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Folding iPhone Patent Application Shows How the Company Could Prevent Damage In Cold Weather (appleinsider.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the clever-thinking dept.

A new patent application from Apple, titled "Electronic Devices with Flexible Displays," describes how the company could prevent foldable smartphone displays from getting damaged in extreme temperatures. "While at or in the region of typical temperatures hospitable to humans, folding systems may work fine, but adhesives and other elements used in a device's production may become more resistant to flexing at cold temperatures, which could cause unwanted wear or damage to the display if attempted in such conditions," reports AppleInsider. "To mitigate the cold temperature, Apple simply suggests there should be some way to warm up the area of the display panel where the bend takes place." From the report: As part of Apple's solution, an onboard temperature sensor is used to determine how warm the device is, and whether or not there is any danger to allowing the screen to be flexed by the user. The warming process itself can be performed by a heating element located near to the section that bends the most, with heat conductors transferring the warmth to where it is required. A heating element may not be practical to add to such a device, which has led to Apple suggesting an alternative, namely using the heat generated by illuminating the screen. To do this, a screensaver could be used that concentrates most on the bent section, such as by making it brighter and lit up more than the rest of the screen.

As the heating process could take time to complete, Apple notes there is a danger of the display being flexed before it is safe to do so, something it has also considered. Aside from warning the user on an attempt to bend, Apple believes the use of a latching mechanism to keep the device closed while folded may be worth investigating, both as a mechanical latch and by the folded device being held shut by magnets. When the temperature of the area is relatively safe, the latching system can be disengaged and the user will be free to open the device once again. The patent application does not seem to answer the question of how to prevent the user from folding up an unfolded device, but it could be feasible some form of locking mechanism could be used when the smartphone is flat.

51 comments

  1. Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or, you know, perhaps not make a foldable screen in the first place. Why not fold out a keyboard, like good phones used to do.

    1. Re:Or, perhaps by Joce640k · · Score: 0

      Because "marketing" and "business".

      ie. They know their customers are stupid/vain enough to buy at least two folding screen devices from them for $2500+ each. The first one will be a bad, probably with a visible bump/crease line, the second one will promise to "fix" the first one. Third one? We'll see how sales of the first two go and decide whether to do it.

      My thoughts? Now that they've got the bezels down to almost nothing then why can't they make a folding phone from two separate LCD panels with a sort of light pipe thing in the middle to hide the join?

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re: Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A phone that turns into a tablet is pretty slick if you ask me, but I'll buy Samsung... when the price comes down to a reasonable level (sub-$1000).

    3. Re: Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How about a phone that turns into a tablet, that turns into a laptop that turns into a desktop that turns into a resizable smart TV?

      Even slicker, I think.

    4. Re:Or, perhaps by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Now that they've got the bezels down to almost nothing then why can't they make a folding phone from two separate LCD panels

      and stop right there. Screen space is great even when it isn't a single unified surface.

      I remember reading about laptops where the keyboard was replaced by a touch screen. Or was that just Nintendo DS? Either way, it would make an interesting phone. The top screen could be without the touch capability to keep it clean.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    5. Re:Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not fold out a keyboard, like good phones used to do.

      Because it's better to have more screen real estate. You can display a keyboard OR you can display more content area.

      For most people, having the extra display area makes for a superior device. Also mechanical keys are expensive, heavy, unneeded, and failure prone.

      There is a reason they died out of the market.

    6. Re:Or, perhaps by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      The issue with keyboards, on mobile devices, is size and proper feedback.
      Even in the golden age of keyboards on phones. The phone was really only good for typing a few sentences, and perhaps a paragraph or two if needed. It in not like typing on a full size keyboard. Where you can place all ten of your fingers on it at once, and type at a really good speed. The best cell phone physical keyboard, is about as good as the worse Chicklet keyboard from the 1980's budget Computers (I will probably consed membrane keyboards are worse).
      The touch keyboard while not really an improvement in typing, isn't a major hindrance as well. So your email on your iPhone will take 5 seconds longer to type then on your blackberry, but still having the screen go away and extra reading space. Allows you to read those messages and saving you 10 seconds reading and navigating all you extra emails that do not require a response.

