Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Joins Wireless Power Consortium Amid Rumors of iPhone With Wireless Charging (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

If you've been holding out hope for wireless charging to come to the iPhone, chew on this: Apple joined the Wireless Power Consortium. From a report: Last week, a leaked note suggested that Apple is working on adding wireless charging to three phones scheduled for release in 2017. The technology may be similar to what the company has already implemented with the Apple Watch, though other reports have hinted at charging solutions that can add power to devices from a distance. The Wireless Power Consortium is the group behind Qi, a wireless charging standard that uses inductive power transfers to charge without cords.

13 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wastefulness by Higaran · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have used wireless chargers in the past, and they are 100 times better than using a usb cable. I don't mind using a cable, but its just soo much easier, to just be able to put your phone down on the charger and not have to deal with it. Now I have a phone with USB-C which isn't as bad, since it don't matter what side you stick it in the connector, but it's still more hassle than it should be.

  2. Re:Wastefulness by DamonHD · · Score: 2

    ...and I refer you to your prize for tonight!

    https://ask.slashdot.org/story...

    Why bother to log in to belittle someone? You're not adding anything, so maybe your soul is the one worth inspecting...

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
  3. Re:Wastefulness by Bugler412 · · Score: 2

    apparently you have never used a wireless charging dock in the car, a work vehicle that I have to enter and exit from a LOT. Don't discount all use cases because you aren't one of them.

  4. Re:Wastefulness by BradleyUffner · · Score: 2

    Those standard USB ports tend to be a little weak point in the construction of the phone. They often fail completely, or damage the port / phone if someone does something like trip over the USB cable. The become loose over the life of the phone as the cable is plugged and unplugged, sometimes making it hard to keep the cable plugged in.

    Wireless charging is a boon to anyone who has ever experienced any of these problems.

  5. Re:Wastefulness by lgw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why isn't a standard USB socket good enough for everyone?

    It's a port. Apple removes ports, because courage! Wireless charging (in addition to being really convenient and such) is a needed step towards Apple's goal of a phone with no ports at all. Courage!

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  6. Re:Wastefulness by burtosis · · Score: 2

    So-called 'wireless charging' just wastes energy as heat and as magnetic fields that are dissipated -- all for the sake of 'convenience'. Why isn't a standard USB socket good enough for everyone?

    You realize mobile phone batteries are sub 20 watt hours right? As in even with outrageous electricity prices charging costs less than a cent? Further given people on average partially change thier phone once per day means a 15% drop in efficiency is truly meaningless. Replacing a single light bulb with an led one could offset 350 people using a wireless charger vs a wired one.

  7. Fear not! by kuzb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple will introduce some proprietary protocol between the apple device and the extremely expensive charging pad to ensure that you can't use just any cost effective QI charger.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:Fear not! by Solandri · · Score: 2

      It can get a lot worse. Rambus joined JEDEC - a consortium of memory manufacturers set up so everyone could cooperate in creating a high-performance low-cost standard. They took ideas that were being discussed by other memory manufacturers for DDR memory and secretly patented them, then sued the other memory manufacturers for patent violation. The JEDEC rules expressly prohibited patenting technologies being discussed by consortium members, but crucially did not specify penalties for someone breaking those rules. Consequently the only recourse JEDEC had was kick Rambus out. Their patents based on stealing other people's ideas were still legally valid. This is why everyone hates Rambus.

  8. Square of the distance... by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Everybody needs to remember one critical fact here... Once you get a little distance away from the transmitter, the energy available will fall off according to a set formula based on simple geometry. That formula has the distance squared on the bottom of the fraction.

    Why do I point this out? Because everybody needs to understand that "wireless" power distribution may be possible over short distances for small amounts of power, it quickly becomes impractical as the distance between the transmitter and receiver goes up because the available energy captured falls off in some ratio of the inverse of the distance squared. To put it another way, You will have to stay close to that charger, REALLY close or it's going to have to put out some seriously dangerous levels of power which will fry you if you get too close.

    So, if wireless charging means you drop your phone on a pad or into some holder that then allows the coupling of a changing magnetic field and some coil of wire on the phone, you are getting what you expected. But if you think you can sit on your couch with the "charger" on some shelf across the room, or have the phone in your pocket changing while you drive down the road because the charger is built into the car, that's not going to happen.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:Square of the distance... by Hadlock · · Score: 2

      I bought three charging pads for my Nexus 5, one bedside, one at my home office PC, and one at my office PC. It basically stayed charged 100% of the time unless I was on a road trip or some such.
       
      Doesn't matter where the pad is, you just need the charging pads where you use the phone the most. A dedicated charging pad in the car, one by your bed and one at the office cover 90% of use cases for probably 80% of the population. If apple got behind wireless charging, you would probably see charging pads appear in BMW and Mercedes first, followed by Lexus, Acura and then Honda/Toyota and eventually american manufacturers. We just need a standard that we're going to stick with. I'm ok with a Qi/USB Type-C world.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    2. Re:Square of the distance... by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      You do know that this technology has been around for a few good years now and most people not only know what you said, but many actually have these things at home right?

      This isn't some pie in the sky physics lab experiment that Apple are courageously innovating first to market. ...

      Actually last to market may be a more correct way of putting it.

  9. Re:Wastefulness by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    It's probably a net gain when you consider how many phones and tablets won't be thrown away due to broken charge ports.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. Re: Wireless charging now? by burtosis · · Score: 2

    So you are asserting new laws of physics will be discovered and used by Apple?

    Remind us again of what fell on Newton's head? Apple invented physics