Slashdot Mirror
Samsung Blames Galaxy SIII Burn On "External Energy Source"
MojoKid writes "Samsung has some great news for Galaxy SIII smartphone owners. As it turns out, your mobile device isn't at risk of overheating to the point where it catches on fire and burns through its casing, as a forum member at Boards.ie claimed was the case with his Galaxy SIII a couple of weeks ago. [Note: And has since retracted.] Fire Investigations UK (FIUK), an independent third-party organization, assisted Samsung with looking into the matter, and here's what they concluded: 'The energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device... the device was not responsible for the cause of the fire,' FIUK said in a statement. 'The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave.'"
... the user who initially complained admitted that a buddy of his had tried to repair the phone after it had come in contact with an unknown amount of water... and of course, he promptly retracted his complaint.
What a jackass.
For everyone else: DON'T PUT YOUR FUCKING PHONE IN THE MICROWAVE.
Will it blend?
So it's not Samsung doing the blaming, it's an independent, third party investigating party. And the scare quotes around the mysterious "External Energy Source" actually refer to a microwave, which the owner's friend apparently used to dry out his phone.
So, why wasn't the title "Microwave discovered to be cause of Galaxy SIII Burn"? Why are we trying to spin the headline to make it look like Samsung's making excuses for itself?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I suggest that people should need a license to use advanced technology like mobile phones. And someone sticking their mobile phone into a microwave should lose that license for life.
Even I'm surprised someone was stupid enough to put their phone in a microwave mind you.
I read the post in the forum.
Here is what it says
I would like to retract my original statement. The damage to the phone was caused by another person, although they were attempting to recover the phone from water this later caused the damage shown on the phone. It occurred due to a large amount of external energy and there was no fault with the phone. This was not a deliberate act but a stupid mistake.
I am unable to comment any further.
So they put the phone in a microwave to dry it after it was submerged in water!
I never think i would be surprised by stupidity.... and then this comes along.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
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FFS what is this doing on the front page?
Not only is it OLD NEWS but the mouth-breather in question already admitted he microwaved the bloody thing after he got it wet...
Seriously this is disappointing. I'm getting better quality news and stories from "tabloid" websites such as The Register and The Inquirer now. Slashdot is starting to resemble a blog full of random ramblings than a good quality, reliable news source.
Some men just like to watch the galaxy burn.
It might still be the case (pun unintended) that a microwave was used as the heat source. However, I've always been told that microwave ovens burn things from the inside (where there are more trapped water molecules to excite) out (presumably drier since the skin can be wiped prior to microwaving).
My own experience when using a microwave to toast bread is that the center gets burnt. Which isn't exactly the inside of the bread, but I haven't microwaved anything thicker than pizza to find out if I can, say burn the filling of a turkey before the skin gets done.
to know why on earth you would
place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave.
Unless you live by eating well-done devices!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
A new MMO has launched, The Secret World. In the game you have an inventory WINDOW. In help one player asked how you could resize it... hint, it is a window. SAME WAY YOU DO IT IN EVERY OS!
You have to wonder how that person even manages to turn on a computer.
But people like this are not "stupid" in that they don't know things, they just lack or are to lazy to put two and two together. "If I have seen furthest, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants".
These people stand on the ground. They can't link experiences from the past into the present. That user I mentioned might well have resized windows on windows but he couldn't make the connection that the inventory window looks and behaves as a window too. Lazyness comes into it since a non-lazy person would have tried something. For instance, dealing with chat windows. Right-click to change settings. How lazy do you got to be to not be able to even TRY that before asking?
A quest button is on the right, if clicked you can select a different quest to track. Yet people ask how to do that because it doesn't occur to them to simply try some stuff.
Manuals, message of the day are useless for these people.
The person from the article probably did see some video of metal in a microwave. Probably knows it is not an oven. Knows that plastic melts and just didn't put it together. For every person who pulls a radio apart to see how it looks inside, there is another person who never "learns" the power icon because it never occurs to them that there might be a reason for that image on the button.
When you do design, you sadly got to take these people into account.
Another example? Well, if one user was on slashdot, they would ask how you can preview a post. Clothes in the cash shop have preview button right there in your face and she couldn't see it and bitched they should have included a preview option. A button labelled preview and you miss it. Those people would microwave a phone to dry it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave."
Since we all know that UK doesn't produce anything except pasty white people, its obvious that in 2012 a domestic microwave is going to be a little hard to come by.
A clever ploy for Samsung to advertise their foreign microwaves.
You really really need to investigate further before posting these stories. Samsung didn't "blame" it on external sources which implies "it wasn't really us, honest, seriously". The guy that posted the initial fire report had a friend 'drop' the phone into water then attempt to dry it out using a microwave.
"Galaxy SIII burn caused by microwaving wet phone" is what it should be.
I used to think the reports of timothy's failures at reporting were overblown. Now I know better. Talk about an epic failure. Why does this guy still have a job?
Considering TFA and the use of the word "blames" and the quotes around "external energy source" I would say Slashdot is very close if not smack on the dot of committing libel.
A wet phone was put in a microwave oven. Slashdot's story title suggests the manufacturer is an outright liar.
Look how strange the phrasing is. One ultra vague statement and one hyperspecific statement. Is this a legal thing like the first statement is for the law courts complete with perjury danger while the second statement is PR spin, or is it just weird?
'The energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device... the device was not responsible for the cause of the fire,' FIUK said in a statement.
OK kinda vague but it sounds like it was plugged into the charger when it went boom.
'The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave.'"
OK super specific. I suppose its easy enough to prove, look at non-energetic materials areas, if stuff on the exterior like buttons/case/etc shows more heat damage than the innards by the battery the heat came from the outside. Or level of damage by component material is disturbingly similar to a table of component material vs their specific microwave adsorption rate.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
That way, you can sue people that create bad press by microwaving phones produced by you.
Too bad that there is now prior art.
1) Will it blend? Yes
2) Will it Microwave? No
Got it!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"the other person" was this guys kid, who was aresing around with his farther's phone, doped it in the sink, or loo, and in order to try and get out of trouble tried to dry it in the microwave?
I reckon he's deliberatly microwaved it to get a refund after not recovering it from water damage. Just tried to make it seem as though the battery overheated and made it catch fire.
But no, he wasn't asking for a confirmation of a bug, he thanked me for making his inventory larger. He asked nicely so I answered but still thought, "silly".
And yes, it slightly varies but lets face it, the chances this user was running under Wine/Linux or or OSX are roughly zero.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
In a billion years this galaxy will have an external energy source that will screw things up - Andromeda
If you happened to throw your phone in the water for some apparent stupid reason and you need to dry it...DONT USE A MICROWAVE...fucknut !!!
just put your phone in a bowl filled up with rice and wait the next day. Then try it and hope it works. All the humidity and water will be taken from the rice and it should work. It worked for me for some electronic devices similar to the phone but it worked.
Ethanol makes much faster work, taking the Coke/sugar with it as well as any water, and evaporates quickly.
sounds like kid must have been upset he didn't get an i-Clone.