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Macs can now inform Apple if any liquids have been detected in the USB-C ports
- devmor 3y agoIf it works as well as the iPad liquid detection, this sounds incredibly annoying. Mine thinks there is water in the port every time I forget to blow the dust out of it after weeks of non-use.
- hulitu 3y ago> Macs can now inform Apple if any liquids have been detected in the USB-C ports Why stop here. Next detect also the type of liquid. Bonus points for body fluids. /s
- pierat 3y agoJust wait, humidity and condensation will cause a spat of "water detected, fail warranty" issues. And now, jailbreaking will mean being able to reset tattletaled.
- Affric 3y agoYeah, it will be interesting if they can deny a claim based on the above. I once received an iPod I sent to Apple with grass inside when it was returned to me and have never trusted them since.
- ethanbond 3y agoOf course they can…? It’s just a term of the warranty policy. Very bizarre regarding your iPod! What is your working theory for that?
- bruceallmighty 3y agoThat would greatly depend upon the country. Many countries (sans USA probably) have rights of warranty for consumers, that companies policies cannot override.
- izacus 3y agoWater damage is one of the cases I've seen companies abuse to get out of warranty in Europe. I don't know of a way to dispute it.
- pierat 3y agoA touch of bleach on the water dots will revert them to "no water detected".
- blackoil 3y ago"rights of warranty" can't be unconditional. If I drop my phone and it breaks or drop laptop in pool, that wouldn't be on the company?
- chris_wot 3y agoIf they decide to go down this path, someone in Australia will report them to the ACCC. If they are using it as an excuse to avoid their warranty obligations, then they will be sorry.
- ethanbond 3y agoYour claim is that in Australia, you cannot offer a warranty that exempts water damage? I find that extremely hard to believe.
- chris_wot 3y agoNo, what I’m saying is that if they claim water damage based on those indicators alone, and they do it as a policy, then the ACCC will likely consider it a policy to avoid warranty claims. If there is genuine water damage, of course that’s not warranty. It’s how they assess it that could be problematic.
- Affric 3y agoIt does not.
- Affric 3y agoI still think about it more than once a year almost 20 years later and I am still yet to come up with anything that doesn’t sound wildly implausible.
- DonHopkins 3y agoYou mean grass like weed? I get that in my keyboard all the time. Years ago my cat knocked the bong over into the keyboard of my Dell laptop, and they happily replaced it (the keyboard, not the bong). The nice lady doing the extended warranty on-site repair cheerfully held her nose and winked at me, and I sheepishly shrugged back and pointed at the naughty cat, but she didn't give me any flack about it.
- Affric 3y agoGood story. Apple sent me my iPod back with blades of Poaceae stuck inside between the back and front covers.
- jacknews 3y agoFor a long time Apple apparently didn't test in hot humid climates, as the plastic they used on the macbook power cables would disintegrate and slew off after a year or so. I would not be surprised if hot humidity is also an issue with these sensors, which seem to be a user-hostile feature in any case.
- wlesieutre 3y agoLike the early Model 3 problem where when you open the trunk it used to dump water inside. If your designers all live in California they sometimes forget that other places have weather. https://teslatuneup.com/tesla-model-3-trunk-rain-fix/ https://teslatuneup.com/tesla-model-3-trunk-rain-fix/
- frandroid 3y agoIt's probably worse in warm climates, but macbook cables were disintegrating everywhere for the longest time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- josephcsible 3y ago> And now, jailbreaking will mean being able to reset tattletaled. Jailbreaking will be able to stop future reports, but it can't take back the reports that it already uploaded to the Apple mothership.
- Daz1 3y agoThat's great, hopefully this means easier detection of those attempting to lodge bogus warranty claims for negligent damage.
- dathinab 3y agounlikely it mainly means even more rightfully warranty claims which have nothing to do with water damage being rejected as water damage apple repair is already somewhat notorious for this wrongful rejections as the "water intrusion" sensors in their laptops are so sensitive that it's pretty common for them to trigger without there being anything anywhere close to water damage (like you had you window open in the neighbor room on a rainy day; not joking here) worse if they trigger not only do they reject warranty they do also (often? always?) reject doing repairs at all even if you pay for (but then apple anyway mostly only replaces major parts making many "small easy" repairs unreasonable expensive).
- rangestransform 3y agothat would be a sad day, i'm so glad apple gave me a warranty replacement for laundered airpods
- Teever 3y agoI wonder if Apple will ever make a waterproof laptop or tablet. It seems like they could easily make the macbook air waterproof at this point, if they were so inclined. What do people who want use their macs out in the field do?
- mschuster91 3y ago> What do people who want use their macs out in the field do? "Out in the field" jobs? That's typically stuff for heavily rugged Windows laptops (e.g. Panasonic Toughbook). I wonder what you could use a Mac device for in that area, the software used for such jobs (e.g. industrial control, car programming or mapping stuff) is almost exclusively Windows-only.
