Apple patents better water damage detection to fend off false warranty claims
In very humid climates, however, these indicators in the audio jack are changing color at will, thus rendering it hard for owners to convince Apple's clerks they haven't accidentally dropped their iPhones in the toilet, but rather have had issues even without dunking them.
Now the engineers at Cupertino are looking at ways to improve the water damage indication process, by filing a patent for conductive soluble glue droplets set between two contacts, which get dissolved in liquid, thus changing the impedance, which can be detected and logged as error.
There is no info about how many such claims have been made and granted, but apparently enough for Apple to decide it's time to do something about it. The handset maker has also been exploring technologies to completely waterproof its devices with technologies like the HzO nanocoating.
via AppleInsider
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