Flexible Phones 'Out By 2013' 152
dryriver sends this quote from a BBC report:
"Imagine treating your phone like a piece of paper. Roll it up. Drop it. Squish it in your backpack. Step on it — without any damage. Researchers are working on just such handsets — razor-thin, paper-like and bendable. There have already been prototypes, attracting crowds at gadget shows. But rumors abound that next year will see the launch of the first bendy phone. Numerous companies are working on the technology — LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony and Nokia among them — although reports suggest that South Korean phone manufacturer Samsung will be the first to deliver. Samsung favors smartphones with so-called flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, and is confident that they will be 'very popular among consumers worldwide.' Their screens will be 'foldable, rollable, wearable and more, [and] will allow for a high degree of durability through their use of a plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more flexible than conventional LCD technology,' says a Samsung spokesperson.'"
Yeah but... (Score:2)
Is the battery flexible?
Re:Yeah but... (Score:4, Informative)
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Think of a folding partition: as a whole it bends, but it is made up of small non-bending parts.
Flexible PC boards have existed for years, and are inside many consumer devices today - the board as a whole is flexible, the individual chips are not. The chips are small in relation to the board size.
Feature Set (Score:4, Insightful)
One question to ask would be the types of features that one would expect in these flexible phones in the near-term. Would they start out as having similar capabilities as current smartphones in the market, or would they be more "bread-and-butter" phones that will only see incorporation of additional capabilities in the long term?
Of greater interest to me is the possibility of flexible laptops and tablets. The reason why we have things like smartphones is because we can easily carry them around (e.g. in our pocket) and still have sufficient computational for day-to-day use. But if we can get flexible tablets/laptops to work, I think that'd be very useful in terms of packing greater amounts of computational power per (folded) surface area.
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A mobile device in the most basic terms needs only the connectivity and a screen, and that's the direction where mobile computing is going (and we are seeing more just screens everywhere to stream data to). The setting is paved with on-line services, which are steadily taken as a norm. A bit of cache memory and everything can be streamed to and from the device, which wouldn't need much of processing power either, or a powerful GPU.
The electromagnetic spectrum is not that much there too yet, but it's coming
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I want a laptop screen like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b-1QJ_f5hlY#t=545s [youtube.com]
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One question to ask would be the types of features that one would expect in these flexible phones in the near-term. Would they start out as having similar capabilities as current smartphones in the market, or would they be more "bread-and-butter" phones that will only see incorporation of additional capabilities in the long term?
Of greater interest to me is the possibility of flexible laptops and tablets. The reason why we have things like smartphones is because we can easily carry them around (e.g. in our pocket) and still have sufficient computational for day-to-day use. But if we can get flexible tablets/laptops to work, I think that'd be very useful in terms of packing greater amounts of computational power per (folded) surface area.
I am having a hard time seeing an all bendy and all over paper thin iPhone or Galaxy killer that can handle 3D games and the like. The mockups and prototypes I have seen are usually a thin and bendy screen a few millimeters thick made from a rubbery material and attached to a brick containing the electronics, kind of like the ones depicted in TFA (none of whom come close my definition of 'razor-thin' by the way), one of the coolest mockups I have seen was a small brick with a paper thin pull out screen.
Flavors (Score:5, Funny)
Mmmm... OLED... Tasty!
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I read it as lead. I thought that came from China, not Korea... ;-)
To dipsose (Score:3)
Will the phones then end up as confetti?
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This is greatsome (Score:2)
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I'm glad I'm not the only one. Phones are way too big. They must not realize that most men don't carry purses.
razor-thin! (Score:3)
I don't want anything as sharp as "razor-thin" in my pocket.
Large screen, small device (Score:4, Informative)
Like the "Earth: Final Conflict" Global Link Communicator [google.com], this will allow the creation of small devices with large screens that unroll when in use.
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I'd love to have one of those.
