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Japan Demands Probe of iPod Nano Flameouts
iminplaya sends in an item from TechNewsWorld that begins, "Several incidents of iPod Nanos bursting into flames have created consumer jitters in gadget-happy Japan. Apple is downplaying the problem, pointing out that no major injuries or damage have been reported. The problem is due to defective batteries, the company said, and only a tiny percentage of the devices have caught on fire." Japan has seen 14 such incidents so far, two in recent days. iminplaya adds, "I like that. Only a 'tiny percentage'... Is anybody beginning to understand why I would prefer that these devices not be allowed on airplanes?"
I'm sorry your honor, I only punched fourteen people in the face after taking their money. That's such a tiny percentage of the population.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
Only a tiny percentage of people have ever burst into flames. We shouldn't let them on airplanes either.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Because you have a poor grasp of the concept of probability?
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
It's only Nanos that are catching fire? Why no other varieties?
Apple is downplaying the problem, pointing out that no major injuries or damage have been reported.
Considering Apple's stance on mouse buttons they'd probably consider losing your right hand a "minor" injury.
for making such a hot product!
Yes, now I understand that you can be easily frightened into irrationally giving up reasonably safe conveniences just so long as someone says "airplane" near you.
--
make install -not war
Between their replacement of true color displays with crappy TN models which push their own calibration tools off the charts, their terrible all around macbook quality (mine's 1.5 years old and literally falling to pieces, including the graphics unit), and now these exploding batteries (again!, even dUll didn't pull the same mistake twice!), I say the days of apple as a quality brand are over.
Anyone have suggestions on where to buy quality hardware i can load osx86 on?
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Dude, your getting a...oh wait, wrong company.
It is a mistake to think you can solve any problem with just potatoes.
OK, I know anecdotal evidence is easy to slip in to online conversations. But seriously, 14 devices over a 3 year percentage. From the article, that translates to 0.001 percent of all first generation Nanos (the ones afflicted with this problem). I think any reasonable person will definitely agree that's a tiny percentage. No reason to rip on Apple for saying it's a tiny percentage when it is; they have other problems that can legitimately be criticized.
Yeah, the 'won't somebody think of the airplanes!' comment at the end isn't particularly rational. These are not big devices and the only way they will cause more than an inconvenience is if every one on the plane bursts into flame at the same time.
That said, a large chemical fire like you could get from those big battery packs those desktop replacement laptops use would be a special kind of nightmare for any pilot. If they do ever ban lithium batteries and other related things on airplanes it will be very inconvenient but not necessarily stupid.
Yeah, sure - and when powerbooks were going off like poprocks and Dells were self incinerating like no tomorrow, did we ban them fro maircraft? No. Why? Wiser heads prevailed. If we went with "iminplaya"'s idea, the next thing you know - "Hey gramps - no batteries on board." "But they power my pacemaker!!!" Obviously, since unterfuhrer Cheney has a pacemaker, that would never happen...
iminplaya's risk assessment skills are for crap.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I know using my touch at the same time it's plugged in charging the whole back plate gets warm. So it's not far from something not being possible but the right sequence probably is needed.
But thats what you get when you use the lowest cost components and charge a premium for the end device.
I think most of us will take our chances with these on planes. This goes for nail clippers too.
Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
I really hate in when people overreact, regardless of why they're doing it. I have no idea what kind of sales numbers have been been recorded for the iPod Nano (I'm assuming this only refers to the most recent version of the device and not any of the earlier incarnations, but TFA is somewhat vague about matters.) in Japan so I can only guess. However, let's run some numbers for the sake of looking at things rationally.
Only 140 iPod Nano devices have been sold in Japan. That would make a 10% failure rate, which is something which would leave me alarmed.
If 1,400 had been sold in the country that lowers the failure rate to 1%. From my understanding that's not terribly bad, but of course it's batteries catching fire which is rather undesirable even if it only occurs 1% of the time.
If 14,000 have been sold thus far the chance of having your battery explode on you is only .1%. Still not something I'd want to keep in my pocket, but I think you can see where this is going from here.
If roughly one and a half million such devices have been sold the odds drop to .001%. In the grand scheme of things this is pretty low. You shouldn't quite by lottery tickets yet, but it's getting closer to that point. Then again, maybe you don't need to do that since if one of these goes up in flames you could probably get a decent settlement from a lawsuit against the company. Based on Apple's claims from the article (whether or not you care to believe them is another matter) there have been about 14 people out of roughly 1.4 million that have experienced this problem.
