[subego]

Anyone else have one? I’ve only had mine for a couple days and kinda don’t like it. There’s not an elegant way to pull them apart.

I forgot about it when I woke up and just grabbed my phone, which sent the MagSafe loudly clattering to the nightstand. Not the experience I want first thing in the morning.

[ghporter]

I think the idea behind the magnets is to keep the phone’s active area centered on the charger’s active area. Nice concept. Then they added enough magnet power to let you (not me!) use just the magnets to hold your phone while driving around.

I haven’t bought a Magsafe charger, but I have a couple of QI chargers. No magnets, no picking up the charger when picking up the phone, etc. But they don’t charge as fast as a Magsafe is supposed to, either.

I think “the solution” is something like what I use with my watch charger. I got a multi-port USB charging station, and it came with a “stand” that lets you stick the watch charger in it and hang your phone on it. The charger part fits well enough that taking the watch off of the charger doesn’t pick the whole thing up, but I can definitely feel that it’s being supported by magnets when I pick it up. No pix at the moment, but I’ll try to get some later.

Anyway, having the magnetic charger stuck in a solid base (probably) eliminates the problem you describe. At worst, you’d pick up the whole thing, but REALLY notice it. Then you’d put it all down, hold the base down and rescue your phone from its clutches.

[ghporter]

Here's the picture I got:

[subego]

I still have my Belkin QI charger. I’m guessing it doesn’t charge as fast, but my phone is always charged when I get up. The only downside is i need to confirm I put it in the right place, which can be hard to do if I’m actually in bed.

The MagSafe completely solves this problem, but now I have the issue of how firm a grip it gets. My temporary solution is to slide the puck off. You see, that’s the other problem with it. I could yank the MagSafe off with the cord, but the cord looks and feels exactly like the garbage they made 1st gen Lightning cables out of. The stuff which frays at the strain relief.

As you suggested, a weighted base is probably the best option

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Here's the picture I got:

Does it spring back and forth when you take the phone off?

[ghporter]

It springs a little, but then it is just standing there...A base heavy enough for a phone's charger shouldn't move much either.

[subego]

I wonder how heavy a horizontal, “ground floor” model would need to be not to lift at all. My instincts say heavy. Like, 10 pounds.

[BLAZE_MkIV]

gheto measurement. Stand on a scale and have a second person pull the phone off the puck upwards.

[subego]

Cigarettes are doing all forms of awful harm to me but one of the straight-up benefits is not needing a scale anymore.

Excellent idea, though.

[reader50]

[ghporter]

You went there….

Anyway, I recently had to replace my Sony “Dream Machine” alarm clock, so I bought something like this:
3 in 1 Alarm Clock.

The QI charger on the back almost guarantees that the phone goes in the right place. I don’t know about this particular model (mine isn’t listed anymore), but there’s also a chime tone when it starts charging.

[subego]

I’ve actually had enough time to make peace with the MagSafe. Sliding instead of prying was the required trick.

I like that charger, but I think I mentioned not to long ago I officially entered the 21st century and ditched my alarm clock. I trust my phone enough, and if I need to know the time from bed I’ve got two voice assistants at the ready.

Speaking of, as someone who has a variable schedule, being able to set an alarm verbally was the “killer app” for Siri with me, and the beginning of the end of my dedicated alarm clock.

[reader50]

I have an alarm clock, though I rarely use the alarm. For me, the killer feature is auto-dimming. The clock needs to dim whenever the room dims. Also, for a bedroom, strongly recommend a red display. Avoid blue for a bedroom clock. I tried that one time - they light things up too much for sleeping. Just glancing at it burns at your night vision, and tries to wake you up a bit.

[subego]

Mine was stock LED green.

Somewhere near the end my big bottle of earplugs ended up in front of the clock display and became DIY auto-dimming.

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Anyway, I recently had to replace my Sony “Dream Machine” alarm clock, so I bought something like this:
3 in 1 Alarm Clock.

That's a cool link! kid2 needs something better to wake her up, and charging her new iphone 13 is a plus.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

That's a cool link! kid2 needs something better to wake her up, and charging her new iphone 13 is a plus.

Does kid2 share this opinion?

I remember being a kid, and "take out the trash!" was not actually a hearing problem ...

[andi*pandi]

kid2 needs to make the bus more often and the current alarm plus a parent banging on the door yelling WAKE UP isn't working!

[ghporter]

My alarm clock dims itself and has a sort of neutral, off-white backlight. We use it occasionally, but really only when we have to get up substantially earlier than normal. I have an extreme aversion to oversleeping, so when I know I have to get up a bit early, I sort of wake up early automatically. I sometimes use my phone as an alarm clock when on vacation, but I'm more likely to use my Apple Watch for that instead.

The fan we have in our bedroom has an "ion" feature that supposedly adds negative ions to the air flowing out of it. Cool. Except that the indicator that it's on is a BLUE LED. I mean BLUE!!!! It is not only penetratingly blue, but it is also extremely bright. So I have taped a bit of card stock over the indicator to mute the blueness.

Our son had serious issues waking up for school, so we took to waking him when we got up. Which was 5 AM. This tactic usually worked pretty quickly but had to be repeated now and then. Particularly in high school, since it was a pretty easy walk of about 6 blocks from the front door to the school entrance. He is now, by the way, a successful adult human being who manages his own schedule, is valued at work, and so on. So it IS possible, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the moment.

[subego]

I remember a direct correlation between my ability to get up and how much I cared about what I was getting up for.

I absolutely hate school, so that was a toughie for many years.

[subego]

Ironically, I’m liking how noisy the thing is. When I use it I get…

1) Shiiiiing, as the magnet slides into place
2) Thonk, from putting it down on the table
3) Donnnng, which is the MagSafe chime
4) Boop, which is the charging chime

[ghporter]

Interesting. My “alarm clock with QI charger” has its own chime when a phone is placed on it, but without the magnet action, there isn’t really any feedback from picking up the phone. Which may be a problem…

[subego]

It’s surprising easy to put the phone down on the MagSafe and not have it attach properly. My preferred method now is to kind of wave my phone over the MagSafe until the magnet sucks it up.

It’s strangely satisfying.


Edit: and to clarify my earlier post, all those sounds come in rapid succession. I wave the phone over the MagSafe and I get the satisfying shiiiing, the thonk from putting it down, then the two chimes happen right after.