iPhone owner Mike Beauchamp drove away from a gas station not realizing he’d left his phone sitting on the trunk of his car. Nearly an hour later, he discovers his iPhone in the middle of the highway and witnesses a semi truck drive over it.
Mike tells an incredible story, which I’ve reprinted below from a page on his Flickr account. If only my old iPhone had been that durable!
Mike Beauchamp’s story:
I was filling my car up with gas in the sharp cold gusting winds we’ve had here in Kansas lately. I had on a light jacket and as I was getting out of the car to go around and begin pumping, I figured I’d put on my heavy winter coat. I took my phone out of my lightweight jacket and set it on the trunk of my car and switched to my heavier coat. I went inside to prepay for gas, forgetting all about my phone. When I came back out, I pumped my gas, walked around the front of my car, got back in and drove off.
I was traveling down the interstate when this happened. The gas station I stopped at was a little rest area in the middle of the turnpike. So as I left, I merged back onto the highway, accelerated hard, turned up the stereo, and got moving. About 5 minutes later, I reached for my phone, but couldn’t feel it. Then it hit me. I’d forgotten to grab it off the back of my car when I was filling up at the gas station. A feeling of panic and anger washed over me instantly and I started screaming and yelling in my empty car. Because I was driving on a toll-road, there was no way to turn around and just go back. I had to drive another 15 miles to the next exit, pay my toll, get back on the highway, and race the 20 miles back to the rest stop.
I pulled back up to the pump I filled up at but there was no sign of my phone. I remembered a lady filling up next to me in a silver BMW - but she was long gone. My first move was to go inside and ask if she or anyone else had turned it in. No such luck. I scoured the parking lot and on-ramp I used to get back on the highway - no sign of the phone anywhere. After about 30 minutes of searching, I finally gave up. It was 11pm and it was 19 degrees outside. I was exhausted, cold, angry, frustrated, and just decided I’d have to start using the Treo 750 I had as a backup.
As I slowly merged back onto the highway, I kept my eyes open for the remote possibility that the phone had stayed on my car for a longer distance than what I’d searched on foot. Still, no luck. I got up to speed, giving up for good, and about that time (1/4 mile from the gas station) I saw a glimmering light from the lane next to me. As I sped past the object, I knew it was my phone - still alive and working! I slammed on the brakes and pulled over, waiting for the passing cars and trucks to go by so I could run across 2 lanes of 75mph traffic to retrieve my poor phone. As the last pair of headlights approached, the semi got over to the far outside lane because he saw me standing on the side of the road. I knew this was trouble. As I watched helplessly from the shoulder, the semi plowed my phone at full speed, throwing it to the ditch on the other side of the highway. At this point, I figured I’d retrieve it just for the purpose of seeing the crushed iPhone in disarray, mangled and crunched lifeless in the grass.
Much to my surprise, as I approached, I heard the familiar sound of my ringtone — the iPhone was alive and ringing! As I picked it up and cradled it gently in my hands, I saw the screen displaying my caller ID — the screen still worked! I slid my finger gently over the answer slide and paused as I held the tattered and torn device to my ear — my heart must have skipped a beat when I heard my mom’s voice at the other end of the phone — the phone still worked!
I ran back to my car and sat on the side of the road for about 15 minutes inspecting it, testing it, and looking it over — how in the hell had it survived being trounced by an 18-wheeler at 70mph?!?
One day later as I’m writing this, I don’t have an answer to that question. It makes and receives calls, sends and receives text messages, browses the internet, plays music from the iPod feature, connects to my wi-fi network, syncs with my computer, and charges the battery. The camera even takes perfect pictures still!
I’ve spoken with Apple’s customer relations department - they’re interested in using it in an iPhone commercial; I mean come on, this is the ultimate crash and durability test out there! I’ve banged this phone up many times since I bought it the day they were released last June. I’ve dropped it down a flight of concrete stairs, slid it across a parking lot, dropped it on cement, and even partially submerged it in water and this little phone just keeps truckin!
There are a few bad spots on the display now, but the screen is still responsive to touch in those bad areas! The glass covering the screen doesn’t have a mark on it - I have no idea how. The phone would have first had to topple off the back of my car and based on where I found it, I’d have been going well over 60mph when it fell off — that alone would kill most phones. But then being ran over by a semi — I don’t know what to say! I know that approximately 1 hour went by between the time I knew I lost it and the time I recovered it — who knows what else happened to it during that time. When the semi ran over it, the phone was sitting dead in the middle of one of the lanes — it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine it getting hit more than the one time I witnessed!
