New Apple patent means no more microwaving your iPod
One of the iPhone 3G's current moisture sensors can be found on the bottom of the device.
(Credit: Apple)A patent application filed by Apple and published Thursday hints at new ways the company can help diagnose a troubled iPod or iPhone if a customer has abused it. The patent goes into detail on a new system that goes above and beyond the existing onboard sensors, which can tell Apple whether your iPod or iPhone has been subjected to moisture.
The new system, described in U.S. Patent application No. 2009/0195394, covers not just moisture, but heat, shock, and tampering. If any one of these events occur, it's logged--time stamp and all, and Apple support personnel can then retrieve the information and use it for analysis on service claims.
The extra sensors would make it easier for Apple to determine if a device malfunction was due to the user, or the hardware itself. For instance, if there's a sudden drop, followed by an impact, then a moisture reading, it's pretty clear the owner dropped it into water. The same goes for thermal events, like leaving a phone in a hot car, or having a sudden and excessive heat flare-up, caused, for example, by putting it in a microwave.
The tamper sensor is the more mellow of the four tools. In the patent Apple simply describes this as "opening the casing or housing of a device and adding, removing, or altering the internal components." This may not even employ any additional hardware or software, and could use a simple adhesive strip that is broken once the casing is removed, as many other hardware makers employ.
What may scare some users about this patent is that Apple details a process wherein one of these sensor events can disable the phone, or put it into a disabled state for its own protection. When say, submerged in water, the new protocol would have the phone shut off access to the battery or the screen to protect internal components. It could also keep the user from resetting it or retrieving data until taken to a support center, which is a little creepy when you think about those times when you may need to make a call when both you and your phone have been through a tussle.
Update: Corrected patent number terminology and reference. Later update also corrected patent application status. It was published Thursday, not approved.
(Via AppleInsider)
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
Fact is that these 'moisture' things can be saturated if an Apple product is near a boiling teapot, and by near, I mean up to 10 feet away sitting on a kitchen table.
As to the 'impact' sensors...... again, big fail there because an 'impact' does necessarily mean a drop. Most times it does, but I have fooled those sensors by QUICKLY moving something and when I quickly stop my hand, it registers an 'impact' even when there was none.
That said, if you sell more phones aren't you BOUND to have an increasing number of repairs/replacements? (JL: note that you didn't say anything about an increasing PERCENTAGE of failures) Unless Apple (or any other manufacturer) thinks that the MORE you make and sell actually means LESS flaws and failures? Is this some sort of 'practice makes perfect' delusion in this reasoning?
it will make it easier for apple to void your warranty,if u live in a humid(like nyc for example) area and u on the go and u get sweaty with the phone in your pocket it may be a good excuse for them to tell u u **** out of luck .
p.s. sensoring is not a word according to my spell check
Maybe time to think about another phone rather than the iPhone. Clearly Apple is trying to stake a claim to being a member of the evil empire.
By the way, as a tech support guy the first thing people do after getting their phone/electronic device wet is to turn it on - stupid!, stupid thing to do! A device that protects itself from peoples lack of, what should be blatantly obvious , water and electricity don't mix...
As a consumer of any phone that would have such Orwellian devices installed, it would be prudent to allow the owner to see the information too. You own the phone and as such, you should have access to all the data stored on that phone. And as for heat, well phones are known to heat themselves up pretty damn hot sometimes, especially with GPS turned on so how can a user prove whether the heat damage was from the phone or because you cooked it on a Weber grill?
- by gggg sssss August 6, 2009 5:41 PM PDT
- i gets curiouser. This stuff is all being installed by companies opwned by the Chinese government. The sensors are reporting eveything back to China. Next up, how they will be abble to remotely turn teh iPhone into an iED.
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