Smart Phone Sapphire Screens

MOBILE, Ala. - The next wave of smart phones and tablets may be put together with screens made from manufactured sapphires.

Sapphire is the second-hardest material on the planet, behind diamond. A sapphire smart phone screen won't break when you drop it, and it would be virtually scratch-proof. Apple currently uses manufactured sapphire to protect the camera lens on its iPhone 5. The only catch could be price.

A sapphire display for a smart phone would cost about $30. Screens made by Corning's Gorilla Glass, which are now on more than one-billion devices, cost $3.

If you want to show something to the world, Youtube could be your best shot. Youtube reported 1 billion unique users were now visiting the video-sharing website every month, or nearly one out of every two people on the internet.

Wal-Mart is expanding a test of a new checkout program. It lets shoppers scan items with their smart phones and then pay at self-checkout terminals. Its called the "scan and go" program. Wal-Mart launched it late last year in about seventy stores in Arkansas and Georgia.

The program is now being tested in more than two hundred stores. Customers scan bar codes of the different products using the retailer's 'scan and go app' on Apple devices like the iPad.

The app generates a code, which can be scanned at the self-checkout terminals.

That's your Daily Tech.