I shouldn’t have to spell out how ridiculous this idea is. The point to inductive charging is that it simplifies the process (though you inevitably wind up having the wireless charger plugged into a wall socket like you would the normal charger). The Palm Pre Touchstone was an exercise in how to do wireless charging right. Even Powermat got it right eventually, ditching the clumsy phone cases for swappable batteries that conduct power when nestled on the charger.
To make this technology work, Apple would have to outfit all their earbuds with a conductive metal, so they can actually “wirelessly” charge the iPhone just by placing them on top of it. This would mean your expensive Sennheisers, or custom-fit Etymotics? Yeh, they would be redundant if you wanted to charge your iPhone with them.
When Apple’s goal is simplifying things, I can’t imagine a cumbersome, monolithic cat-scratching pole-like charging tower taking pride of place on Steve Jobs’s desk. Can you? Especially when you’d have to plug it in anyway, then go to the trouble of wrapping the headphones’ cable around the pole, which would convert the AC power into magnetic flux through the ferromagnetic core, as the diagram shows. Apple has also filed a much briefer patent for an “Alternative Acoustic Charger System”, which looks more sensible, though it isn’t explained as clearly.
In short: WiTricity’s video from yesterday, showing an iMac wirelessly charging an iPhone, is a better bet than this crummy patent. [Patently Apple via RedmondPie]
JaYson
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 9:28 AMCall me crazy buy inductive charging is based on making two coils next to each other. Energy is then transferred from one coil to the other.
The earbuds on the phone is irrelevant. It’s the audio jack that’s important. Think of it as instead of the energy flowing out of the phone through the cable to th earbuds producing sound, the energy flows the other way from the audio cable back into your phone.
I’m no electrictian but the concept seems fine to me on all types* of cabled earphones.
*as long as the insulation on the cable is thin enough to transfer the energy.
Nick
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 9:50 AM@JaYson
Close, but cos it’s inductive charging it all works a little different…
we know to get any power we have to complete a circuit, so normally running power in one side of the audio jack and out the other would suffice. But consider how the actual power transfer process is going on; the coil of the headphones creates power going in one direction, but if we were to just loop the coil back on it self and send it down to the audio jack again, we are effectively creating a loop in the other direction, and so any power creation would be cancelled out… thats why we need to have a power connection at the headphone end – to make a loop in only one direction…
JaYson
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 11:02 AMGuess I’m still missing it as all I’m seeing is two coils placed side by side effectively charging the non charged (the iphone headphone cable.
Isn’t that how normal inductive chargers work? They are just a little more direct with their connections.
Anyway, I’m confident that greater minds than mind where the ones who put the patent in, in the first place. Surely apple wouldn’t patent something that is physically impossible.
Steve
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 5:35 PM“Surely apple wouldn’t patent something that is physically impossible.”
Wouldn’t put it past them. Considering their recent patent lawsuits, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sued the creator of the perpetual motion machine.
Marcus
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 1:32 AMI’m sure fanboys everywhere will line up outside of stores to get a hold of iDildo.
MotorMouth
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 10:40 AMSince when is Apple’s goal been to simplify things? Lion has complicated OS X hugely and it was already much more complicated than the relatively straightforward Windoze. Seriously, OS X’s window management is the most over-complicated thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Compared to the elegant simplicity of Win7, it is a labyrinthine nightmare.
Grayda
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 12:04 PMiPhone 6 – Now with user-replaceable batteries. No device in the history of the world has been as magical as this is! Before, your devices ran on vomit and dead unicorns. With Apple’s patented technology, these batteries now store power!