It could be higher than this and there are several more batteries that are potential time bombs, but I don't think it's anything to be alarmed about. I don't know how much truth there is to the number, but from various /. articles I've heard a 5% failure rate widely claimed for electronic devices. I understand that this deals with the whole device and not the batteries, but we're comparing 5% to less than .001%. I think at that rate you're more likely to be involved in a car accident (I don't have figures and couldn't find any at a glance, but based on personal observations I believe my statement to be correct.) than have your iPod battery combust on you.
The bit at the end about not wanting these devices on planes almost reeks of complete FUD. Once you go that far you might as well disallow cell phones, laptops, or any other device with a battery on an airplane. Hell, you might not want to allow anyone who looks like a terrorist (whatever that means) on a plane either since they seem to have a better track record of bringing down a plane than handheld electronic devices as far as I know. It's crap like this that ends up resulting in not being able to take bottled water on your flight.
let's face it, Lithium-ion cells are unstable, intolerant of overcharging, and energy-dense enough to be a real problem when they fail. Combine that with poor quality-control and badly designed charge controllers, and you have a pocket-sized thermite bomb.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
If you oppose Steve Jobs... doesn't that already make you a terrorist?
LiPo batteries (used in iPods and lots of other devices) are little roman candles when the go off: video here.
Some LiPos are pretty sketchy - we've had a few in prototypes "pillow" (fill with gas), but no explosions yet. Definitely a no-no in medical devices, particularly implantables!
no it actually just means you're a reasonable person instead of a showey douchebag obsessed with image and you use something real like products and operating systems that work like creative players and linux.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
This is simply a marketing problem.... the new Apple "I-burn"... with crispy icons, and carbonized gestural interface.
It can light cigarettes! Start campfires! and get rid of that pesky leaf pile for you!
Plug one in, and light it up today!!!
How big could the fires really be?
This is not good PR for apple. One of the reasons Apple's stock is so inflated is the buzz factor around its products.
It just goes to show that apple and its products are 'human', ipods are still miniature laptops, subject to the same problems.
While I agree, I believe things are more problematic with non-standard format battery shapes than with ones shaped like "regular" batteries. I think it has to do with uneven heat distribution during charging within the irregular shapes.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Yah, but the battery in a Nano is a far cry from the 3S pack in the linked video. I'd wager that a Nano battery has way less than 10% of the capacity of the linked battery. I've set off some 230 mAh 1S packs and they barely had enough oomph to pop their bag. The Nano can charge in roughly an hour off a USB port, so it has to be roughly 500 mAh capacity. Not exactly a tricked out 4S4P RC plane battery pack, eh? LiPos are actually used in many medical devices, just not implantable devices. They are very safe if you stick with quality cells and make sure to monitor case temperature, discharge rate, discharge voltage, charge rate, charge voltage, and discharge levels very carefully (EG to better than 1%). Sure as heck beats trying to lug around a lead acid battery pack in a portable device. :-)
Flaming ipods on a plane wouldn't be too healthy though hmmmm?....
Same sort of dodgy batteries as they had in the Apple/Dell laptops a while back ?
Japan demands...something or other.
And the batteries in these iPods? "Made In Japan". Glad to see they take their own QA so seriously.
If you try to play something on a nano that doesn't pass DRM checks ... a circuit opens and the battery is told to explode.
"Stop illegally downloading music .. this message will self-destruct"
It's not like these people are blameless. All of them entered "Limp Bizkit Playback Mode" and all of them paid the special price.
I record my sleeptalking
They are very safe if you stick with quality cells and make sure to monitor case temperature, discharge rate, discharge voltage, charge rate, charge voltage, and discharge levels very carefully (EG to better than 1%).
And how many of those considerations do you figure are observed with these devices?
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
So I guess Brittany Spears is just hot in Japan.
It sounds like poor-quality lithium batteries or possibly a defective charging circuit are to blame here.
Lithium batteries have a very high energy density due to the use of highly reactive lithium in metallic and/or ion forms. Overcharging or too-rapid discharge can easily overheat them and result in a fire or even an explosion in extreme cases.
If the quality control is not excellent, they can be incredibly dangerous.
I am not sure if the Dell and Apple laptops had lithium batteries but it does appear that the industry is going to have to look at the flammability of batteries in laptops and MP3 players. Either better batteries or asbestos skivvies. Wait, trying to remember--there is something wrong with asbestos, too??
