Apple iPod fall detecting patent.

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mimacmimac
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
So Apple wants to patent a fall detecting device for the iPod to protect against damage to the hard drive.

Exactly how fragile is the iPod and has anyone had one die on them after a drop?

Time to get a protective cover I think \



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    I dropped mine about a year ago getting out of my car and it survived. HDs in general are vulnerable to sudden shakes though.
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  • Reply 2 of 8
    mimacmimac Posts: 872member
    Really don't want to drop and scratch something so beautiful so I will have to be really careful ... though odds are it will hit the ground before the year is out (happens to all my new stuff.. phones, cameras etc)
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  • Reply 3 of 8
    cam'roncam'ron Posts: 503member
    im usually very careful but ive managed to drop mine three times (that damn carrying case unclips from the pocket too easy). ive never had a problem even after 3 drop and plenty of external damage! its not as delicate as youd think.
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  • Reply 4 of 8
    adpowersadpowers Posts: 188member
    My brother claims that his dropped like 12-15 feet onto a basketball court. He was at an assembly at school when it fell off his lap through a crack. I don't know if it hit beams on the way down or what, but it still works. He didn't tell me until recently because he probably didn't want me getting at him for being reckless, which I did anyway .



    I don't know how it could have survived, though, unless it fell on a huge dust bunny or something.
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  • Reply 5 of 8
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    How does this differs from IBM's fall protection? I was under the impression that it simply parks the hard drive head when zero-g is detected.
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  • Reply 6 of 8
    adpowersadpowers Posts: 188member
    dfiler is right, I read this and thought back to that. I think it was designed for a laptop, so that when you drop it, the laptop parks the head of the hard drive. It seems more useful on a laptop anyway, since they're almost always spinning, while the iPod just spins up occasionally.
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  • Reply 7 of 8
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Definately useful on laptops.



    But also iPods.

    If you're playing music at a high bit rate, the hard drive is accessed quite frequently.
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  • Reply 8 of 8
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    So much for the IssPod...



    Orbital entertainment options just took a hit.



    Ditto the rock'n'rollercoaster crowd.



    Much better if it had collision detection than a low-gee sensor.

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