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So my phone is charged by a cable. It plugs into the wall on one side and then plugs into my phone on the other. This system works great - I plug my phone in wh
by brian-armstrong 8y ago
So my phone is charged by a cable. It plugs into the wall on one side and then plugs into my phone on the other. This system works great - I plug my phone in when I go to bed and unplug it when I wake up. The cable is long enough to plug into my phone even if I want to use it in bed. It's easy, cheap and failproof.
What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this?
- ThatPlayer 8y agoConvenience. I keep one on my desk. Everytime I sit down, I place my phone down on my charger pad, because that's where it goes. The 1 less step of having to hunt for a cable and plug it in makes it second nature to have my phone always charging or fully charged. Similarly in cars that have wireless charging nowadays, there's a tray of some sort to put it in. Rather than charging when I need to, wireless charging makes it convenient enough to be charging all the time. Unless you have a lifestyle where you're out and about, and you don't have chargers everywhere you are, it's a nice addition. Also less stress on the physical port. My Nexus 7 2013 has a broken microUSB port that I can still wirelessly charge.
- lightedman 8y ago"Everytime I sit down, I place my phone down on my charger pad, because that's where it goes." I hope you enjoy destroying your battery prematurely, because constant charging cycles wears it out rapidly. Lithium chemistry hates that kind of treatment.
- kbutler 8y agoI have a Nexus 7 2013 whose USB jack no longer works (probably accumulated damage from bumps/drops/general stressors), but wireless charging still works fine. (High-five ThatPlayer who posted at the same time)
- brian-armstrong 8y agoHave you checked the port for pocket lint? Believe it or not, that disables more ports than anything else.
- kbutler 8y agoI wish that were the case here, as I've "fixed" other ports by lintectomy (and it has been long enough I had to go check it again!) but this is physical damage to the port.
- zhte415 8y agoThe USB jack is always the first to fail for me too. Depending on where you live, you might be able to get it replaced. Where I am a USB jack replacement (parts and labour) is about USD 8 (and a replacement for a scratch screen (5 inch 720x1280 so nothing special) is about USD 15, both at a local electronics market.
- wickedsmile 8y agoCharging phone when you are off to bed is really very bad. Lithium charging protection circuit could fail anytime due to one of the components in the circuit malfunctioning and your lithium battery inside the phone can catch fire. Many houses have been burned down to ashes from lithium fire. Just YouTube for 'lithium fire' and you'll see how dangerous it can be. I usually charge the phone in an empty place where lithium fire won't cause much damage.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- saagarjha 8y agoThat’s why Apple invests in quality control to prevent this from occurring.
- wickedsmile 8y agoNo amount of quality control can work against the long tail events, it's simply impossible.
- saagarjha 8y agoYup. The best they can do is reduce the probability of it happening.
- Phlarp 8y agoresidential lithium fires are unlikely to be coming from phones. (unless people still have those exploding Notes still kicking around) Far more likely to be lithium batteries being used or abused in a hobbyist capacity. E-cigs and RC are both ripe for it when users have lower quality cells to begin with, routinely discharge them above the rated current and then charge with sometimes questionable chargers. Worse yet when people try to charge them above the max voltage.
- wickedsmile 8y ago
- samtho 8y agoCables are subject to breaking (specifically the connectors) and given how hard it is for many phones to listen to music via headphones and charge at the same time, I can see the appeal. Also, jacks are only rated for a limited number of cycles (connects, disconnects) due to the fact that there is mechanical connection taking place. In the future, I imagine wireless charging being built into key pieces of furniture (see Ikea's attempts) where you might like to charge your phone. At the makerspace I run, we are embedding wireless charging into our custom-built tables which, I have to say, is super nice just to drop your phone down and have it charge.
- darkpuma 8y ago> "Cables are subject to breaking (specifically the connectors)" Apple cables are. Somehow I don't have this problem with other brands... ever.
- slimsag 8y agoThe best way to make profit is to introduce both the problem and the solution.
