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iPod Dangerous When Wet
puggsincyberspace writes "What do you do when your mom washes your iPod? Fix it, of course. A teenager in Australia found out the hard way that messing with the insides of his iPod is dangerous and needed medical attention after it exploded."
Or Killer iPod?
...the primary choice of militant geeks everywhere.
getting wet for electronic devices is a dangerous thing.
The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdriver. It wouldn't matter if this was an iPod, rio, nomad, dell dj, mobile phone or the interior of a LiIon laptop battery from any manufacturer.
The kid tried to argue with the laws of physics, and as always - lost.
You mean batteries made out of combustable metals can be dangerous? They should put warning lables on them. And this could mean the end for my forthcoming line of Rubidium dildos!
doesnt they explode when shorted ?
since iPods is internal, any safety against overcurrent are probably built into iPods logical board, instead of in the battery itself like in cell phone batteries.
he probably shorted his battery, thats why it exploded.
What ? Me, worry ?
Good bye iPods in planes, trains, work-places and public buildings...
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
... playing with fire will get you burned, suprisingly!
Li-Ion battery?
Water?
Boom!
Duh
"We treated him on the scene for minor breathing difficulties but he was fine and then we scooted out and helped save the rest of Melbourne,"
The kid was trying to fix his ipod on his BED after his MOM washed it . . . he is far from fine.
-- sometimes AND gates turn me on.
...out new exploding iPod overlords...
..if your cell phone falls into the toilet... duck and cover...
Wait, wait, his iPod needed medical attention? How much is an insurance policy for one of those things, anyway?
Bush has an iPod.
News for zealots - to generate ad revenue, Stuff that doesn't matter.
No, all that matters now is that when the press runs a story with the words 'iPod' and 'exploded' it won't matter how much you talk about LiIon batteries, people are going to believe that iPods are the problem and that they randomly explode.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdriver.
How do you know? It doesn't say that in the article. He might've just shorted the battery, which could also cause it to explode.
In Soviet Russia, ipod fixes you!
...natural selection in action. Nearly.
Chuck Norris: Socialism == a thousand years of darkness.
The boy was treated by paramedics at his Bayswater home for breathing difficulties after ingesting fumes emitted by the device as he pulled it apart in his suburban bedroom about 7.30pm on Wednesday.
... ... life is good! ... time for that special heavy duty weed I put in my ... what the?! Where'd my weed go??
Meanwhile, at 1, Infinite Loop
Jobs [thinking to self]: The company is back on its feet, profits are rising, we're back in the news
A fireman that rescued me (barely sensible) after an electronic device exploded, said that BeO was probably the culprit. I had been in the room when the device(s) exploded and was the first one to ring for help.
h tml
About 15 minutes later (I hadn't been feeling too good), I collapsed and was taken to hospital.
BeO is highly toxic by ingestion and inhalation (Material Safety Data Sheet: http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/BE/beryllium_oxide.
).
Apparently it is one of the more common toxic substances emitted in smoke/fumes. Particularly in domestic / non-chemical-factory settings.
and who can afford an iPod are Lawye.... Oh. Shit.
...as a Toyota Prius mechanic.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
hahahahahahahahaha.
What a tool. First off, why would you leave your ipod in your pocket when you take your pants off? It's not like it's a $20 mp3 player...
What a fucking idiot.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Makes you wonder exactly how he was going about "taking it apart"...
In my experience, if your cell phone falls into water, it would stop working.
If you take the battery off right away, and don't put it back on until everything dries thoroughly, it will work fine at least for a while. If the water was dirty, some connections inside may go bad after a few months from corrosion, though, so it does make sense to take the phone apart and clean the contacts with alcohol.
If you don't take off the battery, it would probably never work again.
i-Explod.
...[almost anything you can imagine] dangerous when eaten, smoked, inhaled, placed over mouth, thrown at one's head...
.. i've always considered Melbourne to be the 'city of superheroes', and well .. now its supported in print.
horrible place.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Blue smoke is one thing. Since you're reading slashdot the lowered sperm count isn't much of a problem for probably a number of reasons. But Lithium (oxide and otherwise) dust could be pretty nasty.
Is this anything like exploding capacitors? I remember a class where my teacher accidentally turned a capacitor into a toxic smoke-grenade, it was a pretty impressive sight to see all that stuff come out of one little cylinder.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The kid tried to argue with the laws of physics, and as always - lost.
You don't always lose. In Kansas, the second law of thermodynamics is illegal. Apparently people there live for ever.
More like iPwnd.
Also coming this season, kid shows us the inside of a TV (Warning: Contains Graphic Footage of idiot getting fried)and the fan favorite: "Screwdrivers and Electrical Outlets: A match made in Heaven?"
Mr. T pitied this fool on 27 July 1992.
Mac zealots love when journalists use the word "iPod" or a picture of an iPod even when the story isn't actually about the iPod.
Tough luck then that this time the context is exploding batteries.
Isplode: for the terrorists that need portablity everywhere they go.
Natural selection.
Well, if you try to squeeze a brick of energy into as small a space as possible, there are bound to be some problems of this nature that crop up.
