Smashed iPhone "not so cool looking"
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jul 2nd 2007 6:48PM
posted Jul 2nd 2007 6:48PM
[Via Akihabaranews]
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free replacement, how lucky!
I find it strange how a table (probably made of wood?) could do that, when PC world couldn't get the sidewalk to do it: http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html Ah well, at least he got it fixed.
PS, if you live through the ad at the start of this video you deserve a medal. I fucking hate this ad in particular, nearly as bad as that Windows Mobile dickhole tied to a lamppost. I'm not usually a violent guy, I'm mostly quiet, but I'd punch both these guys if I ever met them in person.
Not strange at all. The sidewalk is a flat surface and if the iPhone were to fall flat on the sidewalk, the force would be distribute over the surface area of the face of the phone. The iPhone landing on it's corner would, most likely, cause the most damage because the force wouldn't be spread over a large area.
They said this hit the edge of a table, but it looks more like it hit right on the corner. The force from the iPhone smashing into it would be focused at the point the corner came in contact with it, much more than the force of dropping it onto a flat surface.
Hey, they actually show a time other than 9:42?
blot is right, pressure = force/area, so landing on the sidewalk (while also having the frame of the iphone taking nearly all the load) shouldn't break the screen. Poor iphone, but lucky it's not lindsay lohans iphone.
The guy probably just smashed it on pupose cuz he got a fingerprint on the screen. Look at the top left of the screen. lol
The guy probably just smashed it on pupose cuz he got a fingerprint on the screen. Look at the top left of the screen. lol
stressing the point lol :) (well not really - im just a klutz...who knows - i might accidentally add this twice too.)
This is the second case like this. there was an article on Gizmodo where a chick dropped her's form 2 ft up right after buying it and cracked glass. Apple replaced her's free too. And on note of PC World, guess they were wrong, I am sure he was being easy with it dropping it on that cement too. I dunno, wtf, w/e iPhone is still FTL
Apple may have replaced one screen, but how much are they going to charge once this sort of thing becomes more commonplace? Glass is tough, but one good sharp edged contact and you'll see more of this in the future.
erm, i don't think any kind of plastic screen would have fared any better here - you'd need a lot of force to break the screen like this. a plastic screen would not shatter as easily but it would end up with a big hole in it nonetheless.
yes i have destroyed a plastic screen before ;)
there are materials that would maybe be stronger than this glass - lexan or some other really tough plastic. but that's not what they make phone screens out of.
omg why you do that? :l
a replacement for free? That is brilliant service to the early-adopter crowd, no matter if you love or hate Apple and their products.
They didn't have to do that at all. Satisfying the spendy crowd is probably worth it for Apple, though. Win/win.
I doubt it was service to the early adopter crowd, when you have a new product on the market you're doing everything to generate good press no matter what your cost is going to be. If it means taking it on the chin for some defective units and someone's slip-up in handling of their phone, they're going to do it.
Right now it's more of a good will tour to keep their name bright and shining in the public eye since I doubt for a second that any news outlet would hesitate to eat them alive over a bad situation right now.
And the lesson learned is.... Throw a stone at a stray dog in the road, And that dog will never take food from you again.
Is the stray dog Apple? Is the stone the lawsuit over ipod nano's scratchable surface? Is the food the consumer's money? Or are you just blowing smoke?
Well I don't know about you but the lesson I learned is: Throw an iPhone at a stray dog in the road, And Apple will replace your iPhone for free.
That does it. I'm waiting for iPhone 2.0 and the new MagSafe connector.
I am going to make a ZunePhone wallpaper out of that photo.
The same thing happend to my Sidekick 3 the first day I had it. I had it in my pocket and my leg hit the corner of a table and it cracked the screen. Luckily I said it came in like that when it was mailed to me so it was replaced for free. :D
So what happens if Apple doesn't replace the unit, and someone continues to use the phone until they can afford to replace it, and cuts their ear on the broken glass on the next phone call?
I sense law suits ahead...
Uh, not a legal leg to stand on.
What happens when you get in a wreck but keep driving anyway, and end up impaling yourself on a piece of metal that got bent out of shape?
Absolutely nothing, because it's your own damn fault for continuing to use it when you KNOW it may be of harm to you. The iPhone is not sold in that manner, so Apple isn't accountable - the same way that they wouldn't be responsible for a murder if someone somehow turned the iPhone into a shank.
iShank?
