This morning, while walking my kid to school, a neighbor walking her daughter to school walks up and says,
"Hey! A friend of ours was visiting the house next door to yours, and found this in the mud outside. My husband cleaned it up, dried it out, and when we turned it on, saw a picture of your kid. Is it yours?"
Yes, yes it is.
It is my wife's original 2G iPhone.
That she lost while sledding with the kids.
In December 2008.
Yes, this iPhone has been outside, buried in mud, for nearly two years. (Even better, the mud is just outside a small barn containing a sheep and a goat. So there's likely more than just "wet mud" in that mix, and it appears to have gotten stepped on (hoofed?) at least once.)
It works. The dock connector works for both charging and data. The speaker works. The headphone jack works for audio out. The Home button works. The mute switch works. The volume buttons are unresponsive (probably caked with mud inside,) as is the on/off switch (which seems stuck 'in'.) Obviously, we had it deactivated long ago, so can't test the phone side of it, and the SIM tray is jammed shut. Still mud/dirt in the speaker holes in the bottom, and I just emptied a not insignificant amount of dirt from the headphone jack before testing the headphones. The screen still has a little bit of 'residue' under the glass, but it's usable, and the touch-screen works fine. The backlight seems to be down to one single LED at the top illuminating, and it is now permanently on, even when the screen is otherwise "off". It does shine at low intensity until I press the Home button, though. WiFi seems to work, can't test Bluetooth right now. Also can't test the microphone (either built-in or on headphone cable,) due to lack of audio-in apps on it at the moment.
But holy cow it works...
(And as I was typing this, a second backlight LED came on!)
"Hey! A friend of ours was visiting the house next door to yours, and found this in the mud outside. My husband cleaned it up, dried it out, and when we turned it on, saw a picture of your kid. Is it yours?"
Yes, yes it is.
It is my wife's original 2G iPhone.
That she lost while sledding with the kids.
In December 2008.
Yes, this iPhone has been outside, buried in mud, for nearly two years. (Even better, the mud is just outside a small barn containing a sheep and a goat. So there's likely more than just "wet mud" in that mix, and it appears to have gotten stepped on (hoofed?) at least once.)
It works. The dock connector works for both charging and data. The speaker works. The headphone jack works for audio out. The Home button works. The mute switch works. The volume buttons are unresponsive (probably caked with mud inside,) as is the on/off switch (which seems stuck 'in'.) Obviously, we had it deactivated long ago, so can't test the phone side of it, and the SIM tray is jammed shut. Still mud/dirt in the speaker holes in the bottom, and I just emptied a not insignificant amount of dirt from the headphone jack before testing the headphones. The screen still has a little bit of 'residue' under the glass, but it's usable, and the touch-screen works fine. The backlight seems to be down to one single LED at the top illuminating, and it is now permanently on, even when the screen is otherwise "off". It does shine at low intensity until I press the Home button, though. WiFi seems to work, can't test Bluetooth right now. Also can't test the microphone (either built-in or on headphone cable,) due to lack of audio-in apps on it at the moment.
But holy cow it works...
(And as I was typing this, a second backlight LED came on!)
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