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
Only a tiny percentage of planes burst into flames, too.
NiMH is extremely stable, quite tolerant of overcharging (not ridiculous so like NiCD, but infinitely better than LiION), etc., while still ALMOST as energy-dense and ALMOST as quick-charging/discharging. They aren't, however, nearly as lightweight as LiION.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Apple is downplaying the problem, pointing out that no major injuries or damage have been reported.
In Japan, this spin isn't likely to make much difference. Once a serious problem is discovered in a product, the Japanese public tends to assume that all of them have the problem and refuse to purchase or use it.
This attitude has brought no small number of major Japanese businesses to their knees, including (recently) Mitsubishi heavy industries.
Actually, the Apple tends to be fairly conservative with their designs. There is almost assuredly a bog-standard over discharge (voltage and current) IC attached to the pack. That covers the over discharge scenarios. A standard LiPo buck charger IC these days is accurate to better than 1% and properly supplies the required constant-current transitioning to constant voltage profile that a LiPo requires. That covers the over charge scenarios. Apple tends to use standard grade or better components (skipping the super-no-name Chinese suppliers of probably counterfeit parts). So that covers the quality cells portion. The only one that I don't think Apple monitors is battery case temperature.
Given that most LiPos in the field, operated with the afforementioned charge and discharge protection, fail due to membrane damage (at least that was the cause of the flaming Sony 18650 LiIons that were hot news a couple years back), there isn't much a case temp monitor would tell you other than the fact that you're having a catastrophic breakdown and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
Until there are a lot of Lithium Ion batteries powering cars. That should be fun. Maybe they will consider making those batteries outside China. . .
...iBurn
Or a better shutdown mechanizm, The separator paper used in the anode material in the battery is suppost to be sufficient enough to melt and chemically disable the battery before a critical situation like that can occur. My guess, is for cost concerns less of that separator were used, or the battery took quite a bit more abuse than anybody is letting on. I work at a plant that makes these things, and while they are quite unstable, and boy do even the smallest cells make a big flame, they are also quite resiliant once they have been sealed, and when made properly they resist improper handling quite a bit better than lead acid variety.
Im ok..
Warriner's English Grammar
Anti-Globalism, Traditionalism, and FreeBSD.
NiMH used to have problems with high self discharge rates, i.e. my spare set of AA batteries in the fridge would discharge faster than the ones I was using.
But the new low self discharge ones don't seem to suffer from that. Mind you, I don't really have much that uses AA batteries anymore, everyone seems to have moved to embedded LiIon.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
How 'bout we just get rid of the Evil Apple Empire. :)
Some LiPos are pretty sketchy - we've had a few in prototypes "pillow" (fill with gas), but no explosions yet. Definitely a no-no in medical devices, particularly implantables!
Some LiPo batteries have a special pillow deflating mechanism called LiPoSuction.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I just want an ipod that won't burst into flames and kill me.
I'm craving a banana...
Flaming ipods on a plane wouldn't be too healthy though hmmmm?
The worst thing that could happen would be if one of these Nanos caught fire in luggage and then that fire spreads so that it knocks out critical avionics systems and causes the airplane to crash into the ocean two hours from land. Now that I think of it, why hasn't this happened with some type of electronics fire on a long distance flight?
The air pressure at cruising altitude is usually about only 0.25 atm. Since the luggage compartment is unpressurized and because fires don't like low partial pressures for oxygen, it would be very difficult to start a fire. As a practical example, try lighting a cigarette lighter at 10,000 ft. You won't be successful unless you buy a high-altitude lighter.
The worst thing that could happen would be if one of these Nanos caught fire in luggage...
No.
The worst that could happen (and quite possibly will now) is that the airlines seize this opportunity to make passengers' travel even more unpleasant than it already is by banning or confiscating people's iPods. I wouldn't put it past them at all.
It would be amusing to see a mass boycott of all the airlines by all travellers until they learn to stop being such officious pricks. The way they behave towards passengers is not much better than animals might expect from the live cattle export trade.
The sad thing is that we have largely allowed ourselves to be cowed by this treatment.
Let's do some simple statistics...
170,000,000 iPods sold as of March 2008
14 caught fire.
4 Zune's sold as of March 2008
0 caught fire.
BUY A ZUNE, THEY'RE STATISTICALLY SAFER!
