Apple bags patent for folding phone that closes as it's dropped If you're one of the small subset of Apple aficionados waiting to get their hands on a folding iDevice, a patent for self-folding displays granted to Cook and Co last week is sure to pique your interest. According to a patent [PDF] published on March 16, Apple hasn't just considered a foldable – it's considering a foldable …
Putting a cat in your pocket to make a perpetual motion machine would be silly, here's the sensible way to make a perpetual motion machine.
Stick any phone to a cat and it will always land the right way up.
I'd like to see you make a phone call with one of my cats stuck to the phone - most of them are, to a greater or lesser extent, ex-feral and don't really appreciate handling that they didn't initiate.
And the one that is happy to be handled is about 7kg in weight.
> I'd like to see you make a phone call with one of my cats stuck to the phone
If they share traits with every other cat I know, the problem wouldn't be one of my handling them: I'm allergic to cats, so sticking a phone onto a cat is a sure-fire way to get the phone as close to my face as the little buggers could manage!
It just shows how far patent system has deviated from its roots. It was supposed to protect inventors who invested a lot of time and money into developing something, so that others could not copy that invention and benefit from it. And now we get parents like this, where Apple claims merely an idea of an auto-closable screen. "oh yeah, maybe we'll use a spring, or magnets or something". It is not an invention. It didn't require years of research and prototyping, only 30 mins of engineers brainstorming with the patent lawyer. Sad and pathetic system which encourages such practice...
The patent system is blind to the amount of effort involved in leading to an innovation, and imo rightfully so. Why should there be no protection for an invention following a eureka* moment ?
How would you even begin to verify how much effort went into an invention?
*I’m not saying this constitutes a eureka moment. As I noted elsewhere, this is a patent application that has not yet been examined for novelty and non-obviousness.
I think the point is that anyone can have an idea. But it takes real work to actually implement it. If you want to "protect" your idea, don't tell anyone else about it. Go implement it[*]. The risk you take is that someone else may have already had the same idea or simply be better at implementing and beat you to punch. Tough. That's life.
* It doesn't have to actually work fully or be a production model. But it should exist in the form you are describing before a patent can be granted IMHO.
My phone, from a Chinese manufacturer who's name may not be spoken, has one of those pop up front facing cameras. It retracts when not being used and also if you drop the phone (and, yes, it works -- I tried it by dropping it onto a pillow).
Folding the screen may be a bit tricky to implement -- its not that the 'we need to fold now' isn't difficult, that's obvious, but implementing this seamlessly could be difficult.
The last time I thought about getting an iPhone I think was when the iPhone 6 was new. I handled it. The sides were way too smooth = easy to drop. Form over function. I don't think my impression was wrong as I recall seeing many iPhones with cracked screens. Meanwhile I have all my old Android phones, various makes, going back years with screens intact.
when almost all phones live inside protective cases
This.
I have a drawer at home full of ex-phones [1], almost all of which are in pretty much immaculate condition because I look after them.
I even have a Motorla Star-tac phone, still in its leather belt-clip case[1]. The case is a bit battered but the phone inside is undamaged.
[1] Yes kidies - it was trendy in the techie world then to clip our phones to our belts. Unbelievable but true!
If you have a rapid closing mechanism, a camera and more computing power in a device than was used to get a few chaps safely to the moon and back, surely turning it into a mousetrap won't be that much of a further step?
I think it's pretty much guaranteed that someone will write the app, even if it was just for a laugh :).
Years ago Apple were thinking of cladding their phones in sapphire glass. They didn't, bankrupting the manufacturer (who'd already tooled up to be able to produce), because they realised that indestructible iPhones would not be profitable.
However, I remember a YouTuber got hold of a prototype, and it was remarkably tough, and could be bent unbelievably without breaking.
It was a bit stiff for a flexible display, but that's just a matter of how thin it is. So perhaps ultra thin sapphire is the answer for folding phones. It'd probably only break if it landed awkwardly on a diamond. Pity if that happened, but then you've got yourself a diamond!
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