The NINE and TEN news (australian local television) both said that the battery was torn open and that they "flash flame" when exposed to the air.
The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdriver.
I do not see where you acquired this information as it is clearly not present in the article.
I guess those iPod batteries are not nearly as bad as has been claimed.
Guess what's going to put you on the no fly list when the Department of Homeland Security gets to work in a few hours.
Somehow I don't think iPods will be making to an eBay auction either.
If you don't know what you're doing thend on't play with it. Some kid did and got burnt, wheres the news here?
I like muppets.
Gotta love Darwinism in action...
perl -e'print$_{$_} for sort%_=`lynx -dump svanstrom.com/t`'
Inhaled lots of blue smoke eh? I can just imagine it, you are in the operating room, you take your last breath and then... blue smoke comes out of your ears, and the doctor says, "Man, do you know how hard it is to get that stuff in there!"
Of course electric devices aren't safe with water
Isn't this just 'news' because the device happened to be an iPod? D:
Shockingly enough
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Well !! Any guesses what the kid ingested???
.. that the iPod is also a choking hazard if you attempt to swallow it.
"It turned inside out and explodid..."
When air port security hassles you, just say, "Are you kidding? If I wanted to take down an airplane I'd smuggle mercury onboard in a pair of steel toed boots. Or a watch."
So I can take a shower with one of these?
Haha, nice way to put it :)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes, but the did the battery open of its own accord (e.g. as it exploded), or was this the deed of the misguided adolescent emergency techno-wizard wannabe?
Ah, if only they did explode randomly.
;-)
I for one would spend my free time sitting in the park looking out for gyrating youths and betting with my friends whether they were dancing or in severe pain from their exploding portable music players.
Hours of fun.... But then I don't get out much
while (true != false) process_more_stupid_code();
Do not machine-wash happy fun Pod !
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
You mean I can't put my PowerBook in the dishwasher? How else am I supposed to it all pretty looking?
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Can't wait to see this one on Mythbusters!
Utter nonsense. BeO is (was) only used in some high-power RF devices in the industrial market as it has good thermal conductivity properties. You will not find it in any modern consumer products.
I was looking forward getting my order -- the one with Caesium studs... [cries-tears]
FTA (page title)
Teenager's iPod goes boom - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au
That's breaking technology alright.
Sample this!
I will have to remember not to commit iPodicide by stabbing it to death with a screwdriver while I am filling the car with petrol (gas for you North Americans). Jeeze Bruce, but us Aussies can be dumber than a bag of hammers. From what was reported, the ambulance service spokesperson hammed it up a bit too.
I had a pager about ten years ago - one of the chunky number-only things that were around before SMS got really popular.
One drunken evening it got put into the wash - a full cycle. When I found it in the shirt pocket afterwards, it was full of water... there was a bubble in there too so it was more useful as a spirit level.
I tried to turn it on (you never know) but no joy - so I put it in a cupboard and forgot about it.
Four years later I found it again (thoroughly dried out) and tried turning it on - success! Amazingly enough, it worked fine.
I suppose an electronic gadget can recover from being soaked as long as you haven't short-fried any circuits.
In my day, when you washed your (1st generation, flash-based) mp3 player, you just put it on top of your (17", radition levels that burn out brains) monitor with the memory card out for a few hours to dry
Same with cellphones, flash keys, etc. But noooo, someone had to go and put rustable moving parts into mp3 players...
disposable cameras. On more than a few occasions, I have opened disposable (flash) cameras to extract the film and play with the rather powerful capacitor that runs the flash.
If you charged the thing up and then tossed the board to someone, they'd short out the capacitor when they caught it and it would inevitably burn a small hole in their skin.
If you shorted the capacitor with a metal object...flash! bang! it looked like a little lightning bolt.
Kind of a mean trick to pull on someone, but oh so fun
Only one person could have that kind of information.
Surely I'm not the only one that looks at this article and says..."well DUH"?
What kind of mental disease does this boy possess? A simple formula is "Electrical devices + Fluids = Bad" (I know this rules out alot of things, but lets keep with the basics for the "slow" kids out there). This boy makes me sad to say that I'm Australian...
-pingu
Someone found out earlier, by a more adventurous method
You can absolutely bet the farm on this one...
There will be ambulance-chasing lawyers now looking to file complaints and such in attempts to ban the iPod as dangerous to society. For current holders of the iPod, there will be forming a new place in California known only as "litigation central".
Just you watch!!!
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
Way the hell back when multilayer PC boards were so expensive that technicians had to fix them instead of tossing them (1980s), an human PCB assembler put one in backwards and it exploded on first powerup. I suppose I should count myself lucky that it only destroyed about a square inch of printed circuit board.
Had to rewire all the burned traces by hand over a couple or 3 unpleasant hours.
Tech Public Policy stuff
You don't see what really happened until much further down the article (around 3/4 of the way through) emphasis mine:
Gotta love the media. Anything for a sensational headline.
H
When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
Did you also know that McDonalds coffee is hot?
The kid's not American, but the product is:
4753
xterm: The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
- Any attempt to play a song on your iPod will cause it to explode, releasing fumes that smell exactly like cannabis. Just as the police are driving past you.
