AirPower is like London busses. You wait for ages for one and then two (might) arrive at once.

AirPower wireless charger
AirPower wireless charger (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • A new leak suggests AirPower might have a smaller sibling.
  • Codename C26 is thought to be assigned to the wireless charger.
  • It will reportedly charge a single device at a time.

We thought we'd seen the back of AirPower rumors last year but here we are, knee-deep in them all over again. We've already been shown a photo of AirPower being tested at the home of an engineer. But now we're being told by someone else that there are actually two different units. And one's smaller than the other.

AirPower as we know it is thought to be called C68 internally, but there's another unit called C26 according to previously reliable leaker @choco_bit on Twitter. And it's a smaller, single-unit affair.

https://twitter.com/choco_bit/status/1251788153335283713

We don't know a great deal about this smaller AirPower unit, assuming it exists at all. But we've heard similar claims of a small wireless charging mat from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, so there might be some smoke to this particular fire.

Apple famously gave up on AirPower after it struggled to contain the amount of heat it generated. Recent reports claim that Apple has worked around that, although we won't be counting any chickens until we see eggs.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.