Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explodes In New York, Burns Six-Year-Old Boy (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A six-year-old boy from Brooklyn has reportedly become the latest victim of Samsung's disastrous exploding Galaxy Note 7 batteries. The boy had been using the device at his family home when it "suddenly burst into flames," according to the New York Post. He was rushed to hospital with burns to his body. Samsung issued a recall of 2.5 million of its latest flagship phone on September 2 -- which had only been released the previous month -- after 35 reports that lithium batteries were exploding while they were being charged. The injured boy's grandmother said that the fire caused by the phone was strong enough to "set off alarms in my house." "He is home now," Linda Lewis told press. "He doesn't want to see or go near any phones. He's been crying to his mother." Samsung issued a statement on Saturday, urging owners of the Galaxy Note 7 to "power down your device and return to using your previous phone. We will voluntarily replace your Galaxy Note 7 device with a new one, beginning on September 19th... We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers." The recall has caused Samsung's stock to plunge. On Monday, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. stock suffered from its biggest one-day price decline in its 28-year history as a public company.
its been 10 days since the very public recalls have been announced, i mean..... the adults really should have not been letting him play with it
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
... where are the photoshop artists when you need them to create suicide-bomber pictures with belts made of Note 7s?
My kid loves his lawn darts, you insensitive clod!
the adults really should have not been letting him play with it
Plot twist: perhaps they did it on purpose so they can now sue Samsung and cash in.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Adult supervision is now required for all smartphones.
Considering how many smartphones don't even try to block the ability to access hardcore porn, this should be common fucking sense.
To me, "exploding" and "going up in flames" is not the same thing. If I hold a phone in my hands and it goes up in flames, I drop it and might have some burns if I'm unlucky. If I hold a phone in my hands and it explodes, good bye hands.
Is there any reliable information what actually happens?
This comes from bad electrolyte or bad quality control in the battery's construction.
One of the following is happening:
1) the cathode of the battery is fraying apart too quickly. (LiON batteries have cathodes that shrink and swell under charge and discharge, as they need to have a very high permeability to ionic lithium salts in solution. The actual absorption of the electrolyte during charging splits the cathode apart slowly over time. That's why the batteries wear out. In this case, the cathode is prematurely disintegrating, and the frayed out bits are shorting with the annode.)
2) the electrolyte inside the pack is of poor quality/improper. Instead of just migrating into the porous cathode during charging, it is breaking down, and depositing metallic lithium dendrites inside the cathode. These can cause short circuits, much like tin whiskers do.
3) the charge logic is improper, causing either breakdown of the electrolyte, or causing premature cathode disintegration through overcharging.
in all cases, the fire happens after a dead short with the annode occurs inside the battery.
Normally, the charge controller uses a thermistor to tell if thr cell is charging properly or not.if it is not charging properly, it disables the cell to prevent electrolyte and cathode breakdown, and the subsequent fire these cause.
in the endless madness for thinner and thinner batteries, it is possible that thermally assisted detection of bad charging is less effective, because of the high surface area to weight ratio of the thiner battery cells. (they radiate the heat too quickly because they are thin and flat, so the thermistor reading isnt as accurate.)
Even if they didn't know, they should be responsible. The news has been ADAMANT about reporting on this recall, and making a lot of hoopla about it. Samsung issued a recall. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let them not win a lawsuit against Samsung.
If they sue, Samsung is in trouble cause it admitted a fault and issued a recall. Shouldn't we encourage companies to recall products when there are safety hazards and they are willing to take the financial hit and do the responsible thing? They will never admit fault if it exposes them to liability in court.
The question, that remains unanswered at the moment, is just how damaged is the Samsung Phone brand?
Is it on life support now after what just happened to a 6 year old NY-er?
As a parent I'm not keen on allowing any of my gang (7, 5, 3, & 6 mnths) to touch our smart phones, less so now.
This is where brand value and customer confidence in brand comes to the fore, when it threatens the safety of those who you protect.
Xmas time is going to be a tough one for Samsung and, for not paying attention to the quality and safety of supplied parts, they deserve it.
Which android brand will take their place?
and the OTA updates will be deployed.... soon after the carriers approve them and be active after the users use the phone they've been told not to and download and accept the update.
I think Samsung coming forward and doing an across the board recall with a fairly significant level of media coverage is a good thing.
But in the end, Samsung produced a defective and dangerous device and people were hurt. Samsung is still on the hook in civil courts because some people didn't get the message about the recall, or didn't understand the message.
If I were a judge (and I obviously am not), I think a class action case against Samsung should be divided along where people were reasonably expected to have heard the recall announcement. Anyone before that time is one group, and anyone after that time has to file individually or form a different class action lawsuit.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
play games. there are lots of mobile games for young children. some of them of actual educational value, most of them of value of keeping a bored child busy while parents get daily chores done.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Would it be legal for Samsung to issue an OTA update to essentially brick the device (ideally affecting the charging controller, too)?
Would this be legal? Not that I'm advocating that sort of behavior, just wondering...as-is, it seems we barely own anything and are just borrowing it from the company...
So they are running out to buy the brand new Note 7 but they aren't technology minded? Not defending Samsung as they made a defective product and they should be accountable for that. But it has been all over the front pages of newspapers, web sites and everywhere on the internet. I haven't looked for it as it doesn't affect me but I have seen it on TV more than a dozen times and god knows how many times on various websites.
Which means what? Here's what actually happens. When I was the president of a youth hockey organization, an adult came to a board meeting, and told us we had a terrible failing in getting the word out about ourselves.
"You need to have newspaper advertisements, ads in the local magazines, ads in all the rinks and on television. And brochures!"
So I pulled out the receipts for all of the above, and told him where he could find the brochures. His only reply was that we needed to find better ways and times so he could see them note: this is disregarding how the person knew to come in to see us anyhow, but the point is, saturation doesn't prove that someone saw something.
Samsung can only cover itself by notifying everyone who has one of their burning phones personally.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I'd rather die by Samsung burn than have an iphone without a headphone jack
I disagree - the earlier they release the recall announcement, the fewer the number of people would be able to claim damages, so it behooves the company AND the non-greedy, just-want-to-be-safe public that it be publicized earlier. In this particular case, I find it hard that someone who could afford a Galaxy Note 7, and actually lives in the modern world (Brooklyn... so more or less), would be over a week behind the news that the devices should be returned.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
ZERO. It is not a design fault. It is poor workmanship. Samsung themselves make the battery cells. A 3rd party company assembles the cells into battery packs. The battery pack assembly is what is at fault here. From everything I have read.
Samsung should sell all the recalled phones to ISIS, I'm sure they'd have a use for them.
Not a Note 7. It was a Galaxy Core: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news... Possibly aftermarket battery?