Sunday, August 15, 2010

Liquid metal

Liquid metal is a special, proprietary form of metal which is very strong, but still can be shaped by mold injection. They say it's twice the strength of titanium, but moldable like plastic.
It has some amazing qualities, watch this demo of its spring effect.
The potential applications are legion.  For example, Lindsey Vonn won Olympic gold on liquid metal skis.
Apple has purchased the company Liquid Metal Technologies (or made an exclusive licence deal). One obvious application would be to make their new uni-body portable devices both cheaper and stronger. But there may be uses and ideas we have no clue of.

8 comments:

  1. One thing seems certain -- this is what the T-1000 will be made of.

    ReplyDelete
  2. One obvious application would be to make their new uni-body portable devices both cheaper and stronger.

    Allow me to inject some cinicism into the conversation and say that Apple will make their uni-body portable devices stronger and, at best, the same price. Making it cheaper for them doesn't mean they're going to pass on the savings to the user.

    Bertrand Russell already noted in the early 1900's that if a button factory built a machine that could manufacture buttons at twice the speed of the old machine, the factory owners wouldn't reduce the working hours of the machinists by 50%, they would simply fire 50% of the machinists.

    Sorry for the sour grapes. I've just been allowed into my hotel room after waiting 3 hours for it to be ready, coming from a sleepless overnight flight into London.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Adamantium! I knew it was coming :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apple has purchased the company Liquid Metal Technologies.

    Where did you find this information? The news only talk about a licensing deal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I heard it in a podcast. I could be wrong. I just heard them say this would stop Apple's competitors from using LM's technology.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, it is an exclusive licensing deal. For consumer electronic products.

    ReplyDelete