- Teever 3y agoWhat I mean by that is do people make quality waterproof cases for macs? I wonder why Apple has never considered making a toughbook type machine for real field work.
- zontorol 3y agoToughbooks are not fashionable and look like tools. Macbooks are supposed to look like jewelry.
- nijave 3y agoIn a way, Toughbooks are the exact opposites of MacBooks.
- gumby 3y agoVolume, I’m sure. They sell a large volume of a small number of SKUs so go for the minimum feature set that can get them out a couple of sigmas of the target market. Anything else is aftermarket (special case) or just “buy something else”. There are a few exceptions. I wonder how many Mac pros they really sell. I assume it’s really a “halo” product that sells more Mac studios and MacBook pros. Also the Mac in general is a low volume product for Apple. It’s 10% of units in the PC market (but what % of profit?) and about 10% of their revenue. (If they were truly run with a bean counter mentality would they even ship Macs?)
- ggm 3y agoA friend worked on GPS positioning for oil rig industry ships. The laptops they used were ruggedized and it was normal to assess replacements by knocking them off the table deliberately to see how they coped.
- Tommah 3y agoI wonder how reliable this will be. Back in the summer, my mom plugged her iPhone in to charge, and it gave a warning saying that it couldn't charge because there was liquid in the charging port. However, the port was bone-dry, and there was no liquid anywhere near the phone. It turned out that the charger didn't like the extension cord that it was plugged into. I took the extension cord away, and the phone started charging.
- chii 3y ago[flagged]
- shepherdjerred 3y agohttps://support.apple.com/en-us/108068 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108068
- michaelmrose 3y agoThis seems like fake outrage at a restriction that exists only in a hypothetical that nobody on earth would ever implement if for no other reason than the fact that it would be incredibly hard and complicated. If some future despot actually wanted to forbid dirty power wouldn't they just do that instead of making your phone not charge?
- userbinator 3y agoA lot of people said the same things about DRM and many other predictions that turned out to be true.
- LadyCailin 3y agoAnd how many predictions turned out to be false?
- networkchad 3y ago[dead]
- gumby 3y agoFWIW i just looked at the specs online and the iphone 15 pro is rated to IP68 while the ipad-pro and MacBook Air specs are silent on this.
- millzlane 3y agoAs far as I know, none of the computers are designed to be exposed to liquid at all.
- pmontra 3y agoSome laptops are advertised to have a spill resistant keyboards. My laptop from 2014 is one of them. I replaced the keyboard a few times because of key wear and yes, it seems to fit tightly enough to keep water away from the motherboard. Obviously water can get under the keys but the bottom of the keyboard seems to be sealed.
- metadat 3y agoMy iPhone 13 mini was IP rated and died after the first dunk. All of my Android Galaxy SXX phones have survived tons worse.. repeatedly. I treat the new iPhone I had to buy as if it were made of porous glass. Edit: Thanks everyone for the additional data points!
- sen 3y agoI’ve been snorkeling and swimming with my 14 Pro Max a couple dozen times, taking videos and photos, and never had an issue. I also wash my phone under the tap regularly (weekly or more) because I spend lots of time in a grimy workshop for hobbies. Only one data point but the waterproof aspect of modern phones is one of my absolute favorite developments.
- IAmGraydon 3y agoThat’s honestly kind of crazy. It’s only an IP68 rating. It’s meant for prevention of damage during quick submersion accidents, not snorkeling. >the waterproof aspect of modern phones is one of my absolute favorite developments. IP68 is water resistant, not waterproof.
- waynecochran 3y agoI had to throw away my COMPLETELY DRY cord and get a new one because Apple reported the presence of water. New coord -- no problems.
- ratg13 3y agoI hate to be the one to inform you that manufacturing issues exist and cables can be damaged through regular use. Water bridging a connection and the connector being broken are indistinguishable to the device.
- waynecochran 3y agoSo why state that water is the issue?
- scosman 3y agoProbably dry, but had short. Definitely good to detect and throw out. Message could definitely be improved.
- _LordGodd 3y agoBut you still can’t connect two monitors.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoWhat do you mean? I have 3 connected to mine
- PcChip 3y agoDo you have to use that displaylink software with terrible framerate and latency compared to native? I tried to get 3 monitors working on a work Mac with a new triple DisplayPort dock and had a terrible time, I went back to my Linux desktop since I can easily get smooth 165hz native performance on three monitors
- dmitrygr 3y agoI have a 4K monitor connected via usb3 displaylink and it gets 60fps.
- chris_wot 3y agoYeah, the key here is you must use a DisplayLink adapter. Most laptops other than Apple MacBook Airs don’t need this to have more than one extra monitor.
