Sonny Dickson, on Twitter:

Reliable sources are saying iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do include the hardware for bilateral charging, but that it is software disabled. Uncertain whether this was removed prior to final production run.

This is the feature that was much-rumored in lead-up to this week, where you could set your AirPods charging case on the back of your iPhone and charge the AirPods case inductively (a.k.a. “wirelessly” but don’t get me started on that).

I wondered in response whether Apple had ever shipped hardware features without mentioning them, only to enable them in a software update later. They have:

In 2007 Apple shipped a software update (for $2) that enabled 802.11n Wi-Fi in several Macs.

In 2008 they shipped a software update for iPod Touch that enabled Bluetooth. The update cost $20 (!). They had to charge for these software updates a decade ago due to the accounting of the time.

Bluetooth wasn’t mentioned in the original specs for the second-generation Apple TV, but support was added in a software update.

And I’ve been told by a reliable little birdie that in years past Apple has shipped hardware that wound up never enabled in software.

★ Friday, 13 September 2019