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Tag Archive for: glass phone

Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

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Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

Apple, Galaxy, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers have been promoting new all-glass versions of their products that are currently in development. One of the challenges they face is getting rid of the home button, which takes up valuable real estate on the front face of the phone.

New under-glass scanners may be the key to saying goodbye to the button. Instead of going for the home button, the phones may include an under-glass scanner than provides touch-based control of the phone. Synaptics announced an in-glass scanner earlier this year, that was designed to work with a glass surface at least .3 mm thick.

At that thickness, the device will work only with the scanner in a fixed location on the screen. Essentially, that limitation requires the scanner to be an analog for the home button. The button is gone, but the user must still return to the scanner’s fixed location to authenticate and issue secure controls.

Synaptic announced earlier this month a new evolution of the under-glass scanner. The latest version works with a glass thickness of .1mm, and that’s thin enough to be used in mobile phones and other hand-held devices. It’s also thin enough to enable the under-glass scanner to be incorporated into the lighted display area of the phone.

Future designs will eventually be able to authenticate the user from anywhere on the surface of the screen, creating the much-desired but not-yet-available edge-to-edge phone. The under-glass scanner that recognizes and authenticates the user from anywhere is still a few design generations away, but it’s definitely closer to the store shelves than it was earlier this year.

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Photo Credit: Jose Luis Agapito, via Flickr.com

Gorilla Glass 5 Is On The Market

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Gorilla Glass 5 Is On The Market

Gorilla Glass 5 Is On The Market

Last month, Corning introduced Gorilla Glass 5, the latest version of the super-strong mobile device glass. Apple, Samsung and other major cell phone manufacturers have already signed on to use the new surface. The new glass offers better resistance to scratches, and an improved ability to resist breakage after being dropped.

Gorilla Glass 4 was designed to resist breakage from falls of less than 3 feet. Because many people raise their phones overhead, or to shoulder height to take selfies, Corning re-engineered Gorilla Glass 5 to resist breakage from falls of as much as 5 feet. Additionally, the new glass is thinner than previous versions. According to Corning, the new glass has an 80% survival rate when dropped from a height of 5 feet or less. Corning used .6mm thick sheets of Gorilla Glass 5 to conduct the original testing on which those claims were made. The production version of Gorilla Glass 5 will be .4mm thick, so the survivability of the glass may still be an issue.

Corning is already shipping the product and consumers can expect to see Gorilla Glass 5 on iPhones in the fall. Corning also says it has the next generation of Gorilla Glass in the works, and believes that may be virtually unbreakable. Corning announced earlier this year that it was working on “Phire” – a new formulation of Gorilla Glass that is believed to incorporate sapphire into the surface. Sapphire is the second-hardest surface behind diamond, and is exceptionally resistant to scratching.

Corning hasn’t predicted when Phire may be ready for market, but it would not be the first time someone has tried to incorporate the properties of sapphire into mobile screens. Apple contracted with a company called GT Advanced to create sapphire-based mobile screens for its iPhones. Although the proof-of-concept worked, the company encountered serious production problems that it could not resolve, and was unable to deliver the product. Eventually, Apple canceled its order. Although Apple will be using the product, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will be the first phone on the market to use the new glass.

While you wait for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, check out the rest of our site for some inspiration for working with glass. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Doctor Popular, via Flickr.com

All glass iPhone has consumers thinking

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All glass iPhone has consumers thinking

All glass iPhone has consumers thinking

The next generation of Apple’s seemingly ubiquitous iPhone is slated for 2017, but Apple seems to have set that device up for a short, quiet life. Leaks – including patent applications – seem to indicate that Apple is going for gold –or more accurately “glass” – when it releases the iPhone 8.

All glass iPhone has nothing to hide

Patent applications filed by Apple describe a device with an all –glass display that pulls double duty as the device’s case. That information is exciting to iPhone owners and prospects, even if studies have shown that nearly a quarter of the devices made between 2007 and 2013 experienced a cracked display screen.

The patent application doesn’t specify which kind of glass the phone factory plans to use for case duty, except to say that the chosen formula would be “chemically strengthened.” It also describes coatings that would make the glass resistant to the Four Horsemen of the Phone Apocalypse: water, fingerprints, glare and scratches.

The patent application has quite a history. The glass iPhone patent was actually submitted in 2011, but was only granted last month. That’s more than twice as long as the average patent application spends under the US Patent and Trademark Office microscope.

The all-glass iPhone – rumored to be the iPhone8 – will include a wrap-around front display, like the Samsung Galaxy Edge, but also a second, curved display on the backside of the device. That extra display real estate makes it impossible to use an aftermarket case on the device – like what current iPhone users favor.

In addition, the glass iPhone patent application describes a device that has virtual function buttons for volume and display control, as well as the Touch-ID fingerprint identification system currently available on the iPhone 6. Although the patent application shows a device with old-style Apple connectors (a throwback to the patent application date), presumably the device would be marketed with the latest connectors available, currently the Lightning port.

We don’t really know what an all-glass iPhone would look like or when it might be available, but we do know that you can do a lot with glass as a decorating surface. Using Glassprimer™ glass paint, you can incorporate glass into both your interior and exterior decorating plans. Glassprimer™ glass paint is highly durable and UV-resistant, which gives it points for both form and function. If you’d like some inspiration for decorating with glass or glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: darklordspet, via Flickr.com