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Samsung Wants To Bring Back the Flip Phone With Bendable Screens
redletterdave writes: A new patent filed last April but published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month suggests Samsung might be working on a smartphone that can bend in half like a flip phone. The biggest problem, according to the patent, is all the strain that accumulates by continually folding the display, or keeping the display folded for a long period of time, which can result in deformations and imperfections, Samsung notes. But Samsung's patent also describes how the phone could keep track of how long it's been in the folded and unfolded states, so as to alert the user of any strain that needs to be relieved. This could help extend the lifetime of the phone and its display.
A problem we've solved already. Just use a hinge and two screens. Use code to stitch them into a logical entity. Bezels can be small, on one side.
I have a feeling it's just patent-troll-defense.
A phone that nags me because it's under stress.
Get a fucking shrink like the rest of us.
This assumes some kind of software controlled physical locking mechanism wouldn't it?
Not really sure how useful a physical locking mechanism would be on such a small device... It makes me think of the little lock on children's diaries... utterly pointless against a determined attacker with physical access.
If Samsung wanted to enforce obsolescence in a dastardly way, it could do it a lot easier by simply bricking the phone through a software mechanism.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
"But Samsung's patent also describes how the phone could keep track of how long it's been in the folded and unfolded states, so as to alert the user of any strain that needs to be relieved."
So sorry, your RMA request is denied due to error 666: Folding counter too large. Please enable SMARTS on your new phone.
Of course the flip phone is coming back, they are even in use in the 23rd century! I have seen the historical documents!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They're all in search of the next big thing. Smartphones, right now, have hit a plateau. You can tweak some feature sets here and there such as adding some additional CPU power/memory/battery life, but overall pretty much any smartphone is the same as any other smartphone. If a phone manufacturer comes out with a "more power" smartphone, all it will take is their rivals packing more power into THEIR next product to dethrone the "more power" phone. So phone manufacturers are resorting to gimmicks to get an edge on the competition. Unfortunately for the manufacturers, none of these gimmicks has caught on. And, if it did, it wouldn't be long before other manufacturers copied the gimmick, all-but-completely negating the advantage for the original manufacturer had.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.