These remind me of bad photoshop mockups. I'll be very surprised if the finished product looks like this.
I don't care one tiny bit about the color, logos, grill shape and other such superficial features. The overall size, shape, materials, and placement of functional features, is the only thing I consider design, the rest is makeup. I think these leaks show the core features sufficiently well. The only thing that matters now is WHEN the announcement will take place, not WHAT is shown.
I estimated at one time that wireless charging of hundreds of millions of phones would waste enough power to cost an entire full scale power plant - and all the resulting pollution. And it's too easy to misalign the device and not have it charge properly (at least, that's what happens with our Wii controllers).
Curious about this estimate. Did you include all the plastic for all the cables, as well as the machines required to make them, and the copper inside them, etc?
I think the phones will be announced when iOS 6 is ready for launch. Why would they announce a grand new iOS with lots of new features just to install on your old hardware? Apple want you running the latest software on the latest hardware, at least as far as their phones go.
I think the phones will be announced when iOS 6 is ready for launch. Why would they announce a grand new iOS with lots of new features just to install on your old hardware? Apple want you running the latest software on the latest hardware, at least as far as their phones go.
I think the phones will be announced when iOS 6 is ready for launch. Why would they announce a grand new iOS with lots of new features just to install on your old hardware? Apple want you running the latest software on the latest hardware, at least as far as their phones go.
I think they've done that every year after the original iPhone demo.
Is LiquidMetal available as an RF invisible option or standard?
Yes and no.
There is little or no information available about existing Liquidmetal formulations, but what I've been able to piece together suggests that it's not radio transparent.
However, note that Liquidmetal is actually a technology which can use a variety of different materials. It is entirely possible that a radio-transparent formulation could be developed.
Curious about this estimate. Did you include all the plastic for all the cables, as well as the machines required to make them, and the copper inside them, etc?
No. I simply took the stated efficiency of commercial wireless charging devices and multiplied it by the number of devices. The materials needed to make the base station makes it even worse.
I don't like this design at all. I don't see why they couldn't do an edge to edge metal plate.
The way I'm reading it, the antennas are basically the top and bottom parts of what is the annular ring on the current iPhone and the middle section is milled out of a single piece of aluminium. Therefore the glass bits on the top and bottom at the back are to keep the antennas up and way from the metal body. If they weren't there, then the antennas would not work in the backward direction or would work very poorly.
Same thing applies. Unless you want to have a device that must always be pointed at your WiFi router, it needs to accept signals from all directions.
I'm not sure it is that critical. My WiFi at home passes through a couple of walls and ceilings, even outside where it goes through 5 cm of concrete stucco applied over wire mesh.
There is little or no information available about existing Liquidmetal formulations, but what I've been able to piece together suggests that it's not radio transparent.
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
ZIRCONIUM! That's it.
I'm pretty sure that Zirconium is not liquid metal. Two different things. But Apple has a similar world-wide exclusive patent on it's use in any case.
They also have a patent on using both together because both can be moulded and neither shrinks appreciably when it cools. So they could conceivably do a case that's all curvy and cool with some areas shiny liquid metal and other areas coloured crystal etc. This is one of the reasons I find this particular design to be dull as dishwater. There is so much cool stuff they *could* do, but all they've done with this design (if it is theirs), is f*ck up the aspect ratio and reach for that old standard ... the "unibody" frame. Yawn.
The more I look at this design the more I think it's about making manufacturing and servicing easier, it has nothing to do with what the consumers really want or making it look cool or interesting. it looks like the Home button could be easier to replace for instance, and the top and bottom sections look to be easy to pop off and tinker with the insides.
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
ZIRCONIUM! That's it.
I would be surprised if any metal or metal alloy can be RF transparent. It's a pretty fundamental property of metal, such high electron mobility makes it hard for anything to pass through. I think you might be remembering zirconium-based ceramics, I don't recall Apple doing anything with those yet, though I remember they did buy the rights to some of those materials too.
If this is real- the speakers should be larger and have a little more sound- that's a good thing. Also- I don't mind the headphone jack on the bottom- its a little more useful for me- I put it in my pocket, and that way it is the way I would put it in (If you put the phone in upside down, when you reach in and grab it, its right side up.)
Also- the tall screen would be very nice depending on how they handle the UI of iOS6. It might have a permanent bar that has notifications scrolling, who knows- that's why they're Apple and I'm not. Tell me what I need and want Apple!
