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Flexible Phones 'Out By 2013'
dryriver sends this quote from a BBC report:
"Imagine treating your phone like a piece of paper. Roll it up. Drop it. Squish it in your backpack. Step on it — without any damage. Researchers are working on just such handsets — razor-thin, paper-like and bendable. There have already been prototypes, attracting crowds at gadget shows. But rumors abound that next year will see the launch of the first bendy phone. Numerous companies are working on the technology — LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony and Nokia among them — although reports suggest that South Korean phone manufacturer Samsung will be the first to deliver. Samsung favors smartphones with so-called flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, and is confident that they will be 'very popular among consumers worldwide.' Their screens will be 'foldable, rollable, wearable and more, [and] will allow for a high degree of durability through their use of a plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more flexible than conventional LCD technology,' says a Samsung spokesperson.'"
Better hope it's not 28 days delivery.
Is the battery flexible?
One question to ask would be the types of features that one would expect in these flexible phones in the near-term. Would they start out as having similar capabilities as current smartphones in the market, or would they be more "bread-and-butter" phones that will only see incorporation of additional capabilities in the long term?
Of greater interest to me is the possibility of flexible laptops and tablets. The reason why we have things like smartphones is because we can easily carry them around (e.g. in our pocket) and still have sufficient computational for day-to-day use. But if we can get flexible tablets/laptops to work, I think that'd be very useful in terms of packing greater amounts of computational power per (folded) surface area.
Cogito, ergo sum, fosho!
Mmmm... OLED... Tasty!
I've cracked the screen on my last 2 phones because of the stupid "gorilla glass". A flexible phone would be much more impervious to damage from being chucked around (accidentally or otherwise). I don't see how it's "weak minded" of me to want a more durable phone, while retaining the benefits of a smart phone.
which is totally what she said
of your phone, you just dump it into the shredder?
Will the phones then end up as confetti?
No more worry about cracked screens would be great. However there is a limit on utility that defines the form factor - we WANT big screens but it can't be too big or it's clumsy. I don't need a phone that rolls up - the new ones are flat enough to be unobtrusive.
Thinner and lighter are always nice, but damage resistance and battery life are bigger concerns.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
I look forward to the day i can treat my smartphone the same way i used to treat my old Nokia dumb phone. Like the piece of low end consumer electronic it is. My cat's been gnawing at my new phone, and having a tooth sized hole where your home button used to be sucks ass. So grats on being impervious to marketing hype, i look forward to having a phone i don't have to watch over like a small child.
... whatever
This is really cool and I hope to have a bendable phone next. I am beginning to hate the increasingly massive sizes of phones recently and this is a welcome feature to offset that so that I can actually bend and stretch my legs without having to adjust the massive bulge in my pocket. :3
The rest of the components, such as the mainboard and battery, aren't flexible. I was under the impression we would see some curved phones that are rigid rather than a fully flexible screen. I read this article and I didn't see any specific mention of what exactly what Samsung have planned, anyone know the answer?
I've cracked the screen on my last 2 phones because of the stupid "gorilla glass"...
No, you cracked the screen on your last 2 phones because you are careless, so much so that they cracked in spite of being made of gorilla glass.
I don't want anything as sharp as "razor-thin" in my pocket.
Agreed. When we get flexible enough displays, roll-up tablets (as in, 10+ inch) will make some sense. But the bend radius required to appreciably reduce the size of phones is around 5mm, and that's way out of reach.
To me, bendable means that I can put it in my pocket and have it conform to the curve of my leg. I could put it in my back pocket and it might be less uncomfortable. Hell, if it's paper thin and as flexible as the summary claims it will be, I could stick the damn thing in my wallet.
Whatever "killer feature" even means, I'm in for one.
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A bendable phone is a killer feature, because it prevents the damage from a 200-pound American sitting on a slab of glass.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
I DON'T want my phone to bend. A rigid structure is very nice for a lot of reasons.
If you are reaching up to push a button on your phone, and it is held in a clamp (like a car-dock) You want it to be rigid so that it doesn't flex when you are pushing a button.
I currently use a case which has a silicone sleeve, and a rigid 'exoskeleton' design. The rigid exterior is very nice for distributing the force over a larger area, and the silicone acts as a great shock absorber. I'm certainly not going to stop using such a case because even a flexible phone would have sensitive parts, so I'm still going to want to protect it with a case and thus the flexibility is pointless.
