Related Articles
Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET
Lines outside Apple Stores on September 19, and early sales numbers in the days following, indicated great excitement for the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. So great was that enthusiasm, contends psychic Uri Geller, that it could explain the mystery that is “Bendgate.”
“Either the phone is so seriously thin and flimsy that it is bendable with mere physical force, which I cannot believe given the extensive tests Apple would have done,” the Israeli psychic told MarketWatch. “Or — and this is far more plausible — somehow the energy and excitement of the 10 million people who purchased iPhones has awakened their mind powers and caused the phones to bend.”
Geller knows a thing or two about bending devices. He’s most famous for bending spoons with his mind, a feat that has sparked both amazement and widespread claims of fraud over the years. (Years ago, as a budding journalist, I interviewed Geller and watched him bend a spoon: some in the room were astounded by what they saw, others wondered why, if Geller’s mind powers were as acute as he claimed, he had to bring his own utensil, and rub the handle before the spoon started flexing.)
Photos and videos showing users of the 5.5-inch 6 Plus with extra-flexible phones have gone viral since the device went on sale. During the first six days, Apple said that only nine customers contacted it about flexible phones and urged the world not to blow the situation out of proportion. It has not updated the number of bent phones reported since.
Geller, should Apple be interested, suggested the company might want to hire him for damage control.
Related stories
- Bending iPhones at the Apple Store only proves you’re a twit
- Apple: Only 9 customers have complained about ‘Bendgate’
“I urge Apple to hire me to explain to the world that this is not the company’s fault at all,” he told MarketWatch. “I don’t own an iPhone 6 — I’m loyal to my BlackBerry and would never change — but if I did I have no doubt I could bend it with my mind.”
Fortunately, the International Business Times put Geller’s phone-bending claims to the test. In the video below, Geller holds several phones, commanding, “bend!” to no avail as dramatic music crescendos in the background. With an iPhone in hand, however, he appears to have a different, bendier outcome.
There will, of course, be many schools of thought on this occurrence, and I look forward to hearing them all in the comments section below. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter of Gellergate, but we’ll update this post if we hear back. If not, we’ll try very hard to read the minds of the company’s PR team.
