Would you use a foldable iPhone?

They didn’t as of 20 years ago, either agency, although both were working on similar technologies. (Does anyone else remember when if asked about NSA the stock answer was “No Such Agency” and DARPA was called ARPA and you couldn’t find out what TEMPEST meant?)

Actually I was thinking of having my husband design and build one. :wink: The most difficult part is the screen technology. Right now though he’s designing GPS boards, not sure he wants to design another rugged handheld.

The Verge discovered Apple filed yet another patent (this one last October) for a foldable phone.

Hubby and I were discussing this last night. He thinks the folding hinge is a weak spot that will fail in the field with real users. He believes the future of flexible displays is a scroll that winds up. Then the issue becomes stabilizing it when it’s deployed in a way that supports touch interfaces. Or else multiple displays that are actually physically separate. Would result in some sort of line between the multiple screens but that could be minimized.

I seem to recall Microsoft patented a foldable tablet with two displays several years ago, but it never made its way into a shipping product.

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Based on the published patents in the last several years (from Apple, Samsung, Google, LG, Huawei, Microsoft and others) the companies spending hundreds of millions on research in this space seem to disagree with him. :man_shrugging:

There’s action in rollable displays too. There have been patents for rollable cellphones and tablets, and as far as actual hardware goes, LG showed a TV that unrolls from a soundbar-sized base at CES this year.

Not saying the tech isn’t there, just that it’s not where phone manufacturers seem to be looking.

Indeed, a rolled phone is useless, whereas - as we see with Samsung’s device - a folding unit is usable even when folded.

Not necessarily. Imagine a device the size of an iPhone with a display the size of an iPad mini. In phone mode about 1/3 of the display is visible, with the other 2/3 rolled up along one edge. To use it in tablet mode, you would “stretch” the device, unrolling the rest of the display as you do so.

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I think E Ink and others have played around with rollable displays – proofs of concept – for a decade or more. Seems to me that “electronic paper” and holograms are two interesting futurist visions that will someday make today’s tech look like wood-block movable type.

Exactly. It’s small until you need the larger screen

Patents often do not survive first contact with the customer. You can invent something that cannot be used successfully very easily.

Seems fiddly with too small a screen to use rolled up. (The Samsung device has the front usable when closed, offering a large, ease to use space.) Rolled up phone are not where the phone patents are; folding ones are. Apple’s patents all(?) relate to flexible screens, especially ones covering hinges.

PatentlyApple has put together archives of articles relating to flexible display patents by major manufacturers like Apple and Samsung, and reports have been around for years that LG is working on folding devices for Microsoft and Google. (Not to mention that Microsoft’s own development was in folding devices.) These patents specifically refer to folding mobile displays, not rollable ones. And of course, there are no rollable models announced or even rumored at this point from any phonemakers.

So when I hear these particular hoofbeats, I think techno horses, not zebras. :racehorse:

Someone caught a Huawei folding phone billboard being set up in advance of Mobile World Congress, which starts next week in Barcelona.

#

Also, it’s interesting that according to a Goldman Sachs investment note, it’s possible that Samsung (from whom Apple buys all its iPhone OLED screens) may withhold flexible screens from competitors:

“We see this as challenging for Apple
who could find themselves with no access
to the critical flexible OLED technology for
which we believe Samsung has at least a
two year lead over other display competitors”

Would a civilian have heard of the NSA during the Nixon presidency? Seems like us regular folk found out about it in the early 70’s.

The sum total of my computer experience in those days was acquired in a couple of classes for business majors. They taught us just enough Fortran & Cobol to communicate, somewhat intelligently, our needs with real programmers.

The only computer on campus was an IBM 360/40 with (I think) 256K of memory. Data stored on tape, punch card input, hard copy output. Exciting stuff.

Yowza!! And I was whining about the $1000 iPhone!

$2K for a phone that I can’t put in a case? Better I give the money to charity, and avoid the tears when I drop it.

Does Samsung have an Apple Care+ equivalent?

Yes, but I know a couple of people who’ve had a tough time getting their damaged phones fixed or replaced. And it has a $99 deductible too.

Trouble getting it fixed is problematic. On the other hand, if you’ve already paid $2k for the phone, $99 for a repair is peanuts.

A bad day was walking home after hours punching a Fortran program on cards – then dropping the box of cards :scream:

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