I'm feeling it.
Hah! Awesome.
Yup, I'm a hater and this picture makes me practically giddy.
thats pretty nasty looking.
hey engadget, when will we find out who won the iphone? my razor just took a crap on me (once again, i have a feeling hitting it isnt going to make it work again like it did last time...)
I would have cried
and i remember when people criticzed me when i made note that the glass screen was a bad idea.
and there you go, the toughest glass is still glass.
Well if you sell between 400,000 - 700,000 units in the first weekend, it's nothing out of the ordinary to have one of two of them break accidentally. I personally would rather risk a glass screen that can't scratch, then a plastic one that gets scratched to shit.
When i think of buying the iphone, this is what im worried about. My last two phone, a year after having it, it was in my pocket and i caught the edge of a desk the first time and the second a stairwell and both outside screens were cracked. Unless i can find a flip hard cover for the iphone i probably wont buy it.
Replacing the iPhone for free to this guy is nothing but a markting stunt my Apple's maarketing department who wants the iPhone hype to keep steaming.
How is it a marketing stunt? It's not marketed information. The source of this story isn't an Apple press release going OH HAI LOOK WHAT WE DID OMG, it's come from somewhere else.
Could it be... could it just be... GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE?
Honestly, I'm neither pro- nor anti- Apple - I'll judge each and every product I buy, thanks - but you anti-Apple zealots would do a lot better if you put some thought into your claims.
It's marketing, they know that the blogs will pick this kind of stuff up and run with it. Word of mouth is very powerful, especially these days. But marketing stunt or not I wouldn't have any problem if I was this guy!
It's not a marketing stunt, but a P.R. stunt. The positive press generated WILL help keep the iPhone phenomenon hot. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's brilliant --just not something that's sustainable in the long or even medium term. Guess what? Free replacements for maybe the first 500 cracked screens... but who will be the first unlucky schmuck?
So someone from Apple marketing just happened to be at the store where this guy took his broken phone? Or perhaps the sales rep at the store called the marketing department to find out what to do? Whatever...
ill be the first to say ive never been an apple fan at all, especially not after working PC tech at a major retailer (certain legal contracts will not let me disclose which ''geeks'' i worked for ;])
about 95% of the time, if there was an iPod/iMac problem, they would refuse to fix it due to it being the ''customer's fault''
however, my sincerest congrats to Apple for this one!
im glad they are starting to put the customer first again
kudos!
Aren't you a bright one? Maybe Microsoft should hire you as head of public relations.
And thats why you dont make the entire front surface of a cell phone out of FREAKIN GLASS.
That is quite nasty, and with glass it is slightly more dangerous. But it would take a lot of force to do that, this guy was just unlucky.
To be honest, that could have happened to any phone, plastic can shatter too. The advantage with the iPhone over the normal plastic screens, is that glass won't scratch as easily, as demonstrated by the stress tests.
So Apple's highly touted magnetic power supply cables aren't good enough for iPhone's? I thought that's what Apple was complaining about in the AvW commercial? Interesting that the iPhone is more expensive than an Apple laptop ($600 phone + $2K of service/year). It should be more protected than the laptops, no?
"Everything is just kinda thought out":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9wQUL9zYs
So this is the person who gets credit for introducing the first "iRefurb" to the market. Finally an apple phone for those of us without deep pockets.
lulz. Now, the Internets has his fingerprint.
Anyways, unlucky bastard. That almost happened to my cellphone once. Lucky me the cellphone "crashed" it's back against the corner... and more lucky it wasn't on the camera lens... though it a close call.
DER! What do you think happens when your iPhone hits your table..........
What a bunch of f**king idiots!! Change the F**king record. YAWN YAWN.
They had to have known this was bound to happen. You figure, we have all dropped a cell phone at least once. Maybe not had broken it, but then again, glass breaks easier then most screens
awesome!!> A+ for holding down the shards of glass with tape.
I agree, glass is too easy to break. They should recall all the iphones and make the front out of titanium.
Or transparent aluminum.
Maybe they need magsafe for dock connectors. :)
Also, this is a could reason to buy on an Amex (purchase protection I think it's called) or some other platinum/diamond whatever card that has 90 day accidental damage coverage.
everyone is bashing Apple for putting glass on their iPhone.
