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Replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Phone Catches Fire on Southwest Plane (theverge.com)

After learning about faulty battery issues in its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, Samsung said it will offer its existing customers a safe, replacement unit. It appears the replacement unit also suffers from the same issue. Jordan Golson, reporting for The Verge: Southwest Airlines flight 944 from Louisville to Baltimore was evacuated this morning while still at the gate because of a smoking Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. All passengers and crew exited the plane via the main cabin door and no injuries were reported, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told The Verge. More worryingly, the phone in question was a replacement Galaxy Note 7, one that was deemed to be safe by Samsung. The Verge spoke to Brian Green, owner of the Note 7, on the phone earlier today and he confirmed that he had picked up the new phone at an AT&T store on September 21st. A photograph of the box shows the black square symbol that indicates a replacement Note 7 and Green said it had a green battery icon.A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines said, "prior to the Southwest Airlines Flight 994 departing from Louisville for Baltimore, a customer reported smoke emitting from an electronic device. All customers and crew deplaned safely via the main cabin door. Customers will be accommodated on other Southwest flights to their final destinations. Safety is always our top priority at Southwest and we encourage our customers to comply with the FAA Pack Safe Guidelines."

266 comments

  1. pffft by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    just put it out with one of the snakes.

    1. Re:pffft by npslider · · Score: 1

      Does Samuel Jackson use a Note 7?

    2. Re:pffft by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

      Not any more.

    3. Re:pffft by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Does Samuel Jackson use a Note 7?

      It would explain his Kirkian over-acting: "Why ... are ... my ... fucking hands ... so goddam ... HOT!"

  2. Samsung marketing is on fire by sinij · · Score: 5, Funny

    Samsung marketing must be on fire after every US airline on every flight asks passengers to put away their Galaxies. You couldn't possibly increase brand awareness and establish lasting image more than that.

    1. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by PCM2 · · Score: 2

      True story: I saw a sign at San Francisco International Airport that specifically said Galaxy Note 7 phones were banned from all flights. I wish I had taken a photo.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    2. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It's not US. I was on an Iberian Express flight from Madrid and they specifically called out Galaxy Note 7s in the terminals at Madrid and Amsterdam, as well as in the plane itself.

    3. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Schipol Amsterdam is constantly putting it over the loudspeaker in the terminal. Mind you they are always willing to show off Dutch directness with their loudspeaker: "Passenger Jones you are delaying your flight, if you do not report to the gate in 5 minutes we will remove your baggage from the plane."

    4. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just Flew on Jet Blue and Southwest.
      Both said Unplug them and leave them off.

    5. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by scubamage · · Score: 1

      God I love the Dutch. I can't wait to immigrate (if they'll have me).

    6. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by unixisc · · Score: 1

      So this phone is an international blast!

    7. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Funny story from someone who has lived in many places in the world. The Americans are openly welcoming and will love to show you their city and take you to all the great places to eat. The Australians similarly will take you camping, joke about drop-bears, and get you involved straight away in backyard BBQs. Most people around the world will do something welcoming like help you speak the language, give you tips to get settled in, and the like.

      Moving to the Netherlands was the first time I have experienced my immigration being met with confusion. I have been asked on multiple occasions what I'm doing here (holiday, temporary work, etc) and when saying I moved here the answer has almost been universally the same. *confused look* "Why?"

    8. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      That is funny! I received the exact same response in northern coastal Norway when I would tell people I was visiting as a tourist. They would look at me pityingly and confusedly, search for the polite way to express it, and settle on "...Why?"

      I've always lived in tourist destinations and never wondered why people visit. It was eye opening to imagine living somewhere where they never see tourists, to the point that seeing one is so unusual it must be commented upon.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    9. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by scubamage · · Score: 2
      LOL! I just really like everything about Dutch culture that I've encountered in my several visits. I like how the sense of social conservatism has developed in the Netherlands in a way that makes sense - stay out of each other's lives and shut up. I like that their socialism comes from a business oriented perspective (it saves everyone cash if we make the best out of economies of scale, and more people can buy stuff if they aren't sick). I understand taxes are high, but it's one of the few places where I've woken up and walked outside to literally see road workers scrubbing down the cobblestone on the street. I like the perspective on human vices - if you can't stop people from doing it, control it and tax it. I love the obsession with bikes. I like the disdain towards conspicuous consumption, despite being a rather wealthy nation. I love the directness. It's just one of the few places in the world that I've visited and felt "this feels like home." It sucks every time I leave.

      Also, if global warming projections are true, I'd prefer to live in a country with the worlds best hydro-engineers, ha!

    10. Re: Samsung marketing is on fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Japan they assume you are are turist, if you say you are working they assume you teach English. In both cases they ask when you are leaving.

    11. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Also, if global warming projections are true, I'd prefer to live in a country with the worlds best hydro-engineers, ha!

      You probably should pick a country where more of it is above the current sea level.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    12. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      here.

      https://4d0850cecf2c5ce919d5-17b283ac00835b5ced4db83c898330a1.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/11924193_us-airlines-tell-passengers-to-turn-off_7e2752b8_m.jpg?bg=757877

    13. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by azrael29a · · Score: 1

      It's not US. I was on an Iberian Express flight from Madrid and they specifically called out Galaxy Note 7s in the terminals at Madrid and Amsterdam, as well as in the plane itself.

      Yup. I heard the same warning on a TAP Portugal flight from Lisbon - "turn off your Galaxy Note 7". Now that's a real turn-off for potential Samsung phone buyers (including myself).

    14. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I saw a similar on Tokyo a few weeks ago. It did mention that fixed ones were okay though.

      One smoking phone isn't evidence of much though. We have had the odd smoking iPhone 7 as well. Any product where there are a very large number of units in the field using large lithium batteries in unknown conditions (maybe the owner damaged it or submerged it beyond the manufacturer's limits) is going to have a few spectacular failures. It's certainly nothing like the multiple widespread failures they were seeing previously.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      I saw a sign at San Francisco International Airport that specifically said Galaxy Note 7 phones were banned from all flights.

      Maybe they need to rename it the Samsung Galaxy M67.

    16. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by michelcolman · · Score: 2

      I wish I had taken a photo

      with something other than my Galaxy Note 7...

    17. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      I do love its feature set:
      - Play games - check
      - Play music - check
      - Social media - check
      - Take pictures - check
      - Make phone calls - check
      - Built-in flashlight - check
      - Start camp fires - check

      Is there anything it can't do?

    18. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by pdclarry · · Score: 1

      Apparently it WAS off when it caught fire.

    19. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Is there anything it can't do?

      According to an earlier post by a slashdotter.....

      It's can't go on planes at SFO.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    20. Re:Samsung marketing is on fire by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I do love its feature set: - Play games - check - Play music - check - Social media - check - Take pictures - check - Make phone calls - check - Built-in flashlight - check - Start camp fires - check

      Is there anything it can't do?

      The last one can only be done once!

  3. Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somehow Apple is to blame for all of this, I can feel it in my Android phone.

    1. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      If Jobs were Samsung CEO: "It's because you're holding your Galaxy wrong."

    2. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Aaden42 · · Score: 0

      If Jobs were Samsung CEO, he would have personally thrown somebody out a fricking window over this.

    3. Re:Sarcastic comment... by npslider · · Score: 4, Funny

      If Steve Ballmer were Samsung CEO, he would have personally ripped each and every airline seat out and thrown every last one of them at the customer with the smoking phone.

    4. Re:Sarcastic comment... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Somehow Apple is to blame for all of this, I can feel it in my Android phone.

      The Farce is strong with this one...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    5. Re:Sarcastic comment... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      But Ballmer got fired for running another phone company into the ground.

      Perhaps he didn't throw enough chairs at people.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    6. Re:Sarcastic comment... by unixisc · · Score: 2, Funny

      If Jobs were still around and Apple CEO, he'd have gloated, "Serves you right for stealing our ideas."

    7. Re:Sarcastic comment... by unixisc · · Score: 2

      I thought he left after turning a somewhat okay software company into a phone and data mining company

    8. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      But he'd still keep it, calling it Microsoft Flame.

    9. Re:Sarcastic comment... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      minus the phone part, and about $15B, and 25000 jobs.

      They're now basically a SaaS company, with a side of Iaas.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    10. Re:Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      If Jobs were still around and Apple CEO, he'd have gloated, "Serves you right for stealing our ideas."

      LOL! Perfect!

    11. Re:Sarcastic comment... by npslider · · Score: 2

      Apple told me that Ballmer was not throwing the chairs right.

      It's a matter of quality experience over quantity.

    12. Re:Sarcastic comment... by npslider · · Score: 1

      So the iPhone 7 ALSO has an explosive hidden feature?

    13. Re:Sarcastic comment... by npslider · · Score: 1

      May the Farce be with you... always.

    14. Re:Sarcastic comment... by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Actually, I was referencing Jobs umbrage at Eric Schmidt for Google adapting iOS ideas in Android, but touche!

