iPhone Stories

 The man who, crushed by rubble in Haiti, survived thanks to his iPhone

U.S. filmmaker Dan Woolley was shooting a video about poverty in Haiti when the earthquake struck. He could have died, but he ultimately survived with the help of an iPhone first-aid app (called Pocket First Aid and CPR) that taught him to treat his wounds. After being crushed by a pile of rubble, Woolley used his digital SLR to illuminate his surroundings and snap photos of the wreckage in search of a safe place to dwell. He took refuge in an elevator shaft, where he followed instructions from the iPhone app to fashion a bandage and tourniquet for his leg and to stop the bleeding from his head wound.

The app even warned Woolley not to fall asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his cellphone's alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes. Sixty-five hours later, a French rescue team saved him. Say what you will about the iPhone. This story is incredible.

 The woman who fell pregnant thanks to an iPhone app

After trying to conceive for four years, mother Lena Bryce fell pregnant two months after downloading an app on her iPhone. The Menstrual Calendar iPhone app tells women when they're most fertile, acting almost as an alarm for shagging time. Stories of babies born from women impressed by the lightsaber app are unfounded, meaning baby Lola is probably the world's first to be born thanks to an iPhone app. Or at least, the first baby to be branded with the horrendous moniker of 'iPhone baby' by the tabloids.

 The Australian businessman who ordered a £1.92m diamond iPhone

Designer Stuart Hughes, from Liverpool, took ten months to make the phone after it was commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman in 2009. The casing of the iPhone 3GS Supreme was created using 271 grams of 22 solid carat gold. The front bezel houses 136 flawless diamonds totalling a massive 68 carats while the Apple logo on the back is made from a further 53 gems. The front navigation button is made from a single diamond of more than seven carats.

This diamond iPhone is currently the most expensive phone in the world.

 The teenage who sent 300,000 texts in one month

A Sacramento County teenager is bragging about a big accomplishment. She logged more than 300,000 text messages in one month. "My friends said, 'Text your little thumbs off'," Crystal Wiski said. "Thank God for free texting," added her mother. Jacki Wiski said she had just bought the iPhone for her daughter one month ago. "I get cramps," Crystal Wiski said of her habit. Needless to say, it didn't take long for her to get used to it. Her mother is amazed by the number of texts. She must text while she's sleeping.

To put 303,000 text messages into perspective: that's more than 10,000 text messages a day, 421 messages an hour and seven texts a minute.

 The girl who received a 300 hundred pages iPhone bill
Justine Ezarik, a blogger from Pittsburgh, was so gobsmacked when she got her first iPhone bill that she filmed herself paging through her 300-page double-sided invoice to the music of the iPhone advertising campaign. The clip has been viewed more than two million times since it appeared on YouTube. Miss Ezarik's $274 (£137) bill, which details every single download, call and text message down to the very second and file size, had almost twice as many pages as the Jane Austen novel Persuasion. It was so large that it had to be sent in a box instead of an envelope.

AT&T changed the invoice system for the next month. 

 The man who underwent thumb surgery to use his iPhone

North Denver News reported that Thomas Martel, 28, had his thumbs surgically altered so he could better use his iPhone. A new surgical technique called "whittling" involves making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails. Mr. Martel reportedly said, "Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration – that's priceless."

InformationWeek claims the story is false – the doctor who developed the procedure is not listed in the Denver phone directory and writer of the story hasn't returned any of their calls.

 The orchestra that uses iPhones instead of musical instruments

An orchestra that uses iPhones instead of musical instruments held a concert at the University of Michigan. The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble is one of several university orchestras that has foregone traditional instruments in favor of music applications, downloaded on to Apple's iPhone, to play songs. The musicians took a course at the university, entitled "Building a mobile phone ensemble" and learned how to create instruments on their iPhone. The instruments are played using a combination of gestures, including tapping the touch-screen and blowing in to the microphone. The instruments also use the phone's built-in GPS, digital compass and accelerometer, which knows which way round the device is being held, to produce a certain note depending on whether it is being tipped or shaken. The iPhones are attached to speakers, worn around the musicians' wrists, and the instruments produce a combination of familiar and unusual sounds.

 The guy who was almost killed by his iPhone

Mr. Travis Gohr just may had the first-ever documented iPhone injury. It happened when Gohr was using a treadmill and his iPhone slipped off, hit the treadmill surface and was launched backward. Gohr's injury resulted from him following the phone's 'trajectory' with his head, losing his balance and falling on the moving treadmill. Scary!