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Samsung Blames Galaxy SIII Burn On "External Energy Source"

Posted by timothy on from the but-I-used-the-defrost-setting dept.

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.'"

24 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. If I remember correctly... by bemymonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... 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.

    1. Re:If I remember correctly... by src1138 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And yet this still makes the front page of Slashdot - with a spin-laden misleading title.

      MojoKid - you are an ass, and so is the moderator.

    2. Re:If I remember correctly... by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 4, Funny

      Duh. Microwaves are strictly for drying dogs. Everyone knows not to put metal in the microwave.

    3. Re:If I remember correctly... by million_monkeys · · Score: 4, Funny

      Duh. Microwaves are strictly for drying dogs. Everyone knows not to put metal in the microwave.

      But make sure you take the collar and tags off before drying the dog!!!!! I forgot to do that before putting Scrapy in the microwave. It did not end well. My poor daughter cried for a week straight after this. I felt horrible. If only I had taken his collar off first, this tragedy could have been averted.

    4. Re:If I remember correctly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      MojoKid and million_monkeys sure do look like Apple shareholders.

      An accurate title would be:
      Kid microwaves phone and blames Samsung when phone explodes

    5. Re:If I remember correctly... by asdf7890 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A fairer title might have been "Idiot puts phone in microwave, phone and phone's manufacturer found unlike to be to blame".

      Depending on how you read the title as it currently stands (Samsung Blames Galaxy SIII Burn On "External Energy Source") it could suggest there is a question of Samsung being to blame and that they are trying to pass the buck.

    6. Re:If I remember correctly... by Nyder · · Score: 4, Funny

      For everyone else: DON'T PUT YOUR FUCKING PHONE IN THE MICROWAVE.

      yes, the microwave is for organic stuff, like drying your pet. Or your baby.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    7. Re:If I remember correctly... by oddaddresstrap · · Score: 4, Informative

      For the love of God, NO! Don't believe the post above!
      Please, future information seeker, I'm talking to you...

      The person above was KIDDING! Do not dry your baby, cat, dog, hamster, mouse, whatever, in a microwave! It will kill them!
      Okay, maybe that's slightly too broad a statement. For some odd reason it works fine for drying Pekingese dogs.

    8. Re:If I remember correctly... by cc1984_ · · Score: 4, Funny

      A fairer title might have been "Idiot puts phone in microwave, phone and phone's manufacturer found unlike to be to blame".

      You even managed to work a typo into the title, more in keeping with proper Slashdot submissions. Nice work :)

    9. Re:If I remember correctly... by damien_kane · · Score: 5, Funny

      The person above was KIDDING! Do not dry your baby, cat, dog, hamster, mouse, whatever, in a microwave! It will kill them!

      +1, this ^^
      Use your old-school tumble-dryer instead.
      It takes a bit longer, but the risk of explosions is much lower.

  2. I guess the next question is.... by Apothem · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it blend?

  3. Let me get this straight by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Let me get this straight by jpate · · Score: 4, Funny

      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?

      mmmm, a conspiracy theory about this community's propensity for conspiracy theories... nice!

    2. Re:Let me get this straight by should_be_linear · · Score: 5, Funny

      In other news, expensive Cuban cigars fall apart, as soon as you try to clean it with kitchen blender.

      --
      839*929
    3. Re:Let me get this straight by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Funny

      What a moron, EVERYONE knows that the only real way to dry cell phones is to put them in the toaster.

      --
      Monstar L
    4. Re:Let me get this straight by MickLinux · · Score: 4, Funny

      Could we just get this over with and put it on ASK SLASHDOT? I'm waiting...

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    5. Re:Let me get this straight by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Put your phone in a zip-lock bag and pour a load of rice in with it. Seal the bag and leave it for a couple of days. Alternatively, if you're a nerd like me, slip in four or five silica gel pouches you've hidden away.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    6. Re:Let me get this straight by idontgno · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Put your phone in a zip-lock bag and pour a load of rice in with it.

      And, as always, wise and well-intentioned advice leaves out critical information.

      Uncooked rice. Not steamed rice, not boiled rice, not parboiled rice, not fried rice, not Spanish rice, not risotto ,not Rice-o-Roni (which isn't entirely rice anyway), not Jerry Rice or Donna Rice or Rice, Kansas.

      Seriously. Packing your slightly-moistened phone into a baggie of steaming hot cooked rice WILL NOT HELP.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  4. License for mobile phones by gnasher719 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:License for mobile phones by StripedCow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I suggest that people should need a license to use advanced technology like mobile phones.

      That may cost Apple its market share.

      --
      If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
  5. Don't need Sherlock for this one by Teknikal69 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Heat was very obviously external as the outside was melted and the inside was only slightly marked, the story would probably have been called out as dubious right away if the army of Apple fanboys hadn't seized on it started posting it everywhere and ignoring all the evidence.

    Even I'm surprised someone was stupid enough to put their phone in a microwave mind you.

  6. Slashdot is a tabloid now? by iB1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  7. ...and by Konster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some men just like to watch the galaxy burn.

  8. Re:Don't microwave ovens cook from the inside out? by Rogue974 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Microwaves create a standing wave from the point of source. The waves are at the right frequency to excite the water molecules.

    They don't really cook from the inside out, they cook from the point where the waves hit the water molecules at the wave high and low points. There is a yummy experiement you can perform to demonstrate the speed of light by looking at the waves created in a microwave and see how microwaves actually work.

    First: Remove the rotating glass dish at the bottom of the microwave. You need what you are putting in the microwave to remain stationary.
    Second: Get twix, kit kat, or some other long thin candy bar, preferably cholcolate as it has water in it and place them on a plate in the microwave going from left to right. The Microwave source is behind the keypad and time and it shoots across the microwave to the other side.
    Third: Turn on the microwave and watch.

    You will see that spots will start to melt on the candy at which point you can turn off the microwave. The spots on the candy are the high and low points of the standing wave and are the points that were heated. It doens't matter inside the food or outside the food, it matters where the wave hits the food. Most people say it cooks from the inside out, but if you think about your food, the outside is a very small layer of the food while the inside is the bulk of the food. The chances of the wave focusing on the outside are insanely small compared to the chances of the heat points being on the inside.

    If you want to verify the speed of light, it has to do with knowing the speed of light and equtions that deal with the frequency and amplitude of waves, you can measure the distance between the melted points on the candy bar, look up the frequency of the wave the microwave generates and verify the equations.

    Oh, and don't forget to eat the candy.

    http://morningcoffeephysics.com/measuring-the-speed-of-light-with-chocolate-and-a-microwave-oven/

    A link to a more detailed explanation of the experiment and equations. So it isn't that a microwave cooks from the inside out, it cooks at the peaks and troughs of the standing wave, which have a much greater chance of cocentrating the heat on the inside.