Comment by zaroth
7 years ago
Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but I found one of the most impressive parts of the story, aside from actually tracking down the root cause, was that the iPhone User's Guide actually specifically addresses this, along with explaining that it's necessary to give it about a week for the helium to diffuse.
You just know there was a days-long meeting about "the Helium problem", including graphs of how likely different user-personas are to enter a zeppelin, work in a balloon factory, or attend exceedingly well-funded birthday parties.
After debating late nights about whether to pony up for the new better-sealed clock, someone said "Screw it, throw it in the user agreement."
"better sealed clock" would be the universally used quartz resonator, but that would have added 0.002$ to their cost. Unthinkable.
Nice try! The SiT512 Apple uses is more expensive than a quartz resonator. I don’t have Apple’s specific BOM details, but I’d guess it’s likely something like 2x the cost.
1 reply →
I think the reason they used the helium-affected clock is because it was smaller, not bec it was cheaper.
What are some of the most egregious cost-cutting measures have Apple take in the past? I’m genuinely curious.
1 reply →
I think that sticking iPhones in helium balloons is now going to the top prank of 2019.
They probably got that info when they bought their oscillators. From there it should be pretty straight forward to include it in testing procedures.