    15. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's funny how Apple fanbois genuinely think Apple invented everything and support Apple's idiotic notion that everybody is copying them while ignoring all the times Apple copies everybody else. As an iPhone user im glad they copied things like Android's notification center and Windows Phone's multitasking interface (Apple's original attempt at that was pathetic) because good ideas should be copied and not monopolized.

    16. Re: Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No he wouldn't, considering he ran Microsoft into the ground and threw nothing.

    17. Re:Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      It's funny how Apple fanbois genuinely think Apple invented everything and support Apple's idiotic notion that everybody is copying them

      THIS is what we were talking about. As you can plainly see, it is just a BIT more than a single feature or two.

      Now STFU.

    18. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I thought all it took was courage...

    19. Re: Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Galaxy S and S II. Seriously? Still that sore?

    20. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      As you can plainly see, it is just a BIT more than a single feature or two.

      Yes it is 3, from the link:
      remove slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quick link software

      But it doesnt matter, Apple copies the ideas of others (just as others do with Apple) and that is a very good thing why cant you admit that? Can you list any of the things that Apple copied from Google and Microsoft? Surely you are aware of them right? You dont actually think Apple invented every idea in their products do you?

    21. Re:Sarcastic comment... by CodeArtisan · · Score: 2

      If Jobs were Samsung CEO, he would have personally thrown somebody out a fricking window over this.

      Apple certainly has experience with it. Their exploding laptop batteries date from around 2004 and were still exploding in 2013.

    22. Re: Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Galaxy S and S II. Seriously? Still that sore?

      Ok, let's just fast-forward to the iPhone 7 and the S7. Just look at these two phones (by the way, that link was chosen only for the fact that the pictures nicely show how stylistically similar the S7 is to the iPhone 7, both in case an UI design), and tell me that Samsung isn't still following Apple around nearly line by line, pixel by pixel, look and feel-wise. Yeah. Still that sore. You bet!

    23. Re:Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      As you can plainly see, it is just a BIT more than a single feature or two.

      Yes it is 3, from the link: remove slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quick link software

      But it doesnt matter, Apple copies the ideas of others (just as others do with Apple) and that is a very good thing why cant you admit that? Can you list any of the things that Apple copied from Google and Microsoft? Surely you are aware of them right? You dont actually think Apple invented every idea in their products do you?

      But in the case of the original iPhone, it was THE WHOLE FRICKIN' THING!!!

    24. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But in the case of the original iPhone, it was THE WHOLE FRICKIN' THING!!!

      The idea of a touchscreen phone for example? I think not. But as I said, you just cant bring yourself to admit Apple copies ideas from other companies.

    25. Re:Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      But in the case of the original iPhone, it was THE WHOLE FRICKIN' THING!!!

      The idea of a touchscreen phone for example? I think not. But as I said, you just cant bring yourself to admit Apple copies ideas from other companies.

      Seriously? From 4 feet away, the phones are IDENTICAL, both in form and in UI. That is FAR more than the single design elements or single components that you are basing your "rebuttal" on.

    26. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Angeret · · Score: 1

      Just checking... Is that Software or Surveillance as a Service? ;)

    27. Re:Sarcastic comment... by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Well now you're just being redundant.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    28. Re:Sarcastic comment... by Angeret · · Score: 1

      With skills like these I could work in the department of redundancy department.

    29. Re: Sarcastic comment... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      So, what exactly do you see that is the same? I see the generic phone icon...and that is about it. Everything else that is not dictated by purpose looks entirely different. Sorry, but the location of the speaker grill is kind of a universal for phones, and rounded corners are still a normal thing.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    30. Re: Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      So, what exactly do you see that is the same? I see the generic phone icon...and that is about it. Everything else that is not dictated by purpose looks entirely different. Sorry, but the location of the speaker grill is kind of a universal for phones, and rounded corners are still a normal thing.

      Oh please. Just like the first iPhone and its Samsung doppelgänger, from 6 ft. Away, you simply can't reliable pick which one is the iPhone and which is the Samsung. Both the overall design and the UI are just THAT similar.

    31. Re: Sarcastic comment... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      That is true of every smartphone in existence. So what that means is that Apple copied my Nexus phone, so they are more guilty of copying.

      They look nothing alike, you are just too pro Apple to even see the differences.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    32. Re: Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      That is true of every smartphone in existence. So what that means is that Apple copied my Nexus phone, so they are more guilty of copying.

      They look nothing alike, you are just too pro Apple to even see the differences.

      They all look alike, because they have been copying the iPhone (which was quite different from every other phone, and especially every other Android phone when it debuted) since the original iPhone in 2007. You are just too anti-Apple to see that. But maybe this will jog your memory. Or maybe this.

      Why must I re-litigate this every other WEEK on Slashdot, when the evidence, dated nearly a YEAR after the iPhone debut and nearly 6 months after its RELEASE, regarding who-copied-who is right there in black and white? Heck, Android didn't even HAVE touch-input capabilities AT ALL until more than a YEAR after the first iPhone debuted!

      So please, just stop. You're just embarrassing yourself.

    33. Re: Sarcastic comment... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      So, Apple copied the Palm Pilots?

      You just don't get it. Apple made Palm Pilots with Cell phones built in, they copied their predecessor. The reason you have to keep repeating yourself is because you are wrong. Just because you willfully ignore all that came before your precious Apple, doesn't make it not exist.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Oh wait, someone else beat Apple to the Palm Pilot with a cell phone:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So I guess you can point right at that and say, Apple copied it.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    34. Re: Sarcastic comment... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      So, Apple copied the Palm Pilots?

      You just don't get it. Apple made Palm Pilots with Cell phones built in, they copied their predecessor. The reason you have to keep repeating yourself is because you are wrong. Just because you willfully ignore all that came before your precious Apple, doesn't make it not exist.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Oh wait, someone else beat Apple to the Palm Pilot with a cell phone:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So I guess you can point right at that and say, Apple copied it.

      Really? You really think those PDAs are anything like the iPhone, just because they have some limited touch capability? I owned a Tungsten T5, and the touchscreen was an abysmal piece of shit, the OS was an abysmal piece of shit, the syncing software was an abysmal piece of shit, and the "software" was, well, best left unmentioned.

      Pretty annoying, too, considering the amount of ex-Apple engineering talent that originally started Palm.

  4. The problem is the battery itself by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0

    Never were tested for operation at full power running multiple things in fast-changing environments where the signals keep changing rapidly.

    Stresses the battery, which reacts differently due to the reduced cabin pressure at higher elevation.

    Basic physics. Or at least it was during my Engineering Physics courses this year.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:The problem is the battery itself by houstonbofh · · Score: 1

      Testing? That is what users do!

    2. Re:The problem is the battery itself by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Informative

      Stresses the battery, which reacts differently due to the reduced cabin pressure at higher elevation.

      Basic physics. Or at least it was during my Engineering Physics courses this year.

      From TFS:

      Southwest Airlines flight 944 from Louisville to Baltimore was evacuated this morning while still at the gate ...

      Basic reading. Spend more time in those classes. :-)

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Aaden42 · · Score: 0

      What part of “reduced cabin pressure” was at play for a plane that hadn’t even taken off yet?

    4. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Except your explanation doesn't deal with basic physics, it deals with quality control. If you were discussing impact of pressure on heat generated by battery due to formulation or heat generated by chipsets during operation due to resistance, ect that would be basic physics. I doubt this falls into that category, more likely there is a contaminant in the battery that increases the internal resistance that is causing the issue, once again an issue of quality control.

    5. Re:The problem is the battery itself by gweihir · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As most smartphone batteries can handle that, I suspect problem with the design itself (like battery-unfriendly power regulators or the battery being heated-up by some other device close to it or a general departure from best-practices observed so far) and, and that is what makes this pretty bad, faulty issue identification. It may just be that the batteries are, in principle, fine. Or that the replacement-batteries have the same issue. Or, as you suspect, a mismatch between the battery and its use, and inadequate testing to compound the error.

      It may, of course, be also be a decision by "managers" to ignore concerns of engineers and to push this thing, and then the replacements, out the door fast.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:The problem is the battery itself by ebrandsberg · · Score: 1

      The phone had been turned off, and the plane hadn't departed yet. Also, the user had only used wireless charging previously (per the article).

    7. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Dan+East · · Score: 1

      Yes but did he board the plane there, or was he already on board? If the latter then the phone just got done experiencing a pressure cycle from a flight.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    8. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "But we fired the whole QA department last year and saved a bunch of money. You were happy at the time, boss... remember?"

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    9. Re:The problem is the battery itself by npslider · · Score: 1

      Correction: "That's what Google *Beta* users do!

    10. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Setting aside for the moment that the plane wasn't yet pressurized since it was still sitting at the gate, cabin pressure at cruising altitude is roughly equivalent to 8,000 ft or 2,400 m (it's commonly compared to the air pressure in Denver, even though Denver sits a bit lower than that). If Samsung hadn't tested their phone to deal with pressures like that, then the phone would be unusuable in a whole lot of major cities that sit at high altitude, mostly affecting Mexico and South America, but with a few in places like China, India, and the Middle East as well.

