Saved by the iPhone

The iPhone may be a pretty versatile piece of machinery, but did you know it can save your life? That’s what 53 year old Irwin Koss of DeWitt, New York discovered after a trip to the golf course. The proud owner of a brand new iPhone, Mr. Koss decided that leaving the precious device in the golf cart was too risky for his taste: the chances that it might fall out and get damaged or lost were just too high. So he slipped the phone into his pocket. While that decision didn’t end well for the iPhone, it may have very well saved Mr. Koss’s life.

As his friend teed off on the seventh hole, Mr. Koss was unfortunately standing within the firing line of the ball. “I thought I was out of the way enough,” he said, “but I guess not.” The drive from his companion’s 3 wood struck him in the side. According to The Physics of Golf page at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, golf balls can reach speeds of greater than 100 miles per hour in the hands of experienced golfers. That’s fast enough to do plenty damage and Mr. Koss was left with some ugly black and blue bumps and bruises. But the consequences could have been far worse.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on whether your concern is for Mr. Koss or the iPhone) the phone in Mr. Koss’s pocket took the brunt of the ball’s impact, which impressively shattered the phone’s expansive touchscreen. The iPhone was totally destroyed. “It didn’t work at all,” said Mr. Koss.

But though the iPhone crossed over to the other side, its sacrifice wasn’t in vain. At the time of the incident, Mr. Koss had recently undergone surgery for prostate cancer, the result of which was a four inch long scar running from navel to groin. Had the golf ball hit his body straight on, he would likely have suffered serious injury, possibly requiring a trip to the emergency room.

Despite the phone’s death in the line of duty, the AT&T store from which Mr. Koss bought it didn’t seem particularly obliged to give him a break in replacing or repairing the iPhone. “They weren’t interested at all.” Instead, he had to pay for a new one out of his own pocket, which he did the very next morning.

Clearly, this is a man pretty satisfied with his iPhone. That said, Mr. Koss had a few suggestions for what he might like to see in a future version. It could use a louder speaker, he offered, but the top item on his list is something a little more close to home: a bulletproof casing. Mr. Koss’s wife Kathleen offered a somewhat more practical piece of advice to golfers everywhere: “Put the iPhone down. You need to focus on your game.”

Category: Musings

Posted by Dan Moren on Aug 20 2007, 1:29 PM ET

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