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Aluminum both dents easily and scratches easily. It is a cheap crappy material. That is why it is used in soda cans, but, with a few exceptions, is not commonly used in things that need to be durable.

Wow, it must be extremely self fulfilling to be a clueless expert, knowing nothing about what your talking about, but being so extremely self assured. Don't let Boeing, LandRover, Mercedes, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari, know about your recent discoveries in the subpar quality of aluminum, all there world class products may crumble like a tin can. If you have no clue what your talking about, don't pretend like you have any insight. The patent looks like it was granted by an 18yr old. Typical steel mill machinery that has existed for the last 70+ years all metals are liquid at the point prior to cooling and annealing, can't wait for Mittal to challenge sue/invalidate the patent. I wonder at which point in time Apple will apply for patenting the wheel.
 
It's not enough energy to kill you. It's plenty enough to be very, very unpleasant, especially if you have your phone in a pocket where it is hard to remove. Or if someone forgot their reading glasses and held the screen close to their eyes (but I think you get some warning, and you would just drop the phone). That wasn't the case here. She was making or starting to make a phone call. And even in the most extreme cases, phone batteries haven't caused injuries that were anywhere life threatening. This was most likely a case of direct connection to mains voltage. How this happened, we don't know.

The iPhone was still being charged, she was making a phone call while still connected to the outlet, which is where the direct connection to the main voltage is.

It is quite common for folks to make calls while the phone is being charged because the older iPhones have a crappy battery lives, you spend half of its time charging it.
 
After actually reading the information on the LiquidMetal site linked in the article, it is impressive what this material can do, as well as what is necessary to get it into this "glass" state.

To simplify/paraphrase, the site mentions that you get the advantages of injection molding along with the final finish characteristics of CNC machining in far fewer steps. Also, the alloy itself has specs that are better than aluminum, steel or titanium. (Please read their site for yourself)

Based on what I read, the patent application mentioned here differs from their usual process in that they are trying to avoid having to remove the extra material that necessarily comes with injection molding. So while injection molding might be superior for some shapes, a different process would be preferable for others, like stamping, as mentioned earlier.

The site mentions that this material is being looked at as a viable replacement for Kinetic Energy Penetrators in tank sabot rounds that are currently made of Depleted Uranium. Setting aside the adolescent jokes and any feelings concerning the military and weapons, this application indicates just how strong this alloy is.
 
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.... The patent looks like it was granted by an 18yr old. Typical steel mill machinery that has existed for the last 70+ years all metals are liquid at the point prior to cooling and annealing, can't wait for Mittal to challenge sue/invalidate the patent. I wonder at which point in time Apple will apply for patenting the wheel.

Corect me if I am wrong but a patent doesn't necessarily have to be a completely new invention from the ground up. Besides, the description here sounds more like applying glass making techniques to the creation of these sheets than it does a typical rolling mill, i.e. a float glass technique.

Based on what I read on the liquidmetal site, special environmental conditions are also required for the alloy to maintain its unique properties. Also, according to them, their process and this alloy eliminates the whole annealing process, saving time. (EDIT: I notice that the patent application has an annealing chamber, but I also note that it says "Optional") Put all these together and this is a little bit more than hot rolling metal down to a very thin sheet. Assuming that this hasn't been done before to process this alloy, the patent would seem to be unique.

I'd appreciate any thoughtful rebuttals/refutations as this whole product is fascinating.
 
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Don't worry. Samsung will make a watch out of liquidmetal soon enough.

If I'm not mistaken Omega has a contract to use liquid metal in watches. But I don't know what an electronic watch would classify as, that's for the lawyers to figure out.
 
.....Rumors of Liquidmetal's alloys being used for Apple's iPhone have surfaced a number of times, but last year Liquidmetal's Atakan Peker noted that Apple was unlikely to use the alloys as major design materials for at least 2-4 years due to the production scale needed for such parts as MacBook casings. With yesterday's patent, however, it does appear that Apple and Liquidmetal may have developed processes to overcome that hurdle.

Article Link: Apple-Liquidmetal Collaboration Awarded Patent on Process for Mass Production of Amorphous Metals

Sounds interesting. I wonder what its molecular mass is, as well as its thermal properties, compared to Aluminum.
 
Will it be cheap? I really really don't want a plastic cheap iPhone :(
 
Wow, it must be extremely self fulfilling to be a clueless expert, knowing nothing about what your talking about, but being so extremely self assured.

none of what youve said discredits his statement -- as far as metals go, yes, aluminum is a cheap crappy one that scratches and dents easily.

The patent looks like it was granted by an 18yr old.

how so, specifically? as for the drawing, you do realize applicants always use barebones mockup processes for simplicity, right?

Typical steel mill machinery that has existed for the last 70+ years all metals are liquid at the point prior to cooling and annealing, can't wait for Mittal to challenge sue/invalidate the patent.

yeah i guess you know best. Apple should hire you for their patent legal team. where's your product portfolio, again...?

I wonder at which point in time Apple will apply for patenting the wheel.

ah, there it is. troll.

