The Next iPhone Will Have Wireless Charging, Says Apple Supplier (9to5mac.com) 124
Robert Hwang, CEO of a large iPhone manufacturing company in India, has let slip that the upcoming iPhone will have wireless charging. Hwang told reporters after the company's shareholder's meeting: "Assembly process for the previous generations of [iPhones] have not changed much, though new features like waterproof and wireless charging now require some different testing, and waterproof function will alter the assembly process a bit." 9to5Mac reports: Just this week, new glass panels purporting to be from the upcoming iPhones have given us another glimpse into the devices' designs. Showing off an iPhone 7s, 7s Plus, and iPhone 8, the images indicated that the glass back panels would open the door for wireless charging across all the devices. According to Hwang, Wistron's India facility is currently making "a small number" of handsets for Apple. He states the growth in manufacturing will hinge on relations between Apple and the Indian government.
fantastic (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:fantastic (Score:5, Funny)
No Ports At All! (Score:2)
Re: No Ports At All! (Score:2)
That could maybe work, if you didn't want to do any real browsing or play games.
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i remember a phone i used to have without a screen.... must have been a few years ago. i guess thats about right for tech as it is for fashion
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I know, right. It was tried and abandoned as an expensive gimmick.
QI Pro: MicroUSB is fragile and annoying to plug in the right way. /just/ right on the pad.
QI Neg: USB-C solves the problem better and more reliably than getting the charging coil
However, if they're going to remove the Lightning connector entirely to get a properly waterproof phone... then you're stuck with wireless charging (good luck)
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I know, right. It was tried and abandoned as an expensive gimmick.
QI Pro: MicroUSB is fragile and annoying to plug in the right way. QI Neg: USB-C solves the problem better and more reliably than getting the charging coil /just/ right on the pad.
However, if they're going to remove the Lightning connector entirely to get a properly waterproof phone... then you're stuck with wireless charging (good luck)
I hope they have a way of wired charging. Wireless charging is terribly inefficient, and I don't have to place my phone in some exacting sweet spot where if I don't, it will just continue to discharge.
Wireless charging is an age old technology that has been abandoned every time it has been tried. It's the flying car of charging techniques.
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Yeah, I doubt they'll really go that way, rapid charging is just too convenient and how would you use an external battery pack?
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There are wireless charging packs available. Kind of pointless, but they've been made.
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... and how would you use an external battery pack?
Why would you use an external battery pack when you can just carry a second phone?
Re: fantastic (Score:1)
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Rapid charge - benefits in regard to time, negative in regard to needing cables, data-loss risk, potential damage from people plugging into random power supplies
wireless charging - benefits in regard to simplicity of use (assuming your phone supports), greatly reduced data loss risk, greatly reduced risk of damage from charger. negative is the much lower number of wireless charging stations available and providing your own requires a cable + charge pad.
Each serves their own nice. I'd love being able to dr
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Wireless charging is an age old technology that has been abandoned every time it has been tried. It's the flying car of charging techniques.
Samsung may disagree with you there.
While I do usually charge via wire, it's awfully handy to plot my phone down in mcdonalds, starbucks, and elsewhere on a charge pad and let it charge while i eat/drink/use my phone...without having to bring a wire or deal with the (inevitably broken, data-risk) cables/charger provided by someone else.
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I wirelessly charged a Nexus 5 for years. Then an S8.
Works great. No issues.
Maybe if you use one that's designed properly or built some time after the 18th century you'd get along with it, luddite.
Maybe if you understood the laws of physics.
It's a transformer primary on the charging pad, a secondary inside the phone, and it performs the age old inductive coupleling transformer effect. It's about as cutting edge as vacuum tubes. There is nothing high tech about it. If given the choice between filling the space taken up by the secondary coil or battery, I'd take battery any day.
It's also terribly inefficient, and requires much more precision coupling than plugging into a cord or placing in a char
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If you're going to describe something objective measurable, don't use subjective wording. 60-70% efficiency is what Qi is reported as having.
70% isn't the same as a wire's high 90's% but at low ~5-10w power levels it's not anything to lose sleep over. The power 'cost' is minimal vs. the convenience gained for those who care of such things.
