Well, that was abrupt! Well good on Apple for finally coming our and telling us the truth. Hopefully they'll give us less "sneak peaks" in the future unless they are sure a product is ready.
I mean, it’s good they’re deciding to not release something which could be a problem, on the other hand there are plenty of companies that release flawed or useless products and since they have lower standards they get praise from the press for being “innovative”. Apple is in a no-win situation because they’re the market leader.
Guys. I’m concerned about Apple. I see less and less innovation happening at Apple. Apple makes lots of money which is great. But the spirit has seemed to change from the innovate and change the world spirit of Steve Jobs to a more sensible “how can we make more money” approach. There was literally nothing new or interesting in that appleTV + announcement. Sad
Guys. I’m concerned about Apple. I see less and less innovation happening at Apple. Apple makes lots of money which is great. But the spirit has seemed to change from the innovate and change the world spirit of Steve Jobs to a more sensible “how can we make more money” approach. There was literally nothing new or interesting in that appleTV + announcement. Sad
The moment Oprah came up did it for me. This company isn’t about tech anymore - but dispersed over a 1000 wrong priorities.
Thank Gawd! Airpower was overrated. Wireless charging is easy and cheap yet Apple Fanboys had this irrational fixation on Airpower like it was somehow magical. Let's move on from an idea that wasn't that stellar in the first place.
Apparently wireless charging isn't easy or Apple would have come to market with the product.
Cancelling a product that does not meet quality standards shows a great deal of maturity and self assurance by its sponsors, especially a product that involves power and charging functions. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in an R&D organization sees "failures" all of the time. Oftentimes the failures take place, and are accepted, early on and behind closed doors. It's less common for failures to be accepted very late in the development cycle. I specifically use the term failure acceptance because sometimes failures occur and are not accepted, but instead pushed out the door on to unsuspecting customers, or denied, or covered up. It's very difficult for some people/organizations to accept failure. Those who encounter failure and accept failure usually learn by it and rise to greater heights. Those who don't own up to their failures create an ongoing trail of failure that follows them everywhere and spreads to their customers.
I've said it before and will say it again: one of the unsung superstar functions in Apple is their industrialization team. Producing a hand-crafted prototype is one thing, but coming up with an industrial production process that can stamp out millions of copies of a product to exacting standards and at minimum time and cost takes an incredibly talented team. They are the ones who convert dreams into physical reality, but there are times when they just can't get everything to work using everything at their disposal. Fortunately, technology and engineering is constantly evolving so what cannot be done cost-effectively and with high quality today today may be perfectly attainable several months or a year or two down the road.
As far as wireless charging being unnecessary, I totally disagree.
Wireless charging is a blessing for people with visual impairments or
limited hand/finger coordination and/or movement. While Lightning and
USB-C improve matters, there are still a large number of products that
use USB-micro connectors that are a nightmare for some users. Even
though I don't have any major visual impairments I still feel like I'm
on the brink of destroying every USB-micro connector that I ever use,
for example to plug in the power on a Raspberry Pi or digital camera. It's such a flimsy and
delicate POS that would take so very little to booger up. I cannot
imagine having a device like a phone that I have to plug in every single day that
uses a USB-micro connector. It would drive me absolutely nuts.
This was a hard call by Apple, but it was the right call.
^ best post in the thread. I don't think the average person has any concept of what a massive endeavor every big Apple product launch is. Manufacturing millions of anything is complicated, manufacturing millions of massively complicated Apple products is some next level shit that most people completely take for granted.
I am in agreement that overall this is not that big of a deal, however I do question the timing. Taking orders for the wireless charging case with or without the AirPods in them for 9 days before announcing AirPower is canceled is a little suspect. I was going to get the regular charging case until it occurred to me I'd likely be interested in the AirPower for my office desk to top off my AirPod case, Watch, and iPhone before heading out for the evening, without a bunch more wires snaking out on my desk, and with that decided to throw the extra $40 at Apple. Had they canceled AirPower when or before announcing AirPods 2, I'm not sure I would've done that. I'm sure I'm not alone.
However, for all I know Dan Riccio hasn't slept in 9 days trying to get these things out the door and Cook walked down there and was like, all calmly, "Dan, I think it's time to write the press release apology. Don't make me Forestall your ass outta here."
Better to scrap the project and suffer a little upfront embarrassment now, then release a possible overheating fire hazard and loads of embarrassing and costly lawsuits later. Moving along. Nothing left to see here.
Perhaps it will teach Timmy & Co to go back to good, old, well tested Apple product management practices of NOT announcing product till they are ready to ship (meaning they are also properly tested)!
Now if they had done the same with certain keyboards too, a lot of grief on both sides of the coin would have been avoided.
Stop trolling please. The discussion has been going well. We don't need these "Timmy" trolling comments.
To be fair, it would appear that ElCapitan is the same age as his preferred OS point number -- 11.
Since it was unveiled, I have wondered about the utility of wireless charging in the home especially if you have an Apple Watch or an iPad Pro in addition to your iPhone.
For me, the solution is the Anker wired charger with one USB-C output for my iPad Pro and four lightning outputs for my iPhone and the Apple watch puck.
Outside the home in a coffee place, placing your iPhone on a mat without wires is fine but for home use, wireless charging is unnecessary. That is my opinion but I would be interested in seeing comments on this subject.