      Despite the fact that Samsung clearly has some major quality control issues to resolve, I find it hard to believe that they neglected to account for the fact that people routinely live at altitude.

    11. Re:The problem is the battery itself by nycsubway · · Score: 2

      If only the battery were replaceable, without needing to take apart the whole phone to replace it... it would have cost Samsung a lot less to replace just the battery instead of the whole phone. Too bad.

    12. Re:The problem is the battery itself by GrumpySteen · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you'd bothered to read the article, you'd have seen the part where it said "Green said that he had powered down the phone as requested by the flight crew." Flight crews don't ask you to power down your phone after the flight is over.

    13. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I fly quite a bit and often have connections. It's possible he had one too.

    14. Re:The problem is the battery itself by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Since when did Microsoft start running Samsung's Galaxy division?

    15. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Never were tested for operation at full power running multiple things in fast-changing environments where the signals keep changing rapidly.

      Stresses the battery, which reacts differently due to the reduced cabin pressure at higher elevation.

      Basic physics. Or at least it was during my Engineering Physics courses this year.

      Wow! You oughta start working for Samsung's PR department with that much spin-ability.

      Funny that no one else's phones burst into flames with frightning regularity.

      Oh, and what about all the sea-level (or at least not at cabin-pressure) examples? What's your excuse for them?

      Bottom line: Samsung seems to be valuing quick charge time (which they probably felt they have to to with their massive battery) over safety, and THOUGHT they could get away with higher battery temps during charging. That, or something is radically-wrong with their batteries or their built-in temp. sensors (or the software/hardware that is monitoring them).

      This is the second time I've heard of a supposedly "Fixed" Samsung phone going all explodio; so now what?

    16. Re: The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plane was in the ground and about 100 million lithium ion batteties are out there flying even day ..

    17. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Except your explanation doesn't deal with basic physics, it deals with quality control. If you were discussing impact of pressure on heat generated by battery due to formulation or heat generated by chipsets during operation due to resistance, ect that would be basic physics. I doubt this falls into that category, more likely there is a contaminant in the battery that increases the internal resistance that is causing the issue, once again an issue of quality control.

      But in any event, the temp sensor should be monitoring the battery temp, and reducing/stopping the charge cycle as the battery temp increases.

      But it is not.

    18. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      The phone had been turned off, and the plane hadn't departed yet. Also, the user had only used wireless charging previously (per the article).

      Ah! The Samsung TV commercials crow about "FAST, wireless charging".

      They are pushing it to charge that nearly 4,000 mAh-battery in the same roughly 2 hours that iPhones charge their little over 2,000 mAh one. As a result, my iPhone 6 plus barely breaks a sweat while charging (except on my damn car charger!), while I bet the Samsung is almost too hot to touch. Add to that the heat from the eddy-currents from the wireless charger itself (can't remember the name of that effect, but it's the same thing that makes induction cooktops work), and...

      So, Samsung has a power-hog design/OS, and as a result, has had to put in nearly double the battery as the iPhone. But the marketing people didn't want to advertise a FOUR-HOUR charge-cycle, and so told the engineering team "Damn the torpedos! Full Charge Ahead!"

      I will just BET that's what happened here.

    19. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The S7 runs Android 6.0.1 "Marshmallow"......... I think I spot the problem.

    20. Re:The problem is the battery itself by npslider · · Score: 1

      I see smore problems for Samsung coming soon.

    21. Re:The problem is the battery itself by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      That's even worse. Must have been catching Pokemon

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    22. Re:The problem is the battery itself by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Ah! The Samsung TV commercials crow about "FAST, wireless charging".

      They are pushing it to charge that nearly 4,000 mAh-battery in the same roughly 2 hours that iPhones charge their little over 2,000 mAh one. As a result, my iPhone 6 plus barely breaks a sweat while charging (except on my damn car charger!), while I bet the Samsung is almost too hot to touch. Add to that the heat from the eddy-currents from the wireless charger itself (can't remember the name of that effect, but it's the same thing that makes induction cooktops work), and...

      So, Samsung has a power-hog design/OS, and as a result, has had to put in nearly double the battery as the iPhone. But the marketing people didn't want to advertise a FOUR-HOUR charge-cycle, and so told the engineering team "Damn the torpedos! Full Charge Ahead!"

      I will just BET that's what happened here.

      so they wound their coils too tightly to get a faster charge? Hmm, is the material used shedding too much heat, due to some cost saving (or mass saving to cut down on weight)?

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    23. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      Samsung may have screwed up but:
      > So, Samsung has a power-hog design/OS, and as a result, has had to put in nearly double the battery as the iPhone.

      This is asinine.

    24. Re:The problem is the battery itself by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      While others pointed out it was at the gate, I believe I was referencing a fast moving plane trying to pick up and transition between multiple signals.

      If at the gate, could it have been the proximity of lots of people using smartphones nearby, going in and out of range? Or was the person trying to rapid charge the phone, having overheated it playing Pokemon Go and watching vids right before?

      Either way, it's a design flaw.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    25. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 1

      No, replaceable batteries aren't the solution. They would probably make the situation worse, in fact. If the battery were replaceable, end users would be replacing them with the cheapest Chinese gray-market batteries they could find, made from lithium ore containing higher-than-permitted levels of lead, melamine, white phosphorus, and plutonium.

    26. Re:The problem is the battery itself by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      I've heard of eight catching on fire, most at altitude, and a related airborne battery problem with avionics systems, hence my supposition.

      If at a gate, it's more likely the rapid charge cycle being used immeadiately after overheating from overuse before boarding, as a design flaw.

      So we've narrowed it down to bad design, then. Unless you think phones lighting on fire is a good design, that is.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    27. Re:The problem is the battery itself by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Stresses the battery, which reacts differently due to the reduced cabin pressure at higher elevation.

      Nothing to do with that, the plane hadn't even taken off.

    28. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For once I agree with you my fanboi friend.
      I can tell you that both the fast charge and the wireless charge on my Note 5 cause a bit of heat. I could see if they were trying to wireless fast charge how you could end up with a real heat issue. To avoid the issue myself I tend to use a third party charger limited to 1 amp. Its fast enough for me and it doesn't create a hot potato.

    29. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Samsung may have screwed up but: > So, Samsung has a power-hog design/OS, and as a result, has had to put in nearly double the battery as the iPhone.

      This is asinine.

      Really?

      According to Ars, the GN7 only gets about 6% extra battery life than the iPhone 7 in one test (and pretty much equal in the other), and a little LESS than the iPhone 7 plus; yet according to Samsung's specs and Apple's, the GN7's battery is nearly TWICE the capacity of the iPhone 7s.

      That extra capacity isn't buying TWICE the battery-life; so, all things being equal, the Sammy HAS to be suckin' down the current at nearly TWICE the rate of the iPhone 7.

    30. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      so they wound their coils too tightly to get a faster charge? Hmm, is the material used shedding too much heat, due to some cost saving (or mass saving to cut down on weight)?

      Don't really know; but I would bet you can fry an egg on an S7 that's charging...

    31. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      For once I agree with you my fanboi friend. I can tell you that both the fast charge and the wireless charge on my Note 5 cause a bit of heat. I could see if they were trying to wireless fast charge how you could end up with a real heat issue. To avoid the issue myself I tend to use a third party charger limited to 1 amp. Its fast enough for me and it doesn't create a hot potato.

      Still couldn't resist the "dig", though...

      Oh well. Baby steps, I guess.

      I can't find any real information on just HOW hot the S7 gets in Fast Charge mode; but I DO know you can NOW turn that off, so that tells me they figured out it really wasn't a great idea.

    32. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know cabins are pressurized, right fucktard? And how the fuck do you know if something was tested against certain stressors or not?

      Basic physics. Or at least it was during my Engineering Physics courses this year.
       
      Oh, I see... you've had a little course and now you're the expert... Students are such fucking retards.

    33. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the second time I've heard of a supposedly "Fixed" Samsung phone going all explodio; so now what?

      What was the first one?

    34. Re: The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better than working for the PR department of Faggots Inc. Oh, sorry, Fruit Computers.

      Only reason you're here is to push whatever the ghost of Steve Jobs' pancreas told you to. Maybe mutter something about privacy while you're polishing Cook's knob.

    35. Re: The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do know that posting anonymously doesn't make it impossible to identify you, right macs4all?

      Or were you so convinced by Tim Cook's privacy faggotry that you were too busy masturbating to come up with a better troll?

    36. Re:The problem is the battery itself by chasm22 · · Score: 1

      The problem is between your ears. Samsung charges its phones using quallcom technology. Just like damn near everyone. It's old tech now, on revision 3. Old, SUCCESSFUL tech.

      They follow the Qi wireless standard for their wireless charging. As does just about every other phone maker that offers it. Their fast wireless charging is the latest Qi standard. The wireless charger itself contains an almost imperceptible fan to deal with heat.

      As an Apple fanboy, your responses are as predictable as they are wrong. I understand some of the problem. You haven't a clue about Qi wireless charging or Quick Charge because Apple hasn't quite come around to the modern technology in use for several years on Androids.

