“On March 27, 2013, US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a stunning future iPhone with a wraparound display so that both sides of this iPhone will be able to display content either individually or as one continuous display,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The wraparound display will also apply to Apple’s possible future wristband communication device or iWatch revealed in February,” Purcher reports. “Today’s invention focuses on the flexible wraparound display that could be fashioned in aluminum, aluminum and glass or a fully transparent design.”
Purcher reports, “This future iPhone design won’t have any physical buttons so controlling the audio on the iPhone will simply require you to hover your hand over the side of the display to temporarily illustrate the controls. The new design could also produce 3D visuals through its unique dual display design.”
Read more in the full article here.
These cant be real. This company is doomed and no longer innovates said the wallstreet journal.
Its just a patent for an idea, you know that right?
a bad one at that. more of the same “design trumpng practicality” circle jerkery.
Part of the design process involves trying out all sorts of ideas, even impractical or dumb ones, until you find something that works. Some ideas are virtually impossible with today’s technology, but who knows what may be possible 5, 10 or 20 years from now.
In 1999 who could have imagined an iPhone or iPad with the plethora of features and processing power jammed into them?
Nowadays companies patent every idea imaginable… just in case.
Touché. I still think practical should take precedence over possible. But if you got the cash and design nads of Apple–why not?
Nice one.
I could see that they’d want to produce this tech for a few reasons but I have a hard time seeing how applicable it could really be. Maybe in time they’ll give some good examples. I am a very visual person so I’d like to “see” how something like this would work! Either way, it’s great that tech is advancing this far, I’m so excited to see where it goes.
So that is awesome. How will sci-fi survive if we keep making futuristic things a reality. So cool.
Cue Samsung….announcing SG5 with wraparound design.
No… Cue Samsung’s and everybody else lawsuit against Apple for infringing on their version of Apple’s curved wraparound idea.
I’m always wary of designs with no buttons at all. It will need some means to do a full reset if the phone totally locks up. Obviously Apple will be aware of that, but I haven’t seen an explanation of how they will address that issue.
I’ll have my man at Apple call you and explain it to you.
Get out your paper clip.
I think you will find that Patent applications tend not to go into such detail as reboot buttons or when Samsung copies it they can claim that their reboot button is in a different place. (or alternatively) Hey its a concept not a working design rather like Leonardo Di Vinci didn’t go into exact detail of how he would actually incorporate a cigarette lighter in his 15th Century helicopter. Or to be more blunt its primarily its a defensive example of ‘prior art’ for concepts that might at some future date become practical in some form or other in part or complete form.
That illustration of the phone looks an awful lot like the deodorant dispenser in my bathroom medicine cabinet.
Very interesting observation. LOL
I think underarm deodorant comes out of the slot.
I doubt that watching a video on a curved screen would be a pleasant experience. I say this design is completely bogus.
Interesting: This design has five icons across instead of the 4 in the current layout. A sign of bigger (wider) phones to come?
Not necessarily. Just by removing the bezel on the sides you’ve increased the available viewing space.
Cool technology. Whether in a phone, watch, pad, pod. It has possibilities.