For seven years, I’ve been a proud owner of the iPhone. But today, I did something that I had yet to do with my iPhone in all of those seven years – I lost it. I had this sinking realization about 10 minutes after I was back home from my morning routine. Of course, there are safeguards when losing your iPhone, and I did have the “Find My iPhone” app installed. But apparently I turned it off when I turned iCloud off. My phone was still receiving messages and calls – but it was at an unknown location.
This was a hectic morning to begin with. Electricians were coming to fix a problem at my house, and I would be working from home. My wife and I have four children, my son being the oldest at 8 years old along with 6-, 5-, and 3-year-old daughters. While the three older kids now ride the bus, I normally drive my youngest to pre-school.
This already hectic day would be the day I left my iPhone on the roof of the car. Again, something I’ve never done with my iPhone before – but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. Impressively, the iPhone actually made it a couple of miles before it would give way while going 25 to 30 MPH up a good hill.
As I was just setting off with my own improvised “iPhone finder” – an AirPort Base Station the iPhone would join if within range, and IP scanning software on my laptop – I got a call from the gentleman whose daughter found the phone while walking. He noticed the text messages on the lock screen (I’m glad I didn’t have those blocked!) with contact info and gave me a call. Five minutes later, the story found its happy ending.
But the reason this gentleman was able to make the call at all was the protection my iPhone had. Safely protected by the NewerTech NuGuard KX, my phone was completely unscathed. A corner of the case shows some asphalt scratch in, but it took the licking so my phone could keep ticking – without a mark.
Stuff happens. And it only takes once. Making sure “Find my iPhone” is active on your phone (or other iDevice) will certainly save some uncertainty. Having good, honest folks who come across someone else’s property and return it because it’s the right thing to do (and turn down an offered reward) also helps.
But having the right protective case on your iPhone is what ensures it has the best chance of surviving life’s little mishaps. I’m glad I can say the case excelled in its first unscheduled high-speed road-impact test – and it did so with flying colors! Though, I can’t say I ever really had a doubt.
Your iPhone, protected by a NewerTech NuGuard KX, fell off the roof of your car while “going 25 to 30 MPH up a good hill,” and survived completely unscathed.
That. That is impressive. For me, perhaps even more so than your wind turbine drop tests onto natural ground.
How fast can one be going before there’s actually any damage? Can these cases be rated for car roof drop tests at 65mph?
Imagine the marketing potential…