I think there's no doubt the iWatch will be using sapphire glass. Watches are far more prone to scratches than a phone since it's always out in the open and moving around.
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Apple Preparing for Massive Production of Devices with Sapphire Displays
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Moissanite (carborundum - 9.5 on the Mohs scale between #9 sapphire and #10 diamond) is a naturally occurring mineral that can be found on earth, although it's exceedingly rare.
Therefore all of it being used as jewels or sandpaper or faux stone has been artificially grown.
Of course, the sapphire being used in phones is also artificially grown, so I think it's fair to compare any other material to it
According to Corning, it takes 100 times as much energy to produce a sapphire cover, as it does to produce Gorilla Glass.
Which is no doubt why the sapphire plant was moved from the Northeast to the Southwest, where electricity is half the cost.
I was trying to look up where Mesa AZ gets its electricity from. It seems to be either from dams or nuclear. They also have a big push to go solar there.
Yeah, but the idea is to get transparent materials. Non transparency doesn't work here.
Thanks!
I often wonder how heavily inflated high tech electronics would become if a carbon tax existed, which it won't because it would shatter the ECONOMY.
iOS7? Please... It is a matter of opinion though, but it's severely outdated in functionality, at least for my needs it is. With that said I use an iphone as my daily phone because it's "just works", and that's what Apple focuses on. But when I want to have fun, customize my phone, or do non-critical stuff I always go to my Note 3.
I hear ya... but it's not just computers, it's everything. How old is the car you're driving? That clunky old thing? Wouldn't you much rather be in a brand new 2014 <insert brand here>? Who cares that your current car could probably last 20 years if you took care of it. Trade it in for something newer! Let's not even mention how quickly clothing and shoes get replaced because they've gone out of fashion or because you just can't be seen in shoes or clothes that have scuffs or stains on them, even though they otherwise have plenty of life left.
To be fair though, computers have come a LONG way since the mid-90's. Those were the days where we dialed up into AOL or local ISPs for our internet connections, which might not have even included anything on the World Wide Web -- we were dialing in for email and access to text-based tools like ftp and telnet. Instead of online forums we were hitting up Usenet newsgroups using text based readers like "tin". Video editing meant at minimum two VCRs and a dubbing cable, and a deft hand to hit "Play/Pause". Photography meant buying rolls of 35mm film and developing the roll after your 36 photos were used up.
We can do so much more with our cell phones today than we could with the best desktop computer equipment that was available in the mid-90's.
Wow. I never thought about that. Of course it is cheap to ship stuff back in that direction. And even millions of these screens should be fairly light and package up fairly small. So you are right, not meaningful cost to ship to China.
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Another great comment. I think you nailed it. It isn't going to be a watch. And a "band" is a much cooler thing.
Carborundum can be transparent.
For fun, Google "moissanite vs diamond". I never knew about its use in wedding rings and other jewelry.
As a side note, because of its use as a super hard abrasive, its 1892 trademarked name is part of the mock Latin phrase, "Illegitimi non carborundum", meaning "Don't let the bastards grind you down".
Wouldn't that be by cargo ship, which takes about two weeks?
GG3 or sapphire
I think a sapphire display on a new iPhone would be cool. Sapphire though is about 60% heavier than GG3 so they could make it thinner to compensate.
One other difference in sapphire is it has a higher dielectric constant. Higher than glass or plastics or mica or anything else which makes it better for capacitive touch. The display material if not any thicker, can be more sensitive to touch.
Now saying that... I would have thought GG3 was extremely durable and fracture resistant. In tests it seems to warp a lot more before cracking... but perhaps it is not as scratch resistant. Myself... I would prefer sapphire for scratch resistance rather than impact resistance.
Then again... why use sapphire for the home button on the 5s? What is the advantage? (other than being cool) Scratch resistance only?
I think a sapphire display on a new iPhone would be cool. Sapphire though is about 60% heavier than GG3 so they could make it thinner to compensate.
One other difference in sapphire is it has a higher dielectric constant. Higher than glass or plastics or mica or anything else which makes it better for capacitive touch. The display material if not any thicker, can be more sensitive to touch.
Now saying that... I would have thought GG3 was extremely durable and fracture resistant. In tests it seems to warp a lot more before cracking... but perhaps it is not as scratch resistant. Myself... I would prefer sapphire for scratch resistance rather than impact resistance.
Then again... why use sapphire for the home button on the 5s? What is the advantage? (other than being cool) Scratch resistance only?