Leveraging a connector that has previously been exclusive to Apple products, Chinese developer Beaver Electronics has announced the Quarter Super PowerBank ($59), a battery pack built with a MagSafe 2 port for recharging. Clad in Mac-matching silver aluminum, Quarter is designed to work with both Apple’s MacBook wall chargers and the Quarter Car Adapter ($16), a silver metallic and mirrored charger with a MagSafe connector. This Car Adapter is designed solely for Quarter, not for MacBooks.
The 5,000mAh battery claims 2.1-Amp output that’s safe for iPad, iPhone, and iPod use with a full-sized USB port, while itself recharging at up to 3-Amp speeds in only 45 minutes — up to 10X faster than typical batteries, Beaver says — or via a 1-Amp micro-USB input in 7 hours. Beaver notes that after only 15 minutes of MagSafe recharging, Quarter will have enough power to refuel an iPhone 5s. Rather than pressing a button to see how much battery power remains, you just shake the battery once, triggering four blue LED lights…
Physical samples sent by Beaver look and feel impressively solid, though Apple’s track record of denying third-party developers access to MagSafe connectors suggests that Quarter will be a very limited edition.
The company is offering $39 pre-orders through Australian crowdfunding site Pozible, and having already exceeded its US$10,000 goal, promises that the first 1,000 Quarter units will be available starting November 10.
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Doesn’t Apple own the patent rights to MagSafe for exclusive use with its own products? And haven’t there been a zillion examples of manufacturers that have cloned MagSafe, only to have the courts find that Apple has exclusive rights to it and that others may not use it without Apple’s permission?
Every normal manufacturer and business has legal advise. Only the dumbest of businesses wouldn’t. And only the most inept would pursue creating a magsafe product without knowing of Apple’s rights.
So it seems like these guys have either (1) licensed it, (2) found away around those patents, or are (3) simply breaking the law to see what happens.
There are at least two new third-party accessories featuring MagSafe coming to market this year. Unclear as to what’s going on behind the scenes.
Hi standardpull, thank you for your suggestion. We also thought about this,too. We contacted Apple about this but we haven’t got any response yet. We decided to take the risk to make this product because we thought about the convenience this product can bring to the users. We don’t want Mac users to carry huge adaptor for fast charging.
BTW, I’m the founder of the project. Also we are still trying to get license right now.
Thank you for your suggestion. We also thought about this,too. We contacted Apple about this but we haven’t got any response yet. We decided to take the risk to make this product because we thought about the convenience this product can bring to the users. We don’t want Mac users to carry huge adaptor for fast charging.
BTW, I’m the founder of the project. Also we are still trying to get license right now.
I really wish Apple would allow an authorized MagSafe Car charger. I travel a lot and most rental cars don’t have 12v plugs. Thats an accessory that would make it into my travel bag ASAP. Nothing sucks like getting to where you’re going opening the laptop and its dead! Then its the embarrassing task of asking for a outlet and then you don’t look prepared… vs just charging on the road from the airport. I know its a small percentage of the population that would use one I know someone would make it, someone seems makes every seemingly dumb accessory out there. Come on Apple! Please!!!
I agree, but the automotive standards for power outlets are, at best, unreliable, with no standardized voltage, amperage, or connector. Sure, many of them look very similar, but they’re all different from the engineering perspective. The standards bodies in this area are ignored.
Thankfully, USB has come around and has found its way into the automotive business. But USB doesn’t provide nearly enough juice for a MacBook.
I think that’s why no major manufacturer creates automotive plugs – customer complaints are sure to roll in.
Beaver – hahahahahaha!!!!
Just plug it in…
One of the reasons I hated apple for locking down the mag safe adapter was this. I really hope we see thunderbolt 3 / usb-c become the defacto charing plug option in the future. I miss having external batteries for my laptop.
None of those numbers make sense.
3A charging is not 10X faster than 1A (it’s 3x)
if it charges for 45min @ 3A it will only be able to discharge for a little over an hour at 2.1A (which won’t change an iPad)
in 15min (@3A) it should have only 750mAh stored, that is only about half of what it takes to refuel a 5s (1560mAh battery)
that depends on the voltage but assuming its the same your right
They doubled the voltage as well.
You can’t do that and more importantly in this instance it doesn’t make any difference.
Im assuming you have no background in electronics, so here are the basics; current (amperage) and voltage are dependent (directly perportional) you can’t increase or decrease the voltage without changing the current (E=IR)
However, that said, it doesn’t matter in this instance. We are talking stored amperes (coulombs) what voltage was used to push this is immaterial, it is basically the number of electrons pushed through the wire and stored (via electrochemical process) in the battery. Thankfully this is straightforward (amps delivers * time = amp hrs stored (assuming 100% total EC efficiency which is not correct, but so small it may be ignored in this instance))