New Apple hire ignites composite product rumors

By on Apr 11, 2011 at 9:48 PM
Rumor April 11, 2011

We would like to extend a warm, Apple-rumor fueled welcome to Mr. Kevin Kenney. Technology blogs have picked up on the hiring of Kenney, a San Francisco-based mechanical engineer, by iDevice maker Apple, Inc. Via Kenney’s LinkedIn profile, we see that he is now a “Senior Composites Engineer” for the Cupertino-based company. The engineer has spent the last fourteen years working for Kestral Bicycles where, as 9to5 Mac reports, he was “building carbon fiber bicycles.” The hiring has ignited rumors of carbon fiber iMacs, iPads, and iPhones — personally, we’re holding out for a carbon fiber Magic Mouse. Kenney has worked for Apple on a contract basis for the past several years, and his name is on at least one carbon fiber-related Apple patent. If you read that the iPhone 6 will be made of composite materials , you now know where the rumor started.

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , , , , ,
24 Comments

Related Articles

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    iPhone 6 rumors? Really? Already? Seriously?

    • Norm Sucks

      Norms mom is so fat she named him after the place she spent most of her time at, a restaurant! Sucks to be you

      • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

        Your life must be pretty awful if my posts (that are never directed at anyone in particular) got to you enough for you get that angry. Poor guy.

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        Yeah, lay off norm dude. He’s the OG satire troll.
        If you want to attack someone, go after goofan, he’s just a cheap, norm knockoff.

      • Anonymous

        Hey WTF! Here I am giving you credit for Goofan (aka Apple Hater) goodness and this is how you repay me!!!! You cut me deep man!

      • Anonymous

        Your post doesn’t make any sense. Can we assume, since your Momma’ named you ‘Sucks’, that’s what she spent most of her time doing?

      • Anonymous

        We know where you live…

  • sirpaul

    Carbon fiber would be a great alternative to all the scratch-able materials Apple has been using. I really hope this rumor turns out to be true in 2 years!

    • Justin

      Except they will still clear coat it, just like every other material. (er, minus glass)

      So….no dice

      • Cabelajohnson

        Wont need clear coat if they use a good resin, let it cure right, and have a perfect mold to form the fiber in.

  • Bobdonhim

    BGR is actually posting a story about someone Apple hired. Sigh. Next post will be how many times Steve Jobs has taken a crap today.

    • Bgr

      3…..
      It was a busy day.

  • Bob Trag

    Yeah that’s great.

    Now can they please hire someone who knows at least a *little* about RF, antennas, and, well I suppose HARDWARE, so that we can get 4G in the next model?

    If they push it to 1Q12 then there will 100s of thousands of lost sales to Android, if not millions. And if they push it & still can’t hit 4G / LTE, then they’re toast, sales will plummet. Who wants to be stuck with a doorstop for 18 months while Apple tries to figure out how to make a phone that can (gasp!) make phone calls.

    • El-father

      So just buy one of those phones, now and be stuck on the os version forever or untill you get a new phone!!! Your choice at the very least you’ll have the speeds you want!!

      • Anonymous

        ^Doesn’t know what he’s talking about

  • Anonymous

    Are you sure he’s not a Senior Compost Engineer?? Congrats on your ASSignment, anyway (whatever iT may be)!

  • Tdkirk7

    I would crap myself if iPhone was mad out of carbon fiber!

  • 1T2dirtnap

    This is awesome news! Apple leading the way yet again. Composites are the next step in this industry. It hits a little close to home for me personally, I use composites for work and sports and have a friend who worked for Miken a composites company. Composite materials are very durable and depending on the actual composite fibers can be less expensive or comparable in terms of cost with current metals. One thing for sure composites are damn strong.

    • Anonymous

      Several companies already have laptops made with this. Lenovo, Sony ect. They are not leading the way.

      And Carbon Fiber does not dissipate heat like aluminum. Apple already has heating issues, so that will be fun to watch.

  • Justin

    Carbon Fiber Mouse.

    +1, A

    J

  • Anonymous

    Screw carbon fiber. If Apple were really so progressive they’d be making their products out of resin made from HEMP PLANTS. You know, that easily grown and overly abundant natural resource that isn’t attacked by pests and is much healthier for the earth than all the plastics made from crude oil.

  • http://profiles.google.com/booboolala2000 Patrick Crumpler

    Anyone who thinks this carbon fiber wont scratch has lost their minds. Almost every exterior application of carbon fiber has a clear coat. It will scratch. Also, at the thinness levels of most cell phone cases you can expect some level of flexibility. So if you think you will be getting some sort of G-Shock knock-off version of the iPhone, think again. Yes a carbon fiber phone looks great, but unfortunately a bulkier carbon fiber case would be stronger than the bodies you typically find on a smartphone. Now in a laptop, you could definitely see some gains in durability, without compromising bulk. Plus carbon fiber isn’t as cold to the touch as aluminum, so I see them using this more as a replacement for the aluminum unibody design for the next MacBook Pro. If they keep the current design of the iPhone 4 then the front bezel/back panel could easily use it to replace the glass they are using now. You cant step on it but if you drop it and it lands on its back, at least the back wont shatter.

  • http://profiles.google.com/booboolala2000 Patrick Crumpler

    But even then, the resin will scratch. Try it, its not a diamond.

  • http://twitter.com/scaryslow john K.

    It’s Kestrel not Kestral and I hope he does a better job than at Kestrel, they haven’t been relevant in the bike industry since the 90′s.

blog comments powered by Disqus