No, but I did throw granola at a deaf person once
Huh. When my friend told me the iPod Nanos were 'on fire', I just thought he meant they were selling well...
Ah, kdawson. Just when you though getting rid of Timothy would improve things around here....
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Fire is fitted as standard as the marketeers required!
Of all the electronic devices out there, I find very few are suitable for having a non-removable battery... actually, very few come to mind. At the top of the list is "cheap watches."
For anything else, making a battery removable makes a device safer and potentially last longer.
One of my iPhone users was mentioning the shocking quickness that a support engineer recommended an iPhone exchange when he mentioned that the phone got ridiculously hot. I thought it was a pretty well known fact that when any and all Li-Ion batteries get hot, it's a bad sign and that there is likely a defect in the battery and needs replacement. This is not a Sony problem (though Sony makes the vast majority of these batteries) and it's not a particular product problem either, but when these stories hit the presses, it's "exploding Dells" or "flaming ipods." Perhaps more consumer awareness is in order.
But when batteries aren't removable, it's just a sign of trouble from many perspectives... can't "fix" it with a new battery, can't safely dispose of it by removing the battery, can't pack it safely for travel by removing the battery, can't render yourself untraceable by removing the battery, can't stop the feds from listening in because you can't remove the battery...
And the only reason I can imagine why any manufacturer would choose to make a battery non-removable is to prevent an industry of [unapproved] replacement battery makers. This is a sign of a company that thinks of itself before it thinks of the consumer.
Aircraft cabins are usually pressurized to about 5,000 feet or about 0.83 atm. At this pressure (same as Denver), cigarettes burn nicely
If you were in an airplane pressurized to only 0.25 atm (about 37,000 ft.) you would be dead and you could not light a cigarette.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Lithium-ion cells are unstable, intolerant of overcharging, and energy-dense enough to be a real problem when they fail.
LiFePO4 is a possible answer. They're a little more expensive than Li-ion, and have slightly lower energy density, but they don't evolve gasses during charging, which makes them somewhat safer.
Yeah, *Apple's* quality control is really bad.
Except last time I checked Apple weren't a battery manufacturer; they *buy* these components in from other companies.
If you remember the laptop battery recall from a couple of years ago it was Apple, Dell, et al that had to do a recall, as all manufacturer's that bought those components were affected.
To blame Apple for this is like blaming British Airways when a Boeing plane crashes.
This doesn't suprise me at all. My 3rd gen Nano is less than a year old and its battery is comnpletely dead already. The iPod will work only while its plugged into a power source.. I knew iPods had an early reputation for this (iPods dirty little secret as I recall it) but I would have hoped it would have been sorted by now. I could just be very unlucky... anyone else had issues with a 3rd gen Nano yet?
No problemo, I just take out the battery and... damn.
... makes the jokes funnier.
Like...
"They've made 140 million of those things and they still can't get them right. Drumroll...
But seriously...
Despite the popular opinion there are quite a few Zunes out there. Even the brown ones.
In fact brown Zune 30 was at the top of the Amazon's sales rank during the November of 2007 - because of the price drop.
So, no matter what the herd think is cool, cheaper sells better.
Oh and... No Zunes in Japan.
Or anywhere outside North America.
So I guess we'll have to wait with those statistics to determine which one is safer on a crowded Tokyo subway line.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
Anyone has the serial number range of affected iPod nanos?
If it's battery-related, then they have a list of which iPod nanos were made with the defective battery.
I'm guessing you don't mean Lithium-Polonium.
Lithium polymer?
Apples and oranges. GP said "the luggage compartment is unpressurized". You said "Aircraft cabins are usually pressurized". Unless I'm mistaken, those are two different things. If they are not, then you should have said so.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
The air pressure at cruising altitude is usually about only 0.25 atm. Since the luggage compartment is unpressurized and because fires don't like low partial pressures for oxygen, it would be very difficult to start a fire. As a practical example, try lighting a cigarette lighter at 10,000 ft. You won't be successful unless you buy a high-altitude lighter.
Plus, from what I understand, it's a chemical fire, which behaves a bit different than your run of the mill carbon fire. I'm assuming that these fires are happening during a charge though...is that not the case?
You'll have that sometimes...
As a practical example, try lighting a cigarette lighter at 10,000 ft. You won't be successful unless you buy a high-altitude lighter.
I smoked a cigarette on the top of Mount Massive (14,421), didn't have a problem with my Bic at all.
