‘AirPower still very much alive’
The reports about the AirPower are quite mixed. In the summer of 2020, we wrote that Apple was still working on AirPower, but now in a simpler version. A few weeks later, all hopes would have been dashed and Apple would have tossed prototypes in the trash. But now there is hope again. Apple is still working on an AirPower-like charger, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claims. But in addition, a new charging technology that works remotely is being looked at.
Gurman says Apple is still exploring the possibilities of a wireless charger that can hold multiple devices at once, such as an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. This could be a more extensive version of the MagSafe Duo Charger (€149), with which you can already charge two devices at the same time.
Apple announced the AirPower in September 2017, along with the iPhone 8 series and the iPhone X. The charger was due to hit the market in the course of 2018, but after months of speculation, Apple announced in March 2019 that the plans had been discontinued. In the meantime, the device appeared several times on product packaging. It would not have been possible to solve all technical problems, which included interference and overheating. This was followed in 2020 by the MagSafe, a magnetic charger that has received good reviews so far.
Future: charging at a great distance
In addition to renewed interest in the AirPower, Apple is also said to be exploring something else: alternative wireless charging methods. This would involve charging at a great distance. This is a technique that is still in its infancy and we may not see it for a few years. Yet Asian manufacturers are already showing how it could work.
The Chinese device maker Xiaomi has shown a charger that can charge your device at a great distance. There are no real concrete details yet for the Mi Air Charge, but the idea is that you put down a base station with large dimensions. It contains 144 antennas, which emit waves and are picked up by mobile devices in the same room. Charging takes place at about 5 Watts, a lot lower than current wireless chargers.
A single base station can charge multiple devices. The advantage is that your smartphone is always charged by just sitting in a room. Whether Xiaomi wants to bring this to the market is not clear from the video. The manufacturer does not want to say anything about it either. It is true that your device must have special receivers and can therefore be slightly thicker. Other companies have worked on remote charging by developing special covers so that you don't have to walk around with a thick device all the time. You then only use the cover when you are in the room where the base station is located, at times when you want to charge. With normal inductive charging, the device must always be on the charger, which limits your freedom of movement.
By the way, wireless charging is not completely new. Notabene Disney made a room a few years ago in which devices could be charged wirelessly by using quasistatic cavity resonance (QSCR). Aluminum panels on walls and ceilings transmit the electricity. A magnetic field is created that is sufficient to charge devices.
The Ossia company has also put a lot of work into batteries that you can charge wirelessly, from an AA battery to the battery in a smartphone. This works up to 10 meters away. The Energous WattUp system works in a similar way and can deliver up to 15 Watts of power, without the need for physical contact. And Wi-Charge's PowerPuck system uses infrared radiation to charge devices up to 10 meters away. The power drops as you sit further away. However, PowerPuck is intended for simple devices such as smart door locks, which consume relatively little energy.