only person who could lead Apple imo.

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#2207424 30-Mar-2019 08:36

Clearly the announcement of the product was premature, and the marketing department got ahead of the engineering department. Ultimately I am glad that they have canceled it rather than releasing a substandard product.

Benjip

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#2207435 30-Mar-2019 09:33

This is great news, as long as the employees in NZ who were rumoured (confirmed?) to be working on this don’t get the chop. Hopefully they can focus on something worthwhile, not this gimmicky product that would’ve had very niche market appeal.

Strange to see them announce something so early, then ignore it, then start making reference to it again in recent times (there’s a diagram of it on the back of the new AirPods wireless charging case) and then just cancel it.

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#2207436 30-Mar-2019 09:47

Benjip: This is great news, as long as the employees in NZ who were rumoured (confirmed?) to be working on this don’t get the chop. Hopefully they can focus on something worthwhile, not this gimmicky product that would’ve had very niche market appeal.

Strange to see them announce something so early, then ignore it, then start making reference to it again in recent times (there’s a diagram of it on the back of the new AirPods wireless charging case) and then just cancel it.

The Airpower announcement (tease) was in September 17, the Power by Proxi buy out wasn't public until later in October 17, so whether the PbP deal made them go in a different direction woudl be an interesting question,

GSManiac

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#2207437 30-Mar-2019 09:51

So they release the AirPods 2 promoting AirPower on the box which I’m sure would lead people to buy it under the assumption that AirPower would soon follow in order to wireless charge their AirPods only for this to happen.
Oh Apple.

GSManiac

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#2207438 30-Mar-2019 09:51

danza

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#2208344 31-Mar-2019 21:44

lol

Guess the engineering team already made something that can charge multiple devices (good), let them position the devices anywhere on the mat (hard but doable), let those devices talk to each other or the mat (still solvable), but the design team want it all done with ultra slick and thin look with no fans (lol).

Since inductive coupling like Qi uses isn't all that efficient and generates a bunch of heat. Making an array of overlapping coils to get selectable area coverage would make it worse, there's just no way to do what they wanted in the form factor they promised and not have it turn into a hot plate.

Also '2019' airpod seem to have all documentation and box dates from 2018, as if they delayed it at the last minutes for some reason.

The funniest part of all this is that apple should kept quiet till the product is literally shipped to stores and ready to be put on sale instead of endless leaks and being laughed at.

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#2208346 31-Mar-2019 21:57

Considering apple have enough problems with overheating as it is, suppose them not having futher output heat is a good thing ;)

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lNomNoml

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#2208349 31-Mar-2019 22:19

Here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfpFkrS7Lw

Looks like you'll have to settle for this to keep up: https://www.amazon.com/Nomad-Wireless-Charging-Base-Station/dp/B07HY8XC8G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=nomad+base+station+apple+watch&qid=1553911094&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull&linkCode=sl1&tag=m0494a-20&linkId=b97d875cae4c7e4c55a973633982c026&language=en_US

tehgerbil

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#2208409 1-Apr-2019 08:23

I am actually wondering if they solved the heat issue as this would have been apparent during protoyping, as they would have to have been either immensely arrogant, or immensely stupid to announce a product without a working prototype?!

However difficulties during the last key stage of production - during mass production which they weren't able to overcome would be a better bet, possibly higher failure rates than predicted for key components during mass production trial runs?

lxsw20

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#2208414 1-Apr-2019 08:29

There are a couple of theories going around that the thing was putting out so much electromagnetic interference that they couldn't get approval for it.

iamsammajor

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#2208418 1-Apr-2019 08:39

It made me wonder how good the wireless charging pads in the market actually are.

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#2208425 1-Apr-2019 08:47

If Apple had actually sent someone into PbP for a few weeks, they wouldnt have bought them...... ;) *cough*

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#2208428 1-Apr-2019 09:03

it's not all bad news, at least you will be able to use your upcoming Apple credit card to purchase a third party wireless charger (-;

sbiddle

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#2208439 1-Apr-2019 09:50

iamsammajor:

It made me wonder how good the wireless charging pads in the market actually are.

Current wireless charging pads are fine - but with a few exceptions most are only designed to charge a single device at once.

tehgerbil

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#2208445 1-Apr-2019 10:24

sbiddle:

iamsammajor:

It made me wonder how good the wireless charging pads in the market actually are.

Current wireless charging pads are fine - but with a few exceptions most are only designed to charge a single device at once.

Don't wonder - if you have a device that can charge wirelessly then I strongly recommend you buy one!

Li-polymer batteries prefer to be trickle/part charged at any point in time, going from 30-85% is best for the long run, so wireless chargers at your desk are fantastic for keeping it in the sweet spot.

[Source]

Depth of discharge Discharge cycles
(NMC / LiPO4)

100% DoD ~300 / 600

80% DoD ~400 / 900

60% DoD ~600 / 1,500

40% DoD ~1,000 / 3,000

20% DoD ~2,000 / 9,000

10% DoD ~6,000 / 15,000

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