Here you go, Apple lovers! Eat this!

Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gye4aw/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility

On 10/31/2018 06:24 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:
Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gye4aw/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility

Was everyone was talking like chipmunks?

Nomen Nescio wrote:

Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

Maybe accelerometers, and compasses too, but I can't see why those
couldn't be airtight.

In article , Andy Burns
wrote:


Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

of course. they're standard parts, and it's not exactly a real world
risk factor anyway.

nospam wrote:
In article , Andy Burns
wrote:

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

of course. they're standard parts, and it's not exactly a real world
risk factor anyway.

Yeah, when my $1000 phone acts up, I just
flush it down the toilet.

The part that amazes me, is how quickly the
helium seems to incapacitate the phone. It's
like there's no seal at all around these things.

They could have designed a free-wheeling backup
oscillator to take over from the MEMS when it
takes a snooze. It didn't have to fail that
way. They could also gate off the free-wheeling
oscillator until it's needed.

Paul

In article , Paul
wrote:

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

of course. they're standard parts, and it's not exactly a real world
risk factor anyway.

Yeah, when my $1000 phone acts up, I just
flush it down the toilet.

no need to do that.

The part that amazes me, is how quickly the
helium seems to incapacitate the phone. It's
like there's no seal at all around these things.

there are seals for liquid incursion, so if you do drop it in the
toilet (which *is* surprisingly common), it will not fail.

there is no reason to seal a phone against helium.

They could have designed a free-wheeling backup
oscillator to take over from the MEMS when it
takes a snooze. It didn't have to fail that
way. They could also gate off the free-wheeling
oscillator until it's needed.

no point for what is an extreme edge case.

Andy Burns explained :
Nomen Nescio wrote:

Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple
devices?

Maybe accelerometers, and compasses too, but I can't see why those
couldn't be airtight.

The article says that it didn't affect Android devices.

On 2018-11-01, NumbLock wrote:
On 10/31/2018 06:24 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:
Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gye4aw/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility

Was everyone was talking like chipmunks?

That is just silly. To change the velocity of sound (which is what the
chipmunk voice is due to) requires a substantial fraction of the air be
Helium. In that case the problem would not have been Apple watches, the
problem would have been that everyone was passed out on the floor.
because there was not enough oxygen.
Remember there was venting some of which leaked into the hospital. Ie
only a fraction of that 120 liters ended up in the atmosphere of the
hospital. And hopitals are typically very big buildings. Ie, the
fraction of He in the air was almost certainly at most a few percent.
Again, it is hard to see how that would have altered the frequency of
the mems by much. Maybe they are so sensitive to frequency changes.
Note that sticking a phone/watch into a bag and putting in He, would
have been a concentration of 50-100 % which is hardly the equivalent of
the hospital.

This story sounds to me like and urban legend that has escaped from its
zoo.

On 2018-11-01, Paul wrote:
nospam wrote:
In article , Andy Burns
wrote:

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

of course. they're standard parts, and it's not exactly a real world
risk factor anyway.

Yeah, when my $1000 phone acts up, I just
flush it down the toilet.

The part that amazes me, is how quickly the
helium seems to incapacitate the phone. It's
like there's no seal at all around these things.

They could have designed a free-wheeling backup
oscillator to take over from the MEMS when it
takes a snooze. It didn't have to fail that
way. They could also gate off the free-wheeling
oscillator until it's needed.

The clock is ALWAYS needed. And the backup oscillator would have
completely destroyed the value of the mems oscilaltor int ehfirst place
(its value is size. It is like riding a moped and asking why your do not
have a Mac Truck as a backup if the moped fails)


Paul

On 10/31/18 8:20 PM, NumbLock wrote:
On 10/31/2018 06:24 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:
Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gye4aw/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility


Was everyone was talking like chipmunks?

Read the fine article. Otherwise you are ignorant
and even worse, sound as though you are ignorant.
Let us stop feeding a cross posting troll.
bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

Nomen Nescio wrote:

Andy Burns explained :

Nomen Nescio wrote:

Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

Maybe accelerometers, and compasses too, but I can't see why those
couldn't be airtight.

*The article says that it didn't affect Android devices.

It would take android devices to have MEMS resonators instead of crystal
oscillators for them to be affected in the same way, but plenty of non
iThings have MEMS devices in one form or another.

I'm not clear why an oscillator would be "open" to the atmosphere,
whereas a barometer would need to be.

Andy Burns writes:
I'm not clear why an oscillator would be "open" to the atmosphere,
whereas a barometer would need to be.

They weren't open. They were sealed, and most likely contained either a
vacuum or a specific gas. However, helium diffuses through everything
at an astounding rate, and something about these particular parts made
them especially susceptible to small amounts of helium. It probably
changed the velocity of sound inside the device just enough to screw it
up. Other brands of oscillator might also have been affected but if
they merely shifted off frequency a bit no one would have noticed.

It's also possible that these oscillators didn't stop either, but
shifted frequency enough to cause the operating system to become alarmed
and/or confused.
--
John Hasler

Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

After serious thinking John Hasler wrote :
Andy Burns writes:
I'm not clear why an oscillator would be "open" to the atmosphere,
whereas a barometer would need to be.

They weren't open. They were sealed, and most likely contained
either a vacuum or a specific gas. However, helium diffuses through
everything at an astounding rate, and something about these
particular parts made them especially susceptible to small amounts of
helium. It probably changed the velocity of sound inside the device
just enough to screw it up. Other brands of oscillator might also
have been affected but if they merely shifted off frequency a bit no
one would have noticed.

It's also possible that these oscillators didn't stop either, but
shifted frequency enough to cause the operating system to become
alarmed and/or confused.

I wonder how many Apple people have followed their bad oscillator
apps off a cliff so far?

This brings up an idea for a new hack. Get in front of a self
driving car and open up a helium bottle.

On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 09:30:13 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Paul
wrote:

Wonder if the Helium affected the MEMS barometers in non-Apple devices?

of course. they're standard parts, and it's not exactly a real world
risk factor anyway.

Yeah, when my $1000 phone acts up, I just
flush it down the toilet.

no need to do that.

The part that amazes me, is how quickly the
helium seems to incapacitate the phone. It's
like there's no seal at all around these things.

there are seals for liquid incursion, so if you do drop it in the
toilet (which *is* surprisingly common), it will not fail.

there is no reason to seal a phone against helium.

Besides, its almost impossible. For practical purposes helium is the
ultimate leak-test fluid.

They could have designed a free-wheeling backup
oscillator to take over from the MEMS when it
takes a snooze. It didn't have to fail that
way. They could also gate off the free-wheeling
oscillator until it's needed.

no point for what is an extreme edge case.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

The part that amazes me, is how quickly the
helium seems to incapacitate the phone. It's
like there's no seal at all around these things.

there are seals for liquid incursion, so if you do drop it in the
toilet (which *is* surprisingly common), it will not fail.

there is no reason to seal a phone against helium.

Besides, its almost impossible. For practical purposes helium is the
ultimate leak-test fluid.

that too.

although wd/hgst did do it for hard drives...