Where the heck is Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mat?

With a full year since its last mention onstage at Apple’s last hardware event, Apple’s AirPower wireless charger mat is still missing.

At the company’s iPhone event this morning in Cupertino, there was little mention of the wireless charging tech present in the new iPhones, but more surprisingly there was not a single word said about the company’s AirPower wireless charging mat that it teased last year as coming in “early” 2018.

Apple even had early AirPower mat samples in the hands-on area of the hardware event last year, but it seems delays have left the device out of this year’s show and pushed it further down the product roadmap. While Apple’s website did not show any details on the AirPower charger, there were details about a wireless charging case for the AirPods “coming in 2018” that is designed for the mat.

Apple reveals AirPower wireless charging pad coming in 2018

What’s the problem and why the big delay here?

Well, new charging tech is a major liability for any tech company, and Apple has been trying some ground-breaking things with the AirPower charger that definitely seems more complex than just sticking three Qi charger coils into a padded mat and calling it a day.

First off, the big deal about AirPower is that it is an evolution of the Qi charger standard, (at least some of) the coils have to be smaller to work with the Apple Watch and new AirPods case and the pad also has to be capable of delivering a roughly full speed charge to the phone, something that is likely a major engineering stress test for thermals.

What may have been the biggest challenge as a result is that Apple wants you to be able to charge three devices simultaneously without you having to worry about where they are on the pad. That means that unlike today’s Qi chargers, where you have to scoot your phone around to nudge into a position where it can charge, you truly should be able to just drop something on the pad and get to charging. Some of these issues were detailed in a report from Bloomberg earlier this summer.

In past years, Apple had some issues with shipping both the AirPods and HomePod within the time horizon they had detailed earlier, but Apple gave an awful lot of details about this product in its tease last year and it’s peculiar that it didn’t even get an offhand mention at WWDC or today’s event.

While one of Apple’s hardware devices shipping with a buggy version of iOS might lead to some late-night patches and customers unable to open an app, dealing with power management flaws is a liability cornucopia. If anything is seriously wrong or the wireless charging mat were to make a mistake detecting a device, the paired devices theoretically could catch fire.

Given the challenges, it might make sense that Apple has been a little more careful with this one in the testing phase, but it’s also possible the issues haven’t been with design and are instead just with scaling manufacturing. We don’t really know because Apple hasn’t said squat; instead, they chose to announce the device last year, perhaps before they had an accurate scope of the issues left to tackle before shipping it.

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Apple Watch Series 4 up close and hands-on

I’m sure somewhere out there, there’s someone who wants nothing more in this world than a circular Apple Watch. That person, I’m sad to report, was once again disappointed with the outcome of yet another Apple event. Circle-sporting invites and office buildings aside, the squircle works well for Apple, so it’s sticking around for the time being.

In fact, that was a bit of a broader theme with today’s announcements — most of the updated Apple brand magic is happening under the hood here. That said, there is one key distinction from an aesthetic standpoint this time around: the logical extension of Apple’s ongoing war against bezels.

The display is 30 percent larger than the one on the Series 3, by Apple’s count. The new watch isn’t “edge to edge” as some early leaks put it, but the bezel size has shrunk considerably. Here’s a side by side image, courtesy of Apple:

The 44mm version’s display now measures 977 sq mm (versus the 3’s 740 sq mm), while the 40mm case is 759 sq mm (to the 3’s 563 sq mm) — so the smaller version of the 4 actually has a larger display than the larger 3. The reduction of the bezel was less of an aesthetic decision and more about cramming more information into the Watch’s relatively limited real estate.

When you’re dealing with something small enough to fit on your wrist, you take every spare millimeter you can get. Also notable is the fact that Apple’s slimmed things down here to 10.7mm from 11.4mm. Honestly, I’m surprised the company didn’t spend a little more time on that. Again, with wearables, a few millimeters go a long way.

The back of the device looks a bit different, as well. That comes courtesy of the electrocardiogram. That bit got what was easily the biggest applause line of the Watch announcement. People didn’t have to wait for Apple to break that one down. The new sensor makes it possible to detect heart rhythm, in addition to rate. That’s going to be a big thing for users with certain heart diseases.

