Kid Resistant
I unplugged my Echo Dot yesterday. I had it for several years but it was only able to play at full volume, so every response or song played from it was startling. I tried to turn down the volume but nothing I tried worked.
The device endured a lot of abuse from curious fingers. It was unplugged, used as a block, used as a puck, rolled, dropped, and prodded. Finally, years of use and knocks led to some delicate internal component failing. The result, a device that is only good if I need something loud.
When we were making the Ubi, we had to deal with many small components having issues. Some components couldn’t endure being plugged in for hours on end, others could survive being shipped across the world. Other things were just errors in manufacturing that needed to be smoothed out.
It’s a modern miracle that microscopic components can survive at all. We take for granted the small machinery that powers so many components. Older devices literally needed to have their components jostled back into place or dusted. If you’ve banged on a TV set (what’s that?) or blown into a Nintendo game cassette, you understand.
There are tradeoffs in ruggedizing components and at some point, full IP69k is too costly. There are also tradeoffs in looking at long lifespans. However, there are predictable outcomes for devices. Cellphones will get cracked screens, laptops will get exposed to water, Echos within arms’ reach of toddlers will get turned into hockey pucks. When designing hardware, everything resists you just need to decide until what point.
