We’re every old with person phones of assorted forms… the LG enV, T-Mobile G1, Sidekick, Palm Pre, etc… there are a aggregation of assorted possibilities. HTC has filed a papers that could advance to a newborn modify bourgeois that, in the end, meet accomplishes the aforementioned abstract in still added way:

Apparently the clamshell uses magnets, is spring-loaded, and someways opens on its possess after you provide it a force in a destined direction. I’m not constructive they’ve got it right, but Greg from MobileCrunch seems to exposit it best:

Imagine a clamshell phone, same the LG enV. Instead of inaugural the phone by actuation the hinged halves apart, however, you motion the crowning place downbound a some millimeters, and bam! It springs open. When you motion the crowning half down, you’re breaking the unification between digit magnets (one in apiece half of the phone) that held it closed, allowing the spring-loaded joint to do its thing.

Will this be utilised for an Android phone? No clue… but presented the company’s motion of Android dominance/success, there is at small a decorous quantity that if this comes to market, it’ll be fair our OS of choice.

[USPTO via WMPowerUser]