      Oh, I hear that fast charge is something the iPhone 7 could use. It's coming in last place in just about every battery test out when measured against the current Android's. Wow! Double whammy. Shrimpy battery life and no quick charge.

      Oh well. I see Apple has already released an iPhone 7 edition of that beautiful case with the built in battery. Yeah, that's a great solution. Really turns the phone into a beauty. Maybe you could post a couple of hundred links to some Chinese stuff?

    37. Re:The problem is the battery itself by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      never had a cheap chinese battery self-ignite

    38. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      This is the second time I've heard of a supposedly "Fixed" Samsung phone going all explodio; so now what?

      What was the first one?

      A few days ago. Think it was someone in the Far East.

    39. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      They follow the Qi wireless standard for their wireless charging. As does just about every other phone maker that offers it. Their fast wireless charging is the latest Qi standard. The wireless charger itself contains an almost imperceptible fan to deal with heat.

      The issue isn't wig he CHARGER overheating, it's with the BATTERY. And I doubt seriously that the case of the phone is rated at enough Wattage of heat-dissipation to allow fast-enough heat flow out of the battery, especially when the case isn't really designed to be an efficient heat sink.

      You see, what you don't know is that I have been an embedded developer for about four decades, with the majority of my experience in 1/8 to 5 hp. industrial DC and AC motor drive products. So don't presume that, because of my preferred platform choice, that I am a mindless Apple zealot that doesn't know anything but how to FaceTime and okay frickin' Pokemon Go.

      I doubt seriously that the iPhone 7 needs a battery-killing "Fast Charge" mode. My iPhone 6 Plus will charge from 0% to 100% in under two hours, and about 35% in about 20 mins. And that's using Apple's little "cube" charger.

    40. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't spend much time on YouTube, I take it

    41. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should get a refund for that course.

    42. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      or the battery being heated-up by some other device close to it

      Like what, tubesteak smothered in underwear??

    43. Re:The problem is the battery itself by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      They do burn twice as long, though.

    44. Re:The problem is the battery itself by macs4all · · Score: 1

      They do burn twice as long, though.

      So, you're saying Samsung should start rating their battery in BTU, rather than mAh? ;-)

    45. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've also never died, so I guess that must never happen to anyone else either.

    46. Re:The problem is the battery itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was also never dropped on my head as an infant, so we don't have that in common either.

  5. On the plus side, phones soon not to be allowed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on commercial aircraft!

    1. Re:On the plus side, phones soon not to be allowed by houstonbofh · · Score: 2

      on commercial aircraft!

      Or at least it is a good argument for removable batteries... Think of one of these in checked baggage!

  6. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Joke's on him, as airplane travel is one of the times I need both the headphone jack and charge port at the same time. When you have nothing better to do but play with your phone and listen to music for several hours straight, you're going to need to charge.

    I vaguely recall a Samsung ad about how useful replaceable batteries are in that scenario as well, but they seem to have forgotten about that...

  7. Re: On the plus side, phones soon not to be allowe by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Your devices must be off at all times in flight and in the provided fire proof box

  8. ?No comprendo? by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 1

    What?

    One smoking phone battery and:

    * The plane is evacuated.
    * The flight is cancelled.

    What?

    How would it not be enough to fling the phone out the door and carry on?

    1. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      that'd be too easy and not nearly disruptive enough. You must be new to air travel in the united states.

    2. Re:?No comprendo? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the airline wanted to do a careful analysis of the event and possible repercussions thereof since they have a 100 million dollar plane and a hundred or so human lives hanging on a successful flight.

      Sometimes reality isn't the first thing that shows up.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:?No comprendo? by Sneftel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Try to envision a world in which the FAA would write a regulation including the phrase "but if it's just a SMALL fire, then heck, just toss it out the door and carry on".

      --
      The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
    4. Re:?No comprendo? by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      I don't want to breathe recycled LiOn smoke for 3 hours.

    5. Re:?No comprendo? by sims+2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I remember a story about a guy that had his ipod fall into the airplane toilet and they deplaned and went to interrogating people.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    6. Re:?No comprendo? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 0

      because, "abundance of caution".

      I have never heard that phrase until fairly recently. Now every time something out of ordinary happens, there's a wild overreaction and statement from pussified officials saying "out of an abundance of caution".

      Not sure if it's because females have been more power (females tend to be more safety-oriented and risk-averse). Maybe not, maybe all this cowering in fear and craving for safety would've happened regardless of femlib and is just a sign of general decline in a society.

      I don't feel all that old, but lemme tell ya... when I was a kid nobody wore bicycle helmets. None of my friends died in bicycle accidents and none of us died from lawn darts either.

    7. Re:?No comprendo? by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The smoke is potentially pretty toxic, the device gets extremely hot (cannot be handled without high-temp gloves) and you cannot put out a lithium fire. You have to let it burn, maybe put sand on it. Hence removing it without making the problem worse is tricky. On the other hand, you can get the passengers out fast (airplanes are designed for that) and that will put everyone in a safe situation reliably. Hence the decision to evacuate is the only right choice here.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    8. Re:?No comprendo? by Tangential · · Score: 1

      Overreaction is a key component of all aspects of commercial aviation these days

      --
      Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
    9. Re:?No comprendo? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Probably because a plane featuring air with a not-insignificant amount of smoke from a chemical fire isn't a very good idea for your passengers.

      And I'm sure there's some FAA regulation about littering on the runway from an open hatch on a fucking 737.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    10. Re:?No comprendo? by cdrudge · · Score: 2

      careful analysis of the event and possible repercussions thereof since they have a 100 million dollar plane

      Please. That 737-700 probably was only $50m or $60m. They could have risked it.

    11. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 5, Funny

      That must have created quite the shit storm.

    12. Re:?No comprendo? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Informative

      Toxic gas gets released in a closed environment, a fire starts on a plane, and you think it's abnormal that the smoke be cleared out before a 100 million dollar plane and hundreds of lives are risked?

      I don't feel all that old, but lemme tell ya... when I was a kid nobody wore bicycle helmets. None of my friends died in bicycle accidents and none of us died from lawn darts either.

      Nice anecdote grandpa. Since your time, we invented this idea of "statistics" and "collecting data". Fact is, more than 6,000 kids died in the eight years before lawn darts were banned. Now, is it worth banning just to save 763 lives a year? That's a judgement call. But it's not "this activity is perfectly safe, overreaching 'crats." Fun sidenote, apparently the most common cause of injury wasn't among the contestants, but because someone overthrew it into someone else's yard.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    13. Re:?No comprendo? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

      Overreaction is a key component

      I set a fire in the backseat of your car, I dare you to drive ten more miles without "overreacting" to the smoke filling the car and getting out...

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    14. Re:?No comprendo? by swb · · Score: 2

      If they were real lucky, they could have tossed it out and hit a refueling truck. With any luck they would have gotten enough of a fire going to knock out a couple of planes and maybe destroy a terminal wing in the process.

      I do kind of wonder if maybe planes shouldn't have a containment vessel on the plane, some kind of portable cylinder that something dangerous could be thrown into that could be sealed tight.

      I don't know what you'd make it out of, maybe some kind of steel cylinder with a ceramic liner. It'd probably be nice if it could be made explosion resistant to something like hand grenade levels to boot.

    15. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 2

      Such a world would be... business as usual:

      They would create an entire new government entity: Federal Aviation Fire Administration or FAFA; to define the exact definition of a federal fire, it's acceptable heat limits for a given altitude, create the Approved Combustible Items List (ACIL), nominate a new cabinet level position, and double the budget for the FAA to allow for US Phone Marshals to be on all flights.

    16. Re:?No comprendo? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

      you cannot put out a lithium fire

      You're wrong. The FAA produced a video showing several methods of extinguishing lithium battery fires ranked in order of effectiveness using the things available onboard the aircraft.

    17. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 1

      Second hand smoke has not been proven to be harmful outside the state of California, or while flying over a "Red" state.

    18. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh, you missed your chance. Yours is OK. But here, try this:

      I wonder who had to face the music when the shit hit the fan.

      That's how it is done...

    19. Re:?No comprendo? by hey! · · Score: 2

      Well, this is what happens when you take safety very, very seriously. You don't leave any room for judgment on the people in the field. The rules probably say: in case of fire, EVACUATE THE PLANE. They don't say, in case of fire, check to see whether it's a sufficiently big one and then evacuate the plane, although that does accord better with common sense.

      You could do the common sense thing and tell the crew, "use your best judgment". But if you're smart you have your actuaries look over the relative costs of (a) the eventually inevitable occurrence of one individual making a bone-headedly bad decision with hundreds of lives in the balance and (b) the cost of a the unnecessary evacuations a simple-to-follow but inflexible rule causes.

      The difference between making a decision for an individual event and weighing the net impact of many such decisions is behind a lot of the incomprehensible annoyances we put up with in modern life.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    20. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 3, Funny

      The problem is they don't make 'em like they used to.

