If you were holding out hope that AirPower would ship, that ship has now sailed, and without AirPower.
So what to do? Here are a few links to well-thought-of Qi chargers and best-of lists:
– iMore: Best Alternatives for the Apple Airpower Mat
– 9to5Mac: Now that AirPower is dead, here are some of the best wireless charger alternatives
– GearBrain: AirPower alternatives
– Apple’s online store sells a single Qi charger: Belkin BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Dock for iPhone + Apple Watch
– WireCutter: The Best Qi Wireless Charger for iPhone and Android Phones
The price of these Qi chargers ranges from $13 up to $160. Part of this cost disparity is the number of devices handled, support for fast charging, support for Apple Watch charging and, of course, design.
Personally, I don’t care about Apple Watch support, since my Apple Watch never needs a top-off during the day, so dropping it on the Apple charger at night is all I need. That simplifies the equation greatly. Can you make do with a single device charger? Alternate between your iPhone and AirPods?
Also personally, I do not want a light on my charger, especially if it will live in my bedroom. And if I have to have a light, make it subtle.
Another design alternative to consider is flat-on-the-table vs angled.
Take a look through the links above to get a sense of what the reviewers find useful, develop a sense of what features are important to you, then hit the net and look for best bang for your buck.
I don’t think a simpler version is possible. One coil to one coil is easy. Introduce more than one coil on either side and you have impossible-to-predict magnetic fluxes, low efficiency, waste heat, and non-performance.
I should have anticipated that. But I’m thinking about something like the Belkin BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Dock for iPhone + Apple Watch. Why not produce their own that does the job. Even if it’s just a single device charger. I obviously have minimal knowledge of the complexities involved here. However, other companies are doing their variants, what’s preventing Apple from doing their own?
If the market is already producing reasonable products there isn’t really a reason to release a “me too” product. That’s not generally what Apple does.
Sure, that’s fair, Apple did stop making displays and routers.
So, where’s the ‘value-added’ if the charger is the same as Belkin’s or Logitech’s? That’s for Apple to figure out. I just hope they don’t stop making keyboards and mice too.
From Apple’s AirPower announcement last week:
“We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward”
If this is true, why didn’t they just release a simpler version of AirPower?
I know they wanted to release a more comprehensive solution, “One Qi to charge them all”, and that proved too undoable, but I think Apple has the acumen to provide a design that does the job well, looks great, despite being less complicated.
It’s as if the defeat of AirPower jaded them from pursuing an alternate solution. But then also I suppose, a solution could be in the works and just not revealed.
Just a guess, but it seems to me that the competing products want you to place each device in a fairly specific place, relatively far apart from one another, so it’s basically working like two separate chargers close together (but not too close), hence manageable interference between two separate charging fields. To meet their standards, Apple needed to offer a lot more flexibility in use, and they at least implied the ability to charge three devices wirelessly one one relatively small charging pad.
I can only imagine the trouble they went through trying to get it to work, and probably got as close as possible but eventually realized they would never be able to offer the seamless performance they wanted.