- You wil find out your hard disk, that you thought was faithful to you all these years, has been lying to you all along
- While letting your girlfriend play with your cell phone, your ex and three most attractive female plantic friends will decide to call you all at once, after not calling you for months on end. Not only will your girlfriend break up with you, but she will be so ride to your exes and platoncis that they'll nevercall you again either.
- That girl you always liked who is a Gold digger will call you up and ask you out on a date to the most expensive restuarant in town. After agreeing to pay for the entire dinner and going there to meet her, you will find out that not only is she now engaged to be married, but also has gained 50 pounds since the last time you saw her.
- You find out that xanga.com runs on Microsoft IIS instead of A real operating system
It's Friday the 13th. Beware!What Apple doesn't tell you is that the iPod battery explodes after only 18 months of use!
...so don't masturbate with it
Bin Laden has issued iPods to be distributed freely among innocent Americans.
- Alzzzzwtf News
aka: someone who figured the thing was already busted, so why not learn something.
Wait, I forgot, Mac users aren't geeks. They're artistes.
Only one person could have that kind of information.
Thats right.... He must be the real killer..!!
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
The iPod uses lithium poly batteries, they're slim, they're powerful and they pack a punch when you rupture them.
With model aircraft, we use them a lot for our electric motors however they carry with them a lot of cautions. If you should happen to rupture or over charge them it's time to STAND CLEAR.
Typically a lipo will puff up for a bit then have a fairly impressive flame out (as the lithium starts burning). I'd personally be worried about the guy if he inhaled too much of the fumes, it's fairly toxic.
Oh, he probably ruptured the battery with the screwdriver. Normally if we have a "dud" cell, we put the cells into a bucket of salt water and then puncture the cells (UNDER WATER), the cells will bubble quite a bit and eventually after a few hours settle down.
Was that an explosion in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?
But seriously, this is such a nothing story. Electronics are unpredictable when they're wet, we've known this for decades.
Meanwhile in other news, it's fun to light flammable aerosol sprays but watch out for singed eyebrows and missing limbs!
iPod...can't wash it, it explodes, lame.
My web domain.
I never heard of Third World offshoring until a different employer years later asked me to do an analysis of the idea and whether or not it was practical for them to do so.
My answer was NO... not with automated assembly plants within easy driving distance.
Tech Public Policy stuff
I don't know why, but I read this an another slashmeme-in-the-making:
In Soviet Russia, X Ys YOU!
In Korea, only old people X!
In Kansas, X is illegal!
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
To quote the article:
..Darwin, would he?
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
I knew someone who got into a kiddie pool with his iPod still on himself. He simply sent it back to Apple who fixed/replaced it and EXPRESS shipped it back to him for free. No questions asked, even though it was his own fault.
Now why couldn't our exploding friend do the same?
--Mike Boos
iPods may be neat, fun, etc ... but when the battery wears down for the final time, one is basically left with a paperweight, since Apple chose to cheap out the design and not allow for simple battery replacement; iPod is basically disposable stylish crap - there are better choices.
I wouldn't be surprised Apple was found liable for damages/injury, etc, if the kid's family were to pursue a lawsuit - or have they already?
Ron Bennett
Also, fixing your iPod in a room full of hydrogen gas is not recommended.
Watching an actual news story (as opposed to only watching the "And coming up at 11: 3 year old invents flying car...") is tantamount to R'ing the FA and will be punished by -5 Troll.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
iPods may be neat, fun, etc ... but when the battery wears down for the final time
...you spend the $30 to buy a new battery and install it yourself (or get a local geek you know to do it, if you're a ham-handed gimp.)
We had DRM'ed MP3, now we have DRM'ed electronic equipment - intentional self desctruction?
Any electric device can be dangerous to health - if it is not tottaly closed/water-proof etc. Even very low voltages can be harmfull if f.e. applied in long peroid of time.
a friend of mine dropped his iPod shuffle in the bath by mistake the other day.. and it still works :)
God Curse America.
The NINE and TEN news...
I know I trust everything I am told by mainstream TV.
Since this story only broke today, we can expect similar treatment in the Herald Sun tomorrow and an exposé on A Current Affair of how "dole bludgers" are harming "our kids" with "dodgy" Asian-made goods just "waiting to explode".
He should count his lucky stars that it exploded in his hands, rather than when he put it up his butt.
Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
He might've just shorted the battery, which could also cause it to explode.
There are 3 common ways for LiIon batteries to explode.
1. Short circut.
2. Overcharging.
3. Physical.
As explosions is a way to ask for being sued, most manufacturers have short circut tests as part of manufacturing. Charge regulators are also put into the casing of the battery or in the appliance (Ipod, cellphone etc). Just to make sure no law suits come from 1. and 2.
The only thing they can't protect themselves from is physical abuse on the battery itself. Like screwdriver through it.
Shit, I have those walking up the stairs. NEXT!
v4sw6PU$hw6ln6pr4F$ck 4/6$ma3+6u7LNS$w2m4l7U$i2e4+7en6a2X h
Press "Play" and "Next track" at the same time, then "On" three times. Then wash it in the washing machine, fiddle with it using a screwdriver while playing the song "Crash boom bang" by Roxette, and then the easter egg is activated.
