Apple joins one wireless power group, the other one responds with so-happy forced grin

Re: Splitters

I believe the article has been altered to include your joke.

The names do all seem a bit repetitive. Which I suppose is why this group chose the particularly stupid "Airpower" name. I suppose they could have made it worse, by including a "turbo" or "max" in there somewhere.

To be honest, I don't really see the need for 3 standards, and don't really care what ends up dominating. Knowing manufacturers' desire to control their bits of kit, it will likely take massive proliferation of different "standards", and then something like the EU ruling on micro-usb connectors for phones, before anything consumer-friendly actually happens.

Re: Will Apple now adhere to the Qi standard

Shock, horror, overpriced Apple device only works properly with other overpriced Apple device.

Hasn't that been their business model for decades?

Re: Mis-named Wireless

That's a fair point - neither standard is essential for most use-cases (though some users with limited dexterity might find them helpful).

When I had an Xperia phone with a rubber bung over its USB socket, I was tempted by a magnetic charging dock (which used contact pins) but broke the phone before I bought one.

Similarly, I'm now tempted by a Qi charging mat for my Nexus 5, but not desperately. If I see one for a tenner, I might pick one up. Bizarrely, the main hurdle to me plugging a USB cable into my Nexus 5 is that the phone is symmetrical, so half the time I'm looking for the socket on the wrong end of the phone!

Re: Mis-named Wireless

> The systems are not wireless as we know it, but ... need a power cable, power supply and power outlet.

What, unlike a wireless router? Do they run on magic fairy dust without any cables or power? I must need to upgrade, my current one has multiple plugs and wires coming out the back of it.

I'd call anything wireless which connects to reference device without needing plugged in. And in this case, placing a phone/tablet/watch/mouse etc on a pad (and not plugging it in) is clearly wireless.

Re: Mis-named Wireless

Mage, you should look at the Qi 1.2 standard. 15w fast charging, distance much larger, just sad that most devices we can buy right now are Qi 1.0 still.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/updated-qi-1-2-standard-makes-wireless-charging-more-wireless/

Re: But what have apple ever done for us ?

(following the hidden monty python message)

Admitted.. admitted.. but aside from...

I think the question was what has Apple done FOR us rather than TO us...

Re: You can always be sure

Chosen? Didn't you know Apple invented wireless charging. Just now.

@Archivist Re: You can always be sure

To be fair, that's what all companies do. Either they think they can make more money by selling a product that adheres to a standard, or that they can make more money by selling an incompatible product.

Re: Betamax...

Sorry, Lost, but if you are suggesting that the successful despite being vastly inferior technically VHS players were *more* bulky than their Betamax competitors I have to take serious issue with you.

My family owned multiple recorders of both these formats and the Betamax ones were universally heftier in both cubic footage and slipped discage owing to the vast amounts of electronics and works placed inside to assure the greatness.

A VHS recorder could be hefted in one hand even in he earlier days. A Betamax took two arms and if you were trying to get it onto a shelf in a tight space you really needed two people to ensure droppage was not going to be a factor.

But Betamax tapes made of The Young Ones in the day still look like a TV picture whereas a VHS copy of House of Cards taken from PBS are unwatchable.

Of course, both Betamax and VHS pale into insignificance next to a UMATIC transport unit. Those buggers are built to survive "the big one".

Re: "Current" wireless charging is complete crap

Welcome to physics!

Google "Inverse Square Law"

Moving something 1cm away from the wireless charger knocks it badly in terms of power received as it's also supplying (uncaptured) power to a sphere of that radius.

Move it distance n away and the useful power drops proportional to 1 / (n*n).

As such, wireless charging is always going to be silly unless you come up with directed energy (e.g. beaming a laser that contains the power you want, to a sensor that can take that power and pull most of it back to electricity, or similar for radio, sonar, whatever). Your average iPhone charger puts out several Watts. A Class II laser is max 1mW and can blind you. And you need line-of-sight, and let's not forget about the danger and heat generated on ANYTHING in between too, plus the losses going through air and converting it back to something useful without melting your iPhone.

Simple physics tells you that a 50p bit of copper will be doing a better job for a LONG time to come.

Saw a company online the other day selling magnetic micro-USB/Lightning connectors.

Tiny little things that tou plug into any standard micro-USB / Lightning port, it exposes the pins for magnetic connections, and you buy one charging lead with a similar magnetic end.

Hey presto, your solution, works on any phone / device without official support required, and works just like the old magnetically-attached cables.

Such a shame Sony dropped this feature, when instead it should have become a standard.

But dropping useful features/products is standard operating procedure at Sony.