Motorola also puts glass on their Krzr.
why all the hate?
The hate started when Steve Jobs announced the Iphone and all the Apple fanboys started invading almost every post non-Apple Iphone post and started making wild claims about their godly product.
i see you're not much fan of the iPhone. no worries, Samsung will just copy it like every-other product they steal from Motorola. ;)
scary, i would have cried. I am being ever so careful with mine :) hope hope!
actually if you look at where the point of impact was... (looks near the ear cutout)... thats probably the weakest spot structurally. im guessing thats why it broke as it did.
we'll see how they hold up to real world abuse.
You may say this is a bs marketing initiative. But I dropped my 8 gig Saturday night. I was ready to buy another because I thought no way would Apple cover my stupidity. However I called this morning and told my story to the Tech support rep and she said Apple will repair it for free. Thanks Apple. PS this is coming from a hater not a fanboy. I never really embraced Apple products never had an iPod. But I went to an Apple store to see the iPhone and fell in love after 5 mins of testing the display model.
My favorite part of the picture is that big honkin' fingerprint to the left of the crack. AWESOME!
you do realize the fingerprint is on the tape right? (tho keeping that big glass surface clean is a b it of a chore)
er...just stressing the point? :)
While I'd be pretty annoyed with this happening, you would just have to write it off as one of those freak accidents. On the plus side, I see that the screen is still functional. Kinda get the feeling over time that even after some serious wear and tear (maybe even a scratch or a chip) your phone will still work.
Does anyone know that all LCD are actually made of glass? It's just that most of the time it's covered with a plastic on top of it. I'm actually amazed that the LCD under the glass didn't brake, so they can just replace the top glass, which i'm sure is cheaper then replacing the WHOLE LCD.
hahahahahaha yes! broken iphone i love it.
i hope this happens to every iphone sold (I'm sure it will)
Please note that the user had the misfortune to cause a direct impact exactly at the end of the earhole. That would be the place on the entire surface most susceptible to impact stress, due to the asymmetric strain within the glass at the time of impact. It's quite reasonable for Apple to have replaced the unit, as a similar impact at many other points on the surface may not have resulted in the catastrophic structural failure of the glass.
Glass is generally speaking a better choice of material than most plastics for any optical use, as plastics are more susceptible to incremental low-level damage such as scratching and deformations from smaller stresses, like putting a plastic screen in your pocket with your keys. You are witness to the only downside of glass, which is that when it breaks, it tends to shatter, as it is more brittle whereas plastic is more ductile.
I'll take one please :D
I've been waiting for this post. Poor chap, but amazing Apple replaced it!
Good idea to put a glass front on the iPhone.... not!
Borat.... not!
that is why you always put the screen facing your leg.
I'm amazed to hear that Iphones don't have the same magnetic plug that features on macbook / pro range of laptops.. I can't count how many times such a simple device has saved my laptop!
I think the idea of a MagSafe iPhone is amazing, but... how would it connect to the computer? Not all computers come with a magnet. I know mine doesn't.
Aren't those the ones that catch fire? Although, to be fair, they do call them MagSafe, not FlameSafe.
Apple isn't offering "good customer service", they just want broken iPhones. They're looking for as many possible broken phones, broken in as many ways as possible to figure out the weaknesses and most common ways it could get damaged to determine what to look out for in the next revision or what possibly to buff up.
I love Apple, but I love them for the elitist mind-set and not their "customer service". I don't know how many times I've had an Apple rep get "pissy" just because one of my Apple products had a fault or flaw. You could literally FEEL them implying "How DARE you blame a fault on one of our sacred products?" as if I'd just taken a piss on one of Jobs' favorite turtle-necks.
If you don't invest in AppleCare, you're just third-rank to them anywhere. (Also, buying an Apple product of the first revision isn't the smartest thing to do and I've been there only to find myself SOL).
Strange how they can avoid this with the Macbooks (the power chord will disconnect when under stress) but they didn't make a similar design for the Iphone.
I would agree that PC world was probably being easy on the iphone.
although glass is much more scratch resistant thans plastic its impact resistance is low, knock it hard against something and its cracked.
not imagine having key in ur pocket with ur iphone, prob won;t get scratched but if u lean against something, fall over etc, where pressure would press the keys up aginst the glass it will probably crack.
now the cracked screen it not just an annoyance like with plastcia screens it is now a saftey issue, bits of broken glass in ur pocket?? not a nice thought if u don;t realise ur screen is broken and sitkc ur hand in to get the iphone
The iPhone is tough for a phone with an unprotected glass screen, no doubt about it... but it's still a phone with an unprotected glass screen. No way around that.
