O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: GT Advanced Technologies

  • Apple to convert failed GT Advanced Technologies Arizona factory into data center

    sapphirefactory

    Remember that whole sapphire iPhone screen thing? When an idea goes south, you can still use the intended facility for something.

    Following GT Advanced Technologies’ plans to file for Chapter 11, Apple appears to be swooping in with a plan to invest US$2 billion to convert their Arizona factory into a data center.

    The more than 1.3 million-square-foot building, which was once a solar-panel factory, was a key part of Apple’s efforts to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. after years of relying on Asian suppliers to build the company’s iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. While Apple had promised to bring jobs to the area even after the bankruptcy, the data center will probably employ fewer staff compared with an operation churning out components for iPhones.

    (more…)

  • Rumor: Additional evidence surfaces for protruding camera lens ring on iPhone 6 handset

    There’s additional leaked evidence that the iPhone 6 may have a slightly protruding camera lens.

    Per MacRumors and French Apple website IGen.fr, a variety of new details about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6, including dimensions for each model, info about the protruding camera ring on the rear of both devices, and more. The photos appear to be of internal information residing in a Foxconn factory, as the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 and 4.7-inch iPhone 6 carry code names of N56 and N61, respectively.

    The information states that the final version of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will measure 158 mm long, 78 mm wide, and 7.1 mm thick (7.7 with the protruding camera), weighing 184.6 grams, or 6.5 ounces. Also spotted is information for a first prototype, which retained the same length and width but was 7.0 mm thick and weighed 168.5 grams, or 5.9 ounces.

    iphone6protrudinglens

    (more…)

  • Rumor: Apple unlikely to sell sapphire display iPhones in 2014

    sapphire

    If you’re hankering for an iPhone 6 with a nigh-indestructible sapphire display, this may not be your year.

    Per AppleInsider, J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall has issued a note to investors, in which he reacted to a report from last week suggesting that sapphire display costs remain high. The source of that rumor was The Wall Street Journal, which made highly questionable claims that suggested Apple remains undecided about whether to use sapphire displays on its next iPhone, which is expected to be unveiled on Sept. 9.

    Hall noted that Apple’s sapphire partner, GT Advanced Technologies, has acquired a company known as Twin Creeks, which uses a wafering process dubbed “Hyperion” that could help to significantly reduce the cost of building a sapphire screen cover. Apple also has its own patent on sapphire laminates that Hall believes could further reduce costs.

    (more…)

  • GT Advanced nears completion of Arizona plant, could raise production of sapphire coating materials for iPhone 6, other devices

    sapphire

    Apple should be able to make its quota for items that require a sapphire coating, especially the iPhone 6, with the opening of GT Advanced Technologies’ new factory in Arizona.

    Per AppleInsider, GT Advanced Technologies on Monday said its Arizona sapphire manufacturing facility in Arizona, built in partnership with Apple, is nearly complete and will transition from initial manufacturing to volume production in the near future.

    In its released results for the second fiscal quarter of 2014, the company revealed that its 1.4 million-square-foot plant in Arizona — a joint Apple build dubbed Project Cascade — is nearing completion, meaning the facility’s output should hit mass production levels in the near future.

    (more…)

  • Purported iPhone 6 front panel video emerges, shows unit successfully enduring extreme abuse

    You’re going to like the iPhone 6’s front glass component.

    Per AppleInsider, hours after a video purportedly revealed Apple’s rumored sapphire crystal “iPhone 6” display on Monday, a short film hit the Web, this time putting the supposed part through a battery of torture tests that included knives, keys and extreme bending.

    sapphirestabby

    Uploaded to YouTube by tech vlogger Marques Brownlee, the video takes a close-up look at the purported iPhone 6 display, but goes further by attempting to scratch, bend and break the part. The display performed surprisingly well and came out of testing unscathed.

    Brownlee said the component is made of sapphire crystal and came straight off Apple’s assembly line in Asia, but provided little evidence to support his claims. A number of manufactured materials offer similar properties to those shown off in the video, including Corning’s Gorilla Glass which Apple currently uses in its portable products. The glass maker said its next-generation Gorilla Glass 3 is more resistant to scratches, flexing and shattering than certain sapphire formulas.

    (more…)