Wireless Power Consortium Works With Apple On Next-Gen 'Qi2' Standard Based On MagSafe (9to5mac.com) 26
The WPC announced during CES 2023 that the next generation of the Qi standard, named "Qi2," was built with Apple's help. 9to5Mac reports: The new standard aims to improve the efficiency and interoperability of the technology, which is why it will have a "Magnetic Power Profile" at its core. As explained by WPC, this Magnetic Power Profile essentially works like Apple's MagSafe. As a result, Qi2 accessories will be perfectly aligned with the devices, thus improving energy efficiency and fast charging. And of course, since it was developed in partnership with Apple, the Qi2 standard will also work with MagSafe by default.
Currently, MagSafe is a proprietary standard from Apple, and even accessory manufacturers have to pay to use such a standard. While Apple can still technically limit some features to MagSafe certified accessories, the announcement of the Qi2 standard is good news to ensure that this type of accessory is compatible with different phones. The new Qi2 standard will replace its Qi predecessor once it becomes available. WPC says that one billion Qi devices are expected to be sold globally by 2023. The first Qi2 certified devices and accessories are expected to be introduced by the end of the year.
Currently, MagSafe is a proprietary standard from Apple, and even accessory manufacturers have to pay to use such a standard. While Apple can still technically limit some features to MagSafe certified accessories, the announcement of the Qi2 standard is good news to ensure that this type of accessory is compatible with different phones. The new Qi2 standard will replace its Qi predecessor once it becomes available. WPC says that one billion Qi devices are expected to be sold globally by 2023. The first Qi2 certified devices and accessories are expected to be introduced by the end of the year.
why? (Score:2)
Re: why? (Score:2)
Appleâ(TM)s MagSafe is just Qi with magnets to align it better and optimize the transfer of power. Not sure why you think Apple would somehow be inferior to other Qi systems?
Qi has tried all sorts of things to optimize power transfer over time which got really expensive (many coils and only activating the ones best aligned) and the cheaper options just arenâ(TM)t user friendly (requiring the user to fit the device precisely, at which point you may as well have the old iPod connector cradle).
MagSaf
Re: why? (Score:5, Interesting)
So getting Apple to participate in these solutions and probably reeling in some patent deal to boot is the correct way.
It's weird to me that all the articles are framed as the WPC got Apple to "work with" them and "share" technology, as if Apple is some sort of standoffish rival. Apple has been a participating member of the WPC since February 2017. Later that same year, the iPhone 8 debuted with Qi charging support (pre-MagSafe, so no magnets, just vanilla Qi). Eventually MagSafe came along, which as you said is just Qi charging with proprietary extensions--something WPC explicitly allows OEMs to do, via the Proprietary Power Delivery Extension (PPDE) of the Qi standard. While MagSafe is Apple's, they're hardly alone in making use of PPDE modes to extend their Qi capabilities. Virtually every major OEM has some extension.
So, it really shouldn't be any surprise that Qi2 has Apple's hand in it. Plus plenty of others. I'm guessing Google's contributions, or Samsung's (they're ahead of the game with 30 W Qi-PPDE charging, which I would expect to be standard in Qi2) just didn't have the same headline impact.
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It's weird to me that all the articles are framed as the WPC got Apple to "work with" them and "share" technology, as if Apple is some sort of standoffish rival. Apple has been a participating member of the WPC since February 2017.
Apple was a member of the USB-IF for some time before the release of their willfully proprietary Lightning connector and signaling standard, which they are now being forced to replace with standards-based USB over Type C with USB PD. Since Apple is known to participate in a standards body in bad faith, people expect them to do it again.
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Lightning came out before USB-C, and provided advantages that other USB standards of the time did not (ie reversible connectors etc).
Apple were one of the first vendors to go all-in on USB-C on the mac line, and also one of the first to go all-in on USB with the original imac.
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Lightning came out before USB-C
Nobody said otherwise.
Apple were one of the first vendors to go all-in on USB-C on the mac line
How many of those ports did they give you? All-in? Snort.
and also one of the first to go all-in on USB with the original imac.
Yes, and then they turned around and fucked the USB-IF with Lightning, even though they were a member. Try to keep up.
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I strongly suspect that they incorporated extensive lessons learned from the Lightning connector.
The lightning connector is not only completely different from USB-C, like literally every part functions differently, but it also doesn't have the only advantage of Lightning (the rigidity.) If they incorporated any lessons from Lightning, they were "don't do anything like what we did last time".
