Duh: Of Course the iPhone 6 Plus Can Bend in Your Pocket

Duh: Of Course the iPhone 6 Plus Can Bend in Your Pocket

Christina Bonnington

Wired

Some iPhone 6 Plus users are discovering their handsets do something Apple isn’t advertising: Bending. Yes, a few phablets are
bowing slightly after being kept in back pockets and then sat upon.

You could say it’s a pocket-sized controversy, and you’d (mostly) be right. Considering the device is just over a quarter-inch thick and made largely of aluminum, a flexible metal, the fact this jumbo iPhone will bend when great pressure is placed on it for extended periods is a bit of a well, duh . It’s something that happens, albeit rarely, to iPhone 5s and iPad owners.

If you do manage to torque your spendy, bendy new iPhone 6 Plus, there could be consequences. Batteries and displays are not meant to bend, unless they’re designed to do so from the outset, like the curved LG G Flex smartphone (which even has special curved batteries to accommodate its form factor).

“LCDs are made with delicate front and back glass panels. Even if they don’t break, putting mechanical stress on them could affect the critical alignment between the front and back glass layers, which would then significantly affect the display performance and image quality,” said Raymond Soneira, a display expert and president of DisplayMate. Soneira recently published a detailed analysis of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus’ displays compared to other leading mobile displays on the market.
If your display panel gets damaged, you could experience issues like brightness irregularities at the edge of the screen, dead pixels, or colors striping across the screen.

In particular, lithium-ion batteries cannot withstand the stress of repeated bendings and will explode if you say, bent your iPhone back and forth over and over and over again. One kid did just that in 2011. But iFixit’s Kyle Wiens says iPhone 6 Plus owners shouldn’t have to worry about this because there’s a metal plate between the display and the battery.

Soneira agrees, saying that for minor stresses, the phone’s display assembly should hold up just fine thanks to its metal rear casing. Third-party device insurer SquareTrade did find the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are Apple’s most durable iPhones yet . But, as with dropping any phone, sometimes even a minor fall can create the wrong kind of stress.

If you insist on sitting on your iPhone 6 Plus, Soneira recommends placing it in your pocket with its back facing your backside. “The cover glass [on the display] should do a good job of protecting the frontside from whatever you are sitting on,” Soneira says. But considering your new phone cost at least $300 , why take the chance? Take it out of your pocket before sitting down, or invest in a new blazer or jacket that has a dedicated smartphone pocket.

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Is Justin Bieber Trying to Be an Actor

SPLASH NEWS

Justin Bieber showed off his acting skills in his music video for "As Long As You Love Me," but we never thought the Bieber had any serious acting plans — until we saw him on set with acclaimed actor David Hasselhoff! But according to the Daily Mirror, he was actually shooting a music video for his collaboration with Cody Simpson.

"It came about because Justin is a huge fan of The Hoff. He thinks he's a legend," their source said. "He put the idea up and then the video writer loved it."

Back in 2010, the singer appeared on an episode of CSI, but he hasn't really pushed an acting career since. However, his new music video definitely seems like a mini-action movie. We wonder if he caught a taste of the acting bug now that he's with Selena Gomez. She does both!

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Are The Jonas Brothers Jealous of Nick Jonas' Success

Credit: GETTY IMAGES

 According to Radar Online, Joe Jonas and Kevin Jonas aren't happy about their younger brother's success.

“His brothers are incredibly jealous of him," their source said. “Nick has always carried the group and he was always the center of attention and He is the best looking out of them  He is also by far the most talented.”

While he initiated the band's break-up, their split seemed amicable. But apparently, that's not true!

“There has been a lot of tension between them lately. Joe doesn’t like being around him because Nick gets all of the attention and it bothers Joe.”

The younger JoBro has definitely been on a roll recently, releasing new music and announcing his solo album and tour. Even though he's been more public than Joe or Kevin, these brothers have always been close. We can't imagine they would be angry that he's happily doing his own thing!

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Was Ariana Grande a Monster at Her Photo Shoot

The rumors about Ariana Grande's diva behavior continues! After being accused of causing one of her employees to quit, a source told Page Six that she was a “monster” during a recent photo shoot for Marie Claire, and horrible to everyone on set.

However, a rep from the magazine said that the "Problem" singer was anything but.

“She did not postpone the shoot and nothing about her arrival time was a surprise to us. She was professional and accommodating and she posed for photos with editor Anne Fulenwider’s kids," they said.

Since Ariana has always surprised us with her heartwarming fan messages and surprise song releases, we're glad these rumors have been debunked!

