Water sensors confirm you're a klutz Video

Water sensors confirm you're a klutz Video Transcript

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>> Good morning, PowerBook Guy.

>> Daniel Janisch, the owner of PowerBook Guy in downtown San Francisco repairs 50 or more Apple laptops a week. Roughly 20 percent of them have liquid damage.

>> Water, wine, beer, coffee, soup, hair gel, tea tree oil, just about everything.

>> The problem is Apple laptop warranties don't cover liquid damage.

>> Stands to reason. Liquid and electronics don't mix.

>> Now, it's rumored that a built in sensor to Apple's new MacBook and MacBook Pro lines will let repair technicians know if you're telling the truth about the source of the problem.

>> A liquid submerge indicator, basically, it's a little sensor that sits inside the computer. And if it comes into contact with moisture, it changes color. Oh, the sensors are really meant to help the company not really the consumers so much. If you bring your laptop and say, "Oh, it just doesn't work, I don't know what happened", they can open it up and say, "Oh, you've must have spilled something in the keyboard, therefore, you're out of warranty and we can't help you."

>> These sensors are standard on most cellphones including the iPhone. However, Apple, a company known for its secrecy will not confirm the inclusion of these laptop sensors.

>> Especially by doing it with such a secretive way, the indicators are kind of a little big brother issue and I think will fill that way to a lot of people. On top of that, we're really not sure how they work.

>> The question for me is how well does the sensors work. In other words, do it strictly moisture on contact or is it ambient moisture. How sensitive are they? When does the risks it falls positives? I mean there's a lot of issues around there.

>> Not all consumers, however, seems to mind.

>> Oh, that's genius, I love that Mac actually.

>> If you spill the water or liquid on the computer, right, automatically, the laptop will be not okay. So, you know, we wanna buy a laptop with everything on warranty on it.

>> You know that once water or is any liquid gets on your computer, it's not covered by the warranty.

>> Yes, you know. I had learned that the hard way.

>> But you're okay with this new idea of the sensors?

>> Sounds alright, yeah.

>> No other computer manufacturer uses these kinds of sensors to test for water damage. In fact, a lot of companies are trying to make their computers more water proofed or spill proofed. However, it's yet to be seen and Apple has started the trend. In San Francisco, I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNET.com. [ Music ]