A ZDNet UK journalist fell and broke his leg on a skiing slope in the Alps. He tried calling for help on his brand-new Orange SPV (running Microsoft SmartPhone 2002) and… nothing.

Since the SPV uses a typical Microsoft operating system… the SPV takes about a minute or so to boot up.

…The next time I looked at the phone it appeared to have turned itself off – so I tried switching it on again. When it eventually came to life I could not get it to dial – a closer examination revealed the legend ‘Radio off’ displayed very legibly on the SPV’s excellent screen. No amount of menu searching let me find anything that would turn the phone’s radio back on. At this point I remember making a few comments about the dubiousness of Bill Gates’ parentage. I eventually managed to flag down a passing skier who let me use her Nokia phone (which switched on immediately) to call for help.

Imagine jumping from an airplane and waiting while your Microsoft SmartChute boots up! 😆

Thanks to Danny O’Brien’s Oblomovka and Cory Doctorow’s Boing Boing for the link.