iPhones, iPads can be charged on top of a Macbook
Future Macbooks could wirelessly charge your iPhones, iPods, and Apple Watches that are placed on the lid, palm rest, or trackpad. A pair of patents granted to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office allows for 2 way charging or reverse charging according to a report by Patently Apple.
The idea behind the patents is to allow someone to add a quick top-up charge to their iPhone while working on their laptop if they forgot their charging cable. However, the recent MagSafe charging introduced to the iPhone 12 uses magnets.
Apple was granted its first patent for 2-way charging back in March 2016 and these two new patents add 40 different technology innovations to those claims.
The wireless charging concept was invented by Nikola Tesla, a Croatian who first suggested in the 19th century that you could transfer power between two objects via an electromagnetic field. The charging pad contains a loop of coiled wires around a bar magnet, known as an inductor. When the electric current passes from the main through the coiled wire it creates an electromagnetic field around the magnet which can be used to transfer voltage or charge to the smartphone. Apple is working on a charging system that will operate at 7.5 watts, but the faster-charging speed uses 15watts as standard.
Reverse Wireless charging is already available on Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Mate 30 Pro, the Samsung S10 range, and the Samsung Galaxy S20.
So this to work Apple would need to either completely redesign their larger devices or create entirely new wireless charging technology to make them work as currently their body is built out of aluminum which makes it incompatible with current wireless charging technology.