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Apple Faces Inquiries In the EU On iPhone Accidents
o'reor writes "As more cases of iPhone screen explosions emerge in the news on this side of the pond, Apple is now facing official inquiries and lawsuits in France. This situation has forced Apple finally to break silence and acknowledge the incidents: 'We are aware of these reports and we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers. Until we have the full details, we don't have anything further to add.' Following those reports, the European Commission had already decided last week to step in, while Apple tried to dismiss the problem as 'isolated incidents.' Meanwhile, iPhone explosion-related sites are now popping up on the Internet, releasing games such as iPop to chill out and relax on the subject, but also giving users advice on preventing iPhone accidents, or detecting imminent explosions."
iExplode
Was it really necessary to link to the iPop advertisements 3 times?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The makeipodsafe site is just a series of essays with self-referential links.
It's like Slashdot without the humor.
Why don't they show pictures of exploding ipods and injuries sustained by the exploding ipod owners? The sustain, show it to us.
Are the cause I hear. Lots of devices use these kinds of batteries, simply because they are easily rechargable. It's said that if one gets too hot, and is under a certain amount of pressure on the inside, the battery can explode. I didn't RTFA I'm sure its mentioned somewhere in there. Things that use L I batteries have exploded before in the past, it's just become common that everyone owns either an iPod or an iPhone, so when 13 or more stories arise of exploding Apple devices people take notice.
But, like the summary says, Apple hasn't received the broken equipment yet, so the battery is not the CONFIRMED cause of the explosion.
Anyone want to take a bet?
The biggest accident is that the iPhone was ever released to the public.
This is all lies and slander. Don't you guys watch Mac adds? They don't HAVE any issues. They work all the time and never glitch up, much less explode! Psh to all this microsoft propaganda.
the guy with the iInjury?
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
my 3GS tends to heat up a lot more than my blackberry. when i use the cell phone app i can feel the back getting warm
If your iPhone explodes and kills you, do you go to Apple Hell where everything runs on Windows?
Obviously this strategic move by Apple to created a 7 in one device (phone, email, text, game platform, camera, photo album, grenade) and MS can't handle it.
Sent from your iPad.
"..and we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers..."
Guess they are going to be waiting a LOOOOONG time since they wanted the victims to sign non disclosure agreements if they wanted a refund.
I mean what kind of idiot would send back a dangerously faulty item if they knew the company was going to try and cover it up.
The more that companies have moved Western production (American, EU, Japan, Canada, etc) to Chinese manufacturing, the more injuries there has been occurring. I wonder if the price saved is worth the lawsuits?
I've seen lots of links and stories about the kid in Paris who got glass in his eye, and apparently he won't turn over the iPod for testing. Apple says they're aware of fewer than ten incidents, and that these all seem to be caused by "external force", not battery issues.
There are millions of iPhones out there. Until there are some credibly documented cases where an iPhone exploded due to a factory defect, I'll assume that there's no story here.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to x-ray my can of Pepsi.
It is difficult to imagine that an explosion could be caused by any other components in the device. The battery is supposed to be double fused which limits the amount of power to other components, but if there is a failure within the battery itself, the results can be dramatic.
I'm typing this on my iPhone right now, and everything is just fi
No "incidents" caused by overuse of the "vibrate" feature?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
if its start to make noises, raise smoke or shake un normally, itâ(TM)s a sign something is about to happen.
Are we talking iPhone, or Mt. St. Helens?
Seriously, I would like to think that there would be some way to overload protect things to prevent this. I know lithium batteries are special, but why can't there be some element that opens up to prevent the phaser on overload scenario?
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
The more that companies have moved Western production (American, EU, Japan, Canada, etc) to Chinese manufacturing, the more injuries there has been occurring. I wonder if the price saved is worth the lawsuits?
Yes.One mention of GM's cost benefit analysis. Saving just $2.40 per vehicle was worth having a couple of folks get killed. The Apple stuff won't kill anyone. The suits are chump change compared to what they're saving.
Face it fanboys, Apple is just like any other big corporation.
haha-stupid filter- hahahahahahahaha
these latest reports sound just a bit funny to me. I know the iPod is built well but I just don't see the screen breaking before the back deforms. Remember these batteries don't explode they expand and then off gas flames. The description of the events just don't match what you would expect from a battery of this type failing in this device.
the first one in britain - yes
1 device is damaged by a drop
2 device begins to overheat
3 device shoots short burst of flames
this is how you would expect this device to fail.
But the last couple -- It just went pop and the screen shattered -- strange indeed, especially since the second seemed like he was reading the account of the first one line by line rather then telling something that happened to him.
Why are you linking and reposting their advertisement? "Listen to your iPhone and get to know when the iPhone is about is explode in you hand on in the pocket" is a dead giveaway that the page you linked was thrown together by someone who speaks English as a second language, probably the guy who wrote the iPop app advertised at that site.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
That's right, the entire EU is run by unpaid fines from overzealous monopoly abusing American corporations (one of which makes all of its products in China). Oh noes, whatever will we do now a dweeb has rumbled the ruse?
