Future iPads May Feature Tough Titanium Alloy Chassis Designs

[That70sGAdawg]

It will still have a glass front so it depends what side it lands on when it falls.

 

[_Spinn_]

More durability is good but I wonder how much this will add to the price?

 

[rhyzome]

I remember decades ago Apple made a titanium MacBook Pro.

Bring it on!

 

[Pulchrum]

There's also high demand and short supply of aluminium apparently. This makes it more expensive.

Apple will always look to protect supply and margins while trying to give the impression of new and more refined design. People always like new shiny things.

There are scores of Apple patents with Liquidmetal ($LQMT) that would work here.

 

[Lt69oX]

Although my TiBook still runs, it was one of the worse Powerbooks I have owned. The hinges broke, the LCD cracked because of it, the paint peeled off. Titanium is also soft. OTOH I have some titanium watches that you can buff out easily because it's so soft.

 

[CarlJ]

If they go with Titanium, I really hope they do some cool anodization - I want a blue - green - purple gradient fade (look up "rainbow anodized titanium", people can do fabulous colors).

 

[LFC2020]

How does cash revenue go through the roof handling all of those repairs under warranty?

Accidental damage isn’t covered by warranty.

 

[LFC2020]

iPedos

nope apple spells it iPadOS 😁

 

[bobdobalina]

As much as I would love a titanium iPad or Macbook, isn't titanium a scarce resource? Shouldn't we save it for critical applications or prodcuts that can be upgraded and are meant to last a long time?

 

[anthorumor]

TiPad

 

[Shirasaki]

As if current iPad is not expensive enough. What do apple want? Starting price of $2000 for 128GB model? Seriously? Or $1899 for MacBook Air base model? Btw the current base model made out of aluminium costs $999 with various discounts.

 

[ansinkhh]

*yawn*

 

[SurferPup]

There's also high demand and short supply of aluminium apparently. This makes it more expensive.

Apple will always look to protect supply and margins while trying to give the impression of new and more refined design. People always like new shiny things.

I like shiny new toys.

 

[SurferPup]

If they go with Titanium, I really hope they do some cool anodization - I want a blue - green - purple gradient fade (look up "rainbow anodized titanium", people can do fabulous colors).

I want purple coloured iPhones, Watches, MacBooks and iPads like the iMac to colour match my clothes and personality.

 

[jimmy_uk]

They’ll use fake titanium like the fake sapphire on Apple Watches.

Fake sapphire on Apple watch? My SS series 0 doesn't have a single scratch on the screen after nearly 5 years so I have no reason to think it's not sapphire.

 

[smbu2000]

If it is more resistant to bending, good. Wonder what colours it would come in if it is made from Titanium.

Yeah, that would be helpful for the larger ipads. My old 2018 12.9” with the new design ended up slighly bent from being in my messenger bag. I’d imagine Ti might help to prevent that.
I never had a bending problem with my previous 12.9” iPP the 2015 and 2017 models. I guess the newer, thinner design combined with the large size contributed to that.

 

[monroerr]

I remember decades ago Apple made a titanium MacBook Pro.

Bring it on!

I think it was actually a PowerBook G4 in titanium.

 

[Falhófnir]

I really hope glass backs is not a thing for ipad. 🤦‍♂️

A 2-3” square glass panel would be plenty enough if they really want to add wireless charging, making the whole back glass just seems like it will add a lot of weight and potential for breakage with little gain.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

The problem is software, not hardware.

 

[cmaier]

There's also high demand and short supply of aluminium apparently. This makes it more expensive.

Apple will always look to protect supply and margins while trying to give the impression of new and more refined design. People always like new shiny things.

Titanium is much more expensive than aluminum, even given supply constraints.

 

[imdropbear]

Edit: double

 

[imdropbear]

Sounds like you need a MBA M1. Great specs, great battery life, perfect on the go work machine

I mean yeah, but why not have the iPad be capable to do that as well?

I don't even want touch functionality on macOS. Screw that. I want my iPad Pro to run macOS with full Mouse/Keyboard support. The iPad Pro would become the perfect device that can do *everything*. What a dream that would be.

But yeah, releasing macOS for the iPad Pro without touch functionality is probably not "intuitive" enough for Apple (which is really sad) and they don't seem to be willing to handicap macOS by making compromises for touch functionality (which admittedly would probably be terrible, Windows tried and it sucked).

Just make it a developer feature or something. That way the typical user would never be bothered by it while power users could have their perfect device.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Cool. That should put an end to any claims of being environmentally conscious.

 

[rhyzome]

I think it was actually a PowerBook G4 in titanium.

Yup..thats the one! I remember fawning over it when I was in middle school lol

 

[aknabi]

What on earth are you babbling on about?

If you already have a Mac, why do you need an iPad to run Xcode?

Because people who develop have feet... and sometimes even travel... or want the minimal possible size and portability for cafes, holidays, etc... and also have a great tablet for drawing... or watching movies... and want to use an Apple device rather than a Microsoft Surface (or Dell or Lenovo or others that show this category make sense).

The 12" MacBook did sort of solve some of this, but it doesn't exist anymore (and was underpowered)...

That's what I'm "babbling" about... is it enough to give you and inkling of a clue...

Oh, FYI as a fun point I actually worked on bringing Knowledge Navigator to "life" for a Apple/Steelcase joint office of the future back in the Sculley days (and ended up publishing an early AI paper on Intelligent Agents).