The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published an Apple patent application that reveals Cupertino’s work on next-gen flexible batteries.
“With revelations coming to light earlier this year that Apple may be working on future device form factors such as a flex-screen based iPhone and/or an information band or wristwatch, it’s clear that Apple’s battery team had to come up with solutions that would support such form factors,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Apple’s battery team had already revealed next generation batteries that could take on all kinds of shapes, but to support curved form factors in particular, Apple’s team had to specifically invent new designs that could be flexible yet durable and safe,” Purcher reports.
Read more in the full article here.
The timing of this is coincidental, but is it? With Apple hiring a wearable computer designer and a wristband computer or watch surfacing a little while back, it sure looks like something is brewing at Cupertino. Something delicious I hope.
…it wll bend, but will it blend?
The hire from ysl is not a designer
Samsung will complain about this patent.
All kinds of battery shapes, curved form factors and flexible. Wow, I am impressed with DESIGN.
But excuse me, how about concentrating on BATTERY LIFE? I could not care a rat’s arse about form factor only my electric bill,
Charging my iPhone 4S daily is an economic pain compared to older iPhone models that lasted for DAYS with the same consumption.
Hey Apple faithful, you KNOW this is reality. Let’s ask for REAL CHANGE beyond a bendable battery you have to charge how many times a day?
Back to your garden, Mary (quite contrary).
I see you did not disagree with anything in my post. I may have been a little harsh in my constructive critique. That said, everyone who owned earlier versions of iPhone enjoyed a charge for days. The newer models drain before your eyes. If a cool bendable battery design emerges, and battery life is the same or worse than it is now. Design won’t make a difference or mean a thing. Gotta go cut the grass …
But how much more do you use your 4S compared to the earlier models? Greater capability, along with more powerful processor, better camera, etc., encourages users to use their phones much more, which leads, logically, to heavier wear on the battery. Any ful no this.
All your points are correct and everyone in their right mind is aware of them. I know the difference. Owned the iPhone since day one in 2007. Certainly used to the experience by now and my use is pretty much the same or less. The bad battery life is legendary on the 4S and the complaints kicked up immediately all over web forums including Apple, when it first released. Undeniable truth. When you make phones thinner, lighter and more powerful — sure, something has to give. You know what I’m talking about BLN.
My intuition tells me that an arc shaped battery is more conforming to the human body, which makes sense for some wearable devices, but probably not a large screen iPhone, which is handheld portable device. This suggests that Apple plan to offer a device with computing power, probably not a smartphone, that needs to be curved in at least one plane to conform to the human body. Using a curved screen might be problematic too. So my guess is that the curved battery is not intended for a smartphone application.
For now, actual live flexible screens of interest to most consumers are only in the lab, if at all. It’s not ready for prime time for a few years. But screens conforming to a particular static shape are at the horizon. I believe that is what we’re initially going to see, as long as there is sufficient demand. We shall see.
I am going to guess that this ‘flexible’ design become static at the time of manufacture. This is because lamination will lock in the shape to a significant extent. Or perhaps I should say that at manufacture the flexibility will be significantly curtailed. IOW: Bending the final shape into an opposite curve could be detrimental. More fun techy stuff in any case!