Ooooh, paper cuts behind my ears! (Score:2)
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Apple Trouble (Score:2)
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Why would Apple be in trouble? They'll copy Samsung and Sony's phones, they'll patent the rectangular version of it, market the hell out of it, and finally sue everybody for stealing Apple's innovation. Apple has been getting away with that for thirty years.
Which copy first... (Score:2)
Why would Apple be in trouble? They'll copy Samsung and Sony's phones
You assume Sony/Samsung will really be first with such a phone.
With Apple's all-consuming desire for thin devices, why would they not be the first to adopt this?
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There's a very slim chance of that happening, even after Jobs' death. He was notoriously against anything OLED related, now it's finally going to be biting Apple in the ass since Samsung owns 90% of the OLED market (albeit through non-exclusive PHOLED materials agreements with Universal Display). That includes almost all flexible OLED production too. And Sharp's financial woes are causing problems on the Apple LCD front going forward. It really was a major blunder on Job's part to lock themselves so tig
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He had a good point though; the display quality of OLED is quite poor if you want any kind of accurate colors.
So far staying away from OLED appears to have hurt Apple not one whit.
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Agreed, they've done quite well without the technology and Samsung has done quite well with it (Galaxy, Note, etc.). Primarily because the market that requires very accurate color representation is extremely small.
The real pain will set in when OLED goes mainstream in TVs and monitors in the next couple years. That's when Samsung's foresight over the last decade, coupled with Apple's misstep, will pay off huge dividends.
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With Apple's all-consuming desire for thin devices, why would they not be the first to adopt this?
There is no 'adopt' in what is colloquially called 'the patent system', Sir. There is either 'innovate' or 'copy'.
On the other hand, considering the billions and lawyers involved in the mess that is colloquially called 'the patent system', yes, you are probably correct: Apple will be the first to 'adopt' this.
Money making opportunity (Score:2)
Quick, find patents for mobile devices and just add "on a flexible screen" and file a new one.
That's all it takes to get approval, right?
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http://wexler-global.com/products/79/347
It's a pity there's only one thing like this so far and it's only being sold in Russia. You can't even get something like this from China yet.
How about waterproof? (Score:2)
They've had the ability to make cellphones waterproof for nearly 10 years and haven't bothered. My guess is it's an added expense and the make a lot of money from people that run their phones through the wash. Hell, I had one die after I left it on the counter while I took a shower. Think they've fix that with these "flexible" phones? I doubt it... and it's a far more common cause of phone failure than braking the actual phone.
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There are many waterproof Android phones on the market worldwide. The problem is that US carriers are so restrictive and have such a small selection.
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http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/phones/xperia-active/ [sonymobile.com]
Shock resistant, water resistant. (You can't make one truly waterproof without getting rid of things like the USB/charging port and the earphone/mic port).
But - it's one of the poorest selling cell phones out there. So, the market has basically said, we don't want/need a waterproof phone.
Wearable computing (Score:2)
Yuck (Score:2)
Yuck. I don't want my phone, iPod or other devices bending. This sounds like it is going to be more fragile and less long lived. This sounds like more of the disposable society. Yuck.
I want durability. I want to buy a device and use it for years, pass it on in the family and have others be able to keep using it. I want devices that are durable and last, taking real world abuse.
A well, actually. (Score:3)
I felt it important to point out the correct acronym for flexible organic light emitting diode is FOLED.
We have to keep our acronyms straight, we're geeks! hahaha
Hardware keyboards (Score:2)
What about hardware keyboards? Does this mean they'll end up killing them? Have they found a way to make them flexible too?
Re:Not interested (Score:4, Interesting)
I've cracked the screen on my last 2 phones because of the stupid "gorilla glass". A flexible phone would be much more impervious to damage from being chucked around (accidentally or otherwise). I don't see how it's "weak minded" of me to want a more durable phone, while retaining the benefits of a smart phone.