      You see, older model Adult Replacement Units (sometimes called children), were made in the good old US of A, and were more durable thanks to the efforts of hard working, patriotic, flag waving union workers. These models were able to tolerate lower levels of caution without voiding the warranty. The new models being constructed today are all imported, cheaply made and have limited warranties. Greater caution is required with these updated units. It's comparable to mobile phones: old brick phones were nearly indestructible, nowadays, newfangled smarty-pants phones need helmets to protect there sensitive innards.

      Like I said, the new models just aren't as good as they used to be. ;)

       

    21. Re:?No comprendo? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      How would it not be enough to fling the phone out the door and carry on?

      Out the door? You mean where there's potentially a refuelling truck at work?

    22. Re:?No comprendo? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Hahahaha, no. They are assuming that only some (one) cell burns and then they can prevent the others from catching fire. And they induce by external heat, not by in-cell problems.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    23. Re:?No comprendo? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2

      Nice anecdote grandpa. Since your time, we invented this idea of "statistics" and "collecting data". Fact is, more than 6,000 kids died in the eight years before lawn darts were banned. Now, is it worth banning just to save 763 lives a year? That's a judgement call. But it's not "this activity is perfectly safe, overreaching 'crats." Fun sidenote, apparently the most common cause of injury wasn't among the contestants, but because someone overthrew it into someone else's yard.

      Well I'm 44 now... imma assume you're 24 and everything going on today looks normal and peachy to you. But in 20 years when you're my age you're gonna look around in disgust and say "WTF happened, things used to be so much better when I was young"

    24. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 1

      As long as they Flush out the culprit!

    25. Re:?No comprendo? by npslider · · Score: 1

      They can merely write it off on next years taxes...

    26. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The issue is not the Burning Battery. It will burn itself out pretty quickly..
      The Issue is it is hot enough to set any combustables it touches on fire.

    27. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about some statistics that correlate morbid obesity to spending time in front of a computer writing long winded comments, asshole?

    28. Re:?No comprendo? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      The smoking phone was hot enough to damage the plane, and the toxic smoke filled the plane and had to be purged and cleaned. When one cigarette sets one sheet of paper on fire in a trash can, hundreds are evacuated from the building so the fire department can investigate. That's standard. To take less care with an airplane would be insane.

    29. Re:?No comprendo? by larryjoe · · Score: 4, Informative

      Fact is, more than 6,000 kids died in the eight years before lawn darts were banned.

      Numbers like those would have raised much greater societal outrage, not to mention media coverage. Googling for the real numbers shows that 6100 people of all ages went to the hospital due to lawn dart injuries during those eight years. About three-quarters of those people were kids, and of those there were 3 deaths. That's still a huge concern, but nowhere near thousands of deaths.

    30. Re:?No comprendo? by ncc74656 · · Score: 1

      And I'm sure there's some FAA regulation about littering on the runway from an open hatch on a fucking 737.

      "FOD is bad...m'kay?"
      -- if Mr. Mackey were a maintainer, not a counselor

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    31. Re:?No comprendo? by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Overreaction is a key component

      I set a fire in the backseat of your car, I dare you to drive ten more miles without "overreacting" to the smoke filling the car and getting out...

      You mean more like ONE more mile...

    32. Re:?No comprendo? by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

      Try to envision a world in which the FAA would write a regulation including the phrase "but if it's just a SMALL fire, then heck, just toss it out the door and carry on".

      I LIKE THIS WORLD! Where do I sign up?? Sounds like if that successful and properly managed risk philosophy were applied evenly at all levels of human endeavor... it may even yield.. other benefits.

      Like less suckage. Like America in the 50s. A world just as dangerous as Today's World for many, but it sucked a whole lot less.

      If you LIKE the world you live in and are getting ready to troll me, I just trumped your argument. Today's World you love so much could never have been the result of a Today's kind of world. It would actually more closely resemble Tomorrow's World, which will suck even more.

      --
      <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    33. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's litigous americans, of course companies, governments and people are going to er on the side of caution because when a problem comes along the american way is "I'll sue you". it's fucking pathetic and pretty sad but that's how it is in america these days. its going to cost you whether you're right or not.

    34. Re:?No comprendo? by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

      I'm also available for motivational speaking engagements.

      --
      <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    35. Re:?No comprendo? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Google backs this up. You're correct. That certainly changes the calculus dramatically.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    36. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like I said, the new models just aren't as good as they used to be. ;)

      Sure they are! Donald Trump doesn't have any trouble swapping out for a new immigrant wife every few years. Melania is getting a little long in the tooth, maybe this time he'll indulge his three-decade fantasy and marry Ivanka.

    37. Re: ?No comprendo? by bestweasel · · Score: 1

      "Out of an excess of caution".

      Almost any absurdity can be imposed by labelling it "health & safety" or "security" (or the tr*mp card "national security") at the behest of lawyers and authoritarians.

      Take the phone off the plane. Send it away for analysis. Interview the owner. That's all.

      What would happen if someone lit a cigarette on a plane? It was going to be rhetorical but I had a quick look:

      "On February 3, 2013, a family of four were accused of smoking during a Sunwing Airlines flight from Halifax to the Dominican Republic. They caused the flight to make an emergency landing at Bermuda L.F. Wade International Airport."

      Note how Wikipedia says they caused an emergency landing.

    38. Re:?No comprendo? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      you young people are drama queens

      look up how many little kids choke to death on hot dogs each year

      we still have hot dogs, sport

    39. Re: ?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't throw it out dude, that's littering. Just let the fucking plane burn.

    40. Re:?No comprendo? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I do kind of wonder if maybe planes shouldn't have a containment vessel on the plane, some kind of portable cylinder that something dangerous could be thrown into that could be sealed tight.
      I don't know what you'd make it out of, maybe some kind of steel cylinder with a ceramic liner. It'd probably be nice if it could be made explosion resistant to something like hand grenade levels to boot.

      Just having a battery fire in a sealed cylinder means you have a bomb. It needs to be vented to the outside. It's a very complex problem. I've heard that they do exist on some planes already, but I know zero details if true.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    41. Re:?No comprendo? by trawg · · Score: 2

      Man that is a long video. The methods are:

      - water
      - Halon 1211 fire extinguisher alone

      Also:
      - don't use ice
      - don't try and smother it

    42. Re:?No comprendo? by dywolf · · Score: 1

      not sure if parody of misogynistic ignorant conservative...
      or actual misogynistic ignorant conservative.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    43. Re:?No comprendo? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      And we don't have duels to the death. Ready for the next round of unrelated "do things still exist?"

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    44. Re:?No comprendo? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Except that Ivanka is not just married, but now has 3 kids.

    45. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fact is, more than 6,000 kids died in the eight years before lawn darts were banned.

      10 seconds in Wikipedia told me that 6000 people were sent to the hospital, not killed. It's not exactly the same thing...

    46. Re:?No comprendo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So? Donald Trump loves to fuck married women (when they don't turn him down) and grab them by the pussy.

    47. Re:?No comprendo? by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      We indeed still have duels to the death every weekend in our biggest cities.

  9. How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    do people have cameras ready, and immediately photograph something that caught fire, and the box it came in which was curiously brought along on the flight, for immediate publishing on the Internet? It seems as if the whole idea was to create even more bad press for the biggest foreign competitor in the U.S. phone market.

    1. Re:How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a really good question. I tend to hand on to the info part of the box from phones I buy (chop it out, throw away the box) for record keeping in case I ever need to report the phone stolen or something, but why did he happen to have a picture of the box, ready to go? Do we have any way to verify that the phone he used was really the phone that came from that box? How do we know this isn't yet another hoax trying to get money from Samsung?

      This whole thing seems fishy. I'd wait for Samsung to reply before taking any stock in this story.

    2. Re:How often by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      do people have cameras ready, and immediately photograph something that caught fire, and the box it came in which was curiously brought along on the flight, for immediate publishing on the Internet? It seems as if the whole idea was to create even more bad press for the biggest foreign competitor in the U.S. phone market.

      You must be new here. Everywhere I've gone in the past couple of years there have been cell phone cameras out and recording for anything remotely out of the ordinary and usually for perfectly mundane events (getting on a plane). The odds of any event in the US (and probably Europe and most parts of Asia) being photographed and / or videoed is getting awfully close to 1 these days.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:How often by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      He just bought the phone recently so he probably still had the box at home. His flight was cancelled, so he went home and took a picture of the box. He didn't bring the box along.

    4. Re:How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You misssed the part where he had the box conveniently ready to include in the shot. It's like he knew what was going to happen.

    5. Re:How often by gweihir · · Score: 1

      No idea. Not that it is difficult to drill a small hole in the case over the battery and then jab a needle into it to set it off. With a few trial-runs you may even be able to make sure the evidence burns up completely.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re: How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His last name is Green.

      GREEN.

    7. Re:How often by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Well, the picture of the burnt phone is on the kind of carpet and what looks to be the attachment point for a seat on a plane.

