Okay Geek Farm
Tuesday
Jul192011
iPhone 4 falls 13,500 feet from Skydiver's pocket and lives
Daniel Carey
When Apple set out to create the iPhone, I highly doubt they believed it would one day be dropped from 13,500 feet. As avid skydiver Jarrod McKinney recently discovered, Apple’s fourth generation iPhone is far sturdier than most would believe. A short drop and sudden stop is often enough to destroy the glass back or display of Apple’s popular smartphone — a feat which was achieved by McKinney after his two year old accidentally knocked his phone from a bathroom shelf, cracking the screen in the process. However in this instance, a mishap 13,000+ feet above the ground has resulted in a rather amusing story.
Jarrod McKinney’s iPhone 4Whilst performing a routine skydive, McKinney’s iPhone slipped out of his pocket stumbling to its inevitable demise as it plummeted towards the ground. Figuring, like most, that his phone would have been destroyed in the drop, McKinney used a GPS tracking application to determine the exact location of his smartphone.Landing more than half a mile away from his landing zone, McKinney traced his phone to the top of a building. As the parachutist went to retrieve his damaged phone, his instructor Joe Johnson, amusingly tried ringing the phone. To everyone’s amazement, the phone started vibrating in McKinney’s hand.
Consumer Reports technology editor, Mike Gikas stated that a cell phone is capable of surviving a major fall, and that water damage is more likely to be fatal to a handset.
Currently McKinney plans on having his phone’s display repaired. Whilst it still receives calls via Bluetooth connection, its shattered display leaves most of the phone’s features inoperable.
Whilst this story is remarkable from a pure endurance point, it leads one to wonder why an iPhone 4 is capable of surviving a drop from 13,500 feet and others simply fall apart after being dropped from a measly foot onto carpet.
References (1)
PhoneArena
