[HN Gopher] Using a magnetic string to fish for a lost iPhone 12...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Using a magnetic string to fish for a lost iPhone 12 in a Berlin
       canal
        
       Author : crackercrews
       Score  : 180 points
       Date   : 2021-06-04 16:53 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (riedel.wtf)
 (TXT) w3m dump (riedel.wtf)
        
       | shoto_io wrote:
       | _> At this point, we really have to give props to the iPhone
       | Hardware Engineering team: We were able to recover the device in
       | perfect mint condition and without water damage. The new Ceramic
       | Shield Glass really held up to the strong forces of the magnet
       | and junk in the canal, and the IP68 water resistance is mind-
       | blowing. And last but not least: MagSafe seems to be a perfect
       | tool to recover lost iPhones from the water._
        
       | superjan wrote:
       | He was lucky. A family member spilled water over her beloved 6
       | months old iPhone 12, it leaked in and caused stains on the
       | display.
        
         | orhmeh09 wrote:
         | That seems like pretty bad luck! In the early months of the
         | pandemic I washed my iPhone 11 daily with no ill effects.
        
           | stu2b50 wrote:
           | It was likely damaged. A fall, for instance, can damage a
           | smartphone enough to break its seal while being almost
           | imperceptible to humans. Making electronics water resistant
           | is always a very tricky endeavor.
        
             | superjan wrote:
             | Oh probably. But a lot of people drop their phone once in a
             | while. I just read about a guy dropping it into a Berlin
             | canal! The thing is that if it dropped once you can't rely
             | on your phone being waterproof anymore.
        
       | ChuckMcM wrote:
       | Interestingly enough, when I lived in Brussels people used
       | magnets to fish stuff out of the canals on a regular basis :-)
       | lots of "interesting" things are attracted to magnets.
       | 
       | That they could snag an iPhone was pretty amazing. I would be
       | inclined to fish for other phones, perhaps the folks who live on
       | canal boats could 'trawl' a magnet line :-) (It's Friday, okay?)
        
       | failwhaleshark wrote:
       | LR BLE (900 MHz) is interesting and the band I worked with more-
       | so than 2.4 GHz because its range was far superior.
       | 
       | What we need is Tile Ultra or AirTag+: Underwater edition using
       | 1.85 or 3.75 MHz. Or sonic pinging. :)
        
       | yosito wrote:
       | I've gotta give them props for the persistence. I would have just
       | given up and bought a new iPhone. It's impressive that the iPhone
       | survived the whole ordeal, without even turning off. And the
       | amount of stuff they found makes me wonder why people don't use
       | magnets on strings to search for lost things in European canals
       | more often. Could be an interesting hobby.
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | > I would have just given up and bought a new iPhone
         | 
         | If people didn't already realize that most of people hanging
         | around on HN have the top 10% of the world's wealth, this made
         | things clearer than ever (the phone in question costs around
         | 1000 EUR)
         | 
         | Makes all the conversations around finance here make so much
         | more sense.
        
           | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
           | If you are making EUR200,000 per year, your time is worth
           | around EUR100 per hour.
           | 
           | Thus if this is going to take more than 10 hours, it is not
           | worth your time.
        
             | jen20 wrote:
             | This is, of course, only true if you can bill someone for
             | those ten hours.
        
               | pengaru wrote:
               | And even if you could, you should be billing them at a
               | substantially higher rate than your normal salary already
               | consuming your full-time bandwidth. These extra hours are
               | precious and increasingly scarce bandwidth for self, and
               | fast overlap into exceedingly inconvenient territory.
        
             | driverdan wrote:
             | This doesn't make sense. You don't work 24h a day. I highly
             | doubt they went a day without pay to get the phone back.
             | Even then it would still be more than a full day's worth of
             | pay at EUR200,000 per year.
        
             | pengaru wrote:
             | That's very flawed and naive method for measuring value of
             | one's time.
        
               | laumars wrote:
               | Why? I'm not saying you're wrong _per se_ but you offer a
               | stern dismissal without any reason nor alternative.
               | 
               | For what it's worth, I think the GP makes a pretty common
               | opinion. For example people on lower incomes will do more
               | household jobs themselves because it saves them money,
               | whereas people on higher incomes will pay people to do
               | things because it saves them time. The opinion might be
               | dressed up differently when I state that but it's still
               | the simple act of a person putting a value on their free
               | time. It's why we have house cleaners, windows cleaners,
               | gardeners, car washers, and so on and so forth. The only
               | different is people don't usually casually post precise
               | numeric values against their time. But it's still a
               | sentiment shared by many.
        
