Moto re-launches Tundra cellphone. With a trebuchet.

Here's a neat way to "launch" a product: put it in a gigantic catapult, fling it to the other side of a field at 350 mph, then dig it out the soil and make a call on it. The Tundra might be pushing it being a basic fliphone with the iPhone's price tag, but I'm pretty sure at this point that it will take a beating like no fancy-glass Apple ever will. [AT&T]

[#1 posted by FoetusNail , February 27, 2009 7:03 AM]

I only use Motorola products; other than one phone batch that had some cold solder joints, they have taken every bit of real world abuse, including being dropped and dunked.

Case in point, I use BT earpieces, finally bought the first version Jawbone a year ago. A few weeks after purchase, my son knocked it off of my head in the driveway. End of Jawbone, one drop and dead. So, out of the drawer comes an old Motorola. One morning it is missing. I find it outside in a puddle, where it has been all night in the rain. That piece is on my head now and working.

My kids play with my old phones, but if I plug one in I know it will work.

[#2 posted by arkizzle , February 27, 2009 8:10 AM]

Foetus, are you a huge fan of the Krave (motorola.com/krave)?

I never use Motorola products, worst OS ever! (Maybe not now, but for the longest time)..

[#3 posted by dculberson , February 27, 2009 8:18 AM]

Since I started working with...

No, seriously. I've been stuck with Nextel for a long time and while the phones (all Motorola) are 100% "teh suck" feature- and size-wise, they are incredibly tough. I have the "pretty" one and it's just regular indestructible. My brothers carry the "mil-spec" one and they are drop-off-a-25'-scaffold type indestructible.

I still daydream about switching providers some day. But I'm so lazy.

[#4 posted by FoetusNail , February 27, 2009 8:40 AM]

Right now I have the Hint and it is a strange sideways step from my E815, but you takes the good with the bad. With some limited web capability and e-mail it does what I need and only cost $50 and increased my monthly bill $10 bucks for unlimited data and e-mail. I would probably own an iPhone, but they are out of reach at this time.

[#5 posted by umgrego2 , February 27, 2009 8:44 AM]

Am I the only who thinks that the watermelon would actually help to protect the phone? It seems to me that unless the two landed such that the phone hit the ground first (thus having the watermelon land on top of the phone) the watermelon splosion would increase the deceleration time of the phone. Much like a sweet and juicy airbag.

[#6 posted by pewma , February 27, 2009 11:05 AM]

@ # 5

yeah, I was thinking the same thing. How about try it with a rock or better yet, drop it from the empire state building or drive over it. Fun use of a catapult. And good to see that there IS a catapult company out there but all in all, unimpressive.

[#7 posted by rossperk , February 27, 2009 6:58 PM]

Why didn't they set the camera phone to record video while it was launched?

[#8 posted by dainel , February 28, 2009 8:59 AM]

My boss had a Startec. Seemed extremely flimsy and fragile. None of us in the office bought any Motorola after that. Or any flip-phone for that matter.

I got a much cheaper Ericsson (this was before they merged with Sony). It broke every time I drop it. Not break as in "stop working", but as in "disassemble itself". Put it back together, and it works. Back then this was exceptional. Expensive phones typically stopped working the first time you drop it on hard concrete floors.