Can iPhone proximity to magnetic tape cause erasure of recorded material?

Question

speck2001 Author

Level 1

16 points

Can iPhone proximity to magnetic tape cause erasure of recorded material?

A colleague was carrying a roll of magnetic tape while carrying an iPhone is his shirt pocket. When he then played the tape, it sounded as if it had been partially erased (degaussed). He claims that the phone caused it, but I'm skeptical. I know that vaccuum cleaners and large magnets are dangerous for hard drives and magnetic tape, but cell phones?

Any ideas?

Dual G4 1.25GHz Mirror Door, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Sep 23, 2008 4:16 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 23, 2008 5:05 PM in response to speck2001

There is an earpiece, 2 speakers and a microphone in the iPhone. All of these devices have small magnets in them. So it is possible, but the magnets are so small it is unlikely.

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Answer 2

Nascar13

Level 1

60 points

Sep 23, 2008 5:05 PM in response to speck2001

well the iphone does not have a hard drive, it has a data drive the same as a data jump drive, ive never put a magnet next to a jump drive to see the effects but i doubt that a roll of magnetic tape would have any kind of effect on the iphone,or the other way around would be impossible, there is nothing in the iphone that would cause that effect. the case alone should be enough to protect any object from such a thing.
and most likely magnetic tape would have a zero effect on a hard drive. Heck my carry case for the iphone has a magnetic cover flap. Oh one more thing unless the battery in Nuclear I doubt that has any effect on anything lol.

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Answer 3

speck2001 Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 24, 2008 5:57 PM in response to Nascar13

Nascar13,

I'm not saying that the tape harmed the iPhone, my colleague says that he rested the roll of tape against his chest pocket (covering the iPhone) for a moment while trying to juggle keys, etc., and thinks that the momentary contact with the phone contributed to erasure of the audio on the mag tape. I hope that the small magnets in the phone aren't strong enough to harm tapes, but somehow I doubt there would be much shielding in the case. I have experienced hard drive corruption when laying headphones on top of a firewire enclosure- so perhaps this is similar?

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