      The picture of the box appears to be on a painted wood surface, perhaps the black-brown veneer that Ikea puts on desks. The box was probably nowhere near the plane, but provided to the journalist so he could compare serial numbers to see if this was indeed a "replacement" or "original" Note 7.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    8. Re:How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you could just not take a picture of the back, instead only taking a picture of the front, and hand it off to the fire department so no one else can investigate it until they're done. Sort of like happened in this case.

      This whole thing smells to high heaven. So this guy gets on a plane THIS MORNING, his phone catches fire, he JUST SO HAPPENS to have another phone with which to take a picture of his burnt phone and the box that he just so happens to have with him, and enough time to go buy an iPhone 7 before notifying journalists (that he just so happens to have access to) about his phone catching fire. All in time for the Verge to post the story just after noon.

      We have no way to know that the IMEI number on that box belongs to the phone and no investigation into the true cause has been done yet, but already people are talking about ditching Samsung. The damage is done, suspiciously during one of the most disappointing iPhone launches ever.

    9. Re:How often by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Well, if this guy set his phone off by intent, and they can prove that, he may go to prison for a few years. This whole thing is suspicious. Kind of like the Chinese person that claimed the phone also destroyed his MacBook.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    10. Re: How often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's definitely above 0.5, these days I find I am suspicious whenever something happens and there's no eyewitness video.

    11. Re:How often by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      hand it off to the fire department so no one else can investigate it until they're done.

      Better to have Samsung collect and destroy evidence to protect their corporate image? The Fire Department isn't interested in the Truth. They just want Samsung to look bad, because Samsung didn't give to the last collection. Is that really your assertion?

    12. Re:How often by macs4all · · Score: 1

      do people have cameras ready

      They do if they're not already on fire...

    13. Re:How often by macs4all · · Score: 1

      No idea. Not that it is difficult to drill a small hole in the case over the battery and then jab a needle into it to set it off. With a few trial-runs you may even be able to make sure the evidence burns up completely.

      Except each "Trial Run" costs about $900, and produces a paper trail in the form of CC receipts, activations, etc.

      Get real.

    14. Re:How often by gweihir · · Score: 1

      There was also a plane-ticket involved and the risk of a few years of prison-time. And seriously, the $5000 or so this will cost is peanuts compared to the damage done to Samsung. Have different people buy it, pay for it with cash, steal it, and who says a phone that gets destroyed need to be activated? Any smartphone I ever had got charged just fine before activation and that is all you need.

      Not saying that if this was intentional sabotage, this person will not get caught, but unless it was done extremely incompetently, it will need more than a few database-queries to prove anything.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    15. Re:How often by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      You misssed the part where he had the box conveniently ready to include in the shot. It's like he knew what was going to happen.

      You missed the part where the box is in a separate image against a different background. Almost like a picture that you'd take of your phone box after purchase so that you'd have serial number and IMEI information easily available in case the phone was stolen for things like insurance claims.

      Idiot.

  10. Paging Elon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any chance that these failures were caused by nefarious activity on a nearby roof? Lets get Elon Musk and his crack team of Twitter followers on the case.

  11. Just ban them from planes already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Won't be long until devices are not allowed on planes due to being a fire hazzard....

  12. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by Aaden42 · · Score: 1

    Let’s be real for a second though There are certainly flights that are longer than the 8-10 hours you can get from a pair of BT headphones, but not *that* many people fly that far regularly nor are able to listen to music for the entire flight. I’d imagine sleep is a common alternative to music listening.

    If you manage to kill your BT headphones, unplug the phone & switch to wired for a while. You’ll get another 20+ hours of music, especially with the cell radio turned off. Charge your headphones while you’re doing that.

    Is it slightly less convenient than being able to listen to wired headphones & charge? Sure. Do many people find themselves in that position frequently? I doubt it.

  13. Use this to demand removable stuff on phones! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While we're at it can someone please pin a bunch of phone fires on the lack of a microSD slot and 3.5mm jack? Please?

    This should be seized as an opportunity to lobby for mandatory removeable/replaceable batteries. "Think of the children!"

    Really though it would just be great to force these companies to make maintainable, repairable, expandable devices.

  14. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    I keep my headphones on while I sleep, and expect them to not only last the night but still be fresh in the morning.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  15. NTSB will now investigate by Bruha · · Score: 1

    Samsung won't be able to confiscate and hide the phone now. It will go straight to the NTSB.

  16. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    So you're telling people they should carry two pairs of headphones around? That's annoying.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  17. Read the article by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Informative

    The phone was putting out a goodly amount of smoke, the smell of which would have to be professionally cleaned from the whole plane or most of the people in the SEALED CABIN would have gotten really sick from it.

    Not to mention the carpet AND subfloor were charred, further contributing to residual smell and smoke.

    Also how exactly would *you* have chucked it out the "door" - the emergency door which means the plane is not flying anywhere anyway? What door exactly????

    What no-one ever told you is the magic smoke is also toxic...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Read the article by macs4all · · Score: 1

      The phone was putting out a goodly amount of smoke, the smell of which would have to be professionally cleaned from the whole plane or most of the people in the SEALED CABIN would have gotten really sick from it.

      Anyone who has ever been in presence of burning electronics knows how incredibly acrid it is, and often toxic, besides.

      Do YOU know what the combustion byproducts are of a Li-ion/Li-Po battery, and the rest of the components around it are? I don't; but I can tell you with 100% certainty that I wouldn't want to breathe them for 10 minutes, let alone a couple of hours!

    2. Re:Read the article by Toad-san · · Score: 1

      I would've chucked it in the stainless steel sink in the toilet area (which has its separate ventilation system). No worries then.

      Unless, of course, it was already too hot to handle.

      Incidentally, airline cabins aren't SEALED: there's a constant flow of fresh air (well, okay, from a jet engine, but that's okay) into the cabin. Otherwise the passengers would probably be running out of oxygen long before they landed.

  18. What's next? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    If someone in a trench coat inside an alley offers to sell you a Samsung Toilet for an amazing price, run away. You do not want to own an exploding toilet.

    1. Re:What's next? by npslider · · Score: 1

      It's not the toilet I am worried about. It's the guy with a Samsung Top Loading Washer under his coat I'd be more concerned about.

    2. Re:What's next? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If someone in a trench coat inside an alley offers to sell you a Samsung Toilet for an amazing price, run away. You do not want to own an exploding toilet.

      They also now have a roomba competitor which they advertise via infomercials. And it has a BIG battery, because it has IIRC more than twice the power of a roomba...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. New galaxy 7 owner... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    Owner: New phone who d-OH GOD IT'S ON FIRE!
    Friend: Frank? I told you not to sleep with that floozy but nooOOOooo. Well now you got the herp.
    Owner: IT'S MELTING MY FLESH!
    Friend: Welcome to the club, buddy.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  20. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

    My bluetooth headphones have a battery life of 30+ hours.

    I've never put them to the limit though, because bluetooth audio is shit, and they can be optionally wired.

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  21. Aren't flights.... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

    non-smoking now?

  22. Misread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NSA contractor read, "We need a Samsung explode". NSA still waiting for it's exploit.

  23. WTF is "deplaned"? by GenieGenieGenie · · Score: 0

    Let's see, to delouse is to remove lice from hair. To decapitate is to remove the head (latin: capit). To defoliate is to remove leaves (latin: follium). But to "deplane" is to get off of a plane. Did we derun of sayoids in the English speakism? Or are the previous sayoids de-languaged by some thinly-neurated jargon multiman?

    1. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by avandesande · · Score: 2

      I guess it makes sense to those narcissistic types ;-)

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      Parkways are where you drive and driveways are where you park.

      Deplane is in the dictionary and is a real word, despite your unfamiliarity with it.

      English isn't all that logical, so stop making an idiot yourself by pretending that it is and complaining when you see a word you don't agree with.

    3. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Daetrin · · Score: 1
      According to the first dictionary definition i found. (Emphasis mine)

      "prefix 1. removal of or from something specified: deforest, dethrone"

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    4. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      You sir, shall be demodded.

    5. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by GenieGenieGenie · · Score: 1

      Oh, I'm quite familiar with this particularly gruesome neologism, and I'm most certainly not the only one that has a problem with it., as I have just learned. But maybe you should check your own grasp of the English language before looking stuff up in the dictionary to lecture others.

    6. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      It's what that short Mexican guy used to say on Fantasy Island.

    7. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by GenieGenieGenie · · Score: 1
      Sorry, nope. "Deplane" is intransitive as used here. You can dethrone a king, but a king doesn't dethrone.

      You get out of a car. You get off of a train or a boat, or a hot air balloon. What's wrong with those? Or should we now start expecting "decar" or "detrain"? "Dehotairballoon"?

    8. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Daetrin · · Score: 1
      In that same link:

      " 3. departure from: decamp"

      I've definitely heard that one used quite a lot, including in periods from long before there were any planes around.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    9. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by GenieGenieGenie · · Score: 1

      Wrong again. Decamp (not that you will ever catch that word escaping my lips) is to break up a camp. Not to depart from a camp. This was actually the original meaning of the word "deplane", to make something cease to be a plane.

