Scientists have come up with a new technology that may make dropping your smartphone far less upsetting.
Scientists in the United Kingdom have announced that they have come up with a technology for an unbreakable phone screen. The tech involves the use of a special form of electrode. It would be possible to use it in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, or even in larger electronics such as TVs.
The team of scientists has predicted that the unbreakable screens could be available as soon as 2018.
The electrode for the unbreakable phone screen technology conducts electricity throughout the glass. A traditional form of electrode is made of indium tin oxide (ITO), which is an expensive type of metal. In fact, it is prohibitively expensive and has stopped that method from being used for more durable mobile phone screens until now. However, the UK scientist have made a new type of electrode by mixing graphene and silver nanowires.
These two materials were the key to being able to create the unbreakable phone screen display.
The silver nanowires are exceptionally tiny, at 1/10,000 the width of a human hair. And yet, they’re still much larger than graphene. The thinness of these materials has made it possible for an exceptionally flexible conductor which is far more resistant to breaking and cracking than the current standard glass screens.
When taking into consideration the number of people who break their smartphone screens, this is very good news. After all, a cracked screen isn’t just an inconvenience. In fact, inconvenience is only the beginning. Touchscreens as a standard on nearly all smartphones have meant that cracked screens can limit the use of the device or can render it unusable.
The unbreakable phone screen technology was created by a team of University of Sussex physicists who were working with an Oxford microelectrics firm. They developed these unique hybrid electrodes and published their findings in the Nanoscale journal. According to that publication, this is also an important discovery because the graphene and silver nanowire combination is actually better at conducting electricity than the older electrodes made out of the expensive ITO metal.
When you’re riding…
your smartphone can make just as much of a difference to your experience as it does when you’re not on your motorcycle. It’s true that distracted riding is just as dangerous as distracted driving. However, that doesn’t mean that your smartphone can’t play an important role in helping you get more out of every trip.
You can still get away from it all while enjoying the features some great riding apps can provide.
In fact, instead of distracting you from the road, they can actually help to improve your safety. The key is to make sure you don’t forget your mobile motorcycle phone charger so you can keep your device charged. Without a power socket or USB port on your bike, it’s up to you to have a good backup battery bank to get the job done.
The following are some of the best apps currently available for motorcycle riders:
- Eat Sleep Ride – a solid all around motorcycle app that offers everything from group ride tracking to route planning and sharing and even ride replay. It also features CRASHLIGHT which works with your accelerometer to detect if a crash has happened. If you don’t deactivate its warning after a small amount of time, it automatically alerts emergency personnel of the situation and your precise location.
- Waze – this is the biggest traffic navigations and directions app in the world. It shares road and traffic conditions so you can get information about your route in real time. While it was developed with commuter drivers in mind, its design makes it perfect for riders, too. One fantastic feature is that it can help you to find the best spots to get cheap gas along your route, too.
- FuelLog – this is an amazing gas and fuel mileage tracker that also lets you monitor additional issues such as motorcycle maintenance and costs. It provides you with automatic calculation of certain handy stats like mileage. That said, it can also give you a pretty good average cost per distance or tell you the amount of gas needed. It can tell you how much you’re spending on fuel every year or month, how far you’ve ridden and a great deal more.
- NOAA Weather Radar – knowing the weather along your route is super handy. This app lets riders have a look at what Doppler radars say you’ll be riding through on your route. This is highly useful for route planning.
