“A report from Taiwan’s Apple Daily purports to show an assembled iPhone 5C, the low-cost iPhone rumored to be announced on September 10, surviving an informal pocket test with no visible scratches on its rear plastic shell,” Jason D. O’Grady writes for ZDNet. “In it, an anonymous individual puts the 5C into a gallon Ziploc bag with coins, keys, screws, paper clips and, what appears to be a pocket flashlight, then closes and shakes the bag vigorously.”
“After the shake test, the person drags the keys, screws and coins across the surface of the plastic shell in an attempt to scratch it. After putting the pink 5C through its paces, the reflection on the rear of the shell shows no visible scratches whatsoever, at least at the video’s resolution,” O’Grady writes. “The implication is that Apple’s may have used a new process to make the plastic extremely scratch-resistant.”
“In August 2010 Apple acquired LiquidMetal [sic] and its new metallic/glass substance that has twice the strength of Titanium but the moldability of plastic,” O’Grady writes. “Then, in late 2010, Apple filed a patent application for ‘Nitriding Stainless Steel for Consumer Electronic Products’ which resists scratches by placing a layer of nitride over a stainless steel exterior. Hmmm… Don’t be surprised if the iPhone 5C case is fabricated from nitride-coated LiquidMetal.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple did not acquire Liquidmetal (small “m”).
The deal is basically this: Apple contributes engineers and R&D – basically figuring out how to practically make Liquidmetal into commercial parts – and contributes their inventions back to Liquidmetal (via Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, a Liquidmetal subsidiary) which gets to use Apple’s inventions in fields other than consumer electronics (sporting goods, aviation, medical, military, etc.). In exchange, along with an already-paid one-time license fee of US$20 million, Apple owns sole rights to use Liquidmetal in electronics via “a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products.”
MacDailyNews Take: As far as a Liquidmetal iPhone 5C with colored nitride-coating, we suppose anything is possible. However, Apple has many patents, including “Composite Laminate having an Improved Cosmetic Surface and Method of Making Same,” (carbon fiber) to name just one.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple patent application reveals methods of forming 3D structures with Liquidmetal – July 25, 2013
‘iPhone 5S’ release date nears as Apple begins mass production of Liquidmetal case, report claims – July 22, 2013
Apple’s ‘iPhone 5S’ to feature indestructible Liquidmetal case, says BGR – July 17, 2013
Apple and Liquidmetal scientists granted new patent that could enable Liquidmetal production on a massive scale – July 16, 2013
So, basically, an ignorant person talking out there ass regarding Apple?
Just another Tuesday …
Agree; this is total nonsense. Plastic is plastic, it has nothing to do with LM.
*their
… Wow, I must be tired this morning. Either that, or the idiocy of this Jason O’Grady has killed some of my brain cells.
Queue up obligatory “Terminator 2” T-1000 jokes.
The video quality is so bad, that you couldn’t see a dump truck running through a nitroglycerin plant.
Also the coin test in a plastic bag doesn’t work, because it does not match a true pocket test, where coins and keys are pressured against each other for long periods of time, with your leg providing a repetitive motion, akin to waves on sand, as you walk.
So bad that the article calls it pink, and yet it appears blue to me. 🙂
@docwallaby
‘So, basically, an ignorant person talking out there ass regarding Apple?’
their ass… an ignorant person talking. A spell-checker won’t help the terminally stupid.
I was going to point out that he corrected his spelling/typo (and before you called him stupid), but it is always more fun to point out to the person calling someone else stupid that he is no better. “Their” is plural. “Ass” is singular. “Person” is singular. Spelling alone doesn’t fix it, either. “Person talking out his ass” would work. Or “people talking out their asses” would work grammatically, but not when only one person took credit for the article.
So “their” is the wrong word entirely. There, that settles it. They’re both wrong. 🙂
The same rumor regarding liquid metal surfaces each time a new iPhone is imminent. But will it be snappier? Oh yeah!
Don’t be surprised if the iPhone 5C case is fabricated from nitride-coated LiquidMetal.”
I certainly WOULD be surprised. This is rubbish. I need not point out why. Sheesh. 😛
Oh and Apple:
There was a day when anyone showing off an UNANNOUNCED product to the public, as seen in this crappy video above, would have had THE LAW ON THEIR ASS!
But you put up with these crimes from China. Please point out exactly WHY!
I personally think you’re crazy to put up with this crap from China. As usual, I suggest you get the HELL out of that lunatic, criminal country! There have to be superior alternatives.
Must have been what my LG Spectrum 2’s screen was made of–couldn’t scratch it to save my wife!!! 2 weeks back on the iPhone…(you may send your crow on a platter to blah,blah street)…and I can see the slight scratches already.
And I could work that LG screen very easily with a fingernail, or the chord from my earbuds and the lining of my pocket, and the breath of a homeless person and fairy wings—there was nothing that screen wouldn’t respond to. 😐
Even though I liked the Android experience and miss the gigantic screen–being back on the iPhone is just plain esoteric goodness—num num num num…
Next up, the unique pigments used in coloring the new iPhone, the rumor mill is just buzzing with news that some of the coloring pigments in the new champagne iPhone 5C are taken from scrapping off the sweat off bodies of nude people after they have run naked through a particular forest of the Amazon.
Give me longer battery life, faster processing speed, and a Retina screen (or better). I can buy a frickin’ case.
Yup
From what I’ve read, Liquidmetal claims to still be a couple years away from commercial production.