Apple hires wireless charging experts, hinting at tech for 2017 iPhones & iPads
Apple is hiring a number of people with experience in wireless charging, a technology it could be planning to build into 2017 iPhone and iPad models.
In the past four months, the company has picked up two people from wireless charging firm uBeam, The Verge noted on Tuesday. In fact Apple has hired over a dozen people with similar expertise in the past two years.
While most devices supporting wireless charging still require some form of direct contact which a charging mat, puck, or dock, uBeam has been working on using ultrasonic waves to charge devices from further away. The company has been controversial, especially since last week a former engineer claimed that its technology doesn't work as advertised and indeed may not be practical in a shipping product.
Apple has filed patents on distance charging in the past however, and in January a report claimed that the company was actively working with suppliers in the hopes it could upgrade iPhones and/or iPads sometime in 2017. One 2012 patent suggested charging at ranges up to three feet, but the January story said that Apple would like to go further still, requiring only that a device be in the same room.
The main issue may be energy loss, since while far-range charging is theoretically possible, power levels tend to drop off quickly. Even modern direct-contact wireless charging tends to be slower than hooking up a USB or Lightning cable, particularly compared with the "quick charge" features present on many Android phones.
At the moment the only Apple device with wireless charging is the Apple Watch, which comes with a magnetic puck that latches underneath.
In the past four months, the company has picked up two people from wireless charging firm uBeam, The Verge noted on Tuesday. In fact Apple has hired over a dozen people with similar expertise in the past two years.
While most devices supporting wireless charging still require some form of direct contact which a charging mat, puck, or dock, uBeam has been working on using ultrasonic waves to charge devices from further away. The company has been controversial, especially since last week a former engineer claimed that its technology doesn't work as advertised and indeed may not be practical in a shipping product.
Apple has filed patents on distance charging in the past however, and in January a report claimed that the company was actively working with suppliers in the hopes it could upgrade iPhones and/or iPads sometime in 2017. One 2012 patent suggested charging at ranges up to three feet, but the January story said that Apple would like to go further still, requiring only that a device be in the same room.
The main issue may be energy loss, since while far-range charging is theoretically possible, power levels tend to drop off quickly. Even modern direct-contact wireless charging tends to be slower than hooking up a USB or Lightning cable, particularly compared with the "quick charge" features present on many Android phones.
At the moment the only Apple device with wireless charging is the Apple Watch, which comes with a magnetic puck that latches underneath.
Comments
If you have a mat, you may as well have a wired charger.
Now if Apple could pull off wireless charging that only requires that the device be in the same room as the charger, that would be a game changer for me. ...but I'd also start to get a little concerned about the cumulative affect on my body from the constant exposure to all these radio, wifi, micro, and ultrasonic waves. Maybe it's not a big deal, or maybe in 20 years scientists will discover that the synergistic effect of this wave cocktail is a dangerous thing.
i.e., you still need to generate and pay for 100% of the energy sent from the charging transmitter, it's just that some % disapates in transmission to the receiving device (e..g., iPhone). There's systemic waste in the solution (albeit for the benefit of convenience); that's troubling, depending on the magnitude of the waste.
There have been a few practical examples of wireless power at a distance made:
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/power-over-wi-fi/
The FCC limits the power to 1W so that's already 5-10x slower than a wired charger but it would be continually charging. It's about convenience and not speed e.g sitting at an airport for hours and your watch, phone, tablet, fitness devices are charging as soon as they are in range. The powifi people published a paper about it here:
https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~gshyam/Papers/powifi.pdf
They mention two other companies in the paper, saying that their implementations wouldn't pass FCC certification:
They have to avoid blocking normal wifi and they can't transmit too much power for safety reasons:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/23/man-creates-microwave-gun-from-small-appliance-starts-burning-things-video/
Using directional waves helps reduce power falloff. One of the above videos shows the device sending a location beacon to the power transmitter, which can then focus the energy waves on the device.
This technology is better suited for the internet of things rather than main devices like wireless kb/mice, cameras, Apple Pencil, watches, fitness trackers, headphones, other wearables - things that are annoying to have to keep charging regularly. Higher power devices like laptops, iPhones, iPads would probably be better off just getting fast charging batteries so you could plug them in and have them full in seconds/minutes:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/07/technology/ces-2016-storedot-charger/
That is expected to arrive next year in some form. They are focusing on fast charging batteries for electric vehicles. That's a good way to get started as it's low volume, high value and the battery size doesn't matter so much. They can make upwards of $10k per battery and then use that money to fund mass production for electronics.
I do charge overnight in 99% of cases, so charging time is quite irrelevant for me anyway.
Holds the device at a visual, and usable angle.
but yea just because ph makes an f sound doesn't mean it's an f
so there different.
I used to have a powermat which charged 3 devices at once, I had powermat cases on my ipod touch and my iphone 3G. The mat still required to be plugged in with a trailing cable, it took up more space than a cable itself on my bedside table and even though it was magnetic, I'd wake somedays to find it wasn't exactly on the "spot" for charging and the battery had died through the night.
Now, I have a weighted dock on my desk, I can plug and unplug my 6S one handed, even without looking now.
Until wireless charging doesn't require precise positioning and a tethered 2nd device, I don't see the point in it.