It’s also the latest indication of Apple’s ongoing focus on health in addition to fitness. Ditto for improvements to the gyroscope and accelerometer, which make it possible for the watch to detect falls and send out an emergency alert accordingly.

Better battery life is always a biggie for wearables. That’s obviously one of those pieces we’re going to have to wait until we get our review unit in order to test. According to Apple, the number should be roughly the same as what you’ll find on the Series 3 — amounting to around 18 hours or “all day,” per the included press material.

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There are other updates throughout, including a 2x faster chip (again, jury’s out until we can properly test) and a 50 percent louder speaker. Unlike the addition of LTE with last year’s model, the new features don’t jump out as earth-shaking updates over the previous model. Instead, the company’s just making the most well-rounded (so to speak) smartwatch that much better.

As ever, the Apple Watch is the one to beat.

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Everything Apple announced at its iPhone XS event

Today was Apple’s big hardware event and the trillion dollar company had quite a lot to share about the future of some of its most profitable product lines.

While Apple boasted how its products had been completely redesigned and re-engineered, in reality, what was most notable about today’s Apple event is how Apple is choosing to design within the bounds of its past releases.

The new class of flagship iPhones, the XS and XS Max made hardware upgrades focused on durability and performance with a new chipset and not too much else. The first hardware design update in years for the Apple Watch update equated to a larger, rounded corner display and updates to the biometric sensors.

There were also a couple surprises though, here’s what we saw today.

 

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iPhone XS and XS Max

Apple’s latest and greatest iPhone didn’t reinvent the wheel after last year’s major refresh, but the flagship iPhone XS now has a plus size, though it’s not called the XS Plus.

The iPhone XS Max sports a 6.5 inch OLED display compared to the XS’s 5.8 display. It’s a massive screen and it’s the biggest that’s ever been on an iPhone. For comparison the iPad Mini’s screen is 7.9 inches so the XS Max is as phablet as phablets come.

The iPhone XS and XS Max are identical specs-wise with both toting Apple’s latest A12 bionic chipset, the only difference is the display and a $100 price bump for the larger phone.

The iPhone XS starts at $999 for a 64GB version, while the 64GB iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099.

Apple introduces the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max

The iPhone XS and XS Max get dual-SIM capability

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iPhone XR

While Apple’s iPhone X may have oozed premium luxury when it launched last year, boy, was it pricey. The next best option was the iPhone 8 line which felt like a pretty major step down in terms of design. This year the choice is a lot easier with the “edge-to-edge” iPhone XR which cuts down on priciness (it starts at $749) by using an LCD display as opposed to the more high-end OLED one found in the iPhone XS.

The XR may offer a tad less vibrant of an experience, but the large 6.1 inch LCD phone is sure to be Apple’s best seller thanks to how similar it is to the XS. The main areas where it falls short beyond display types are the single camera module and its lack of 3D Touch. The body of the XR is also made of aluminum as opposed to the stainless steel body on the XS.

The iPhone XR is the new budget iPhone

Apple’s new iPhones are powered by the industry’s first 7nm chips

 

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Apple Watch Series 4

After three years of under-the-hood upgrades, we finally got some changes to the look of the Apple Watch. The major story here is a new, larger curved edge display on the Watch.

The small version has a 32 percent larger display, while the bigger one has a 35 percent bigger display. While the displays mainly cut into the bezels, the watches are a little larger even if their overall volume has shrunk due to growing a bit thinner on the wrist. 

The Series 4 has some crazy health-monitoring features, namely it now has the ability to perform electro-cardiograms in 30 seconds.

The 40mm Apple Watch starts at $399 while the LTE version starts at a pricey $499.

Apple unveils the Apple Watch Series 4

Apple watchOS 5 ships on September 17

Apple Watch Series 4 can detect AFib and perform an ECG

There were still plenty of things that we expected Apple to touch on that we heard diddly squat about. Where’s AirPower? Where are the new AirPods? What’s up with the MacBook Air? Any word on a cheaper HomePod? What about those rumored over-ear headphones? What about that AR headset we’ve been hearing about for years?