- sneak 8y agoThe amount of money Apple makes from selling replacement cables due to fatigue due to inadequate (in their opinion “ugly”) strain relief is negligible. Please stop spreading this inaccurate meme. Apple makes money because they sell metric shitloads of $1200 phones and $600 watches and, increasingly, software and services for them. Not cables.
- tolmasky 8y agoThe wireless charger is a better experience than putting a cable in your phone in my opinion, but the dock they used to include in the box is a far better than both. It was simple to put your phone in (as opposed to a cable that might fall off the table or move around), and kept the phone facing you making it easy to interact with while charging (unlike the wireless charger). But at some point they probably figured out they could save 20 cents by selling it separately.
- eclipxe 8y agoThey make wireless chargers in a dock form. I love it - same interactivity as a dock but easy to pick up and go.
- _ph_ 8y agoI second that. I have an Anker charging stand and it works beautifully. As it is a stand, there are no alignment problems, and it is easy to keep using the phone, especially, as face id always triggers when looking at the phone when I get a notification. The charging mat I have requires careful alignment and while lying flat, face id usually does not trigger.
- sp332 8y agoI can slap my phone down on the charger next to my bed in the dark. I can grab my phone off the charger on my desk at work with one hand. Before wireless charging, it wasn't much hassle, and I only rarely had trouble with my phone battery dying. Now it's almost no hassle, and I never have trouble with my battery dying. It's just a nice quality-of-life boost.
- rincebrain 8y agoIs that not something many people can do one-handed? The last time I had any trouble doing that one-handed was in the era of proprietary inch-wide charge connectors.
- sp332 8y agoLast I checked, I only had one opposable thumb per hand. I need that to hold my phone, so how would I grab the cable? With my teeth?
- rimliu 8y agoIt’s not super convenient, but I do it this way: press the phone to the ball of my palm with the middle, ring and little finger and use the thumb and the index finger to pull the cable out. The trickiest part is the positioning of the phone in the palm, because that pulling motion has a very limited range.
- beojan 8y agoAnd unless your phone has the charging port at the top, you're now holding it upside down.
- rincebrain 8y agoAs the other commenter said, the more convenient method is to hold the phone upside-down and pull it out. The less portable method, assuming you have a phone sufficiently smaller than your hand and sufficient pull, is to pull the cord out using some of the non-opposable digits that are located near the phone bottom when it's right-side up. I usually opt for the former, but the latter is much more feasible than I would have expected (IME USB-C is not that hard to tug out, by mistake or otherwise, though it's still better than microUSB B).
- Analemma_ 8y agoThe handiest place to have one, IME, is not at home but at work: you can leave it on the pad for most of the workday but always pick it up right when you need it and not have to worry about fiddling with the cable. Especially when the phone gets a couple years old and you need midday charges for it to last through the day. It's not a vital feature, but since decent chargers are only like $25, why not?
- altmind 8y agoThe two benefits from the wireless charger: 1) you dont wear out the usb port 2) I have the charger next to my bed. You can pick a phone at night to check anything and put it back without looking for a cable - much less mental and eye strain when you're half asleep.
- whynotminot 8y agoI think the real point is the eventual removal of the port altogether. If you can sync your phone over Wifi, stream to audio over Bluetooth, and reliably and quickly charge wirelessly, then you can remove the port altogether allowing for thinner, more robust, more water resistant designs. It's probably also cheaper to boot. That's the wireless future that I imagine Apple was/maybe still is imagining.
- brian-armstrong 8y agoMy phone still has a headphone jack, so removing 1 port still leaves me with 1.
- cannonedhamster 8y agoWell so does mine since it was an important feature to me. This conversation is about Apple products though, and they decided to make a convoluted reason to try and prop up their Airpods and Beats headphones to be "courageous". Samsung almost has the problem solved by wireless charging of devices from the phone, however I'm not sure about the long term ramifications of sending electrical signals directly at devices plugged into your ears. Apple Airpods remind me of that scene about hair gel from "Something About Mary" and are basically meant to be thrown away after a few years of use. Meanwhile I've had the same headphones with different earbuds for literally over 5 years. When there are two USB C chargers I might consider dropping the headphone jack.
- whynotminot 8y agoWe're not talking about your phone, Brian. Keep up.
