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AirPower iPhone XS AirPods 2

AirPower was Apple accessory first teased at the iPhone X/8 launch event in September 2017. It’s was a wireless (Qi-based) charging pad that was suppose to simultaneously charge an iPhone X, XR, XS, and XS Max, an Apple Watch and the second generation AirPods.

When the second generation AirPods were released in March 2019, the box mentioned AirPower compatibility, and also included a 2018 copyright. Indications are that these AirPods were ready last year, but the release was delayed in order to finish up the charging mat.

On March 29th, 2019, Apple officially canceled the AirPower charging mat.

There’s a wide range of third-party wireless charging pads on the market, including some which appear similar, but these cheat by having (or requiring you to add) a separate Apple Watch charger in a specific location on the pad. It will allow devices to be charged anywhere on the pad.

There’s still one AirPower feature Apple should release

AirPower

Ah, AirPower, Apple’s ambitious wireless charging mat unveiled in September 2017 and canceled in March 2019. Who could forget the unreleased product that never even got a price tag?

Multidevice Qi chargers and Apple’s MagSafe technology have long since made AirPower look basic and dated. Even Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger hasn’t caught up with fast charging capabilities on newer devices.

Still, there’s one AirPower promise that only Apple could fulfill to make the canceled wireless charging mat completely obsolete while improving another product.

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Review: Tesla x FreePower gen 2 deliver Apple’s AirPower dream for any Qi device

Tesla Wireless Charger FreePo review

Back in December Tesla announced its Wireless Charging Platform that’s powered by FreePower’s latest “place anywhere” Qi system. Now orders are shipping to the first customers and we’ve been able to test out the premium multi-device charger that delivers on Apple’s free position AirPower dream.

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Xiaomi started work on its AirPower clone the day Apple canceled it, now it’s here

At a launch event today, Xiaomi debuted its latest smartphone lineup and more. One of the new accessories is an AirPower clone with an affordable price. And interestingly, the company says it started work on it when Apple gave up – that’s today, two years ago. Alongside that multi-device charger, the company also claims to have cracked how to make wireless charging just as fast as wired with a new super high power wireless smartphone charger.

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Aira grabs more patents as it tries to do what Apple couldn’t with AirPower

Aira Base Station Pro

Wireless charging startup Aira has acquired patents from rival Spansive as it seeks to do what Apple couldn’t with AirPower: Create wireless charging mats that allow you to place devices anywhere on their surface. Apple also seems to think Spansive was onto something, as it hired the company’s CTO back in July.

Aira previously hired Apple’s then head of patent strategy as it works on a range of products under the FreePower branding…

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Comment: An Apple wireless charger makes sense even if it isn’t AirPower

An Apple wireless charger makes sense

It was reported earlier this week that we might see an Apple wireless charger after all, despite the AirPower debacle.

Some have suggested this isn’t a great idea, simply reminding everyone of Apple’s failure to deliver what it originally promised: a single charging mat that allowed you to charge iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch by laying them anywhere on the device. Compared to that, an ordinary wireless charger would be a massive climbdown – and what’s the point anyway when everyone makes them… ?


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Kuo expects new Apple products this year: wireless charging mat, AirTag, and high-end headphones

A report from Ming-Chi Kuo today centered on the impact to Apple’s supply chain of the coronavirus. Nested in the report, Kuo mentions several new products from Apple expected to arrive in the first half of 2020.

The lineup includes the iPhone SE 2, a new iPad Pro and MacBooks with scissor keys, and most interestingly a “smaller wireless charging mat, UWB tag, and a high-end Bluetooth headphone”.


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Zens Liberty is no AirPower charger, but it’s the closest thing we’ve yet seen

Zens Liberty with glass top

More than nine months after Apple finally gave up on its AirPower charging mat, some people haven’t yet gotten over their disappointment. The Zens Liberty doesn’t act as a full replacement, but it’s the closest thing we’ve seen yet.

The Qi-compatible charging mat has a total of 16 overlapping coils to allow casual placement of devices…


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Hands-on with the closest wireless charger we may see to AirPower, now in black

AirPower clone AirUnleashed black edition

After Apple canceled AirPower, another company picked up the idea and brought something very similar to market a few months later called AirUnleashed. With the same design as AirPower and wireless charging for three devices, including Apple Watch, AirUnleashed likely hit a number of checkboxes for Apple customers. Now the company is back with a limited black edition and we’ve been able to test it out.


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Opinion: What lessons could – and should – Apple learn from the AirPower debacle?

Lessons from the AirPower debacle

What lessons could – and should – Apple learn from the AirPower debacle? Clearly, lessons do need to be learned; this was a massive embarrassment. But I also think it’s important that the company doesn’t over-react.

Apple has a long history of announcing products before they are ready, with often lengthy delays before customers are able to get their hands on them. And that’s one area where people can’t say it would never have happened under Steve Jobs …


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Now that AirPower is dead, here are some of the best wireless charger alternatives

Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition

In a Friday afternoon announcement, Apple shared today that AirPower is officially dead. The news came as a surprise as support for the special wireless charging mat was found in a recent iOS beta and other evidence was pointing to an imminent release. Now that Apple’s advanced wireless charger is off the table, let’s take a look at some of the best AirPower alternatives you can buy today.


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Apple AirPower mat cancelled, Apple says unable to meet its own standards of quality

Apple AirPower is cancelled

Apple has announced today that it is unable to ship the AirPower charging mat and have cancelled the project, via TechCrunch.

In a statement from Dan Riccio, Apple apologized to customers that had been waiting for the product to come out. The AirPower mat was originally announced in September 2017 alongside the iPhone X. Apple was silent on the project for a year and a half, and today confirmed that AirPower is cancelled.


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Hidden AirPower image with iPhone XS and new AirPods discovered on Apple site [update: pulled]

AirPower iPhone XS AirPods 2

Update: The AirPower image has been removed from Apple’s servers, but the HTML and CSS references remain for now. Who knows when AirPower will show up for real?

The AirPods page was updated yesterday to highlight the new features in the updated model and mentions the wireless charging case. However, the previously featured picture of AirPods and an iPhone X laying on the AirPower mat was removed in the redesign.

It turns out — there is actually a new never-before-seen official AirPower image hidden in the source code that was intended to be on the AirPods page. It shows the new AirPods charging case and “David’s” iPhone XS laying on the so far unreleased AirPower mat …


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Opinion: Why I think Apple will finally launch AirPower tomorrow

Will AirPower launch tomorrow?

Apple finally launched the long-awaited second-generation AirPods. These offer a new H1 chip which boost talk-time and speed up switching between devices, but the headline features are hands-free Hey Siri and … a wireless charging case.

The latter – also available as a standalone accessory for existing AirPods owners – has been a long time coming. The thinking until now is that Apple was waiting until it could finally get AirPower working, so it could announce the products together, but it hasn’t done so.

The big question is whether AirPower is coming tomorrow as a separate launch …. ?


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