'Ribbed' for your pleasure: Jony Ive unveils NAKED IPHONE Apple has patented a method of building an all-glass device which could herald the arrival of a see-through iPhone. It has been granted a patent called "Fused glass device housings" which describes a technique of fusing glass pieces together in a way that makes the whole structure strong enough to withstand an impact. As well …
Now you will be able to see all those parts that are not user replaceable.
Oh look :
There's the ram that I can't change.
There's the battery that I can't change.
etc, etc
Also if your iDevice get's dirty on the inside, dust etc, now you will be able to see the dirt/dust whereas before it was not a problem....
Once upon a time, Jonny Ive foisted transparent keyboards on the world. The result? A year of crud (sandwich crumbs, coffee drips, dodgy bodily fluids etc.) collected in full view.
It was marvellous to be able to watch the tiny ecosystem. I think I saw an earthworm in my keyboard by the end.
But Apple spoiled it all by replacing the transparent keyboards with opaque aluminium ones. Boo!
So instead of actually talking face to face, you can hold up your phone between you and your "mate", and talk at said phone, and they look at other side of said phone and talk back?
Or you'll both be running your hands over the respective sides at the same time?
Weird and sad. That's the only way to describe that idea
If you use thin sheets of anything, then reinforcing ribs are a good option; many of the panels used in cars are basically steel sheets with ribs (formed by bending steel sheets) welded to make them more rigid. Check the underside of your bonnet (USA = hood) some time.
Thin sheets of aluminium (although sapphire != aluminium) are particularly flexible, that's why we can wrap turkeys and unwrap chocolate bars with our bare hands.
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Brittle materials are ... brittle. You can break even a diamond into pieces using a hard steel chisel and a small hammer. How do you think they divide a large natural diamond of irregular shape into pieces that can be ground into jewels? (And how do you think the expert gem-cutter feels, when after much planning the multimillion-dollar uncut diamond cleaves in a different way to the plan? )
As for phones ... when a mobile meets a flint-gravel drive, the phone will lose. Sods law says display down, onto a sharp flint point, every time, guaranteed. Heck, it even works for buttered toast onto carpet.
Yes, but reality how many people have flint-gravel drives and how many of them regularly drop an unprotected phone onto them?
I'm reminded of talking to a friend many years ago when I bought a ruggedised torch to replace one that had broken when I dropped it while up a step-ladder.
"Ah", he said, "but it wouldn't survive a 100 foot drop onto concrete, that's how most of my torches die.". (He worked for the National Grid at the time.)
Do you know what? He was probably right, it wouldn't have survived that. But then I wasn't planning on putting into that situation and never did. All I needed it to do was to survive a drop of around 6-7 feet onto carpet or possibly lino, and it did that.
Eventually it died the usual torch death of being left in the back of the drawer and then eaten from the inside by its own leaking batteries.
Anyway.
Point is, if you have a flint-gravel drive that you regularly drop your phone on to then an all-glass phone is probably something you need to avoid, or maybe buy a case for it.
As long as physical SIM cards are required and can't be built in (something Apple has been talking to carriers about forever) a phone can never be sealed. If Apple ever gets them to go along with software SIMs (certificate based I assume) then they might try be interested in building a sealed phone. It would be waterproof enough you could take pictures with it underwater....I wonder if software can correct for the distortion of the water or if can only be done with a special lens?
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Every small equipment box I've worked with for electronics projects has essentially been a ribbed container, usually of plastic. Adding "made of glass" surely doesn't make this patentable, so you'd hope that the fusing process was super-clever for this to be an innovation.
it would be nigh impossible to hide a bomb inside
I am sure the bad guys would love the TSA and everyone else to believe that.
I suspect getting through security check-in is more likely to become harder rather than easier once the bad guys have shown a viable bomb can be disguised as a battery and every glass phone reveals a potentially suspicious battery. Security checks are not so much about checking items are safe but checking items are not on their list of not allowed.
Fear of battery bombs seem to be what is behind the latest security clamp down and the safety check there is to make sure the device powers on.
Because we all know there's never going to be a battery which provides power and is also a viable explosive device, right?
"... but checking items are not on their list of not allowed."
Which seems to get weirder by the minute, as does the stuff you've got to get out before getting to security, which now includes lip gloss - I struggle to fathom why that and not cosmetics in general. Curries are a no-no in liquid form, but OK if they're frozen. I do wonder if they get some of it from books or films; belts would seem a good fit for Frederick Forsyth's "The Negotiator". We're stuffed if anyone gives them a Secret Squirrel box set for christmas.
Judging by a recent security queue at Stansted, the fun should kick off anyway when they really get going with the 'no uncharged devices' rule. If they really do check them all, either the wage bill for security staff will double ticket prices, bankrupt the airports, or you'll need to turn up a week in advance.
I've no idea what they do about the very personal like artificial limbs or pacemakers, but I can imagine a Mumsnet rebellion shortly after the Yemeni bombmakers are found to be experimenting with detonating tampons or incendiary pantyliners.
Not really, as current sapphire/gorilla glass screens, when detached from phones, already have similar properties. It's also a force that it will never experience in its intended usage, unless you're sitting on it I guess.
The real issue is that in all of his mucking about, the screen is detached from anything; there's nothing holding it rigid. This is very different from what it will experience when actually attached to a phone. A drop from on high onto the corner or face first onto some uneven concrete will still bugger it up right and proper.
Just wondering how such a construction method fits with recycling/safe disposal regulations currently in force, or waived (apologetically too), around the world today? Oh yes, I forgot, we just send it all to <insert third-world country name> and let the poor sods smash it all up with bare hands and a hammer whilst breathing in the toxic dust, silly me.
Glass is routinely recycled, so I'm not clear on what you think the problem is. It would be easy to create an automated disassembly line that smashed the glass enclosure and then sent the internal components on for further processing. Indeed, this would be easier to automate for glass than a similar line for gadgets encased in plastic.
Similarly, things held together with glue can be 'unfastened' in bulk in an oven, whereas a gadget held together with screws requires a person with a screw driver to take them apart - which is labour intensive.
@Dave 126 - Well, if you're sure, but I thought about the crushing and or heat to release the bonding, I guess once crushed, magnets could separate the glass from the metals and sieving / vibration might then release any lighter plastics due to the differing mass. But am not aware of any current process specifically designed for recycling such glass-encapsulated tech devices. There would seem, therefore, to be a lot of work in achieving the materials separation and that's where I see a potential problem, but I guess the costs would come down once this construction mode becomes more widely adopted.
A bold claim - from a company who's current phones seem to last about a week in most people's hands before becoming a work of shattered glass!
I've had mine since the release, the only time i smashed the glass was when I fell and my 24 stone body crushed it into the kitchen floor. The replacement, now almost 18 months old isn't even scratched.
Aquariums are made from very thick glass and have to survive a lot of internal pressure. Neither is true for a phone. The patent isn't "we invented bonding pieces of glass together", but if you wanted to look at it that way the patent office would be on patent number 50,000 round about now.
Ive has always believed that devices should be as beautiful inside as they are outside, so I imagine he'd like a way to show that off.
Not sure how interested consumers would be, but there would still be an option for an opaque case, so the nudists who like to let it all hang out can get this phone, and the rest of us can get the more modest model!
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