I’m here to tell you — if you’re hard on your phones, if you’re a power user, if you depend on its strength, reliability, and durability —- you need an iphone! I’ve always been a Blackberry owner,but the first time I dropped it on a sidewalk, the screen was toast - just came on blank white — completely useless. This iPhone has been put through more hell than any crash test could put it through — and with the exception of the obvious scratches on the back on the small dead spots on the screen, its amazing! None of the damage actually effects the functionality or performance of the phone. I don’t know what else to do to break this thing if I wanted to, short of putting a bullet through it or smashing it with a sledge hammer - but you don’t purposefully try to destroy your phone on a daily basis anyway. I think this was the ultimate real world testament to the iPhone.
Way to go Steve Jobs and crew.
iphone > semi
I would love to see Apple produce an iPhone commercial with this story.
A couple more photos, borrowed from Mike’s Flickr account:
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 30th, 2008. 
iPhone Jailbreak methods spring up around the web each time Apple rolls out an iPhone firmware update. I performed a Jailbreak on my iPhone last August so I could upload custom ringtones to my phone before Apple let you buy ringtones on iTunes.
Although Apple prohibits it, the great thing about Jailbreaking is that you can add all sorts of third-party applications to your iPhone and greatly increase its functionality. In February, Apple will finally allow third-party developers to create native applications for the iPhone, so there may no longer be a need for Jailbreak.
In the meantime, after each iPhone firmware update, the iPhone is restored and the Jailbreak you worked so tediously to complete is undone. Then, iPhone developers work hastily to come up with a new iPhone Jailbreak method, and you have to start all over — either that or don’t update your iPhone firmware at all.
I gave up on Jailbreaking my iPhone because a) I felt it was too much of a hassle, both to install the Jailbreak and to keep up with new Jailbreak methods, and b) because I feared voiding my warranty if I ever had a problem with my iPhone and had to take it Jailbroken into the Apple Store. What about you?
Do you Jailbreak?
Please vote in the poll below and share your experiences in the comments.
[Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.]
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 30th, 2008.
Pro-Fit sent me a miCradle iPhone holder along with an UltiMount V2 for mounting my iPhone in my car.
I’ve had the Pro-Fit miCradle and UltiMount installed for a week now, during which time I’ve considered the accessory’s usefulness and how good it is at doing what it should do.
Keep reading for my full review of the Pro-Fit miCradle and UltiMount V2 for iPhone.
Pro-Fit miCradle and UltiMount V2: Boxes & contents
At first I wondered why Pro-Fit sells the miCradle iPhone holder separate from the UltiMount V2. Why not sell the whole mount in one piece? Apparently it’s because Pro-Fit sells different mounts and cradles for different cars/devices.
The UltiMount V2 package includes the iPhone mount, an Alcohol Prep Pad and Surface Cleaning Kit, and an optional “bolt-on plate” for bolting the UltiMount to your car instead of relying on the default adhesive plate.
The miCradle package includes the iPhone holder, an elegant Pro-Fit sticker (not pictured) and screws for attaching the miCradle to the UltiMount.
Initially I received the wrong screws in my package, so I was unable to mount the miCradle to the UltiMount, but I emailed Pro-Fit and they quickly sent me the correct ones.
Attaching the miCradle and UltiMount V2
Although I had no trouble connecting the miCradle to the UltiMount, I would really like to see Pro-Fit sell a fully-assembled iPhone car mount in the future, rather than two different products that you have to piece together yourself.
To mount the UltiMount V2 to my car, first I detached the “Flex Pad” and removed the adhesive film, then I wiped clean a surface in my car with the Alcohol Prep Pad and Cleaning Kit and, finally, stuck the adhesive where I wanted the mount to go.
After mounting the Flex Pad, I let the adhesive “cure” for 48 hours — the instructions recommended 72 hours, but I’m guessing that even one day would have done the trick. Then I reattached the UltiMount V2 (with miCradle attached) to the FlexPad and put the product to the test.
Pro-Fit miCradle and UltiMount V2 Reviewed
The iPhone fits snugly into the miCradle holder, which is padded with a thin foam layer on the inside. You can slip the phone in and out of the miCradle easily.
A possible disadvantage of the cradle is that it obstructs the sleep/wake button and the side volume controls of the iPhone, but do you really need to access these buttons while driving? If you do, you can easily lift the iPhone up a little and do so.
The miCradle also covers the iPhone speaker, which means the volume is lower when receiving calls and listening to music directly from the speaker, but this was not a big deal to me.
