Photos of a scrapped working Apple AirPower prototype have surfaced. According to The Verge, a 28-year-old Italian bought the device in China and got it working by pairing it with compatible iPhone prototypes.
The Airpower prototype does not contain a housing so that the chassis and some of the internal parts can be clearly seen. Still, the device works according to owner Giulio Zompetti, who also posted a video on Twitter of the working prototype shares. According to him, it can only be used in combination with an iPhone prototype that recognizes the AirPower device. “It doesn’t work with an ordinary device,” he told The Verge.
Apple announced the AirPower charging mat in 2017. The device was intended to wirelessly charge multiple devices at the same time. However, the official introduction was delayed. After a lot of rumors, Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, announced in 2019 that the wireless charger would not be available. Riccio said at the time that the product had failed to meet Apple’s standards; presumably the heat generated by the coils was the culprit. Zompetti told The Verge that he has not yet been able to reproduce the heat development.