At its 2017 iPhone event, Apple announced the AirPower wireless charging pad. A year later at the company’s 2018 iPhone event, the AirPower was nowhere to be found.
Worse, Apple hasn’t provided any information regarding the AirPower. While the Cupertino-based company keeps silent, others are speaking up.
Sonny Dickson, a tech writer with a record of accurate Apple reporting, wrote over the weekend that AirPower has struggled with overheating issues. Additionally, Dickson wrote that Apple engineers were struggling with software issues. The AirPower wasn’t communicating information to the devices properly. Notably, this included charge levels of the AirPods and Apple Watch, which is monitored by the iPhone.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber echoed Dickson, writing that he heard “something about the multi-coil design getting too hot — way too hot.”
Gruber also wrote that he thinks the engineers had to go back and start fresh. Either that or they’ve given up on the AirPower and don’t want to tell anyone.
An ambitious charger
Considering how wireless charging works, it’s no surprise that Apple’s innovative AirPower design is having issues.
Wireless charging — or inductive charging — uses an induction coil to create an alternating electromagnetic field within the charging base. Another induction coil in the phone takes power from the electromagnetic field and converts it back into electric current to charge the battery.
Large charging pads often have multiple coils so it can charge devices placed anywhere on the mat.
AirPower is the only wireless charging pad that would have been capable of charging three devices simultaneously. Samsung came close with its Wireless Charger Duo, but it can only charge a phone and watch. It also has two separate spots to do so.
As such, the AirPower is ambitious. Hopefully, Apple can figure out how to get it working. The company previously promised AirPower would go on sale in 2018. That gives Apple a few months yet.
Source: Sonny Dickson, Daring Fireball Via: CNBC
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