(*) Do not place ipod back in your pocket if it's on fire
(*) Do not huff fumes if your ipod is smoking
(*) Do not overheat your ipod to start your campfire
(*) Do not eat your ipod
(*) Not certified for use as a shark repellent
anything else you need to tell us?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The EU smells money.
Will Apple escape? Or will the EU leech off of them endlessly like they do with MS?
Should the EU not intervene on behalf of its citizens? I think this is exactly the kind of thing a governmental body should do, step in to protect people when corporations decide to do something stupid.
Because it's true?
Lipo batteries pop and swell and get really hot before they explode.
We all know people who drive cars and we all know people who have been in accidents.
We also all know people who own and use iphones, not as many but enough that if this was in any way frequent we would know about it. Maybe it does explode sometimes but what at what point does it become a threat? How does it compare to other similar smartphones?
Ah, but when the result is simply fines and no real change to the operation of the company...
Modern fashion with gadgets is ultra thin and light, which is dangerous when it comes to lithium batteries. They are *delicate* and dangerous. This marketing decision leads to being not as good from an engineering standpoint (on being safe I mean) in designing the batteries, they are too subject to being smashed/bent, or have design and manufacturing screwups, and that leads to simple failure or catastrophic failure.
This utter fixation on having the smallest most powerful batteries combined with their basic chemistry of heating and catching fire and having runaway reactions will inevitably lead to a lot of failures when you are making millions of units.
And look at all this constant kvetching about battery life on laptops and so on. Geez, what a freekin non problem theoretically. If people could be content to carry the same weight they did just a few years ago, as if their girly man muscles could even handle the strain, oh the horrors, they could have *bigger and longer lasting and safer batteries*, probably cheaper as well, but every generation of new gadgets they insist on shaving some ounces and inches off. Well, you can do that to excess it appears. Battery tech has not quite kept up with other electronics miniaturization tech here, so you get problems. They can make the batteries smaller plus more powerful at the same time, but obviously it raises the risk factor. They are pushing it too close to the exploding edge.
Small, powerful, safe, pick two
Form is not necessarily your friend always over function. Perhaps if they take a few tens of million$ in cost in recalls and lawsuits this lesson of marketing versus engineering quality standards will sink in better. And any company that did that could turn it around in the market, use their new designed safer and more powerful batteries, albeit larger and heavier, as a marketing edge over just smaller and lighter. There could be some rather humorous ads along these lines showing the victim of the teeniest gadget walking around on fire and all charred all the time, just so he can stupidly brag how cool his new .5 ounce and 1/64th inch thick iXploder is...
It's fairly common practice that companies don't lay claims to their products breaking. But I find Apple are some of the worst about it.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
No ads for me. Guess you are not up to date about ad blocking technology?
Does no one else find the makeipodsafe.com site to be an obvious (and hilarious) parody?
* There are millions of Apple products out there at the customers...
* According to the last ones which already explode and went on fire...
* How to avoid iPhone from exploding
* Lots more...
And this?
C'mon people; that's comedy gold.
According to the BBC, Apple has analysed the reports and the returned iPhones and concluded that in all cases, "external force" caused the breakage, and that there is no indication of batteries overheating or internal explosions.
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
I just hope all this "there is an app for that" crowd gets the "pound me in the ass" app and shut the fuck up forever.
Oh wait.. they already have iphone..
If you get killed by your exploding iPhone, it's like a suicide bombing. You don't go to Apple hell, you go to Apple paradise, where the Apple martyrs are given 70 virginal Apple prerelease products and 70 Apple desktop computers.
You forgot.
(*) Do not put your ipod in your ass if it's on fire. If it is not on fire, you can do that safely and behave like any other smug apple user.
True. Not everybody has succumbed to the RDF?? Unlike US media and public, others still have balls? That's SO WRONG, man!
Now pass on some of that kool-aid you are drinking. I am running out of them.
There's been several exploding iPhone incidents in France. While Apple claims they are isolated unintentional incidents the French Government issued a formal Surrender to Apple just in case.
I see the Apple PR people are out in force, modding this down. It usually takes about 45 minutes to 2 hours for a post critical of Apple to be modded down, which may reflect the Google crawl and update delay. It would be fun if Slashdot graphed this. The usual trajectory is that something critical of Apple gets modded up in the first few minutes, then the Apple promoters get involved.
No one wants to talk about it, but I will.
The real cause is that these devices are running on *BSD. The icon for BSD is no accident. It is representative of the devil that is inside of every computer device running BSD. They all explode!
Absolutely. Companies traditionally make you sign legal agreements preventing you from talking about explosions that didn't happen.
Are you on fucking crack?
