“Apple on Monday was granted a U.S. patent covering a method of fusing glass structures together to encapsulate the internal circuitry of an iOS device, and that of larger electronics like monitors and televisions,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple U.S. Patent No. 8,773,848 for ‘Fused glass device housings,’ which describes a procedure that allows for the efficient fabrication of seamless all-glass electronic device casings,” Campbell reports. “In some embodiments, glass members are fused together to create a five-sided box in which displays, circuitry and other internal components can be inserted, or ‘slid into place.’ This is especially crucial for larger applications like televisions or monitors that are mounted on stands.”
“The patent goes into detail on polishing and glass strengthening techniques, as well as alternative embodiments that involve extruded hollow glass rods with fused end caps,” Campbell reports. “Additional attention is paid to glass fusing methods that reduce frit to leave seamless joints.”
Read more, and see Apple patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Cool! I want, now!
Glass is beautiful, but heavy and brittle material. So return to the glass is unlikely.
Plain glass perhaps, but the patent also covers sapphire displays which as we’ve seen is quite durable
Bondi Blue iPhone!
When are they going to patent the glass house?
PowerMac G4 Cube for the future!
I always thought that the PowerMac G4 Cube should have been Pyrex Glass enclosure instead of plexiglas, to avoid any potential cracking & use as heat dissipation element. Apple + apple pie glass pan enclosure.
As long as they can make it tinted, it’s so important to keep the folks writing the MDN headlines wearing their “BLOOD RED KILL KILL KILL ALL CELEBRITY AUTOGRAPHS” tinted glasses that other people would call pink.
But shhhh don’t say pink around here, they might want to kill you for it, you know how Amurdercans are, KILL KILL KILL.
Oh, dear, he’s not taking his meds again…
I keep telling people I don’t take meds. Possibly you’ve missed the humor of MDN’s headline “Taylor Swift: Apple iPhones killed the celebrity autograph” down below.”
I keep hearing about these meds though, perhaps that’s what’s causing MDN to write all these “Kill kill kill” headlines.
Stay away from drugs.
I love the illustrations for this one. This patent was obviously conceived in the Apple cafeteria during lunch, on napkins. 🙂 Jony and Co. must have been musing about how to make better containers for their favorite cold beverage… Aluminium with diamond-chamfered edges is SO yesterday.
Isn’t glass quite a bit heavier than aluminum? Surely much heavier than plastic. Wonder how they plan to defeat that problem.
And heat dissipation. A glass cube with liquid coolant. Could be the Lava lamp of the future! (or a mini Cray of the past).
ifixit is going to have to make a negative scale for repairability.
Liquid Metal and now Liquid Sapphire?