Samsung dual edge display design patent surfaces, along with a mysterious pop-up panel
It’s becoming less of a possibility and more of a reality that Samsung has plans to bring the world a dual-edge offering.
For the past few weeks, everyone has been fixated on Samsung’s new noteworthy nuance: the Edge Display. More specifically, the tech community has been hyped up about the rumors that Samsung will release an edge variant of its Galaxy S6, which is rumored to be called the Galaxy S Edge. Unlike the Note Edge, which released last year however, this precious product is said to ship with *two* curved sides. While LG has already gone on record and shown the world what it can do, Samsung remained silent. Until now.
Patently Mobile has obtained a series of design patents Samsung filed with the USPTO. Before you take a look, please note that Patently Mobile has asked that sites reporting on this story use just one of their acquired patent leaks and thus to respect their wishes, we can only offer you a single one. Of course you can see the whole set at their website.
What’s weirder? The dual edged display that folds onto the back, or the strange yellow pop-up part inside the recessed top?
Other than the much rumored couple of curves, the device sports an even stranger oddity: a mystery pop-up panel whose function is all but a mystery. We can only begin this is speculate what this panel could be, although in looking at the design blueprint itself, it’s unlikely to be a screen given that the glass elements are covered with diagonal lines.
It’s possible this could actually be where the device’s battery goes, although the patent doesn’t indicate there is any kind of panel that would cover the top portion. Still, given the fact that the panel looks to take up the entire width of the inside (though we don’t know how long it actually is), the battery would make a likely candidate. Alternatively, this could be a camera module, however there doesn’t seem to be any lines on the panel that would denote such. It may even be some kind of mirror or who knows what else. Unfortunately, as Patently Mobile reminds, design patents show only the shape and form, but say nothing of the parts and components inside.
Other than the much rumored couple of curves, the device sports an even stranger oddity: a mystery pop-up panel whose function is all but a mystery
Of equal curiosity is the fact that the design clearly shows that the edge display extends to the back of the phone, something that is quite intuitive when you think about it. The Galaxy Note Edge may have had a curved side, but if the device was face down, it wouldn’t be accessible. By extending the wrap-around to the back, Samsung is ensuring that the panels purported purpose (checking notifications) will be retained regardless of how the device is placed down on a surface, or for that matter, regardless of which way it’s pulled out of one’s pocket.
Finally, the patent design for the front of the device is devoid of any kind of home button, something that is a staple for Samsung products. Could this indicate the company is finally going to forgo it in favor of on-screen buttons like so many of its rivals have? If so, will this be a new design cue that is followed for all products in 2015 and onward, or could it be just for this one particular device?
LG clearly has one already, but do these patents offer any indication as to how far along Samsung’s provocative panel might be?
Suffice to say that this is most certainly confirmation that Samsung is working on a double Edged device, but it says very little in terms of substantiating the rumored Galaxy S Edge. Patents are often sought out significantly earlier than they are used (if they are used period), and thus it’s possible this won’t make it to a product until later in this year. Or next year. Or never. The question must be raised as to why this patent is only just now being approved and yet the “ring” smartwatch filing was leaked over two months ago. Could Samsung have been building this product while the patent was pending, or could it genuinely be for a far-into-the future feature? We won’t know anything for sure until Mobile World Congress hits in just over a month.
What are your thoughts on this wonderfully wacky patent picture? Or on the pop-up panel?
Cheers, TUAW: Thank you and fare you all well!
Six year ago I arrived in San Francisco ready to cover my first Apple event — Macworld 2009. It was Apple’s last appearance at the show, Phil Schiller was giving the keynote instead of Steve Jobs, and my then-boss, Dieter Bohn, wasn’t coming in until later. I was alone in a new place, doing a new thing, and totally unsure how to go about any of it. Then I chanced upon the folks from TUAW.
It was Mike Rose who came over and said hello. He’d recognized me from my Twitter avatar, apparently, and had taken pity on my deer-in-the-headlights gaze. He and they couldn’t have been kinder, more generous, or more welcoming. (I was more than a little star struck; I’d been reading TUAW for years). We ended up at a late night screening of Avatar with Dave Caolo, and a bunch of other The Unofficial Apple Webloggers , and it totally de-stressed what could otherwise have been a very stressful introduction to the Apple community. I will be eternally grateful for their class and generosity.
I met the astonishing Christina Warren, Nik Fletcher,Steve Sande, Victor Agreda Jr., Bret Terpsta, Kelly Guimont and many other TUAW-luminaries past and present that week and at events that followed, and every one of them, every time, was informative, inspiring, and just plain fun.
So, when it was announced that AOL is killing TUAW off effective Tuesday, February 3, 2015, I very quickly went through the 5 stages of internet grief.
TUAW’s content will be preserved in archival form on Engadget. The confluence of unique and outstanding people who made up TUAW, however, will move on and their voices will continue to grace the Apple community.
I look forward to seeing what’s next for them, even as I raise a glass for what was.
Cheers, TUAW team. You will be missed!
- Dave Caolo shared his thoughts on 52 Tiger
- Kelly Guimont did likewise on The Mac Observer
- Harry McCracken shared a wonderful farewell on Fast Company
From around the web:
- Our friends over at Android Central are taking a good long look at antivirus on Android and, if you use Android, you should too.
