We don’t hear a lot about Apple AirPower these days. Yes, there have been the iPhone launches and the upcoming iPad/iMac announcements next month but the much anticipated wireless charging mat appears to have slipped under the radar somewhat.
Until today.
As the new iPhone XS and XS Max are rolling out to consumers all over the world one eagle eyed Developer called Gavin Stevens shared an image of the user guide which clearly mentioned the AirPower.
It says: “Place iPhone with screen facing up on AirPower or a Qi-certified wireless charger. You can also use the Lightning connector to charge iPhone and connect accessories.
Now this might just be an error as it’s not clear why Apple would leave a reference to a non-existant product in not just one but both iPhone XS and XS Max manuals but maybe suggested that the company planned to ship it alongside the new iPhones.
We don’t talk about AirPower round these parts
AirPower was not mentioned at the iPhone launch event despite speculation that it would be the One More Thing… announcement. There hasn’t been any mention of it since it was first announced.
It’s a revolutionary charging concept. Allowing a user to charge their iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods all at the same time. There have been some rumours that Apple has encountered a number of issues that needed to be solved before AirPower could be made available commercially including heat management, inter-device communications as well as mechanical and interference problems.
Reportedly the AirPower was producing too much heat at the current time causing performance and charging issues. There were also communication issues between AirPower and devices placed on the mat and the multi-device charging mechanism resulted in interference that reduced device efficiency.
There has been no official communication from Apple on whether they have solved these problems and there is no mention of the product on the official website anywhere. The mention in such high profile packaging materials for the flagship 2018 products suggest that Apple hasn’t given up on AirPower and we could see a launch at some time in the future.
Even when the device was announced Apple said it was looking to launch in 2018 and unless it is going to be unveiled at the iPad event in October then it looks like this will be unlikely to be met.