News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by ewoodrich on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @02:36PM (#7561337)
I've never found a phone temp sensor to be useful, primarily because it tends to be several degrees higher than ambient due to internal components.
Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by revscat on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @02:50PM (#7561450)
I believe that monitoring internal components is exactly why temperature sensors are useful: the device can shut itself off it it becomes too hot. This can happen if the it has been left on the dashboard of a car during the summer, for example. This can help to lengthen the lifetime of the device.
Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by diminoten on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @02:59PM (#7561519)
I don't think those sensors are taken out, I think this is with regard to the outside temperature/humidity sensor.

Internal component temperature measurement isn't something you can get rid of, it's critical to the phone.

Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by hmpc on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @03:04PM (#7561547)
This is indeed a common use case for temperature sensors in embedded devices, and I very much doubt there isn't one in the S5. Temperature sensors are included in pretty much all inertial sensor dies nowadays, both for offset/drift calibration and thermal shutdown protection. It's more likely that Samsung simply removed application-level access, although I don't know why they would do so.
Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by nimrody on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @02:59PM (#7561518)
All cellphones (even very old ones) have some sort of temperature sensor. This is required for dealing with components that are sensitive to heat (oscillators for example).

These are usually not accessible to applications since they (by design) do not report the ambient room temperature.

Re:The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors by davidgerard on Wednesday April 09, 2014 @06:27PM (#7562918)
+1 - mostly it's good for checking I still have a body temperature.