             | irrational wrote:
             | That might make some sense if you get paid by the hour and
             | can get overtime. But if you are salaried that is crazy
             | talk.
        
             | hutzlibu wrote:
             | Is going to the toilet worth your time? Or would you pay
             | someone to do it for you?
        
           | 14 wrote:
           | Yes that phone would cost me about 2 weeks pay. Sounds
           | pathetic compared to some of the people around here but I
           | actually have a very high quality of life in my opinion, just
           | no iPhone 12. For 2 weeks pay I am going to make a solid
           | effort for sure. On top of the cost, most people these days
           | despite knowing the importance of regular backups, will not
           | do so and most likely have some photos on the photos or
           | information on the phone they can not lose so getting the
           | phone back would be important in that aspect as well.
        
           | GhostVII wrote:
           | I suspect the vast majority of people on HN are in the top 1%
           | globally. People don't realise how high incomes in the US are
           | relative to the rest of the world.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | > People don't realise how high incomes in the US are
             | relative to the rest of the world.
             | 
             | Gross definitely, but net (after taxes, healthcare, housing
             | and other fixed costs)... not so sure. High CoL - seriously
             | even as someone who lives in Munich, US housing prices are
             | _utterly incomprehensible_ , just how the fuck do y'all
             | even manage to survive?! -, high costs for transportation,
             | the utter madness that is US healthcare, hundreds of
             | dollars for cable TV, having to save for your pension or
             | student loans.
             | 
             | I'd wager that even after accounting for taxes, most
             | Europeans have more money in their pocket than Americans
             | working in the same field.
             | 
             | (And obviously, all of us have it vastly better than 99% of
             | people in Africa)
        
               | walrus01 wrote:
               | If I had a dollar for every American I've seen working at
               | the same companies that was spending $800+ a month for
               | healthcare insurance coverage for themselves, their
               | spouse, their two kids... And then they still would have
               | a $8,000+ deductible for many categories of expensive
               | medical costs per year, if they ever have to use it,
               | before full coverage kicks in.
               | 
               | I am fortunate enough that my spouse has her own very
               | good medical coverage and we do not have kids, so our
               | monthly outlays are somewhat less.
               | 
               | If you consider that $800 to be equivalent to a tax, the
               | person's take home net income was actually less than if
               | they were an equivalent-of-a-W2 employee in Canada or
               | another place with a social healthcare system.
        
               | estaseuropano wrote:
               | This tax just comes with no guarantees - you're out of
               | the job means all that you've spent is gone. In contrast
               | a decent healthcare system will take care of you even
               | when you're out of a job. A hospital in UK or Germany
               | won't leave you on the street, even if they know you
               | don't have insurance.
        
             | TeMPOraL wrote:
             | "Globally" does a lot of the work here, though. 1% of
             | world's population is a mid-sized country's worth of
             | people.
        
           | 1123581321 wrote:
           | I wouldn't expect many in the 90% to buy an expensive iPhone
           | in the first place. It's a narrow range that would buy one
           | but not a replacement.
           | 
           | Regardless, kudos to them for persevering. As another user
           | said, many people would assume the device to be inoperable,
           | even if findable, so not try.
        
             | joe-collins wrote:
             | There are a _lot_ of people in the US who buy iPhones (or
             | comparable Android equivalents) on 2-year payment plans
             | with carrier lock-in. Many can afford an extra $40 per
             | month, but don 't have the savings to drop $1000 in one go.
             | 
             | > In 2018, the median earnings for full-time, year-round
             | cashiers were $22,109, compared with $35,301 for retail
             | salespersons and $42,421 for first-line supervisors of
             | retail salespersons. > In contrast, the median earnings for
             | all full-time, year-round workers was $48,565 in 2018.
             | 
             | I've spent ten years working retail here in California, and
             | I'll offer my anecdata: a great number of even those
             | cashiers own iPhones! Ten million people work retail in the
             | US making no more than ~$40k, and that's a population that
             | demonstrably owns iPhones but is hard-pressed to replace
             | them on short notice.
             | 
             | https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/profile-of-
             | th...
        