It will be damned nice to have a flexible display and mount it on my car's windshield, but I don't really want that flexing. The advantage of this technology is that you aren't limited to planar surfaces for displays, not that you want your displays to flex.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Gorrilla glass is very hard, but as is the way with these things, it is also quite brittle.
It's true that I was careless to an extent in both situations (though I was exercising care the first time, just apparently not enough.. and it cracked after only falling 30cm), but that doesn't change the fact that I could do with a more durable phone. I don't just sit around on the computer all day, I quite often go outside and enjoy doing Parkour. Now usually my phone is in my bag when I do that, but if I happen to randomly want to vault a fence while out in "normal" mode, that's when things sometimes slip out of my pocket.
which is totally what she said
No, you cracked the screen on your last 2 phones because you are careless, so much so that they cracked in spite of being made of gorilla glass.
I know people like this. Occasional accidents happen to everyone. Frequent and repeated damage is not an accident. Those who frequently smash gorilla glass will end up destroying a floppy phone just as quick. Oops, I dropped it in a blender. Oops, I dropped it on a burning grill.
Like the "Earth: Final Conflict" Global Link Communicator, this will allow the creation of small devices with large screens that unroll when in use.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
I can hardly wait.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
Add a stylus and some handwriting recognition, then invent some kind of adhesive micropayment system and a physical distribution/collection network, and it could be used as a high latency message transmission system?
Uh - oh ... Apple is in trouble!
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
Why would I care to have a flexible phone? What does this give me that a regular phone doesn't? These won't be "foldable" like a dollar bill so it won't go in my wallet. I doubt it would be durable enough to be indestructible so, again, why?
Because the phone would be more durable. Wouldn't be a big deal to keep it in your back pocket while sitting. And seeing as small as phones are now, I could see these being small enough to fit in your wallet. Ya, there ya go. A disposal backup phone you can keep in your wallet for emergencies.
Ever break a phone by dropping it? Won't have that problem with these phones.
You also forgot "get off my lawn" in your post.
Be seeing you...
Wait, 200 lbs is considered heavy now? Uh-oh.
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My prediction is:
- lots of strange wobbly phone designs
- that will be a pain to hold and text on
- whose main function is to go OOOO look how bendy I am!
Stupid "gorilla glass"?
You do realize that it is designed to prevent scratches not you dropping it on concrete right? Glass is glass. This is why I am glad my phone has a raised edge around the screen. It has already saved it once before.
The only times I've dropped my phone have been Parkour related incidents. Though the first one was just moving my speakers, and it somehow managed to work its way loose from the groove it was placed in at the top. The second was my own fault, as I'd taken it out of its case and so it was slidier than usual and fell straight out of my pocket..
Indoors I always have my phone on a desk or table somewhere. I don't drop them in blenders/grills/toilets or anything like that.
which is totally what she said
Thinner and lighter are always nice
I submit there is a point at where a device can be too light and thin with the way we need to interact with them. For me, the critiques over the iPhone 5 were right; it is too light. I would fumble that all around, though if it was flexible, perhaps it wouldn't matter but it seems you're just trading one problem for another. (That and call me when batteries become paper thin, let alone electrical contacts that are still good after being flexed a few tens of thousand times.)
I agree with you that this form factor won't be super useful. However, flexible displays could be integrated into an incredibly useful design. Something like the Globals form the old scifi show Earth: Final Conflict would be incredibly handy. If you havent' seen the show, it's an oblong device that rolls out to show a fairly large screen. pic. By storing the screen away from view, it becomes a whole lot more damage resistant.
It's true that I was careless to an extent in both situations (though I was exercising care the first time, just apparently not enough.. and it cracked after only falling 30cm),
They make rubber 'phone covers for people like you. They cost about $0.99 each...
No sig today...
What are your cat's teeth made off if they can chew through hardened glass?
Or is this button not capacitive?
Yes. The harder a substance is, the more easily it shatters when shocked. I'm not even talking about any foreign object touching the glass directly. Just dropping your phone and the shock being transferred through the case to the glass.
A "gel" type case is usually fine for stopping the shock from cracking the glass, but my phone happened to not be in its case recently. The back/home/task switch buttons were going crazy and so I'd taken it out of the case to see if that had anything to do with the problem. It didn't.. oh well. Should have got it replaced under warranty immediately, but now that it's cracked it will need to be replaced under insurance.
which is totally what she said
...That actually wasn't supposed to be the inflammatory part. Give me a break; I haven't gotten my coffee yet.