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No more worry about cracked screens would be great. However there is a limit on utility that defines the form factor - we WANT big screens but it can't be too big or it's clumsy. I don't need a phone that rolls up - the new ones are flat enough to be unobtrusive.
Thinner and lighter are always nice, but damage resistance and battery life are bigger concerns.
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Thinner and lighter are always nice
I submit there is a point at where a device can be too light and thin with the way we need to interact with them. For me, the critiques over the iPhone 5 were right; it is too light. I would fumble that all around, though if it was flexible, perhaps it wouldn't matter but it seems you're just trading one problem for another. (That and call me when batteries become paper thin, let alone electrical contacts that are still good after being flexed a few tens of thousand times.)
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(That and call me when batteries become paper thin, let alone electrical contacts that are still good after being flexed a few tens of thousand times.)
Saw this yesterday... note the manufacturer.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/electric-wedgies-elastic-material-maintains-conductivity-when-stretched/ [arstechnica.com]
Re:Not interested (Score:5, Funny)
I've cracked the screen on my last 2 phones because of the stupid "gorilla glass"...
No, you cracked the screen on your last 2 phones because you are careless, so much so that they cracked in spite of being made of gorilla glass.
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Gorrilla glass is very hard, but as is the way with these things, it is also quite brittle.
It's true that I was careless to an extent in both situations (though I was exercising care the first time, just apparently not enough.. and it cracked after only falling 30cm), but that doesn't change the fact that I could do with a more durable phone. I don't just sit around on the computer all day, I quite often go outside and enjoy doing Parkour. Now usually my phone is in my bag when I do that, but if I happen to
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It's true that I was careless to an extent in both situations (though I was exercising care the first time, just apparently not enough.. and it cracked after only falling 30cm),
They make rubber 'phone covers for people like you. They cost about $0.99 each...
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Yup and I actually had one for my last phone, but I took it out to test something :p
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Lesson learned...? [ebay.com]
Re:Not interested (Score:5, Insightful)
No, you cracked the screen on your last 2 phones because you are careless, so much so that they cracked in spite of being made of gorilla glass.
I know people like this. Occasional accidents happen to everyone. Frequent and repeated damage is not an accident. Those who frequently smash gorilla glass will end up destroying a floppy phone just as quick. Oops, I dropped it in a blender. Oops, I dropped it on a burning grill.
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The only times I've dropped my phone have been Parkour related incidents. Though the first one was just moving my speakers, and it somehow managed to work its way loose from the groove it was placed in at the top. The second was my own fault, as I'd taken it out of its case and so it was slidier than usual and fell straight out of my pocket..
Indoors I always have my phone on a desk or table somewhere. I don't drop them in blenders/grills/toilets or anything like that.
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The second was my own fault, as I'd taken it out of its case and so it was slidier than usual and fell straight out of my pocket..
Not trying to be nit-picky here but I think you meant "more slippy" or "slippier" (though I believe this is an informal word). Just trying to help out, in case you are a non-native English speaker.
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So out of curiosity, where you at? Where have you heard/read/seen/do you see "slipperier", and where
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Well, there's here [merriam-webster.com]. So somebody is using it, and it is the proper comparative form of "slippery."
I personally take every opportunity to resist the American English tendency to form comparitives and superlatives with "more" and "most" for any multi-syllable word. Pleasanter, pleasantest. Cleverer, cleverest. Those are perfectly serviceable words, and sound more dignified* than the "more" and "most" forms. Why are we so loathe to use them?
*Even I won't go for "dignifieder," though. That's just silly.
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Apologies.
I need to wait a few hours before posting after waking. (Like forbidding oneself from
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I know people like this too.
Only they've deliberately thrown the phone on the floor in order to claim off the insurance and purchase a brand new higher-spec phone.
These people are dumb and only end up doing it once.
Dumb because they didn't read the small print about the £100 excess and the fact about "a phone of equivalent value", and the value has dropped below £100 since they bought it.