Also, you do understand that transformers (and lots of other "ancient" tech) have progressed since their original invention I hope. Hint: No laws of physics broken, bu
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However, if they're going to remove the Lightning connector entirely to get a properly waterproof phone... then you're stuck with wireless charging (good luck)
Uh huh. My Kyocera Hydro Vibe, from 2014, is "Certified dust resistant and waterproof for IP57 - protection against dust and water immersion for up to 30 minutes in up to 3.28 feet (1 meter) of water" *and* has wireless charging *and* has a headphone jack.
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your improving apple
How is your/you're so difficult?
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your improving apple
How is your/you're so difficult?
In this case, "your" could actually be grammatically correct if intended in the same way as "your average bear". Still, I don't understand why pronoun/contraction confusion is so prevalent.
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2013? The Palm Pre had wireless charging back in 2009. It was shit. Completely unreliable and prone to breaking.
The value you get from Apple is not that they are the first to do things. It's that they usually wait until something can be done well and then they are the first to do things in such a way that the masses are happy. Apple weren't the first with a smartphone, or a mobile browser, or a tablet, or an online music store, or a fingerprint reader, or any number of other things. But they were the
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2013? The Palm Pre had wireless charging back in 2009. It was shit. Completely unreliable and prone to breaking.
Really? My experience was the exact opposite. Unlike the Qi standard used today, the Pre's system had magnets to snap the phone into the correct alignment, eliminating the biggest complaint about wireless charging on Android.
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wireless charging! Welcome to 2013! your improving apple, only a few years behind everyone else now.
Apple is always the first. When it isn't, it is the first to "do it right".
In the case of wireless charging, the technology exists but it is lacking courage. I mean, the regular charging port is still there.
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2013?
Palm debuted the Pre at the 2009 .
Hwang, Bob Hwang. (Score:5, Funny)
The Next iPhone Will Have Wireless Charging, Says Apple Supplier
Everyone here is dancing about like five-year-olds on Christmas morning.
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Apple invented wireless charging... (or maybe they're just re-inventing it... or just copying something I have been using for five years now.)
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Apple invented wireless charging... (or maybe they're just re-inventing it... or just copying something I have been using for five years now.)
Well Mister High technology Android user, Wireless technology has been around ever since transformers, it's as exciting as salt water. And if it sticks around this time, it will be a first.
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Wireless charging sucked.
But, now Apple did it,
It's great!. It just works(tm)
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Wireless charging sucked.
But, now Apple did it,
It's great!. It just works(tm)
No, Apple or no Apple, it sucks.
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My Sonicare toothbrush has been wirelessly charging every night for 15 years.
Wow. So Android didn't have it first. 8^)
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i might have a Tesla coil lying around somewhere.
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After 10 years of asking (Score:1)
Apple announces that it maybe will do it on the next version, unless they change their mind at the last minute.
Wireless is not what you hope.. (Score:2)
I'm betting that it is nothing but a pad that you lay your phone on instead of having to plug it in... Something that My Samsung Note 4 can already do if you have the right third party equipment. Trust me, this will only make chargers a whole lot more expensive.
Where I welcome the water proof part, I wonder what this means to how you sync your phone now? Are they removing the lighting connector or just adding the necessary elements to capture power from a magnetic field....
Power from a magnetic field (Score:2)
Re: That was DURACELL POWERMAT, not quantum. (Score:2)
I don't think that's how it would work. Seriously, have you seen people's obsession with their phones? Nobody is going to share power, that'd be like asking a fat person for their last bite of cake. You're asking them to share their crack.
Re: Wireless is not what you hope.. (Score:2)
I will be honest, wired syncing isnâ(TM)t much of a thing anymore for a lot of people. I havenâ(TM)t synced this phone with iTunes at all since I got it. Everything is over wireless including backups.
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I'm betting that it is nothing but a pad that you lay your phone on instead of having to plug it in... Something that My Samsung Note 4 can already do if you have the right third party equipment. Trust me, this will only make chargers a whole lot more expensive.
Where I welcome the water proof part, I wonder what this means to how you sync your phone now? Are they removing the lighting connector or just adding the necessary elements to capture power from a magnetic field....
