Apple and Liquidmetal Technologies Extend Intellectual Property Agreement Until 2014

[newbididewbidie]

Very interesting spark

If you take the SIM removal tool that is made from Liquid Metal and use a pair of wire cutters to cut it, you will generate a very noticeable spark. Does anyone know why? I don't and I am curious.

 

[CIA]

It's probably a mixture of both Apple flexing it's cash reserves to prevent others from using the tech, and also Apple genuinely being interested in using the product.

If we do see it, I'll predict at first it will be in places you wouldn't expect. Super durable hinges for laptops, things that get stressed a lot and wear out fast. Later moving to complete products using it. (iPhones, iPad, Laptops...)

 

[KnightWRX]

From a thermodynamic perspective, it is liquid. Most people I know, think of it as neither solid nor liquid, however, that is not much fun.

Amorphous is a non-crystalline solid. The plain fact is, Liquid Metal still needs to be melted down to be mold injected, same as any other crystalline metal. The temperatures at which this can be done might be different, but the fact remains that you can mold inject aluminum or steel or iron (cast iron ring a bell ?).

I was only pointing out this little factoid to the poster in question.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Amorphous is a non-crystalline solid. The plain fact is, Liquid Metal still needs to be melted down to be mold injected, same as any other crystalline metal. The temperatures at which this can be done might be different, but the fact remains that you can mold inject aluminum or steel or iron (cast iron ring a bell ?).

I was only pointing out this little factoid to the poster in question.

You don't NEED to melt it down, it just takes around 65 million years less time if you do.

 

[KnightWRX]

If we do see it, I'll predict at first it will be in places you wouldn't expect. Super durable hinges for laptops, things that get stressed a lot and wear out fast. Later moving to complete products using it. (iPhones, iPad, Laptops...)

Sim ejection tools ?

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You don't NEED to melt it down, it just takes around 65 million years less time if you do.

I'd call that a need.

 

[usarioclave]

iPhone 5?

Maybe the iPhone 5 back is LM. Drop it and see if it bounces.

 

[Apple Corps]

Amorphous is a non-crystalline solid. The plain fact is, Liquid Metal still needs to be melted down to be mold injected, same as any other crystalline metal. The temperatures at which this can be done might be different, but the fact remains that you can mold inject aluminum or steel or iron (cast iron ring a bell ?).

I was only pointing out this little factoid to the poster in question.

Liquid Metal is NOT crystalline - that is the point of its properties.

 

[KnightWRX]

Liquid Metal is NOT crystalline - that is the point of its properties.

I'm pretty sure that's what I said too.

 

[Chalifornia]

If you take the SIM removal tool that is made from Liquid Metal and use a pair of wire cutters to cut it, you will generate a very noticeable spark. Does anyone know why? I don't and I am curious.

This is a total guess, but it might be because zirconium is partially Pyrophoric when fragmented by the cutting shock.

 

[Apple Corps]

I'm pretty sure that's what I said too.

Well, your not so "tongue in cheek" ridicule about LM not being a liquid does not add clarity.

LM is processed to a plastic / liquid / whatever state it is called and injection molded. It has the properties of a forged product that has been machined but at the lower cost of injection molding.

- that is the point I am trying to make as to why Apple may use it.

 

[Santabean2000]

There's an obvious reason they bought the exclusive license, even though they're not using it. ...it's to keep anyone else from using it.

That makes no sense. If Apple sees no value in it, why would they feel threatened enough to want to block others from accessing it?

There must be a plan in place and Apple is just waiting until the conditions are right to release x product.

 

[kdarling]

Every other company had the exact same opportunity as Apple to spot the potential with this alloy and put it to good use.

Samdung copies Apple, so they would have no use for it.

Actually, Samsung was first by a long shot...

Samsung started using LiquidMetal (tm) in 2002 on their phones for fracture resistant hinges and scratch tolerant trim.

Samsung continued using LM on their phones for years, culminating in a dual-SIM luxury phone mostly made of LiquidMetal back in 2008 that cost $1800.

Two years later, in 2010, Apple bought up the perpetual rights to LiquidMetal for consumer electronic devices, thus denying anyone else its use on phones.

 

[the8thark]

Nothing to see here, it's just Apple blocking others in the market from innovating further.

Which is nothing different to what every other IT company out there does. But I agree old news, we all know every IT company does this.

 

[Jjgibb0]

Apple has a recent patent to use liquidmetal in a fuel cell battery. They are in the verge of a battery that will last 30 days continuous in your iPhone and no heavy metal. Very green tech.

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Apple also recently hired an amorphous metal scientist to develop liquidmetal. It's not just to block competitors. Apple has made a large investment and will definetly expand use of material. Watch LQMT tomorrow on this recent news.

 

[ixodes]

Perhaps Apples been too busy to fully analyze the possibilities. After all they've got an awful lot of R&D going on. At least it sounds that way after listening to Tim Cooks comment about more exciting "new" products due to be released before years end. That would explain the relatively short extension.

Once they've identified a use that meets their ROI, then it'll be easy for them to extend it for a longer more appropriate term. Conversely if they decide not to use it then this extension has served it's purpose.