I've said that I won't buy an iPhone until Apple produces a clamshell model. I firmly believe they need to do that to truly move into the mainstream in cell phones (and 700,000 sales is *not* mainstream - this is a market of several *billion* units). There's a reason why clamshells exist and why people buy them, and this is it.
I mean, it's not like nobody ever tried making a phone with an unprotected screen before. The last one I owned (some old Siemens model) ended up with a smashed screen too from bumping into a door while I had it in my pocket. I've never owned a "candy bar" style phone since, and never will.
"I've said that I won't buy an iPhone until Apple produces a clamshell model. I firmly believe they need to do that to truly move into the mainstream in cell phones (and 700,000 sales is *not* mainstream - this is a market of several *billion* units)."
Um, unless you thing the sales are going to die in the first week, 700,000 units sold in the first weekend it pretty much pegging the iPhone to be not only mainstream, but possibly the top selling mobile phone model on the market.
"There's a reason why clamshells exist and why people buy them, and this is it."
Yes, because the external screen on clamshell phones is somehow impervious to breaking and everyone knows that a clamshell phone cannot be dropped when open, liken when trying to answer a call, which is what this poor guy was doing when he dropped it.
This is the best picture I've seen since iPhone coverage started.
I'm still waiting for a pic of one flying through a tv screen...
...someone doesn't know how this happens? UH, IT'S GLASS. They should have stuck with the initial plastic version/idea and slip in some plastic stick on protectors with the phone (which are all of freaking 2 cents or maybe $10 at your local office supply store) to remind people that it's a good idea to use them. Hell Apple could even find a way to overcharge for those! Anyway - the glass is pretty and nice and less easy to scratch, but more easy for things like this to happen obviously.
I highly doubt Apple will keep replacing phones over and over. It's going to be a PERFECT way for them to steal... er... make even more money off consumers. How many phones get dropped ALL the time? Dropped my i730, still good to go. Oh and it does more than an iphone =)
I hope it will be a lesson for apple to replace brake sensitive glass screen cover with something like acrylic clear plastic just like any cell phone, such as sonyericsson P990. it survives lots of drops.
"Can you hear me now?"
"Not over the rattling of glass shards in my ear."
The same thing just recently happened to my iPhone! I better get a free replacement also, or there goes another $650 down the drain...
Also, Even though it's cracked the screen still works, but the touch feature in and around the cracked area doesn't work, which can be incredibly annoying...
Mine just hit the corner of the table. $249 to get the screen replaced. What a weak screen. Less than 2 months old and all they can say is "I'm sorry, can I get your credit card number..."
I would join the class action lawsuit if it ever comes about.
Apple definitely did not offer to replace my screen for free. In fact they wanted $250 and then they would give me a little box to mail it to them in.
My iphone cracked with a 2 ft drop onto a blacktop parking lot. 1 month and this phone has cost over $1000 when you include all AT&T's set-up fees. FTW.
My Iphone screen cracked when it dropped (not far). Apple did nothing accept want to charge me $250 to fix it. Sorry, I don't agree, any other phone out here would not have had a scratch and I already dished out a hefty $600 for the phone. Even in the store they say a signficant drop or pressure can be withstood. Not so, my insignificant drop cracked the phone, they won't even warn buyers or let them know to purchase a case they say it is by choice (well duh) but they need to let you know so you can make an informative choice. I heard them tell people it won't break unless you throw it out your car window or something, hah. Insurance won't cover it, because it is accidental. My opinion is that it is a flaw, a flaw they claim to have tested, on what I ask ...a pile of feather filled pillows??? Don't spend your money on this, avoid the pain to your wallet. Wait till they come up with a better suitable design that can withstand normal cell phone use and "accidents".
2 foot drop, shattered screen. Apple "genius" Rep basically tells me accidental or malicious damage is not covered under apple the applecare. They want 250$ to repair it. I told them to go $!@#% themselves. And now I have a 1k$ reminder of why impulse buying is bad. That and the lack of open extensibility for the iPhone... web toolkit for the suck.