You put an elctronic device through a washing machine - nothing dangerous happens but it won't work anymore - then someone with no technical knowledge attacks it with a screwdriver. It's a famous "contrevertial" piece of hardware... Result: a story tailored for readers to retain "if it gets wet it explodes!" Do you smell a rat? No, it's just the buzzmaker journalist burning... someone peed on his microphone.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
The kid should have not turned it on or done anything with his ipod other than place it in a reasonably warm area, perhaps with a fan, for a couple of days. The water would have eventually evaporated out of the Ipod and he might have been able to recover it.
Well, here's to next time.
I think a great many people share my opinion that even if Apple decided to use a proprietary battery type, they should have made it removable.
...and now could it be considered consumer hostile?
I suspect they didn't to avoid creating an iPod battery third party market, but the result is that once the iPod battery is bad, the whole (expensive) thing is essentially bad. I think it's not very consumer friendly.
Don't tell the RIAA, you'll just give them ideas...
Most all batteries - from in your car, to your watch, could potentially explode if you short it.
Trust me, a broken battery makes quite a mess.
Breaking news: capacitors found to exist!
No comment.
My guess is that it was just a capacitor that blew up.
There was probably a short from the water getting in, and the constant voltage / current built up the charge on the capacitor which eventually was too high for its design, arced across the insulator, and blew up... I used to do stuff like that in Electronics class in high school. Big puff of smoke and paper debris.
Hopefully it wasn't a battery... then you get into some nasty chemicals.
See-gnet will probably report this as "Apple Boobytraps iPod to Prevent Third Party Upgrades."
...
...
*
t_allardyce is correct: Forget plastique and AK-47s! The iPod will now be considered a terrorist instrument and go the way of the Victorinox SwissCard, nailcippers, fingernail files
"Take this airplane to Miami or I'll drop this iPod in the blue toilet water! Then fish it out and open it!"
*
OSHA will proabably step in and The iPod will go the way of pressure cookers, Jarts, Clackers, the Corvair
*
If your mind is your primary weapon -- this article proves there's a whole bunch of unarmed people running around.
*
Protecting your iPod Amendment Rights, The National iPod Association, NiA, introduced their new motto: "They can have my iPod when they pry it from my cold, battery acid covered, dead hands."
*
Is this another RIAA MPAA attempt to squelch file swapping?
*
From the people who brought you Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles": "kaBoom Boxes!"
"This is a stick up! Give me all your money or I'll open this iPod which I previously dropped into the toilet!"
"He's serious! He's got an iTorx!"
*
I mean, it's just a kid. His expensive Ipod was dead, he prolly panicked. And he messed with stuff he knew nothing about.
It's a stupid accident I have to admit. But isn't mucking about with stuff you don't (yet) understand one of the trademarks of the true hacker?
Cut him some slack. It could well be possible he could've gotten the moist out before the oxidation got too worse. With a bit of luck he could have re-assembled it and be listening to it right now.
He's learned a lot of things now, maybe he'll do better in the future.
--> Insert Funny Sig Here
a steel or titanium or whatever hard to puncture metallic box around the Lithium-Ion battery. but then again, some idiot will find a way to break into it and blow himself up into pieces. might as well save the metal and keep the ipod lighter.
HD Trailers
I used to do this all the time. Mostly with broken electronics that would otherwise be thrown in the trash.
I'm surprised more geeks aren't on his side.
What's with the comments about natural selection, and darwin and killer ipod. You are the morons!!!
Natural selection doesn't work just because you have "breathing difficulties". You have to DIE before reproducing.
"In other news, the boy's Mom cut her finger while chopping celery. Geeks everywhere make Darwin jokes."
Oh, I know... feeding the troll. I shouldn't but this one's too obvious not to. I mean, seriously obvious. :)
;)
I have a 2nd Gen iPod with a battery I put in myself. The battery came with its own pry tool (so you won't scratch the backing) and instructions (with PICTURES for you retards.)
The iPod's been through heck and back and still runs smooth on its second battery.
http://www.ipodbattery.com/
So much for disposable. And oh, I don't wash my iPod, my cell phone, my cordless phone, or my PSP. And I don't poke the battery with a screwdriver (remember the plastic tool that came with my iPod battery?) Ahhh... the smell of the obvious. It's almost sweet. Lawsuit indeed.
This isn't even a new revelation. Spend $100 letting Apple put one in for you, or spend $30 + shipping and do it yourself.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
I had a full dental xray last week.
Is that considered a cavity search?
Yeah- sure it was the iPod that did this. I had one of these in my bed when I was a teenager- and it wasn't from no iPod. Good excuse kid.
There are no screws on the outside of an iPod.
Taking into account other recent stories here on /., I'm curious if the original poster actually has the initials B.G.
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy and go well with ketchup.
how this kid DIDN'T vote in the latest Slashdot poll.
You have hit the nail on the head. What probably happened is when he pierced the battery some water came in contact with the lithium and pow!
