The iPod after the attack.
A story about how an iPod stopped a bullet and saved a US soldier's life in Iraq raced around cyberspace last week, thanks to an image of said device on Flickr and the Digg.
There was lots of talk about Apple's efforts to get Kevin Garrad, of the US Third Infantry Division, a new iPod to replace the one that took a round from an insurgent's AK47.
Some facts have just emerged which kind of get in the way of the story.
On his blog HavanaLion, Nik Wilet reveals he had been in touch with Garrad, who told him his armour stopped the bullet and not the iPod.
He did confirm that the iPod got hit and was wrecked, but it did not take the initial hit. Garrad said he had not known at the time that he had been hit and only discovered this after he returned to base and found that his music player was not working.
The tale reminded me of the GameBoy which appeared on Flickr having had been terribly damaged by a bombing of a barracks during the 1991 Gulf conflict.
Call me a geek, but maybe the most noteworthy thing about the iPod story is the citizen journalism angle. On his blog, Nik, who lives in Augusta, Georgia, says he works in online design but there he is checking out stories, doing interviews with troops ... He's going to put us all out of business.
