Apple “flush” with suspicion, adds water sensor to iPhones/iPod touches
Hardmac/Macbidouille is reporting that Apple has added a “a water sensor in the iPhone and in the iPod Touch” to discourage people from attempting to return accidentally dunked iPhones and iPod touches as defective. This sensor consists of “a white disc that will irreversibly change color when entering in contact with water”, meaning an Apple service rep can tell in a matter of seconds if you are trying to pull a fast one after dropping your iPhone while dropping a deuce.
HardMac isn’t sure just how long this sensor has been in iPods, but if anyone knows an Apple Genius, we’d love to get an idea of just how many smelly but dry iPods people have attempted to get replaced to cause Apple to incorporate this clever bit of engineering into their latest models.
Those are some stinky fish!
Actually, this sensor has been implemented since the iPhone’s conception and is not a new feature to recent models. The iPodTouch obviously got the hand-me-down “rat-me-out” hardware component…
Snore… Regular cell phones have something similar to this.
@ Rubbish: iPhone is in some way not a regular cell phone? That comment reveals in a way that you don’t judge the iPhone on its own merit, and that you likely respond more to the marketing and hype around the iPhone, choosing to criticize it because of what it is not, rather than what it is.
Sure, I’m over-analyzing and I’m probably wrong, but the point still holds. This water thing isn’t boring (“Snore…”) just because its been seen before. Its very useful knowledge that may have otherwise been unknown due to Apple’s approach to hiding the indicator in an awkward spot. Would you rather no one had reported this and people remain unknowledgeable of it?
The news isn’t that the indicator exists, its that it is in the iPhone.
Bah,
RIMM devices have also got a mechanism like that. A friend of mine had a BlackBerry 7130 of which the scroll wheel stopped working rendering the device useless.
Upon having it serviced, the rep ejected the battery and he said “this BlackBerry has been wet or used in a too humid condition”. Obviously, my friend has always used his BB sensibly so that rep was full of BS.
When asked how the rep could make that judgement, the rep pointed out that the battery has a sticker which turns into three pink X-es when it becomes wet. 3 Pink X-es == no service.
When he returned to the office, we checked ALL our BlackBerry’s and they all got the same pink X-es. We felt f*ckin hosed as all of our BlackBerries are
Haven’t all mobile phone providers been doing this? The method I’m most familiar with is the little white sticker that turns pinkish, usually in the battery compartment (of course not doable on an Apple iPod or iPhone since they don’t let the end use swap out batteries).
Granted occasionally stickers give a false positive, but enough people have tried returning a device that they dropped in water and demanded a replacement instead of taking responsibility for their mistake, that we all have to suffer
@Joshua that’s exactly wrong!!!!! the water sensors, when dry, WILL have pink X-s. It’s AFTER they get wet that the water sensitive x marks dissolve and make the whole sensor a blurry pink shade. That’s wrong!! Just WRONG! There are 2 types: one is white normally, and when activated, all red. The other is pink x-ed when not activated and all pink when activated… That’s how it is with most phones. Try to get a rep. I’ve looked in a BB 8830, Samsung Alias 2, LG Voyager, Samsung Glyde, LG Rumor, iPhones and iPods, LG enV2, LG enV, LG Dare, and Kyocera Candid.