Titanium iPhone Is Cool, Too Bad It's Not Real

February 24th, 2010, 18:22 Posted By: Shrygue

via Gizmodo




I like the idea of this titanium iPhone body replacement, and that's why it's too bad is just a nice hyper-realistic 3D render. The fact is that, despite what the student who made it claims, it's not real.

First, the making of a custom, very intricate titanium part like this is a complicated and expensive process, one that would require ultra-precise CAD work and manufacturing. For CNC you will need a very high resolution machine, and molding is not available to anyone. Only someone at an aerospace company, a high end prototyping shop, or a factory would be able to pull this. That's why you don't see custom iPhone bodies in the market—I want them, please—unless they are Chinese mass produced plastics.

But the most important thing is the fact that there is not such a thing as a "special titanium alloy that is RF transparent." Titanium makes radio signal reception and emission very difficult. It's a radio insulating material, which is why the Titanium PowerBook G4 had such a crappy Wi-Fi reception. Sadly, the alleged alloy simply doesn't exist. And if it does, you would only find it at Boeing or Lockheed Martin's secret development facilities. Or Area 51.

If he discovered it, I suggest he patents the hell out of it and sell it to the military. They would love it. There's the issue of having the mute button in the wrong direction too, but it's ok. If you can create objects from nonobtamium, you can rearrange the circuitry inside the machine too.


More images at Gizmodo

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