    10. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      No, he was having back problems: "The pain, the pain!"

    11. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      Uh, the definition you just pointed me at, in addition to saying "to break up a camp", also says "to leave a place suddenly and secretly", and "to depart suddenly".

      You can argue about the original meaning i suppose, but it's had those other meanings for a long time. I think you're going to have a tough time un-debarning that horse.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    12. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Khyber · · Score: 1

      My fucking face when you use an English dictionary to fucking trace origins of a FRENCH WORD.

      Back to high school with you - take French for your foreign language. Merde.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    13. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Merriam-webster isn't even an English dictionary, so there is that. It contains ridiculous American misspellings like "color" or "aluminum" along with non-words like "deplane" or "anyplace".

    14. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Deplaning is removing the plane from the passengers? Depopulating a plane sounds a bit grim.

    15. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      It's not just your language anymore so grow and deal with it.

    16. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Disembark is a perfectly good word though. I'm not sure why that didn't come to mind straight away.

    17. Re:WTF is "deplaned"? by vux984 · · Score: 1

      see also:

      debus - unload/ exit motor vehicles / esp. busses
      detrain - get off a train
      debark - get off a boat

      depart - to leave a place

      Seems we have pattern.

  24. The Last Crusade by npslider · · Score: 1

    I had a flash back of Indiana Jones throwing a poor Nazi out of a blimp... saying "No ticket!"

    Just replace with "He had a Note 7"

  25. Of course Southwest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has the worst record of (im)proper aircraft maintenance since Jet Blue or ValuJet so I would expect this to happen. Expect more. Many more. These things will blow you . . . out of the sky!

    Buy Apple. Fly United. And Be safe!

  26. Quite a spectacular PR disaster for Samsung ... by Qbertino · · Score: 2

    I'm not really interested in Samsung phones - I've always thought them thoroughly lacking in some important areas (design, UI) - but I have to say this whole batteries-on-fire thing is some spectacular PR disaster for the only true competitor to Apples iPhone line.
    Kinda makes me feel sorry for this company. AFAIHH the entire nation of South Korea is suffering with them.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:Quite a spectacular PR disaster for Samsung ... by unixisc · · Score: 1

      By now, Samsung would have no choice but to EOL this brand - w/ 2 'generations' of phones dinged for the same issue

    2. Re:Quite a spectacular PR disaster for Samsung ... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      And what now? They did a recall / exchange, that doesn't work. Next step?

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    3. Re:Quite a spectacular PR disaster for Samsung ... by pauljlucas · · Score: 1

      Full refund (not an exchange).

      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    4. Re:Quite a spectacular PR disaster for Samsung ... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      On the upside, I'm hoping to get a refurbished Note 7 for a bargain soon. Everyone else spooked away = bargain for me.

  27. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    True - since he was an Android user, he could have replaced it w/ a OnePlus or Sony or LG. Only thing about the flight - a lot of planes have no USB slots nor power outlets to charge your phone, so you try to conserve as much power as you can while using it during the flight. Also, not all flights have on-board entertainment that will allow you to turn your phone off and save your battery for when you are done w/ it and bored.

  28. We need a 21st century crash axe by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    All commercial aircraft should have a strengthened, heat-sinked, airtight metal pouch that can be used to snuff out burning mobile devices when lithium batteries go rogue.

    1. Re:We need a 21st century crash axe by Vadim+Makarov · · Score: 1

      All commercial aircraft should have a strengthened, heat-sinked, airtight metal pouch that can be used to snuff out burning mobile devices when lithium batteries go rogue.

      Exactly a thing not to do. Watch the fire fighting instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
  29. there is this "thing" about fluids and aluminum by swschrad · · Score: 1

    that airplanes avoid. seems they don't want the seams and rivets to corrode, for some silly reason.

    you can pull a car over and get out if it starts falling apart. not so an airliner. no curb.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  30. Too Much Crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People carry too much crap on flights. Laptops, Phones, Tablets, etc.

    People need to declutter.

    You don't need your phone everywhere you go, just rent a phone at your destination for a small fee.

    You don't need you laptop everywhere you go, just rent one at your destination for a small fee.

    Every phone already has cloud storage, I don't see why people can't simply arrive at their destination, pop in their SIM card, and have all their files downloaded to a secure rental phone.

    People already essentially rent their phones, this just carries the concept further.

    Same with PC's. They are commodity devices. Just rent one at your destination for a small fee.

    1. Re:Too Much Crap by npslider · · Score: 1

      You don't need a Slashdot account. Rent an Anonymous Coward for a small fee.

      I couldn't pass that one up. ;)

    2. Re:Too Much Crap by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      Why rent one for a fee when I've already got one? You see it's quite small and fits in my pocket. I mean why bring clothing when I can just rent new clothes for a small fee...

  31. Hardware design flaw. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Battery supplier claims the problem is an outside heat source, not the battery. Samsung has not made public any testing. To "fix" the issue Samsung blamed the battery and released a software fix to reduce the heat. My guess is it is a design flaw where they eliminated heat shielding to save weight and cost. A board redesign would be a substantial cost. Unfortunately, I have no proof. Battery supplier is Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) Headquartered in Hong Kong, Manufactured in China. Samsung phone manufacturing is in Korea.

  32. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 2

    Joke's on him, as airplane travel is one of the times I need both the headphone jack and charge port at the same time. When you have nothing better to do but play with your phone and listen to music for several hours straight, you're going to need to charge.

    I vaguely recall a Samsung ad about how useful replaceable batteries are in that scenario as well, but they seem to have forgotten about that...

    Joke's on you mindless AC. Do some research first, next time.

    Here's One of the MANY options for wireless charging while headphoning with standard headphones for Lightning-equipped devices. Here's another one for $11 (I'm sure it's not MFi-certified like the Belkin is; but hey...).

    Oh, and that search took 1 second on Google, and 2 seconds and one scroll-wheel-flick on Amazon.

    Hatetard.

  33. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    If you manage to kill your BT headphones, unplug the phone & switch to wired for a while. You’ll get another 20+ hours of music, especially with the cell radio turned off. Charge your headphones while you’re doing that.

    In fact, according to the specs, the iPhone 7 lasts 40 hours just listening to music (I assume "local" music and with wired headphones), and the 7 plus lasts 60 hours (!!!)

    So, unless you are on a moon-shuttle, you're probably covered.

  34. Just pivot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Samsung should just go into military contracts... imagine if all their washers/dryers/phones/TVs/etc exploded at the same time. You could win a war easily...

  35. It's not a bug... It's a feature! by Leslie43 · · Score: 1

    We call it "Campfire!"

  36. and they will need to reinstall seat back tv's by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and they will need to reinstall seat back tv's. On UA they have wifi with lot's of free movies and tv shows

  37. you can't open the door in flight the presser is t by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    you can't open the door in flight the presser is to high

  38. some airports have the auto seat cover rolls by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    some airports have the auto seat cover rolls. Like ORD

  39. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by exomondo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We all know there's workarounds, but they're clunky. It's annoying that my iPhone 7 is more cumbersome to do the things just worked out of the box with my iPhone 6, yes I know I can get bluetooth headphones, which I did but on a long haul flight they don't last and don't work in airplane mode anyway. So now I need another set of headphones and a headphone+charge adapter.

    That's not the sort of regression in user experience I'm used to with Apple's products. The other issue with it is the inconsistency, the lightning port isn't available on any Mac so the lightning-only headphones they ship with the iPhone (without any lightning to 3.5mm adapter) don't even work with my other Apple products.

    Now I'm sure you'll leap to their defence with all the possible workarounds but the fact is the user experience is now worse, this is a downgrade, not an upgrade and usually Apple handles these things so well so this is disappointing but it's ok it's an annoyance and you can admit that.

  40. This would never have happened... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... when Steve Jobs was CEO.

    1. Re:This would never have happened... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      ... when Steve Jobs was CEO.

      Of Samsung?

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  41. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by chasm22 · · Score: 1

    Oh coming from you this is good. Have you asked Apple if they consider this a good idea? Does it void the warranty? Here I thought you were against cheap stuff, but was I wrong! You apparently recommend meetcute as a manufacturer of parts for the iPhone. Are all their products Apple certified? Because guess what. I'd bet a paycheck that if someone came on this forum and said I just bought a splitter from meetcute and my iPhone 7 burned up, you'd be the first to chastise them for using junk that wasn't Apple certified.

    Finally, quit with the 'hater' shit. After seeing your portrayal of Android users and Android phones, there's no room on the high road for you.

  42. phone or weapon? by edxwelch · · Score: 1

    You can now play GTA V using the Samsung Note 7 as an improvised hand grenade.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  43. iOS ? by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Jobs umbrage at Eric Schmidt for Google adapting iOS ideas in Android

    What ? Because Apple actually managed to bring something new which wasn't in countless predecessors in the PDA space ?

    I'm genuinely curious. I remember the big noise Apple made around the iPhone, but all I could personally think was "well, somebody has bolted a phone/modem to my Palm. Big deal".

