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What Has Your Phone Survived?

Posted by timothy on from the very-harsh-words dept.

NotAnIndividual writes "On an ice fishing trip two months ago, I lost my iPhone somewhere in the snow. I searched and searched, but to no avail. But just this weekend when moving the ice hut, lo and behold there it was. I quickly threw it into a bag of rice and placed it under a lamp to defrost. Three hours later I plugged it in. I wasn't expecting much. I mean, really, it had been frozen in snow for the last two months! To my surprise, the Apple logo popped up. I put in the SIM card and voila, my iPhone was back. My apps, my contacts, my music and more importantly my life were back. And this is the same iPhone that I dropped in a cup of coffee a few months ago! This got me wondering how much damage a cell phone can actually take. How have other Slashdot users punished their phones without actually killing them completely?"

11 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. Slow by Exitar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    news day?

    1. Re:Slow by mdwh2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. Today has been the day of "But we couldn't think of anything else for today's obligitary Iphone Slashvertisement".

      We've already had the classic of judging the success of a product in a completely different market, by comparing it to how few Iphones have been sold. So here we have Saturday's obligitary Iphone story. Before you know it, there'll be stories about how you can now finally visit a website On Your Iphone, like it's 2001 again. Oh wait, we we already did that one too. Before you know it, there'll be stories about how you can use your Iphone to talk to a complete stranger, as if they were in the same room as you, just like on Star Trek...

      (Seriously, as soon as I read the headline of "What Has Your Phone Survived", I immediately guess that there'd be obligatory advertising for Apple, despite being a niche player in this market. You know what my Nokia 5800's survived? Not being the subject of a major spam campaign by the media, that's what.)

  2. A full season in the snow by its · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I lost my iPhone while skiing on Mt Hood slopes in February last year. In July I got an email from someone that he had found the phone, charged it and retrieved my email account for it. I let him have it since my insurance had already replaced it.

    1. Re:A full season in the snow by catd77 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Wow, my phones just break on me for no reason. I keep mine in a case with screen protectors on ecery screen. I've already had to replace it once because it wouldn't shut off. My phone before that I took amazing care of and it stopped making calls after a year. All my phones hate me!

    2. Re:A full season in the snow by quenda · · Score: 5, Funny

      I had an old just-a-phone get ran over by a loaded 18-wheeler

      While deep-sea fishing 3 years ago, I accidentally dropped my iPhone over the subduction zone of the Mariana Trench.
          Last month I got an email from a guy in New Zealand who found it while skiing on Mount Ruapehu after a volcanic eruption.
      Praised be Apple.

  3. your life? by SharpFang · · Score: 5, Funny

    My apps, my contacts, my music and more importantly my life were back.

    You should really see a dotor about your addiction. I mean, seriously, that's just a phone!

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  4. Sony ericsson by isthisnametaken · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had their flip phone from about 4-5 years ago. After about a year the texting got quite difficult as the buttons started to stick and it became difficult to text quickly. One day when I was filling up my car with gas I put my phone on the hood of my car for some reason and then drove off. I realized about 5 minutes later and drove back and someone had run over it. It actually worked BETTER than before as the buttons no longer stuck. It was pretty scratched up though. Later that year in the winter I was digging my car out of the snow on a warm day and it fell out of my pocket and into a giant puddle of water.I took it out, turned it off and let it dry for a day or two near a heat source and it still works to this day. Sweet phone, and if anyone else has this phone and the buttons stick, run it over with your car.

  5. My god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm *so* glad your iphone survived. Thanks for sharing your inspiring story with us, I can sleep easy tonight knowing full well that another iphone owner out there has found another way to talk about his iphone on slashdot. Thank you, thank you for this.

  6. Re:Simple by kelanden · · Score: 5, Informative

    TECHNICALLY you can drop a running circuit into *PURE* water and nothing happens. Water isn't very conductive.

    I'm fairly certain that if you tried this, the water would be rendered conductive by dissolving whatever contaminants you happen to have on the surface of the device and you'd still get a short. YMMV.

  7. Original iPhone 2G by CmdrPorno · · Score: 5, Funny

    My iPhone 2G has survived almost three years of AT&T's spotty reception, their failure to offer a reasonably priced rate plan for people who don't talk much but need data service, their woeful customer service, and their lack of 3G coverage outside metropolitan areas. Other than that, it's been very enjoyable.

    --
    Sent from my iPhone
  8. Re:Jesus Phone by Tromad · · Score: 5, Funny

    Satan phone is more like a windows mobile phone. You're pretty much free to do whatever you want but you're eventually going to be punished for it.