by JAMES S. KIM
Everyone seems to be partaking in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which has raised over $53 million and counting since late July. People around the world have uploaded hundreds of thousands of videos on social media, nominating friends and celebrities to take on the challenge of getting soaked and donating to the ALS Association.
Water doesn’t normally pair well with electronics, but the latest battle between Samsung and Apple involves plenty of it, as the ALS ice bucket challenge takes center stage.
Samsung’s Mobile UK YouTube channel posted a video earlier today showing the flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone getting doused with ice water and commenting on it in an equally chilly monotone. But even through the awkward robotic verse, you can still hear the smugness as the phone calls out the iPhone, HTC One and the Nokia Lumia 930 to take the challenge.
Some have called the video a tacky and classless marketing ploy. The video information on YouTube, however, includes a link to donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The other phones, fyi, don’t include water resistance features like the Galaxy S5, which can be submerged in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes. But that didn’t stop the editor-in-chief of iMore from showing that the iPhone 5s, and pretty much any other competing phone, are able to survive the ice bucket challenge.
“We figured the iPhone would have no problem at all accepting Samsung marketing’s #ALSicebucketchallenge,” the video description reads. “And we were right. Here it is. We’ve already donated to ALS, but we’re donating again, and hope Samsung marketing has written a fat check as well!”
“Now we challenge Samsung’s design team,” Siri says, “if they have one.”