- torstenvl 8y agoThat would require sync over WiFi to actually work. Reliably.
- tedivm 8y agoThey're just going to remove local syncing and stick with cloud based solutions.
- itslennysfault 8y agoI agree totally. Not to mention that wireless charging uses about 40% more power. Which for charging phones is a small amount until you think of every person on the planet charging their phone every day.
- quotemstr 8y ago> Which for charging phones is a small amount until you think of every person on the planet charging their phone every day. It is a small amount of power though. There are about 4.68 billion mobile phone users; let's assume each has one phone. Let's be conservative and assume that all these phones have high-end battery packs, on the order of 4,000 mAh. Let's be even more conservative and assume each phone is used to depletion and recharged each day. Let's assume a voltage of 4V, so we end up with 2.7e14 joules used recharging mobile phones per day. In 2014 (so conservative, for 2019), human civilization produced 23,816 terrawatt-hours of electricity, or about 8.6e19 joules per year or 2.6e17 joules per day. (Let's also assume electricity production and consumption are equal.) Even under this very conservative estimate, cell phones charging accounts for 0.115% of world electricity consumption. Increasing that figure by 40% is negligible.
- oska 8y agoThanks for doing the math but I don't think one product that consumes one one thousandth of the world's energy production is negligible. (How many coal power stations is that?) And a 40% increase in this consumption for a very minimal increase in 'convenience' (itself debatable) is not negligently wasteful.
- quotemstr 8y ago> I don't think one product that consumes one one thousandth of the world's energy production is negligible. Amdahl does though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law > And a 40% increase in this consumption for a very minimal increase in 'convenience' (itself debatable) is not negligently wasteful. That's your opinion. I have a different opinion. How do we choose which of us is right? In general, we decide on the allocation of scarce resources through markets and price signals. Electricity is metered almost everywhere. If wireless charging's 40% increase in energy use doesn't hurt adoption, it means that the utility gained from wireless charging outweighs the resources consumed. That you personally have different utility function doesn't invalidate anyone else's, and you certainly don't get to make people use your utility function instead of their own. If you think electricity is too cheap and doesn't incorporate necessary externalities, you can argue for some kind of extra climate tax. But arguing against specific products here because you personally don't find them useful isn't the right approach.
- wwweston 8y agoWith a cable, you have to put your phone in a place AND put something in a place in your phone. With a mat, you only have to put your phone in a place. Obviously the latter is life changing. ;) Seriously, however marginal, it is arguably a gain, and ... marginal gains can be kindof nice if they don't force some other annoying tradeoff. For me that'd include an appreciable cost higher than the cost of a long-lasting cable, but YMMV.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoIt really is a matter of convenience. Micro-USB is so annoying because of the dexterity needed to plug it in, lightning and USB C are much better because you don’t have to think about the orientation, wireless is better than that because you don’t have to attach any wires.
- wizzard 8y agoI was of the same opinion until I got a charging pad from Costco for Christmas. I decided to try it out to be polite, and was surprised at how much I like it. I don't have to fish for the cable, I don't have to try to plug it into the speakers a few times in the dark before finding the right port, and if I want to pick up my phone to check something really quick I can just do it without unplugging or having to hover near the cord. Life-changing, no, but certainly worth a few bucks to me.
- magnetic 8y agoCould you please tell what SKU/product it was?
- dwighttk 8y agoYeah I bought some wireless charger off amazon (I think it supports up to 10W, but you know how amazon is) just to try it out and haven’t stopped using it. I really thought it was going to be super gimmicky and that I was going to just keep using a cable.
- JonathonW 8y agoWireless charging’s nice to have at home— it’s pretty convenient to just be able to throw my phone on the charger at night and have it charged in the morning, without having to mess with a cable. The real killer app for me, though, is wireless charging in the car. I’ve got a Qi charger built into my car (and Qi phone mounts are readily available as retrofits for cars that don’t) and it’s really handy (and likely safer) to be able to just throw my phone in the pad if I realize it’s low while driving rather than having to fumble around with a cable.
