“Why is iPhone 6 prone to bending?” Jeremy Olshan reports for MarketWatch. “‘There are two possible explanations,’ Uri Geller, the psychic illusionist famous for bending spoons with his mind, told MarketWatch. ‘Either the phone is so seriously thin and flimsy that it is bendable with mere physical force, which I cannot believe given the extensive tests Apple would have done. Or — and this is far more plausible — somehow the energy and excitement of the 10 million people who purchased iPhones has awakened their mind powers and caused the phones to bend.'”
“Reached in England to discuss this psychic event, Geller, 67, suggested Apple make him a spokesman. ‘I urge Apple to hire me to explain to the world that this is not the company’s fault at all,’ he says,” Olshan reports. “The iPhone is hardly the only gadget that is psychically malleable, Geller says. ‘I’ve bent my old BlackBerrys before — I’ll send you a picture to prove it.'”
Read more, and see the photo of Geller with his bent BlackBerry antique, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mind-bending.
With it already being lampooned, this bit of iPhone FUD just doesn’t have legs.
Related article:
If ‘bending’ is all Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus rivals have left, they’re roadkill – September 24, 2014
Apple posts new how-to guide: Switching from Android phone to iPhone – September 16, 2014
DxOMark reviews iPhone 6/Plus: ‘Apple sets gold standard for smartphone image quality’ – September 23, 2014
Ars Technica reviews Apple iPhone 6/Plus: There’s a lot more going on here than just big displays – September 23, 2014
Camera test: Apple’s iPhone 6 still won’t beat a DSLR (but it’s close) – September 22, 2014
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus tested at Disneyland: ‘So badass’ – September 17, 2014
Re/code reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6 Plus: ‘A statement phone,’ not a ‘plastic toy’ – September 17, 2014
Megapixels mean nothing: Apple iPhone 6 trounces Samsung Galaxy S5 in camera shootout – September 17, 2014
The Telegraph reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6 Plus: ‘It’s peerless’ – September 17, 2014
TechCrunch reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone available’ – September 17, 2014
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6/Plus: ‘Smartphone stars’ – September 17, 2014
Walt Mossberg reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – September 16, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone you can buy’ – September 16, 2014
Macworld reviews 64-bit iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Bigger is better (in the right hands) – September 16, 2014
“this bit of iPhone FUD just doesn’t have legs”
But the media do try it hardest to never say the obvious — you can not put huge thin gadgets in your tight pants’ pockets and think they will not bend.
I think CNN might soon come to the level of MH370 24/7 coverage mode and will never mention this idea.
I beg to differ MDN moderator, this bit of FUD does have legs, it is only the fact that so many people thinking of the same issue has bent those legs so that they have become unusable! Just ask Mr. Uri Geller!! 🙂
I’m not sure how a guy bending his iPhone 6 plus with his fingers, by applying so much force that his thumbs almost turned purple is evidence that it will bend in his front pocket.
But for the media, this is irrefutable proof!
Why didn’t he try to bend it by putting it in his front pocket?
I have read a lot of the blogs about bendgate. i have only seen 2 different photos and that idiotic video that proves nothing.
The same 3 photos/videos are being retweeted and copied/pasted again and again.
Antennagate started this way, so it is likely that this will gather momentum. The iHating Fandroids will make sure it happens.
When I first read the meme of the week, “Bendgate,” I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Business Insider or Mashable to come up with a non-event like this. I prefer to call this episode “Stupidgate.”
This is a perfect example of how many morons walk among us. It takes but a wee bit of common sense to realize that you don’t sit on your phone, regardless of what brand you own. Don’t abuse it. Put it in a case. If you’re prone to dropping your phone, get a case with a protective liner.
We’re so quick to blame Apple for everything, from ISIS to acne. Truth be told, the problem is us. We’re knuckleheads. We lack or fail to apply common sense.
That of course never stopped Business Insider from rushing out click-whoring trash about this. It’s why I’m going outside right now. There is a larger world than all this garbage.
True. But you can’t fix stupid. There are people who will sit on a cell phone and many do. I doubt it was a problem in the past or people wouldn’t have been used to doing it. Right? Don’t seem to be any complaints about any other phones or even the new iPhone 6. Just the 6+. Maybe people just aren’t holding it right? But you do have to wonder if this phone should’ve been made so thin? Why does it have to be so thin? It’s not heavy. It’s a cell phone. One has to wonder how much fun people on this site would have if it were a large Samsung phone that was bending? My guess is that the criticism would be vicious and relentless.
There were reports of the iP5 bending. There were many, many reports of HTC and Samsung big-screen phones bending, along with lots of pictures. This is nothing new. It’s just that it’s the only thing idiots can latch onto with the iP6. Out of 10 million phones, 3 pictures on the inter webs cause stupid-assed click farms like Business Insider to go nuts. It’s so stupid. I agree with Brian: Stupidgate.
Please let us know where there are links to stories of HTC, Samsung or any other large, flagship smartphone being bent — especially if there are associated pictures!
Note: I am NOT saying that I doubt such reports being in existence. I just want access to them.
Reports of other phones bending — especially flagship phones — and posting such everywhere will go a long way to negating this hysteria.
wow… that took 30 seconds of searching.
http://www.cultofmac.com/297404/get-bent-shocking-history-bent-smartphones/
From first page of hits of search .
AndroidCentral.com
“Yesterday morning the display on my Samsung Galaxy S4 cracked while it was in either the front pocket or cargo pocket of a loose-fitting pair of cargo shorts…. This phone seems very fragile.”
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/317091-display-cracked-while-my-pocket.html
ATT website:
“Galaxy S3 glass Cracked – no drop – in pocket 4 hours after purchase!
