Apple hopes to improve iPod durability
updated 02:10 pm EST, Thu December 23, 2004
Improved iPod durability?
Apple is hoping to noted yesterday.
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Comments
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12/23, 03:08pm |
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Interesting...
I wonder how this is going to work.. How would they distinguish the difference between a drop and someone who is jogging with the ipod?
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12/23, 03:09pm |
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IBM - been there done tha
Yup, IBM has done this since 2003 already. This patent seems a bit silly for Apple to apply for. IBM also already had it patented before it even debuted in their laptops. I guess we'll see if the USPTO does _any_ kind of research before granting patents.
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12/23, 04:21pm |
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IBM patent?
The article says Apple applied for this patent months before IBM started shipping laptops with the feature. I just searched uspto.gov, and I can't find anything on it. Until someone posts a patent number definitely showing this idea was IBM's, the best possible explanation is that Apple came up with it and licensed it to IBM in exchange for something.
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12/23, 04:40pm |
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Increasing acceleration??
"Such technology would work by detecting the increase in acceleration that accompanies a drop."
Acceleration during a fall is constant - 9.8m/s^2 - it is velocity that increases. I hope this doesn't work by detecting changes in acceleration...
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12/23, 05:44pm |
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Acceleration
"Acceleration during a fall is constant - 9.8m/s^2 - it is velocity that increases. I hope this doesn't work by detecting changes in acceleration..."
Certainly the article was misworded, but the acceleration of the device does change - it "decreases" the instant that the device is dropped. And that change is roughly -9.8 m/s^2.
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12/23, 06:17pm |
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Re: Acceleration
"Certainly the article was misworded, but the acceleration of the device does change - it "decreases" the instant that the device is dropped. And that change is roughly -9.8 m/s^2."
Yes, correct. Sorry, I was thinking more along the lines of while it was falling.
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12/23, 07:35pm |
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actually
The detection has to be for a "free fall" situation.
Jogging is not free fall. It is a series of relatively extreme jolts with very limited periods of "free fall" if any.
The drag of air on an iPod or iPod mini during free fall would be minimal and probably not detectable by any device Apple could include n an iPod for a reasonable price. Thus during the free fall the iPod becomes its own reference frame... true, the frame (and everything in it) is accellerating at approximately 9.8 m/s^2, but for all practical purposes the components within the iPod are in a "weightless state".
This is the same thing that happens to objects in orbit. The only difference is that their tangential velocity is high enough to take them past the horizon before they fall far enough to hit the Earth... thus, in reality, they are "falling around the Earth".
This condition is often referred to as a "micro gravity" condition as the gravitational field is not flat at that point (nor at any point near the Earth). Thus there is not a true "zero gravity" condition.
The iPod would have to detect that it is in free fall then stop all hard drive activities -- except maybe moving the read/write head to a safe part of the drive -- until a minimum specified amount of time after the free fall has passed.
The only possible "gotcha" in this is if astronauts wanted to take iPods into space. This feature would have to be disabled or else the iPods would think they are continuously falling, then continuously keep the drives in a "safe" mode... and then they would not work! Apple's iPod space model would have to disable this safety feature.
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12/23, 09:40pm |
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Oh well
Guess I'll have to use something else when I go base jumping.
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12/24, 09:34am |
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Old News?
This same thing was told in a Macformat magazine last spring if I remember correctly. They had a feature article of Apple patents that were yet to be used in real products and this was one of them. According to the article, it was meant to be used with laptops, though.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2004
Doesn't IBM do this?
IBM advertises on TV this very feature.