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Corning officially announced their followup to Gorilla Glass today at CES 2012.
Apple has previously used the strengthened glass in their iOS devices. In 2010, David Pogue relayed a claim from a scientist that Apple was the #1 customer for Gorilla Glass and buys "practically all the Gorilla Glass that Corning can make." At least parts of the story were confirmed in Steve Jobs' biography. Corning reportedly shelved the idea for Gorilla Glass back in the 1960s but revived the project at the request of Steve Jobs in 2007. The original iPhone launched with the damage-resistant glass, though there has been some debate about whether it still is being used in their most recent models. Corning, of course, has never acknowledged Apple's usage but says that due to "customer agreements", they can't identify all devices that use their Gorilla Glass.
The new version of Gorilla Glass can be up to 20% thinner than the original and still retain the same strength. Alternatively, manufacturers could continue to use the same thickness, and benefit from greater strength. Manufacturers have already received samples of the new Gorilla Glass so it should start appearing in consumer products in 2012.
Here's a hands on demo at CES of the strength of the new Gorilla Glass:
The additional thinness offered by Gorilla Glass 2 is also said to result in brighter images and better touch responsiveness.
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I think this is tremendously cool for Corning (both the company and the town in Upstate New York) and for public awareness of glass and materials properties in general. (OK, I admit it, I'm a bit of an engineering geek.)
I already knew the "we found this in our archives" story with respect to Gorilla Glass. It would be fascinating (to me, at least) to know how the story proceeded from there. I can only imagine, "Hey, Bob, remember that tough old glass we made back then? There might be an application for that ..." and then, once it becomes clear that the market wants it, "Hey, you know, we did shelf this back then, but maybe we could make it even better!"
And, sadly, much of this can't happen if there aren't age-old scientists somewhere in the company who can still *remember* that wild-ass experimental result from "back in the day".
Apple has never claimed to use gorilla glass in the iphone line. Most people have come to the conclusion that apple is not using gorilla glass for iphones because of widespread problems with shattering/cracks/etc with iphones.
People who insist that the iphone does use gorilla glass (such as yourself?) are doing so on supposition.
For all any of us know, Apple is using the gorilla glass in their Macbook Airs or iPads or something.
Only a few people know for sure...and they ain't talking.
Go to Settings > Brightness and adjust it.... :cool:
They should have equipment to actually go up to where it breaks, only then it's possible to compare, still good to see they improve.