Apple Patents Foldable Device With Movable Flaps To Prevent Display From Creasing

Apple this week has been granted a patent for a foldable device with a unique hinge mechanism that utilizes movable flaps to help prevent the display from being creased or damaged when folded. From a report: Published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today, the patent explains that the hinge mechanism would ensure adequate separation between the first and second portions of the display. When the device is unfolded, movable flaps would extend to cover the gap, and then retract when the device is folded. Early foldable smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Huawei's Mate X have noticeable creases along the bending portion of the display. Motorola's new foldable Razr avoids this issue with a unique hinge design, but early reviews indicate the device makes creaking sounds when opened or closed.

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[DontBeAMoran]

...snort a gigantic pile of plutonian nyborg.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

You're confusing a foldable with affordable.

[swirlingbrain]

There will be a flap when the iPhone display cracks.

Re: You're confusing a foldable with affordable.

[saloomy]

Apple has been the company taking new technology others develop and applying it in a way that works. They weren't the first MP3 player either, but iPod made it popular. Same thing with touch screen phones.

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[thegarbz]

Being popular and working are two different things. Remembering the early iPod fondly it offered space and a kids interface. But the alternatives on the market "worked" far better with support for various music formats, and best of all didn't need that god awful software to load it. But the iPod wasn't unique in its flaws. Sony's minidisc was even more horrid with it's proprietary software.

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[tlhIngan]

Being popular and working are two different things. Remembering the early iPod fondly it offered space and a kids interface. But the alternatives on the market "worked" far better with support for various music formats, and best of all didn't need that god awful software to load it. But the iPod wasn't unique in its flaws. Sony's minidisc was even more horrid with it's proprietary software.

Negative. When the iPod came out, you had the Rios, the Nomad and the Korean original one. They all came with jukebox s

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[Joce640k]

Oh, it was iPod that made mp3 popular?

Thanks for the info.

One of many unused Apple Patents

[jellomizer]

Apple Patents stuff all the time, Apple fanatics (including the haters and lovers) over analyses every patent that comes out figuring it will be part of their next updated product.

Most of the time, little or nothing happens to them. Either because implementation is too expensive, it just doesn't work, or can be implemented robustly.

One of the past Apple Patents I remember was a USB - A connector that can take a USB device plugged in at any direction. The patent had the connectors bend to fit the device. While USB plugs you seem to need to flip them 540 degrees in 180 degree implements for it to fit. This seemed a like a good idea. However Apple decided to move to thunderbolt and USB-C. Also I expect having a bending component in a connector would have excessive wear.

There are often a lot of good inventions that solve a problem. However sometimes there is a solution better then that invention.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Necessity is the mother of invention, but nobody ever talks about the father.

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[twocows]

That's certainly true, but considering their competition is pushing foldable crap, I don't think it'd be a stretch to suppose they might try to do the same. Or maybe they won't, but they'll sell or license the tech to Samsung so Samsung's foldable crap can be slightly less crap.

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[jellomizer]

Apple has been a rather conservative company in pushing technology. They may make a fancy out of the box design, but it is from mostly well tested and proven technology.
The most surprising thing from Apple was the iPhone with a multi-touch display. As Multi-touch was a new technology.

However Apple has been provided with proven technology, and their advantage was when they implement it all the lessons learns other companies had found out was implemented.

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[tlhIngan]

Apple has been a rather conservative company in pushing technology. They may make a fancy out of the box design, but it is from mostly well tested and proven technology.
The most surprising thing from Apple was the iPhone with a multi-touch display. As Multi-touch was a new technology.

However Apple has been provided with proven technology, and their advantage was when they implement it all the lessons learns other companies had found out was implemented.

That's because Apple is popular. New technology that ju

Re: One of many unused Apple Patents

[aRTeeNLCH]

That's because Apple is popular. New technology that just comes out may work for techies, but you can't bring it to the masses without massive headaches. Think of it this way - a folding screen may appeal to few Samsung owners - let's say they sell 100,000 units. If 0.1% had a problem, that's only 100 phones sold. Now bring that to Apple's scale, who can sell 20M units. Suddenly it rises from 100 phones to 20,000 phones. 20,000 users that are unhappy with the technology with the exposure Apple gets will b

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[UnknowingFool]

Multi-touch itself wasn’t new as Apple purchased those patents from FingerWorks when they bought out the company. What Apple did was adapt FingerWorks technology who made multi-touch peripherals.

FaceID is also an adaptation of PrimeSense’s technology. PrimeSense previously licensed their tech to MicroSoft as the Kinect motion sensor. FaceID is really a Kinect shrunk down considerably and using much more precise 3D mapping.

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[Anubis IV]

Yeah, my favorite patent-that-never-was of Apple's was a set of designs by which a device like an iPhone could be plugged into a chassis. On the go? It's just your phone, like normal. Want a desktop work environment? Plug it into something resembling an all-in-one PC chassis with a keyboard, mouse, and big screen monitor or two, perhaps even with an external GPU or whatnot to beef it up, and control it like a standard PC. Want a more mobile work environment? Plug into a laptop-shaped chassis where the multi

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[DontBeAMoran]

With time, however, the idea becomes less and less likely as services get better and better at automatically syncing our documents and preferences between devices.

Online services which can be sold as subscriptions, i.e. recurring revenues.

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[tlhIngan]

Yeah, my favorite patent-that-never-was of Apple's was a set of designs by which a device like an iPhone could be plugged into a chassis. On the go? It's just your phone, like normal. Want a desktop work environment? Plug it into something resembling an all-in-one PC chassis with a keyboard, mouse, and big screen monitor or two, perhaps even with an external GPU or whatnot to beef it up, and control it like a standard PC. Want a more mobile work environment? Plug into a laptop-shaped chassis where the multi

Umm

[NicknameUnavailable]

That type of hinge has been in use for awhile.

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[organgtool]

But this is ON A DISPLAY!

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[DontBeAMoran]

Looking at photos of the Kyocera Echo, all I can think of is "Nintendo DS".

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Sorry, not a foldable display.

[bjwest]

This isn't a foldable display, it's a duel display system that can close via a special (not new special, however) hinge. Of course, it will probably hold up in today's corrupt court system.