 

[roocka]

Here it is

One CNC machine can only produce eight MacBook Airs per day. That is one every three hours when running non-stop. Now imagine you can injection mold liquidmetal into a mold and have casings made in 5 minute cycles. Imagine how much more can be produced in less time. Imagine the energy savings. Imagine the savings in man-power. One person can operate two machines.

This is why Apple wants the technology. That and it is Awesome.

 

[Abazigal]

I think it is stupid.

Who knows what opportunities liquidmetal could have offered for use in technology, had other companies the opportunity to experiment with it. Instead, we have apple squatting on it and using it to make glorified paper clips.

Yes, I said paper clip because a paper clip was exactly what I used to open up my sim tray. Apple paid millions for something I can get for free from my office?

Seriously, Apple, if you are not going to use it for anything meaningful, at least be gracious enough to give up the patent to someone who might?

 

[turtlez]

Nothing to see here, it's just Apple blocking others in the market from innovating further.

lol. Think back a years ago when the iPad1 was first announced. Everyone but Apple was calling it tampon or oversized toy that will never sell. Now look, everyone is doing their version of the iPad. If anyone is hindering innovation it is not Apple.

 

[TallManNY]

Apple has a recent patent to use liquidmetal in a fuel cell battery. They are in the verge of a battery that will last 30 days continuous in your iPhone and no heavy metal. Very green tech.

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Apple also recently hired an amorphous metal scientist to develop liquidmetal. It's not just to block competitors. Apple has made a large investment and will definetly expand use of material. Watch LQMT tomorrow on this recent news.

What?! Apple really doesn't do batteries and a battery increase that would allow a phone to be used for 30 days would be a game changer. And by that I mean a global change everything deal. It would mean electric cars would be mainstream, for example. So I don't believe Apple has achieved this holy grail of being able to store huge amounts of energy in a battery.

 

[Asia8]

Everyone is so focused on what they have heard has been made with this technology. It may not be much, but most first attempts at using (tests) a new technology are rather modest.

This would be a large move if/when they went ahead with it.

They would have to test the process and technology greatly before releasing anything. At least if the technology proved to be unreliable, in their case all they need to replace is a "paper clip" as most of you call it, not the end of the world.

However if they find the manufacturing process was efficient, cost effective and had enough benefits they would test it on more expensive equipment.

Even if at this point they were 100% confident in the technology and decided to go ahead with it, they also need to look at reproducing the production equipment on a huge scale to retro-fit their factories.

This may not be cost effective at this point. I also assume they don't want 2 different quality standards of one product depending on which machine it was built on.

They would have to wait till the release of a new/updated product and this would be another marketing angle for newer, light, higher durability products or whatever.

They would have to retrain all the workers at the factories to work with the new equipment.

It's not a simple or easy task and will take both time, and money

If the technology is cost effective and of quality, they will change, but it will be after a lot of testing is done and preparation has been made. Mass production is no simple task.

That being said, the iPhone 5 is said to be designed different to the iPhone 4, and hence could be where they'd use it for the cover or other such parts.

 

[usptact]

Again, what are the properties of those alloys? How do they compare to the existing aluminium materials? Lighter? Harder? Liquid?

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I think it is stupid.

Who knows what opportunities liquidmetal could have offered for use in technology, had other companies the opportunity to experiment with it. Instead, we have apple squatting on it and using it to make glorified paper clips.

Yes, I said paper clip because a paper clip was exactly what I used to open up my sim tray. Apple paid millions for something I can get for free from my office?

Seriously, Apple, if you are not going to use it for anything meaningful, at least be gracious enough to give up the patent to someone who might?

Sounds nice but is orthogonal to Apple's business model (read: greed of money)

 

[colour]

god we almost forgot about this gimmick what ever happened to liquid metal macbook's ?

edit:

Answer is from the poster above.

Sounds nice but is orthogonal to Apple's business model (read: greed of money)

I hope you don't mind but I value your opinions and it will be my sig

 

[Giuly]

Don't you still get it? This stuff allows things to be build from metal the same way it's done with plastics now. The one company that wanted to manufacture their plastic laptops in metal to come closer to a MacBook (Hi, Sony) should have licensed this.

They didn't, but Apple does what others don't.

Enjoy cheap silver painted black plastic.

And as you're might be aware, iron is heavier than aluminum. Once they can injection-mold aluminum, you'll get your LM MacBook, but you won't see a difference unless you hold Apple stock.

 

[KnightWRX]

Don't you still get it? This stuff allows things to be build from metal the same way it's done with plastics now. The one company that wanted to manufacture their plastic laptops in metal to come closer to a MacBook (Hi, Sony) should have licensed this.

They didn't, but Apple does what others don't.

The problem isn't that Apple licensed it, it's that Apple took an exclusive license. Why even do that ? That's just cheap, especially if you're not going to do anything with it for a while.

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Once they can injection-mold aluminum, you'll get your LM MacBook, but you won't see a difference unless you hold Apple stock.

Cast aluminium does exist. Engine blocks have been made from it for the greater part of the last 3 decades.

 

[JHankwitz]

Liquidmetal sounds like a smoke and mirrors scam. All this time and money, and all they have to show for it is a tiny eject tool? Time to cut bait, not keep dumping new money on top of old in hopes of a pipe dream.