iPhone 4 Survives Fall From Skydiver's Pocket

tripleevenfall sent in a link with a story that is sure to be the basis for the next iPhone 4 commercial. From the article: "Jarrod McKinney's iPhone 4 — a notoriously fragile device — cracked when his 2-year-old knocked it off a bathroom shelf. So it's easy to see why McKinney, a 37-year-old in Minnesota, would be 'just absolutely shocked' when that same phone survived a fall from his pocket — while he was skydiving from 13,500 feet."

Surface

[Tukz]

Doesn't it highly depend on the surface it lands on as well?
I mean, a bathroom floor is pretty hard and solid, while, say, a bush could soften the blow quite significantly.

Terminal Velocity

[DiademBedfordshire]

I'm no physicist but wouldn't something small like an iphone hit terminal velocity very quickly?

Very silly story

[assantisz]

This phone may still be able to make calls but would anybody in his/her right mind say the phone "survived" the fall? Look at it. Also, one snippet from the linked article: That's especially amazing since the iPhone 4 can suffer from cell reception issues. When the Apple smartphone debuted in 2010, a saga the tech media called Antennagate followed. Consumer watchdogs claimed a design flaw on the phone's antenna caused it to drop calls unexpectedly. Apple gave out free phone cases to address the issue. Whoever wrote this garbage did not know what he was writing about. Why is this on slashdot again?

Re:survived?

[asdf7890]

At least it is in a fit state for any information stored to be drawn off onto a replacement device though. That is certainly a bonus over not powering up at all.

Re:Fall off of a Harley

[Colonel Korn]

My daughter's iPhone 4 fell out of her back pocket when she was riding a Harley. She didn't realize it until she reached her destination; then her husband took off to look for it. He found it laying in a busy road, with tire marks on it.

It was fine.

"a notoriously fragile device" is anti-fanboy hyperbole.

A literal majority of the iPhone 4 owners I know have dealt with shattered glass causes by a sub-meter drop onto a hard surface, and none of them were riding a moving vehicle at the time. One was dropped from a pocket while sitting on a stationary motorcycle, and yes, it was shattered front and back.

Maybe Harleys have special iPhone protecting fields, or maybe we should remember that a single survived drop doesn't have any meaning.