In the end, Apple can only share so much at each event, but even through the lens of past announcements this was a pretty quiet keynote.

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iPhone XR up close and hands-on

Apple would have you believe that it’s not beholden to such trivial things as the market — roadmaps are long and the company’s always done its own thing. But the XR feels like as much a response to the first iPhone X than anything.

Last year’s flagship iPhone broke the $1,000 seal for the company. It was bound to happen, and certainly premium competitors like Samsung were racing in that direction with equal or greater speed. And while the $1,000 flagship is just a fact of life for early adopters, total sales numbers appear to have not hit the same heights as some predecessors.

The fact that the phone costs more on a per unit basis offset that, but moving to an all-premium product portfolio for a broad swath of the company’s user base. That’s where the XR comes in. Flashed onstage above in big, bright colors, I couldn’t help but be struck by the idea that the XR is, in its own way, the iPhone X version of the iPod Mini.

It’s cheaper, it’s smaller (than the Max at least) and it’s available in a broad array of neon swatches (blue, black, coral, yellow, white and Project Red). Perhaps it’s more of a playful take on the serious business of being an iPhone — but more importantly, for most users, it’s a way in to many of the iPhone X’s premium breakthroughs without having to spend an arm and a leg.

Better still, the XR looks like the iPhone X (and, for that matter, the XS). And that’s the whole point. The gulf is much smaller here than between the X and 8 — from a purely aesthetic standpoint, at least.

As we elbow one another out of the way in the standard post-Apple event media scrum, most of us had some trouble determining which was which, as they were all spread out along the same long table. The materials are different (stainless steel on the XS), but the colors are the real giveaway at first glance — well, that and the single camera on the back.

Interestingly, the display is actually larger than on the XS. Not really sure why Apple went that route here, but as I speculated in the XS Max write-up, this could well have to do with supply chain issues. It probably just made more sense to stick with the iPhone X’s panel for the followup.

All of this means that the XR is a bit larger than the XS in all dimensions. Here’s that breakdown:

iPhone XS: 143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 mm

iPhone XR: 150.9 x 75.7 x 8.3 mm

The XR definitely felt a bit thick in-hand, though just barely. Ditto for the weight, which is 6.84 ounces to the XS’s 6.24.

Design aside, there are plenty of downgrades from XS, to help Apple hit that $729 price point. The screen is the main thing, swapping the OLED for a “Liquid Retina HD display” — you know, an LCD. That after all, was the primary factor driving up the price on the iPhone X. The camera’s down to one lens here, as well, though the company’s worked on a few tricks akin to what we’ve seen on the Pixel — namely the ability to simulate a bokeh effect without a second depth camera.

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For most users, I suspect most of these elements won’t really be missed — unless, of course, you’ve already gotten comfortable with the iPhone X. While $749 is hardly “cheap” by the standards of mid-range handsets in 2018, it’s a pretty good entry-level price for an Apple handset. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of colors choices in the phone-buying process.

The XR feels like less of an afterthought, unlike the iPhone 8, which was hugely overshadowed by the iPhone X released alongside it. It looks and feels enough like the premium handset that, when coupled with the $250 price drop, it seems inevitable that Apple will sell a ton of the damn things.

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Here’s how Apple’s stock fared during today’s big hardware event

Apple announced a whole bunch of new products today at its fancy Cupertino campus in what was its first hardware event since becoming a $1 trillion company. The company proudly unveiled the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, the Apple Watch Series 4 and more.

The stock market behaved as we expected. Apple’s stock spent much of the day hovering down 1 percent, dropping as low as 2 percent at the conclusion of the big presentation. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) recovered by the time the markets closed, ending the day, again, down about 1.2 percent. Exciting stuff, I know.

As we’ve said before, the stock price doesn’t typically do all that much during hardware spectacles like this. Despite the amount of fanfare leading up to these big presentations, as was the case preceding the iPhone X announcement, Wall Street doesn’t overreact. Why? Because they’ve seen it all before and like many of our loyal readers, they know what’s coming. Plus, all the press leading up to the event usually takes away any opportunity for a true surprise. Leaks, too, eliminate the shock factor.