200 pounds is enough to easily break a phone in one's back pocket. Americans are just dumb enough to do it repeatedly.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Yup and I actually had one for my last phone, but I took it out to test something :p
which is totally what she said
Paper and similar materials can keep bending forever with out ever breaking, so I can't see anything going wrong with this.
Lesson learned...?
No sig today...
I'll take flexible phones. It's the transparent phone idea that I can't fathom. Looks cool... and useless. You'd have to have a background appear if you wanted to see or read anything, and you'd have to either use no case, or a glass case.
I know people like this too.
Only they've deliberately thrown the phone on the floor in order to claim off the insurance and purchase a brand new higher-spec phone.
These people are dumb and only end up doing it once.
Dumb because they didn't read the small print about the £100 excess and the fact about "a phone of equivalent value", and the value has dropped below £100 since they bought it.
They now have no phone and it makes me smile.
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That is why most phones do not have the edge of the glass touching the surrounding material so the energy transfer is not so direct.
As a general rule the insurance is not worth it. The prices to repair by the OEM are generally not that much more than the deductible you have to pay to get it replaced. Once you add in the fact that over two years you will have already paid for another device, it is doubly a ripoff.
I would much prefer device cheaper to repair than prone to scratches on the display.
They need to become slightly more modular.
Quick, find patents for mobile devices and just add "on a flexible screen" and file a new one.
That's all it takes to get approval, right?
At least Americans know not to wear speedos to the beach when they have huge guts, unlike a lot of Europeans. ;p
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The second was my own fault, as I'd taken it out of its case and so it was slidier than usual and fell straight out of my pocket..
Not trying to be nit-picky here but I think you meant "more slippy" or "slippier" (though I believe this is an informal word). Just trying to help out, in case you are a non-native English speaker.
You make a good point. I don't recall any Speedo-wearing whales at the Florida beaches...
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Flexible mean a lot of things, like this old Nokia concepts. Flexibility could mean changing how you use it, and new ways to use it. An easy one could be folding it to have something manuable to use it as phone, but unfold it to use it like a tablet, but having shapes that enable to even wear them could change things.
What really would worry me is the user interface. As windows 8 clearly shows, an user interface not meant for the "natural" way you interact with a certain device (like putting a phone user interface in a desktop) is a bad idea . This will put to the test how much flexible are the user interfaces of whatever will be put in those phones.
They've had the ability to make cellphones waterproof for nearly 10 years and haven't bothered. My guess is it's an added expense and the make a lot of money from people that run their phones through the wash. Hell, I had one die after I left it on the counter while I took a shower. Think they've fix that with these "flexible" phones? I doubt it... and it's a far more common cause of phone failure than braking the actual phone.
Being flexible means that they could turn into i.e. bracelets, or other accesories. Probably it will change from a boxy thing that you must carry to a bunch of device parts that you will be wearing
If we're giving English lessons, I can't say I've ever heard anyone say either "slippy" or "slippier"; but "slippery" or "slipperier" are both in common use (the first moreso.)
Cantankerous old coot since 1957.
If you don't like gorilla glass then you may not like the Nexus 4.
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I came here looking for this comment and someone commenting on the "Globals" device from Earth:Final Conflict.
It's a shame you're buried so deep!
Yuck. I don't want my phone, iPod or other devices bending. This sounds like it is going to be more fragile and less long lived. This sounds like more of the disposable society. Yuck.
I want durability. I want to buy a device and use it for years, pass it on in the family and have others be able to keep using it. I want devices that are durable and last, taking real world abuse.
Those were visiting Europeans ;p
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I agree with you, there is a good reason that wallets are NOT rigid cuboids, like phones currently are. Flexi-phones will disappear into the pocket far better.
Maybe you got modded down because people don't want to use a smaller phone.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Why the fuck would we want our phones to be so thin? Do they think we want to cut vegetables and shoes with our phones?
Won't somebody please think of the hemophiliac children!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Thank you, I did mean slippery.
It is if she's only five feet tall.
Free Martian Whores!
Yes, but I imagine it's not fun trying to hold a piece of paper that liked to bend all the time to your ear to take a call. Wonder what they've done to address that.
To me it sounds like it's going to be a big annoyance.
Honestly, if this is a thin plastic sheet that I can barely hold onto it won't be worth the added durability. Also, as I said, I doubt it will be foldable where I could put a hard crease into it like I can with a sheet of paper (necessary if I want to put in my wallet).
And get off my lawn (I knew I forgot something in my earlier post...)