- oska 8y ago> and it’s really handy (and likely safer) to be able to just throw my phone in the pad if I realize it’s low while driving Why are you doing anything with your phone, including ascertaining it's on a low charge, while driving? Plug your phone in at the start of your trip if it needs charging.
- baq 8y agoPlugging the phone in the car is the most irritating thing to do in my car. Maybe with CarPlay it’s better as I wouldn’t have to fight the mount and the cable.
- _bxg1 8y agoIt takes something easy and makes it effortless. Like AirPods, this has a surprising number of implications that you really don't think about until you try it. If I'm just setting my phone down on my desk and it's at 50%, and my cable is right there, I may not bother to plug it in. Especially if I might get up again in 5 or 10 minutes. But if I can just set it down in a particular place and regain a couple percentage points, and I do this twenty times a day, it adds up.
- skellera 8y agoDoes that have an effect on battery life though? Constant micro charges?
- gpm 8y agoPossible positive? If it keeps it in the 20-70% range I'm told we are supposed to keep our devices in.
- accatyyc 8y agoThe things that kill smartphone batteries today are age and power cycles. It doesn’t matter if you charge from 0% to 100% in one go or from 90% to 100% ten times. Both add up to one power cycle. To keep your battery fresh for as long as possible, always keep the phone connected to a charger. No battery cycles. It will get worse after a few years anyway.
- themagician 8y agoI’ve never understood it either. I have four of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K702S66/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_z8UNCbA0J19DB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K702S66/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_z8UN... with little 2-inch micro USB and Lightning cables. I keep they in different sockets around the house. When I want to charge something I just pick it up and plug it in and fold the battery around the back. I can hold it in my hand or set it down on a desk. More wireless than wireless.
- gwbas1c 8y agoI replaced my last phone because the port wore out, and sometimes I'd wake up with a low battery. Nice to know my port gets less wear! (Also, both iPhone and Android support Qi. Don't need to play the different cable game.)
- SllX 8y agoIn the present/short term, having a few spots in your home and office you can slap down whatever it is (phone+battery case, headphones, watch) whenever you don’t actively need to use it and just quickly pick them up when you need them. Even a few minutes charge can be handy. In the medium term, the fact that it is portless and at this point, standardized, are features. Even a modicum of wear and tear can eat through ports (in both the phone and the power brick, but usually the phone) and cables (which is the common failure case if you travel with cables because you otherwise wouldn’t have one every place you need them). Anything that eliminates even a bit of wear and tear necessitating fewer repairs and replacements is a plus. Well the caveat here is I don’t know the failure states of Qi wireless charging pads yet, so there is possibly something I haven’t considered here. In the long term: I would like a desk, where recessed into this desk is a a pad where I can place my phone, desktop, laptops on top of and have both power and a high speed LAN confined to that desk without the access point in the other room acting as the medium of exchange, and without having to plug every powered device individually into an outlet or cable to charge. This would massively cut down on RF interference, reduce the total number of cables I need to be concerned about, and make keeping the area around my desk clean a bit easier. I manage now, and it is fine, but I really dislike having to replace any cables in my current setup with another cable unless I’m reducing the number of cables, and I strongly dislike having to add to the number of cables in any space I maintain. Might be a dream, but it is my dream. If all I cared about was keeping my phone charged, proximity charging wouldn’t be a selling point. When I factor in all the other infrastructure in my life I have to keep powered and charged and cabled, it is a much stronger sell.
- oneowl 8y agoThank you for sharing this. I think this is a very good idea. >I would like a desk [...] and have both power and a high speed LAN [...] Based on what I've seen I think there is a huge (untapped) demand for desks like these in coworking spaces. The tough part in making something like this is actually the design. So you'll have to work with someone who is skilled in carpentry/ sketching and go through a few iterations before you can have a good product/ something to show prospects. Like a self contained cubicle but essentially a workdesk. I like this idea very much. You should work on it.
- ineedasername 8y agoI thought it would be a nice improvement, just laying my phone down in a few common places I charged it, so I bought a charging pad to try it out. Physics got in the way, even with a simple "high speed" charger from Samsung, with a Samsung phone. It was the case on the phone. Probably no more than 2mm thick, but it made finding the right position to charge very difficult. If it wasn't just right, it wouldn't charge, and even when it did it was much slower than the normal high speed charging. I think there's potential in this arena, but it's not quite there yet, not for a lot of people and every day situations.
