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CES, Reporter Breaks "Unbreakable" Mobile Phone

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Reporter Dan Simmons from the BBC's technology show Click managed to break a mobile phone marketed as 'unbreakable' (video), during a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas." The phone can survive a 10 story fall, being submerged 20 feet for 30 mins, and you can use it to hammer a nail; but it's no match for a British journalist.

24 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing is unbreakable. by ATestR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can destroy anything if you apply the right force. Making a bald statement that a phone (or anything else) is unbreakable will just prompt some folks to find the right force, even if it isn't something the phone would normally experience.

    --
    âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
    1. Re:Nothing is unbreakable. by Hurricane78 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Exactly. Nothing is unbreakable!

      That’s why my walls and my clothes are made out of nothing.

      But I plan to sell nothing, so others have nothing too, and so have to pay taxes for nothing.
      I only hope nobody steals nothing for me, because how will I sue him then?

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  2. Learn from history... by R2.0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where's the "titanic" tag?

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    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  3. Re:What's with the nationalism by Idiot+with+a+gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You sound like those crazy sociology professors who get pissed at words like "manhole" and "mankind." It's part of the presentation style, relax.

  4. Spoiler: by bcmm · · Score: 4, Informative

    He just smashes the screen against the corner of the fish tank that he just failed to drown it in. Not being covered in rubber like the rest of the phone, it breaks like any normal screen. You could probably apply the same pressure by accidentally dropping it on a jagged rock.

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:Spoiler: by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To be fair, it takes him a few solid whallops before it does break, and the rep doesn't look the least bit concerned until it actually snaps.

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      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  5. yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    but is it unblendable?

    1. Re:yeah by 222 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've always wondered if Blendtec blender could actually blend another Blendtec blender...

  6. Re:What's with the nationalism by CaseyB · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not as if we wouldn't have known anyway: his first reaction is to apologize profusely.

  7. Re:What's with the nationalism by SlowMovingTarget · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An American journalist would've rephrased the marketing blurb on the phone, not tried it out, and welcomed our new invincible mobile overlords, only to be made fun of by Jon Stewart later that night.

  8. Re:What's with the nationalism by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My dad told me the story of when he was 16 (around 1966) and the local hardware store had got in unbreakable dishes (Corningware I think), and being a young imp, he decided to give it a shot. He dropped the plate on its edge, which, apparently is the weak spot on such dishes, and it literally exploded. He did this, naturally, during a product demonstration, and was promptly banned from the store.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  9. Re:What's with the nationalism by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An American journalist would've rephrased the marketing blurb on the phone, not tried it out, and welcomed our new invincible mobile overlords, only to be made fun of by Jon Stewart later that night.

    It's a bit offtopic but I just heard something about this on NPR recently:

    For decades, young reporters would ask themselves, "What would Walter think?" Nowadays, it's not the memory of Walter Cronkite or even Edward R. Murrow that motivates some reporters — it's more often the fear that the stories they put out today might get picked apart by Jon Stewart tomorrow.

    Prominent among the wary: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who recently explained in a magazine essay that The Daily Show host "has gone from optional to indispensable" in just a few short years.

    I found it odd yet telling that keeping anchors in check is not regulated by role models today but rather the court jester. Indeed, my opinions of both Fox News and CNN have dropped significantly from watching a few shows of Stewarts where he systematically picks apart their idiocy with a montage or just pointing out the obvious. It's like an MST3K recap of the day's news ... except with a bizarre twist: the truth.

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    My work here is dung.
  10. Re:What's with the nationalism by n2art2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't even get me started on "huwoMANs!"

    --
    Self proclaimed wannabe geek. You know how it is. Most of us who read this stuff probably fit in that category.
  11. Unbreakable??? by ewenix · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is the most blatant false advertising since my lawsuit against the movie, The Neverending Story.

  12. Re:What's with the nationalism by MSG · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only do those explode quite spectacularly, but the shards are amazingly sharp. I don't envy the person who had to clean up that mess.

  13. Re:What's with the nationalism by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you sure he wasn't French?

    He said the guy apologized, not surrendered.

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    #DeleteChrome
  14. Re:What's with the nationalism by The+Orange+Mage · · Score: 5, Funny

    You all have it wrong, technically he apologised.

  15. Re:What's with the nationalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An excellent court jester is the best of role models; they allow themselves to be the butt of many jokes while exposing the truth often at a potentially signifigant cost to themselves.

    Jon Stewart is an excellent court jester

  16. Re:What's with the nationalism by johny42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hereby suggest "but it's no match for a British journalist" as a new catchphrase.

  17. The Bal Conies test by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 4, Funny

    An acquaintance of mine who suspected that he was being BSed by a sales person asked if his project had passed the Bal Conies test.

    "Yes, it certainly has," he replied.

    "Really!" he said. "Let's see." He then took the device in question and dropped it off the Bal Cony.

    Sadly, the device in question did *not* pass the Bal Conies test.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  18. Re:Oops by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Make something idiot-proof, and the world just makes a better idiot...

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    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  19. Re:What's with the nationalism by Garridan · · Score: 5, Funny

    But... Iron Man was a Fe male...

  20. Off-topic but noteworthy by 3.1415926535898 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Volume on the BBC Video player still "goes to eleven."

  21. Re:What's with the nationalism by quanticle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In addition to providing entertainment, wasn't the court jester supposed to keep the monarch humble by pointing out things that others would not dare? I'd say Jon Stewart makes an excellent jester in that regard, and all the more power to him for it.

    --
    We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it