      The biggest thing that stops me from getting a tablet (even a phablet) is that they are too big to carry in my pocket, so they are not convent, so I would rather stick with my phone for convince, and a laptop for needing more screen space. A folding display if done well, could be useful, more useful then a fold out keyboard.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    7. Re: Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with most of that but I don't think expensive should be on the list. Mechanical keys certainly are no more expensive than producing the screen real estate to display a digital keyboard. And as I recall the phones that did have mechanical keyboards we certainly many times less the cost if modern smart phones. I think you're wrong about that.

    8. Re:Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The new Samsung foldable screen looks amazing.
      But the marketing video didn't mention screen protectors or what happens if a grain of sand gets caught between the two halves of the screen when folded.
      It's a lot of money and people will want to protect their investment.

    9. Re:Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not fold out a keyboard, like good phones used to do.

      Because it's better to have more screen real estate. You can display a keyboard OR you can display more content area.

      For most people, having the extra display area makes for a superior device. Also mechanical keys are expensive, heavy, unneeded, and failure prone.

      There is a reason they died out of the market.

      No, it's better to have a physical keyboard and a minimal display. You can type faster and without looking at the display.
      Most people prefer a smaller screen and mechanical keys.
      They died out because people that become designers are generally dumb. That also explains the headphone jack issue.

    10. Re: Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about a phone that turns into a tablet, that turns into a laptop that turns into a desktop that turns into a resizable smart TV?

      Even slicker, I think.

      I already made one of those. The only issue is sourcing good hinges that will both unfold from phone to tablet and fold from TV to phone.

    11. Re:Or, perhaps by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      I ended up getting an HP clone of surface but when I was looking at ultraportables I saw that one you're talking about online... Lenovo Yoga Book. I've not seen one in person. Seems like it'd work well for a phone.

    12. Re:Or, perhaps by Curtman · · Score: 1

      You could pair any Bluetooth keyboard with your phone if you have a lot of typing to do. There's some decent compact keyboards that will do the job available on eBay. Any of those RF/USB dongle ones should work with an OTG cable too unless you have an iPhone (last I checked OTG was not available).

      For now I would say Apple should focus on making a phone that works at all in the cold. My work phone is an iPhone, and my personal phone has always been some flavour of Android. I work outside quite often at -40 degrees and the iPhone will not work unless it's kept warm somehow, but for some reason none of the Android phones I have owned have ever had a problem.

    13. Re:Or, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bingo! These foldable designs are fooling around with materials that aren't ever going to last, or meet user expectations.

      I mean seriously, can you imagine phone users waiting for their foldable screen to warm up so they can open or close their device? Not gonna happen. They are going to force it. And if the device breaks or cracks or whatever, the user will mutter "what a POS that is!"

      Make a clamshell with 2 screens, upper and lower. Shrink the bezel between the sides to nothing and engineer a hinge that stays out of the way. Have the device treat the 2 screens as one screen, and support gestures that cross from one screen to the other. If you want to get fancy, you could even have modal support to allow the 2 screens to be independent too.

      That way the screen surfaces can be glass, the hinge can be relatively conventional, and the durability of the device starts to look normal. The number of things you have to invent is very low.

  2. No Kendall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple doesn't care about you either.

  3. Are you listening... by DrTJ · · Score: 1

    ...LG and Samsung?

    If you ask nicely, Apply may let you in on the secrets of folding screens...

    1. Re:Are you listening... by lokedhs · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure Apple will invent foldable screens any day now.

    2. Re:Are you listening... by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure Apple will invent foldable screens any day now.

