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CTOnews.com, August 20 (Xinhua)-- the last live video of Apple's 2017 AirPower prototype showed Apple's short-lived wireless charging device.

The video comes from a collaboration between YouTube channel 91Tech and Apple Demo, who got an Apple AirPower prototype. AirPower is a multi-device wireless charging board designed by Apple to wirelessly charge Qi-based iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. The device was released with iPhone X in September 2017.

AirPower allows users to place iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch on any part of the charging board for charging, which means that multiple overlapping charging coils must be included. When the device is placed on the charging board, the device will display a unique iOS animation on the screen, and the iPhone on the AirPower charger will also show the charging status of all devices placed on the charging board.

Photos of the AirPower prototype first floated on social networks in August 2020, showing the multi-coil design and the device's internal circuits, while the first video clip of the device appeared in August 2021, and now this 91Tech and Apple Demo video provides the most detailed demonstration to date of Apple's AirPower wireless charging board.

Like other AirPower prototypes that have emerged in the past, this prototype does not use the white shell that is common in Apple products, showing its internal circuits more clearly.

Although the prototype device doesn't work properly, it can be connected to it through a terminal on the Mac using some undisclosed Apple developer tools. The error when starting AirPower indicates that it has never been calibrated and therefore may never have been used.

Reboot after issuing a command to initiate automatic calibration, a large amount of information can be read from the prototype, such as the firmware installation date of June 7, 2017, the command to select a specific coil, and so on.

The AirPower prototype has 22 coils, similar to those exposed in the past. Apple's AirPower-related patent documents show that the design has 16 or 22 coils, while the 22-coil design appears to be what Apple plans to advance in later iterations of the device.

There were no AirPower prototypes in 2018 or 2019, suggesting that the hardware for this short-lived device was developed almost entirely in 2017 or earlier. Apple developed the software for some time before the AirPower project was shelved because it could not solve the overheating problem.

AirPower did not launch in 2018, and Apple cancelled the AirPower project in March 2019 after a large number of problems in the development process.

Despite rumors that Apple is developing small wireless chargers like the MagSafe and MagSafe Duo in the years that followed, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported last year that Apple is still working on future AirPower-like charging solutions.

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