iPhone falls from skydivers pocket - pic

[Liberal_in_LA]

iPhone 4 survives fall from skydiver's pocket

Jarrod McKinney's iPhone 4 -- a notoriously fragile device -- cracked when his 2-year-old knocked it off a bathroom shelf.

"I was like, 'Man! That's all it takes to crack the glass?' " he said.

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.

He found the gadget, its glass surfaces shattered, on top of a building about a half-mile away from where he landed with his parachute.

Joe Johnson, a skydiving instructor, said he and a few friends watched from the ground below the two-story building as McKinney raised the phone above his head in triumph after he located it using a GPS tracking app.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/07/18/iphone.skydive/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[RZM]

1. Do people normally skydive with their phones on them?

Seems kind of dumb to me.

[The Straight Story]

3. They text and drive....(nt)

[RZM]

7. LOL. 'Guess where I'm at right now!!!'

The only reason I can think of is that they take pictures of themselves in freefall.

[louis-t]

9. "Where you at?"

Funny. :P

[DearAbby]

15. Can you hear me now? n/t

[AmericaIsGreat]

2. My girlfriend dropped hers down an elevator shaft

And the maintenance guys found it and it was still in one piece.

[Historic NY]

4. I'm think they need to come up with some other type surface material...

all I ever see are cracked and broken ones.

[rhett o rick]

5. Why? They have a good business in either the insurance or replacement (abt $600) nm

[Tesha]

12. You're not looking very hard then.

Most people manage to keep their iPhones in more-or-less
one piece. And you can argue about what the back surface
should be made of, but any touchscreen phone will have a
glass front surface; saphire is the only other alternative but
much more-expensive than glass.

Tesha

[anarch]

13. well hell, now I think I need a sapphire-screened phone

[brooklynite]

6. I'm betting Apple sends a free replacement...

You can't pay enough for a PR story like this.

[Atman]

8. I wouldn't even take mine on the zip line last weekend.

I had a GoPro cam strapped to my helmet instead -- full HD video, and rugged as hell. The only reason I could see to take it skydiving is so you make one final call to the family if your 'chute doesn't open.

.

[woodsprite]

16. I love those!

Hubby used one when we were on vacation. He took it up on a 9' delta kite to take aerial pictures of the beaches we visited at OBX. Now he's looking at getting a remote control so he can control the camera from the ground instead of taking his chances at getting a good shot.

My daughter shattered her flip-phone screen 2 wks after we upgraded her phone. It's not pretty, but it's still working fine. She'll probably continue using it until she is due for another upgrade - unless she foots the bill for her new phone. Girls Junior jeans apparently don't have big enough pockets for the phone. It popped out of her pocket and fell down the stairwell at school.

[Atman]

18. Best thing ever.

I've used GoPro mostly for snowboarding, but also took it snorkeling in Cancun. The zip line was the tits, though! Half mile long tree-top canopy run in the Berkshires, 185' up, 60 mph, the last of six tree-top runs. What a rush! Wouldn't have been able to film it with the iPhone.

[Atman]

10. Oh, and where are the "Elitist snobs skydiving and carrying iPhones!" posts?

There's usually at least a couple in every Apple thread.

Oh, and did you read the story the other day about developers dropping Android because of the Verizon iPhone and iPad2? They say iOS is where the money is, don't want to wast their time on the 'Droid. Just sayin'. But them, I'm just an elitist snob! :)

[NightWatcher]

14. it survived because it landed on a bed of arugula

the jumper forgot that his phone was in his pocket because he was hopped up on lattes from earlier in the day.

[kestrel91316]

11. Sudden, unannounced total failure of said iPhone in 3....2....1....

Sort of like my TV that "survived" being thrown across the living room in the Northridge quake. 6 months later, poof.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. hey northridge quake buddy!

:fistbump: