The stillborn AirPower wireless charging system hung over Apple’s head for nearly years, but the newer and arguably better MagSafe is slowly erasing it from people’s consciousness. As if to remind people again that it had been almost a thing, an engineering prototype of what would are the AirPower charging mat suddenly appears on the web. And quite just an early version of the device, it’s also a working one that shows how close Apple was to launching what could are a flawed product.
The history of Apple AirPower is undoubtedly one for the books. After announcing the wireless charging mat alongside the primary wireless charging-capable iPhone in 2017, it took two years for Apple to finally admit that the AirPower was not getting to hit the market. It was, in other words, unceremoniously canceled and shelved, later to get replaced by a more innovative MagSafe system.
Apple didn’t strictly come clean about why the AirPower was ditched, aside from not meeting its famous standards of quality. However, since the start, the web was crammed with speculation that the corporate was unable to ensure the security of the despite in light of upper thermal output. The MagSafe partially solved that by ensuring that wireless charging coils aligned ideally instead of utilizing multiple coils spread throughout the mat’s surface.
After another two years, the AirPower has resurfaced as a functional prototype. the shortage of Apple’s signature minimalist white design suggests that this is often more of an early engineering version than something on the brink of release. It does, however, work tolerably to be helpful, though probably not within safe limits.
AirPower pic.twitter.com/bv8gi0NiiL
— Giulio Zompetti (@1nsane_dev) August 5, 2021
The video above also shows the animation that might be shown when charging an iPhone, which seemed almost on the brink of its final version in contrast. There’s still an opportunity that AirPower will be resurrected within the future, but, for now, Apple is all about MagSafe, which is beginning to get copied by other phone makers.