Being that this happened in Australia I doubt there will be a lawsuit. They'll just chalk it up to the kids own stupidity and move on.
>
Were this to have happened in the U.S. there would be constant media coverage, several civil lawsuits against Apple, the manufacturer of the battery, etc. But nobody would point the finger at the kid for using brute force to tear open his iPod.
Do you think he did the iPod shuffle?
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
An iPod is not a Mac though, is it?
ipods are not dangerous, wet lithium is, if it gets wet you remove the battery asap with tweesers, it's not hard to open an ipod you just run a knife through the crack.
My ipod went into a river as I was jumping from boat to bank at one point. It was in for maybe 10 seconds, so presumably shorter than the washing machine and without the associated stresses; I popped the back off, poured the water out, detached the battery and tilted the HD away from the motherboard, put it above a radiator for a few days to be sure, then put it back together again and it worked absolutely fine, with no loss of battery life or memory errors.
There may have been something happening with the washing powder in solution or water being forced into various places by the high Gs at high spin; however as I opened up my ipod it was completely inert. Something really strange must have happened to pierce his battery (solid Li skids around and pops a little when placed on top of water); however then you would expect it to have happened inside the washing machine. The implication there is that he pierced the battery with the screwdriver, which is no mean feat since it's around a 180 corner when you're trying to get in. Makes me wonder exactly what he was trying to do at the time.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdriver. It wouldn't matter if this was an iPod, rio, nomad, dell dj, mobile phone or the interior of a LiIon laptop battery from any manufacturer.
.....? :-)
Good thing it wasn't powered by one of the other choices on the current slashdot poll. If it had been a diatium cell, who knows how big the crater would have been
I have many logitech devices. 1 trackball, several mice, some optical. I even have an old Logitech Bus Mouse labeled "Hi Res" with 3 real mouse buttons from my 386 16 I have open all of them at one point or another, never with any dificulty. Im just curious what device you had that was so difficult.
If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into your own beliefs?
Do not taunt happy fun iPod....
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
And what about the title of the Slashdot story itself? "iPod Dangerous When Wet."?!?! The iPod was perfectly safe when it was wet. It only reacted because the battery was compromised by the stupid kid, which would happen wet or dry.
While not as bad as the titles of the linked stories, it seems Slashdot isn't above dumbass sensationalist headlines themselves.
Why didn't he just take it back to the Apple store and get a new one? My friend did the same thing, left his iPod in the wash and ruined it. He took it to the Apple store, they gave him a new/refurb (not sure which). As long as there is not obvious physical damage and it's within warranty, then it should be no problem.
You ever stand next to a fat chick on the train for an hour or two packed with people. Be-O can be brutally toxic.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Sadly, our culture is becoming more and more sue-happy.
:)
We, being upstanding citizens of a TV-bred generation, blame America, of course.
ashridah
It wouldn't surprise me it blew because he pierced the battery but it could also have been amplified by the airspace exploding as well.
From my own experience, that can cause quite an explosion if it is in a contained space.
Microsoft claims Apple is a terrorist organization.
iPod dangerous when clueless teen thinks one mistake can be fixed by stabbing the battery of a $300 device with a screwdriver.
It's cheaper to stick a fork in the toaster.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Give me a break. Next there will be a story that high tension lines are dangerous when wet, or standing in the middle of a field during a thunderstorm can be harmful.
getting wet for electronic devices is a dangerous thing
Children I have t warn you. Never use toys from fuckingmachines.com when submerged. Read the holy bible in stead!
Lemme see how long before the puritan moderators kills me.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
I inhaled fumes from an exploded LiIon battery once. Nasty stuff.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
The Golden Age of the slashmeme is over; it's getting too self-concious now.
I was there at the birth of the 'In Korea' meme, and it came across as a contrived attempt to create a meme and out-Soviet 'Soviet Russia'.
Seriously, this would be good if it were used in a manner displaying some insight into backward government legislation. But I suspect that hordes of fr157 p50t!!!!ers will simply say
"In Kansas, [Subject Matter] is illegal! Did i get it?!"
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
From TFA:
:- D.
"It was more smoke than fire but it did leave a burn mark on the cover."
Well there's the problem! He Let the Magic Smoke Out.
--
This was no accident, the media is just trying to cover up what really happened. Terrorist has found that playing a certain song will cause the ipod to spontaneously explode thus turning America's youth into human bombs. Thats right! Little Johnny next door is not an mp3 loving fiend he is really an ipod extremists! Run!!!
The whole point of these new generation of batteries is to increase the energy density and as you do that you're increasing the danger.
There are still a load of muppets out there that think, oh it's just a battery, can't be very powerful... Well the current generation are pretty good and have an energy density similar to a tank of hydrogen compressed to about 100 atmospheres. The next generation of lithium ion, lithium sulphur batteries will have higher energy densities than tanks of hydrogen gas compressed to 200, 300 atmospheres.
[sarcasm]Yeah, there's been a real lack of progress in battery technology.[/sarcasm]
Deleted
at least he didn't have the headphones in when it exploded.