               | Tenoke wrote:
               | That's less common in Europe (and Berlin specifically).
               | I'm guessing even less so for something like the 12 Pro.
        
               | 1123581321 wrote:
               | Good numbers/experience. I've usually seen people in such
               | situations buy refurb or a cheaper model for the rest of
               | that period if their insurance policy doesn't give them a
               | refurb. That's moving the goalposts a bit from buying
               | another iPhone 12, admittedly.
        
           | kirubakaran wrote:
           | To be fair, HN is also confused why you wouldn't just eat
           | cake.
        
         | NoNotTheDuo wrote:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/magnetfishing/
        
         | teachingassist wrote:
         | > why people don't use magnets on strings to search for lost
         | things in European canals more often.
         | 
         | There are TikTok accounts devoted to this (where else?) - it
         | seems surprisingly common to find safes.
        
           | virtue3 wrote:
           | ... or they plant them :)
        
             | celticninja wrote:
             | Nah, stolen safes end up in canals very often, guns and
             | knives too. They are easy places to dispose of small heavy
             | items and they usually stay hidden for a long time.
        
         | hybridtupel wrote:
         | Indeed it is [1]
         | 
         | [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_fishing
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | modernerd wrote:
         | > ...makes me wonder why people don't use magnets on strings to
         | search for lost things in European canals more often.
         | 
         | You may be interested in "Below the Surface", an exhibition of
         | objects found in Amsterdam canals that have been dated from
         | 2005 (phones, coins) back to -119000 (sea shells).
         | 
         | https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/vondsten
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | I found a load of clay pipe stems on the bank of the Thames.
           | My father found a 16th century corkscrew there too.
           | 
           | It makes a very distant past feel much closer.
        
             | hutzlibu wrote:
             | The past is all around us ... or below us.
        
         | murkle wrote:
         | It's very dangerous especially in France due to old ordinance.
         | Google magnet fishing
        
           | verst wrote:
           | Same in Germany. I never considered magnet fishing growing up
           | there and now I remember why: it was super common for WW2
           | explosives to be found that didn't explode on impact but had
           | corroded over time.
        
           | crackercrews wrote:
           | "Ordinance" is legislation. "Ordnance" is the explosive
           | stuff. Old ordinance can also be troublesome, but is rarely
           | deadly.
        
             | abrowne wrote:
             | At least in jurisdictions that have abolished capital
             | punishment.
        
             | tshaddox wrote:
             | Also, at least in American English, "ordinance" is not a
             | mass noun. An ordinance is a piece of legislation. So I
             | would say " _an_ old ordinance can also be troublesome..."
        
             | scrollaway wrote:
             | I'm not GP but as a non-native speaker, thanks for the tip!
             | I never realized :)
        
               | jkubicek wrote:
               | I'm a native english speaker, and I also never realized
               | those were two different words.
        
             | celticninja wrote:
             | And just to confuse things a little more we have in the UK:
             | 
             | https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/
             | 
             | Which is not a survey of explosive devices.
        
               | leoedin wrote:
               | But it is (or was, originally, when it was named) a
               | survey for directing military ordnance.
        
               | nicoburns wrote:
               | Huh, and I've been pronouncing that ordinance. I guess
               | those two words are pretty similar.
        
         | riekus wrote:
         | My 12 year old niece fished a handgun out of a canal couple
         | months back, that is pretty uncommon heren in the Netherlands
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | _Why people don 't use magnets on strings to search for lost
         | things in European canals more often. Could be an interesting
         | hobby._
         | 
         | Magnet fishing is a thing. There are web sites for it. Amazon
         | sells kits with very strong magnets and ropes.
        
           | pvaldes wrote:
           | Maybe is the combination of rust iron, salmonella, chilling
           | cold water and skin cuts.
           | 
           | Aren't such big magnets an hazard for anything digital near
           | them? Everything has a computer inside now, starting by cars.
        
             | hutzlibu wrote:
             | "Maybe is the combination of rust iron, salmonella,
             | chilling cold water and skin cuts."
             | 
             | Add old explosives with rusty triggers to the list.
        
