Apple Applies For Patent On Drop-proof iPod?

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Apple+aims+to+patent+fall-detecting+iPod/2100-1047_3-5502409.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Apple+aims+to+patent+fall-detecting+iPod/2100-1047_3-5502409.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Apple Computer is eyeing a technology that could make the iPod more likely to survive a fall. The company has applied for a patent on technology that would allow a portable media player to detect when it is falling and then stop reading or writing to the hard drive. Such technology would work by detecting the acceleration that accompanies a drop. "The portable-computing device protects its disk drive by monitoring for such accelerations and operating to avoid usage of the disk drive during periods of acceleration," Apple said in the patent application, which was published Dec. 16. "Through such protection, the likelihood of damage to the disk drive or loss of data stored on the disk drive is able to be substantially reduced."</i><br /><br />This technology could certainly help prevent a great many unnecessary iPod deaths. But how reliably will it all work? There has to be some sort of latency between the point of falling and the moment the failsafe kicks in to stop read/write from occurring. And short sudden drops would probably not work in this case, or al least it would have to work pretty darn fast to save it. We'll see I guess.

[butch]

It's a good idea, but didn't IBM invented that last year (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/ibm_debuts_hard_drive_airbag/)? :?

[Chris Gohlke]

It's a good idea, but didn't IBM invented that last year (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/ibm_debuts_hard_drive_airbag/)? :?

Yep, the new Thinkpad I got at work early this year has that. It detects even just a bump to the desk it is sitting on..

[ctmagnus]

Yeah, I figured this is the same thing those two guys at the bar in the IBM commercial were talking about.

"That wasn't my notebook" :lol:

[Kent Pribbernow]

Hmm. That's interesting. So what the hell is Apple patenting here; using IBM's tech in an iPod? It seems that Apple's strategy is not to create and patent its own new technology, but to prevent its competitors from adding such features to their own products. Brilliant strategy, in an anti-competitive sort of way. :roll:

[arebelspy]

The OQO has this too..

-arebelspy

[Felix Torres]

seagate 1 inch drives have something similar, which means the Rio Carbon and Zen Micro (among others) have it.
Apple is probably out to patent a *slightly* different way of doing it. Or maybe they honestly don't know everybody else has access to the capability.
&lt;shrug>
No nefarious anti-competitive agenda is needed to explain the actions of the kingdom of hype, when you consider they practically invented NIHS. 8)

[David Horn]

I dropped a WD hard disk (200GB) 6 feet onto a stone floor last month. Huge dent in the drive case, but it works fine. Was switched on at the time, too.