-SaNo
I think I already know from history that just isn't true. My "dumb" flip-phone is hanging in there just fine. I've dropped it a few times, but when Samsung made this in 2006 they used plastic (geniuses! who would think of this?!), and face it: plastic is awesome. This plastic just keeps on not breaking.
My glass tablet lasted a month. I am so glad I only spent $89 on it (no, a $200 one would not have survived better).
It's not even just clumsiness and carelessness, though I won't pretend I'm graceful and always on-the-ball. Some things in some situations just happen to take a beating, by virtue of being in a pocket all the time, going everywhere the user goes. Keys and change constantly grind away at whatever they share space with, dogs jump on laps, my pants-containing-phone get stepped on while getting up in the middle of the night in a tent on a camping trip, stuff is outside in freezing temperatures (and low humidity) and then comes into the house where it's warmer and higher humidity for a while and then goes back out. Shit happens, so much of it and in so many ways.
I don't feel entitled to have "tough SOB" equipment, and if I drop something and it breaks, it's almost certainly my fault. But let's not pretend that stuff-which-usually-doesn't-break wasn't the ubiquitous norm prior to 2007. The very idea that we're all carrying glass personal items around all the time, is actually pretty hilarious when you think of it. The guy who stepped out a time machine from 2006, after chuckling a little, would at least say, "well, I'm sure they break a lot, but I guess the point of this cheap shit is that people don't complain when it breaks, because you can always get another $20 phone to last enough 3 months. $80 a year is a hardware budget I suppose anyone can live with." Then we 2012ers would nervously glance around at one another, wondering, "Who is going to tell him?" Fucking time travellers. They always make me feel so uncomfortable.
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Dumb because they didn't read the small print about the £100 excess and the fact about "a phone of equivalent value", and the value has dropped below £100 since they bought it.
Dumb for buying worthless insurance in the first place.
As a general rule the insurance is not worth it.
Insurance companies make profits.
No sig today...
I've heard "slippier" all the time, "slipperier" isn't actually in common usage (I'm in Denver, have family all over--the U.S. and world--and Denver has immigrants from states and other nations everywhere: nobody says "slipperier"); I can find it, Googling, in little local publications, but it's a mish-mash of incompatible conventions, whereas "slippier" actually follows compatible (grammatical) conventions.
So out of curiosity, where you at? Where have you heard/read/seen/do you see "slipperier", and where can I find these people? I'm asking sincerely because I like English and languages/languages and linguistics. : )
Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
It's a company phone. The insurance premium is around 500GBP a year, and my phone cost about 350GBP, so it seems worth it to me.
which is totally what she said
To be fair, they could have been French Canadians... they like to pack light: one bathing suit for the whole family.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I felt it important to point out the correct acronym for flexible organic light emitting diode is FOLED.
We have to keep our acronyms straight, we're geeks! hahaha
Your two statements are in conflict.
Unless you plan to destroy more than 1 phone per year you plainly state it is more expensive to insure than replace.
Coolness is, by itself, a killer feature.
All Android phones do basically the same thing. Which one sells? The cool one.
Well, there's here. So somebody is using it, and it is the proper comparative form of "slippery."
I personally take every opportunity to resist the American English tendency to form comparitives and superlatives with "more" and "most" for any multi-syllable word. Pleasanter, pleasantest. Cleverer, cleverest. Those are perfectly serviceable words, and sound more dignified* than the "more" and "most" forms. Why are we so loathe to use them?
*Even I won't go for "dignifieder," though. That's just silly.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
We might even be able to use that system to make payments. We should check into that.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Different service/insurance plans, different terms. Bestbuy's service plans, for example, are (or were back in early 2000 when I last made use of one) based on either replacing the product with an identical product, or if they no longer stock the product, store credit for the amount that you paid for the device. Meanwhile, if my car should end up totaled, my insurance company will only pay me what it is worth now, not how much I paid for it initially.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
Why would I care to have a flexible phone? What does this give me that a regular phone doesn't? These won't be "foldable" like a dollar bill so it won't go in my wallet. I doubt it would be durable enough to be indestructible so, again, why?
Maybe a phone you can wear on your wrist, like an uber-geeky bracer? I'm picturing a form factor like one of those 'snap' bracelets, that remain rigid until you tap them against something, then they curl around whatever you tap them against. Want to work with the full screen? Just pull it off your wrist and go.