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Will it be cheap? I really really don't want a plastic cheap iPhone :(

if you dont want a possibly plastic iphone, then why would you own one? i dont see your concern, since nobody has ever suggested apple would discontinue their metal design and force you into one.
 
none of what youve said discredits his statement -- as far as metals go, yes, aluminum is a cheap crappy one that scratches and dents easily.

Aluminum is not cheap/crappy. It is good for specific applications, and not so much for others.
iPhone exterior parts are not a good application.
 
Will it be cheap? I really really don't want a plastic cheap iPhone :(

What about a plastic expensive iPhone?

People like yourself who make childish comments like that has no idea about plastics. You think every grade of "plastic" is the same a toy soldier from a Christmas cracker.

Plastic are amazing and can offer so many qualities from soft a so flexible they would break your fall from a high drop down to something tosh hard, amazing impact resistance, the ability to deform and return to their shape.

There is a world full of high tech synthetic products that apple fanbois say "yuk it's plastic = junk" which is so arrogant and ignorant.
 
Aluminum is not cheap/crappy. It is good for specific applications, and not so much for others.
iPhone exterior parts are not a good application.

well, everything's relative. compared to wood or plastic, aluminum is hard and expensive. compared to steel, it's cheap and crappy.
 
Aluminum both dents easily and scratches easily. It is a cheap crappy material. That is why it is used in soda cans, but, with a few exceptions, is not commonly used in things that need to be durable.

Wow, it must be extremely self fulfilling to be a clueless expert, knowing nothing about what your talking about, but being so extremely self assured. Don't let Boeing, LandRover, Mercedes, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari, know about your recent discoveries in the subpar quality of aluminum, all there world class products may crumble like a tin can. If you have no clue what your talking about, don't pretend like you have any insight. The patent looks like it was granted by an 18yr old. Typical steel mill machinery that has existed for the last 70+ years all metals are liquid at the point prior to cooling and annealing, can't wait for Mittal to challenge sue/invalidate the patent. I wonder at which point in time Apple will apply for patenting the wheel.

Hahahahahaha... OMG I wish I could add this to my sig!!! :D
 
Just an FYI, I've been burned on liquidmetal stock purchases more than once. Think very carefully before sinking money into this based on rumors here.
 
Just an FYI, I've been burned on liquidmetal stock purchases more than once. Think very carefully before sinking money into this based on rumors here.

I've been watching the stock for at least two years - on and off. Usually around the time for a new iPhone to come out and the rumors start flying of them making the new phone out of it. Seems to pop around that time. And a .15 to .20 cent stock is always intriguing especially if its related to apple.
 
It is also used in cookwear, due to its ability to conduct heat. It is also light weight, accounting for the uses you recount.

But in everyday life, it is mostly used for things like "tin" foil and "tin" cans. It is rarely used for things that need to stay shiny and nice but which are handled frequently. That is why it was such a huge mistake for Apple to use it for the casing of a phone. If the iPhone were made of a durable material, there would be little need to put the product's case inside an additional outer case. People do that because the aluminum srcatches and dents easily - no surprise there.

Aluminum is pretty much never used for jewelry. That is because it scratches and dents easily, and does not feel good in the hand.

This is like saying well my 3 year old son's $1 toy made of plastic is the same as the phones your employers make **cough cough** and as has been previously stated by Rogifan I have a 2010 and 2012 MBP that is made of aluminium and is NOT cheap quality and hasn't scratched one iota, so as usual your theory has more holes than a swiss cheese factory.

Also stop making this it doesn't feel good in the hand remark, it's purely subjective. You won't comment on this thread no more as most people have made you look quite stupid :):)
 
well, everything's relative. compared to wood or plastic, aluminum is hard and expensive. compared to steel, it's cheap and crappy.

Aluminium is less abundant than steel and harder to produce as more reactive, therefore barring certain exotic alloys, it is more expensive than steel.
 
Interestingly a number of individuals have pointed to a time frame of when we might expect to see liquidmetal in Apple products.

Atakan Peker, an inventor of LiquidMetal gave a time frame of 3-5 years before we could expect to see implementation of this technology in Apple products. Given Apple has been developing this technology since 2010, and with this new patent, my anticipation is that this technology is not far off. Whilst I would not expect in an iPhone 5S (compelling aspects likely to be fingerprint login, possibly transactions) this would certainly make an interesting 6 revision.

Coupled with sheet metal applications opening up possibly automotive, aerospace, space, and extended military applications (lightweight armour plating/personal armour etc) and LQMT clearly has a more positive outlook than in recent times. I think it's no coincidence that they've just signed an agreement with a major distributor of metals for manufacturing... My feeling is that the product is very nearly ready for the mass market.
 
Sweet. I anxiously await the day when I can drop my iPhone and it splatters into a liquidmetal puddle only to slowly reform back into an iPhone a la the T1000. Make it happen, Apple :cool:



Only, Samsung's cheap knockoff version will likely be mercury and end up killing half its owners.

This
 
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