Hm. So apparently the MagSafe Battery Pack can be charged wirelessly if attached to an iPhone, but none of the Apple materials state that it can be charged wirelessly using a MagSafe Charger.
The MagSafe Battery Pack can charge the iPhone, so is the idea that one could use the MagSafe Battery Pack as an alternative to the MagSafe Charger, i.e., leave it permanently plugged-in to the electric outlet as the default charger, and then you can unplug it when you need to take it with you?
And there definitely is no way to charge both at the same time through a MagSafe Charger.
As inelegant as this is, it's still far nicer than the previous generation so-called "smart battery case (SBC)." If you need the extra battery capacity, you can slap on one of these magnahumpergizers and go to town. If you don't need the extra capacity and don't want to have to cinch up your belt up a couple of notches to keep the combined weight from auto-dropping your trousers on you, just leave the thing at home. You don't have to swap out the entire case like the SBC.
If you've ever owned a SBC for a jumbo phone and if you keep your phone in your pants pocket, you will most definitely be adding Jony to your Christmas card list for keeping the base configuration iPhones as light and slim as possible. Adding a big hunkwad of additional heft and girth to your iPhone by slapping on a SBC or a magnahumpergizer is a nice choice that people who really need that kind of added runtime should be happily making on their own. If Apple built all of that heft & girth into the base phone, at least with current battery technology, the appeal of jumbo phones would take a big hit. Hopefully the battery technology will evolve to keep Apple from inflicting that kind of suffering on the masses.
This thing is so much better than the SBC.
Speaking of the SBC ... I have one for my Xs Max, but for some reason, mine ain't so smart. In fact, it is rather stupid. Big and stupid. This model got recalled and replaced but the replacement was no smarter than the recalled one. It would not infrequently try to discharge my phone, especially when recharging wirelessly. My understanding was that the SBC would discharge its own battery to keep the phone's battery charged. If I put the SBC and phone on a wireless charger with the SBC at 50% and the phone at 100% I'd expect to come back later and see both batteries at 100%. This was not always the case. Often I'd come back, hours later and the case would be at 60% and the phone would be at 30%. Not sure why. I thought the recall would fix it but it did not. What dealt the SBC its golden ticket to the junk drawer was when I discovered the SBC was interfering with the magnetometer and keeping the compass from working. If I really need a massive amount of run time, I can always strap the SBC back on and charge it up.
Hopefully, Apple learned from the SBC mistakes and the new magnetic humpy energizer thing will be a pure delight.
The SBC does have twice the capacity of this MagSafe battery though. And doesn't lose as much charge in the transmission. And there's no chance of it falling off.
The Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 11 has a 10.9 WH battery, and it costs $130. The SBC for the iPhone X series, I would have to go back and look, but it will be similar.
The MagSafe Battery for the iPhone 12 series has a 11.1 WH battery, and it costs $100. Since it uses induction, it does lose some energy to transmission inefficiency. I would like to see the loss quantified one of these days.
So, the MagSafe battery has about the same capacity as the SBC. Whether people will like the quick attach, detach features of MagSafe versus an always on case is up to them. Pluses and minuses per the usual.
I confess my electrical knowledge is fairly limited.
The Smart Battery Case and the MagSafe battery are quite similar in terms of toplevel battery design: 2 batteries connected in series. Obviously a lot different in other aspects. When connected in series, the voltage increases by the sum of the output voltages of the batteries while the amps stay the same. The labeling shows the mAH as 1460 and the voltage as 7.6 V. Li-ion battery chemistry outputs about 3.8 V give or take. 7.6 just happens to be 3.8 x 2, therefore, two Li-ion batteries in series, with 1460 mAH at 7.6 V.
The Watt-Hours (WH) is the amount of energy in the whole power circuit and is the most reliable number. It is just amps x voltage x runtime. So 1460 mAH x 7.6 V = 11.1 WH. People should only be talking about battery capacity in terms of WH. The mAH is some weird nerd, gadget journalist term of art that needs to die.
This is great if you were hiking backcountry, say the Appalachian Trail, for a extended period. No fiddly wires, just slap one on overnight and you’re good to go by morning. Of course you might need more than one, which begs the question… how would two of these react to each other if their magnets forced them together inside your pack?
Oh, yeah. I'm going to buy an Apple iPhone accessory this close to a new iPhone release.
That's like buying their flagship AirPods Max, then less than six months later, them releasing their flagship lossless audio that doesn't work with them.
WHAT?!?!! This accessory will work with the next iPhone.
Also, 6 months is a long time. Do you people ever realize that during those months before the next release your products still work?? It’s not like Apple has a switch back at Apple Park that they flip to “on” when the next product is released….
