TAKE MY MONEY: HTX Studio transformed Apple’s abandoned AirPower idea into something considerably more ambitious: a smart desk that finds your phone, moves a wireless charger underneath it and starts charging.
There are tech concepts that make you ask, “Why doesn’t this already exist?” HTX Studio’s latest creation is one of them.
Apple introduced AirPower in 2017 as a wireless charging mat designed to remove one of wireless charging’s biggest annoyances: having to position a device precisely over a charging coil. Apple ultimately cancelled the product in 2019.
HTX Studio decided to revisit the idea — only instead of making another charging mat, the creator expanded the concept across an entire desk.
Put Your Phone Down. The Desk Finds It.
Covering a desktop with traditional charging coils would have required roughly 600 coils, according to HTX Studio. So the creator found another solution.
A camera detects where a phone has been placed on the desk. Beneath the surface, a motorized system moves a wireless charging coil directly underneath the device and begins charging it.
The result makes the charging technology effectively come to the phone rather than forcing the phone to find the charger.
And that is where this project becomes much more interesting than simply hiding a wireless charging pad inside a piece of furniture.
It’s More Than a Charger
What began as an AirPower-inspired experiment evolved over roughly two months into an entire smart workstation.
The desktop incorporates a transparent display that can show information, charging animations and a daily task tracker. An animated cat even follows the charging mechanism as it travels beneath the surface.
There is also a Mac mini integrated into the desk, turning the setup into a functioning computer workstation when connected to a monitor.
HTX Studio added two fixed charging positions in the corners for additional devices, while the moving charger can return to its home position and wirelessly charge a compatible keyboard.
Your Desk Is Now Watching Your Work Habits
Then things get even more interesting.
The motorized standing desk can remind its user to get up after sitting for roughly an hour and provides an on-screen control to raise the desk to a preset standing height.
The moving mechanism can even use an electromagnet to bring a compatible drinking cup toward the user as a hydration reminder.
And for anyone who reaches for their phone every five minutes, there is Focus Mode.
Activate it and a 25-minute timer appears beneath the phone. Pick up the phone before the session ends and the desk can refuse to resume charging when you put it back down.
Savage? Maybe.
Effective? We can see the argument.
PMG TAKE: TAKE OUR MONEY
HTX Studio’s project is currently better understood as an ambitious custom engineering build than a mass-market desk you can simply add to your cart, but the bigger idea is compelling.
Wireless charging usually asks us to adapt our behavior to the technology: find the pad, find the charging zone, and position the device correctly. HTX Studio reversed that relationship. Put your phone down. The technology finds you.
For a future generation of desks, hotel nightstands, conference tables, airport lounges, and other connected surfaces, that may be the more interesting idea hiding underneath this experiment.
Our only question: when can we order one?