Newly Invented Cat-Like Phone Flips In Mid Air to Avoid Screen Smash

Tech giants Apple have invented a phone that flips itself around in the air to avoid falling screen side down, thus avoiding the inconvenience and massive expense of a broken screen. Drawing on the way cats always land on their feet, the device detects the speed at which it is falling and releases weights to flip the handset mid-fall, ensuring that it lands on a protective casing around the edge instead.  

Apple were granted a patent for the invention last week, and it could also be rolled out for use on iPads and other devices. The patent includes technology that allows the device to recognise if a fragile component, such as the screen or camera lens is in line for an impact. If it is, an internal motor is activated which moves a weight around inside the casing, ensuring that the impact is avoided, the Mail has reported.

And that’s not all – the device will also eject the head phone cord so that the connector doesn’t get damaged. The new technology is expected to be rolled out within three years.

Victor Seidel, a lecturer in science entrepreneurship at Oxford University, said: “This does what a lot of successful innovations do: combines ideas in a way others had not considered, such as adding gyroscopic action within a smartphone.

“But integrating this idea into current slim-line designs may be a challenge. Of course, no one will really know the possible benefits and limitations until Apple gets prototypes into the hands of users – hands that are indeed sometimes clumsy.”

Now all they have to do is invent a device that prevents toast from landing butter side down.