Phone displays with curved edges on all four sides could be on their way soon

Smartphones are inching closer and closer to becoming pure slabs of glass. Just look at Samsung's Galaxy S8 and its "infinity display" which covers 83% of the front or the LG G6's "full vision" display and its 80% screen-to-body ratio.

As futuristic as those phones look, they're not quite fully bezel-less. They still have a slim "forehead" and "chin" to house essential features like an earpiece, iris scanner, and selfie camera.

A new report from Korea's ETnews, however, suggests phones with screens that cover almost 100% of the front could be on their way very soon.

SEE ALSO: Forget the Galaxy S8, Samsung's already working on the Galaxy S9

Both Samsung and LG are reportedly working on displays with curved edges on all four sides as opposed to on two (like on Samsung's flagship phones). By curving the display and glass on all edges, phones could have screen-to-body ratios of 98%, essentially covering the entire front.

It's a lovely dream that would make any sci-fi film nerd drool, but creating displays with curved screens on all sides isn't easy. The report says Samsung and LG are both struggling with the lamination process, particularly when it comes to enabling touch functions in the curved corners.

If either company could figure out how to solve the issues, though, phones could very well look like the concept iPhone render in the image above, albeit with the edges actually curved, of course. Maybe something more like the bottom of this Samsung concept, minus the physical home button and top bezel:

The benefits are obvious: bigger screens, smaller phone dimensions. The disadvantages are just as obvious: screens would be more prone to damage and cracks with no bezels to absorb impact.

Moreover, phone makers need to solve another challenge if such fully curved screens ever make become commercially available. They need to relocate the aforementioned earpiece, sensors, and selfie camera.

Phones like the Xiaomi Mi Mix and Sharp's Aquos Crystal, which have a bezel-free display on three of their four sides, solve these issues in a number of ways. Instead of an earpiece, the phones use a piezoelectric speaker to vibrate sound off their frames and into your ears. Sounds awesome, but in practice, they can actually be worse than a traditional earpiece.

In my review of the Aquos Crystal back in 2014, I said this about the phone's Direct Wave Receiver technology (it's own version of the piezoelectric speaker):

Calls sounded distorted and more tinny than on other budget Android smartphones like the second-generation Moto G. The Direct Wave Receiver technology didn't improve call clarity when in louder environments, either. I actually found it harder to hear voices on the Aquos Crystal than on devices with an actual earpiece.

As for the selfie camera and sensors (light, proximity, etc.), both phones merely relocate them to the bottom bezel — an awkward place that's not ideal for shooting flattering selfies. You can flip the phone's upside down to orient the selfie camera at a more traditional angle, but that's just inconvenient.

Ideally, the selfie camera, and light and proximity sensors will simply be embedded within the display. And that could happen, actually. Apple has a patent for embedding a camera's image sensor in-between the display's pixels. The tech giant also has a patent for a display with an integrated light sensor. Meanwhile, another startup called Elliptic Labs has actually figured out how to use ultrasonic sensors to replace the light and proximity sensors altogether.

None of these things will get solved overnight. It took nearly a decade to arrive at Samsung's curved screen edges and we're only just getting phones with screens that cover more than 80% of the front. It could be another decade before the bezel is extinct and we're literally just holding a sheet of glass in our hand.

Uber is ready to make its flying car project a reality

Uber is ready to make its flying car project a reality

Uber's flying car plans are coming together — and it looks like it won't be taking to the skies alone.

The company's aspiration to build an urban air transportation network took a major leap on Tuesday with its Elevate Summit event in Dallas. The three-day conference was billed as a chance to spread the news about Uber's plans for its flying cars and "identify and accelerate opportunities to collaborate within the community," boasting a diverse line-up of presenters with backgrounds ranging from NASA and public office to CEOs of aerospace companies. 

Uber first outlined its concept for an autonomous, on-demand flight system, dubbed Uber Elevate, in a white paper released last October. That plan depends on the development of electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts, or eVTOLs, along with the infrastructure to make catching a flying cab just as easy as hailing a normal car. The company also hired veteran NASA engineer Mark Moore back in February to help spearhead the project's development.

SEE ALSO: Larry Page's flying car project finally takes to the air

Uber's Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden opened the Elevate event with a wide-ranging keynote address, covering the current state of Uber's project, its existing partnerships with aerospace companies and even cities, and the bold goal of debuting a prototype of a craft by 2020. "Flying cars have been promised for decades, but are arriving now," he said, staking out the company's aggressive goal to make flying cars a reality.

Holden's keynote rehashed many of the details the company previously published in its white paper, as he showed off some of the same figures and charts touting Uber's current ride sharing system and its nascent plans to develop a functional flying vehicle and urban aviation system. 

The big news from the keynote is the partnerships the company has or is pursuing to actually build the network, taking it from "the notional to the concrete," as Holden said. Uber has "begun conversations" about partnering with NASA and the FAA about development and testing for the air traffic systems needed to make Elevate possible, and Holden touted speakers from both agencies slated to present at the conference. 

He also announced partnerships with aviation companies that already have eVTOL systems in development, including Bell Helicopter, Aurora, Embraer and Mooney, to help develop the flying vehicles. Holden said the eVTOLs would first be manned, but eventually could become fully autonomous. There's also an agreement in place with Charge Point to develop the batteries and charging infrastructure needed for a wide eVTOL network. 

To cap off the keynote, Holden announced the eVTOL operations will launch in Dallas, with a goal to kick off the program by 2021. Uber will begin developing the physical infrastructure — landing pads called "vertiports"— needed for the system in the city as early as next year.

The project will expand internationally to Dubai, which has already proven to be primed for air taxi service. There, Uber will partner with the city's Road and Transport Authority to develop the network. The current goal is to have a working prototype or even conduct passenger flights as part of the planned Expo 2020 event in the city. 

"We're going to see how fast we can make this a reality," Holden said to close his remarks. "We know this is possible, we know this is going to happen." 

These plans and partnerships are undeniably exciting — if Uber can stick to its projected schedule, we could have a flying car before some automakers are even projected to roll out their self-driving systems on the road. 

But this is all speculative. As Uber's efforts in that self-driving space have shown, "move fast and break things" isn't always the best method to develop paradigm-shifting technology. We'll remain cautiously optimistic until the day we see the flying cars zooming overhead.