C'mon - yes they're light and portable... but unless this was a shuffle I just can't respect that. I notice anything bigger than a quarter when it's in my pocket and I'm doing laundry.
Some mother - does laundry for a kid old enough to own an ipod and attempt to dissect it, but never learned to check pockets! The most cursory of pad downs or shakes would have prevented this.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Um. Okay, I guess that's an alternative. But seriously -- why spend $199 to cause an explosion when you can just buy a lithium battery and stab it with a fork? Isn't all that music player wrapped around it overkill?
Sorry, but it always bugs me that this is brought up implicitly or explictly as an example of 'public stupidity' and 'bad lawsuits'.
Read this and note particularly point 12:-
McDonald's admitted that its coffee is "not fit for consumption" when sold because it causes severe scalds if spilled or drunk.
McDonalds admitted its coffee was 40 to 50 degrees hotter than is fit for human consumption (Google cache; article is gone from original website).
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
The worst part was that it slid BACK into the toilet bowl, and I had to get my arm soaked up to the elbow to get it out. (It was my parent's place. . . can't very well ignore the cell phone clogging the toilet if I want to come back the next year) ;)
P.S. The toilet water was clean.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Uh huh . . .and it can also be used as a blunt object to crack someone's skull but a large rock is cheaper. What an idiot. What's next he jams a screwdriver into the back of his TV when the reception goes out?
Maybe the RIAA can start handing out iPods instead of suing people to stop downloading music.
I'll take one!
The combination of Lithium with water is also a very bad idea. It simply explodes -- that's why throwing pieces of lithium into water was one of my chemistry teacher's favourite experiments.
Maybe either the machine washing treatment caused water to get inside the battery, or more likely, the iPod was still wet inside when the kid was opening it. If he then damaged the battery and water got inside, it was only logical that the battery exploded. Even humid air is enough to cause the Lithium to react!
In Australia we have a mum not a mom.
You're new here, right?
Coincidence? I think not.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
I RTFA'ed. He's in Oz.
"...there was an explosion, or more of a pop." It could have been his Michael Jackson MP3's trying to get out of his iPod.
-- Work to live, don't live to work
Physics is a collection of theories, and as such is not a proven fact.
You should be prepared to approach any applications of sharp objects to containers of corrosive chemicals with an open mind.
..to don't play with wet (shorted out) batteries.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
If there was an infrastructure in for parts for mice in single quantities that was self-sufficient (considering the very low quantities) such parts would each individually cost almost as much - or more - as a whole new mouse.
Generally in a free economy if this WASN'T true someone would sell compatible parts, offer a service of replacing them or buyback your broken mouse for reconditioning.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
Overheard in vietnam:
In Capitalist America, the dog eats you!
friend of mine was vacationing in MExico and went swimming with his ipod clipped to his bathing suit. when it dried out it was crusty with salt and utterly destroyed.
at that point it was only 5 weeks old or so. He'd bought it from Best Buy and their return policy is pretty liberal (think Wal-Mart) so he returned it. "oh, it's not what i want after all." full refund.
A /. story from Australia and no Australians have made fun of Americans for drinking Fosters yet?
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When you combine shorted out batteries with a plastic case, you get some weird chemicals. And that case is tight enough that the pressure of those fumes would get pretty high. If you just have a shorted out or corroded battery, you probably don't want to touch it, but if you do, it is not particularly dangerous; you might get a slight burn or a small shock. But electrolyzing plastic...that could be serious.
Psi Xi
The NINE and TEN news
Did Rupert Murdoch come up with those wonderful names for your news?
No firearms, razor blades, IPODS, fingernail clippers, lighters...
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
Well, he learned something alright....
What kind of mother doesn't check pockets before throwing stuff in the wash?
What if there'd been a Kleenex in there? Sheesh!
...not because of the exploding part, but because I'm concerned about their durability. My Rio has gone through the washer (and dryer!), fallen off the 5-foot high shelf where I keep it onto the kitchen floor (and least once, probably more), and survived my two-year-old playing floor hockey with it (though that's the only thing that caused it any sort of external damage). I'd like to see a HD-based MP3 take that sort of punishment and still work!
Can't wait for an ipod warning to join this lot.
http://www.jumbojoke.com/000348.html
No, wait; they already did "Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I think we have to consider the possibility that the iPod was taunted.
His mother washed an obvious electronic device? Is she Amish or something?
So much for bobbing for Apples.
~Ben
=) Nah... I just noticed everyone was pouncing on the "media," but oddly enough wasn't taking a shot at Slashdot itself; I was attempting to fill the void.
By the way, this was a joke in the Onion, not an actual event.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Did the ipod come with a warning label? If it didn't, it could be the cause for a lawsuit. "It didn't say 'do not open with a screwdriver or may result in severe injuries'".
Some dimwit must have thought he could save 2 cents on the design by not including an internal fuse on the battery pack.
However, lithium batteries are notorious for not liking water at all. The early ones back in the 80's had to be shipped in sealed containers full of fire-resistant shredded mica with a dry atmosphere, preferably nitrogen. They were very dangerous, could not be air shipped, and for gawd's sake *dont get them wet*! Those were absolutely forbidden to be used in stuff that a consumer could get hold of.