Is there any chance that the mini dock connector could actually be a thunderbolt port? My guess is not because the electronics to support a thunderbolt port would be more than a small mobile device could support but I can still imagine the possibilities.
Thunderbolt needs Intel approval and they won't get that with an ARM device. There's no advantage to it on an iOS device anyway as the storage is too slow. Last but not least, the cables are very expensive. They wouldn't ship a $50 cable with every iPhone that only a fraction of the buyers could use.
Looks more like micro-USB 3:
This will provide just under half the bandwidth of Thunderbolt - plenty of bandwidth really - and it will be backwards compatible with USB 2.
The headphone jack being on the bottom also makes it easier for dock manufacturers as they just have to implement an audio jack.
Macrumors have a WebGL mockup (you have to enable it in the Safari developer menu, Chrome has it on by default):
Some of the dimensions are a bit out but it gives an idea what the widescreen would be like. The ratio looked 16:10 to me in the photos though i.e 1024 x 640. 1136 height seems like a strange resolution to go with. I think it would be best that they scale the icons up instead of adding an extra row.
The metal band antennas at the top and bottom would be separate with a full back plate. ...
There's separate and then there's "separate" as you yourself note. Signal strength is a hazy mystery. The glass bits would obviously help and it would seem Apple thinks they are necessary.
I'm still not totally convinced this is the real deal and not a prototype. I certainly won't' be buying one if they look like this unless there is a compelling reason not yet in evidence. If this is really the direction they are going, for me it would mean (at minimum), all new accessories, and replacing or getting rid of about 40% of my apps. That's a pretty hefty price to pay so there will have to be a pretty convincing reason for me to do so.
The only thing I can think of that they might put in that I might need is LTE or NFC. and even then I would have to think about it. If LTE requires a new contract for instance, I wouldn't be interested and if no stores in my town support NFC why would I bother with that either?
I thought you meant zirconia, which is the super strong, radio transparent stuff that Apple has the patent on. But either way, Liquid metal is not radio transparent, not even the stuff made with zirconium. Zirconium based liquid metal formulations are electrically conductive and thus cannot be radio transparent.
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
ZIRCONIUM! That's it.
Go back to the basics. Read Liquidmetal's web site - they actually do a pretty good job of describing it.
You can not have a liquidmetal product made from a single element. You need an alloy of different metals chosen in such a way the the different sizes of the metal atoms prevent crystallization. Zirconium can be one of the metals, but there must be others.
I'm pretty sure that Zirconium is not liquid metal. Two different things. But Apple has a similar world-wide exclusive patent on it's use in any case.
Zirconium is not liquid metal for the reasons given above. However, some liquidmetal alloys contain zirconium. In fact, I think the most common one contains a lot of zirconium.
They also have a patent on using both together because both can be moulded and neither shrinks appreciably when it cools. So they could conceivably do a case that's all curvy and cool with some areas shiny liquid metal and other areas coloured crystal etc. This is one of the reasons I find this particular design to be dull as dishwater. There is so much cool stuff they *could* do, but all they've done with this design (if it is theirs), is f*ck up the aspect ratio and reach for that old standard ... the "unibody" frame. Yawn.
The more I look at this design the more I think it's about making manufacturing and servicing easier, it has nothing to do with what the consumers really want or making it look cool or interesting. it looks like the Home button could be easier to replace for instance, and the top and bottom sections look to be easy to pop off and tinker with the insides.
Exactly. The advantage of Liquidmetal products is that you can form them in near-net shape. Look at the speaker holes of the alleged prototype. To make that part out of a conventional metal, you need to drill each of those holes separately. With LM, you simply build them into the mold. Same with all the other fine features and ports. Even with LM material being somewhat more expensive than aluminum, the total cost for production might be much lower. This is exactly the kind of product that LM is suited for.
In addition, LM has stated that they have started commercial sales to several companies whose name they can not provide. Obviously, that doesn't prove anything, but it would be consistent.
Thunderbolt needs Intel approval and they won't get that with an ARM device. There's no advantage to it on an iOS device anyway as the storage is too slow. Last but not least, the cables are very expensive. They wouldn't ship a $50 cable with every iPhone that only a fraction of the buyers could use.
