According to a new report from Chinese publication Chongdiantou (via MacRumors), Apple’s upcoming wireless charging case for the AirPods will be compatible with any standard Qi charger. Although Apple announced the AirPods charging case last fall, its announcement alongside Apple’s AirPower charging mat left it unclear whether the AirPods case would use an Apple-specific charging method like the Apple Watch, or whether it would embrace the open Qi standard like Apple’s 2017 iPhones.
Although the new AirPods charging case was originally expected to arrive late last year, that didn’t happen and Apple has been typically quiet about any updated release timeframe, although recent betas of iOS 12 have revealed images for the new case, suggesting that it’s likely to be released sometime this fall, probably alongside a second-generation model of AirPods. Although Chongdiantou has been in the news lately with claims about Apple bundling a new 18-watt USB-C power adapter with this year’s iPhones, and additional predictions that Apple will be releasing AirPower in September, as MacRumors notes, the publication lacks an established track record, so it remains to be seen if any of these reports will come to fruition.