Wes Groleau

On 07-03-2010 11:00, Michelle Steiner wrote:
>> > Most cases have a sort of frame around the screen (else they would fall
>> > off). In a face-down fall, that frame protects the glass from anything
>> > smaller than the thickness of the from.
> Exactly; just as I wrote, above. The iPhone 4 doesn't have that.

I was talking about the frame of an add-on case that keeps it
from falling off. On my 3GS (without such a case), the glass has a
VERY tiny but still visible protrusion _out_ from the shiny bezel.

--
Wes Groleau

Why does everyone call it a "fanny pack" ?
When was the last time you saw one on a fanny?

News

Michelle Steiner wrote:
> In article <2010070309583278418-jasonsavlov@mecom>,
> Jason S <jasonsavlov@me.com> wrote:
>
>> Wow, you are very lucky to have a replacement iPhone that fast! I'm
>> still waiting on the reserve list at the local Apple Store for my iPhone
>> 4.
>
> They have a stock of replacement phones in each store. I don't know how
> many, though.
>


Enough for the ham-fisted and fumble-fingered fanbois and -gurlz.

Mike

On 03/07/2010 4:37 AM, Michelle Steiner wrote:
> The glass is very fragile. I've been using a belt clip designed for the
> iPhone 3G and 3GS; it works sort of, if you make sure to press it firmly
> into place. I didn't, and the phone fell out of it, landing front side
> flat on concrete. The result was a spider-web of cracks. But the phone
> still worked.
>
> I took it to the nearby Apple Store, and they managed to fit me in with an
> appointment at the Genius Bar.
>
> The Apple Genius took a look at it, asked how it happened, and I told him
> the truth, that it fell out of its holster and landed on concrete. I told
> him that I got it on the first day of release, so it was only eight days
> old.
>
> He said that he was supposed to charge $199 to replace it, but he was going
> to do it for free. Less than fifteen minutes later, I had a replacement
> iPhone.
>
> I bought a bumper for it, just in case it dropped again. The bumper is not
> just a piece of rubber, as everyone here has been saying. Although the
> edges are rubber, the center is hard plastic. It also has silver buttons
> that fit over the volume and sleep buttons. There's a cutout for the mute
> button, though. The bumper definitely costs Apple more than the ten or
> twenty cents that some people have whinged about, but I don't know what the
> cost of goods and manufacture is. My major complaint is that the phone
> won't fit into the dock with the bumper on it, and I'm sure that it won't
> fit in any third-party belt holsters like the Elan Clip.
>

TBH that's pretty good advice for anything made of brittle material such
as glass, anyone needing the advice is a bit thick!

Plastic may scratch and generally end up looking pretty crap after a
year in your pocket but it will withstand drops and knocks better than
glass. I've dropped my iphone twice onto tiled floors from 3-4ft with a
silicone case and it's survived undamaged but it didn't land face down
so I was lucky.


Mike

Jochem Huhmann

Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> writes:

> In article <i0ng5a$62a$1@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Wes Groleau <Groleau+news@FreeShell.org> wrote:
>
>> > into place. I didn't, and the phone fell out of it, landing front
>> > side flat on concrete. The result was a spider-web of cracks. But
>> > the phone still worked.
>>
>> Must have had all the impact on a single small rock.
>
> Nope; it was flat concrete pavement.

I think if you drop it either right at the face of the glass or on the
steel frame you'll be fine. But if it falls with a slight angle and the
edge of the glass hits the concrete the glass will shatter. This is
actually the very same thing as the face of the glass hitting a small
rock: All the impact is concentrated on a very small point and this is
too much.

The new iPhone exposing an edge of glass on both sides means that the
chance of this happening is large.

I think it is very interesting that the bumpers fix both problems (the
antenna and the glass edges) as if designed for that. Which probably
means they were. Using one is not a bad idea.


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery