“With the iPhone 6 bending controversy heating up and Apple PR masterfully debunking the non-issue earlier today, it should come as no surprise that Apple does a lot of durability testing on its new devices before shipping,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac. “However, the team responsible for that testing– Apple’s Product Design Structural Analysis team for iPhone and iPod– needs some help.”
“Specifically, Apple is looking for experts in failure analysis, metallography or fractography to work on its Product Design Structural analysis team,” Kahn reports. “The job requires material testing and determining ‘the strength of raw materials and components’ while working with the product design team.”
“In other words, these are the people that are supposed to make sure your iPhone 6 Plus doesn’t bend (during normal use) in your pocket,” Kahn reports. “As for what that durability testing includes, Apple notes the team performs 4-point bend tests, tensile testing, and other industry standard analysis [emphasis ours].”
Read more, and see Apple’s job posting, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once Apple achieves reliable, cost-effective mass production processes, the Liquidmetal iPhone will be uncopiable.
Related article:
Apple: Only nine customers have complained about bent iPhone 6 Plus units – September 25, 2014
I’m no engineer, but it seems to be that besides the larger size, the round edges as opposed to square of the 4-5s wouldn’t be as stiff.
roundness reduces stress points, but yes in general it can be more prone to bending. This is why the Note 3 didn’t really bend in the tests.
I have six words:
PREMIUM PHONE = PREMIUM MATERIALS = LIQUID METAL
Profit margins are less important than PR. Unless there’s a GOOD reason not to use a more rigid material on high-end phablets, that is.
It’s a little late to be hiring “that engineer” now. Jeez!
It’s because it’s so damn thin. It’s the needless obsession with making a cell phone as thin as a piece of paper if possible. People don’t care about thin. People care about screen size, reliability, battery and a good ecosystem. No one, besides Jony Ive, gives a shit about an ultrathin cell phone. No one.
Oh, so that’s why my ‘something or other’ isn’t as stiff. It’s edges aren’t square but rounded.
Great timing lol.
Bwaaaahaaahaa, sob – sob.
I sat on my iPhone with my fat a-se and it bent, Sob – sob!
Rearden metal !!
Maybe the phones should have a maximum weight like ladders. If you are over 250 pounds you are too fat for this phone.
Kim K shouldn’t own one.
on a side issue, looking at the job posting:
the requirements for the post are high , kinda scary.
there ARE high paying jobs out there but you need the education and the experience
Having done some part time work for 10 years with social services and education (my wife has a Masters in Education) unfortunately there seems to be a ‘dumbing down’ of education. Many educators are actually angry there is any competitiveness in education at all (completely the reverse of the working environment), in many places you can no longer ‘fail’ a kid, you can only list ‘incomplete’ in tests. Teachers unions urge strikes because of ‘standardize tests’ for kids (which in reality are more damaging to teachers reputations than students… ) I’ve worked with social workers dealing with foster children who REFUSED to LOOK at kids report cards! They claim that school tests were ‘too stressful for kids’ and we shouldn’t bother with them (yes foster kids are often damaged but not educating them opens them up to repeating their parents failures) , I dealt with kids in grade 5 (5+ years of public education including kindergarten) who can’t write ‘the’.
Meanwhile we are moving at light speed into the high info and knowledge age…
Wake up Education People and Families !
(don’t flame me, I know there are SOME good schools and teachers, it’s just my experience dealing in areas that exposed me to some scary underlying attitudes in the system ).
some people are giving me one stars, which is ok, free world but they don’t write what’s their opinions.
if it’s about standardize tests let me say : over a LIFETIME not being able to read (or read at an acceptable level where you can gain information for work etc) is a heck a lot more damaging and destructive to self esteem than ‘discrimination’ of standardize tests.
For one kid who was grade 5 who couldn’t read ‘the’ after a couple of years with my wife’s patient coaching she learnt and then finished reading all the Harry Potter books which are thick, and started writing stories of her own . Sometimes it’s not the kids (the exceptions are those with actual physical problems like brain damage) , it’s the system.
Note that even Steve Jobs railed against the education system (and was asked to apologize by the teachers union). That was years ago, the situation is more dire now as knowledge requirements at work have increased.
This is not about a design problem with iphone 6+
At least for those who can be considered sane consumers !
It is about the competition .. Specially samscum spreading fud .
They are scared of the immensely positive response and best in class durability tests of the the two new iphone 6 models !
Well Apple could be coming with an iPhone that survive a thermonuclear blast and you’ll still have Android cockroaches crawling out of their shit holes to complain about something… Honestly this is a game Apple can’t win so the only thing left is to keep cranking top notch devices that despite some minor exaggerated flaws are still a light years ahead of the shit others (wink wink Samsung) produce.
What a joke. Apple posts lots of job reqs every day. How is this news.
It’s actually better if it bends a little but doesn’t permanently deform. If dropped, the bending will absorb some of the shock impulse, so that the internal more fragile parts get less force on them. If made more stiff, it may become more shatter prone. Complex design issue. If indeed only 9 out of 10,000,000 had an issue, the design may already be optimal, and Apple just needs to explain why it is. If it isn’t, they’ll have to deal with a few replacements, or design pants with optimally located pockets.