The Latest Apple Rumor Is AMAZING News for People With Cracked Screens
Everyone has suffered through a cracked iPhone screen — and there’s always an awful story to go with it. Despite the fact that the new iPhone 6S body is made with Apple’s incredibly strong custom aluminum alloy (no Bendgate 2.0!), the display on the phone is still the most vulnerable part. While the screen is Corningware Gorilla Glass 4, some of the toughest stuff on the market, it is still breakable. Last week, Apple filed for a patent that aims to stop your iPhone screen from shattering ever again.
Okay, maybe not EVER, but definitely reduce the chances considerably. Even Apple knows that cracking your screen is a total PITA. They wrote in their patent application, “Electronic devices, particularly portable electronic devices, may be subject to various drop events.” Yes, that’s what I call it when I accidentally fling my phone across a room when I’m waving at someone I know. A drop event.
They even provide instances in which this could happen: “For example, an electronic device may fall from a table, fly from a user’s hand when a user trips, and/or otherwise fall to the ground or other surface. Such drop events may damage glass layers and/or other fragile elements of screens included in the electronic devices. Repairing damage to screens may be expensive, burdensome, and/or impractical. ” We hear that, Apple.
The patent was titled “Active Screen Protection for Electronic Device,” and plans on building multiple “screen protectors” into the handset directly. The next time your phone hits the ground, an electronic “bumper system” will activate and the “screen protectors may move from the retracted to extended position” to keep you screen from shattering. These “screen protectors” are made with multiple “tabs” that will lay together flush behind the screen. Each of these “tabs” would “comprise at least one of plastic, plastic film, polyethylene terephthalate, a polymer, thin metal, or metal” and work to absorb the shock from the fall. Sounds amazing.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to shell out your hard-earned cash to get that damn cracked screen fixed again.
What do you think of this iPhone news? Tell us in the comments below!
(h/t Hello Giggles, photos via Apple)