Most people sync over WiFi.
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I had the Nexus 4, and the wireless charging was one of the best things about it. So useful to just set the phone down on my desk and have it charge. I was disappointed to hear that feature was going away.
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Because Android phones have that feature and Apple has forgotten how to innovate.
You are not a technical person in the least, gauging from that statement.
Wireless charging as an innovation was around a long time ago. It never caught on because it is terribly inefficient, and you have to have the charging device closely coupled to the dock or pad.
It's like 3D films, Everyone cums in their pants about it every 30 years or so. Then it fades away.
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So... you agree with me? This is a useless feature and the only reason Apple is implementing it is because Android did it first and Apple wants to match Android bullet for bullet.
Did you watch the most recent WWDC keynote? Literally everything they covered was done elsewhere first. They introduced nothing. Even their "and one more thing" was literally a clone of a product two other companies already made!
The only reason they're adding wireless charging is because Android has it. It isn't a compelling featur
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So... you agree with me? This is a useless feature and the only reason Apple is implementing it is because Android did it first and Apple wants to match Android bullet for bullet.
I don't presume to know the reasons Apple does anything. I do know I don't want it because it is as you say, a useless feature - a step backwards as far as I am concerned.
Did you watch the most recent WWDC keynote? Literally everything they covered was done elsewhere first.
But what does that mean? Does it mean that whoever did it first gets 10 extra years of life or something? In the world of smartphones, I need the thing to work, to make phone calls, to text, to email to give me driving guidance, and occa
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Well, the main one, and most obvious, is lack of wires.
I have my phone on a stand next to my bed. It's very, very convenient to be able to roll over and grab it in the morning, or if I get a call late at night, and not rip the cord out of the socket.
Note - I did have contact charging (like pogo-plug) on my last phone (Sony) and that was OK too but more sensitive to alignment.
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Not having to worry about phone/cord destruction. I had an htc evo something something (the one with the kickstand) for a long while and it was great. Until the dog ran over to my nightstand and then dragged my phone off with him having it land directly on the usb port, killing the port. Switching to built-in wireless charging (like on my nexus 5) means you can just throw your phone down and your done and not have to worry about destroying a usb port, and if it somehow gets busted you can still use your pho
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Does wireless charging offer any advantage at all over wired charging, besides looking cool?
If they eliminate all other ports, then the phone strength & integrity skyrockets. No more ports that might leak, or stress points where the casing could crack. Form factor becomes more flexible too. Still a few more to remove, plus they will need to build the SIM in and have that programmable.
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Does wireless charging offer any advantage at all over wired charging, besides looking cool?
Not wearing out a connector.
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Its about time apple invented this (Score:1)
When it comes to phones I am only on my 2nd smartphone as I hang on to them a long long time, both have had wireless charging, and I have been using it for years, but I was scared
why? you may ask, well obviously it has not been invented yet, as apple devices do not have this privilege. I was scared that any moment my house would be raided by government agents thinking I was engaged in industrial espionage and a time traveler. Now I have no fear of that as its now been invented, and I can live a normal life
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If you want to know what will be in the new Iphone in 18-24 months, look at what Android has now, the caveat is that only some of what Android has will be permitted.
Pretty sure my old Nexus 4 had wireless charging and that was released in late 2012.
Re:But which standard? (Score:4, Informative)
Obligatory Samsung Ad (Score:2)
But we're gonna get that... [youtube.com]
Move Out of the Way (Score:2)
Aren't Apple customers 100% renewable energy types (Score:2)
Sounds about right for all the right thinking SJWs that seem to be running things now.
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Edison's light bulbs were nowhere near 20% efficient. We only just recently figured out encasing the filament with an IR-reflective/visible-transparent glass can (over a short period of time) bring the efficiency close to that of LED at true blackbody output.
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Poor guess. It's closer to 60 to 70% efficiency into the battery for Qi.
Not to mention that smartphone energy efficiency has been improving and their use is offsetting a lot of PC/laptop use that consumes an order of magnitude or two more energy.
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Wireless charging is what, 20% efficient. So ra ra on the windmills and solar energy, but we're gonna charge our phones at a worse efficiency than Edison's light bulbs cuz it's too hard to plug in a cable.
