TechRax

TechRax
Personal information
Born	Taras Maksimuk (1993-08-05) 5 August 1993[1] Lutsk, Volynska Oblast, Ukraine[2]
Nationality	Ukrainian American
Occupation	YouTuber
YouTube information
Channel	TechRax
Years active	2009–present
Genre	Technology
Subscribers	5.7 million
Total views	1.22 billion
Play buttons 100,000 subscribers 2013[3] 1,000,000 subscribers 2017[4]
Subscriber and view counts updated as of July 26, 2017.

TechRax is a YouTube channel^[5] and an apparently-informal for-profit business,^[6] apparently named TechRax, Inc. (judging by the email address for business inquiries) that focuses on making videos about the destruction of cell phones (particularly iPhones) and other technological devices.^[7] The channel was founded by Taras Maksimuk on September 20, 2009, and its most popular video is "Taking a Bath in a Giant 1,500 Gallon Coca-Cola Swimming Pool!" which surpassed 30,000,000 views in under one month.^[8] Its business model apparently consists of aggregating revenue from advertising, specifically Youtube-placed advertising supplemented by personal advertising within the video and video description (e.g., one instance advertises a Fantasy Sports company), along with "donations" made by Youtube users.

As of 31 October 2016, the channel has over 5 million subscribers and over 1 billion total views.

History

Maksimuk began the TechRax channel as a standard tech blog but switched over to tech destruction videos in 2012 after discovering a demand for them. His early videos were a loss, but as his subscriber base grew, he began to make a profit. Maksimuk uses the advertising revenue to finance his college studies.^[2] The first destruction he did is "iPhone 5 Hammer Smash Drop Test -Episode #1-".^[9] The destruction of Apple products are the most popular on the channel.^[10]

Format

TechRax's videos generally follow the same format, and involve 'stress tests', drop tests and experiments involving the deliberate destruction or damage of technology, typically smartphones or laptop computers. Maksimuk has crushed an iPhone 5S under a train,^[11] boiled an iPhone 6 in Coca-Cola,^[12] performed a head-to-head comparison between an iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 to see which survives longer when boiled in water,^[13] and destroyed an Apple Watch Edition with neodymium magnets.^[10] The watch cost $10,000, which he raised through advertising in other videos.^[14] The video drew over six million views by February 2016.^[15] He subsequently melted crayons and dipped an iPhone 6s into them which then resulted in a major fire.^[15] His most popular video is "Taking a bath in a 1500 gallon swimming pool filled with Coca-Cola. He also added 200 pounds of ice a half bucket of Mentos which only made minor reactions. Later in that video, he destroyed a brand new DJI Phantom 4 by flying it into the pool. Also, his friend "Ryan" jumped into the pool. The video is currently at over 60 million views. ^[16]

Drop tests

A common video format on the channel involves drop tests of iPhones and other related technology, normally after encasing them in a substance to see if they would survive the fall. Sometimes he goes to the top of a building and put iPhones in his handmade cases. Such as “can Lego protect an iPhone 6S from 100 FT drop? ^[17] His most extreme drop however is "Dropping The iPhone 7 From The World Tallest Building" when he threw an iPhone 7 from the top of Burj Khalifa (the tallest structure in the world). The iPhone was never found again.^[18] Also, he dropped an iPhone 7 from 100,000 feet with a weather ballon and the iPhone survives. The iPhone travelled across California to Pyramid Lake in Nevada, and recorded the first 59 minutes of the journey. It somehow shut itself off in the middle of the journey, possibly due to harsh conditions and cold temperatures.^[19]

Controversy

This business released a popular and controversial video in September 2016 which instructed users on the procedure for modifying the iPhone 7 to supposedly either obtain access to a hidden headphone jack, or to create a headphone jack, which involves essentially drilling a hole into the smartphone, resulting in numerous others attempting to follow the trend. It has been widely reported, incl. from actual instances of misled viewers performing this procedure, that this modification is ineffective, and moreover destroys the smartphone; the intentions are unclear, for neither the video per se nor video metadata (description, etc.) on the YouTube webpage state any warning of the video being intended for humor; moreover, the former actually demonstrates the smartphone supposedly playing audio via the newly-created "headphone jack"; one hypothesis is that the business attempted, with success, to gain media attention from the expected small subset of viewers who would actually attempt the procedure, effectively destroying, or at best damaging, their iPhone 7.^[20][21]

In 2017, Maksimuk released a video in which he poured molten aluminum on an iPhone and also onto several live Madagascar hissing cockroaches together with the phone, allegedly to see if the cockroaches would survive. Many viewers were disdained by the video, which may have led to Maksimuk subsequently deleting the video from YouTube.

References

External links

• TechRax's channel on YouTube
• http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/techrax
• http://www.thesocialclinic.com/destroying-apple-products-for-a-living/