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iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can bend in pockets, users complain

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can bend in pockets, users complain

Samuel Gibbs

The Guardian

The bigger screens but thinner bodies of Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models have come at the cost of rigidity, according to owners who say they bent while being carried in trouser pockets.
A number of users across various forums, sites and Twitter have reported – and pictured – that their phones have become warped after they sat or bent down with them in front and rear trouser pockets.
The reports come just after an insurance company claimed that the new iPhones are the most robust ever – though its tests didn’t include bending.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus chassis is milled from a solid piece of aluminium alloy whose composition is secret. The weak area of the phone appears to be around the volume buttons, where the frame is at its thinnest and creates a fulcrum point around which the phone bends. Surprisingly, the screen does not break when the phone bends – though it does if the phone is then bent back to a flat profile.
Apple is not the first to have the problem of a large-screened metal-framed smartphone bending under use. Sony’s Xperia Z1, which had a 5in screen and a metal frame, saw users complaining that they bent in pockets, while Samsung Galaxy S4 users had similar complaints, as did BlackBerry Q10 users.

The exact number of iPhone 6 users affected is unknown. The Guardian found dozens of people on Twitter whose iPhone 6 or 6 Plus had bent – though there are also hundreds more echoing news reports and the pictures put up by those who have been affected.

Testing by Unbox Therapy showed that the iPhone 6 Plus can be bent by applying substantial force by hand.

The amount of force required to bend the smartphone is unlikely to be repeated in all but the skinniest of trousers. Before conducting the test, Lewis Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy said his 6 Plus showed signs of being bent simply from being in his trouser pocket.
The Guardian’s testing of the phones over the past two weeks has not revealed any tendency towards deformation when normal care is taken.


Apple had not replied to request for comment by the time of publication.
Hilsenteger conducted a similar test with the 5.7in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet, which warped to a lesser extent and then came back into shape due to its primarily plastic construction. The Note 3 is 2.5mm thicker than the iPhone 6 Plus, which is 7mm thick.

‘Bigger and more durable than any before them’

Reports of the phones’ bending comes as SquareTrade, which offers extended warranties on products, concluded that the new iPhones were the most robust yet in its “breakability” rating. The company put the phones through submersion in water, drops and sliding tests.

“Both new iPhones are bigger and more durable than any before them,” the SquareTrade spokesman said in the YouTube video of the company’s testing regime. “The iPhone 6 passed all of our tests with flying colours. The iPhone 6 Plus also did extremely well but it’s so big that it lost points for gripability and size, and didn’t do quiet as well in our drop test.”


A dissembling or “teardown” by repair specialists iFixit showed that Apple has made durability improvements to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with rubber gaskets around buttons to help prevent water and dust entering and causing damage. Other manufacturers including Sony and Samsung have made their smartphones including the Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5 resistant to brief submersion in water. Apple hasn’t made any claims about water resistance for the new iPhones.

Smartphones bending under pressure in the pocket is not a new thing. Phones whose frames are made of metal are most susceptible and noticeable because the metal permanently deforms - rather than rebounding or snapping as plastic does.

‘Weakness of the new iPhone’

Previous iPhones, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, have suffered from bending, with users complaining about the problem in 2010, 2012 and last year via Apple’s official internet forums.
But the larger and thinner the smartphone, the more likely it is to be damaged by being carried in the pocket under tension.

“In material bending, larger cross-sectional areas [thickness x width] and shorter lengths make things stronger - you can’t easily bend a cube - while the opposite makes things very easy to bend – paper is easily folded,” Jeremy Irons, a design engineer at Creative Engineering explained to Gizmodo. “The increased length and decreased thickness contribute to the weakness of the new iPhone. Strength is proportionally related to length, but strength is affected much more by changes in thickness.”

The thinner and larger the phones get the more susceptible to damage they are likely to be, regardless of how strong the materials used in the phones to reinforce them. Being thin makes large phones more pocketable, but users need to think about the stress and strain in tight pockets as they sit down, regardless of whether they carry them in the back or front pockets.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to go on sale in 140 countries by the end of October

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to go on sale in 140 countries by the end of October

by Steven Parker

Neowin

Samsung has officially confirmed that the Note 4 will go on sale in South Korea on September 26, and further added that it plans to release it in 140 countries by the end of October. In the U.S., the new Note will be sold via Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular where it'll be available for $299.99 on a two-year contract.

The Galaxy Note 4 will be the next iteration in Samsung's popular phablet line. The Note 4 features a 5.7" Quad HD Super AMOLED display, 2.7GHz Quad-core processor, 3GB RAM, 16MP camera, 3.7MP front-facing camera, and a 3220mAh battery. While the handset might not be as a bold and daring as the Galaxy Note Edge, it will still offer a robust set of features, powered by an immense set of specifications.

“As the originator of the Note category, Samsung takes immense pride and responsibility” said Mr. DJ Lee, President and Head of Sales & Marketing of the IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Mobile. “[the] Galaxy Note 4, which maximizes the usability of the large screen and S Pen, will take mobile user experience to a whole new level.”