- Alexis Tsotis took a hard look at Newsweek‘s coverage of women in Silicon Valley on TechCrunch
- Rocket is a new tech podcast from the aforementioned Christina Warren, Brianna Wu, and Simone De Rochefort. You should check it out.
- Decades before Disney, my high school and my family were hurt by an accidental measles outbreak. Think really, really carefully before you intentionally let it happen to you and yours.
- Tangerine was shot on an iPhone 5s. The Verge was there and took a look. Now imagine every kid with an iOS device, or mobile camera of any kind, and the incredible leg up they have on film-making in the future.
The UFC was great last night, even if the main event wasn’t as intense as it could have been. Have a happy Super Bowl, folks, if an as you choose to enjoy it!
The Big Picture: The mouth of an interstellar beast
While Hubble certainly has the advantage out there in low Earth orbit, its ground-based counterparts have also been capturing their own mesmerizing shots of the universe. Take, for example, this image of the cometary globule CG4 taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope. CG4 is also known as “The Mouth of the Beast,” because, well, it looks like the gaping maw of a gigantic serpent, though some call it “The Hand of God” instead. Cometary globules are elongated comet-like clouds of gas and dust — the CG4, in particular, is located 1,300 light-years away from Earth in a constellation called “The Poop” or Puppis, if you want its fancier name.
Scientists still haven’t deciphered why cometary globules look the way they do, though there are two existing theories. First is that they used to be spherical nebulae, which were disrupted and acquired a new form. The other theory is that CGs were formed by stellar winds and ionizing radiation from hot stars, which first lead to formations known as “elephant trunks” (the most famous example would be the Pillars of Creation), before they become cometary globules.
As for CG4 itself, it’s actually very faint and telescopes have a hard time detecting it; the only reason why the head (which spans 1.5 light-years in diameter) looks opaque in this pic is because it’s illuminated by the surrounding stars. Despite its faintness, it still has enough material to give birth to a few more sun-sized stars… or at least that’s what’s visible to us at this point in time.
Filed under: Science
Via: Spoid
Source: ESO
Today only, a 16GB Nexus 7 (2013) for $170
Even if it’s since been supplanted by the Nexus 9, the 2013 edition of the Nexus 7 is still a good deal at just $169.99. That deal, good for today only and only at Woot.com, knocks $60 off the list price of the 7-inch Nexus tablet. And ever since it disappeared off Google Play, that normal list price is still in the $200-230 range at resellers like Amazon.
T-Mobile’s other Super Bowl commercial is all about celebrity one-upmanship (and Wi-Fi calling)
This is T-Mobile’s other commercial for Super Bowl XLIX. The other features noted famous person Kim Kardashian, and there’s also an online-only ad with a vulture. Needless to say, T-Mobile’s going for the Curly Howard Trophy for this year’s Super Bowl commercials. And I don’t know about you, but I get terrible Wi-Fi reception in my subterranean butcher shop.
T-Mobile’s other Super Bowl commercial is all about celebrity one-upmanship (and Wi-Fi calling)
This is T-Mobile’s other commercial for Super Bowl XLIX. The other features noted famous person Kim Kardashian, and there’s also an online-only ad with a vulture. Needless to say, T-Mobile’s going for the Curly Howard Trophy for this year’s Super Bowl commercials. And I don’t know about you, but I get terrible Wi-Fi reception in my subterranean butcher shop.
Source: YouTube
T-Mobile’s other Super Bowl commercial is all about celebrity one-upmanship (and Wi-Fi calling)
This is T-Mobile’s other commercial for Super Bowl XLIX. The other features noted famous person Kim Kardashian, and there’s also an online-only ad with a vulture. Needless to say, T-Mobile’s going for the Curly Howard Trophy for this year’s Super Bowl commercials. And I don’t know about you, but I get terrible Wi-Fi reception in my subterranean butcher shop.
Mr. Jingles is fully inflated, ready for the Super Bowl
At least we hope that’s what the Google+ notification icon dude is doing, seeing as how it’s the final game of the NFL season and everything.
Gas planets can become habitable if their stars get grabby
It’s tempting to think of gas planets as permanently hostile to life as we know it. A pair of University of Washington researchers beg to differ, however. They’ve used computer modelling to determine that these worlds can become habitable when their stars get particularly grabby. If a relatively small, solid-core gas planet orbits a class M dwarf, tidal forces can tug it into a habitable zone and not only wipe out the gas (through the dwarf’s X-ray and ultraviolet radiation), but produce life-giving water from the core’s ice. Provided the timing is right, the result could be downright Earth-like.
Just don’t expect this to be a common event — there’s a Goldilocks-like balance required for this to happen. If the hydrogen disappears too quickly, there won’t be any water left; if it vanishes too slowly, you’ll never see that rocky surface in the first place. Even if this kind of celestial movement is rare, though, it suggests that habitable planets are more abundant than we think. While it’s still safe to say that many of these planets form in the right orbit from the get-go, others may well get ‘lucky’ thanks to old host stars pulling them into position.
[Image credit: NASA]
Filed under: Science
Via: Slashdot
Source: University of Washington, Astrobiology
Microsoft Lumia 435 gets priced and dated for the UK
Microsoft’s latest low-cost Windows Phone, the Lumia 435, has been given a price and a release date for the UK. The device is now up for pre-order on Amazon UK for £88.49 in black, green or orange and will be released on March 1. And while it’s not particularly expensive, it’s perhaps a little more than we’d have expected.
AIVAnet 