Handset manufacturers are looking to foldable phones as the next big step in the smartphone design.
As you know by now, there are already some upcoming devices such as Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X which are showing users what the future holds regarding the next-gen phones.
It seems that Apple has been also getting ready to join this wave of innovation in the latest phone revolution, TechRadar notes.
Working on an internal heating system for a folding device
The US Patent Office published a patent filing that offers some more proof that a folding iPhone is currently in the works, as reported by Patently Apple.
The latest patent application seems to be exclusively focused on an internal heating system for a folding device’s hinge.
Apple seems to be trying to prevent cold foldable displays from cracking, and they’re doing this by bringing warmth into the mix.
“To facilitate bending about the bend axis without damage when the display is cold, a portion of the display that overlaps the bend axis may be selectively heated,” says Apple’s application, which can be read on Justia Patents.
The application says that “the bend axis may be self-heated by illuminating pixels in the portion of the display that overlaps the bend axis or may be heated using a heating element or other heating structure that provides heat to the portion of the display overlapping the bend axis.”
The patent continues and describes a latching mechanism that prevents the opening and closing of the electronic device when the temperature is below one that has been predetermined.
The application refers to the temperature of the portion of the display that overlaps the bend axis.
The foldable device from Apple is not a sure thing yet
Anyway, it’s important to understand that there is no way of knowing whether any of the tech will be actually used eventually.
TechRadar says this because the patent application’s submission dates back to December 2017.
On the other hand, there have been some rumors back in 2018 which were predicting a foldable iPhone to launch sometime in 2020. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.
After finishing Theatrical Journalism at the Faculty of Theatre and Television in Cluj-Napoca, Rada reviewed movies, books, theatre pieces and she also wrote articles from the IT niche as a content editor for software producers. At the moment, she is working with various online advertising firms.
