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Handhelds Idle

Finland Hosts Mobile Phone Throwing Championships 70

hypnosec writes "In this year's annual mobile-phone throwing contest held in Finland Ere Karjalainen has smashed the world record by throwing his phone 101.46 meters. The event, being held every year since 2000 in the town of Savonlinna, saw quite a few mobile-phone throwers participate. 2nd place went to Jeremy Gallop, a South African who managed to throw his phone 94.67 meters. Contest organizers are of the opinion that users can vent their anger on their phones and that this offers a unique opportunity to 'pay back all the frustrations and disappointments caused by this modern equipment.'"

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Finland Hosts Mobile Phone Throwing Championships

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  • An idea (Score:4, Informative)

    by wbr1 ( 2538558 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:10AM (#41050891)
    Someone should cross breed this with pumpkin chunkin. The main category should be limited to being propelled by only the energy stored in the phones' battery.
  • They're the ones with the oddball "sports".

  • I see... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:13AM (#41050915)

    They finally found a use for all those Nokia Windows Phones.

  • by Grayhand ( 2610049 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:23AM (#41050977)
    Ere Karjalainen said that he is normally an iOS man but preferred the aerodynamics of the new Android phones for throwing. The exception being any iPhone running AT&T which are universally accepted as the best for throwing.
    • by Zibodiz ( 2160038 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @01:03AM (#41051185) Homepage
      They may be the best for throwing, but you've gotta remember that they're also the slowest, so they probably don't go very far.
      • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @02:29AM (#41051569)

        Throwing most phones results in drag due to the device being constantly bombarded by signals from the carrier cellular tower.

        The AT&T phones are mercifully free of such drag, and as a result can fly much further.

        • Throwing most phones results in drag due to the device being constantly bombarded by signals from the carrier cellular tower.

          The AT&T phones are mercifully free of such drag, and as a result can fly much further.

          The enthusiasm caused by dropped calls also increases the distance of thrown AT&T based phones. A few have actually achieved low Earth orbit.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      He also looks forward to the new windows 8 phone built from the ground up for throwing, featuring a "chair leg" like feel, has been rumoured to be already in the hands of top MS execs.
         

  • by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:26AM (#41050993)

    One last niche market for Nokia to fill. And it's local, too!

    • by Threni ( 635302 )

      Perhaps the winner could get a Windows phone. A Windows 8 phone, that it - no point in even giving away the current generation as you won't be able to upgrade them!

  • Official home site (Score:5, Informative)

    by c0lo ( 1497653 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:36AM (#41051067)
    http://www.mobilephonethrowing.fi/home [mobilephonethrowing.fi]

    Nice photo gallery too (but no mentions on the phone brands!)

  • WEEE-ing Contest? Given that all electronic retailers in Europe are now required [slashdot.org] to accept Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment ("WEEE"), the Finns should be turning these in for recycling. Throwing them away like this just seems like a big WEEE-ing contest.

    Finn National Frustration Venting? Given that this is held in Finland, may be the expression the populace's frustration at its onetime darling Nokia throwing away the mobile phone market. Actually, I think I just invented a new word in honor of t
    • Actually Nokia did make boots in the ancient history and Nokian jalkineet still does.

      So mobile phone throwing was logical sport for modern people that evolved from bootthrowing.

      http://bootthrowing.com/online/etusivu/ [bootthrowing.com]

    • by klmth ( 451037 )

      This is a contest that has been going on for something like 15 years. It's just a bit of silliness. The mobile phones are thrown and then gathered up and recycled.

  • Oh dear. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zuriel ( 1760072 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:45AM (#41051115)
    Finland, home of the Nokia 3310 [wikipedia.org]. I hope all the nearby buildings were insured [knowyourmeme.com].
  • by theodp ( 442580 ) on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:52AM (#41051145)

    Hey, it's all in how you spin it!

  • There's no chance that the skinny kid in the video threw his phone 102 meters. That's the length of a football field. Or the distance from home plate to the (nearest part of the) outfield wall. I just don't see that happening using a cell phone...
    • His technique looks spot-on, a relaxed-looking throw transferring momentum from the legwork and also has his arm slightly extended. If you get the angle and the spin right on a fairly flat object it will fly 100m quite easily. I can throw flat things the length of a football field and could when I was significantly skinnier than this kid. It has very little to do with strength when throwing stuff that weighs less than say 200grams. Modern smartphones, that have fairly ideal shape, seem to weigh around 140g.

    • For comparison, the record baseball throw is about 136 meters, set in 1957 by some freak of nature. The record for a female is 90 meters, by Babe Didrikson, who won a gold medal in javelin at the 1932 Olympics, and could have broken that skinny kid in half. Must be operator error, maybe the guy was reading feet instead of meters.
      • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        it's a better object for throwing than your baseball and this is an annual competition. the record is unusual because it's ~20meters more than usual winners, the guy found a good technique and exploited it.

        believe me, people would have bitched soo much if it didn't fly the length. finns are like that.

        • Well it looks like the record golf ball throw is 170 yards, I guess you're right. Apparently Nokia makes golf balls too.
  • Girlfriend+pier or pool=fun.

  • If a Samsung phone did end up winning, Apple might sue and argue that this was due to Apple's patented rounded corners being the most aerodynamically efficient design.

  • And he threw it 17 metres farther than the throw that brought a gold medal in the javelin event at the London Olympics.
  • Chorus: Finland, Finland, Finland. The country where I want to be, Pony trekking or camping, Or just watching TV. Finland, Finland, Finland, http://youtu.be/7rwc3VGvlRY [youtu.be]

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