It’s how Apple designed them to work. Most modern Apple devices have a ton of power management processes designed to preserve battery health built in, too

Since the case charges them, they’re essentially always charging when not in use. It’s sort of similar to if you were walking around with a MagSafe Battery Pack on your phone

In addition to what u/regularintelligent63 suggested, iOS did not start encrypting iPhones behind passcodes until iOS 8. Since the 3GS could not be updated beyond iOS 6, it’s possible that you could send the device away for data recovery to be performed on the flash storage itself

I can confirm that the iPhone will still read NFCs while the piece is attached, and MagSafe chargers will still work through it

I’m trying to think of a material it could be made of that would better address your concerns, but you could certainly add grip stickers like you mention; it would probably need to all be made of silicone instead of just the one layer. The thickness of your particular product could also be made to your preference if you reach out through the site before ordering

This doesn’t quite tick all of your boxes, but here’s a MagSafe “Phone Coaster”. Perhaps a variation of this could work for you?

In addition to all of this, you also couldn’t share your contact card with someone unless you have your own info saved first

Can you provide context as to the “why”? What is the actual problem you’re trying to solve? If you’re asking people to consider “energy efficiency” in relation to a mechanism for taking a screenshot with one physical button, it sounds like a needlessly over engineered solution.

The buttons you’re referring to already do more than one function. The button that turns the device on is also used to activate Siri. The buttons used to control volume are also used to take pictures. Together, these buttons take screenshots, power down the phone, etc.

The fastest method is for there to be a dedicated, physical screenshot button.

If you needed to do one-thumb screenshot taking with existing hardware, my solution would be to use the power/Siri button with a click-long hold press (imagine the same method for bringing up a card for ApplePay but the second click is held until the screenshot is taken.

I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding the question, but you can already take a screenshot with one thumb utilizing AssistiveTouch

Qi is limited to 7.5w vs MagSafe’s 15w, so the difference between those two could make a bigger impact than between MagSafe and a 20W wired option (assuming MagSafe is running at peak speed)

In your wife’s scenario, if it doesn’t work through her case it probably doesn’t make sense for her. But for OP, MagSafe sounds like a better option over Qi, and they probably don’t have an issue with worrying about removing a case

The issue is that only a MagSafe compatible charger is capable of charging at the maximum 15w speed, so if that speed is a priority there’s only one choice

I know for a fact that it works through 3mm of wood and 1mm of silicone, if that helps

I could be mistaken, but if you keep a device on iOS 15 I think you would technically retain all versions

It depends on what you mean by “saving”. If you mean accepting the shared album request, it’s possible that this isn’t duplicating the storage, though I’m not 100% sure how that works (it may only “exist” once in iCloud, but it’s still taking up room when it’s viewed from the phone anyway, since the device needs to at least temporarily store the photo to show it).

If you’re talking about saving a photo from a shared album into your own library, that is without a doubt not referencing the original and is now a separate file in your own photo library

I guess it depends on how many images you’re trying to share at once. You can send a shared album like you mention, or you can just send them over Messages and—beyond a certain number at a time—the app will use an iCloud mechanism to share them in-message that expires in 30 days

Edit: actually, as you send the photos there’s an “Options” button that lets you choose how they are sent, too (as individual photos or as an iCloud link)

I don’t see any way that it wouldn’t take up more space. When you save the photo from Messages it’s not just referencing that file, it’s creating a duplicate into the photo library itself. So if you have both saved, they are both using storage space.

As for your second question, can you elaborate on what you mean by “away”?

I’d be more concerned about your Qi charger; I don’t get that message using Qi or MagSafe chargers

For a 20w charger specifically, just make sure it supports the 9V/2.22A charging profile and you should be good. I have a model from anker and a model from aukey that both work well

I get that many people on here might disagree with you, but the downvotes are a bit much