Re: why? (Score:5, Informative)
That's because the USB-IF had inferior solutions to the connectivity problem.
When the iPod 3rd gen came out, Apple supported USB charging. However, USB-IF didn't support USB charging - the USB specification said prior to enumeration, a device may only draw 100mA. After enumeration, you can draw 500mA. A USB power adapter violates this, but most provided 500mA. Apple extended it so they could have the charger signal the device how much current it supported - you could at first have 500mA, 1A, 1.5A or 2A. When USB-IF saw this, they added USB charging spec, which dictated if you shorted the D+/D- lines, you got... 800mA.
When Apple revised their 30 pin dock connector to Lightning, the only connectors available were the USB Mini and USB Micro, and both were inferior to Lightning in many ways. (Lightning was a solid connector, so it could be used to prop the device up, and of course, Lightning went in both ways).
Apple is rumored to have be the creator of the USB-C standard to help the USB-IF move forward with a connector that was strong (able to use it for mechanical mounts) and reversible. USB-C also inherited the flexibility of LIghtning in the form of being able to carry different signals - the USB-C alternate functions.
And with USB PD, finally the device and charger are able to negotiate their power requirements so you're not stuck with assuming how much power you can draw from a USB power supply. It could be 500mA, 800mA, 1A, or 2A, and devices had to guess. Or you used Qualcomm QuickCharge, which was created to also solve this problem.
Of course, in the early days, having a device assume it could draw 2A from a 1A charger lead to fun times and lots of smoke being let out.
But the USB-IF was always playing catch up to demands - Apple and others needed features that USB-IF was going to have to take years putting through the standards committee.
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You can get the magnets from Aliexpress too. So you can add "MagSafe" to anything with wireless. The magnets are already pre-arranged so all you do is peel the backing and stick the magnets to the device.
I mean, Phone Repair Guru adds MagSafe to the Nothing Phone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The hardest part is just finding space for the magnets, but he's added it to a whole bunch of things that don't need it
Wireless charging has been pretty bad (Score:2)
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My Pixel Stand charges my phone just about as fast as a cable does. And I don't have to worry about whether a connector is bent or dirty or whatever. And my Pixel Stand will charge other phones, or my earbud case, or other stuff too. A cradle that assumes a particular phone geometry around the power socket won't do all that.
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I don't have this issue. When I place the phone on the charger, I hold it with fingers on both sides. That allows me to align it perfectly every time.
The original plan for Qi was to have the charger align with the device. I actually have an older Panasonic charger that does that. It physically moves the coil until it's under the phone, no matter where you put it on the pad.
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I actually have a couple. They are both "stand" types. Sorry I don't have the model right now, but they were just cheap ones, actually "junk" from the second hand shop that worked perfectly.
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And that's the main point of wireless magsafe, the magnets line it up exactly every time. It kind of sucks the phone into position.
Witricity (Score:2)
What happened to Witricity's tech? HIghly resonant magnetic charging that could transfer power over a few meters at a time. They demonstrated it at CES like 10 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Why are they squandering their tech on trying to charge EVs instead of the obvious mobile device use case?
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All such long-distance wireless charging technologies ended up having insurmountable problems or limitations. Cost, efficiency, complexity, or lack of standardization. Or often their claims don't hold up to reality. Qi already supports magnetic resonance charging (what Witricity claims to use), with pretty much all Qi receivers supporting it, with the idea being that transmitters will switch from inductive mode to resonant mode if the receiver gets too far from the transmitter, but I'm not sure if many tran
Progress! (Score:1)
Next, maybe they will convince the EU to adopt the Lightning connector as an industry standard for mobile devices instead of that inferior USB-C!
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They had their chance, since they belonged to the USB-IF at the time they invented, selected, and produced Lightning, and that ship has sailed.
If Apple chooses to implement Lightning over USB-C with an adapter, you'll still be able to use all of your intentionally proprietary accessories. But if I were running Apple I wouldn't, and I'd blame all the repurchases on the EU. It's not like Apple's ever not been disingenuous.
Magnetic alignment (Score:2)
If you are going to use a magnet to directly align a device directly on top of a charger why not place some conductive rings on the phone and some small spring contacts in the charger?
Why bother with inductive charging at all? I can see the value of resonant charging although personally would rather just plug it in. I can imagine people having far more freedom to continue to use and move a phone around while plugged into a charging cable than they would with this technology.
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