{"id":176485,"date":"2023-01-04T04:01:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T04:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qi2-how-apple-might-finally-harness-magsafe-by-giving-it-away\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T04:01:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T04:01:07","slug":"qi2-how-apple-might-finally-harness-magsafe-by-giving-it-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qi2-how-apple-might-finally-harness-magsafe-by-giving-it-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Qi2: How Apple might finally harness MagSafe by giving it away"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s safe to say that Apple’s MagSafe magnetic charging pucks for iPhone have not created the amazing snap-on accessory ecosystem we’d hoped. Instead of freely allowing manufacturers to create gadgets that power and\/or communicate with an iPhone, the company chose its traditional tight licensing stranglehold. But this time, manufacturers realized they didn’t need to play Apple’s game, because the two main components of MagSafe \u2014 a Qi wireless charging coil and an array of magnets \u2014 were freely available. The result: a wide array of \u201cMagSafe-compatible\u201d accessories of varying quality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But now, Apple’s trying something different. With the blessing of competitors, Apple is about to change the Qi wireless standard itself. <\/em>It’s contributing to a new version of Qi that works much like MagSafe \u2014 magnets, authentication, and all. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s called Qi2, and yes, it effectively means that MagSafe is coming to Android, for better or for worse. Samsung and Apple are both expected to put Qi2-certified products on the market, Wireless Power Consortium spokesperson Paul Golden tells The Verge<\/em>and he says there’s no reason to think future Qi2-certified chargers wouldn’t work with both. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And while I say \u201cfor better or for worse,\u201d it mostly sounds better! Golden says the idea is to eliminate the confusion of whether chargers and phones are actually interoperable, and to ensure the coils are tightly coupled and properly aligned so they can charge at full speed \u2014 unlike how Apple currently limits today’s Qi chargers to half-speed when they’re charging an iPhone. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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