They now have no phone and it makes me smile.
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I think I already know from history that just isn't true. My "dumb" flip-phone is hanging in there just fine. I've dropped it a few times, but when Samsung made this in 2006 they used plastic (geniuses! who would think of this?!), and face it: plastic is awesome. This plastic just keeps on not breaking.
My glass tablet lasted a month. I am so glad I only spent $89 on it (no, a $200 one would not have survived be
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Stupid "gorilla glass"?
You do realize that it is designed to prevent scratches not you dropping it on concrete right? Glass is glass. This is why I am glad my phone has a raised edge around the screen. It has already saved it once before.
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Yes. The harder a substance is, the more easily it shatters when shocked. I'm not even talking about any foreign object touching the glass directly. Just dropping your phone and the shock being transferred through the case to the glass.
A "gel" type case is usually fine for stopping the shock from cracking the glass, but my phone happened to not be in its case recently. The back/home/task switch buttons were going crazy and so I'd taken it out of the case to see if that had anything to do with the problem. I
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That is why most phones do not have the edge of the glass touching the surrounding material so the energy transfer is not so direct.
As a general rule the insurance is not worth it. The prices to repair by the OEM are generally not that much more than the deductible you have to pay to get it replaced. Once you add in the fact that over two years you will have already paid for another device, it is doubly a ripoff.
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As a general rule the insurance is not worth it.
Insurance companies make profits.
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It's a company phone. The insurance premium is around 500GBP a year, and my phone cost about 350GBP, so it seems worth it to me.
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Your two statements are in conflict.
Unless you plan to destroy more than 1 phone per year you plainly state it is more expensive to insure than replace.
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Sorry, I didn't state things clearly: that policy currently covers at least 12 company mobiles.
When we had a lot of offshore workers, they'd lose/break phones on a regular basis, so it was worth it for us. I suppose they must have been making money selling refurbished models otherwise it wouldn't be worth it for the insurers..
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Yes, but I imagine it's not fun trying to hold a piece of paper that liked to bend all the time to your ear to take a call. Wonder what they've done to address that.
To me it sounds like it's going to be a big annoyance.
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It's weak minded because you haven't thought for even 3 seconds about ergonomics. How are you even going to hold this to your ear, let alone hold it, and tap on it with your other hand.
Also LG flexible eink (Score:2)
While I like the colour screen on my phone it really sucks that I can't even see the button to answer the thing in full sunlight.
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I would much prefer device cheaper to repair than prone to scratches on the display.
They need to become slightly more modular.
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I look forward to the day i can treat my smartphone the same way i used to treat my old Nokia dumb phone. Like the piece of low end consumer electronic it is. My cat's been gnawing at my new phone, and having a tooth sized hole where your home button used to be sucks ass. So grats on being impervious to marketing hype, i look forward to having a phone i don't have to watch over like a small child.
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What are your cat's teeth made off if they can chew through hardened glass?
Or is this button not capacitive?
Re:Not interested (Score:4, Interesting)
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I came here looking for this comment and someone commenting on the "Globals" device from Earth:Final Conflict.
It's a shame you're buried so deep!
Totally agree (Score:2)
A whole device that is floppy everywhere is just not a practical thing to use as a phone.
But that device, with fixed components that roll up a screen inside could be very practical while also giving you a much larger screen area than most pocket devices.
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Flexible mean a lot of things, like this old Nokia concepts [tuvie.com]. Flexibility could mean changing how you use it, and new ways to use it. An easy one could be folding it to have something manuable to use it as phone, but unfold it to use it like a tablet, but having shapes that enable to even wear them could change things.
What really would worry me is the user interface. As windows 8 clearly shows, an user interface not meant for the "natural" way you interact with a certain device (like putting a phone user in
Re:This will not be used for what they think (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever "killer feature" even means, I'm in for one.
