Skip to footer

Will Apple's iPhone 5C sport a scratch-resistant LiquidMetal shell?

Apple is reportedly prepping a scratch-resistant (and budget-friendly) iPhone 5C smart phone. 

|
Apple Daily
A still from a video purporting to show the Apple iPhone 5C.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Early next month, Apple will likely take the wraps off a pair of new smart phones. 

One will be the next Apple flagship phone, possibly called the iPhone 5S (recall that the sequel to the iPhone 4 was the iPhone 4S). The other could be a budget device, targeted at audiences who have thus far held off on buying an iPhone. The current consensus puts the name of this device as the iPhone 5C – C in this case being short for "color" (after its colorful cases) or maybe just "cheaper." 

And according to a new report from the Taiwanese site Apple Daily (you'll need to run the link through a translator, unless you read Chinese), the iPhone 5C will be equipped with a super scratch-resistant shell. In a video posted to Apple Daily, a man puts what appears to be an iPhone 5C in a bag with a bunch of sharp or abrasive objects – keys, coins, screws – and shakes vigorously. 

We imagine the whole thing is meant to be a simulacrum for the most dangerous pants pockets on earth. Anyway, after a few seconds, the iPhone 5C is removed, and voila – not a scratch to be seen. (It's worth noting that we routinely beat the heck out of our iPhone 5, and the thing doesn't appear to be all that much worse for wear, save a few mild dents around the edges.) 

Is the video real? It's hard to say. But over at ZDNet, Jason D. O'Grady lays out a pretty interesting theory. 

"In August 2010 Apple acquired LiquidMetal and its new metallic/glass substance that has twice the strength of Titanium but the moldability of plastic," Mr. O'Grady writes. "Then, in late 2010, Apple filed a patent application for 'Nitriding Stainless Steel for Consumer Electronic Products' which resists scratches by placing a layer of nitride over a stainless steel exterior. Hmmm...Don't be surprised if the iPhone 5C case is fabricated from nitride-coated LiquidMetal." 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Will Apple's iPhone 5C sport a scratch-resistant LiquidMetal shell?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0822/Will-Apple-s-iPhone-5C-sport-a-scratch-resistant-LiquidMetal-shell
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe