The Cupertino giant is testing various ways to keep the device untethered

Feb 3, 2014 13:46 GMT  ·  By

The upcoming iWatch seems more real by the day, though Apple is yet to leak the first solid piece of evidence to prove its existence.

However, the New York Times has been speaking to some people who seem to be all too familiar with the rumored smart-watch. So much so that they’ve been able to give away some technical details that might turn out to make the iWatch an awesome piece of engineering.

“For its wristwatch, Apple has been testing a method to charge the battery wirelessly with magnetic induction, according to a person briefed on the product. A similar technology is already used in some Nokia smartphones — when a phone is placed on a charging plate, an electrical current creates a magnetic field, which creates voltage that powers the phone.”

Wireless charging means that the user will not be forced to tether the device to anything, but rather just lay it down on a platform when he/she goes to sleep, for example.

The report adds that the iWatch is expected to have a curved display, “and one idea is to add a solar-charging layer to that screen, which would give power to the device in daylight,” the same people said.

Apple has also experimented with “charging the battery through movement,” such as swinging your arm back and forth while walking.

The iWatch could also pull energy from “television, cellular or Wi-Fi signals,” the NYT report hints, while talking about upcoming gadgets in general.

As some of you may already know, the first-ever radios were powered by the radio signal itself. All they needed was really long antennas.

The all-wireless iWatch is certainly a nice prospect, and readers should take note that none of these wireless charging technologies can work wonders in and of themselves – for example, what do you do if you need to fully juice up your iWatch in under two hours?

However, all these solutions working together might just do the trick. But can Apple cram these all inside such a minute product?