Apple Acquires Rights to Liquidmetal Technologies' Advanced Metal Alloys

[Piggie]

How was it stupid? Aluminum is a lightweight metal and yet strong. It is also highly recyclable.

And from Apple's perspective, it being metal and acting as an external heatsink is a bonus for them to get things as thin as possible.

Aluminium is great for some things and useless for others.

Unfortunately, when cut into a thin shell (like a thick egg shell) for the external use of an item, one knock and it's dented.

Pretty useless for anything that get's knocked or bumped about. Plastics can be much stronger in this use.

Unfortunately we STILL have this "Plastic = Cheap" attitude rather than what's the best product for the job.

They could make 24 carat gold cases but they'd be useless.

 

[kernkraft]

- The ability to form simple weapons

So when a mugger wants to mug you, you can mug him! It's mugging brilliant!

 

[Numbah One]

Jailbeaking a T-1000

I wonder how long it will take the DevTeam to jailbreak the T-1000.

 

[BeachChair]

What is it with Apple and it's connection to Delaware. It has a little sister company their and both Fingerworks and Liquidmetal came from there.

 

[ranReloaded]

"You could be mine"!!!

(reference to Terminator 2)

...and reference to an acquisition, too!

 

[batchtaster]

Terminator, schmerminator. I just want my Macs and iPhone to transform. Is that so much to ask? Stealth attach mode. Yeah.

 

[newtonrj]

made by Liquidmetal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the company reveals that Apple has obtained the right to use essentially all of its intellectual property in the consumer electronics field while Liquidmetal retains usage rights in other fields.According to Liquidmetal's description of its technology, the company has developed new metal alloys exhibiting an "amorphous" molecular structure differing from the crystalline structures of traditional metals.

Interesting that Liquidmetal is used by Sandisk for their thumb-drives. Wonder if that will change now with the IP shift above.

 

[vincenz]

Jony Ive must be very happy.

 

[ranReloaded]

I wonder how long it will take the DevTeam to jailbreak the T-1000.

...and reprogram it to fight Appledyne Systems/SteveNet?

"JailbreakMe if you wanna live!"

 

[cmaier]

Interesting that Liquidmetal is used by Sandisk for their thumb-drives. Wonder if that will change now with the IP shift above.

Sandisk would get to continue their license for whatever remaining term is left. If any.

 

[dork]

Thinner LCD displays

Eric may have missed this little gem from the company's website:
"Liquidmetal® alloys enable smaller, thinner and more durable designs. Current casings technology is pushed to the limit in supporting these new designs and specifications, especially requirements for larger LCD screens, thinner wall sections and pure metallic surface finishes for products such as mobile phones, PDA's and cameras."

The iPad is an obvious candidate - its current curved back design has less to do with the components inside of it than with the need for a rigid support for the display (same is true of the curved-back 24" and 27" cinema displays and iMacs). Most of what's inside a cinema display is dead wasted space, and there's plenty inside an iPad too. I have the distinct impression that Johnny Ives absolutely despises wasted space . . .

Expect 1/2" thick cinema displays if this technology is all it's cracked up to be.

 

[hannes-47]

Interesting video from "OMEGA watches" showing the possibilities of Liquidmetal and ceramic

OMEGA Seamaster Planet Ocean Liquidmetal (Limited Edition)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZcsWVqLC5I

Jonny Ive must be jumping

 

[kernkraft]

...and reference to an acquisition, too!

Well, that was kind of given. But it is also a reference to the desirability factor of the products that use Liquidmetal.

 

[notabadname]

So, Apple finally admits that using aluminum was a stupid idea. Other companies were using alloys for laptop cases for decades, now Apple decided to join them. Better late than never, I guess.

Huh? Why is aluminum stupid? Please explain. This may be better, but it doesn't mean aluminum was stupid. And please list the other laptops with solid alloy unibody construction. The list should be long since they have been out for "decades". The aluminum unibody MacBook Pro has been consistently reviewed as the best made, highest quality laptop on the market, including by Consumer Reports. Hardly stupid.

 

[spazzcat]

Aluminium is great for some things and useless for others.

Unfortunately, when cut into a thin shell (like a thick egg shell) for the external use of an item, one knock and it's dented.

Pretty useless for anything that get's knocked or bumped about. Plastics can be much stronger in this use.

Unfortunately we STILL have this "Plastic = Cheap" attitude rather than what's the best product for the job.

They could make 24 carat gold cases but they'd be useless.

Plastic looks cheap, at lease when it's used in laptops. And my work laptop wieghs a lot more then my MPB.

 

[z4n3]

Liquid metals

Liquid metals! blah, blah, blah....I will be impressed when I can go to a Genius bar and they can pour me a replacement MacBook Pro!

 

[hypermog]

 

[J hit&runner]

Was going to say 'in before the T-1000 reference', but alas I'm too late.

same here.... lol

waaaaay too late...

o ****, wtf is happening

*guns blazing*

"NOOOO!!!"

*MBP transforming into a T-i7 *

*BOOM, it got shot in the face*

*My Old IBM is trying to save me*

"Come with me if you want to live"

O thank god...

 

[Piggie]

Plastic looks cheap, at lease when it's used in laptops. And my work laptop wieghs a lot more then my MPB.

An interesting concept when you think about it:

"Looks Cheap"

Because you associate plastic as a low cost substance, if it looks like it's plastic it must be inferior?

Irrespective of any technical issues?

 

[Salacion]

So Aluminum is a metal alloy, meaning Apple can stick with their Aluminum unibodies with enhancements from Liquidmetal Technologies. Am I wrong?

 

[JeffTL]

Transparent Aluminum on the way

It was depicted in Star Trek IV as being GE Lexan, if I recall. The old iBooks just so happen to be made out of Lexan

 

[kernkraft]

Aluminium is great for some things and useless for others.

Unfortunately, when cut into a thin shell (like a thick egg shell) for the external use of an item, one knock and it's dented.

Pretty useless for anything that get's knocked or bumped about. Plastics can be much stronger in this use.

Unfortunately we STILL have this "Plastic = Cheap" attitude rather than what's the best product for the job.

They could make 24 carat gold cases but they'd be useless.

Plastic looks cheap, at lease when it's used in laptops. And my work laptop wieghs a lot more then my MPB.

Er... actually, *cough* MacBook prices *cough* black MacBook *cough* iMacs *cough* Mac Mini *cough* iPhone 3G/3GS...

Geez, I should see a doctor, I cough a lot.

 

[whooleytoo]

Interesting to see what this leads to. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the current MacBook Pro/iMac materials, I wouldn't mind seeing a change.

 

[bergmef]

After watching the video, if they make the iphone out of this, maybe it will bounce back up after you drop it. Think about it, no more breaking and no more injuries from bending over.

 

[reallynotnick]

That's really cool. I've been following Liquid Metal since it was announced over a decade ago. I always thought it was strange that so few companies seemed interested in this innovative product. The material is so unique and accurate they claim you could create a razor blade via injection molding. Pretty impressive.

Interesting ball bounce demonstration:
http://www.liquidmetal.com/media/ball_bounce_DSL.mov

Wow these videos on their site are SUPER poor quality 176x144 @120kb/s with Sorenson Video (standard mpeg-4) and only 10fps. And of course mono audio at 22khz but that's not a huge deal.