Samsung will also probably be keeping a close eye on its main rival, Apple, which is currently suffering from the #bentgate fallout that emerged at the start of this week, as well as the more positive adoption rate of the new iPhones, which reached 10 million in the first weekend of sales.
And you can bet the guys over at Samsung are stress testing the Note 4 right now to avoid a similar PR disaster, but if it's anywhere as durable as the Note 3 then there should be nothing to worry about.

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Amazon tests smart home gadgets, expands hardware lab

Amazon tests smart home gadgets, expands hardware lab
By Deepa Seetharaman and Noel Randewich
Reuters

Amazon.com Inc will boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit by at least 27 percent over the next five years as it tests Internet-connected "smart" home gadgets such as a one-button device to order supplies.

The plans, detailed in a little-known government document and by people familiar with the matter, signal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos's intentions to double down on the No. 1 U.S. online retailer's hardware strategy. This is despite the lukewarm reception of Amazon's new Fire smart phone and some investors' criticism of its heavy spending on highly experimental projects.

The Lab126 division, which developed Amazon's Kindle and other consumer electronics devices, plans to boost its full-time payroll to at least 3,757 people by 2019, according to the agreement reached with California in June that would give Amazon $1.2 million in tax breaks.
Amazon will invest $55 million in Lab126's operations in Sunnyvale and Cupertino, the agreement posted on the California governor's website shows.

This expansion comes as Lab126 tests connected-home devices that could open up a new front in its war against Google Inc and Apple Inc, two people familiar with Lab126's activities said recently.
The sources requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Technology companies see Internet-connected dishwashers, thermostats and other household devices that can "talk" to one another as ways to fuel demand for products and services. But skeptics say many of these devices cost too much for most consumers and could take years to go mainstream.
Amazon is testing a simple wi-fi device that could be placed in the kitchen or a closet, allowing customers to order products like detergent by pressing a button, one of the people said. Lab126 is also interested in wearable devices, the other person said. Both sources stressed that such devices may never come to market.

These details shed rare light on the division at Amazon, which is notoriously tight-lipped about any unit's operations and staffing.
In a statement, Amazon said Lab126 was moving "incredibly quickly" and cited the company's 2014 devices, including the Fire phone, Fire set-top box and several new tablets and e-readers.
"We will continue to invent and create new features, services and products, and to support this innovation. Lab 126 is also growing very quickly," Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall said.

AIM TO BE INDISPENSABLE

Whether or not Amazon ultimately sells connected home and wearable devices, the experiments hint at Bezos' broader ambitions. Lab126 has become increasingly important to Amazon's broader aim to use devices to make it indispensable to its more than 240 million active users.
Bezos is deeply involved in developing Lab126's projects, from the 2007 debut of the first Kindle e-reader to the Fire phone.

The Fire phone, which Lab126 worked on for four years, debuted this summer to lackluster sales and reviews. Earlier this month, Amazon cut the price of its phone to 99 cents with a two-year contract with AT&T.

Amazon shares are down nearly 20 percent this year.
Other tech leaders are also seeking a central place in the home. In January, Google bought Nest Labs, a smart thermostat maker for $3.2 billion. In June, Apple announced plans for HomeKit, its own framework for connecting household gadgets.

Embedding households with such devices would be much more lucrative than merely selling gadgets like wireless LED light bulbs or wi-fi garage-door openers.

With Lab126's experiments, Amazon envisions homes decked out with Internet-connected sensors that would allow it to tell customers ahead of time when they need to replace air conditioner filters or service their washing machines, one of the sources said.

"If I walk into my laundry room and there's a big pool of water and the floor needs to be replaced, I'd love to know about it two weeks before it happens," said Ryo Koyama, CEO of Weaved, a startup working on connected-home technology.
Lab126 had almost 3,000 full-time employees in its 2013 taxable year.

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Google to build 600 million euro data center in the Netherlands

Google to build 600 million euro data center in the Netherlands

Reuters

AMSTERDAM: Google will build a 600 million euro ($773.58 million) data center in the northern Netherlands, the company said on Tuesday.
Spokesman Mark Jansen said part of the server park will start operating in the second half of 2016 and will create 150 permanent jobs.
Google has three large European data centers in Ireland, Finland and Belgium.
The Eemshaven facility will span 44 hectares and was chosen because of stable Dutch energy supplies, Jansen said.
(1 US dollar = 0.7756 euro)

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The Strongest, Most Expensive Material On Earth

The Strongest, Most Expensive Material On Earth

Sarah Laskow

The Atlantic 

It was so simple. Take a small flake of graphite and put it on piece of regular old Scotch tape. Pinch it in between the tape, peeling off layer after layer until it leaves only the vaguest, most transparent of marks. Transfer those dustings onto a chip; stick the chip under the microscope.

Congratulations, you've just made graphene - the strongest material humans are aware of. It's only one layer of atoms thick, which means to slice it any thinner would require dividing atoms into their elementary particles.

