Apple could let your MacBook charge an iPhone or Apple Watch, patent suggests

An Apple patent published last week has revealed how we might one day be able to charge Apple devices wireless from other electronic devices.

The patent is titled 'Inductive charging between electronic devices' and its abstract states:

An electronic device and methods for inductively charging an electronic device using another external electronic device. The electronic device may include an enclosure, a battery positioned within the enclosure, and an inductive coil coupled to the battery. The inductive coil may have two or more operational modes, including a power receiving operational mode for wirelessly receiving power and a power transmitting operational mode for wirelessly transmitting power. The electronic device may also have a controller coupled to the inductive coil for selecting one of the operational modes.

The patent is a continuation of previously filed patents relating to wireless charging an electronic device using a second electronic device, i.e. charging a phone or watch using an iPad or MacBook. The patent uses inductive coils that can transmit electric power between devices, drawing power from one and sending it to the other. It's essentially wireless charging, but using a charged device rather than a mat plugged into an outlet. (A technology already used in Samsung's PowerShare feature)

Several of the patent drawings reveal the configurations that this could work in. This includes a tablet charging a phone, a phone charging a watch, a laptop charging a phone (or a phone and a watch) and more.

Of course, this is just a patented idea at this stage, but it does signal that Apple is at least considering ways to use larger devices to support the charging of smaller devices, further binding together Apple's ecosystem and perhaps reducing the new to use and carry wired charging apparatus for all of your different devices.