- miguelmota 8y agoThe seconds it takes to plugging in and unplugging your phone add up and it takes mental effort. I’d rather just set the phone down on the nightstand or on the desk while drinking coffee and have it charge without whipping out the cable each time.
- joeblau 8y agoThere is a book called Personality Plus[1] that you should definitely read because you're most likely a very detailed oriented person. I have friends that are not as diligent as you are with plugging their phones in and their battery is almost dead all of the time. Them having a Qi charging mat is the one saving grace that no finally keeps their phones above the 5% - 20% low power mode battery area that they usually hover in. The cognitive load is just low enough to get them to charge their phones more often if they can just place it on a mat. I'm like you when it comes to charging my phone, but I know quite a few people that are not. [1] - https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Plus-Understand-Understanding-Yourself/dp/080075445X https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Plus-Understand-Understan...
- tsjq 8y agothanks for the book suggestion. sounds interesting.
- Simon_says 8y agoI have a waterproof case on my phone. My last two similar cases failed because the door to open the charging port broke. We're not very far off from phones that are waterproof because they don't have any ports at all.
- Fezzik 8y agoCables are not entirely fail-proof - I imagine many people here, including myself, have seen smoldering Apple branded mag-safe, 30 pin, and lightning cables. Moving energy from one place to another, quickly and efficiently, at the small-scale of modern electronics, is tough. I prefer cables for charging, too, but as others have posted wiredless-ness sure is convenient, a la AirPods. I swore by wired headphones until I got AirPods - now I never yank my EarPods out of my ear while cooking or if my dogs jump on me while I am on the phone (for example; small conveniences).
- dwighttk 8y agoSmoldering? What? Your cables are burning? I’ve seen cracked plastic around the end of the cable, but never burning.
- sowbug 8y agoOne hand vs. two. Never have to look for the cable that fell behind the nightstand. Picking up the phone at night doesn't risk yanking something else off the nightstand with the cable.
- xenospn 8y agoIm assuming it's very useful for people who can't use both hands.
- todd3834 8y agoI felt the same way until I bought my wife a wireless charger as something she might think was “neat”. I wasn’t even sure if she would use it but at least it would be an option. Once I saw how nice the experience actually was I bought one for myself. It’s really nice on the bed side table. Much nicer than fiddling with a cord in the dark. It wasn’t life changing but it definitely felt better than plugging in.
- Rebelgecko 8y agoI have a tablet with a broken USB port, so I can only charge it wirelessly. For my phone, wireless charging makes it easier to top off the battery. Less friction than digging around for a cable, plugging it in, and unplugging when I'm done.
- stordoff 8y agoThe thing that gives me pause is that we have spent two decades worrying about standby power, but now we are willfully adding an inefficiency. It feels like the wrong direction to be moving in.
- yason 8y agoWhat is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? If you haven't figured it out and you're happy with a cable, stick with it. There is no greater disservice in life than relieving yourself from something you're happy and perfectly content with in search of something better. In the worst case you become acutely aware of the downsides of both methods and you're no longer happy with either.
- bobsil1 8y agoAligning a Lightning cable in the dark without scratching the stainless steel iPhone frame is a pain in the butt.
- dingaling 8y agoTangent, but the general advice in the past re: Lithium batteries was never to charge them without surveillance due to fire risk. So for years I've been turning-off the chargers at bedtime. Has this advice changed?
- rconti 8y agoNo, but nobody pays any attention to it. Everybody leaves all their devices on chargers overnight; at home, in the office, etc.
- jjclint 8y agoThat's what i said when they came up with the wireless remote control!!! Bunch of useless junk if you ask me!! ~ A. Einstein
- antibland 8y agoMy mom suffered a stroke and has 70% use of only one side of her body. She's been known to take risky measures reaching for a fallen charging cable. For her, wireless charging would make her life safer (and me, less worried about her). But yeah, personally, I find this tech rather gimmicky.