Wireless charging is simply a marketing ploy, I mean wireless internet is a great thing, so now with wireless charging, I'll just walk around the house and my phone will always be charged, amiright?
When in truth, its just that one side of a transformer is inside the dock or pad, and the other side is inside the telephone. Which makes for a piss-poor transformer at best, and loses efficiency the further one coil gets from the other, and takes up valuable space that might be better used for say - a bigger
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The micro-usb port stopped working on my Nexus 7 (2013). The battery was already completely drained, of course, and it seemed like the tablet and all the files that were on it were lost. Then I found out it supports wireless charging, spent $10 on a pod and the tablet is still going to this day.
Sure, it's slow and inefficient and you have to place the tablet just right (configured it to go 'ding' when it starts charging, that helps). I wouldn't pick it as the primary means of charging a new device, but I ce
Re: Aren't Apple customers 100% renewable energy t (Score:2)
It has been a long, long time since university. But, I seem to recall that distance is also a factor - and that even seemingly small distances add up quickly. Inverse square, I think?
Which means I'm not willing to speculate on how efficient this will be in real-world use.
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It has been a long, long time since university. But, I seem to recall that distance is also a factor - and that even seemingly small distances add up quickly. Inverse square, I think?
Which means I'm not willing to speculate on how efficient this will be in real-world use.
Indeed they do add up quickly. The energy transfer will get so low as to be useless in short order.
The closest I can get to the concept of a useable wireless charger is similar to a physical dock, where you drop the phone into it, with little slots that align the two parts of the transformer. But then, that would be kinda like the docks that Police and Hams plug their handheld devices into. I have several. And they work quickly and flawlessly. The difference is that they have actual contacts. And most ar
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It has been a long, long time since university. But, I seem to recall that distance is also a factor - and that even seemingly small distances add up quickly. Inverse square, I think?
Which means I'm not willing to speculate on how efficient this will be in real-world use.
Yes. Inverse-square law.
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That not true for wireless phone charging:
1) It operates in the near field where the inverse square law doesn't apply.
2) The electric and magnetic forces are uncoupled and it's not streaming radiation out like a light bulb. The energy oscillates between the antenna and the near field.
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That not true for wireless phone charging:
1) It operates in the near field where the inverse square law doesn't apply.
2) The electric and magnetic forces are uncoupled and it's not streaming radiation out like a light bulb. The energy oscillates between the antenna and the near field.
I'm not sure what the definition of "near" is. But I am pretty sure that, anytime there isn't a "direct" (wired) connection, inverse-square applies.
Prove me wrong. Show me a cite.
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... and my guess is that the slashdotters that love it are merely rhapsodizing about it as a feature count because they hate everything Apple, or perhaps don't understand that as a technical solution, its right up there with green ketchup.
And my guess is that you run off on a rant without actually having used a wireless charger with your phone regularly.
Wireless charging is a silly feature on paper. And I find it nice and convenient in practice.
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I agree: I've been using wireless charging since the end of 2012 when I got my Note2, and it's a required feature for me. Why would I want to deal with plugging in my device every time I set it down? I just set it on it's charger, roughly centered, and there's no penalty for picking it up again.
Free! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!!
Are you by any chance that person on the First World Problems meme?
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... and my guess is that the slashdotters that love it are merely rhapsodizing about it as a feature count because they hate everything Apple, or perhaps don't understand that as a technical solution, its right up there with green ketchup.
And my guess is that you run off on a rant without actually having used a wireless charger with your phone regularly.
Wireless charging is a silly feature on paper. And I find it nice and convenient in practice.
I don't need nor want a wireless charger. Some of my most important uses of my iPhone are for driving guidance. Long days, brightness up full, volume up full, the phone sitting in a cradle, plugged in to it's charger (my Jeep has an inverter in it). How am I going to do that with a wireless charger? Aside from a ridiculous looking kludge.
I don't recall ever saying it doesn't work. I have said often it is a silly solution that is inefficient, and steals valuable interior phone space, and you can't charge
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2) Blame SJWs
Really, the biggest waste with mobile phones is people replacing them if they don't need to.
