Apple might be working on a portless iPhone. The portless smartphone is always a dream for most enthusiasts. Many manufacturers already tried making a portless phone. Meizu showed their prototype of a portless holeless phone but that ended up being a wrong decision. But there is some serious compromise when making a portless phone. Such as relying on slower wireless charging and wireless data transfer and so on. But Apple seems to managed its proper solution.
iPhone users can already charge their iPhones with wireless charging and MagSafe. Also, there is not in hurry for fast charging as Apple doesn’t believe in fast charging. So the only issue is with the data transfer through the USB-C port. But Apple has a clever solution for that too.
Apple thinks, what if we implement wireless a data transfer feature within the MagSafe? Wondering how will it work? Well, it looks like Apple might choose to use optical data transfer technology to overcome it.
Apple has patented a wireless optical data transfer technology that will be paired with the existing MagSafe. The details of the patent were published on Patently Apple back in March 2017. According to the patent details, the MagSafe charging pad will have an optical module inside it and a transparent glass window (called Optical Window) on top of it. The optical window will help pass the light through it with the help of the refractivity of optics.
The same thing we see on a prototype image of MagSafe revealed by @KosutamiSan back on May 27. He shared some images of different color variants of MagSafe charging pads. But one of them was disassembled for an unknown reason and showed an unknown optical module inside it. However, the optical module somehow missed the attention of people. But @VadimYuryev on X noticed this thing and created a thread on it.
Patently Apple also demonstrates how it will work with the iPhone. The solution is another Optical Window on the back of the iPhone inside the MagSafe position. iPhone will need another optical module to send data to the other device via this technology. The patent also says that Apple will use UV/IR lights to transfer data that is out of our visible wavelength of light.
Now you can imagine how it will work. The user needs use connect the MagSafe pad on the back of the iPhone. The Optical Window will be aligned automatically thanks to the magnets of both ends. The iPhone now can transfer data optically through the transparent window.
For the ease of your understanding, this is not an innovation by Apple. Some keypad phones back in Nokia’s age used the same technique to transfer data from one phone to another. There was an infrared module on both devices. Users had to align them manually to transfer data from one device to another.
But currently, the technology is more advanced. So we can expect a new age of optical data transfer on portable devices. Also transfering data using light will be much faster than any other currently available method. Just think of the optical fibers that are being used to transfer huge amounts of data with almost no delay time.
That’s not the first time a portless iPhone is rumored. Previously there was several claim on it. Unfortunately, there is no information on when and whether this will be implemented or not. We think Apple will take some more time to use it on their iPhones.
Muhammad Menhajul Islam (also known as 'Minhaz') is a B.Sc student studying Mathematics in Govt. B.M. Collage, Barishal, Bangladesh. He has been a Android die-hard fan since 2015. He used more than 5 Android smartphones from entry level to flagships since then.
He uses custom roms, modded firmwares, system modification modules etc to see how much better the performance gets with a optimized software on any given hardware.
In 2013, before the Android the wave in smartphone industry, he used a couple of Nokia Symbian OS powered smartphones. He used to perform hacking to the OS and unlock many features. It was a very popular process like jailbreaking an iPhone and unlocking bootloader of Android Phones. He feels nostalgia for that time.
Muhammad Minhaz is now a tech journalist as well as tech blogger. He wants to let others know the beauty of Android being an open-source operating system. He currently uses Redmi K30 Pro as his daily driver custom roms and a lot of system modifications.
Minhaz previously has written tech news and articles for ProjuktirPata.com, a tech website on Bangla language. Now with that expertise and experience he has gathered through years, he started writing for AndroidStory on July 2022. He covers tech news, custom rom updates, Android OS features, upcoming smartphones leaks and so on.
In his pastime, Minhaz loves to watch tech videos, reviews of smartphones gadgets, etc. He is also an astrophotographer. He uses his smartphones for stargazing, also to prove the true potential of smartphones.
He is so into astrophotography that he astro-modified his Redmi Note 7 Pro which seems to be first time done ever. It's very popular technique to capture more light data from deep space with traditional cameras. But no one seems to have it done with smartphones. This proves his passion, dedication and expertise on smartphone technology and astrophotography.
