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Future iPhones Could Fold In Half (geek.com)
Apple has just received a patent, titled "electronic devices with carbon nanotube printing circuits," that suggests future iPhones may be foldable -- at least to some degree. Geek reports: Based on the language in the patent, it doesn't sound like Apple is specifically talking about a device that has a fully bendable display. It mentions one that can bend "along edges of touch sensors or displays." The carbon nanotube PCBs provide flexibility for some of the phone's internals, but not all of them. Those other parts will likely be covered by other patents if Apple is genuinely working on a seamless foldable device. The usual caveats apply here. For now, this is simply yet another patent padding Apple's already massive portfolio. Could they be planning to release an iPhone that folds in half? Definitely.
Uh, we already HAD flip phones.
but it won't have any inputs and the screen won't be visible without a $25 dongle you add to your $600 iGlasses that have to be connected to your iWatch (something has to tell this thing the time) because they think that is the next great thing
The iFlipPhone. With a display on one part, and an innovative 12 button keyboard on the other that allows you to use a combination of strokes per key (1, 2, or 3 presses in succession) to enter text one character at a time!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
What will they think of next?
Get rid of those last few pesky ports, and we'll be able to fold Apple's laptops into quarters.
Now you can roll your phone up and shove it up your ass!
Once.
I really like that idea! But, I liked it even better when it was called the Microsoft Courier.
Fold in half, like a flip phone? Pfui.
I want something like the omniphone (omni for short) described in Alastair Mayer's T-Space stories, which is based on the Nokia Morph concept. (See also the video, here.)
(Silly) Samsung promo video from 2014
Samsung to introduce foldable phones in 2017
Seriously, give it a try. Put some muscle in it. You'll get it eventually.
They fold in 1/2 now.
If you thought rounded corners weren't patentable, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Current iPhones can already fold in half, if you push hard enough. Wake me up when we can unfold them back into a functional state.
See that "Preview" button?
This wouldn't be enough to make me buy an iOS device, but I have to admit it would make me a little jealous. I miss the compactness of my old flip phone. It seems phones have been getting smaller in stupid ways (e.g. by having ever-more-anemic batteries, as if I give a fuck about its thickness) instead of getting smaller in actually-convenient ways. Most phones, you can easily get 4-8 times as thick and have it be just as good (and probably gain something useful, like battery space) so folding for 2x thickness while reducing its biggest dimension, is a good move.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Well, to some degree at least.
Folding an iPhone isn't exactly easy, but it becomes easier with each New! Thinner! World Changing! generation.
And it won't work with any Mac without adapter.
There was a series from New Zealand called This is Not My Life and they had an interesting idea of a phone (though it probably showed up elsewhere too). Take a canister that you could wrap your hand around and make it slightly longer. From there the screen is pulled out. It's about the size of a man's hand. When you done with it then you just push it back into the canister part. It's been a while since I've watch the series so I forget all of the detail of what it could do. Basically an advanced smart phone that also lets you control your home environment.
It's also a pretty good show. They were supposed to make a second season but some company from the US bought the rights to the show and an American version was supposed to be made.
Don't hold your breath. They had a patent in 2002 for changing the colors of a device's case that we still haven't seen used.
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Aren't printed circuits using carbon nanotubes kind of the entire point of carbon nanotubes? How can hey be awarded a patent on it?
And they'll include a shaving app to that phone that can shave the beards of most people these days so that they don't look like ISIS or al Qaeda fighters
Looks like people are making this out to be more then it really is. I assume the main purpose is to allow for devices that can tolerate repeated bending - such as leaving it in you back pocket when sitting down. The described patent would eliminate the "touch disease" that was reported with the iPhone 6.
Can I just flip it back open? WOW!
-Dave
I don't see how Apple can possibly get a patent on this. ALL cellphone manufacturer's have been experimenting with fold-able phones for years. Many (particularly Samsung) have working prototypes with their own patents on file. Samsung's original prediction was that they would have a fold-able phone out this year. http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-flexible-foldable-phone-vidoes-2015-9 They have since pushed this out to 2017.
I realize that Apple is talking about one particular technology (carbon nanotubes), but considering Apple's past questionable practices (lawsuits on patented geometric shapes, slide-to-unlock, etc) I believe that Apple is looking at all the competition on the cusp of coming out with a consumer model and quickly produced a weaponized patent in an attempt to tie up any competition in court.
Just give me a gimmick free phone. I want blazing fast hardware, as much battery life as possible, a good looking screen, and I don't want it to break if I look at it the wrong way.
How about a smaller phone instead of a phablet? If they were truly innovative, they could get it into the form factor of a ball point pen.
The iPhone is already foldable; just have to give it some effort.
Poor donkey!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I am patenting that...
Just askin' as they're getting thinner and thinner.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
I've always wanted an iFlip
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
I'd rather have a headphone jack than a phone that folds in half.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Nobody buys an iPhone for the Phone part, buy a dumbphone
Kyocera DurXT - fucking indestructible, a tiny bit nicer than the Samsung Gusto 2. Compact, good battery life, does what it needs to
Current iPhones will fold in half. They just stop working after that.
How ya like dat?