First, Intel has already approved Apple's use of Thunderbolt. They don't need to approve every single application.
As for the cables, you don't think that the cost would come down if Apple purchased 100 million of them?
I don't think it's likely, either, but neither of your reasons is that compelling.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
These remind me of bad photoshop mockups. I'll be very surprised if the finished product looks like this.
I don't care one tiny bit about the color, logos, grill shape and other such superficial features. The overall size, shape, materials, and placement of functional features, is the only thing I consider design, the rest is makeup. I think these leaks show the core features sufficiently well. The only thing that matters now is WHEN the announcement will take place, not WHAT is shown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
I estimated at one time that wireless charging of hundreds of millions of phones would waste enough power to cost an entire full scale power plant - and all the resulting pollution. And it's too easy to misalign the device and not have it charge properly (at least, that's what happens with our Wii controllers).
Curious about this estimate. Did you include all the plastic for all the cables, as well as the machines required to make them, and the copper inside them, etc?
I think the phones will be announced when iOS 6 is ready for launch. Why would they announce a grand new iOS with lots of new features just to install on your old hardware? Apple want you running the latest software on the latest hardware, at least as far as their phones go.
Is LiquidMetal available as an RF invisible option or standard?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Feynman
I think the phones will be announced when iOS 6 is ready for launch. Why would they announce a grand new iOS with lots of new features just to install on your old hardware? Apple want you running the latest software on the latest hardware, at least as far as their phones go.
I expect an announcement earlier than September.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Sure. If you don't mind always having to face the cell tower.
I'm assuming the that the cell antenna is still on the outside of the device. I was referring to the WiFi/BT signals passing through the front glass.
I think they've done that every year after the original iPhone demo.
Same thing applies. Unless you want to have a device that must always be pointed at your WiFi router, it needs to accept signals from all directions.
Yes and no.
There is little or no information available about existing Liquidmetal formulations, but what I've been able to piece together suggests that it's not radio transparent.
However, note that Liquidmetal is actually a technology which can use a variety of different materials. It is entirely possible that a radio-transparent formulation could be developed.
No. I simply took the stated efficiency of commercial wireless charging devices and multiplied it by the number of devices. The materials needed to make the base station makes it even worse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
I don't like this design at all. I don't see why they couldn't do an edge to edge metal plate.
The way I'm reading it, the antennas are basically the top and bottom parts of what is the annular ring on the current iPhone and the middle section is milled out of a single piece of aluminium. Therefore the glass bits on the top and bottom at the back are to keep the antennas up and way from the metal body. If they weren't there, then the antennas would not work in the backward direction or would work very poorly.
It is ugly btw, to the point of thinking it might be fake.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Same thing applies. Unless you want to have a device that must always be pointed at your WiFi router, it needs to accept signals from all directions.
I'm not sure it is that critical. My WiFi at home passes through a couple of walls and ceilings, even outside where it goes through 5 cm of concrete stucco applied over wire mesh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Yes and no.
There is little or no information available about existing Liquidmetal formulations, but what I've been able to piece together suggests that it's not radio transparent.
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
ZIRCONIUM! That's it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
LiquidMetal made with… FRICK, screw this memory. I know it. I KNOW it. One of the alloys is radio transparent to some frequencies. I know that others are transparent to different frequencies, but I only remember the name of the element for one of them…
ZIRCONIUM! That's it.
I'm pretty sure that Zirconium is not liquid metal. Two different things. But Apple has a similar world-wide exclusive patent on it's use in any case.
They also have a patent on using both together because both can be moulded and neither shrinks appreciably when it cools. So they could conceivably do a case that's all curvy and cool with some areas shiny liquid metal and other areas coloured crystal etc. This is one of the reasons I find this particular design to be dull as dishwater. There is so much cool stuff they *could* do, but all they've done with this design (if it is theirs), is f*ck up the aspect ratio and reach for that old standard ... the "unibody" frame. Yawn.
The more I look at this design the more I think it's about making manufacturing and servicing easier, it has nothing to do with what the consumers really want or making it look cool or interesting. it looks like the Home button could be easier to replace for instance, and the top and bottom sections look to be easy to pop off and tinker with the insides.
I would be surprised if any metal or metal alloy can be RF transparent. It's a pretty fundamental property of metal, such high electron mobility makes it hard for anything to pass through. I think you might be remembering zirconium-based ceramics, I don't recall Apple doing anything with those yet, though I remember they did buy the rights to some of those materials too.