             | Cerium wrote:
             | Large permanent magnets are a fairly minor hazard to most
             | electronics.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | A phone or iPad will take 3T and work ok afterwards. I've
               | seen engineers photograph the cold head on an MR scanner
               | and the phone has held up just fine.
               | 
               | Sometimes they turn off for a bit and need a little rest.
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | > _Sometimes they turn off for a bit and need a little
               | rest._
               | 
               | Could it be because of a helium leak?
               | 
               | https://hackaday.com/2018/10/31/helium-can-stop-your-
               | iphone-...
        
               | ska wrote:
               | Unless they are taking the photo from near or in the
               | bore, the camera isn't seeing anything like 3T (or, for
               | that matter 1T).
               | 
               | Most such photos are taken from outside the 5G line which
               | is a very different kettle of fish.
               | 
               | You are right that lots of electronics will be safe in
               | the sense that it will not function in the field but be
               | ok afterwards outside the room - so long as you don't
               | move it around too fast.
               | 
               | On the other hand, most consumer electronics would likely
               | fly out of your hand and smash into the bore well before
               | you get anywhere close to the peak strength.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | The camera is taken right up to the bore. You're right,
               | it wouldn't be 3T, but it's getting close and it's way
               | inside the 5g line.
               | 
               | The iPhones I have seen go in have not had a lot of pull
               | and can be held, even close to the bore (less than 1m).
               | 
               | The service instructions require photographs of various
               | component - I watched a cold head get photographed
               | recently.
               | 
               | I've also seen an engineer take a laptop pretty close. It
               | turned off but didn't suffer any lasting ill effects as
               | far as we could tell.
               | 
               | All this fits in the category of 'don't do this', but
               | with care it is done by the engineering staff.
        
               | ska wrote:
               | Ah, service tech makes sense. Most others aren't going
               | see anything interesting in the photo that close.
               | 
               | Laptop is pretty crazy, what where they (not) thinking? I
               | guess was imagining "normal" camera not phone, but you
               | are right that modern attempts to make phones light have
               | removed most of the magnetic material.
               | 
               | It doesn't take much to make it a problem (e.g. steel
               | screws). Typical rooms are going to over 20g acceleration
               | on ferromagnetic components in the highest gradient
               | regions.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | Absolutely. The engineer with the laptop had a brain fade
               | - his area was usually CT.
               | 
               | As magnets have got better control over their fringe
               | fields, the issue has got worse. The field goes from
               | nothing to 3T in a very short distance, so 10+ T/m rate
               | of change is not uncommon.
        
             | canadianfella wrote:
             | An?
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | > the iPhone survived
         | 
         | They had a lot better chance of success since it was fresh
         | water, vs if it had fallen in the ocean...
        
           | yosito wrote:
           | I'm not sure I would call the water from the video "fresh"...
        
             | walrus01 wrote:
             | but certainly less conductive in terms of total dissolved
             | salts than the ocean. I meant "fresh" water in the sense
             | of, not ocean water, not something you'd want to drink :)
             | 
             | https://www.lenntech.com/applications/ultrapure/conductivit
             | y...
        
         | walshemj wrote:
         | They do quite often the find dumped guns etc search for magnet
         | fishing videos on YouTube
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | geocrasher wrote:
         | If you got an email in your inbox that said to click a link to
         | find out what personal item of yours somebody had found with a
         | magnet, would that be considered magnet phishing?
        
           | toxik wrote:
           | Only if you provide proof by a magnet link. Magnet magnet
           | fishing phishing.
        
         | pmlnr wrote:
         | They do. Cambridge, UK, has regular magnet fishers.
        
       | deluxeroyale wrote:
       | My GF dropped one of her airpod pro's in a storm drain. I taped
       | some rare earth magnets (extracted from some old e-junk) onto a
       | foldable ruler. The airpods end snapped onto the magnets and I
       | fished it up!
        
       | dctoedt wrote:
       | I hope the guy's immunizations are up to date, given that he
       | initially jumped into the canal and tried diving down for his
       | phone.
        
       | sjm wrote:
       | What a great excuse to give to those ignored Tinder matches.
        
         | 101008 wrote:
         | Or a great conversation starter!
        
       | vonWegen wrote:
       | 50% chance that this story was staged...
       | 
       | ... there is a pretty "hip" German pop song, that makes fun about
       | dropping an iPhone into the Landwehrkanal...
       | 
       | https://www.lyrics.com/track/33176002/Von+Wegen+Lisbeth/Ch%C...
        
       | magoon wrote:
       | I'm surprised to hear that bluetooth, GPS, and cellular don't
       | work in water. I wonder what's the science behind this.
        
