“On July 10, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an invention related to a next generation of sapphire cover glass,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “The glass could be used as both a front and/or back cover for future iDevices such as an iPhone and/or iPad.”
“A sapphire back side cover glass could be used on an iPad as was revealed in one of Apple’s latest granted patents regarding fused glass housings,” Purcher reports. “The Indicia, which may include Apple’s logo, device serial number and so forth won’t be imprinted on the sapphire glass but rather embedded in between two layers of sapphire glass via means of a new ion implantation methodology. The indicia can also be color controlled so as to stand out correctly on the surface of a particular iDevice.”
Purcher reports, “In addition, there were two supporting patent applications worth noting that cover residual compression stress and sapphire cover glass that could extend to the sides, top and bottom of an iDevice. This would translate to an entire housing created with sapphire cover glass.”
Read more, and see Apple patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
Soon we’ll all be living in glass iHomes!
MDN is leading the way in making webpages inaccessible by iOS devices. I won’t download your app, so I’ve removed you from my favorites. Your tactics in trying to make your webpage unfriendly to iOS devices is the last straw. You guys don’t care about Apple. You are completely unethical. Goodbye.
What the hell are you even talking about, Thomas? I view the MDN site on my iPad and iPhone all the time without any trouble whatsoever. How exactly is it ‘inaccessible’ or ‘unfriendly’ to you? I also use the app… What exactly is wrong with that?
How exactly is it that a site that’s all about Apple “not care about Apple”? In your view, how exactly are they unethical?
We’ve and a very long and detailed discussion of this situation further up the headlines list.
Yeah, I heard something about forced visits to the iTunes store, but I couldn’t replicate that on any of my iOS devices on any of the dozen or more pages I visited on MDN. I’m wondering if perhaps it was a bug. Those happen sometimes, you know… Even in Apple software.
The MDN app works just fine on my iPhone 5. What’s the problem? Sure there is a banner ad at the bottom, but that is to be expected. And if you install AdBloc on Safari, the MDN web site is quite readable (once again). So I’m confused to all the Like votes for Thomas’ post. Did I miss something?
How would they name it, the iPhone Gem, the iPhone Sapphire?
Anything would be better than just a number. Sapphire sounds rich.
Hey Dad (Thomas), take it easy. Just because you got up on the wrong side of the bed does not mean you have to take it out on the first website you visit.
Hey dad (Thomas Jr), don’t be so hard on grandpa (Thomas). It is pretty annoying to open the MDN website on an iPhone, and constantly be moved to the app store to download My Little Ponies or whatever crap they’re advertising. I switched to the MDN app, and it’s okay, but the constantly moving ads give me a headache. Much nicer when the website didn’t hijack your phone.
Whatever happened to Liquid Metal?
Yes MDN fix your adds. People have been complaining for quite sometime now with no response or changes. Quit acting like Google already.
For those wishing to look at the real article and not a circular link try this.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/07/apple-invents-a-new-ion-implant-methodology-to-embed-their-logo-into-next-gen-sapphire-cover-glass.html
I’m sure MDN will fix the link soon.
Enjoy.
After thinking about this, this concept is totally for an iWatch or otherwise similar device that doesn’t have space to put the standard logo and regulatory info on the back.
I think it would be great if they made a complete phone out of sapphire, just like the MacBook made of a single piece of Aluminium. If they can now add colour/logo etc to the mix that may be a future iPhone.
Perhaps one day in the not too distant future iPhones will be 3D printed at the molecular scale. Super solid, super strong and, super fast.