- ez7r6i 8y agoYou could tape the cable to a desk, a few centimetres away from the end of the cable, so it can't fall.
- xtiansimon 8y agoA wired charger is a personal item. A charging mat can be a communal space--pads in restaurant tables, bars, and other community spaces. Charging everywhere.
- m-p-3 8y agoThe charging port is now used for more applications, like plugging headphones. Using wireless charging helps to reduce the port's wear and tear that it must faces everyday.
- coldtea 8y ago>What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this? No day in, day out strain on the charing port of the device? No having to plug in/out, just put it down on the mat?
- nvarsj 8y agoHave you ever tried fumbling with cables in the dark when going to bed? It’s not a huge thing, but wireless charging is a nice quality of life improvement. Try using it for a couple weeks and it will be hard to go back. The other small benefit is less wear on the charge port. It’s not such an issue for usb-c or lightning ports, but micro usb ports have terrible reliability in my experience. All my android devices developed a broken micro usb port after a year or two of plugging it in over and over.
- emilfihlman 8y agoConnector wear and obstruction is real and can make charging or wired interaction extremely hard or even impossible. Connectors also have a lifetime. For example, my phone's (Samsung Galaxy S6) port has dirt in it that I can't get out, some micro USB connectors wont fit and all of them don't stick in and readily fall out. This is one of the reasons I absolutely loathe and hate micro USB. It's just an extremely bad connector. Compare this with my Surface Pro 3 (or the magnetic Mac chargers): the magnetic charger is wonderful and Just Works. Wireless charging is the next step. Sure, you need the pad and it's not as readily movable but damn it's effortless. Personally I'd prefer magnetic connectors, though.
- sfifs 8y agoSo I used to think the same until one day I dramatically learned the utility of wireless charging. I was traveling on a 30 hour journey with two airplane changes from Asia to the US. Some combination of temperature and humidity changes led to condensation in the charging port my phone basically refused to charge from USB C irrespective of what I tried to dry it out. I barely managed to save enough battery to send a "arrived safely" msg home and book an Uber to the hotel since I landed close to midnight. I could buy a cheap burner phone the next day but all data is on my regular phone. I luckily found a mobile store carrying a wireless charger and was able to get my phone going again. It's happened a few more times and now I never travel without the wireless charger.
- fma 8y agoI have a Samsung phone. Wife has Apple. We can charge using the same charger.
- hoorayimhelping 8y ago>What is the draw of wireless charging? What is it that I'm missing? Did anyone ask for this? Apple is trying to release a series of devices that don't need wires. Apple Watch, Airpods, removing the 3.5mm headphone jack. They're trying to make a sheet of glass a few millimeters thick that does computations, like you'd see in Star Trek. There's no big mystery to it. Nobody asked Apple to remove 3.5inch floppies or optical drives; people freaked the fuck out for months when they did. Now, nobody cares or needs those things. This is how Apple operates. People (myself included) seem to forget that they do this all the time on their path to making great products.
- courtneycouch0 8y agoI think it just boils down to we all have subtle differences in how we use products so while some features are a revelation to one person, they are pointless to another (always on Siri on the AirPods or wireless charging on the AirPods is pointless for me, I'd have simply preferred longer battery life as an example). Wireless charging is incrementally nicer based on how I use my phone. Would I be fine without it? Absolutely. But getting an extra 2 inches of legroom on a flight costs more than a wireless charging pad so the bar for incremental benefit is pretty low for me. The small incremental benefit for me is that I often randomly wake up in the middle of the night with something on my mind, if I don't look it up, I won't get back to sleep. Reaching over and grabbing my phone off the nightstand with a cable means possibly knocking things off the stand if I leave it plugged in (I keep a glass of water there usually), if I unplug it then I have to find the plug and replug it in all while trying to not wake up too much. I'm also always anxious about the cable bending too much at the connector so I'm always guarding that carefully. If I get a high gauge cable so I don't worry about it bending too much, then it's even more prone to knocking things over and possibly just pulling the plug out of the wall. Stands aren't much better, when trying to get the phone back on the stand in the dark without getting up it takes both hands usually to try to line it up correctly. The pad is simple, the phone is on the corner of the nightstand, I grab it, look up whatever, drop it back. As I mentioned it is definitely a small incremental convenience based on my particular use of the product. For less than the cost of economy plus on a single flight, I don't keep knocking crap off my nightstand. Seems worth it (for me). I've definitely paid more for less tangible benefit.
