Apple AirPower is the wireless charging pad announced for the iPhone X, Apple Watch and Apple AirPods. But it’s still not here. Mark Gurman from Bloomberg has been exploring why not, and other websites like Apple Toolbox have theories about the non-appearance of the gadget.
First, though: have you ever charged your smartphone wirelessly? The Apple iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X are all capable of being charged wirelessly - and effortlessly. Samsung and other phone companies have offered this for years. Now, the Samsung Galaxy S9, Sony Xperia XZ2, Nokia S8 Sirocco and LG G7 all support wireless charging.
When you’ve tried it, the convenience of this system quickly proves addictive.
It’s great to be able to place your phone on a pad and pick it up repeatedly to change the music track you’re playing, check an email or whatever, all without the nuisance of plugging and unplugging your handset.
So, when Apple announced that it was manufacturing its own wireless charging pad, called AirPower, which would be able to charge three devices at the same time, anticipation ran high.
That was last September, and the pad would charge a latest-generation iPhone, a third-gen Apple Watch and AirPods with a new, wireless-charging-compatible case all at the same time. Cool!
Now, if you’ve used one of the current generation of charging pads, you’ll know one painful truth: it’s all too easy to find your phone hasn’t charged overnight. Often, if I’m tired, let alone tired and emotional, as I retire, I find it’s easy to place the phone not quite in the right position. True, a light twinkles into life on the pad and the phone responds with an indication that it’s happily charging so I should spot this but it’s late at night and don’t judge me, okay?
And while the Apple Watch charges very quickly, the iPhone takes longer, so it’s a nuisance to pep it up from a low level.
All of which adds to the excitement over AirPower: it is a bigger pad so maybe easier to hit the sweet spot and avoid waking to a sense of disappointment. Also, this is Apple so it’s going to be perfectly crafted and work elegantly, right? As seamlessly as AirPods, surely?
But since the September announcement, it’s all gone quiet.
True, the challenge for AirPower is way more than rival pads because multiple gadgets will take more engineering smarts so the on-pad items don’t overheat, charge reliably and so on.
This is also tricky if you want, as Apple does, for it to work equally well for each different device, wherever you plonk them down, with each device having its own requirements, charging-wise.
According to Bloomberg, June had been the preferred onsale date for the device, presumably announced with fanfare at WWDC. That’s come and gone, and though much was revealed about Apple’s direction in the near future, there was nary a mention of AirPower.
The Apple AirPower charging pad has an Apple chip in it, which will doubtless aid effortless pairing, again like the AirPods, though this may also be a reason for the delay.
All the latest rumors and reports point to a September release of AirPower, or perhaps a little before. My suspicion is that Apple will likely release quietly in August and flag up its successful reception by critics and customers at its next event, likely to be an iPhone launch in September, but who knows?
We haven’t even got an inkling about price yet, by the way. Rumors range from $295 down to $99. My personal guess is somewhere in between, perhaps around the $159 price of the AirPods.
Whatever the price, it definitely can’t come soon enough, and until it does, I guess I just need to be more precise putting the iPhone on a pad to charge last thing at night.
