(Utilities) Hammer-Proof Smartphone Screen is Thinner and Cheaper Than Gorilla Glass

As long as we’ve had smartphones, we’ve been afraid of dropping them. With price tags of $500 and above, smartphones are delicate technological flowers that can be killed by a single drop of water or a collision with the ground. That’s why we’re excited about a new screen protecting material called Rhino Shield. Made from a custom-formulated polymer, the material is able to withstand full-on strikes with a hammer, and it’s poised to make Gorilla Glass look like flimsy wrapping paper.

Developed by Cambridge-based Evolutive Labs, Rhino Shield has a shock-damping layer that is “able to take at least 5 times the impact energy of Gorilla Glass 2.”

To prove their point, the makers of Rhino Shield videotaped an impact test in which they struck the screen of a iPhone 5 with a hammer. If you’re an Apple lover, it might be hard to watch – but don’t worry, the poor little phone lives to tell the tale. Even a 9 ounce steel ball dropped from a height of over 19 inches failed to scratch the screen and left the phone ‘fully usable,’ reports The Daily Mail.

The protective polymer sheet can be fitted to the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C, and it does not affect the touchscreen’s sensitivity, according to the designers. “The screen comes with a self-adhesive silicone back and as the user wipes a cloth along the front of the film, it clings to the phone’s screen, but can be removed if necessary.”

Watch a 'drop test' on hammer glass - watch

Best part? It’s retailing for less than $30.

Via The Daily Mail

(Utilities) Sticky Notes for the Back of your iPhone

You’re the type of person that constantly sticks little Post-Its on the back of your iPhone, this is the notepad you’ve been looking for (but never knew you were). The Paperback Notes are simply sticky notes sized perfectly to fit on the back of your iPhone 5. There’s a cutout for the camera (but not the flash). Stick on a single or a small stack and have a handy notepad with you at all times. You say, “there’s an app for that”? Well, why not “think different”? 80 sheets per pad.

(Ideas) Phonebloks: Modular Phone Snaps Together Like LEGO Bricks So You Never Have to Throw It Away

It seems like most people get a new cellphone every year these days – and while that’s good news for phone manufacturers and telecoms, it’s not helping our wallets or the environment. Enter PhoneBloks – a brilliant concept phone made from a series of modular components that can be snapped together like LEGO bricks. As technology continues to evolve at an ever-increasing clip, individual parts of the phone can be swapped out instead of tossing the whole thing away.

Istead of the wasteful smartphone upgrade process that creates landfills of discarded phones, designer Dave Hakkens suggests a new type of phone made up of modules, or bloks, that can easily be replaced over time, piece by piece.

Want more storage? Take out the old memory module and replace that. You could do the same thing for the processor, camera, screen, and virtually any piece of the entire phone. The only thing that stays the same is a board that all the modules plug into like LEGO pieces.

It seems like a simple idea that someone should have built already, but while the concept is feasible, this new modular design introduces some problems in reality. You could theoretically take all the guts out of a smartphone and make them modular, because they already start off as individual parts. However, creating enclosures and universal plugs for each piece would make your device much bigger than pocket size and more expensive as well. Also, don’t drop it – otherwise you’ll have a phone split in more pieces than just a cracked screen.

The idea of being able to take apart, fix and improve consumer electronics is enticing, and the phone has already caught the world’s attention with a “social reach” of nearly 250 billion people – but we’ll remain skeptical until it actually happens.