Is that an old boner-phone in your pocket... (Score:3)
I agree with you, there is a good reason that wallets are NOT rigid cuboids, like phones currently are. Flexi-phones will disappear into the pocket far better.
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A bendable phone is a killer feature, because it prevents the damage from a 200-pound American sitting on a slab of glass.
Re:This will not be used for what they think (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, 200 lbs is considered heavy now? Uh-oh.
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...That actually wasn't supposed to be the inflammatory part. Give me a break; I haven't gotten my coffee yet.
200 pounds is enough to easily break a phone in one's back pocket. Americans are just dumb enough to do it repeatedly.
Re:This will not be used for what they think (Score:4, Informative)
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You make a good point. I don't recall [wikipedia.org] any Speedo-wearing whales at the Florida beaches...
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To be fair, they could have been French Canadians... they like to pack light: one bathing suit for the whole family.
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Anyway, I should clarify to everyone that's it's not that I'm pro-obesity or anything (fat !=beautiful), or that I deny America has an obesity problem (it does), it's just that I don't get why America gets singled out so much when it's a global issue. (That probably pretty much started in America due to "fast food" and junk snacks, but is now worldwide)
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It is if she's only five feet tall.
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I DON'T want my phone to bend. A rigid structure is very nice for a lot of reasons.
If you are reaching up to push a button on your phone, and it is held in a clamp (like a car-dock) You want it to be rigid so that it doesn't flex when you are pushing a button.
I currently use a case which has a silicone sleeve, and a rigid 'exoskeleton' design. The rigid exterior is very nice for distributing the force over a larger area, and the silicone acts as a great shock absorber. I'm certainly not going to stop usin
Re:This will not be used for what they think (Score:5, Funny)
Add a stylus and some handwriting recognition, then invent some kind of adhesive micropayment system and a physical distribution/collection network, and it could be used as a high latency message transmission system?
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We might even be able to use that system to make payments. We should check into that.
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Coolness is, by itself, a killer feature.
All Android phones do basically the same thing. Which one sells? The cool one.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Why would I care to have a flexible phone? What does this give me that a regular phone doesn't? These won't be "foldable" like a dollar bill so it won't go in my wallet. I doubt it would be durable enough to be indestructible so, again, why?
Because the phone would be more durable. Wouldn't be a big deal to keep it in your back pocket while sitting. And seeing as small as phones are now, I could see these being small enough to fit in your wallet. Ya, there ya go. A disposal backup phone you can keep in your wallet for emergencies.
Ever break a phone by dropping it? Won't have that problem with these phones.
You also forgot "get off my lawn" in your post.
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And get off my lawn (I knew I forgot something in my earlier post...)
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Why would I care to have a flexible phone? What does this give me that a regular phone doesn't? These won't be "foldable" like a dollar bill so it won't go in my wallet. I doubt it would be durable enough to be indestructible so, again, why?
Maybe a phone you can wear on your wrist, like an uber-geeky bracer? I'm picturing a form factor like one of those 'snap' bracelets, that remain rigid until you tap them against something, then they curl around whatever you tap them against. Want to work with the full screen? Just pull it off your wrist and go.
True, the (presumably rigid) battery pack and processor compartment would have to be pretty compact and cool-running to make this comfortable, but there are definitely some cool possibilities avail
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I can't tell if this is a serious question or if this is part of certain members of Slashdot's bizarre disdain for anything new but here goes:
I have a Galaxy Note 2. It has a 5.5 inch screen. This makes for a pretty large phone and when I'm carrying it I'm pretty aware that it's in my pocket. If it were flexible it would conform to the curve of my leg enough that it would be more comfortable to carry. So there, I hope that helps.
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Go get some paper and try your theory out. I assure you it cannot keep bending forever. Each bending and unbending does stress it and can damage it. The question is can this damage be minimized so the device can be used for at least 18 months, or made cheaply and easily replaced.
It depends on the bend (Score:2)