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Wireless charging is what, 20% efficient. So ra ra on the windmills and solar energy, but we're gonna charge our phones at a worse efficiency than Edison's light bulbs cuz it's too hard to plug in a cable.
Sounds about right for all the right thinking SJWs that seem to be running things now.
Transformers are typically above 90% efficient; so why would wireless charging be so abysmally Inefficient?
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Transformers usually have an iron core, wireless charging is effectively an air core (much less efficient), plus there is the potential for misalignment which will reduce efficiency.
We're talking "ideal systems" here. Misalignments need not apply.
And I'm not sure if the core material has much effect, depending on the frequencies involved. And I believe that wireless chargers generally operate in the high kiloHertz up to low GigaHertz regions. I'm not sure iron-core transformers work very well at those frequencies.
Inverse Square Law Death Match (Score:3)
I cannot wait for parasitic devices and ideas begin to feed off each other and off us, locked in a desperate struggle where tactics of escalation and power status notifications ---- not useful work --- becomes their primary function. Health monitors that damage health to charge and increase market share. Wearable devices that charge from human motion deliver shocks to cause motion, leaving a trail of sugar-depleted corpses. Wireless charged devices send "kill shots" to other devices to harness their chargers. WiFi parasites trigger encrypted porn downloads to maximize state-changes and harvest more energy. AT&T sends another circular trying to get us to switch to DirectTV. AT&T installs public megawatt Wifi outside your home to explode competitor's routers. Implantable devices that gather energy from tissue and decrease the nutrition of breast milk. speedtest.net consumes all traffic. Humans become minor players in symbiosis to ensure that Lithium-ion batteries reproduce. Cloud architecture virtualizes to the point of singularity when not a bit of actual hardware can be found. Interesting times.
Also see: The Time Rift of 2100: How We lost the Future --- and Gained the Past. [slashdot.org]
(rejected by WIRED Magazine!)
Former Apple supplier (Score:3)
Leak different.
another iStandard? (Score:2, Flamebait)
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Not exclusively - they're also announcing a partnership with Elon Musk's Powerwall system, or you can charge your iDevice by laying it on one of those stupid-ass solar roads from that video that every idiot was posting to Facebook a couple years ago.
Physicists and Marketing experts are giving 5:4 odds that the level of hype in the product announcement will collapse in upon itself, forming a black hole of hype, with all press coverage unable to escape the event horizon.
Form Over Function (Score:1)
Apple is doing their customers a huge disservice. The decision to move to wireless charging places aesthetics before utility in an effort to create a device without ports, connectors or holes in the chassis in what can only be described as masturbatory design.
Nearly all of Apples competitors - Namely high end Android devices like the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S8 and coming Note 8, LG, Motorola, Sony, HTC, etc - Are ALL using 15,18+ watt turbochargers that can recharge your device incredibly fast over ch
Re: Form Over Function (Score:2)
It will still have a lightning port and it will use standard (Qi) charging. Don't waste your words.
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Probably not
You misspelt "of course not".
Innovation! (Score:1)
Palm Pre (Score:1)
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The Palm Pre had this in 2012. Innovation, or Apple licensing HP technology?
The Palm Pre came out in 2009, and had wireless charging as an option from the beginning. (Required buying the charger and a replacement back with the charging coil.) The Pre Plus was about 6 months later, and included the charging back.
Plugless Charging! (Score:1)
Stop calling it wireless charging. there are wires. It's plugless charging.
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Stop calling it wireless charging. there are wires. It's plugless charging.
If this becomes popular, you'll start seeing restaraunt tables having "plugless" charging. Everyone keeps their phone on the table anyway (an annoying habit, but now the status quo), so making them charge will be nice.
Revolutionary! (Score:1)
Oooh, whats next?
Some kind of magic connector, that when you plug it in to a computer allows you to drag and drop files directly into the device?
Some kind of futuristic transparent material, like regular window-glass but that doesn't break immediately if you drop it?
Like some kind of magic diamond goblet?
And the whole phone is covered by it, instead of regular window-glass?
hmmm.. (Score:2)
Maybe so... (Score:2)
So ... like my [almost] 2-year-old Samsung, then? (Score:1)
abandon iphone 7 (Score:1)