A Hidden Threat To Handhelds 214
Logic Bomb writes: "An article from the San Francisco Chronicle focuses on a lawsuit against Palm, but talks about a larger issue: static and handheld computers. Basically, as computing equipment becomes smaller and more likely to be carried around, major damage from static becomes a serious threat. As the blurb at the end of the article says, it takes 3500 volts for a human to feel a shock, but only 200 to potentially scramble a microchip." We already mentioned the lawsuit, but this has more information about the supposed risks to your motherboard.
Gimme a break - what about water? (Score:4, Interesting)
You can say the same thing about water - it takes quite a few drops for humans to notice that it's raining, but just one well-placed droplet will fry your motherboard. Do you see me suing Toshiba because I can't use my laptop by the pool?
Wall sockets Vs. Palm Pilots (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not about AC vs. DC at all. The article is referring to static discharge, which is the equilization of differing voltage levels. Here [google.com]'s the google cache of the first decent explanation I dug up on google. I'm sure you can find more yourself.
How is this different or than any other device? (Score:2, Interesting)