It is an unlucky reality of life that some individuals will purchase themselves a shiny new Mac, like the wonderful 15-inch MacBook Air for instance, after which virtually instantly break it by pouring some form of liquid into it. They do not do it on goal, after all. However that is what makes it all of the extra tragic.
Nonetheless, a few of these individuals could be tempted to take their new Mac again to the Apple Retailer and declare that it merely stopped working. They usually would possibly get away with it — assuming they do not have macOS Sonoma 14.1 put in, that’s.
That is as a result of the most recent model of macOS seems to have a brand new characteristic that collects info on the moisture discovered inside a Mac’s USB-C ports simply able to snitch on anybody whose pc will get moist.
Finger-pointing software program
That is all based on a 9to5Mac report which notes that “macOS Sonoma 14.1 features a new system daemon named ‘liquiddetectiond,’ which, because the identify suggests, can establish when the pc has been uncovered to liquids.”
That daemon runs within the background and screens to see whether or not any liquid is detected inside a USB-C port within the Mac on which it is working. It is apparently described as a “Liquid Detection and Corrosion Mitigation Daemon” which has similarities to one thing already current in different Apple gadgets. The iPhone 15, taking only one instance, has expertise that may detect when its USB-C port is moist in order to warn the consumer to not plug a cable in. We have seen that in older iPhones as nicely — together with my iPhone 13 Professional Max after making the ill-fated choice to take some underwater movies throughout a Spanish trip final yr. Spoiler — it did not appear to love it and by no means reliably charged through Lightning once more, however we digress.
Within the case of the Mac, it does not appear that Apple intends to warn individuals in the identical approach because it does with the iPhone which implies that the daemon does little greater than accumulate info after which retailer it for later use. However the place might it’s used?
No guarantee for you
The obvious use for info on whether or not a Mac received moist is at an Apple Retailer or restore middle. If a consumer sends a Mac again for restore claiming the notorious “it simply stopped working” and the machine is aware of it as soon as discovered itself underneath assault from a misplaced bottle of Pepsi, that is the sort of info Apple would possibly need to know.
I could be doing Apple a disservice right here, and this info won’t be used for something of the kind. However frankly, if it is not, it most likely ought to be. Apple already has Liquid Contact Indicators, or LCI, inside Macs and different gadgets that do a lot the identical factor. However that info is nowhere close to as full as one thing like this daemon might accumulate. Apple will know precisely which a part of the Mac received moist, and extra importantly, when. I additionally suspect it might log when it stopped detecting liquid as nicely.
If some individuals do miss out on guarantee repairs they should not have had, so be it. My iPhone 13 Professional Max’s water harm was my very own fault — though I did get some nice pictures of my children, so I would argue it was value it — and I owned it.
Though I can think about somebody would possibly really feel in a different way in the event that they need to go and purchase a brand new Mac as a result of they knocked their favourite beverage into it someday, fully by chance. The lesson of the story? Do not maintain liquids close to your Mac.
Do as I say, not as I do!
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