When I purchased my iPhone X last year the wireless charging feature was at the bottom of my list of reasons for the purchase. However, I went ahead and bought a qi mat and it actually very quickly became one of my favorite features of the phone. Why? My wife and I are not on the same sleep schedules. She goes to bed several hours earlier than I do, so I get ready for bed in near complete darkness, and she gets ready for work in very low light. Being able to just plop my phone on my nightstand to charge without having to see exactly where the charger is is fantastic. No more fumbling for the lightning cable in the dark, which also frequently slipped off the nightstand. So "unnecessary" is correct. Nice to have and a good feature is also correct.
I'm charging my new AirPods on my cheap $10 Qi charger as I type this. No, I can't use that charger to also charge my iPhone and Watch at the same time. But seriously, this doesn't even register as one of Apple's biggest blunders.
Guys. I’m concerned about Apple. I see less and less innovation happening at Apple. Apple makes lots of money which is great. But the spirit has seemed to change from the innovate and change the world spirit of Steve Jobs to a more sensible “how can we make more money” approach. There was literally nothing new or interesting in that appleTV + announcement. Sad
Name a tech company that is leading the innovation charge into the future. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Since it was unveiled, I have wondered about the utility of wireless charging in the home especially if you have an Apple Watch or an iPad Pro in addition to your iPhone.
For me, the solution is the Anker wired charger with one USB-C output for my iPad Pro and four lightning outputs for my iPhone and the Apple watch puck.
Outside the home in a coffee place, placing your iPhone on a mat without wires is fine but for home use, wireless charging is unnecessary. That is my opinion but I would be interested in seeing comments on this subject.
I absolutely love Qi charging. Way more convenient than connecting a cable every time I sit down at my desk. Yah, that might sound petty, but it truly is a world changer when your phone is always charged because it can sit on a charger next to you at your desk. Qi charging is awesome.
Okay, so my lifestyle might be different from yours. I work from home, so I'm at a desk many hours a day, and my Qi charger is beside me.
So am I right in thinking there are no alternatives out there?
Of course there are alternatives. Get 2 or 3 smaller Qi chargers and set them beside each other. If you buy them off Amazon for $35, they'd probably collectively cost the same as what one AirPower mat would have costed?
Thank Gawd! Airpower was overrated. Wireless charging is easy and cheap yet Apple Fanboys had this irrational fixation on Airpower like it was somehow magical. Let's move on from an idea that wasn't that stellar in the first place.
No... careful how you frame this. AirPower was different from most of the Qi chargers in the marketplace because it featured 3 charging spots on the same mat. That's technically challenging, as proven by this cancellation. Any other company would have released it, even with it not working exactly as designed. Apple won't do that. Apple "fanboys" benefit from a company that cares about its customers. It was never a fixation. Are you lacking something in your life, you need to put people down to feel better about yourself? You may want to see a doc about that.
I wonder if they were trying to build in some "smart" authentication into the mat beyond just charging, and that aspect of it didn't work out as they had hoped? Or maybe they did testing of many 3rd-party devices and found that the risk was too great to release a product that could cause problems, such as a fire? Maybe the mat worked perfectly with Apple products, but not with cheap Chinese-made phones?
The truth is that Apple was not satisfied with the performance of the product and chose not to release it. The world is better for it. Too many companies put dollars ahead of customers.
Kind of troubling. It can't be the engineering, since there are a billion Tom/Dick/Harry Qi chargers out there... Can't be manufacturing, since Apple makes far more complex things.
"Can't meet our high standards"? So what was it, really?
Proven totally useless...
Indeed. It is not portable. Since it cannot get rid of the wall and the cable, why would I carry a whole plate instead of carrying a simple cable?
Wired wireless charging was a stupid idea since the beginning. Maybe finally engineers are prevailing over marketing guys there?
If so, it would have been simpler and more honest to say that. People really are not that stupid, are they?
Comments
Sad
This company isn’t about tech anymore - but dispersed over a 1000 wrong priorities.
However, for all I know Dan Riccio hasn't slept in 9 days trying to get these things out the door and Cook walked down there and was like, all calmly, "Dan, I think it's time to write the press release apology. Don't make me Forestall your ass outta here."
The people blaming Cook are dumbasses.
You're joking, right? Tell us you're joking.
If not, ... ya, return your AirPods.
I absolutely love Qi charging. Way more convenient than connecting a cable every time I sit down at my desk. Yah, that might sound petty, but it truly is a world changer when your phone is always charged because it can sit on a charger next to you at your desk. Qi charging is awesome.
Okay, so my lifestyle might be different from yours. I work from home, so I'm at a desk many hours a day, and my Qi charger is beside me.
Of course there are alternatives. Get 2 or 3 smaller Qi chargers and set them beside each other. If you buy them off Amazon for $35, they'd probably collectively cost the same as what one AirPower mat would have costed?
No... careful how you frame this. AirPower was different from most of the Qi chargers in the marketplace because it featured 3 charging spots on the same mat. That's technically challenging, as proven by this cancellation. Any other company would have released it, even with it not working exactly as designed. Apple won't do that. Apple "fanboys" benefit from a company that cares about its customers. It was never a fixation. Are you lacking something in your life, you need to put people down to feel better about yourself? You may want to see a doc about that.
The truth is that Apple was not satisfied with the performance of the product and chose not to release it. The world is better for it. Too many companies put dollars ahead of customers.