Apple's AirPower, Unveiled in September 2017, Officially Misses 2018 Shipping Deadline (9to5mac.com) 137
From a 9to5Mac report: As the new year begins in Pacific Time, where Apple's Cupertino headquarters are based, the AirPower charging mat has officially missed its 2018 release window. The charging mat promised to charge iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods on a single compact mat with flexibility on where devices can be placed. However, the product has been rumored to have faced internal development challenges as late as this past summer, which prevented Apple from bringing the product to market as smoothly as it expected.
[...] Unusually, Apple has not provided a statement to press with an update on AirPower's status. Apple refused to acknowledge the product at its September and October events, and has not responded to press requests for comment at the end of December. The product therefore enters 2019 still in limbo.
[...] Unusually, Apple has not provided a statement to press with an update on AirPower's status. Apple refused to acknowledge the product at its September and October events, and has not responded to press requests for comment at the end of December. The product therefore enters 2019 still in limbo.
Does it really deliver power over the air? (Score:1)
Nikola Tesla is rolling in his grave...
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How is he supposed to discuss with your penis in his mouth?
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Re: A theory (Score:2)
The sign of someone who can't figure out his iDevice.
Re: A theory (Score:1)
You're holding it wrong again.
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Slashdot's aversion to most things other than 7-bit ASCII is well-known. Why visit and post at the site if you aren't prepared to deal with its well-known constraints?
Re: A theory (Score:2)
I suspect Slashdot is harder to change than turning off "smart" quotes in your keyboard settings but if you're happy with people here laughing at you then keep that setting you don't need.
Or.. (Score:1)
Just don't give us constant updates on this sh**. Seriously, why is it journalists feel we need updates on all of Apple's stock movements constantly. Does anyone care about this, and is anyone surprised N
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They can't drop it since it doesn't exist.
Re:Is based. Where the HQ is based. (Score:5, Informative)
You're not.
Headquarters is derived from head quarters (the quarters - living areas - of the people leading the organisation).
Quarters is the plural of quarter.
"The word is plural in construction and can take singular or plural verbs."
Thus "headquarters is" and "headquarters are" are both perfectly valid English (depending where you live) while the obvious plural (ending in 's') will tend to lead people to use it as a plural instead of singular.
There is not one "headquarter". Nobody uses that term except US English. There is one set of "headquarters". Though language evolves, the plural is the original, just as valid today, and more common worldwide.
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"The word is plural in construction ..."
This makes no sense. "quarters" is plural but that doesn't make "headquarters" plural, "headquarters" being a specific one (the head one) of the quarters. There could be one or more "head" quarters, therefore the "construction" is ambiguous.
'"There is not one "headquarter". '
No, but there could be one "headquarters", as above.
"Though language evolves, the plural is the original..."
A misreading of the origin of the word.
Feckless hiptards (Score:2, Insightful)
Charging mat - for people who are too lazy & feckless to plug in a cable.
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Apple should learn from those unboxers on YouTube who go "ohh, braided cables" when opening a box. They say that for a reason.
But how do you make a shiny braided cable which is hard on the eyes?
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If they were smart they would have plugged the phone into the charger the previous night before they went to sleep. Ta-da! Wake up to a fully charged phone ready for the day, and you get better battery longevity since you can slow-charge it overnight instead of fast-charging it the next day.
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Or just for people who can afford to waste power by running a tiny radio station that spews EM in all directions, some of it reaching the devices they want to charge.
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I'm pretty sure these charging mats use some kind of induction, which doesn't spew EM radiation all over. Still more wasteful than plugging in, though.
I don't really understand the benefit of these, since it won't reduce cable clutter around your desk. I guess one might make sense if one charger replaces lots of small ones in a workplace etc. Otherwise, it sounds about as useful as a Wifi AP that only works within touching distance.
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They save wear on the charge port, and I bet Apple is moving towards a phone with no ports at all eventually.
Also very useful for cars because you don't need cables trailing all over the place. Some cars have the charging mat built in now so you literally just put your phone in the provided holder and that's it. All they need to do now is get Android Auto working wirelessly too, although for now you can do stuff like have the Bluetooth auto-enable and disable.
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Induction means to induce current with generated EM emissions. It's generally pretty efficient, but it's not an inaccurate description.
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"spews EM in all directions" is inaccurate not because it's not EM but because it's not "in all directions" and it doesn't "spew". Furthermore, a charging mat is not accurately described as a "tiny radio station" nor is is it "just for people who can afford to waste power" by operating such a relatively useless "radio station". In summary, the entire description is inaccurate except for EM being involved, the one thing you zeroed in on.
Also, your definition of "induction" is inaccurate.
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And what exactly do you think induction is, then?
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Oh, and feel free to cite the Wikipedia article on EM induction.
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EM waves do induce currents, that's how radio reception works. But EM waves are not used for inductive charging, because of the obvious waste of energy.
Inductive chargers involve what's basically a transformer in two parts: one coil (the charger) is used to generate an oscillating magnetic field, which induces current in another coil (the phone).
EM waves/radiation are a rather special case where electric and magnetic fields oscillate together, basically inducing each other to make the wave go on. But y
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Near field EM is still an EM wave. And it's still coupled with the fluctuating electric field in the coil. It's just that since the near field radiation is what's important, there is not enough power to generate significant amounts of far field.
