AirPower might be the zombie product that just won’t die after all
- mar
- 23
What you need to know
- Apple canceled AirPower after it couldn't make it work correctly.
- The project was reportedly too ambitious.
- But now we're hearing that it might be back on the table.
Fire extinguishers at the ready.
AirPower was something that sounded amazing. A charging mat that could power three items at once, no matter where they were placed. And charge levels would be communicated to an iPhone so you'd know how things were doing. Ultimately, Apple couldn't make it work properly. But now a tweet has tongues wagging. Is AirPower about to make a zombie-like return?
AirPower was originally announced in September of 2017. It was supposed to be available within a year or so, but after Apple canned it in March 2019 we thought that was the end of that. Talk of units catching fire echoed around Silicon Valley, but Jon Prosser now seems to think the old heat problem is being worked on once more.
AirPower isn’t dead ?
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) March 22, 2020
The project is back on, internally. No guarantee that they’ll finalize and release it, but they haven’t given up yet and they’re trying to re-engineer the coils to displace heat more effectively. Prototyping is underway.
????? pic.twitter.com/tjbbViwGM2
The suggestion that Apple continues to work on making AirPower a viable product is promising, although it doesn't guarantee the charging mat will find its way out of Apple's labs this time around, either. That being said, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously made noises about a new Apple wireless charger, so it's possible something is afoot.
And if you'll pardon the pun, there might just be some fire to go with this smoke. Hopefully there isn't an AirPower mad at the center of it.