New 'Source' Wireless Charger From Spansive Charges Four iPhones at Once Thanks to Unique Design

It does, however, connect to a home's WiFi setup, which allows it to receive over-the-air firmware updates.

Oh goody, another wifi-enabled gadget with security that I'm sure resembles swiss cheese.

Why does a wireless charger need firmware updates???

$189?? That is exSpansive!

Was a cost analysis run comparing duct taping 8 charging pads off of Amazon and connecting them to a surge protector?

Interesting - do you have a family yourself (honest question).

In my house - even though my fiance and I both have charging capability on our bedside tables (which is used at night) - our phones often end up connected to the "common" charging area we have setup on the kitchen island during the day.

This is not even to mention our guests - people love to see the "community" charging area there and plug their stuff in.

I could definitely see this being added to that area on the kitchen island... but not until my fiance gets a newer iPhone with Qi capability (her work-provided iPhone is still a 6S!).

Yes, a wife and two kids. My daughter is 5 and the oldest and she has a hand-me-down iPad Mini 2 but we only let her use it for 30-45 minutes on weeknights and 60 minutes on the weekend if she is good and puts away her toys. My wife has an iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone SE, and Apple Watch 4 and I have an iPad Pro 3rd gen 12.9", iPhone XS and Apple Watch 4. We each have chargers on each night stand next to our side of the bed. We only need to charge once per day. We replaced my wife's iPhone SE battery for $29 at the end of 2018, so she doesn't need to charge during the day any more. My XS usually has 40-50% left on average, and 20% worst case. Like it is truly rare to get the 20% left popup. I don't think I've ever ran out of battery with it legitimately—and what I mean by that is by using it a lot. Every few months it seems like some process gets stuck on my iPhone (this has happened for years across different models) and the battery drains much faster on that day. After rebooting it's back to normal. I think what helps with the wireless charging iPhones is that I bought a QI charge mount for my car. So when I'm listening to my podcasts on my way to work and home (10-15 minutes each way), my battery gets a little boost. It's not a lot, but I love it, especially when traveling and using GPS and BT at the same time. It's able to trickle charge while running both.

I know. Spansive sent me an unsolicited email about this earlier today. Definitely didn't sign up for that! Never heard of this company.

I've never understood families that charge all of their devices together like this. Seems like it would be annoying.

Oh goody, another wifi-enabled gadget with security that I'm sure resembles swiss cheese.

Why does a wireless charger need firmware updates???

You did read the article? "uses "software-designed induction to shape magnetic fields"" Software means updates.