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Why wouldn’t they add Pencil support to iPhones, come on.

rtkwe 5y ago
They’d need to come up with a new pairing mechanism. Currently you can only pair them by either plugging them in (the gen 1 method) or using the magnetic charging spot on the side of the later generation iPad Pros. AFIAK there’s no other way to put the Pencils into a pairing state that would work with phones for the newer ones so you’d be selling people more of the Gen 1 devices which I bet they’re looking to obsolete ASAP.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  If only they had solved this pairing problem elsewhere, maybe like the airpods.
  - rtkwe 5y ago
    What’s the put “it in the case” equivalent action for an Apple Pencil? There’s no a need for the secondary battery in the pencils because they’re large enough to have a sizable battery built in. Not saying it’s an impossible problem but it would need a button that doesn’t exist on current pencils. They could in theory use the older gen 1 pencils but then you’d be bifurcating the pencil branding forcing them to continue making the older pencils with the built in Lightning (which would be even less convenient on a phone since the pencils are longer than the phones). Everyone brought up the issue of losing the pencil with the old version because there was no way to keep them together outside of a case with an extra nub built in. The pencil form factor just isn’t great for phones. It just barely works on devices like the Note line of phones because it’s tiny and has a built in slot to not lose it.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      > What’s the put “it in the case” equivalent action for an Apple Pencil? The same as the airpods: stop using it and wait a few minutes for a usable charge.
      - rtkwe 5y ago
        I mean for pairing. The new generation Pencils only pair when connected to an iPad’s charge point.
- wellthisisgreat 5y ago
  Hmm, iPhone 12 Pro (idk about non-pro) has the MagSafe charging ring on the back side of the device, I’d assume the side spot isn’t that much different from that?
  - rtkwe 5y ago
    To charge it has to be able to function as a Qi pad instead of just a receiver which requires chips that may not exist on the phone side of things. Also there may be issue with coil mismatches the pencil has to have a really small coil compared to almost all other wireless charging devices. It might be very specifically tuned for the spot on the side of the iPadPros in a way that wouldn't work well on anything else.
    - MikeRichardson 5y ago
      Some Android phones have a feature now that actually lets you charge another phone wirelessly (using the energy in the Android phone's battery). Power Sharing, or something like that, I forgot the name for it.

They’d need to come up with a new pairing mechanism. Currently you can only pair them by either plugging them in (the gen 1 method) or using the magnetic charging spot on the side of the later generation iPad Pros. AFIAK there’s no other way to put the Pencils into a pairing state that would work with phones for the newer ones so you’d be selling people more of the Gen 1 devices which I bet they’re looking to obsolete ASAP.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
If only they had solved this pairing problem elsewhere, maybe like the airpods.
- rtkwe 5y ago
  What’s the put “it in the case” equivalent action for an Apple Pencil? There’s no a need for the secondary battery in the pencils because they’re large enough to have a sizable battery built in. Not saying it’s an impossible problem but it would need a button that doesn’t exist on current pencils. They could in theory use the older gen 1 pencils but then you’d be bifurcating the pencil branding forcing them to continue making the older pencils with the built in Lightning (which would be even less convenient on a phone since the pencils are longer than the phones). Everyone brought up the issue of losing the pencil with the old version because there was no way to keep them together outside of a case with an extra nub built in. The pencil form factor just isn’t great for phones. It just barely works on devices like the Note line of phones because it’s tiny and has a built in slot to not lose it.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    > What’s the put “it in the case” equivalent action for an Apple Pencil? The same as the airpods: stop using it and wait a few minutes for a usable charge.
    - rtkwe 5y ago
      I mean for pairing. The new generation Pencils only pair when connected to an iPad’s charge point.
wellthisisgreat 5y ago
Hmm, iPhone 12 Pro (idk about non-pro) has the MagSafe charging ring on the back side of the device, I’d assume the side spot isn’t that much different from that?
- rtkwe 5y ago
  To charge it has to be able to function as a Qi pad instead of just a receiver which requires chips that may not exist on the phone side of things. Also there may be issue with coil mismatches the pencil has to have a really small coil compared to almost all other wireless charging devices. It might be very specifically tuned for the spot on the side of the iPadPros in a way that wouldn't work well on anything else.
  - MikeRichardson 5y ago
    Some Android phones have a feature now that actually lets you charge another phone wirelessly (using the energy in the Android phone's battery). Power Sharing, or something like that, I forgot the name for it.