      With rounded corners and a courageous lack of audio jacks! In fact, forget the foldable screen.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re:Are you listening... by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      ...LG and Samsung?

      If you ask nicely, Apply may let you in on the secrets of folding screens...

      Sorry to rain on your parade but Apple is buying these bendy-screens from either Samsung, LG or both: https://9to5mac.com/2018/09/14...

    4. Re:Are you listening... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The whole reason apple files these patents is to get their lawyers ready.

    5. Re:Are you listening... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course; apple does next to no innovation themselves.

    6. Re:Are you listening... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      ...LG and Samsung?

      If you ask nicely, Apply may let you in on the secrets of folding screens...

      Sorry to rain on your parade but Apple is buying these bendy-screens from either Samsung, LG or both: https://9to5mac.com/2018/09/14...

      Pretty sure that was the joke.

      --
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    7. Re:Are you listening... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple could invent using the screen as a speaker

  4. Seems obvious by Rip!ey · · Score: 1

    A little bit of heat makes things move easier. They haven't detailed a novel method of applying and controlling such heat relative to the application. It looks like nothing more than trying to patent a simple feedback loop. Seems obvious.

    1. Re:Seems obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And somewhat impractical as a solution. Resistive heating is power intensive. When your phone shuts off due to low battery, how will you know to not open it?

    2. Re:Seems obvious by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 1

      It's patently obvious.

      You'll often find Apple patents for highly specialized fields for which the experts work at competitors, which just try to patent little practical corner cases which they might not yet have thought of. They clearly employ people specifically for this, not doing research ... just being Apple's personal patent trolls, building up their patent war chest.

      Justice Bradley said all that needed to be said about the patent system :
      "It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the art. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith."

    3. Re:Seems obvious by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      "The granting [of] patents inflames cupidity, excites fraud, stimulates men to run after schemes that may enable them to levy a tax on the public, begets disputes and quarrels betwixt inventors, provokes endless lawsuits...The principle of the law from which such consequences flow cannot be just." The Economist, in 1851.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:Seems obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prior Art
      Aeroplane control surface de-icing
      Windscreen de-icing
      Camera lense deicing
      Just about any moving part. only a tough chemical coating can be added first.
      Let me say battery life will be shorter, and thermal shock issues may occur.

  5. I have a suggestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just put a "start"-menu on it. Everytime you need to answer a call by opening the phone in cold weather, just press "start"-menu item and "prepare to open" and wait 5 minutes.

    And obviously it also gives an excuse not to fix any bendable Apple phone. "You've used it cold weather without pushing start, won't fix".

    The menu is of course in the GUI not viewable outside.

  6. cold will kill even 'unfoldable' lcd.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    have replaced a half-dozen displays in phones and laptops, and junked a few others, that were in cars or garages when temperatures went below -50F last month.

  7. copy copy copy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because all Apple know to do is copy and market and pretend they were innovative.
    How couild they not copy Samsung and Huawai. (both of whom sell more phones than Apple)

    1. Re:copy copy copy by Joce640k · · Score: 1, Funny

      Not true, eg. Apple recently innovated away the headphone jack.

      Samsung and Huawei are struggling to catch up with that move (I think they're getting there though).

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:copy copy copy by Excelcia · · Score: 1

      This isn't wrong. This patent actually kind of makes that point.

      For a patent to be valid, it has to add to the state of the art. In other words, it can't be obvious. But "if it's too cold to use, then warm it up" is pretty obvious. The point of this patent is basically as a litigation tool, not to innovate. There have been thermostats and heaters used in virtually every form of device on the planet (and a lot of satellites and probes off the planet) since the invention of electricity. This isn't innovation. It's not even really intended to hold up in court. It's a stick to keep smaller entities out of the market. It's the shotgun approach. You get a bunch of people together to try and figure out the most obvious answers to a whole pile of minor problems so that if/when another player comes around and inadvertently uses one of those solutions, you can then sue.

