Apple is said to be exploring options to expand the facility it’s building with manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies in Arizona, a facility which is going to be used to help the companies build sapphire components for future devices. The proposed expansion, reported by AppleInsider, would see the facility plans potentially double in size, and is currently seeking bids from… Read More
Apple has filed for a patent (via AppleInsider) that adds further fuel to the fire around the possibility it will use sapphire glass for future device displays. The the new application describes how an oleophobic (oil-repelling) coating might be added to sapphire glass to make it smudge and fingerprint-resistant. So far, we’ve seen most of the evidence around Apple’s sapphire display… Read More
Corning Glass executive Tony Tripeny mentioned in a conference call earlier today that there are many negative points to using sapphire crystal in a mobile device, which is a move that many deem Apple to take with the next generation iPhone. Corning executives CFO James Flaws and SVP and Corporate Controller Tripeny have weighed in on the situation, where the latter shared, “When we look at it, we see a lot of disadvantages of Sapphire versus Gorilla Glass. It’s about 10 times more expensive. It’s about 1.6 times heavier. It’s environmentally unfriendly. It takes about 100 times more energy to generate a Sapphire crystal than it does glass. It transmits less light which…means either dimmer devices or shorter battery life. It continues to break.”
Corning Executive Names Sapphire As Expensive, Heavy And Environmentally Unfriendly original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Here comes another low profile graphics card from Sapphire, the Radeon R7 240 Low Profile. Based on AMD’s GCN architecture, the card is packed with 320 Stream Processors, a 128-bit memory interface, a core clock of 730MHz (780MHz Boost Clock) and a 2GB of DDR3 memory set @ 1800MHz, and features 2x HDMI outputs. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing yet. [Sapphire]
It does seem as though both Apple and Gorilla Glass will be kissing each other goodbye when the iPhone 6 hits the market. Apparently, Apple will be making the jump to a sapphire screen-coating for their next generation iPhone, and just in case you were wondering, sapphire coating has long been a feature in high-end watches for quite some time already because of its high-durability and scratch-resistance capabilities. Right now, sapphire coating on an iPhone is limited to its camera lenses as well as the iPhone 5s’ fingerprint sensor. It has been rumored as well that the upcoming iWatch device will also feature sapphire coating.
iPhone 6 To Have Sapphire Coating, Skips May Release (Rumor) original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Apple’s got a vested interest in Arizona’s future—its newest factory will break ground there in 2015, bringing thousands of jobs to the state. And the company is now advocating for local policy. Today, Apple publicly took a stand against the state’s highly controversial proposed anti-gay legislation.
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Check out this recently announced graphics card ‘R7 265 Dual-X’ from Sapphire. Based on AMD’s latest GCN architecture, the card comes with 1024 Stream Processors, a 256-bit memory interface, a core clock of 900MHz (Boost Clock 925MHz) and a 2GB of GDDR5 memory set @ 5600MHz. The card also employs Sapphire’s Dual-X cooling solution and has dual-link DVI-D, dual-link DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. Pricing info is still unknown at the moment. [Sapphire]
Over the past couple of weeks there have been countless rumors about the iPhone 6 sapphire screen and how Foxconn has already manufactured prototype units that use said sapphire screen instead of Corning’s Gorilla Glass. There is still a lot of time left till Apple is due to unveil its next generation iPhone, if it decides to stick with conventional release cycles, but the influx of rumors continues at a constant pace. Chatter coming in from Taiwan suggests that cost is one major factor deterring Apple from using sapphire screens in the iPhone 6, which is why it has apparently made the decision to not go down this road.
iPhone 6 Sapphire Screen Rumors Contradicted original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Sapphire has introduced another passively-cooled graphics card to its line-up, the R7 250 ULTIMATE. Based on AMD’s latest GCN architecture, the card is packed with 384 Stream Processors, a 128-bit memory interface, a core clock of 800MHz and a 1GB of GDDR5 memory set @ 4500MHz, and has dual-link DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The R7 250 ULTIMATE is available now from Sapphire’s global etaillers and retailers. [Sapphire]
Apple is moving fast on securing intellectual property related to the making and usage of sapphire glass, filing another patent related to the material recently that has been published by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider). Previously we saw Apple file a patent for a method of attaching sapphire glass display windows to a device, and now its looking to insure that its method for manufacturing and shaping the material into forms usable in gadgets are legally protected.
The patent is fairly technical, describing how sapphire can be grown, the collected and polished down into wafers, as well as treated with various coatings including oleophobic coatings (the kind used on the iPhone to prevent fingerprints) and ink masking (presumably to enable printing of logos and other elements on the sapphire). Sapphire is a difficult material to work with in terms of manufacturing electronics, since it’s hardness makes traditional methods of cutting and shaping it more challenging.
Apple’s methods include using lasers to cut the sapphire into usable chunks, and it specifically mentions smartphone displays as one potential application. To get the material to where it needs to be for use in assembling phones and other devices, it describes a means by which it’s grown and then turned into cores which can be sliced into wafers. Those wafers can be sliced using lasers, which is both cleaner and faster than using machine grinding, which could be a clue into how Apple plans to make manufacturing sapphire components at scale cost-efficient.
A new report from 9to5Mac says that Apple is keen on ramping up its sapphire manufacturing plant in Arizona, which it will be running with GT Advanced Technologies as part of a $578 million deal. The facility should be live by February, according to 9to5Mac, and it will aid in producing “a new sub-component of Apple products,” say documents obtained by the blog. An earlier report also said that Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn was already doing test production runs using sapphire glass screens in assembling iPhones.
Apple gearing up for sapphire use on both the IP and the manufacturing front is a pretty safe sign that we’ll see this component feature prominently in future designs. In terms of timing, it’s likely that at this point we’ll have to wait until late this year before anything reaches consumers, but the wheels are turning, and the result could be much more durable devices.
Photo courtesy flickr user Joey DeVilla.
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