         | Sharlin wrote:
         | It's why we use sonar rather than radar to see underwater...
         | Indeed also the reason we can use radar to detect rainclouds.
        
         | naikrovek wrote:
         | water absorbs 2.4GHz readily. this is why microwaves use that
         | frequency to heat your food. microwaves are why that frequency
         | band is unlicensed, too.
         | 
         | so that's Bluetooth and wi-fi ruled out.
         | 
         | GPS is a lower frequency, ~1.5GHz I think, and GPS is already
         | an extremely low power signal.
         | 
         | I don't know about 4g or 5g though.
        
           | kelnos wrote:
           | 4G and 5G are going to depend on the mobile carrier. In the
           | US, at least, that's usually going to be somewhere between
           | 850MHz and 2100MHz. I recall reading something more recent
           | about 700MHz being opened up in some areas.
           | 
           | Looks like Germany is 700-2600MHz for 4G, with 5G up at
           | 3500MHz[0].
           | 
           | For underwater stuff it looks like you need something _much_
           | lower in the kHz range[1], at least for distances of up to a
           | couple hundred feet. Obviously this particular situation
           | involves a much shorter distance. The page on MF radio[2]
           | does mention water, and talks about frequencies up to 3MHz,
           | but that 's still way lower than any LTE bands used.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.gsmarena.com/network-
           | bands.php3?sCountry=GERMANY
           | 
           | [1]
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
           | 
           | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_frequency
        
             | ac29 wrote:
             | Verizon has used 700MHz for a long time, its their primary
             | band. T-mobile uses 700MHz and 600MHz in many areas
             | (generally as range extension, not a primary band).
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | kajecounterhack wrote:
         | Radio is part of the EM spectrum. EM waves (including light)
         | decay under water at an exponential rate due to absorption by
         | the medium. So data transmission underwater must rely instead
         | on mechanical waves (sound).
         | 
         | This is why underwater robots mostly use tethers, otherwise you
         | couldn't control them very well (RC control would stop working
         | at a very shallow depth).
         | 
         | Note: why are folks downvoting an honest question?
        
           | potatoman22 wrote:
           | Don't EM waves decay at an exponential rate in all mediums?
        
             | msandford wrote:
             | Sure but what's the exponent?
        
             | Filligree wrote:
             | No, usually it's polynomial. Radius squared, that is.
        
           | hutzlibu wrote:
           | "Note: why are folks downvoting an honest question?"
           | 
           | I suppose because of Friday.
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | Not much different than why they don't work through the ground
         | - it's mass that absorbs a wide range of frequencies.
        
         | anfractuosity wrote:
         | That's a good question, submarines use very low frequencies for
         | communication, so I assume bluetooth/GSM might be pretty
         | attenuated by the water? But also it might have turned off due
         | to the water shorting something?
        
           | kajecounterhack wrote:
           | Signal attenuation is correct.
        
             | anfractuosity wrote:
             | Are different frequencies attenuated differently then out
             | of interest in water?
        
               | xhrpost wrote:
               | Yes, generally the smaller the wavelength, the worse the
               | attenuation. Quick googling: 4g is 600Mhz to 2.5Ghz or
               | 0.5m to 12.5cm wavelength. For comparison, the US Navy
               | uses 80Hz or 3750km wavelength to talk to submerged
               | submarines.[1]
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_dipole
        
               | zepearl wrote:
               | From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_dipole :
               | 
               | > _After initially considering several larger systems
               | (Project Sanguine), the U.S. Navy constructed two ELF
               | transmitter facilities..._
               | 
               | > _Both transmitters were shut down in 2004. The official
               | Navy explanation was that advances in VLF communication
               | systems had made them unnecessary._
               | 
               | I then started reading about VLF
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_frequency and on
               | that page I see this sentence:
               | 
               | > _VLF waves used to communicate with submarines have
               | created an artificial bubble around the Earth that can
               | protect it from solar flares and coronal mass ejections;
               | this occurred through interaction with high-energy
               | radiation particles._
               | 
               | That sounds absolutely weird - how should that "...that
               | can protect it from solar flares..." be interpreted?
               | 
               | EDIT: didn't notice Wikipedia's linked article -
               | https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/wow-
               | guys...
        