For years, scientists didn't even believe that creating graphene was possible - even Andre Geim, one of the scientists responsible for the scotch tape discovery. As
he told CNN
:

We live in a 3-dimensional world. My physics intuition, developed over the last thirty years, told me that this material shouldn't exist. And if you had asked 99.9% of scientists around the world they would have said the idea of a 2D material was rubbish and that graphene shouldn't exist.

But it is possible to make it. The problem now is that it's not exactly practical.

There's so much graphene can do. It can make computer chips much, much faster. It can make solar cells more efficient. It can remove salt from water.

Any of these (and there are so many other) applications, though, require more than a tiny flake of graphene, and scaling up production requires something other than a really big piece of scotch tape. As Nature reported last year, when manufacturers rely on the tape method, "just one micrometre-sized flake made in this way can cost more than $1,000 - making [graphene], gram for gram, one of the most expensive materials on Earth."

The challenge now is to develop a less simple but equally effective way to create the stuff. The most commonly used strategy is "chemical vapor deposition," in which a mix of gases react with a surface to create a layer of graphene. The graphene that's produced is of high quality—until it needs to be separated from its substrate, a process that often damages the material.

But there are other ideas in the works. One technique involves mixing graphene with carefully chosen liquids and then sticking the slurry into what's essentially a high tech blender. Another group of researchers took a similar mix and sprayed it at supersonic speeds onto a substrate.

These aren't quite as simple as the scotch tape strategy. But sometimes simple only gets you so far.

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Samsung is ending sales of all its laptops in Europe

Samsung is ending sales of all its laptops in Europe

Carl Franzen

The Verge 

Samsung will stop selling laptops in Europe due to "market demands", according to a statement from the company obtained by PC Advisor.

As the Samsung spokesman said: "We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now.
This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets."
The move follows several years' worth of declining PC sales globally and Sony's sale of its own laptop business.

Yet it also comes after Samsung announced a new Ativ Book laptop running Windows at CES 2014 and a Chromebook 2 later in the year, and in spite of the fact that Western Europe has been one of the better performing markets for laptop sales worldwide over the past decade.
Market research firm Gartner also noted that PC sales had recently stabilized and had projected huge growth in Chromebook sales in the coming years, so the timing of Samsung's exit from Europe may be premature.

Still, the company's statement leaves room for it to resume laptop sales in the region should market conditions change.

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Apple’s IOS Software Update Is Causing Apps to Crash More

Apple’s IOS Software Update Is Causing Apps to Crash More

Adam Satariano

Bloomberg

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s latest software update for the iPhone and iPad tablet is causing popular applications made by Facebook Inc., Dropbox Inc. and others to crash more frequently, according to a report.

Apple’s iOS 8 operating system causes apps to crash about 3.3 percent of the time, or 67 percent more than last year’s version, according to a report by Crittercism Inc., an analytics firm that works with companies such as EBay Inc., Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.

Customers have taken to Apple’s App Store to complain. One user wrote that Facebook’s app -- the way most of the social network’s members access its service -- “constantly freezes and crashes.” Dropbox, a file-storage service, also has put out updates to its app to fix problems it was having with iOS 8.

Crittercism said older iPhones experience the most issues. Andrew Levy, the firm’s chief executive officer, said Apple’s latest software includes more than 4,000 new functions and changes, and developers are struggling to adapt. New coding language also is probably causing trouble for programmers as they “get up to speed,” Levy said.

“It just goes to show how hard it is to test everything before it’s sent out into the wild,” Levy said. As with previous software releases, Apple will make fixes to its iOS 8 software in the weeks and months ahead, Levy said.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.

Several Hiccups

Apple’s iOS software powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Since the latest version became available to download last week, 46 percent of devices connecting to the company’s App Store are running the latest version, according to Apple’s website.

The software crashes are among several hiccups Apple has experienced with iOS 8 since its release. The Cupertino, California-based company also delayed the rollout of its fitness-tracking software, HealthKit, after it discovered flaws. Customers also have complained about how much memory is needed to download iOS 8, requiring people to delete photos, videos and apps from their phones to make room for the new system.

Still, the software snafus haven’t been enough to discourage iPhone buyers. Apple yesterday said it sold a record of more than 10 million of its two new iPhones, which come with iOS 8 built in, in the smartphones’ debut weekend. The company said it could have sold more if not for supply limitations.

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India puts spacecraft into Martian orbit

India puts spacecraft into Martian orbit

KATY DAIGLE

Associated Press

 

NEW DELHI — India has triumphed in its first interplanetary attempt by successfully putting a satellite into orbit around Mars.
Scientists broke into wild cheers Wednesday morning as the orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered into its designated place around the red planet.
The success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.
The Indian Space and Research Organisation described the mission as flawless.

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