Guess what happened to one of the first iPhone 6's? It fell. Or more precisely, it was dropped – on live TV, no less. Frankly, that's just about the best (or at least most fitting) way imaginable to reign in the debut of the newest iPhone, since dropping iPhones is as much a part of smartphone life as actually using them.
The person who dropped the phone was a young Australian man named Jack Cooksey, who'd patiently waited in line for an entire night in order to get his hands on Apple's newest plaything. By the time Channel 9 caught up to him, he was unwrapping the device with the kind of tremulous fingers that could only foretell doom. No sooner had he separated the top of the Apple box from the bottom than the sleek black sliver of a phone found its way out of its case and onto the concrete below. The attendant crowd let out a collective "OHHHHHHHHHH!," as though Cooksey were a star running back who'd fumbled an otherwise perfect play.
With still-shaking hands, Cooksey picked up the grounded device, wiped off the screen and assured the audience that it was "All good!," an assessment that seemed a little premature considering he hadn't turned the phone on yet. But we're thinking that he was right and that the device was completely intact, since if there's one thing we know about the iPhone, it's that it can (usually) take a beating. I mean, who hasn't dropped their phone on the ground, left it in a hot car or accidentally dipped it in water, only to find that it miraculously works again?
However, there's one thing that's decidedly more unbreakable than the iPhone: the strength of human resolve. To put that to the test, let's depart Australia and travel to New York City, where filmmaker and YouTube wunderkind Casey Neistat documented the, shall we say, colorful hours leading up to the iPhone 6 release.
The dark underbelly of the iPhone 6 debut
Neistat's film opens rather unassumingly, with the title "September 18, 2014, Apple SoHo Store (New York City)" centered in front of a growing line of people eager to get their hands on the new iPhone. But what begins as a straight documentary quickly descends into something much darker. Here are some of the things that transpire in that line as the throng of people wait:
- A person is observed encased in a garbage bag. Neistat is informed that the person is sleeping, though "suffocating" seems to be the more apt term here.
- Scratch that – it's not just one person in garbage bags, it's multitudes. And then there are those who've made beds of towels and store bags and umbrellas. Despite knowing that each of these people have at least enough disposable income to buy a new iPhone, it's still a rather pitiable sight.
- Cops patrol the line of sleeping masses. One moves his hand to the holster of his gun.
- "You people ever heard of soap?" one cop asks the prostrate forms below.
- A small woman is restrained by cops. She shrieks as an officer attempts to subdue her. When she resists, the cop forces her to the ground and into handcuffs. The horrible shrieking persists.
- Once the Apple Store actually opened and people were allowed in it, it turned out that a lot of them were simply there to buy and quickly resell a device. That's right – far from witnessing the excitement of new iPhone owners, what Neistat was observing were the not-so-discreet machinations of an iPhone black market, one that began in the long line, continued into the store with a cash transaction, and ended with a quiet handoff on the streets of New York.
Happy iPhone debut, everyone.
