Tom and Marlo Adams expected to take a fun float trip down Idaho’s Snake River, but the trip took an unexpected turn that, three days later, became remarkable.
Grace Hansen for East Idaho News:
Tom, who went to the river with his wife and friends, tipped his kayak near the Tilden Bridge Boat Ramp and lost his new phone, keys, fishing pole, and wallet in the swiftly moving current. Although Tom was wearing a lifejacket and managed to swim out of the river unharmed, he was discouraged by all the lost property.
“I was thankful to be okay,” Tom explained, “but lost a lot at one time.”
Thankfully for Adams, the Bingham County Search and Rescue Dive Team agreed to help by diving in to look for Tom’s missing items – three days after the kayaking incident.
“They use opportunities like this to practice and get more dive time in to prepare for the real calls, and more important events such as lifesaving,” Tom said. “Many members of the dive team met at the boat ramp, geared up, and hit the water. Because of the current, they had to use a safety line.”
Despite the strong current and the days that had passed since Tom’s kayak tipped, Jack Lusk, one of the divers, found Tom’s iPhone and keys within 20 minutes of entering the water.
“To all our amazement, [the phone] was still on!” Tom recalled. “It was still alarming from my Sunday morning wake-up call reminder.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yet another example of how iPhone takes a dunking and keeps on going!
Apple’s current iPhone 12 family is rated IP68 (maximum depth of 6 meters up to 30 minutes) under IEC standard 60529, so Tom’s iPhone (model unknown) certainly exceeded its rating for length of time underwater, while showing prodigious battery life.
Bonus Snake River video:
[Attribution: iMore. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
But… but… Supposedly, Apple builds iPhones with planned obsolescence, so they need to be replaced every year. /s
I heard there were forums where people were complaining about a bit of splashed water ruined their iPhones. I suppose anything is possible with tens of millions of iPhones being used in all sorts of ways.
For those of you old enough remember th Times commercial “takes a licking and keeps on ticking!”
Timex