The glass has a small crack that is starting to spider. I just bought this phone! Was told that becuase of physical damage, it cannot be exchanged. I’ve read numerous reports of galaxy s III cracked screens without drops. Isn’t this a manufacturing defect”
Reddit:
Warning on Gs4
(S4) Then on thursday, for seemingly no reason, the amoled screen broke. I was texting a friend, put the phone in my pocket, received a message, pulled the phone out of my pocket, and suddenly the amoled was cracked”
SquareTest Warranty Test on Smartphones
iP5 most durable vs Samsugn Phones:
“SquareTrade posted a YouTube video on Monday showing three of the 10 tests it conducted multiple times on all three devices. With those results, it tabulated a new breakability rating for the GS4 of 7 out of 10, with 10 as the highest risk of breaking. The S3 was the next most breakable with a 6.5 and the iPhone 5 the least most breakable of the three, with a score of 5.”
TMobile Website:
Galaxy s4 screen Cracked in Jeans Front Pocket.
I put my phone in my front pocket and sat down, like a have a million times before with other phones (and even this phone). I went to use my phone and blammo! the screen was cracked! It was useless, a flickering chunk of plastic.
I called T-Mobile. I need to file a claim. I filed the claim and there is a $175 deductable. Wow!”
ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC.
I would just add that Jeff Bezos of Amazon has sizeable investments in Business Insider and the Editor in Chief is “The iPhone is Dead in the Water, I will not buy an Apple Watch” Henry Blodget.
Sure. Well of course. Naturally. It’s never Apple’s fault is it? That’s an unbelievably stupid fucking comment even from an Apple fanboy. Unbelievable. Have you no shame?
This is the dumbest report ever and a waste of time.
It’s a vast conspiracy by old school journalist to herd us back through their paywalls.
The thinking: The internet begot free journalism -> Every moron with a PC and grudge started writing -> Traditional journalism withered ->Nature abhors a vacuum -> Excellent writing soon to return.
I hope so; the deluge wrought by free idiocy is awful.
Hey! Whatcha mean!? My ignorance is every bit as important and valuable as your educated, informed opinion.
Thing is, people have been trashing their credit cards for years by putting them in their wallets, putting their wallets in their back pockets and sitting down.
This is no different, and the fact that people have been demanding ever larger, thinner and lighter phones means they really only have themselves to blame when they stick their large, thin, and fairly fragile device in a pocket which is obviously going to deform when sitting down, and then express shock when the bloody thing breaks!
I’ve never carried a phone in a back pocket, not even an iP4, which is damned tough due to having a stainless steel frame; my 5 is always in my front left pocket, away from keys, etc, unless I’m wearing jeans with a tighter fit than my usual baggy combats and shorts, in which case it goes into a jacket pocket or is carried.
Simples.
Do not try and bend the iPhone 6. That’s impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon… er, iPhone 6.
Uri Geller is a proven fraud. As Patrick Jane says- there are no psychics.
There’s a fun episode of the tonight show the Geller was on.. along with James Randi. It’s on the ‘tube.
Fraud! Not according to my auntie who went to one of Uri’s shows back in 70’s with couple of old coffee spoons and fruit forks in her handbag, they were all bent during the show. Funny thing was that she had thought she’d forgot to take them, but had placed them in the side pocket and a fork pin had poked out through the fabric. That made her an instant celebrity, against her will I’d add.
So, as everything is made out of energy and there is no solid material, I see no reason why your overexcited butt waves would not bend your phone.
From what I’ve seen in videos, the force needed to bend an iPhone 6 Plus is what would break other phones. Breaking a phone by putting it in your back pocket and sitting on it is nothing new.
Indeed. I had a Nokia at one time (didn’t we all?) and broke the screen by having it in my back pocket. And that screen was only a few inches.
A Jaguar XKR wil set you back $96,500.
Under stress, it bends.
It’s funny that all these people with bigger screened phones are complaining about them bending. I have never bent my iPad and I’ve had it for years.
Simple solution to the Men… stop wearing womens pants!
Yeah, and the high heels, suspenders and bra!
He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK, …
There were reports of people whose phones (Apple or Android) burst into flames when left charging under a pillow. There was the girl who sat on her iPhone in school and broke it, catching her pants on fire. There are always people thinking their technology is indestructible.
The fact is most phones, no matter the manufacturer, are remarkably sturdy and able to absorb punishment we humans seem to dish out. How many times does an iPhone or Galaxy need to drop onto a floor before it breaks? How amazing is it that the iPhone 6+’s screen doesn’t simply break when sufficient pressure is exerted to bend the metal case? And on top of that, the phone keeps working.
Mistreat your phone, pay the consequences. Apple isn’t about to start making iPhones from titanium and carbon fiber just because people are stupid enough to keep them in tight pants pockets when they sit down.
There’s a limit to how much you can stupid-proof anything, even for Apple.
…I shoulda known this fraudster would pipe up about this…LOL
“Hey Uri, guess which finger I’m holding up?!”
He’s a publicity whore first, and a fraud second.
There is no spoon!
Each iPhone release must have its antennagate.
This made my day. LOL. Uri Geller!
Geller has never bent anything with the force of his mind. James Randi debunked that fraud back in the 1970s.
-jcr
COMMON SENSE :
“If you put a think device in your back pocket and sit down that device will bend”
If people haven’t even got the common sense to realise I worry about the future I the human race.
This isn’t an apple problem – this is a common sense user problem, just like the ‘icloud’ thing.. If your stupid enough to put dodgy photos on a cloud service and don’t expect it to be hacked you need to wake up.
Come on humanity – get some bloody common sense!!!!