If this is real- the speakers should be larger and have a little more sound- that's a good thing. Also- I don't mind the headphone jack on the bottom- its a little more useful for me- I put it in my pocket, and that way it is the way I would put it in (If you put the phone in upside down, when you reach in and grab it, its right side up.)
Also- the tall screen would be very nice depending on how they handle the UI of iOS6. It might have a permanent bar that has notifications scrolling, who knows- that's why they're Apple and I'm not. Tell me what I need and want Apple!
Thunderbolt needs Intel approval and they won't get that with an ARM device. There's no advantage to it on an iOS device anyway as the storage is too slow. Last but not least, the cables are very expensive. They wouldn't ship a $50 cable with every iPhone that only a fraction of the buyers could use.
Looks more like micro-USB 3:
This will provide just under half the bandwidth of Thunderbolt - plenty of bandwidth really - and it will be backwards compatible with USB 2.
The headphone jack being on the bottom also makes it easier for dock manufacturers as they just have to implement an audio jack.
Macrumors have a WebGL mockup (you have to enable it in the Safari developer menu, Chrome has it on by default):
http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2012/05/iphone5.html
Some of the dimensions are a bit out but it gives an idea what the widescreen would be like. The ratio looked 16:10 to me in the photos though i.e 1024 x 640. 1136 height seems like a strange resolution to go with. I think it would be best that they scale the icons up instead of adding an extra row.
The metal band antennas at the top and bottom would be separate with a full back plate. People have experienced signal loss using metal iPhone cases:
http://electronicfan.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/metal-case-and-dropped-calls/
but not significant and the JustCase Metallica that doesn't cover the band with metal suffers no signal loss:
http://justcasemetallicaverizonbrushed.blogspot.co.uk/
I want a full metal back plate Ive, no excuses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
I'm pretty sure that Zirconium is not liquid metal. Two different things.
The zirconium alloys of LiquidMetal…
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
...
The metal band antennas at the top and bottom would be separate with a full back plate. ...
There's separate and then there's "separate" as you yourself note. Signal strength is a hazy mystery. The glass bits would obviously help and it would seem Apple thinks they are necessary.
I'm still not totally convinced this is the real deal and not a prototype. I certainly won't' be buying one if they look like this unless there is a compelling reason not yet in evidence. If this is really the direction they are going, for me it would mean (at minimum), all new accessories, and replacing or getting rid of about 40% of my apps. That's a pretty hefty price to pay so there will have to be a pretty convincing reason for me to do so.
The only thing I can think of that they might put in that I might need is LTE or NFC. and even then I would have to think about it. If LTE requires a new contract for instance, I wouldn't be interested and if no stores in my town support NFC why would I bother with that either?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
The zirconium alloys of LiquidMetal…
I thought you meant zirconia, which is the super strong, radio transparent stuff that Apple has the patent on. But either way, Liquid metal is not radio transparent, not even the stuff made with zirconium. Zirconium based liquid metal formulations are electrically conductive and thus cannot be radio transparent.
Go back to the basics. Read Liquidmetal's web site - they actually do a pretty good job of describing it.
You can not have a liquidmetal product made from a single element. You need an alloy of different metals chosen in such a way the the different sizes of the metal atoms prevent crystallization. Zirconium can be one of the metals, but there must be others.
Zirconium is not liquid metal for the reasons given above. However, some liquidmetal alloys contain zirconium. In fact, I think the most common one contains a lot of zirconium.
Exactly. The advantage of Liquidmetal products is that you can form them in near-net shape. Look at the speaker holes of the alleged prototype. To make that part out of a conventional metal, you need to drill each of those holes separately. With LM, you simply build them into the mold. Same with all the other fine features and ports. Even with LM material being somewhat more expensive than aluminum, the total cost for production might be much lower. This is exactly the kind of product that LM is suited for.
In addition, LM has stated that they have started commercial sales to several companies whose name they can not provide. Obviously, that doesn't prove anything, but it would be consistent.
First, Intel has already approved Apple's use of Thunderbolt. They don't need to approve every single application.
As for the cables, you don't think that the cost would come down if Apple purchased 100 million of them?
I don't think it's likely, either, but neither of your reasons is that compelling.