Please show me where it states face ID is in beta?Perfect! I sold my iPhone 6 to get the iPhone 8. In 3 years I'll sell the iPhone 8 and get this new gem, hopefully by then the face ID gimmick will be out of beta
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Apple Working With LG Display on Future Foldable iPhone
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Seems to me that a small phone in my pocket that opens to a large display would be quite a useful thing.
Besides the inward folding designs that Samsung has shown for years, other possibilities include outward folding and even wrap phones, like the one Lenovo recently showed off:
Such a design is why you'd need rigid-flex circuit boards as mentioned in the lead article. (Rigid circuit boards connected by flexible sections, like cables without connectors.)
Such a design is why you'd need rigid-flex circuit boards as mentioned in the lead article. (Rigid circuit boards connected by flexible sections, like cables without connectors.)
I would guess it's not about folding your iPhone in half, it's about folding your iPad in half to make an iPhone.
I literally CANNOT imagine that without a huge flight of fancy & fantasy.
I do not believe that you or anybody else can either.
Physics is real.
If you fold something in half, it becomes twice as thick. If you fold something in fourths, it becomes 4 times thicker.
These are simple mathematical concepts.
Go ahead... try to imagine a phone that is 4 times thicker, with 3/4 of the full screen folded all up within.
iPhone & iPad are the same thickness... you’re suggesting people would use a phone that’s literally 4 times thicker than their tablet??
Yes, I can imagine- in a world of pure fantasy, a phone that magically “stretches” its dimensions from a phone to a tablet, discounting the laws of physics. I feel like that’s what you’re imagining.
Fun, I guess... I like daydreaming for giggles too, but please don’t think what you’re imagining has any basis on reality.
Some people here are thinking about this foldable screen in a strange way, which might be caused by the images that are out there of the thin translucent screens being bent or folded. But that's not what a finished device is going to look like, at least not anytime soon, because you have to have a place for all the electronics and battery to go.
I think the initial direction we'll see with foldable screens will be where the device is like a hardcover book that you open up to create a full screen device. For this to work, we'll have to re-think how we use the device, because this format would be problematic for holding the device to your ear to talk into it. There is no doubt this is something that is already being challenged with BT headphones and speakerphone usage and perhaps there are other ways around it (adding a third screen to the outside face of the device for phone use or having the screen wrap around the outside of the device, not the inside.
It's a great way to merge the iPhone and iPad into a single iPhone-sized device. And for those people that worry about the overall thickness increasing - think about how Apple, in particular, has been focused on going thinner and thinner with all their products. A foldable device could be two very thin pieces connected by a hinge, or one side thicker than the other, splitting the internal components and battery into two halves.
As I've noted previously, the biggest concern I have is that a foldable screen cannot have a glass component - at least not at the point of the fold itself, which could mean going back to a screen that is more easily scratched / marred. I'm sure there will continue to be improvements to plastics and perhaps it won't be the same problem it was back when every touchscreen (or non-touch) device had a plastic screen cover.
I think the initial direction we'll see with foldable screens will be where the device is like a hardcover book that you open up to create a full screen device. For this to work, we'll have to re-think how we use the device, because this format would be problematic for holding the device to your ear to talk into it. There is no doubt this is something that is already being challenged with BT headphones and speakerphone usage and perhaps there are other ways around it (adding a third screen to the outside face of the device for phone use or having the screen wrap around the outside of the device, not the inside.
It's a great way to merge the iPhone and iPad into a single iPhone-sized device. And for those people that worry about the overall thickness increasing - think about how Apple, in particular, has been focused on going thinner and thinner with all their products. A foldable device could be two very thin pieces connected by a hinge, or one side thicker than the other, splitting the internal components and battery into two halves.
As I've noted previously, the biggest concern I have is that a foldable screen cannot have a glass component - at least not at the point of the fold itself, which could mean going back to a screen that is more easily scratched / marred. I'm sure there will continue to be improvements to plastics and perhaps it won't be the same problem it was back when every touchscreen (or non-touch) device had a plastic screen cover.
I think that the use of the word "foldable" has caused all to think of something folded. Personally, I am thinking "Rollable" in something like an applePen or Pencil that has a screen which can be pulled out - unrolled and screen viewed. It would just need an anchor point once unrolled. With touch screen, that would be very cool and open up a lot more possibilities.
Apple's design team works with an incredible amount of new materials, and in the industry Apple is considered among the most innovative with experimenting with as well as developing new materials. You should research how many patents Apple has been issued in this area, and their use of new metals, ceramics, glass, etc. Of course, as this article points out with the example of materials that can be folded, there is huge difference between testing and actual production of a product, not to mention a product that makes business sense.
Yea, I still don't see any elegant and functional coming from this anytime soon. Open to have my mind changed though if a company can do it right.
Sadly, your last point restricts everything (to the level of almost zero significance)
Which clarifies that Apple patents and pilots almost everything, but is hardly brings any innovation because it has to accomodate the markets of the billions that it sadly opted for. Why patent all those various breeds of materials, if glass is to remain the premier backside material ?
FaceID will be an interesting test case. I am not sure how mature & ready for mass production it actually is.
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In the keynote you could have observed that it has some unforeseen issues and consequences.
Like iOS 11 GM isn't beta, but it actually is.
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Have you ever tried this with something simple like a piece of paper? How many times can you fold/unfold before the paper falls apart? not many. This is a concept from sci-fi fantasy land, but not at all practical in the real world.
I'm betting you're right. There's no way they're going to actually make these "fold". It will be interesting to see how it works and if it fits well in your pocket when it's rolled up.
See the Lenovo video in post #104 above. Look around 1:00 into it. That particular folding phone does so in small rigid sections.
Their rigid-flex prototype design is similar to this 2005 Nokia concept, although with current technology Lenovo had to implement bigger sections than this:
The battery can be divided into sections for a wrist wrap type phone, like the ones talked about above.
Or it can simply be a normal battery (or two!) if the style is a folding tablet type made up of two rigid hinged sections with a flexible large screen, like this Samsung concept:
Just like w/ an OLED TV the electronics package may be separate from most of the display, and the display itself can be impossibly thin (an actual OLED is hundreds of times thinner than a human hair).
In any case, Samsung has been working on a device like this for years and is finally expected to announce it as early as this January, slated to launch next year in a limited run in South Korea.
Would it be that these foldable screens would benefit us as it would be way less prone to cracking vs having an actual foldable phone? Just thinking out loud...
In the future when the components can be much smaller. Folding screen maybe good.
Not talking about fantasy here. Devices are WAY slimmer than they were even 10 years ago not to mention we are not talking about 2 iPhones thick as you only need to add the thickness of some extra screen.
Sure, the extra screen will use more power but that won't really matter for most once we have true wireless charging.