As far as sturdiness goes, the UltiMount V2 adhesive holds very firm to the car surface. Whether driving on a bumpy road or braking hard, the UltiMount has had no problems holding on tight.
I really like the swivel ball on the mount, because it lets you easily adjust the angle of the cradle to whatever position you’d like.
You can even mount the iPhone horizontally, good for using apps in landscape mode, like iPhone’s Cover Flow — it’s probably definitely not a good idea to watch videos while driving!
The Pro-Fit mount couples well with my Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset, for hands-free talking while driving.
Together the iPhone miCradle and UltiMount V2 cost $44, arguably a bit on the high-end, but the Pro-Fit accessories are sturdy, flexible and well-designed and, in my opinion, a worthy investment if you’re looking for an iPhone car mount solution.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 30th, 2008.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 29th, 2008.
The same geniuses who brought you the iJailbreak solution for Apple’s latest iPhone and iPod Touch 1.1.3 firmware have gone that extra mile of tweaking and created iJailbreak Mobile: now you can enable unofficial third-party software on your cellphone or PMP without even needing to use your Mac or PC. Requiring your device has already been Jailbroken for versions 1.1.1 or 1.1.2, the process involves adding ‘http://ijailbreak.com/repo.plist’ to Installer.app and running the new application that installs while with a decent WiFi connection.
Photo via Crunchgear
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 29th, 2008.
Here in the UK it’s not uncommon for the iPod Touch to be described as “all the best bits of the iPhone” with the less-successful parts (the non-3G phone, the relatively-poor camera, and of course the carrier lock) omitted; Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf is willing to go one further, however: he’s claiming that Apple gave up 1.5 million iPhone sales during Q4 2007 by releasing the Touch with its almost-iPhone feature set, and moreover knew exactly what they were doing.
“If the company is successful in this endeavour, it would provide a compelling upgrade path for the estimated 85 million people who already own iPods. And it could attract new users to both the iPhone and the iPod platform as well. The company appears willing to risk the cannibalization of a significant number of iPhones to accomplish this” Charlie Wolf, analyst, Needham & Co.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 29th, 2008.
UK Apple partner O2, who hold the exclusivity contract on the British version of the iPhone, have today announced a refresh of their iPhone-specific monthly tariffs that could see users with up to three times the amount of included voice minutes and SMS text messages as before. While the two entry-level packages - priced at £35 ($69) and £45 ($89) - will not change in price, subscribers on the cheapest tariff, say, will receive 600 minutes rather than 200.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 29th, 2008.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 28th, 2008.
The search for the missing iPhones continues, with analyst Tony Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research throwing more numbers around in what at least partly looks like an attempt to justify his ongoing warmth toward Apple stock. Sacconaghi suggests that a whopping 27-percent of the iPhones sold in 2007 have been unlocked and, in the vast majority of cases, are being used in countries where the cellphone is not officially available. That works out to around one-million handsets unlocked, each estimated to be generating 50-percent less revenue and 75-percent less profits for Apple compared to those registered to authorised carriers.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 28th, 2008.
In a turn of events that almost seems too bizarre to be true, Russian journalist and 14-year Mac user Alex Patsay has written an open letter to Apple PR following what sounds to be a disastrous launch event in Moscow. According to Patsay, Apple has added a 75-percent markup on iPods in Russia - taking a 16GB iPod Touch to the equivalent of $710 - and priced the MacBook Air above even inflated European prices: $5,000 for the SSD version.
More worrying, Apple is apparently contravening Russian law by failing to offer the MacBook Air with Cyrillic lettering on the keyboard, nor a Russian-localised iPod Touch.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 28th, 2008.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 27th, 2008.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 26th, 2008.
The stability of the latest iPhone Jailbreak method - which allows unofficial third-party applications to be run on handsets with the latest 1.1.3 Apple firmware - is being questioned, as multiple users report issues with their iPhones after installing the patch. Most common is for AT&T customers who have previously upgraded to 1.1.3 being unable to connect to the network after attempting the Jailbreak.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 25th, 2008.
After both AT&T and Apple reported strong performance in 2007, you’d think it would be a time of celebrations for market-weary analysts. However, discrepancies in the figures each company has presented are leading to head-scratching and an increasing number of questions. Apple has announced total iPhone sales of 3.7 million across the US and their European carrier partners; AT&T revealed yesterday that they sold 2 million of the handsets in 2007. With estimated European sales - likely something of a sore point at Cupertino - figured to be between 300,000 and 400,000, that leaves 1.3 million iPhones unaccounted for.
Filed under iPhone News by on Jan 25th, 2008.
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