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American Toy and Invention Co. is selling a kit that'll let you build, implode, and rebuild a multi-story structure that looks strangely enough like the 5th Avenue Apple flagship retail space. I'm sure it teaches about the physics of demolition, but hey! Stuff's blowing up! Stuff with iPods inside!
I've long suspected that the best job ever would be to work in product stress testing—because you basically get paid to break shit all day. Nokia sent over a bunch of info detailing how their test centres operate, leaving me fully convinced this would indeed be my dream gig. Not only do they run over 200 mechanical tests on these things, but where else could you play with a bunch of machines that bend, bake, humidify, spray, poke and drop phones? (And yeah, that phone in the picture above just got poked a million times...literally.)
Posted by Nick Broughall at 10:30 AM on October 3, 2008
We've had some pretty encouraging ideas on how to put the world's toughest phone through its paces - the washing machine test looks like it's definitely on the cards - but we want more. Seamus and I are planning a big day of wanton destruction, and the more ideas you can come up with, the better.
Tell us what you think in comments, and stay tuned for some mobile destruction here on Giz!
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:19 AM on September 30, 2008
The world's toughest phone, the Sonim XP1, is now available in Australia through Crazy Johns. But rather than bore you with specifications and tiresome statistics on just how tough it is, Sonim has (foolishly?) agreed to let us show you by letting us attempt to destroy it.
So, I'm partnering up with ex-Giz ed (and current Kotaku guest-ed) Seamus for a fun-filled day of attempted mobile phone destruction. And while we both have some rather creative ideas on the best way to introduce the phone to our friend pain, we want your help.
Let us know in comments how you think we should try and annihilate this thing. keep it realistic - we don't have access to the LHC at the moment remember. The best ideas will be attempted, and we'll video the whole thing and upload it next week.
And for those of you who are interested in the figures, the press release for the XP1 is below:
Over at Hackaday they've gone a bit fiery destruction crazy, and posted a guide on how to destroy HDDs with thermite—that's the super-high temperature chemical mix used in welding, fireworks, and generalized military destruction. The guide shows how a kilo of burning thermite melts clean through a PC case, hard drive platters and all, turning them into pools of melted metal...which may be handy if you, uh, ever need to, um, "destroy" your data in an emergency. Hmmm. Check out the video, which is pyrotechnically cool, then see the hard drives post-incineration.
After yesterday's California earthquake everyone and their dogs* is posting videos online. Mobile Phones, camcorders, digital cameras, or CCTV, it doesn't matter: like the following clips show, it looks like this era of democratised gadgetry has made humans eager to record their own destruction, perhaps as a last chance to leave a notch in History. I can see it already, when the fourth angel sounds the trumpet, people will take out their mobile phones and start recording a video of the Apocalypse. Except iPhone users, who would only be able to take photos. That and change their Facebook status to "is watching the asteroid falling."
Kajima's floor-by-floor slow demolition is one of those rare things in life that leaves you truly speechless, mouth wide-open, and pinching yourself to be sure this is real while you mutter "what the frak." After all, seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie. The stunning process--called daruma-otoshi--is not only almost surrealistic but it helps to reduce the environmental impact. Seriously, I can watch this for hours:
Destruction therapy has been around for a while now, but is only just starting to hit its stride. On June 21st, a large group of variously frustrated individuals converged on Castejon, Spain to launch the town fiestas with the coordinated destruction of an entire field of appliances and cars. Mainstream medicine has yet to recognise the efficacy of destruction therapy, but hey, I'm sure frontal lobotomies took a few years to catch on too. Gallery after the jump. [Reuters]
We have seen many spectacular demolitions, but the destruction of the Mobile Service Structure at NASA/USAF's Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is perhaps the most striking of them all: instead of imploding down, the whole ultra-strong metal structure falls to it side and actually seems to bounce on the ground—shattering cameras a mile away—looking almost intact after the dust clears up. The sound, even from the distance, is deafening.
We all know that sensitive data left on a discarded hard drive can be a security risk, but would you be willing to drop upwards of US$11,500 on a machine that ensures its destruction? EDR's Hard Disk Crusher gets down and dirty by drilling through the hard drives' spindles/rippling the platters to make data recovery impossible. The device runs off a standard 110V outlet, but if you are ever caught in a disk-destroying emergency and the power goes out, just bust out the optional US$895 hand pump accessory and keep on crushin' in the dark.
We have seen many spectacular demolitions, but the destruction of the Mobile Service Structure at NASA/USAF's Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is perhaps the most striking of them all: instead of imploding down, the whole ultra-strong metal structure falls to it side and actually seems to bounce on the ground—shattering cameras a mile away—looking almost intact after the dust clears up. The sound, even from the distance, is deafening.