iPhone survives 13,500 foot fall from skydiver's pocket

A few months ago we told you about an iPhone that survived a 1000-foot fall unscathed. CNN reports that another skydiver's iPhone recently flew out of his pocket during a dive and made an uncontrolled descent to Earth -- 13,500 feet below.

Skydiver Jarrod McKinney's iPhone wasn't quite as lucky in its fall as the other iPhone was; although the iPhone technically survived the fall and was still capable of receiving calls, both glass surfaces shattered. Using what CNN calls a GPS tracking app (probably Find My iPhone), McKinney located his iPhone 4 atop a two-story building half a mile from where he landed.

McKinney did have his iPhone in an Incipio case, but a 2.5-mile fall is asking a bit much from any case. He plans to get the screen replaced. Meanwhile, a skydiving instructor on the same jump was so impressed that the iPhone survived its own impromptu dive that he plans to pick one up himself.

For the rest of you skydivers, please either leave your phones behind or at least keep them secure inside a zipped pocket when you dive. It's amusing to read these stories and fascinating to see how much abuse the iPhone can take, but I'd really rather not have some skydiver's wayward iPhone hit me in the head at 120 miles per hour, would you?

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Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/07/18/iphone.skydive…

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Odds and ends iPhone

A few months ago we told you about an iPhone that survived a 1000-foot fall unscathed. CNN reports that another skydiver's iPhone...

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Gfdkj Dfgdg

if this happend 2 a nokia there would be a scratch and the world would prob crack in half lol

January 01 2012 at 2:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

maroontwo

I have had an iPod touch that was cracked far worse. Not even kidding.

August 15 2011 at 4:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cali Martin

Actually, both falls were about the same, an iphone would fall like a rock, and get to terminal velocity very quickly. At that point, there is no speed increase, there for no additional impact force. Falling on a building on a corner is probably what happened.

July 24 2011 at 4:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Cali Martin's comment

tabaloon

Actually, iPhone would fall NOTHING like a rock. It would tumble thus GREATLY reducing the *average* terminal velocity due to variations in drag during the tumble. However, the speed would still be significant, although it is pretty much impossible to calculate due to the facts above.

July 25 2011 at 9:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ben J

Zippered pockets? They should just start attaching tiny parachutes to their phones! That was it would still be usable by whoever it hits ont he way down.

July 24 2011 at 1:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Zentoku

Cool Story Bro! Spare me the bull5hit please. Let me go break my phones screen and say it survived some massive fall from a plane.

July 23 2011 at 9:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tyler brainerd

why are things like this so surprising? items of such small mass as this are going to reach their max acceleration and then that's that. The impact of such a small item is not going to be all that different from such a massive height as a much shorter height, as it reaches it's max velocity fairly quickly.

July 23 2011 at 9:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

wast334

This is exactly why we need to bring more awareness of Android handsets where consumer really have more choice including rugged smartphone that could have easily prevent this kind of thing from happening. iToy is just not built for this kind of activity and it is a shame that people think it is the only choice.. it should be the last choice.

July 23 2011 at 2:31 PM Report abuse Permalink -3 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to wast334's comment

TonyV

you honestly think a phone like the Casio G'Zone Commando could survive a fall like this? I'm intrigued, I hope someone tries it. I doubt any consumer phone could survive this fall unscathed nor any consumer case would help it. I seriously am intrigued...Mythbusters anyone? It would definitely depend on how it hits the ground and what kind of ground. P.S. Give consumers some credit, most Verizon users know Android is an alternative to the iPhone because of how long they did without. And most people still think it's just that, an alternative. Personally, combine some features and it'd be a sick hybrid OS.

July 23 2011 at 3:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

timl2k11

Likely wasn't going much faster when it hit the ground, I'm guessing 150mph tops. meh

July 23 2011 at 1:08 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply