Apple Job Listing for Plastics Design Engineer Hints at Innovative Designs for Future Products

[Attonine]

For me, this is one of the aspects of Apple that makes it such an interesting company. The fact that so much of the manufacturing process involves in house developments. Apple is heavily involved in materials science, chip development, battery and power source development. The development of the Unibody process and the innovative way the current iMacs are welded together. These are not things you hear about coming from competitors, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Nokia etc.

[doelcm82]

Innovative designs.

What a useless word, "innovative". If you use it, you set yourself up for people so sneer, "That's not innovative."

It always happens. Why do people continue to use a word that has been stripped of all utility?

[coolspot18]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Or the guy that works on the Magic Mouse just quit and they're replacing him.

Yes! Looking at it made me uncomfortable... I didn't even bother buying it for my Mac!

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Originally Posted by AZREOSpecialist

This makes no sense, Apple already has the talent in-house to do this.

And how do you know they have talent in house. Apparently someone thinks they don't have the talent and therefore need to hire someone?

[alirz]

These aluminum phones feel cold in my hands. Atleast plastic doesnt give that cold metal feeling like the iphone 4,4S of the iphone 5 does. Even ipads are sometimes cold.
i bet no one saw that complaint ever

[jvmxtra]

So clearly apple is no longer dictating the trend.. They are the follower now.. tsk tsk tsk

[erzhik]

Originally Posted by Attonine

For me, this is one of the aspects of Apple that makes it such an interesting company. The fact that so much of the manufacturing process involves in house developments. Apple is heavily involved in materials science, chip development, battery and power source development. The development of the Unibody process and the innovative way the current iMacs are welded together. These are not things you hear about coming from competitors, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Nokia etc.

Hmm.. I guess you missed the memo where Nokia does more in house designs and testing than any other tech company. Not only that, but Nokia also does in house reliability testing (drop tests and others) and their Lumia line is unibody plastic. Looks like Apple will do the same unibody plastic phones.

[SockRolid]

Off-topic, but hey Apple, how about releasing a Pro keyboard?
With glass keys instead of the thin plastic keys?
I'd buy it for $129.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by doelcm82

Innovative designs.

What a useless word, "innovative". If you use it, you set yourself up for people so sneer, "That's not innovative."

It always happens. Why do people continue to use a word that has been stripped of all utility?

It’s become a kind of mantra

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Originally Posted by SockRolid

Off-topic, but hey Apple, how about releasing a Pro keyboard?
With glass keys instead of the thin plastic keys?
I'd buy it for $129.

Completely unrelated, but that WOULD be sweet

[FoxMcCloud]

LOL at all the people hating on plastic. Like Apple hasnt used plastic before, like on their entire range for 10+ years till the MBPs went Alu.

And you can get many different types of plastic people.
They really need o drop aluminium from the phones. As great as it is, it BLOCKS wireless signals! Durr. So you either need glass or plastic in there anyway i.e with the iPhone 5 and the two bits on the back, that eveyrone hated until it launched.

[Tech198]

uh.. plastics....

This why why Apple switched to use aluminium in the Mac laptops, because as I remember, the white macbook air had dis-colouring seen by users.

Which way to go ? Aluminium dispatches heat better, which is why all the plastic products housings like Megasafe, Apple TV get *hot* (i mean really hot)

On the other hand, plastic is lighter.....

ummm....

wil Apple swing one way, then realise they made a mistake ?

[dojoman]

Originally Posted by JHankwitz

And just what impact did that have on its performance? I personally don't purchase products based on how they sound when I disassemble them.

I'm just saying it just sounds like cheap plastic like a toy.

[blackhand1001]

Originally Posted by TheRealTVGuy

Maybe, but I have a difficult time touching anything with the evil "M" word on it...

They make really good peripherals. Their mice and keyboards have been well respected for a very long time, back to at least the early 90's if not earlier.

[Tech198]

heheh..

ah ya,, this mac doesn't crack when i sit down on it... i'll take it

[uknowimright]

Originally Posted by blackhand1001

hopefully they fired that guy. Whoever designed that mouse deserves to be fired. If you want a proper slim mouse the arc touch mouse was a way better design and wasn't a carpal tunnel magnet. The arc touch is very comfortable to hold. Much more so than it looks.

Image

love this mouse, freaked out my gf when I smashed it down haha

[phonitron]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Find the link, and post it.

The "I think I read somewhere that xxxx" posts are some of the most worthless messages here.

Please either back up your statements, or don't waste the collective bandwidth.

Relax, you'll live longer.
A quick visit to a search engine using the following string (liquidmetal iphone radio signal) reveals plenty of hits, which pretty much state they MAY be able to create a special alloy to allow the radio signals to pass through.

[LeandrodaFL]

Originally Posted by SchneiderMan

No offense but that's trash.

None taken, but trash for me is not having reflection

http://computer-choppers.com/

[cclloyd]

I bet a phone made of Unobtanium would be strong.

[olowott]

that should be another line of iPhone

They should not even try and make the S version of iPhones the plastics model

[righteye]

Originally Posted by charliex5

Mmmmm.... I loved the form factor of the 3G/3GS. So comfortable. Lots of nostalgia looking at that old design.

Still using mine and it has survived a hell of a lot (I'am a Carpenter/joiner) its been dropped all over the place and unlike most of my co workers who have shattered 4s & 5s its soaked up the punishment.
I love the shape and although i could have upgraded a long time ago i keep putting it off.
I also earn some of my living through photography and back in the day of film i had several pro bodies that were made of polycarbonate and they were really tuff so its plastic fantastic when used correctly.

Edit; carbon fibre, any good for phones? guess it maybe bad for reception

[Premium1]

Originally Posted by 1Alec1

You've got to be kidding me! If the iPhone 4 was free, I'd take ∞ even to sell most of them for parts. No, the iPhone 4 and 3GS are most definitely not free, nor is the iPhone 1 unless you find it in a recycling bin like I did.

Also, the little corporations involved in lawsuits with Apple, Google, and MS are patent trolls and sketchy knockoff companies. Remember that Brazilian phone-maker that made the IPHONE?

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It's a somewhat cheap material no matter who uses it, and when it gets scratched just a little bit just from being worn down, it looks horrible. Tiny scratches on glass aren't really noticeable. I wouldn't want Apple to return to plastic. Look at the MacBook then at the MacBook Pro...

uum here. http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/dev...id=_l5hUycXgGc

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...edPhoneId=5782

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop...ne*****_092112

Free and on att it is .99- maybe do a quick google search before saying they arent selling the 4 for free...

[1Alec1]

Originally Posted by Premium1

uum here. http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/dev...id=_l5hUycXgGc

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...edPhoneId=5782

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop...ne*****_092112

Free and on att it is .99- maybe do a quick google search before saying they arent selling the 4 for free...

Sorry, you're really stupid. It's subsidized with a contract, so you still have to pay. It's not free or even $0.99. The battery alone is easily worth more than $0.99.

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Originally Posted by mrsir2009

Of course you wouldn't use it today - That mouse is Apple Serial Bus rather than USB and was used 15-20 yrs ago And as for the mighty mouse... It was pretty decent in terms of comfort, but the god-awful scroll wheel ruined it.

The Mighty Mouse has a good scroll wheel as long as it works. The problem is that it's extremely unreliable. After a few times when it stopped working and forced me to clean it, it just can't scroll up at all anymore. It's a shame because I love the 360˚ scrolling and extra buttons like the squeeze. Now it has 270˚ scrolling.

About the earlier Apple mice though... Sure you don't need right-click in the early 90s, but even the post-2000 Apple mice before the Mighty Mouse didn't have it. Pressing CNTRL to right-click was ridiculous no matter what I was using it for, especially when playing an RTS like Age of Empires II.

[lucasmonger]

just a guess.... non-traditional Apple plastics processing = LiquidMetal

[martial900]

I think graphene will help Apple ahead.

[Premium1]

Originally Posted by 1Alec1

Sorry, you're really stupid. It's subsidized with a contract, so you still have to pay. It's not free or even $0.99. The battery alone is easily worth more than $0.99.

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The Mighty Mouse has a good scroll wheel as long as it works. The problem is that it's extremely unreliable. After a few times when it stopped working and forced me to clean it, it just can't scroll up at all anymore. It's a shame because I love the 360˚ scrolling and extra buttons like the squeeze. Now it has 270˚ scrolling.

About the earlier Apple mice though... Sure you don't need right-click in the early 90s, but even the post-2000 Apple mice before the Mighty Mouse didn't have it. Pressing CNTRL to right-click was ridiculous no matter what I was using it for, especially when playing an RTS like Age of Empires II.

where did i say it didn't require a contract? you are the stupid one because I proved you wrong and you got mad. Nice try though but I guess it is hard for you to comprehend the phone is definitely free contract or not, or maybe you don't consider not having to pay for something as free. Idiot....

[1Alec1]

Originally Posted by Premium1

where did i say it didn't require a contract? you are the stupid one because I proved you wrong and you got mad. Nice try though but I guess it is hard for you to comprehend the phone is definitely free contract or not, or maybe you don't consider not having to pay for something as free. Idiot....

You do have to pay for it. It's included, not free. Have you ever tried getting "free" cereal toys and selling them?