Anyone figure out how thick this MagSafe Battery is yet? Seems like it is going to be thicker than the iPhone 11 w/SBC if they aren't showing any side views. You'd think it would be no more than 7 mm.
Also, nobody has mentioned that it likely has a single channel Bluetooth radio in it or similar in order for it work with the iOS battery widget, which is interesting from the reverse charging point of view. And, wonder if it will show up in the Bluetooth list or it's a private channel, and it may be able to receive firmware updates, to say activate MagSafe/Qi charging for itself.
Oh, yeah. I'm going to buy an Apple iPhone accessory this close to a new iPhone release.
That's like buying their flagship AirPods Max, then less than six months later, them releasing their flagship lossless audio that doesn't work with them.
Doesn't work makes it seem as though the AP Max's can't play these tracks at all which is not true.. it also makes it seem as if they some how playback these tracks will be in noticeably less fidelity which is also false. It's doesn't default to a lesser lossy format because it goes back from analog to digital? That seems to be how people are taking this information. I would challenge any person believing this to point out the finite differences between an analog 24-bit / 48 kHz track vs a re-converted digital 24-bit / 48 kHz track.
I think it was a ??? decision for Apple to use the lightning
connection in this way that forces the analog to be turned back into
digital..when they KNOW how customers and the internet would respond to a
perceived shortcoming at this price point. I also don't think it's as
big of a deal as folks believe it to be from a quality to quality
perspective.
Honestly if you are into that type of critical listening you aren't looking at any wireless headphone whether it can be wired or not.
Apple tells The Verge that when you play a 24-bit / 48 kHz
Apple Music lossless track from an iPhone into the AirPods Max using
both the cable and Lightning dongle, the audio is converted to analog
and then re-digitized to 24-bit / 48 kHz. That re-digitization step is
the reason that Apple can’t say you’re hearing pure lossless audio; it’s
not an identical match to the source
Can I listen to lossless audio using the AirPods Max Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable?
The Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable was
designed to allow AirPods Max to connect to analog sources for
listening to movies and music. AirPods Max can be connected to devices
playing Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio
quality. However, given the analog-to-digital conversion in the cable,
the playback will not be completely lossless.
Useless products will sell if you slap an Apple logo on it and price it at or below $100. It only charges the phone to 50/60% that doesn’t matter it has an Apple logo on it. Stoopid
The 3rd parties offer 67% more capacity for around half the price but there will be some other differences in weight, dimensions, charging efficiency. The 3rd party models will likely still offer better value vs capacity. Apple rarely aims to offer the best value for their accessories and that actually works well for 3rd parties because it allows them to undercut them significantly while maintaining sustainable retail prices.
Useless products will sell if you slap an Apple logo on it and price it at or below $100. It only charges the phone to 50/60% that doesn’t matter it has an Apple logo on it. Stoopid
Comments
The MagSafe Battery Pack can charge the iPhone, so is the idea that one could use the MagSafe Battery Pack as an alternative to the MagSafe Charger, i.e., leave it permanently plugged-in to the electric outlet as the default charger, and then you can unplug it when you need to take it with you?
And there definitely is no way to charge both at the same time through a MagSafe Charger.
Is it banana in your pocket or you are happy to see me?
Also, 6 months is a long time. Do you people ever realize that during those months before the next release your products still work?? It’s not like Apple has a switch back at Apple Park that they flip to “on” when the next product is released….
Also, nobody has mentioned that it likely has a single channel Bluetooth radio in it or similar in order for it work with the iOS battery widget, which is interesting from the reverse charging point of view. And, wonder if it will show up in the Bluetooth list or it's a private channel, and it may be able to receive firmware updates, to say activate MagSafe/Qi charging for itself.
Can I listen to lossless audio using the AirPods Max Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable?
The Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable was designed to allow AirPods Max to connect to analog sources for listening to movies and music. AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio quality. However, given the analog-to-digital conversion in the cable, the playback will not be completely lossless.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/14/apples-magsafe-battery-pack-has-more-capacity-than-it-seems---heres-why
Apple pack is 11.1Wh, that one is 18.5Wh, same as the ones from Mophie and Anker, which are reputable brands:
https://www.zagg.com/en_us/snap-plus-juice-pack-mini ($50)
https://us.anker.com/collections/portable-power/products/a1619 ($46)
The 3rd parties offer 67% more capacity for around half the price but there will be some other differences in weight, dimensions, charging efficiency. The 3rd party models will likely still offer better value vs capacity. Apple rarely aims to offer the best value for their accessories and that actually works well for 3rd parties because it allows them to undercut them significantly while maintaining sustainable retail prices.
Which one is it???