HTX Studio’s AirDesk Turns a Whole Desk Into the AirPower Apple Never Shipped

HTX Studio spent about two months turning a full work desk into a charger that finds a phone wherever you set it down and starts feeding it power. Apple showed that idea in 2017 as AirPower, a small mat that would charge a phone, Watch, and AirPods case without lining them up on a single coil. The pad never shipped. Apple cancelled it in 2019. The YouTube builder waited through nine promised “next years,” then built a version big enough to work on.

Apple’s design for the pad included filling it with a lot of coils so that it didn’t matter where you placed the devices. Covering an entire desk like that would require approximately 600 coils, which is a large number to say the least. HTX Studio took an alternative approach, just slotting a single coil onto a motorized trolley and allowing the coil to go instead. A camera situated above the desk monitors your phone and transmits location information to the motors. The coil then glides below till the charging begins, and to make things even neater, they inserted two extra coils into each corner for when you leave your gadgets plugged in in the same location.

The initial prototype demonstrated that the concept was viable, as well as a thorough examination of why getting to work on a desk is so much more difficult than using a mat. To get things rolling, the motors had to crawl along slowly. Then there were the cables, which were dragged around and snagged on various objects. The surface above did nothing more than obscure the coil beneath. Faster motors sped up the process, but it still required patience. Then there was the difficulty of getting the moving power line to play out and retract without making a mess, which took a week on its own with a homemade cable reel. HTX later discovered that a linear slide would have avoided the need for all of the moving wires and had things up and running in no time.

In the end, the desktop became more of a screen. When you place your phone down, an animated cat will ride along with the coil, as if it is hauling up power from below. Once one device has been fully charged, the system searches for the next one that need a charge. In idle mode, one coil sits beneath the keyboard, concealing a receiver coil, allowing the keyboard to recharge as well. One moving coil cannot feed multiple phones at the same time, as AirPower promised, so this one travels between them instead. The corners protect the extras.

A Mac mini sits inside the frame, and when you plug in a display, the desk functions as a computer. The screen displays the charge status, a short daily to-do list, and a small dot that lights up when you finish a job. Sit still for approximately an hour with the surface remaining low, and the entire top will light up in a soft glow. The cat returns with a reminder and a button that elevates the motorized legs to a predetermined standing height. Every hour or so, an electromagnet on the trolley slides a matching cup toward you, ensuring that you do not simply ignore your water. Focus Mode activates a 25-minute timer beneath the phone. Lift the phone before the countdown expires, and the desk will not charge it when you put it back down.

In the end, the finished AirDesk functions as a standard workstation for a keyboard, trackpad, and monitor, but with all the bells and whistles. After nine years of waiting for a product that would never come to fruition, the builder now has a surface that charges everything you throw on it, reminds you to stand and drink, and even cuts off power if you keep reaching for your phone.
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