People kinda forget what kind of power density they have and the fact that the chemistry that makes it happen is hazardous and can explode.
Any time you have energy storage, there's the potential for this sort of thing and modern batteries store a LOT of energy in a small volume.
Waaay back in the early 70's I worked as an Engineer in the Texas Instruments Calculator division. We purposefully tested calculators to destruction to see what sort of trouble people could cause by doing stupid things. One thing we learned early on was that it was stupid of **us** to use the standard 3.5 mm jacks for chargers if the jack was connected directly to the batteries because you can short then during normal insertion. This was brought home to us graphically when that scenario happened on a desk model scientific calculator that had NiCad C-cells! Nobody was hurt but the calculator was destroyed internally. This led to the use of the barrell type connectors you see nowadays for power connections. Another design thing we did was to use small gage wire to connect the batteries so that the wire would "fuse" before other "bad stuff" happened.
Back to the destructive testing.. We tried using the wrong chargers, including those from various other manufacturers and escalated on up to applying 120 VAC to the charging terminals. We also, where the batteries were in an externally accessible holder, tried other similar sized batteries, alkaline and carbon-zinc dry cells. All testing was done inside a sturdy wooden enclosure. The worst-case situations sounded like someone had fired a 12 gauge shot-gun in there. In that case, where 120 Vac was applied to carbon-zinc cells, the carbon rods had gone through the side of the plastic calculator case.
It's clear to me that people can mess up most anything. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.". I'm in agreement.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Lithium polymer batteries are pretty dangerous too: http://www.thunderpower-batteries.com/images/THPSa fetyWarnings.pdf
This is the reason why almost all cellphones (and Creative Lab's Zen) have a removable battery. The first thing that you do when something goes wrong is to take the back off and remove the battery. Plus, batteries have a shorter lifespan than the device itself and it cuts down on maintenance if replacing the power source can be serviceed by the end user.
On Sunday, I accidentally washed my MPman MP-F56. I heard a clunking sound coming from my washer/dryer but was preoccupied and didn't do anything about it. When I went to fold my laundry, there was my MPman, minus its battery and battery cover (still can't find it!). I put in a new battery and turned it on... still works!
The salesman who reluctantly sold it to me really wanted me to buy a HD-based player instead. Who's laughing now, jerk?
And you know what - I don't care that they admitted that. I *expect* the coffee to be boiling hot - hot enough to scald me that is, because I want it hot when I get back to my office. Once it's got to 'hot enough to hurt if drunk' (boiling hot), I don't care how much hotter it gets. I have this foolproof method for drinking it without huting myself - I wait for it to cool down.
Would the lady in question have boiled a kettle and then poured the scalding-hot water all over her thighs ? No ? Well then she has no case. She clearly knows that coffee (made with water straight from a boiling kettle) will hurt her - the fault was at least as much hers as McD's so she should have got nothing and taken it as a lesson in what not to do in future. If in fact she'd made it public, admitted she'd screwed up, and tried to warn others *without* trying to sue, I'd have a lot more sympathy - but in this case greed won out and she realised (with the state of US courts being as they are) it was a golden opportunity to milk a cash cow...
There was a woman just recently awarded $45,000 because her cat was killed by a dog. What the hell is going on here ? Dogs kill cats. It's a shame. Get over it.
I'm sick of this culture of blame and blood-sucking lawyers. She screwed up, and she wants someone to blame. The 'nanny' state/courts are rapidly taking us towards a position where pretty much anyone will be able to sue pretty much anyone else for pretty much anything, and it's got to stop.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Anybody who's ever watched Star Trek knows that when you overload the power supply of a tricorder, phaser, or communicator, the thing makes a high pitched whine and then goes boom. This kid obviously doesn't watch enough TV.
It's more like "Teenager Dangerous with Screwdriver".
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
floating around inside it, it would suck to reach in for a victim and get tangled up in the wreckage of the batteries (NiMh, I believe.)
Handling crashed electric vehicles is not a trivial problem for first responders. Not any more dangerous than 100 liters of gasoline, but different. More info here (first thing that popped up on Google):
http://www.extrication.com/ERG.htm
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Everything's better when wet.
Thanks a million. Push Start to replay.
He seems like the sort of kid who never grew out of sticking metal objects into electrical outlets. Some people never learn.
Apple will be touting this as a feature in the next revision of the iPod.
I am the maverick of Slashdot
You will not find it in any modern consumer products.
There are consumer devices with BeO in them - I have seen several amateur radio amplifiers with "Danger Beryllium" stickers on them, particularly those with 8873 tubes. According to this article, "Beryllium is also used in consumer products, such as televisions, calculators, and personal computers, and in the coating on the inside of fluorescent lights." You can get a BeO metallized Peltier cooler here.
I'm not saying these products are dangerous, just that there are consumer devices with BeO in them today.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
few hour on ipod multi-purpose innovation. they don't have any other job!
I'm really not sure how he did that. I replaced my batter and the only thing I almost accidently did was sever one of the data cables as I accidently was using it for leverage :P But all is well and my ipod has a new battery for 50% the cost and a little education. The kid must have been playing mad scientist doctor with the thing if he used enough force to do such a thing
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
Apparently people there live for ever.