A few of Apple’s competitors’ stocks, however, tumbled on the news of its new lineup of iPhones and its latest Apple Watch.

Fitbit tanks

Fitbit’s (NYSE: FIT) stock took the hardest hit on Wednesday as Apple announced its newest smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 4. Fitbit, the creator of a competing wearable health and fitness device, closed down nearly 7 percent.

Fitbit stock sinking following Apple Watch announcement

Samsung, another one of Apple’s competitors, was down just 1 percent on the news of Apple’s new fancy-schmancy phones.

The iPhone XS, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, is the best and greatest phone the company has ever made. And they’ll be the industry’s first smartphones to be powered by 7nm chips.

U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm’s (NASDAQ: QCOM) stock dipped 2 percent on that news. Apple and Qualcomm have been going head-to-head in a long-running patent war. Apple, as a result, has been working to remove Qualcomm equipment from its phones.

Samsung and Qualcomm closed down about 1 percent Wednesday.

Apple’s new iPhones are powered by the industry’s first 7nm chips

A strong year for Apple

Apple’s stock is up more than 30 percent so far this year. The company shipped some 41 million phones in Q2 2018, per Canalys (via email), and has continued to disclose positive earnings in its lead-up to the big $1 trillion. Apple beat analyst expectations when it reported $53.3 billion in revenue in its latest earnings report, up 17 percent year-over-year.

The company’s stock took a slight hit earlier this week after President Trump tweeted that Apple’s prices may climb due to China tariffs.

Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China – but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! #MAGA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2018

The tweet was a response to a letter Apple wrote to the Trump administration warning them that tariffs may increase the cost of its products, including the Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePods.

“It is difficult to see how tariffs that hurt U.S. companies and U.S. consumers will advance the Government’s objectives with respect to China’s technology policies,” Apple wrote, per CNBC. “We hope, instead, that you will reconsider these measures and work to find other, more effective solutions that leave the U.S. economy and U.S. consumer stronger and healthier than ever before.”

If you missed today’s event or you’re already ready to relive it (no judgment), we live-blogged the whole thing here. Catch up on all the new hardware here.

Live from Apple’s iPhone event

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iPhone XS Max up close and hands-on

The most remarkable thing about the iPhone XS Max is that it doesn’t feel huge. It’s all relative, of course. And surely Apple’s old guard would have scoffed at the notion of a 6.5-inch display. But time marches on. Seasons change and so do minds. Temperatures increase, superhero movies pile up and screen sizes increase, unabated.

Much of the perception no doubt comes from the rest of the industry pushing the limits of human hands and pants pockets. I’ve been carrying around the Note 9 of late — and before that, the iPhone 8 Plus. The XS Max feels roughly the size of the latter, which is pretty remarkable given that the Plus sported a 5.5 inch display.

The dimensions break down thusly:

iPhone 8 Plus: 158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5 mm

iPhone Xs Max: 157.5 x 77.4 x 7.7 mm

The Max is ever-so-slightly smaller in two of three dimensions.

This was accomplished in no small part to bezels. Getting rid of all of that extra real estate makes a world of difference, along with dropping the home button and continuing to embrace the way of the notch.

Aside from size, you won’t notice a lot new here. That’s just sort of the plight of the S model —well, that and coming immediately after the largest single design update in the iPhone’s 10 year history. The new finishes are very, very shiny as well, silver especially, which will probably blind you if the sun catches it just right, but you’re going to put that $1,099+ phone in a case anyway, right?

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Speaking of pricing, as Tim Cook said on stage, the larger model starts at “just” $100 more than its predecessor. That’s the sort of statement you can get away with when you help set the precedent for a $1,000 phone a year prior. That Band-Aid has already been ripped off, right, so what’s another $100 between friends?

That said, if I were in the market for a new iPhone, I’d strongly consider the size upgrade. The leap from 5.8 to 6.5 inches is pretty sizable. Sticking with the former was an interesting move on Apple’s part, given that the XR splits the difference at 6.1 inches. Maybe it’s a supply chain thing? I don’t know. I’m just sort of spitballing at this point.

As ever, I’m going to have to hold off judgement on things like performance and camera quality until we can take the thing for a spin. Given that the phones are due out in the not-so-distant future, however, I suspect that will be sooner rather than later.

