Apple Inc.

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Yang Zhou

Nicholas R Trincia

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Hao Zhu

Joshua A Hoover

Qigen Ji

Seul Bi Kim

Benjamin A Stevenson

Clayton J McCoy

Linda D Benavente-Notaro

Donald L Olmstead

Sara Rusignuolo

Kodiak D Burke

Timothy Wallen Scales

Bryan A Cloyd

Jenna L Withrow

Motohide Hatanaka

William H Chui

Chihchen Sun

Ayumi Kusano

A strap may have a strip of material. A flexible magnet and other layers may be embedded between outer layers of the strip. The outer layers may be formed from leather or other natural materials, fabric, polymer, or other materials. The strap may have a snap mechanism that removably couples the strap to the item. The strip may have left and right portions that are coupled together using sliders and the snap mechanism. The sliders may be fixedly attached to respective end portions of left and right portions of the strip. A first of the sliders may have a slot that allows the first slider to slide along the right strip portion and a second of the sliders may have a slot that allows the second slider to slide along the left strip portion so that the length of the strap may be adjusted.

Adjustable straps with snaps and sliding clasps

Items such as enclosures may be provided with hidden magnets. An enclosure may be formed from a flexible housing layer. The flexible housing layer may be configured to open and close by folding around fold axes. Portions of the flexible layer may include a flexible base layer with openings. Flexible magnets may be embedded within the openings. The flexible magnets may be used in forming a magnetic clasp for the enclosure. The flexible magnets may each have a height and durometer value that closely matches the height and durometer value of an adjacent portion of the flexible base layer, thereby helping to hide the flexible magnets within the housing layer.

Items with hidden magnets

An enclosure may be provided with a housing. The housing may have an opening that separates and joins along a seam. A magnetic closure may have a pair of mating flexible magnetic members such as flexible rings or strips that run along the seam. Magnetic-field shunts may be provided in the flexible magnetic members. Multiple magnetic elements may be formed along the length of each magnetic member to form a multipole permanent magnet. Magnetic attraction may be varied along the lengths of the magnetic members and may be varied as a function of the separation between opposing magnet members. A magnetic clasp may be provided on the housing. The magnetic clasp may have attracting magnets to help close the opening in the housing. Protruding clasp portions may be formed from flexible material and may have embedded magnets configured to repel each other to facilitate use of the clasp.

Enclosures with flexible magnetic closures and clasps

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Shenzhen, China

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