You'll have that sometimes...
No difference between cabin and baggage. This also is basic science. The entire fuselage tube is pressurized. It would be very difficult to pressurize only the cabin (floor is flat, not a cylinder, lots of holes in floor, etc.)
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Is anybody beginning to understand why I would prefer that these devices not be allowed on airplanes?"
No. I do understand that you seem to like Security Theater, however.
That Youtube guy should be slapped for not editing the video. It blows up at 2:32.
Good luck with that.
People can't just walk away from air travel as in many cases it would simply mean not travelling. And, then airlines have the support of governments which allow them to be fairly arbitrary in terms of rules -- all in the name of safety.
I think it would be interesting if what you suggest happened. I just don't think enough people can walk away from air travel for this to significantly impact the airlines. Certainly, business travel will go on.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I searched for a WHIMS sheet and found a few. They generally say that vapor mists or fumes may cause respiratory irritation. Is there anything more to this? Some of the metal compounds in the LiOn battery are also carcinogenic. Though I'd wager only a factor with long term exposure. Just out of curiosity.
The person in one video mentions using a Class 4 extinguisher on the fire involving laptops (chemical, metal and electrical fire). When not in a laptop, one WHIMS sheet says to use water and another (which I found on a .mil site from Google) says to use CO2. Conflicting, yes. I don't think I run into one of these fires in my lifetime. But these questions don't seem to have come up.
The reason I think that these issues are more apparent in Japan is the humidity levels over there. We are talking 30-40% tops in North America, and looking at 80-90% during peak summer periods in Japan.
Your evaluation period for Productivity 1.0 has ended. Please purchase more coffee to continue using this product.
I just don't think enough people can walk away from air travel for this to significantly impact the airlines. Certainly, business travel will go on.
Of course you're right. I never postulated this as anything that is likely to happen soon, merely as something I would like to happen.
Nevertheless, I wonder how long it will be before the suits decide that teleconferencing or videoconferencing offer more convenient alternatives. Even flying business class isn't much fun, and it certainly isn't a productive way to use one's time.
I can't be the only one who wonders what Apple's definition of "major injuries or damage" might be.
Does it mean that nobody has yet been killed? Or maybe they have a more generous definition, such as "no loss of major limbs or sensory organs".
Anyone know?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Lithium batteries have never been suitable for consumer devices and never will be. I was shocked and appalled when the new small digital cellphones came out and they had LITHIUM BATTERIES in them!!!
Not suitable for consumer devices. Labs, industry, etc., yes, but for everyday people with no conception of the reactivity of lithium, never.
Always was a dumb idea and always will be.
NOTICE: This post was hampered by this here lame excuse for the poor performance of perl - fuck when will they give this up, I'm in a totally different topic/story... allowing everyone a chance to post has nothing to do with it... what a lame excuse, at least be honest... fuck this is irritating.
lame, really lame...
no it actually just means you're a reasonable person instead of a showey douchebag obsessed with image and you use something real like products and operating systems that work like creative players and linux.
So if any Mac user opposed Steve Jobs, you'd look like a complete idiot?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Is anybody beginning to understand why I would prefer that these devices not be allowed on airplanes?
Yeah, how DARE those bastards bring potentially flammable materials on board an aircraft?!
Can I get another vodka, please?
Screaming children be locked in soundproof rooms, and not just on airplanes. :)
"The way they behave towards passengers is not much better than animals might expect from the live cattle export trade."
Speaking as one who works in the industry, if only this were true. We could take a leaf out of the cargo jocks book - when carrying livestock, they carry a bolt gun in case the beastie tries to run amok. Should put a stop to all of those air rage incidents.
"t would be amusing to see a mass boycott of all the airlines by all travellers until they learn to stop being such officious pricks."
Good idea. Why don't you start the ball rolling by not travelling yourself? Save us having to use the bolt gun on you.
This is an interesting clip... but the fact is that the video is of an overcharge situation, not a use one. The violence this clip displays is most likely much greater than what would be found in a use failure, but that's just my conjecture.
Main thing here is I will want to be damn sure of the QA on the charging circuit.
Customer: Hey Support, I just want to say the new iPod Nano is totally hot!
Support: Oh really? Why thank you!
Customer: No really, it's fucking hot!
