Future iPhone May Be Made Out of Glass

Apple has filed a patent application that describes a handheld device with a case made entirely out of glass.

Such a case could be formed from a "hollow glass tube" or two pieces of glass bonded together. The material would be radio transparent, and the device could be hermetically sealed and thus water resistant.

The iPhone 4 and 4S aren't really that far from this idea, their case consisting of two pieces of glass and a steel frame.

Some problems immediately come to mind. While the glass material used in modern smartphones is quite tough, a smartphone made entirely out of glass could easily be damaged in a fall. Furthermore, the iPhone is chock-full of sensors, some of which might have problems functioning in a (transparent) glass enclosure - though Apple's application addresses this problem by suggesting some parts of the glass case can be made opaque.

And the upsides? Well, Apple names a few in its patent application: "Some of the reasons for using glass over other materials are that glass is strong, stiff, and radio transparent and therefore a suitable material for an enclosure of an electronic device capable of wireless communications."

"A glass enclosure can also provide the portable electronic device with a unique, aesthetically pleasing appearance (...) The seamless enclosure, in addition to being aesthetically pleasing, can provide the added benefit of less contamination and moisture intrusion into the interior of the device," the patent application describes.

How do you feel about the idea of a glass iPhone, iPod touch or other handheld device? Share your opinions in the comments!

source:http://mashable.com/2012/03/23/future-iphone-glass/

Comments

Physics behind the Arc Reactor

It started with me ranting about how I should understand the physics of arc reactor more and then Sera needs some babel speak ideas for her Tony. I know this has been discussed deeply by most iron man fanatics before, but this is the simplified version for people who can’t be bothered to understand the big science-y words. I’m not saying that this is accurate because I’m not a nuclear engineer either, and I hope I can get some feedbacks from people who actually understand this. Since vibranium is not actually a real element, I’m focusing on the old arc reactor tech that runs on palladium. Let’s do a bit revision on fusion, yes? During nuclear fusion, light atoms combine to form heavier elements; in the process, a small fraction of mass is converted into lots of energy. Fusion reactions are called thermonuclear reactions because high temperatures are required to overcome the coloumbic repulsion between the nuclei being fused, i.e., “thermo” for the heat required...

'Drone It Yourself' Lets You Create a Drone from Any Object

Have you ever wished for a flying book? A flying keyboard? Or, perhaps, a flying bodyboard? Well, it's your lucky day, because thanks to "Drone It Yourself," you can turn pretty much any object into a quadrocopter. The drone kit, created by Dutch independent designer Jasper Van Loenen, is comprised of pieces that can be 3D printed, and then clamped to any object you so desire. All that's needed are the control unit and four propellers, and then you can make virtually anything airborne. news source

Meet DARPA's 6'2" disaster-response robot

At six-foot-two and 330 pounds, this hulking first responder has all the qualities you'd want in the field after a disaster: strength, endurance and calm under pressure. Better yet, it has two sets of hands, 28 hydraulic joints, stereo cameras in its head and an onboard computer. The ATLAS humanoid robot , which looks vaguely like something from the "Terminator" movies, was created by Boston Dynamics for DARPA, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. It will compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a competition that invites engineers to create a remotely controlled robot that can respond to natural or man-made disasters. The winning robot could be used in situations deemed too dangerous for humans, like the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The DRC is broken up into three challenges. The first was the Virtual Robotics Challenge, in which 26 teams controlled simulated, 3-D robots. Only seven of...

Future Technologies

Search This Blog