               | kajecounterhack wrote:
               | Different frequencies are attenuated differently, yes. So
               | like, green laser vs red laser will have different max
               | distances under water.
               | 
               | Fun fact, salinity of water also affects transmission. So
               | rate of transmission in a lake vs ocean is also going to
               | be different.
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | water absorbs electromagnetic waves, especially high frequency
         | ones. That's why your microwave heats things :D
        
           | kazinator wrote:
           | Fairly big topic:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_heating
        
         | moepstar wrote:
         | Signal also drops out pretty fast - once you go past a few cm
         | (lets say 3-5cm, about 2") signal is out...
         | 
         | I once tested that with a waterproof phone in clear water,
         | can't recall which phone it was tho...
         | 
         | Don't feel brave enough to try it with my iPhone 8, even tho it
         | supposedly is waterproof as well - my SO once tested it with a
         | spilled drink...
        
         | em_rocks wrote:
         | Most water you'd drop a phone into has enough traces of salt to
         | make it conductive. Therefore, the water acts like a faraday
         | cage.
         | 
         | Theres a calculation you can do to calculate this, its pretty
         | standard E&M stuff. Basically you calculate the skin depth of
         | the material and thats as far as the signal can penetrate. The
         | derivation highlights some cool things:
         | 
         | 1. Its frequency dependent. This is why military submarines
         | communicate at around 30 Hz.
         | 
         | 2. Your audio cable (and all high frequency power cables) are
         | stranded
         | 
         | 3. Your microwave is effectively shielded with a thin layer of
         | metal
         | 
         | 4. An induction stove wont work with Al pans, but will quickly
         | melt Al foil
        
           | frosted-flakes wrote:
           | Wow, that's fascinating. I've never heard of this--I assumed
           | it was only because the water is dense enough that it absorbs
           | the radio signals.
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | > I wonder what's the science behind this.
         | 
         | the same general reason why microwave band radio sees signal
         | fade when there's rain on a point-to-point link through the
         | air, but magnified greatly since the radio is now inside a
         | solid mass of water. One of the problems faced by modern
         | submarines for data communications, they use either ELF/VLF
         | trailing antennas that are spooled out, while running 'kind of'
         | shallow, or buoys, or antennas on periscope masts.
        
       | tantalor wrote:
       | > something happened that nobody of us would have imagined...
       | this was the missing iPhone
       | 
       | What a strange phrase, considering that was the goal.
        
         | jdiez17 wrote:
         | Yeah, but I think most people would think there would be a very
         | very low chance of succeeding in this crazy endeavour.
        
       | supernova87a wrote:
       | I just find the German text message entertaining. The words and
       | syntax are great.
       | 
       | "Mir ist grad mein handy in den Landwahrkanal geplumpst"
       | 
       | Geplumpst! Sounds exactly the right word for what just happened.
       | 
       | "Jetzt konnte ich ein Bier gebrauchen"
       | 
       | Couldn't we all.
        
         | ALittleLight wrote:
         | Google translating here - is it because plumpst means "fallen"
         | and also sounds like the sound a phone might make when falling
         | into a canal?
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | Could someone translate?
        
           | iso1210 wrote:
           | From the context and the word "Bier", "I'd like to grab a
           | beer" perhaps
        
           | 1986 wrote:
           | "My phone just plopped into the Landwehr Canal."
           | 
           | "Hahaha and now what"
           | 
           | "Great question"
           | 
           | "Now I could use a beer."
        
           | merlincorey wrote:
           | > Geplumpst
           | 
           | Basically means something fell or as Google Translate says
           | "flopped" -- however, GP seems to be excited over the
           | apparent onomatopoeia in the word because it evokes the sound
           | of something falling in water.
           | 
           | > "Mir ist grad mein handy in den Landwahrkanal geplumpst"
           | 
           | This essentially says "My cellphone fell in the canal!" but
           | with the delicious "geplumpst" word sound.
           | 
           | > "Jetzt konnte ich ein Bier gebrauchen"
           | 
           | This exclaims "I could use a beer now".
        
           | stronglikedan wrote:
           | > Mir ist grad mein handy in den Landwahrkanal geplumpst
           | 
           | My cell phone just fell into the Landwehr Canal
           | 
           | > Jetzt konnte ich ein Bier gebrauchen
           | 
           | I could use a beer now
           | 
           | (Google's translations, not mine)
        
           | pbueckle wrote:
           | "geplumst" is the funny part here, it's very colloquial,
           | kinda silly-sounding, playful - similar to "plumped". Just
           | makes the whole sentence more delightful.
        
