Water meter
How cool is this! What could be called our ‘sister site’, (if you think long and hard about their title) HardMac has pointed out a little ‘feature’ of sorts on the iPhone, that most phones have, too.
At the bottom of the jack plug you can see a white disc that will irreversibly change color when entering in contact with water. So one would not need to open an iPhone or an iPod Touch to ensure it stopped working due to an unexpected bath.
The reason i thought this is cool is ’cause… Well i’m a bit of a geek i guess. But recently i had a bit of ‘plant’ stuck in the headphone jack (i take my iPhone outdoors when working). And whilst poking around in the headphone jack with a pin to get out the foreign plant, i was intrigued by the little white thing at the bottom of the headphone jack.
It didn’t look like part of a typical headphone jack – it wasn’t copper or even metal coloured, so it didn’t look like a typical electrical conductor of any sort, and now i know what the hell it is.
Now if my iPhone was under an Australian warrantee, i’d probably be a little frightened by the positioning of the water indicator. In other phones the indicator is typically near the battery or on the battery, tucked away inside the case of the phone. Partially removed from light rain or urine.
But given i have my iPhone sitting in a little side pocket on my pants (which can be a little open to the weather) i’d be paranoid about keeping my iPhone headphone jack down in that pocket. I wouldn’t want to void the chance of my iPhone being serviced by an Apple technician if the water indicator had been triggered by a lousy drop of rain (or an accidental splash!).
I am so righteous and free right now about having an unsupported iPhone…
