This is a snippet of cat trivia from the news media today which caught my eye and which I’ll report on extremely briefly – because I know hardly anything about it!
Apple are always searching for ways of protecting customers’ iPhones when they fall. You must have seen the smashed screens and the user ploughing on as if the phone is perfect. These endeavours have resulted in a device which would shift the phone’s centre of gravity during a fall to protect vulnerable components on impact. Apple engineers might have received divine inspiration from videos of cats falling from trees and running off. We all know of the cat’s superb self-righting mechanism which ensures that he/she always lands on her feet.
For completeness of information, Apple have also devised a pop up bumper/shock absorber. There are four of them, one in each corner. When the software and hardware senses that the phone is falling at a certain speed and distance the bumpers pop out of the corners to absorb the impact. Neat.
Also the bumpers can act as floats if the phone is dropped down the toilet! Or in a lake. Lots of smartphone owners drop their phone down the loo. Yes, surveys indicate that 15-20 of smartphone users have done it at one time or another.
