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Who says the iPad is fragile? Spotless after a 50mph drop to pavement!

F

fs454

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 7, 2007
1,987
1,876
Los Angeles / Boston
So during a grueling all-nighter due to people screwing around with fire extinguishers and causing fire alarms all night in my building, it was time for the big college move out. On zero sleep I had to pack my car and drive six hours to my home in Boston, and after more problems we finally were on the road. Little did I know that I had plopped my iPad, in the black Apple case, on top of my black car, and my over-stressed and under-rested self didn't see it. About five minutes later I'm accelerating past 50mph on the highway and knew exactly what just happened as I heard the iPad slam into the trunk and tumble to the pavement. I slammed on the brakes and I wanted to die as I ran out to the iPad with the case open, face down on the pavement. I grabbed it and immediately noticed that the glass wasn't broken, so I slowly pulled it out of the battered cloth case and the entire iPad was SPOTLESS. Seriously. After personally fixing broken glass on family and friends' iPhones left and right, I can't believe I still have a beautiful iPad after what happened.


If that's not durable, I don't know what is. I am still in disbelief that I'm not out dropping another $600 today.
 
I can corroborate. I had my iPad in the same Apple case. I had left it on top of my Mustang and after pulling out of the parking space I heard a huge clunk. The iPad had slipped directly off of the top and onto the pavement, presumedly flat on it. No scratches or dents. Would have been a different story caseless.
 
Whew....thats good it didnt shatter or crack or anything.

maybe all the work you did with the iPhone repairs, it was working in your favor this time ;)
 
It didn't fall off until you reached 50MPH? Do we have any witnesses to back this up?

The whole story seems a little far fetched to me.
 
iWannaBeAdored said:
Jeez. Why do you have to doubt him? He has been a member here since '07 and why would he randomly post this?

Glad your iPad is ok!
Click to expand...

The iPad doesn't weigh that much and should have been jarred off of the roof with any acceleration. Why it didn't come loose until 50 MPH is a little hard to understand.

I cannot speak to someone elses motivations.
 
Battlestar said:
It didn't fall off until you reached 50MPH? Do we have any witnesses to back this up?

The whole story seems a little far fetched to me.
Click to expand...

Entirely possible. There are surfaces on your car that winds do not reach until a certain speed. One place is the area just after your windshield. As you go faster the wind angle comes down.
 
Battlestar said:
The iPad doesn't weigh that much and should have been jarred off of the roof with any acceleration. Why it didn't come loose until 50 MPH is a little hard to understand.

I cannot speak to someone elses motivations.
Click to expand...

The apple case is very 'sticky'. It's pretty much a sheet of silicone or similar.
 
Battlestar said:
It didn't fall off until you reached 50MPH? Do we have any witnesses to back this up?

The whole story seems a little far fetched to me.
Click to expand...

[sarcasm]Yea if there's not at least 3 witnesses I'm calling bs.

WTF dude, yea he's lying. It's obvious this could never happen.

Some people are such fools to believe such a farfetched lie.

I can't believe people even for a second believe that.

I can't believe people would believe that for a minute!

Maybe 30 mph, maybe 40 mph but hell no not 50!!![/sarcasm]
 
I find this story entirely believable. The iPad is flat and heavy, and I can see it staying put up to 50 mph, maybe faster if you accelerate gently and take turns slowly.
 
Now I think totally possible for it to stay there till 50mph, but what kinda of car due you have, you said it slammed into your trunk? How would that happen unless your going at a slower speed because I would think that with the flat surface it would generate some kind of lift and just fly off going unnoticed
 
Lmao. It's hilarious that people are trying to discredit the story. Why would I make something like this up? I was driving very carefully because my car was packed to the brim with stuff, including my Mac Pro and 24 inch LCD. I drive an Audi A3 hatchback, so I technically don't have a "trunk", but have you seen an aerodynamics test of a hatchback-shaped vehicle? Air flowing off of the top and sides of the car create an inwards vacuum towards the back of the car. Have you ever wondered why the back of a hatchback gets very dirty, much quicker than the rest of the car? The odd shape of the car causes this. The iPad slammed hard into my rear window before falling to the pavement.


Another worthy thing to note is that the entire top of my car is made of glass, not metal, and the Apple case is very "sticky" much like those car dashboard cellphone grips that people buy.


And ill post pictures of the case and iPad tonight if you want. And to the guy who said he saw it, its ironic because it happened in Ithaca, NY, lots of people from Syracuse where I was.
 
You see? I've been saying for years that auto-designs are flawed because the flat top surface is a prime place to set your items as you fumble with your keys, creating the possibility of leaving them there, as I did once with my finest leather hat.

Gull-wing doors could prevent this all, dammit, there's no need for this madness!! ><
 
People leave stuff on top of their cars quite a bit before driving off. It's not that unusual. My brother had left a small suitcase on top of his car before driving off but he saw it fly off and went back for it. It does happen even with putting soda cups on top of the roof and forgetting that it was there and drove off. Normally you don't put things on top of the roof of a car, so it's very easy to forget about it when you do drive off.
 
First of all my wife dropped her iPhone off her car twice in similar off the top of the car fashion. 1st time came out of case and it had very minor road rash. 2nd time she didn't realize she did it and she thought she lost it. This was not even a week after the 1st time (rolling eyes ... I Know!) and we found it in tye road in tiny pieces ... The next day. I have pics. Sucks!

Glad your iPad is ok that would have been a bad bad day! They seem to be well built ... Before I got mine I saw a youtube video of two kids smashing one in front of a best buy. It took alot of abuse to finally break it ... Search for it yourself.

To those who thinks he just made this up ... Cmon man! Find a MicroHard forum to flame people.
 
The Fifth Colony

Actually the iPad was damaged during the fall. Anna just felt sorry for you and transported it to the healing center on the mothership before you could get your hands on it.
 
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