So funny, how Apple tried to go with "some-other" industry standard (Qi charging), even trying to build a "great charger" and just said "CAN'T, this standard sucks!" And had to make MagSafe. I am glad they did, and I'll never buy "simple" Qi charging device(s) again, lost an iPhone X, to a p.o.s. Qi charger, the AirPod case too! Oh well, can't wait to have a "secure" wireless charging standard, (they get bagged on for not being 1st all the time, but who cares, they have their 1st, and that's fine) THANKS APPLE!
I'm not a hater by any means, but what happens when you put an iPhone 12 in the same pocket as a hotel keycard? I've had these get messed up from time to time when I wasn't carrying a strong magnet around with me.
Maybe it won't matter since hotels barely exist post-Covid. Or it will force them to support using iPhones to open hotel doors (as a very few hotels do already).
Actually, screw hotel key cards, what about the credit cards in my (mini) wallet? I routinely have credit cards in a leather sleeve in the same pocket as my phone. Will I have to replace that with a shielded sleeve?
You have not stay in a hotel in a while. Current phones NonMagSafe deactivate the key cards all the time. Too many times when going out of the room putting the card and phone in the same pocket will grant me a visit to the front desk to reprogram my key. So that’s not going to be a new problem it already exist with current phones. Lately I am being using my phone as my key so that’s one way to solve it.
So funny, how Apple tried to go with "some-other" industry standard (Qi charging), even trying to build a "great charger" and just said "CAN'T, this standard sucks!" And had to make MagSafe.
Qi is "good enough" for people who don't notice or care about the problems (device positioning/alignment). Apple wasn't happy with "good enough" and took the time to solve the problems. I appreciate their attention to detail and unwillingness to compromise.
I'll be very interested to learn how Apple has engineered this magnetic wallet so that it doesn't screw up the mag strip on credit cards. It seems like an incredibly obvious question. Surely that Apple um Pay card they show in the photo hasn't been ruined by the strong iPhone magnet.
It’s a good question. Or it would be if we were dealing with another company...
“The leather wallet is shielded so it’s safe for credit cards.”
This is the last line of the product description for the leather wallet in the Apple Store app.
As I said, I'm interested in how they engineered this. I didn't say I doubt that they did. Isn't it non-trivial to "shield" a strong rare earth magnet with something only a couple of millimeters thin?
Actually no. Magnetic fields can’t be transmitted through a conductor. It’s basic physics. The pouch where the card goes must be internally lined by a conductor material, like a thin film deposition over a malleable substrate, or some other mesh-like tissue.
most credit cards now use the embedded chip and no longer use the stripe. That should answer at least that part of your concern.
Credit cards don't use either, POS readers uses them. There are still plenty around that are mag strip only, especially at small Mom and Pop businesses. There are other cards such as loyalty cards that aren't and won't be chipped. A local supermarket's chip readers weren't functioning for a week but swiping and Apple Pay worked fine. Maybe one day every business will use contactless payment. 'Till then...
My interest is in holders for the MagSafe puck. The demo of how the connector self-aligned and attached to the phone was interesting enough, but they you have to pull the MagSafe off the phone like an animal.
So I'm looking forward to see the various offerings of trays, easels, and car cradles, etc., for charging phones or phones and watches.
Aren’t most modern credit cards chipped anyway? I can’t think of the last time I used a magnetic swipe to pay fir something.
Gas stations
In the US, you will see gas stations transitioning to chip readers very quickly in the next few months. As of Oct 2020, gas stations will be liable for loss due to fraudulent activity if they do not use the the chip reader.
Aren’t most modern credit cards chipped anyway? I can’t think of the last time I used a magnetic swipe to pay fir something.
Personally I haven't used anything but Apple Pay for at least the last 2 years, maybe even as long as 3 years. The cards that come through from the banks get activated and then stored in a lock box once added to Apple Pay and never see the light of day. So for my own personal use case the use of magnets and the risk associated with them is largely irrelevant.
Do any of the MagSafe cases charge the iPhone? Apple's Smart Battery Cases for the X and 11 do that, but it appears that the MagSafe cases merely pass through a charger.
Also, do the MagSafe cases pass through a Qi charger, like the one in my car?
I'll be very interested to learn how Apple has engineered this magnetic wallet so that it doesn't screw up the mag strip on credit cards. It seems like an incredibly obvious question. Surely that Apple um Pay card they show in the photo hasn't been ruined by the strong iPhone magnet.
It’s a good question. Or it would be if we were dealing with another company...
“The leather wallet is shielded so it’s safe for credit cards.”
This is the last line of the product description for the leather wallet in the Apple Store app.
As I said, I'm interested in how they engineered this. I didn't say I doubt that they did. Isn't it non-trivial to "shield" a strong rare earth magnet with something only a couple of millimeters thin?
Actually no. Magnetic fields can’t be transmitted through a conductor. It’s basic physics. The pouch where the card goes must be internally lined by a conductor material, like a thin film deposition over a malleable substrate, or some other mesh-like tissue.
That's not quite accurate. Magnetic fields must connect between the poles, and the idea with shielding is to give them a shorter path (exactly like an electrical short circuit). Different materials shield against magnetic fields to different degrees. Pure iron works extremely well. Aluminum works extremely poorly.
Short circuits just reduce the amount of power going through other parts of the circuit, they don't eliminate it entirely. With a lot of materials, it's entirely possible to have enough magnetic field strength after the shielding to still wipe low coercivity magswipe cards (like the type used for hotels).
Comments
My interest is in holders for the MagSafe puck. The demo of how the connector self-aligned and attached to the phone was interesting enough, but they you have to pull the MagSafe off the phone like an animal.
So I'm looking forward to see the various offerings of trays, easels, and car cradles, etc., for charging phones or phones and watches.
Also, do the MagSafe cases pass through a Qi charger, like the one in my car?
Short circuits just reduce the amount of power going through other parts of the circuit, they don't eliminate it entirely. With a lot of materials, it's entirely possible to have enough magnetic field strength after the shielding to still wipe low coercivity magswipe cards (like the type used for hotels).
Here's a warning from Apple (make the obvious corrections to the obfuscated URL):
support {dot} apple {dot} com/en-us/HT211900