Video: Uh-oh: Your iPhone's battery doesn't get a break with wireless charging
It haunts me every day.
I've not been able to talk about it with friends, though my wife noticed and began to ask if I had, you know, problems.
I can only speak publicly about it now because of two convergent snippets of rumor.
The first says that Apple's AirPower[1] charger might arrive in September[2]. (Or, you know, some time soonish.)
Read also: Counting down Apple's Lightning connector deathwatch[3]
The second declares that Cupertino might be finally laying its proprietary Lightning port to rest[4].
For so long, Apple has told us what a marvel the Lightning system was and how perfectly it works with, well, dongles and profit margins. And now it might revert to something other manufacturers use, like USB-C[5]?
What's that? My problem? Oh, yes, sorry. Thank you for caring.
It was like this: I bought a new iPhone 6 a few years ago, and it worked quite swimmingly. Until, that is, it showed erratic behavior when charging.
Sometimes it would charge. Sometimes, it wouldn't. And sometimes it would charge for some minutes and then stop.
I took it to an Apple store, which naturally diagnosed that the port had enjoyed water, and the phone was now useless. So, I replaced it with another iPhone 6[6].
All went well until the charging pattern repeated itself. After a few months, the new iPhone 6 was more mercurial than government policy. It was like a child sticking its tongue out at me and laughing in my face, as its own was covered in dribble.
My natural course of action