       | julienfr112 wrote:
       | I'm confused. I thougt iphone where made of aluminium, that is
       | not attracted by a magnet ...
        
         | Wevah wrote:
         | Newer iPhone models have magnets in them to attach to various
         | chargers and accessories.
        
           | frosted-flakes wrote:
           | It's also not uncommon to stick a metal disc on the back of
           | the phone for magnetic vehicle dashboard mounts.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | kokey wrote:
       | I'm happy for them. An FPV drone of mine bounced into a canal
       | recently and the motors get attached to magnets relatively
       | easily, but I couldn't ever find it again even while fishing for
       | hours with a large magnet fishing magnet.
        
       | tj-teej wrote:
       | Maybe this is a naive question: but I remember growing up there
       | was a hard and fast rule that you could not have magnets anywhere
       | near your technology, is this not the case anymore?
       | 
       | Was it only floppy-disks and disk based tech which had issues?
        
         | thirsteh wrote:
         | Yeah, there are not many moving parts now. It messed with read
         | heads in HDDs as well as CRT monitors.
         | 
         | I still get nervous if there are magnets around cause I don't
         | know how they work.
        
       | swiley wrote:
       | >without water damage
       | 
       | IME you have to wait a few weeks to decide that one
       | unfortunately. (on the other hand, if my iphone still worked I
       | probably wouldn't have been motivated to get things like power
       | management working on my pinephone.)
        
       | Freestyler_3 wrote:
       | How much volume of air must be inside a standard phone these days
       | to make it buoyant?
        
         | mgerullis wrote:
         | There's this anecdote of Steve Jobs saw a prototype for an iPod
         | and dropped it in a water tank in order to proof his engineers
         | that they could make it smaller, because it had bubbles of air
         | coming out.
         | 
         | https://tekdeeps.com/steve-jobs-threw-an-ipod-into-a-fish-ta...
        
           | teddyh wrote:
           | That's an old urban legend which has been told about many
           | people and companies.
        
         | widforss wrote:
         | The calculation pretty much boils down to changing the phone's
         | weight in kg to a volume in l.
        
         | fnoof wrote:
         | An iPhone 12 weighs 164g [1], so, through the magic of the
         | metric system, it needs to displace a minimum of 164ml of water
         | to float.
         | 
         | The iPhone has an external volume of 14.67cm * 7.15cm * 0.74cm
         | = 77.62cm^3 = 77.62ml. So it would need to be about 2x the
         | volume to float.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/specs/
        
           | Freestyler_3 wrote:
           | Yeah thanks, I looked it up and got those numbers from
           | calculations but wasn't sure if that was the right way to
           | just calculate that because I am not familiar with it.
        
           | kakkan wrote:
           | Time to roll back this innovation and release the new iphone
           | with 2x volume so that it'd float.
        
             | justusthane wrote:
             | Lifeproof used to make an add-on life jacket that fit
             | around their cases.
             | 
             | https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=lifeproof+case+life+jacket
             | &...
        
             | brewdad wrote:
             | Meet the new iPhone Air...
        
       | psychomugs wrote:
       | Cigarette in mouth on the uptake adds to the absurd coolness of
       | the ordeal.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | #magnetfishing for more of it
        
       | xchaotic wrote:
       | " The best thing is, the screen turned on immediately, delivering
       | missed Tinder notifications, without any damage." I hope the guy
       | finally gets some action - I mean he's got iPhone 12 Pro with a
       | magnet. Must work on the chickas too, right? ;)
        
       | teachingassist wrote:
       | iPhones 7 through 11 felt increasingly easy to destroy with the
       | slightest touch - not so the iPhone 12.
        
         | crackercrews wrote:
         | Just because of the rounded edges that made it slippery?
        
         | Infernal wrote:
         | Interesting. I skipped from an iPhone 6 to an 11 Pro, and when
         | I pick up my old 6 now it is both so thin and light as to feel
         | very fragile, whereas the 11 Pro has a dense, hefty, solid feel
         | in comparison. I have briefly used someone else's iPhone 12 and
         | it didn't feel any different from my 11 Pro, to me. YMMV and
         | all that.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-04 23:01 UTC)