It’s worth noting, of course, that those bits and bobs are relatively iterative, as is custom with the “s” suffix. The specs also look remarkably similar between the XS and XS Max: dual rear-facing 12-megapixel cameras, A12 Bionic chip, HDR display (though the Max naturally, has more pixels, while both work out to 458 PPI). I suspect this decision was made, in part, to help keep the newer, bigger phone at “just” $100 over its predecessor.

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XS, XR, XS Max? The difference between the new iPhones

XS is the normal one. XR is the cheap one. XS Max is the big one. That’s a good start to understanding Apple’s confusing naming scheme for its new line of iPhones. Apparently jealous of Android’s fragmentation, Apple decided it needed three different models, three different storage sizes, and nine different colors.

You can think of the XS as the updated iPhone X, the Max as the new Plus, and the XR as a revival of the great-for-kids budget iPhone SE. Here’s a comparison of their features, prices, options, and release dates.

 

The iPhone XS – Standard, Smaller, Sooner

Apple’s new flagship phone is the iPhone XS. If you want the best Apple has to offer that will still fit in your pocket, this is the one for you. It’s got a 5.8-inch diagonal OLED “Super Retina” HDR screen with 458 pixels per inch, which is actually taller than the old 8 Plus’s 5.5-inch screen, but it’s a little thinner so it has less total screen volume. Dual 12 megapixel cameras offer stabilization and 2X optical zoom plus the new depth control Portrait mode feature. It’s $999 for the 64GB, $1,149 for the 256GB, or $1,349 for the 512GB. It comes in silver, gold and space gray, all in stainless steel that’s waterproof to 2 meters. Pre-orders start this Friday September 14th, and they ship and hit stores on September 21st.

The iPhone XS Max – Bigger Screen, Bigger Price

If you love watching movies, browsing photos, and shooting videos on your phone, you’ll want the iPhone XS Max. The 6.5-inch OLED “Super Retina” HDR screen is the biggest ever on an iPhone, dwarfing the 8 Plus’s screen yet with a similar device size since the XS Max takes up more of the phone’s face. The twin 12 megapixel lenses stabilize your images and offer 2X optical zoom as well as Portrait mode depth control. It too comes in stainless steel silver, gold and space gray that are all waterproof to 2 meters, and costs $100 more than the XS at $1,099 for 64GB, $1,249 for 256GB, or a whopping $1,449 for 512GB. As with the XS, pre-orders start Friday September 14th, and you can get it in your hands on September 21st.

The iPhone XR – Colorful, Cheaper, Duller

Don’t need the sharpest or biggest new screen and want to save some cash? Grab an iPhone XR.  It’s size comes in between the XS and XS Max with a 6.1-inch diagonal LCD “Liquid Retina” screen with 326 pixels per square inch. Fewer pixels and no HDR display means the XR won’t look quite as brilliant as the XS models. The XR also only has one 12 megapixel camera lens so it doesn’t offer stabilization or 2X optical zoom like its XS siblings, but it still gets the cool Bokeh-changing Portrait mode depth control. The XR is only waterproof to one meter instead of two likes its expensive sisters, and lacks 3D Touch for quick access to deeper features.

As a bonus with the XR, you do get is 1.5 hours of additional battery life and six color options in the alumninum (“aloominium” if you’re Jonny Ive) finish: white, black, blue, yellow, coral and red. And it’s cheaper at $749 for 64GB, with $799 for 128GB and $899 for 256GB. If that’s not cheap enough, you can now get the iPhone 7 for $449 and the iPhone 8 costs $599 — though there are no more iPhones with headphone jacks now that the 6S and SE are getting retired. In hopes that you’ll buy a pricier one, the XR arrives a month later than the XS models, with pre-orders on October 19th and it shipping October 26th.

Apple may find this level of customization lets everyone find the right iPhone for them, though it could simultaneously produce decision paralysis in buyers who aren’t confident enough to pay. While it’s a headache at first, you’ll end up with a phone fit for your style and budget. Though without a ton of improvements over the iPhone X, you might not need an “iPhone Excess”.

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