Nah, it just seems that way. Kind of like 5 minutes of Carrot-top's stand-up routine.
> In Soviet Russia, X Ys YOU!
> In Korea, only old people X!
> In Kansas, X is illegal!
On slashdot, there's a meme about X!
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Wait, He told you that you got sick from inhailing Toic BeO? BAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Do you think he was tring to tell you sometheing? (if you dont get it, say it out lound)
Damn the man!
You have to be kidding me. Do your own laundry!
http://www.ibiblio.org/ses/washandgo.html
News Flash!
Jabbing screwdrivers into soaking-wet Lithium-Ion batteries is a bad idea.
More on this stunning news as it develops.
A little acid to boot and you got fireworks two stories high.
You lick it...
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
I for one would spend my free time sitting in the park looking out for gyrating youths
There's gotta be an inappropriate joke in there somewhere...
The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
What exactly are we talking about?
hawk
Being battered around in a washing machine for a half an hour probably isn't something the iPod was designed for.
My daugher ran my flat little radio shack camera through the wash last summer (in her pants pocket). For some strange reason, it no longer worked.
After finding that the credit card I bought it with didn't have "stupidity coverage," I took it to radio shack. I told them that we'd had an "unfortunate incident," and they took it back without even asking what the incident was.
hawk
...just like it says in the manual.
Lesson: RTFM.
Absence of screws implies that self-service will void your warantee, not your fingers.
1) iPod exploding? 2) kid lying to mom in order to not get in trouble for having explosive materials in his bedroom. My vote is #2.
These batteries must be pretty darn fragile again. You would think with a substance as dangerous as Lithium seems to be that they would make such a battery a little more rugged, perhaps even make them as rugged as a D or AA.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
As the alkali metals go, calcium and lithium are fairly low in reactivity, with sodium, potassium and cesium being increasingly more reactive. In water, calcium might bubble a bit, lithium bubbles and gets really hot, sodium pops and burns, potassium explodes, and cesium would shatter the container!
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Apparantly we need to amend the rule to:
1) Do not let the "Magic Smoke" out of an electronic device.
2) Do not inhale "Magic Smoke"
so why not learn something.
Yeah sure, the same way you learn stuff from unexploded ordinance, just dive right in. Being Geek requires the proper Geek strategy for getting Geek things done. His Geek strategy was less akin to Geekishness and more akin to Rambo.
Well, I bet it could smack the bejeezus out of my old LC in a horse race.
are you saying you posted them?
No wireless detonator. More space than nitro. Only Lames.
You would think with a substance as dangerous as Lithium seems to be that they would make such a battery a little more rugged, perhaps even make them as rugged as a D or AA
It's enclosed by metal on 5 of the 6 sides, and on the 6th, they've put a protective hard drive, screen, and scroll wheel. How much more rugged can it be?
flame throwers? Maybe it's just an exageration, but then an exageration of what? =P
The kid tried to argue with the laws of physics,
Probably a religious fundie.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Lost? What are you talking about? This guy just hit the lotto in the form of a product liability lawsuit!
I mean obviously this man must be evil since he dislikes an Apple product.
I wish he would have gotten a Darwin Award. We really don't want his genes contaminate the human gene pool.
I wish him best luck next time.
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
The only thing they can't protect themselves from is physical abuse on the battery itself.
Yep! It's just physics and chemistry in action. We don't know how to pack that much energy into a small space and prevent it from sudden release when damaged. It's a hard problem.
Of course, there are vrisks from that. We have been living with sudden release risks for chemical energy storage for a long time. Hit a propane tank from the grill with a hammer often enough and you'll discover the joys of sudden liberation of stored energy.
The only thing different is that we never learned to associate that potential with the word battery before, and we're not used to being able to carry that much stored energy in an innocuous looking pocket sized consumer device.
Perhaps we should start calling LiIon batteries 'gas tanks' so people will more readily comprehend their behaviour when physically assaulted.
I would love to have a storage cell that could run my house for a year, fit in my pocket, and was physically incapable of releasing it's charge in less than at least half a year's time. I'd also love a billion tax free dollars for nothing but I don't think that will happen this year either.
Did you bother listening to your chemistry teacher when he/she did that? If you did, you'd know what's going on. Lithium is a highly reactive metal. When it meets water, it forms lithium hydroxide by ripping water molecules apart. You're left with lithium hydroxide, hydrogen gas, and a whole lot of heat. Add in the oxygen already in the air, and the result is a little explosion that spreads little bits of lithium all over the place.
Unhealthy all the way around.
That's why the test was always performed inside a special ventilated glass cabin. Or did you think we all just gathered around a bucked of water on the table, and took bets on in whose face the lithium bits would spatter?
as opposed to in severe pain from the crap comming from the speakers of their portable music players?
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
3. Physical.
OK, Mr. Battery; turn your head and cough.
*cough* *BOOM*
I am scientifically inaccurate.
Haha, good one.
IOW, you're a really lame Apple apologist.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.