
The Galaxy S5 does not have temperature or humidity sensors - cleis
http://opensignal.com/blog/2014/04/09/does-the-galaxy-s5-have-temperature-and-humidity-sensors/
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geetee
It's most likely due to the water-proofing. The S4 rugged version has the same
limitation.

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__mp
I talked to an engineer from Sensirion (the makers of the temperature sensor
on the S4) a couple of weeks ago. He told me that the waterproofing was the
reason that they couldn't include their sensor in the S5.

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JamesCRR
Conflicting information, I just talked with someone from Sensirion who was
quite central to the the SHTC1 project, he confirmed it was NOT the
waterproofing that was the issue and pointed out there are Japanese devices
with the same chip that are waterproof, even to IP68 (2m depth).

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jug6ernaut
Well that's disappointing. Adding gimmicky(imo) sensors and removing
functional/useful sensors.

Obviously Samsung is thinking from a consumer prospective, but still very
disappointing.

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MBCook
> and removing functional/useful sensors.

Are temperature and humidity really that useful? I know many Android phones
have had them, but have they really be used? Do they really add much to the
device?

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scottcha
I believe temperature sensors are required to get barometric data to
altitude[1]. That's why all altimeter watches also have temperature though its
usually useless while wearing since its reading the temp of your wrist instead
of the air.

On a second note I produce an app
([http://www.ullrlabs.com](http://www.ullrlabs.com)) for avalanche danger
evaluation and knowing your ambient air temperature is one factor which is
helpful in that process. Though I haven't yet tried to read that value on
android phones for the app.

[1]See pressure altimeter calibration equation:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altimeter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altimeter)

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Recoil42
Your first note is irrelevant, since all modern phones have a (hot) CPU
running while the phone is active. It's why phones don't rely on their
temperature sensors for ambient readings in the first place even if they have
them.

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Artemis2
I love how developers of this app allow themselves to collect numerous data
about their users' phones, so much they even track their hardware, model
numbers and available APIs. But the worst thing is probably that this has
became so common that people don't react negatively anymore towards that kind
of privacy violation.

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mrjatx
Why do I care that a mobile developer knows my device model and hardware
specs? I'd prefer you to know for bug testing and performance metrics.

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return0
Makes sense, after all temp sensors don't really belong to phones. What't the
point of knowing it's 35C and the humidity of your pocket? They 'd make sense
in cars, once (if ever) they get connected.

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privong
Weather signal [0] has developed algorithms to correct the internal sensor
measurements for things like this, particularly temperature. So it's not
entirely useless.

[0] [http://weathersignal.com/](http://weathersignal.com/)

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runeks
Allow me to be skeptical about the reliability of this algorithm. How can you
ever know the temperature of the air outside by measuring the temperature of
your pocket? Sure, there's a correlation, to some degree. But what if you wear
different pants, or put the phone in your bag? I just don't see how that's
possible (to a meaningful degree of precision). I would think data from
weather stations would be a lot more reliable, and make the temperature sensor
obsolete.

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privong
It presumably relies on having multiple phones recording the temperature,
averaging out person-to-person variations in attire (thickness of pants,
etc.). If those variations are correlated among people for a given day
(everyone is wearing thicker pants), it's probably colder, and that would have
to be included in the algorithm.

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hiphopyo
What other cool sensors do mobile phones have these days?

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dublinben
Many phones also have magnetic compasses, so you can get an accurate bearing
without needing GPS signals. I would expect significant advances in inertial
navigation systems in mobile devices in the coming years.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system)

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funkyy
The best tl;dr ever!