    3. Re: copy copy copy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That the apple way. Real tech companies throw tech ideas against the wall to see what sticks. apple throw patents.

  8. Screen Cover Hardness Gradient by mentil · · Score: 1

    People have wondered how folding screens (particularly exterior folding screens a la the Huawei Mate X) are going to be protected. Glass doesn't bend very well at the hinge part, which means plastic has to be used. However, plastic that bends well tends to be soft and thus scratches easily. My sneaking suspicion is that this calls for a 'new' tech I read about here on Slashdot 11 years ago. In particular, bonding plastic, which covers the hinge, to glass that covers the rest of the screen. Sure, the hinge area in the middle of the unfolded screen would still be susceptible to scratching, but that'd be an improvement over the whole screen being less-protected.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Screen Cover Hardness Gradient by Solandri · · Score: 1

      That's why every other company making a folding screen has put it on the inside. The press is currently going gaga over Huawei's folding screen, but they tend to be extremely short-sighted and overly concerned with appearance. I'm curious to see where they'll stand after using it for a year, when the screen will be all scratched up because it's made of plastic, is always on the outside, and can't be protected by a screen protector because of the fold.

  9. Folding displays are so dumb. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So stupid to revert back to falliable mechanical devices, after we finally escaped them.

  10. some still calling this 'weather'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    cease fire stand down.. it's unsavory/not possible to attempt to fool mother nature? us vast majority unchosens dislike it as well?

  11. bendgate 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First people bitch they can bend their phones, then Apple responds with phone that bend. Now people bitch they can't bend their phones.

    1. Re:bendgate 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yip basically apple user like to bitch. Probably because deep down somewhere they know they are being butt f**ked over hot coals and they paid a lot for the experience.

  12. Fuck me, this is laughable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this supposed to be some revolutionary development? Any cretin could have come up with this 'invention'.

  13. A heating element?? by sabbede · · Score: 1
    That's an idea that never should have crossed their minds. You don't need a heater anywhere near your chips, you just nee to put them under load. Crank up the clock for a minute and have it do something. If a screensaver can do it, good, but I've never noticed my screen getting warm on its own. Battery and CPU, oh yeah.

    Point being, radiating waste heat is a problem for phones; not being hot enough isn't, for the same reason.

  14. well ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    but adhesives and other elements used in a device's production may become more resistant to flexing at cold temperatures, which could cause unwanted wear or damage to the display if attempted in such conditions

    Maybe if Apple didn't glue everything shut to protect it from repair or replacement, this wouldn't be such an issue ...

  15. want rollable displays like in MARS movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Roll it into sturdy tube as shown in MARS movie..that way it will be pocketable and safe in the pocket..it will be wirelessly hooked to a ear-plug.

  16. Project IGI 3 Game by hipuronu · · Score: 0

    Project IGI 3 Game Download, Setup For Pc Version Exe File is a classic and well known game that still has a lot of success through the fans of action style. This version is named “I'm Going I

  17. Niot when it's cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... because the fucking iPhone doesn't last a day when skiing. The cheap ass Motorola, though, can give me 8 hours of tunes (because it has an audio plug) and still works at the end of the day.

  18. Why must they steal everything they do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coming soon: the Apple iGalaxy (starting from $9000)

  19. Not worthy of a patent by Solandri · · Score: 1

    Adding the phrase "on a folding phone screen" does not make the concept of heating cold-sensitive parts worthy of a patent.

    1. Re:Not worthy of a patent by labnet · · Score: 1

      Exactly. If you told any engineer, the fold is damaged in extreme cold, then the first response would be put a temperature sensor in it and heat it. Not worthy of a patent.

      --
      46137
  20. Canada? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess Canada doesn't get the folding iPhone?

  21. They already protect your phone in cold wheather! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The iPhone turns off by itself if its too cold, so i see no reason to modify a screen i wont even be able to look at.