- zaroth 8y agoCables fall off the nightstand and slip into crevices of death. They get stolen to power a device in the kid’s room. They are hard to find in the dark. They have to be attached and detached. They can snag and knock a glass of wine all over the sheets. They are a choking hazard for your pet gecko. Ok, I made that last one up. I didn’t understand the appeal until I put one on my nightstand. Now if my phone buzzes I can grab it, glance at it, and toss it back on the wireless charging stand. My kids have T1D and I monitor their blood sugars on my phone. If they are too high or low I get an alert. Sometimes the sensors drop out, and I get an alert. If I wake up during the night I glance at their numbers. In short, there’s a lot of quick burst of phone use most nights, and I carry my phone into their rooms if I need to make a correction. Not having to plug and unplug my phone every time I get up to check on them is a small miracle. But for anyone, really, being able to just toss down and pick up the phone is a tiny little dopamine hit versus fidgeting with a cable.
- manyxcxi 8y agoI got sick and tired of cables fraying and breaking and finding the cable after it falls off the top of my night stand. It’s also easier to put my phone on the charging pad in the dark than fumbling with finding the cable and getting it plugged in.
- lagadu 8y agoIt's very convenient in the car. Get in, drop the phone in the charging area and you're done, phone is now charging. Hell you can even use some apps through the infotainment system through carplay; it's great.
- ekovarski 8y agoThere are more conveniences than just at home, e.g. in the car, you just place it in the place holder and it charges, no cables to fumble with. No multitude of connectors and there is also a portion of society that has trouble with keeping their hand steady to plug in small connectors - its accessibility for folks with disabilities. Wireless charging is the future.
- rb666 8y agoI love it for nightly charging. I can still easily grab my phone (for those mid-night ideas) while half asleep and not having to fiddle with a cable. Then plop it back down and go back to snoring.
- joshe 8y agoOne factor is expansion into multiple devices. Right now that's Apple watch, AirPods, and iPhone. Maybe a few more future ones like beats isolating headphones (existing product that doesn't charge wirelessly), a keychain dingus, augmented reality glasses, chest strap sleep monitor, or a bike computer. Apple would very much like to sell you more hardware every year. They are very well equipped to innovate here. Pile all your gadgets on this mat is much easier than plug 3 things in every night. In the non tech world, people don't baby their gadgets. I know of a few non tech friends who just leave the apple watch at home if they forget to charge it (instead of hauling the charger to work). Do that enough and you start to wonder why you bought the Apple Watch and then you wonder if you should really buy the next one. There are also lots of form factors where the space saving is key to product success. Apple Watch is the current one. But in the future... AR glasses look dorky if there's anything bigger than about 5mm cubed on them. A sleep monitoring headband or chest strap would be much better being very low profile. (You might put your apple watch on the nightstand and put on the chest strap every night.)
- jessewmc 8y agoFor me the win would be being able to charge my phone, watch, and airpods all at once. This is way, way better than 3 cables (one of which is different).
- xtrimsky1234 8y agoI think wireless charging can be great for two reasons: - hiding it visually, Ikea has done it very well. A cable is ugly, air power is ugly. but if your night table has wireless charging hiding, it is very pleasant to hide cables entirely in your bedroom. - occasions where you want to be fast. at the office or when going to sleep you don't need to be fast. but in the car I think wireless charging is nice. If you travel frequently, being able to just drop your phone in your car and have navigation and wireless charging instantly is very nice in my opinion. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/iOttie-Wireless-Samsung-Enabled-Devices/dp/B06Y34XQRH?ascsubtag=d33a8b167514343bb54b3b8a659064eb97869d1a&kinja_price=30&tag=kinjadeals-20 https://www.amazon.com/iOttie-Wireless-Samsung-Enabled-Devic...
- koheripbal 8y agoAre cables really ugly?