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I don't really understand the benefit of these, since it won't reduce cable clutter around your desk.
They want to get rid of every port and make the case completely sealed. Much easier to make them waterproof / dustproof / etc...
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I'm pretty sure these charging mats use some kind of induction, which doesn't spew EM radiation all over.
Yes it does, whatever gave you the idea that induction doesn't leak EMF? Hint: induction = EMF.
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"ElectroMagnetic Field". Moron.
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It does not.
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My new car will have one, which is nice. Sure beats fiddling with a cable.
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So, (Score:1)
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It's a very short distance, and possibly the reason it's taking so long is that they plan to use some sort of beamforming from the multiple antennae. It seems very logical to try this, but completely crazy to announce what turned out to be an unfinished product that hasn't made it out of R&D yet.
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I use wireless charging mostly doe to the fact that I don’t damage my cable and connector.
Over the past 22 years of cell phones.
The first one I replaced because of a cracked screen.
The second one was because the charging connector on the phone got corroded.
The third one the charging cord broke and couldn’t get a compatible charging cord anymore.
The forth one went threw the wash
The fifth one (the original iphone) actually still works but just outdated.
The sixth one charging connector was loose an
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You chucked one off a bridge in Scotland and it landed in Lincolnshire?
Sounds like the Reality Distortion field (Score:2)
is starting to have a negative impact on delivery dates. /s
Re:Sounds like the Reality Distortion field (Score:5, Informative)
Yep.
And that last article about people not willing to pay Apple's insane prices anymore is amusing. And the article before about them eying 3D cameras, although phones have already done that. And Apple users laughing at phones with fingerprint sensors, then Apple "inventing" it. And laughing at large-screen phones, then "inventing" it. And laughing at the capacitive Samsung S Pen, then "inventing" the concept with the Apple Pencil. Other companies were first with OLED displays, wireless charging, optical stabilization, touch screens, smart watches, keyboard covers, zoom pinching, face ID, removal of home button, slim bezels, dual rear cameras, RFID payments, water resistance... but the distortion field says that either Apple invented them or somehow only Apple could make it work right.
But let's give them credit- they were among the first with no headphone jack, non-user-replaceable batteries, and strange cut-out areas on the display.
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>"Yet another slashdot whiner who canÃ(TM)t grasp that Ãoeworks wellà is far more important than being ÃoefirstÃ."
And yet, I have used examples of all of those technologies, working very well, in various non-Apple phones, before Apple "invented" them. So, sorry, that doesn't fly.
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But let's give them credit- they were among the first with [...] strange cut-out areas on the display.
They weren't the first with that.
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>"They weren't the first with that."
That is why I said they were "among the first"...
Development Issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple delayed because they couldn't find a way to make it incompatible with any other wireless charging system.
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What do you mean? AirVapor or VaporPower?
Re: Class Action (Score:2)
Somewhere between _vaporware â" exclusive_ is a concept. If I had to guess⦠itâ(TM)s simply * unsupportable * at this stage. SO Apple AirPOWER doesnâ(TM)t exist but the marketers are first to blame.
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The author is a moron. I knew as far back as 2025 that Apple would never ship AirPower in time.
Available now ! (Score:2)
That's some next level Apple Hater messaging (Score:3)
I think it's absurd to beat up Apple over the inability to ship a charging mat that they mentioned just once!! Come on, was it really a huge problem for Apple they could not ship something that you can buy a score of near equivalent products for?
If you really wanted a story about Apple missing deadlines, it seems like, oh, I don't know, maybe the Mac Pro would be a better target for that? Since there is no word about that yet and at one point we were all expecting it to arrive at the end of 2018. Mac users would really be chomping at the bit if they hadn't been placated to some degree by the iMac Pro and updated Mac mini, but there are indeed some users that really need a Mac Pro, it would be great to have word from Apple about that... now it seems like maybe we'll not hear about it until June.
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Apple not being able to ship a charging mat is just plain comical. While your indignation is totally understandable, that doesn't make it not pathetic.
They actually very much can (Score:2)
They most certainly can not. They use some proprietary Apple extension to Qi to charge and require special mats to charge on.
Fake news. Find on Amazon a SINGLE Qi charger that says it is not iPhone compatible. You cannot, because they are... the typical text reads:
The magic array wireless charger adapts to all Qi compatible devices, including iPhone 8/ iPhone 8 plus/ iPhone X/ XR/ Xs/ Xs
Now Apple DOES have some custom additions to support a faster charging rate, But even there iPhones can still use so
Apple vs physics (Score:3)
Apple vs physics: physics wins. Maybe consider letting engineers design products instead of powerpoint managers.
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"letting engineers design products instead of powerpoint managers."
Joke's on you: engineering is 50% powerpoint.
Huh? (Score:2)
I don't get it. Apple is having trouble designing a Qi charger? I've been using a wireless charger for a couple years now. My current phone, a Kyocera, came with it built in, but I had to add a $5 coil into the back of my Samsung S6 for it to work. The Samsung charging pad cost about $15. I don't understand why Apple is having issues.