True, the (presumably rigid) battery pack and processor compartment would have to be pretty compact and cool-running to make this comfortable, but there are definitely some cool possibilities available for this tech...combine this with some sort of kinesthetic charging capabilities, and it could be impressive indeed :)
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
I can't tell if this is a serious question or if this is part of certain members of Slashdot's bizarre disdain for anything new but here goes:
I have a Galaxy Note 2. It has a 5.5 inch screen. This makes for a pretty large phone and when I'm carrying it I'm pretty aware that it's in my pocket. If it were flexible it would conform to the curve of my leg enough that it would be more comfortable to carry. So there, I hope that helps.
Now we need to achieve the holy grail - a screen that can expand, in much the same way one expands a browser window or photoshop/visio box by pulling it in the corner to keep the same proportion and from the side to elongate. Then your phone can expand to tablet size (or larger) when you need it.
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Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Good point.
Anyway, I should clarify to everyone that's it's not that I'm pro-obesity or anything (fat !=beautiful), or that I deny America has an obesity problem (it does), it's just that I don't get why America gets singled out so much when it's a global issue. (That probably pretty much started in America due to "fast food" and junk snacks, but is now worldwide)
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Why would Apple be in trouble? They'll copy Samsung and Sony's phones
You assume Sony/Samsung will really be first with such a phone.
With Apple's all-consuming desire for thin devices, why would they not be the first to adopt this?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
(That and call me when batteries become paper thin, let alone electrical contacts that are still good after being flexed a few tens of thousand times.)
Saw this yesterday... note the manufacturer.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/electric-wedgies-elastic-material-maintains-conductivity-when-stretched/
A whole device that is floppy everywhere is just not a practical thing to use as a phone.
But that device, with fixed components that roll up a screen inside could be very practical while also giving you a much larger screen area than most pocket devices.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ah junk. I think I misread that (all) earlier (and then even typed it). I'm not sure what I was thinking "slipperier" was earlier, but it may have something to do with still being tired. : (
/.ing when tired in the evening!) Speaking of being loathe to add those endings, I enjoy "funner" (Germanic) over "more fun" (Latinate) any day: you can find teachers correcting kids to use the latter yet find the former in authoritative writing just a few decades ago.
Apologies.
I need to wait a few hours before posting after waking. (Like forbidding oneself from
Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
Sorry, I didn't state things clearly: that policy currently covers at least 12 company mobiles.
When we had a lot of offshore workers, they'd lose/break phones on a regular basis, so it was worth it for us. I suppose they must have been making money selling refurbished models otherwise it wouldn't be worth it for the insurers..
which is totally what she said
What about hardware keyboards? Does this mean they'll end up killing them? Have they found a way to make them flexible too?
Imagine a device you can fold so a larger screen surface will take up less space when stored.
It's weak minded because you haven't thought for even 3 seconds about ergonomics. How are you even going to hold this to your ear, let alone hold it, and tap on it with your other hand.
There's a video on the website for the Russian Wexler eink reader showing how the stuff can withstand a fair bit of flex. The screen is greyscale only but is already out there, if only in limited quantities.
While I like the colour screen on my phone it really sucks that I can't even see the button to answer the thing in full sunlight.
I mentioned it above, but maybe it's like the LG eink screen where the stuff can flex but the device stiff enough to hold it's shape under it's own weight. With the wexler eink reader that uses this screen they apparently have a thin steel sheet on the back, so the device bends in like leaning on a car body panel if you push it and then pops back into shape. That's supposed to make it tough enough to be dropped or shoved in with other items but still stiff enough to be useful. I've never actually seen that device but there are videos of it.
It depends on the bend. If it doesn't bend too far then the stress at any point (including at the bottom of tiny scratches and dents) will not be high enough for tiny little cracks to form or grow. Fatigue happens because the stress at the tip of a crack is enough to make it grow a little bit. You can break a cable tie by folding it back and forth because the plastic used is not very strong, but if it was made of kevlar you'd need to bend it into a much tighter curve or make a cut with a knife first so you've got something to concentrate the stress.
So there's a point where you could just bend it back and forth forever without any problems, but beyond that point it's going to crack by fatigue after you've bend it back and forth many times.
You should invest in some zips to add to your pockets. Then you can vault a fence without the worry of dropping your phone.
signature is pants
I want the phone to clamp around my wrist like a bracelet but be able to straighten it out for some functions. This coupled with a good Bluetooth earpiece and Ill be happy.
What makes you think it will be entirely floppy? I imagine these things will have a credit-card like flexibility. If they have more, then all it takes is a simple case with the flexibility of your choosing.
You can't have tried very hard to solve that issue in your head. It's also a bit weird to think that the designers of these devices wouldn't try to phone someone, or tap the screen.
which is totally what she said