Remember when we told you about Reserve Strap, the interchangeable charging band for the Apple Watch? Well it seems that there will be a little more to the product than we first envisaged, thanks to the manufacturer’s admittance that it plans to utilize the Apple Watch’s hidden diagnostic port to not only offer a beautiful band that can charge the device, but also offer faster than advertised charging, which is clearly something that will be of great appeal to consumers.
As part of the Apple Watch design the Cupertino company has gotten around the necessity to charge the timepiece by integrating a rather impressive magnetic, inductive charging setup. This solution does seem to make perfect sense for a product of this nature, but according to the maker of the Reserve Strap accessory, it does leave a little bit to the imagination in terms of charging efficiency. By utilizing the hidden 6-pin port the company believes that it can offer improvements in charging time over Apple’s own chosen solution.
Another key benefit to using the hidden 6-pin port is the ability to create simpler, much more effective designs for third-party Apple Watch bands. After initially planning on building the Reserve Strap with a similar wireless charging solution to Apple’s the company’s engineers deemed managed to get a hands-on session with the timepiece and effectively came up with what they believe is a better, more efficient solution to the problem.
Our engineers have been able to independently confirm that the 6 pin diagnostic port underneath the Apple Watch case can be used for charging. The Reserve Strap will take advantage of this using a simple, retractable connector instead of the previous inductive charging cradle design… By utilizing this port instead of wirelessly charging, we’ve been able to achieve a higher charge capacity and quicker, more efficient charging times while also improving durability and eliminating any interference with Apple Watch functionality including taptic feedback and heartrate sensors.
It’s actually extremely interesting to read that all native Apple Watch functionality will be honoured if the company does actually go down this path. It’s also interesting to let the imagination run wild and conjure up thoughts of what other magnificent and innovative third-party accessories could hit the market using the same hidden port.
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