- dmitrygr 3y agoBut they cannot last 20h on a battery, win some, lose some
- thorncorona 3y agoi find the latency is pretty bad even though it’s 60fps
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI use a dual DisplayPort doc then connect one monitor directly. I'm running 2x 1440p and 1x 1440p ultrawide this way. This is a work setup, so I don't really need massive performance. It's all 60hz and no noticeable latency. I don't believe that triple DisplayPort works well with mac. I believe two is the limit.
- ddxv 3y agoPossibly not related, but my past two Samsungs have had this feature and it drives me crazy. Usually they seem to trigger when using non standard cords and from 0% battery life. This means that I get a very loud warning sound triggering when trying to charge my phone from a battery pack or borrowing someone's cord. Oddly, charging when on (ie not completely dead), this feature doesn't trigger the alarm. I really dislike this feature.
- delta_p_delta_x 3y agoFunnily enough, my Sony Xperia 5 III does this if I plug in a Thunderbolt 4 cable. Charges extra-slowly, and complains about liquid in the USB port. It's probably a not-entirely-compliant USB implementation on the phone.
- Vogtinator 3y agoAny TB 4 cable or just a specific one?
- cortesoft 3y agoThat means there was a short in the cable
- finnjohnsen2 3y agoMe too. I switch to wireless charging when this happens and usually I don't get these alarms the day after.
- extragood 3y agoI had my S22 upside down in my pocket and happened to splash water directly into the USB port and nowhere else. The precision was honestly kind of impressive. I only knew about it because my phone freaked out. I let it dry overnight rather than charge it, and everything has been good since then.
- fma 3y agoFWIW, you can still charge it wirelessly.
- DannyBee 3y agoThis is a feature of newer usb-c pd chipsets. See, e.g., https://www.ti.com/product/TPS25751 https://www.ti.com/product/TPS25751 in the features section. Apple has historically used TI chipsets for their USB power controllers. The feature likely comes from this.
- userbinator 3y agoHow it works (on page 52): "The TPS25751 supports liquid detection by measuring the voltage level across the SBU pins of the Type-C connector. When a short occurs across the SBU pins to another Type-C pin(s), the TPS25751 takes action to protect the the Type-C port by disabling the power paths and notifies the embedded controller when applicable. Once liquid has been detected, the TPS25751 continuously monitors the SBU voltage. During the SBU voltage monitoring, if the liquid/short is no longer present the TPS25751 takes action to return to normal operation." In other words, it's not actually detecting "liquids" but more of any conductive short. Non-conductive liquids, like oils and many other petroleum products, won't be detected.
- jeanlucas 3y agoDumb question: wouldn't non-conductive liquids be harmless? i.e., the USB port can in theory work even if it is immersed in some non-conductive liquid, no?
- ianferrel 3y agoNon-conductive liquids still might be corrosive, or might provide enough thermal insulation to cause heat build-up, or might leave some kind of residue that would be problematic, or...
- 13of40 3y agoOr dissolve plastics and rubber, maybe delaminate circuit boards, destroy any tape and glue...
- disillusioned 3y ago
- jedberg 3y agoI wonder if you can just disable the daemon?
- donatj 3y agoWait wait wait, they advertise the iPhone as waterproof but still void the warranty and won’t fix it if their waterproofing fails? We lost the headphone jack for this?
- scosman 3y agoThis is Mac, not iPhone.
- martin-adams 3y agoRead the first paragraph: >> Apple’s limited warranty doesn’t cover damage caused by liquids, even for water-resistant products like the iPhone, Apple Watch, and some AirPods models.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- multjoy 3y agoThat's because it's a warranty - it covers faults, not damages. If you want apple to fork out for a new one because you've dived into the sea with the phone on an armband then you need to pony up for Apple Care +
- Zetobal 3y agoNot to say I am game with it but at least the newer ones don't trip anymore when it's damp...
- aquafox 3y agoSamsung devices have moisture detection via USB-C for a long time. It does not work very reliable and many people have problems (https://ifixit.com/Antworten/Ansehen/511762/How+to+stop+the+annoying+moisture+detected+at+the+USB+charging+port https://ifixit.com/Antworten/Ansehen/511762/How+to+stop+the+...). I randomly get this error when I try to charge my S21 with my Macbook Pros charging cable.
- fayazara 3y agoMy cousin called me yesterday asking about this very thing and said "it's showing a suspicious looking icon, is this malware?", got confused for a moment and just asked him to wait for a couple of hours and it started charging again
- none_to_remain 3y agoKind of more interested in the implied system that reports to Apple when you disable the warranty daemon
- holoduke 3y agoI really hate usb c ports. They all break. I am a poweruser I know, but still. My mac, my phones, my car charger. All of them are causing connection or charge issues because of dirt, broken connectors or something different. Just give me the old mac magnet charger and apply it on all my devices. My 2011 air is still working fine after all these years.