Well, EU did achieve the desired result with Microsoft, didn't they? I would imagine that in this case they will also just keep raising fines for repeated non-compliance.
Apple never really acknowledged the problem with G3 power supplies burning up the instant after people tried upgrading to OS X. I have a web page that describes how I converted a G3 motherboard to use a PC ATX power supply, and I still get emails from people with G3s that OS X killed that want to try to get them going again on a PC power supply.
I said from just a few years ago, not the early 90s brickphone era. Bleeding edge small electronics are cool, less size and less power requirements for what they can do, which is "more" now, but bleeding edge battery tech today is not cool, it gets hot, and might asplode or catch fire. It just hasn't kept up adequately. We've had plenty of battery problems and recall stories from the last few years as proof of that. Until such a time as they can match the two techs on safety and reliability and function, they should be a scosh conservative on dropping the battery sizes and err on the side of caution. If that means the form factor has to stay slightly larger than possible, with a little more weight, in order to more insure better safety and to give device runtime longevity, it should be so. Your first gen is "barely tolerable", but a recent gen with a better battery would still be better than that first example, smaller and lighter, but more safe and better runtime. which means it would still be tolerable-enough.
How about the traditional car analogy? If the tires on your street screamer 150 mph Belchfire from 5 years ago got wonky at 90, and blew off the rims in shreds, would it make sense to have a newer Belchfire that could go 180, with even thinner and more questionable tires? Tires are *rather important* on performance cars, batteries are *rather important* with performance portable devices. No sense being cheap or stupid on either one.
That's all I am saying, these manufacturers of gadgets need to match that battery tech, because lithium batteries are inherently a lot more prone to failure with some pretty bad results if one little thing goes wrong with them. I really like new battery tech, I just don't want them to go off too extreme to the point of compromising safety and reliability, when there's no need, when devices now are already pretty small. They can back off that for a few years and let the two techs catch up with other better. If it takes fines and investigations and recalls and lost liability lawsuits and a lot of bad press and maybe some bureaucratic rulings, that's what it might take. Perhaps better battery standards might be in order here, then all the various vendors would be forced to operate from the same level so no one would have an unfair advantage.
We can't always leave these decisions to marketing, we long ago adopted safety standards for any number of products and obviously these safety standards need to be applied more vigorously to portable lithium battery powered devices, and having a better runtime would be a double plus good for most folks anyway.
Sometimes it is just a better idea to let the engineers have the final say on things.
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Mac fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Mac (a Mac Pro with two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors and 6GB of RAM) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Mac, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
In addition, during this file transfer, Safari will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even Text Edit is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Mac that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Macs' faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 2x 2.26Ghz 8-core machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Macintosh is a superior machine.
Mac addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Mac over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
In one more obvious example of favoritism for their darling Apple, the European Union merely investigates, you can bet if it was a Zune that blew up, the European courts would be all over MS, their european assets would have been preemptively seized and the board would have been shot in a dark alley in Strasbourg.
Would you prefer the EU to storm into Apple's European offices and start throwing the managers off balconies. I should imagine that would be more effective then fines.
Fines are the best disincentive against abusive behaviour (a la Microsoft), in Apple's case if the EU's investigation finds the iphone could be dangerous something the EU could ban EU retailers from carrying the device until it is fixed and leverage a fine against Apple. This could not be done against MS as there was no problem with MS's products, it was MS's business practices that were wrong.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Never said the failures increased, just that they happen, and there have been some really large recalls of lithium based batteries and reports of people having pocket sized gadgets catch fire in their pockets and so forth. And no, a larger battery wouldn't necessarily be less safe, as they could engineer in better separation of the cells and protection circuitry and a stouter battery covering pack to them. If you want to look at a quick review, here is a simple search of slashdot here via google on battery recall.
I'm not saying batteries haven't gotten better, they have obviously, and I did say I liked new battery tech to clarify that again, just that they seem to not be keeping pace as well as the other miniaturization efforts. And as a separate issue, if they stuck to larger capacity batteries, they could have longer run times. That would of course necessitate larger/thicker/heavier batteries, which would *still* be lighter than the older NiMH styled or earlier lithium. And as one guy elsewhere in the thread who works doing repairs pointed out, a lot of these things have separate warranty provisions for the battery packs and chargers that are less inclusive than the actual gadget. There's a reason for that.
It's an unpublished feature...designed to prevent your equipment from being tampered with...and permit you the opportunity to upgrade.
Still, not to store your phone down the front of your pants.
Seriously, this is the kind of thing which will happen with more and more drastic results as energy density of batteries increase. The answer is more extensive product testing and better knowledge of how such devices behave so that they can be designed to be safe.
Of course, NOT OWNING one keeps you much safer....
And we can be grateful that MS never got into this market.
-wizodd
"I love nuclear power, I use the Sun daily. But it IS dangerous, we have this nuclear reactor sitting 8 light minutes away, and it is still dangerous enough to kill you under normal operating conditions."