FiendishFork

The battery is not always in the power path. I thought that was how it worked for a long time but got clarification from a writer at anandtech who used to do SoC deep dives. When plugged in the iPhone is directly powered by the wall adapter, excess goes into the battery.

When you plug your phone in you are already “bypassing” the battery. It’s just how batteries work, they can’t be powering a device while being charged at the same time since the current can only go one way at a time. Batteries can’t charge and discharge simultaneously. So what happens when you plug your phone into power is that the Power management circuit directly powers the phone and excess power charges the battery.

It’s just a software decision only the people in charge at Apple know why they would limit this to new models.

I’m glad Apple is finally allowing this to be done though it’s silly they are seemingly keeping this for new phones.

I think that might have been the plan years ago, might even still be long term. I think people like Ive really like the idea of a portless device and they were trying to get there but the realities of wireless charging and connectivity have gotten in the way.

AirPower proved to be so much trouble they just scrapped it, MagSafe has been a hit but real world charging speed is a lot slower than wired. Plus people love CarPlay and most don’t have wireless capable cars. Apple probably realize full wireless is not going to be ready in the near future and have put plans on hold.

That’s great if you have usb-c devices already (which somehow most people do).

Are you really surprised that most people have some sort of device with a connector that came out 8 years ago? This isn’t exactly new technology, It’s so common now it’s even on super cheap stuff. I bought an electronic lighter from Amazon last summer and it charges with USB C.