- lxgr 3y agoIn what environment do you use them? I haven’t had a single USB-C port break on me in half a decade of using them. A few times I thought one had worn out and wouldn’t make a solid connection anymore, but it was always just lint in the port and could be fixed by cleaning it.
- Asmod4n 3y agoThis saved my iPhone a couple days ago when i tried to plug it into car play, it was too humid and cold that water condensed in the port, nearly killing the phone.
- ClassyJacket 3y agoI.e. Apple has another bullshit way to deny your legitimate warranty claim.
- 0xDEADFED5 3y agoMy Samsung phone detects this too, wonder if it's phoning it home. for some reason the 20g usb-c plug on my PC triggers it if my phone is plugged in during cold boot
- vinay_ys 3y agoRecently when I plugged my iPhone for charging it correctly warned me that it detected liquid and it might damage the phone to charge at the moment. I blasted my phone with car AC for a couple of minutes and it dried out and then I was able to charge fine. It's a nice feature to have even on Macs but I doubt the scenarios in which water goes into a Mac are as simple to deal with as they are with iPhone.
- wslh 3y agoBTW, several years ago, a mix of mango, strawberry, and orange shake was spilled to the keyboard of a MacBook Air M1. It was not detected ;-) but the keyboard continue to work flawlessly, just a little sticky. Seriously speaking, other similar experiences with other notebooks were not great and a keyboard replacement was needed.
- johnwalkr 3y agoMore than 10 years ago I spilled miso soup on a 2010 MacBook Pro on my first day moving to Japan. I took it apart and cleaned it but the keyboard and trackpad couldn't be saved. Some keys always sent a signal and it would only boot into safe mode. But I could disassemble the laptop, turn it on, and remove the keyboard connector and then use it with an external mouse and keyboard. I did that for about a week until replacement parts arrived. I fixed it and the MacBook still works to this day.
- digitalsin 3y agoKind of tired of things like this dropping into our software and no one really knows definitively what it is, what it's for, how it might be used, etc. My mac is mine, I paid handsomely for it, I'd like Apple to treat it like it is mine. It's like someone walking into your house and installing a little block box in the corner of the room and walking out, and maybe later on they'll let you know what they're doing with this device but maybe not. This will be my last mac unfortunately, which is a pity because I do love the hardware.
- h0nd 3y agoHow is the difference between liquids and humidity detected?
- cameldrv 3y agoIMO it's dirty pool for Apple to advertise their products as waterproof (IP68) and then even if a drop of water gets on the external case, they will refuse to honor the warranty, even if the water has nothing to do with the problem. They don't even want to perform out of warranty, paid repairs if any of the liquid sensors are tripped. A few years back I had an MBP that the battery had worn out on, but several years before, I had spilled some water on the keyboard. The computer was none the worse for wear -- I dried it out quickly and it was fine, but when the battery wore out and I wanted it replaced, they wanted me to pay $1500 for a new motherboard before they would be willing to replace the battery.
- dlubarov 3y agoTo add another anecdote, Apple refused to honor the warranty on an AirPod Pro with sweat-related damage. Nevermind that it's supposed to be "sweat and water resistant", they seem to treat any kind of liquid damage as user error anyway. Luckily it was from Costco, so I just returned it and switched to Shockz.
- dpkonofa 3y ago>even if a drop of water gets on the external case, they will refuse to honor the warranty This is both not true and so hyperbolic it's ridiculous. IP68 is only colloquially "waterproof" as none of the IP ratings have an indefinite exposure time.
- cameldrv 3y agoThere are liquid sensors in the ports, and if a drop of water gets on them, they will turn red and Apple will refuse to honor your warranty. Apple claims the iPhone is waterproof to 6 meters for 30 minutes, but if you put your phone in one inch of water for one second, your warranty is void.
- acdha 3y agoThis is categorically untrue. What you’re mistaking is the difference between the exterior port powering down to prevent corrosion and the tags they use to tell when the device is no longer waterproof (e.g. because the seals have failed or there’s a crack). I know this because we’ve used our iPhone 11s for years in the pool, bath, etc. and never had an issue on a warranty status or battery replacement. They do check that for battery repairs because of the safety issues but you won’t get it for any use which doesn’t result in water inside the case.
- Log_out_ 3y agoDirty user, we do that outside! Srsly though, why would a hw company warn you about liquid damage aka impending sales?
- talldatethrow 3y agoI have a Google Pixel 4xl thats had its battery replaced 3 times because of their terrible tiny brittle battery connector. The last two times, I've done it myself with a $19 Amazon battery. I never reseal the phone properly, just closing the back onto the old sticky residue that's left from the original assembly years ago. Yesterday I dropped the phone into a hot bowl of soup. I took it out, rinsed it under a faucet to get the soup off it, and dried it with a towel. Good as new.