But sure enough, when she scurried down to the pavement to retrieve the device, it was still playing that newfangled rock-and-roll music the kids are listening to these days. Bob writes:
Had to share this story with you: my daughter attends the University of Pittsburgh and lives on a 9th floor dorm. During the recent G-20 riots in Pittsburgh, she was looking out the window to see what was going on. She accidently dropped her iPod Classic out the open window and it fell 9 floors, landing on the asphalt below. Fearing the worse, she immediately went downstairs and was amazed that — even though the corner of the device was dented — the unit turned on and has worked flawlessly ever since!
Thanks Apple!
It's a stunning story because electronic devices rarely survive the fall from my hip pocket to the floor, let alone from a high-rise into a demonstration.
But even more amazing than the whole iPod-surviving-the-plunge aspect of Bob's daughter's iPod was that it was a rare call from a college student to a parent in which the topic was NOT "Send me more money."
(Photos: tristam sparks, reddevil1)
]]>@varro: Ross Township here! My inlaws are from Bethel Park, however. Good times, those South Hills. I stay in the North Hills if given the choice, of course. =)
]]>I considered taking it apart when it died, but my annoyingly green nature demanded that I recycle it at the Apple store. I tried to encourage the salesman to take it apart himself or put some sort of sticker that read INTERESTING PLEASE SET ASIDE on it, but he just put it with the other recycleables.
Some Microsoft fanboys demanded to know why Apple didn't give me a new one on warranty.
]]>Hide their parent's credit card under the soap.
]]>I didn't realize it had fallen until I was about to exit the jetway into the terminal, and went back to look. Figured out quickly with the help of a flight attendant that it must have fallen through. The captain was exiting the cockpit as we were looking below to see it, and he had the flight attendant call ground services to see if they could find it. They did, and within 10 minutes had brought it up for me. And it worked!
I wrote United a letter after that to thank the Captain, the flight attendant, and the ground crew-person for taking the extra time to help me out. I feel complaint letters are more effective if positive behavior is also highlighted.
]]>I think we shouldn't be overestimating the durability of iPods because one happened to survive a big fall.
]]>I am from Pittsburgh (Bethel Park, BTW - the place that keeps the Olive Garden out with Pasta Too, a restaurant with long lines to eat on *Tuesday nights*) and live in Portland.
I'd gladly see some Portland-slagging if it means the hipsters leave and go back to Brooklyn.
]]>The window-breaking along Forbes was probably done by just one person, and I'll be glad to see him jailed for a while. How do you destroy the "international capitalist system" by smashing the windows of Pamela's or the Pitt Store?
]]>@ohayou_kun: If you read the fine print it says "drop from 9 story building first before powering on".
]]>The Touch's screen probably would have shattered. I'm amazed that the Classic's screen survived the fall. Even if it landed on the bottom corner, that had to have been a rough impact. The only iPod that I would expect to make it through that fall relatively intact is the Shuffle.
]]>So the device spins up the drive, loads the next couple songs into its (solid state) memory, and spins it back down to save power (and increase its chances of surviving rough treatment) ;)
My (6 year and 4 year old) hard drive iPods have been dropped from 4 feet or so onto concrete a few times with no harm other than scratches, so i've witnessed this first hand.
]]>@Kimaroo - No Stars Upon Thars: I "imagine" Kari taking care of all of the myths.
]]>I've given up on ipods, bought one and it basically decided to crap out and die on me. Things it did to me? Decided it would be cool to freeze itself to my jeans, die fifty times a year, and in general be a giant ass to me. Then it had the audacity to die and never turn on again, so I took it apart... Take that ipod!
]]>In this instance both parties were wrong: the protesters and the police. The police however abused their power.
]]>G20 Riots? That was a peaceful protest broken up by police provocateurs. There's video of them walking around with tear gas in their pockets and breaking students cameras. If you never heard of such a thing look it up NOW!
@techgoddess: Only .002 cents per byte: If the iPod was turned off (well, paused and had the lock on)- the drive isn't spinning and there's a not so bad chance of it surviving.
My 4th Gen iPod (4 years old now) has survived many trips down flights of stairs, getting tossed around inside my purse, being left in the car during cold Minnesota winters, being knocked off the counter by my cranky old cat, etc. It still works beautifully.
]]>Repeat the experiment and I'll bet the ipod wouldn't have survived. Isn't the classic hard drive-based, btw? Extra bonus points for the apple III-like recommended service.
]]>@morganlh85: That's telling 'em. see post below
]]>I like how Pittsburgh was sneakily slagged in the article.
What about the Superbowl champion Steelers? Or the Stanley Cup champ Penguins?
Hey I'm Canadian but I'll stick up for my rust belt neighbors anytime! It's like how cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Syracuse, etc. take all the abuse.
Go Pittsburgh!
]]>@Rachacha: Meh, kids these days don't know how to riot properly. They didn't even tip over any cars or light anything on fire.
Wait until CMU or Pitt win a division championship. Then you'll see a real riot.
]]>Fun part is, somehow, they will find a way for Kari to do something endearingly cute, Grant to make an RC robot to control some mechanism, and for Tory to provide comic relief. Bonus points for finding a way to use Buster in there.
]]>@MostlyHarmless: This one probably wouldn't be worthy of them.. I imagine Kari, Grant, and Tory taking care of this one.
]]>I'm surprised an iPod landed in a crowd as wasn't immediately stolen.
]]>So wait, College girl leans out 9th floor dorm window to look at a RIOT and drops iPod. She then proceeds downstairs and walks outside (where the RIOT is presumably taking place) to retrieve her iPod.
Not being familiar with the Pittsburgh area, I don't know where the dorms are with respect to the G20 summit, but it just does not seem like a good idea to be going outside and walking into the middle of a RIOT to retrieve a piece of electronic equipment that was likely broken. Am I missing something here, or is it just the worried father of small children who will be going off to college in 11 years in me that is speaking?
]]>@ThinkerTDM:
Well, we can't all be "Thinker"s.
@pmcpa4:
I'm glad you specified early ones. I have a new iPod Touch, and it seems pretty fragile to me. My old iPod got beaten to hell; I think I'll take better care of the new one.
@soccerkrzy: An iPod Classic, which this was, does not have a flash harddrive.
]]>@theSuperman: No, I did too...but the last sentence bugged me more, so I pointed it out instead.
]]>It seems like a lucky fluke, the same way some commenters can string together words to make a semi-coherent sentence, but the ideas they express are so, so stupid.
]]>It had to have been in a case. I could see an iPod Touch maybe, maybe surviving this due to the flash drive...but the fact that the hard drive still spins is kind of incredible.
Also, Phil, that last line makes no sense, as there is no iPhone in this story.
]]>My sister had her first-gen iPhone chewed on by her Pit Bull puppy and (with the exception of a cracked screen and broken volume and silence buttons) it works just fine.
My experience with Apple products is that they will take quite a beating and still function, even if there is some superficial damage (broken buttons and cracked cases/screens).
Sure, you could argue that a cracked screen or a broken button IS a sort of failure, but most of the time there are workarounds through software. Plus, the buttons broken on her iPhone can be fixed with a few hours, a steady hand, a $25 replacement part, and a total disregard for whatever warranty she might have left. :-)
]]>