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Apple Patents a Vaporizer (cnn.com)

Posted by msmash on from the you-read-it-right dept.

Apple's product lineup may extend beyond cars and the connected home. A patent filed last year and published January 26 reveals a concept for a vaporizer. From a report on CNN Money, shared by reader JoshTops: The details are a bit hazy -- that is, Apple's patent only describes "a substance that is to be vaporized or sublimated into a vapor," not what the substance might be. The patent, filed by Apple employee Tetsuya Ishikawa, outlines plans for a temperature-regulated plate inside a chamber that heats up a substance to form a vapor. Many people use vapes to inhale nicotine or marijuana, and they are sometimes used as a replacement for cigarettes. The FDA began regulating vaping last year, and set rules for the manufacturing and distribution of vapes and their components. Vaporizers are also used in industries like healthcare and agriculture, so it's possible Apple is thinking bigger than personal use.

13 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Finally... by martiniturbide · · Score: 5, Funny

    iOdor is going to be released.

    1. Re:Finally... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

      iOdor is going to be released.

      Afraid not. MacRumors debunked this "news" before it was ever posted to Slashdot, but the real news story is likely to be of more interest to long-time Slashdot readers, since it's actually something decently nerdy.

      I'll let others with more expertise in the subject go into the details, but the cliff notes version is that Apple is patenting a means for depositing material during the photolithography process used to fabricate computer chips. Not as exciting to the general public as a vaping device, but certainly more worthy of Slashdot's front page.

    2. Re:Finally... by unixisc · · Score: 4, Funny

      iSmell?

  2. The Final Piece of the Hipster Puzzle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    iVapor.

  3. Explains some things by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apple internally working on a pot project explains a lot of the output coming from there recently. It's sure better than the alternative explanations.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re: Explains some things by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      I don't know why you got modded down, but you are absolutely right.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  4. Vaporware by jonyen · · Score: 2

    I have a hunch that this thing is gonna be vaporware, one way or another...

  5. No. by tk77 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some of these news outlets are just not even trying anymore.

    http://www.macrumors.com/2017/...

  6. Link to the Patent by afxgrin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Science reporting sucks balls these days - how about a link to the actual patent.

  7. Nothing to see here by loren · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you look at the patent, it's to deposit a substance to a semiconductor wafer with photolithography for IC fabrication.

    http://www.macrumors.com/2017/...

    --

    Loren Osborn

    Software isn't software without source code. -- NASA
  8. Manufacturing process, most likely. by jcr · · Score: 2

    Vapor deposition is a widely-used method in electronics fabrication.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  9. Wonderful! by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

    Now we'll all be able to smoke whatever it is Tim Cook is smoking.

  10. No it's not for vaping, it's chip manufacturing by Sarusa · · Score: 2

    As amusing as it is to contemplate the douchepocalypse an Apple vapor would entail, the patent is clearly for chip manufacturing and the guy who filed it is one of Apple's chip people.

    Remember, Apple is very big into custom silicon, and like everything else they want control of every step of it and that includes how the chips are made.