amorphous

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  • Apple snags Liquidmetal IP, may just revive the eMac with an amorphous metal chassis

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    08.09.2010

    Ah, who are we kidding -- we're guessing a true, bona fide headless iMac would hit the market before the eMac ever makes a triumphant return, but it's surely a novel thought, no? In a recent 8-K filing with the SEC, Apple made public that it had essentially acquired "substantially all of [Liquidmetal's] intellectual property assets," not to mention a "perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee." In other words, Apple just bought up the rights to integrate Liquidmetal's amorphous metal alloys into its product line, which would allow the company to create metallic wares without sweating the typical structural or strength limitations found in conventional metals. There's no mention of dollars exchanged here, nor any details on what exactly Apple plans to do with its newfound IP (shown after the break), but we're guessing the procurement team didn't sign the dotted line for kicks and giggles.

  • Nokia patents diamond-hard coating for devices

    by 
    Chris Ziegler
    Chris Ziegler
    01.28.2007

    That shiny new N800 isn't going to look so shiny or new after a couple drops on pavement. And don't act like you're more careful than that, either -- it happens to the best of us. Heck, frequent pocketing of a phone (or Internet Tablet, as the case may be) is usually enough to get it scuffed solidly into "well used" status. The boys and girls in Espoo always have their thinking caps on, though, and it looks like they've brewed up a solution for the pollution. To use their words, they've put together a "cover, a mobile communications apparatus and a method for producing a coated cover for an electronic apparatus" using an amorphous diamond coating. Basically, you feed some current through coal, wave your hands, and a magical 100 nanometer coating of diamond-like stuff attaches itself to plastic parts in the vicinity. And you know how hard diamond is. Best of all, the coating is apparently biodegradable, breaking down over time, at which point it'll probably turn back into coal and live to coat another device again. There's something almost Soylent Green about it, is there not?[Via Slashdot and New Scientist Tech]