Google Is Adding Android Support For Foldable Screens (techcrunch.com)

At its Android Developer Summit today, Google detailed plans to bake support for folding phones into the mobile operating system. One of the first Android phones to hit the market with a foldable display looks to be from Samsung with a launch date of "early next year." TechCrunch reports: "You can think of the device as both a phone and a tablet," Android VP of Engineering Dave Burke explained. "Broadly, there are two variants -- two-screen devices and one-screen devices. When folded, it looks like a phone, fitting in your pocket or purse. The defining feature for this form factor is something we call screen continuity."

Among the additions here is the ability to flag the app to respond to the screen as it folds and unfolds -- the effect would likely be similar to the response of applications as handsets switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Comments

finally!

[sad_]

phone displays have become so large, they no longer easily fit in my pants pockets. now, i'll be able to fold the phone and they'll fit again!

just combine multiple phones

[e**(i pi)-1]

the demo of the flexible phone looked more like two phones stuck together. The presentation could not hide that the thickness of the foldable object was essentially the thickness of two phones. It would make much more sense to have the operating system be able to connect and combine two phones which are stuck together with magnetic frames. If there is no bezel, then one could even put together a couple of phones to temporarily build a larger reading or writing platform. For desktop monitors, multiple monitor support is standard, building that for phones should not be impossible. Two ``friendly phones" stuck together would just become one.

Re:just combine multiple phones

[mobby_6kl]

Supposedly the phone was in a case to obscure the pre-production model design. Maybe that's BS and it's really as thick as a brick of course. We'll see soon enough.

I'm sure joining two phones together would have a few use cases but frankly I think that would be more pointless than this. On the other hand, plenty of people use flip covers with their phones and this would could essentially work the same way if the tech is good enough. Normally the screen would be protected by the back of the flexible display, and you'd open it the same way you open a flip case to access the screen. Everything would stay on one half of the display until you fully extend it. The only limitation really is that you can't flip the cover 360 degrees behind the phone or store credit cards inside.

Unleash the slashdot hate!

[LtUoNXizqxawTj4ofx7t]

It's new so must be bad.

Next iPhone

[wildchild07770]

iPhone DS THEN iPhone 3DS

Rather Have Physical Keyboard and Flat Screen

[BrendaEM]

I could type a lot faster with a texting-style keyboard on a feature phone.

I have already broken 3 screen protectors on a Galaxy Note 8. I hate rounded over screens because they are too vulnerable. The blue lines going up the screen  edges don't look too good either.