Throw your smartphone as high as you can and as far as you can
Throwing the smartphone just to get some extraordinary aerial views is a one-time thing when in doubt. A new cover elevates the process to a concept and promises to protect your smartphone.
Nobody who has ever dropped their smartphone felt good until they were confirmed that nothing had actually happened. The request to throw the smartphone as high and as far as possible seems counterintuitive and causes sweating while reading. But, that’s exactly what the two makers of the AER TYP (Throw Your Phone) ask for you.
The smartphone is protected by a specially developed foam cover that – once put together – is to be thrown like the oval ball in American football. There is a lot of brainpower behind the AER TYP. The foam nose of the aircraft is shaped so that a smartphone can be used with the cameras pointing slightly forward.
This installation position is intended to ensure that recordings can be made that are similar to those from a drone. To do this, the smartphone is clamped between two pieces of foam, which – you just have to say – are held together by Velcro. A foam tail is then placed on the rear foam half to keep the trajectory stable.
The makers of the smartphone projectile are not completely inexperienced in building appropriate protective housings. They launched the original AER back in 2016. It was a very similar solution, but for the Hero Gopro. Because the Gopro calls itself an action camera and is built for rugged use in the field, throwing it required a certain amount of trust. Throwing a smartphone that is clearly not built for throwing around or even just robust handling in extreme sports requires a very special confidence in the construction.
Anyway, Apple recommends because of the high shock and vibration exposure certainly not to clip iPhones to bicycles or motorcycles. It is questionable what happens to the inner workings of a smartphone, especially its camera, if it is thrown against a wall or if it just lands rudely on the floor from a relatively great height. The fact that the AER TYP apparently reliably protects the outer shell does not mean that no damage can occur.
In any case, the developers of the AER TYP promise that their product is the result of years of testing and the search for the most resilient foam materials. The ultimate test was to drop a smartphone from the roof of a building vertically onto a concrete surface. The test succeeded. The smartphone remained intact, at least externally.
In order to finance the production, the developers have again looked for the way to Kickstarter. As part of crowdfunding, the AER TYP offered there. If you are interested, you can pre-order the litter cover for 69 euros. Delivery is scheduled to take place from May 2022. As always on Kickstarter, all information should be treated with caution. The makers of the AER TYP have already shown with the Gopro cover that they are actually delivering a product.