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
A few questions to make sure you're comparing apples to apples:
1. Is the nano using LiPo batteries? (probably true)
2. Is the nano battery's size comparable to the one in the video? (very hard to tell, as there's no sense of scale; someone who knows how big a 3-cell 1.8Ah LiPo battery is can clarify here)
3. Is the nano's battery likely to fail in someone's pocket in the same manner as the video?
Unless the fellow is resourceful and remarkably clueless about electricity and recent Li battery history, no. The battery is forced to fail spectacularly by overcharging, and most chargers are intelligent enough not to shove 4 cells' worth of charge on a 3-cell battery. The reason why so few battery fires not caused by overcharging are posted on Youtube is that it's really not that easy to cause a battery to predictably fail in any other way-- which is why the only battery failures you're seeing is pillowing. Furthermore, the battery's naked; a typical battery is housed inside a device, which will change the way it burns, should it catch fire.
I'll agree with you that in oxygen-rich environments like hospitals (esp. ICUs), I wouldn't want something that can burn or go pop through mishandling, but that's what safety practices are for.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
You are only able to say that because you wear a genuine tinfoil hat. I wore an aluminum 'tinfoil' hat and that monoxide stuff corroded it like crazy. The story gets worse. That chemical is responsible for an enormous number of deaths worldwide. It kills more surfers than shark attacks. It is also a key component of the search for chemicals on the moon and Mars, which as everyone knows, is needed to keep the world safe from a terrorist attack whereby they set fire to say the secretive dark side of the moon and launch it at us. Dihydrogen monoxide is one of the major residues found after Shuttle launches.
You'll be happy to learn I bought a genuine tinfoil hat, in the modern bee-keeper style. Sure it is heavier, but it is pure tin, and chemical free. Only downside is you have to take it off when going into a bank. The guy with the gun told me it was a safety regulation. But he also assured me that the whole bank had a genuine tinfoil roof so that's ok.
They don't mention it in the video, but it's likely that the battery in the laptop used metal-encased Li-ion cells. The iPod family (and other handhelp products) use Li-polymer batteries, where the outside enclosure is made from soft plastic. I've seen a couple of this sort of battery "pop", up close and personal, and they really don't explode like that.
Some battery manufacturers use the term "venting gas, with flame" to describe what happens when the battery goes into thermal runaway. Euphemism though that may be, it's actually a really good description of what happens. The battery first swells to comical (or frightening) proportions as the envelope fills with vapor, then one corner or edge opens up, and hot gasses (and occasionally flame) squirt out in that direction.
The materials that the battery is made out of are mostly self-extinguishing, so the only real fire threat is if the flame jet hits something really flammable, like a newspaper, or thin cloth.
The battery in the video is roughly 10 times the size of the iPod Nano battery, it's being charged by a "dumb" charger at more than twice the recommended rate, and it doesn't have any of the safety features that are built into battery packs from reputable suppliers (or it would have stopped charging immediately).
Not that I don't agree with most of your points, but one benefit of non-removable batteries is that the consumer won't try to replace the battery with one that's not the right specification. There have been several reports of mobile phones catching fire due to the use of off-spec 3rd-party batteries.
Also, removable batteries can be potentially damaged or shorted when they're left to rattle around loose in a briefcase or a drawer.
That has been quite a long time ago (unless you buy cheap junk ones). I still use my NiMH AAs (and AAAs) from YEARS ago, and I trust them to hold most of their charge for over a month. In fact I use NiMH batteries in most of my remotes and similar low-drain devices, and they last for at least 6 months before I get suspicious and swap them.
Yes indeed. I go to great lengths to stick with devices that use standard batteries. I won't accept any device where I can't instantly swap batteries, and I've found devices that use standard batteries are almost always FAR more energy efficient...
eg. My old (B&W) PDA that ran for a month on a pair of AAs, vs my even older (color) PDA that ran for 3 hours on LiION.
eg. My MP3 CD player that run for 40+ hours on a pair of AAs, vs. an iPod.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
On May 6, 2008, Microsoft announced that it had sold just over 2 million Zunes. Roughly one million of those were sold since the second generation Zunes launched in November 2007.
So there's roughly 1 million second generation Zunes sold from Nov. 2007-May 2008.
Contrast that to the 22.1 million iPods sold from Oct. 2007-December 2007. That would be 21.1 million more iPods in a four month less span of time. I'm sure this trend continues through FY 2008 as well.
And JUST FOR YOU....http://www.macworld.com/article/131874/2008/01/ipodsales.html There, happy now?
if it were fitted nasally.