    The only details I found of note is that the iPhone went for a capacitive touch screen - similar to laptop's touchpad, enabling multi-touch, but making impossible to make precise strokes [thus no graffiti/handwriting, no sketching, etc.] - whereas any of the other keyboard-less PDA of the time where all resistive touch screens - only one finger at a time to push the button, but if you use a stylus, you can draw extremely precise sketches, or use handwriting-/drawn symbols- based input.

    I couldn't in fact any other thing that the iPhone provided that wasn't provided already on PDA.
    Was rather the opposite: back then the iPhone wasn't very open to hacker/devs/community (at the beginning, it was "webapps" only).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:iOS ? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      This was there in that biography on Jobs, where he had a major fight w/ Eric Schmidt of Google (and formerly Sun) over Android features

  44. Compared to what ? by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Fact is, more than 6,000 kids died in the eight years before lawn darts were banned. Now, is it worth banning just to save 763 lives a year?

    Out of which population, what are the other causes of death and at which rate ?

    In a big enough sample you could even find significant deaths caused by "improper use of handkerchief".

    So put those death in relation with the rest.

    If you reach the conclusion that "at 20% of all kids' death, this is the third most dangerous activity in this age group" (similar to deaths by car crashes or cardiovascular disease in adults) - yes, introducing a ban, or at least imposing new security regulations would be a nice idea leading to improvement.
    If you reach the conclustion that "this only represent 0.1% of all deaths, and is number 143 in the list of all death causes" (similar to deaths by lightning strike or terrorism in developed western countries), you're just wasting resources (though it sucks for those 0.1% kids, there are definitely more urgent matters)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Compared to what ? by dywolf · · Score: 1

      ah yes.
      the old "but something else is worse" fallacy.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    2. Re:Compared to what ? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      You're right that you have to look at rates of death, not absolute numbers. Feel free to add context.

      It's stupid to put those number in context with other causes of death. Because we're not choosing one to get rid of, we're choosing whether to keep an activity.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    3. Re:Compared to what ? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      First, I was totally wrong on the number. Those were injuries not deaths. But that's just facts.

      I disagree with your baserate analysis. What matters is the likelihood someone will kill themselves, given that they/their neighbors own lawndarts For instance, the rate of children killing themselves with bazookas is very low (probably 0). But I think most people are opposed to children owning bazookas.

      If it was legal for a child to own a bazooka, the one child every couple of years whose parents bought him one may die. But no one would say that the 1 death/country is the significant number. It would be the 100% (50%?) of kids with bazookas.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  45. This means something by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Apple sabotage.
    Waiting for the next fire after the next replacement.

  46. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1
    Now I'm sure you'll leap to their defence with all the possible workarounds but the fact is the user experience is now worse, this is a downgrade, not an upgrade and usually Apple handles these things so well so this is disappointing but it's ok it's an annoyance and you can admit that.

    I "admit" that progress often comes with some minor adjustments, and this is no exception.-

    But I was actually surprised to already see almost 2 dozen Lightning headphones and earbuds on Amazon, with quality and prices from $799 (!!!) all the way down to $30 or maybe less, and about a half-dozen dual-port charging/listening cables, too. So the "annoyance" won't be lasting long.

    Same thing when Apple "removed" the serial ports and floppy drive on the original iMac in 1998. People with serial printers went wild. People that used floppies went wild. But within a year, it was getting hard to find a new printer that wasn't USB. And floppies disappeared from common use soon thereafter.

    And so it will be with analog headphones.

  47. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    Oh coming from you this is good. Have you asked Apple if they consider this a good idea? Does it void the warranty? Here I thought you were against cheap stuff, but was I wrong! You apparently recommend meetcute as a manufacturer of parts for the iPhone. Are all their products Apple certified? Because guess what. I'd bet a paycheck that if someone came on this forum and said I just bought a splitter from meetcute and my iPhone 7 burned up, you'd be the first to chastise them for using junk that wasn't Apple certified.

    Finally, quit with the 'hater' shit. After seeing your portrayal of Android users and Android phones, there's no room on the high road for you.

    I pointed out that the cheaper adapter was likely not MFi. I didn't endorse nor warn either way. We're all ostensibly tech-savvy adults here. But I also believe in the power of user reviews. If a device screws up someone's iPhone, I am SURE he/she will be RIGHT THERE to report it!

    And considering the insanely personal, over-the-top crap directed to me, usually by Karma-proof ACs, I feel quite justified in dishing a little bit back from time to time. Tough shit.

  48. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    Here's one that just came in, right after your comment? And all I did was suggest that someone should go to work for Samsung's PR department (I swear!).

    Now tell me honestly, how would that make YOU feel?

  49. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by exomondo · · Score: 1

    But I was actually surprised to already see almost 2 dozen Lightning headphones and earbuds on Amazon, with quality and prices from $799 (!!!) all the way down to $30 or maybe less, and about a half-dozen dual-port charging/listening cables, too. So the "annoyance" won't be lasting long.

    Yeah except they don't work with anything else, they don't even work with any of my Macs (or any iDevices) and I still need an adapter for the plane when I want to have it on charge and listen to music. With the serial ports and floppy drive it was: "hey we're replacing this with a superior standard", that is not the case here.

  50. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    But I was actually surprised to already see almost 2 dozen Lightning headphones and earbuds on Amazon, with quality and prices from $799 (!!!) all the way down to $30 or maybe less, and about a half-dozen dual-port charging/listening cables, too. So the "annoyance" won't be lasting long.

    Yeah except they don't work with anything else, they don't even work with any of my Macs (or any iDevices) and I still need an adapter for the plane when I want to have it on charge and listen to music. With the serial ports and floppy drive it was: "hey we're replacing this with a superior standard", that is not the case here.

    And their contention is that they are replacing the 3.5 mm analog Jack with a superior standard. Reread my post, and think about your response.

    And as far as the floppy goes, they really didn't replace it with anything better, because I'm not sure you could even get a CD *BURNER* in the original iMac, and USB sticks really didn't exist yet.

  51. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by exomondo · · Score: 1

    And their contention is that they are replacing the 3.5 mm analog Jack with a superior standard. Reread my post, and think about your response.

    I read what you wrote, lightning is not a standard, in fact not only that it isn't even available across Apple's own product lines. Also it wasn't replaced with anything, I had a single lighting connector and bluetooth headphone capability on my iPhone 6 too, if they replaced the headphone jack with another lightning connector then fine - still not a standard but at least it solves one of the annoyances.

  52. How Much Is This Going to Cost Samsung? by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    Well, for starters, just how much does it cost to ground an airliner, find alternate airliner, repair and fix airliner?
    How much will it cost in sales?

    Though, it's cheap compared to the lives that might have been lost.

    Should people bring lithium batteries on a plane at all?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
    1. Re:How Much Is This Going to Cost Samsung? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      The phone would not bring a plane down.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  53. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    And their contention is that they are replacing the 3.5 mm analog Jack with a superior standard. Reread my post, and think about your response.

    I read what you wrote, lightning is not a standard, in fact not only that it isn't even available across Apple's own product lines. Also it wasn't replaced with anything, I had a single lighting connector and bluetooth headphone capability on my iPhone 6 too, if they replaced the headphone jack with another lightning connector then fine - still not a standard but at least it solves one of the annoyances.

    Lightning IS a standard, in the same way that Thunderbolt is a standard, or sacd is a standard, or DVD is a standard, or Zigbee is a standard, or LONTalk is a standard, or Bluetooth is a standard, or Ethernet is a standard, or UPC codes are a standard. Just because Apple developed and is the sole Licensor of that Standard doesn't make it any less of a "Standard" than those other examples.

    Can you manufacture a device that claims to read DVDs without a License? No.

    Can you manufacture something that needs a Bluetooth ID without a License? no.

    Can you manufacture a device that has a SACD logo without a License? No.

    Can you manufacture a device that mentions being Zigbee-compatible without a License? No.

    Can you manufacture a device that has a MAC address without a License? No.

    Can you manufacture ANYTNING that needs a UPC code without a License? No.

    Yet no one in their right mind would dream of calling those "Not a Standard". So, since Apple will allow ANYONE who meets their criteria and pays their License Fee to design and sell Lightning-compatible products, claim MFi-Compliance, and be "guaranteed to work" with other Lightning-equipped products, how is that NOT a Standard? Just because some Apple products have Lightning ports and others don't (which will likely be solved this model refresh)? Because Apple requires Licensing? Or is it Because Apple?

    You see, it is PRECISELY the MFi certification Program that MAKES Lightning a Standard. Now, if Apple said "No one but Apple shall make Lightning-compatible Products, and we shall sue anyone who tries", THAT would be a NON-Standard. But AFAICT, "sue-happy" Apple hasn't even been going after ANY of the dozens, if not hundreds, of products being openly sold on Amazon that are also openly stated as NOT MFi-Certified, and, as you can see in the Listings and Reviews for those products, Apple doesn't even bother to raise a Compliance-Error Alert when those devices are plugged in. So obviously, "money-grabbing" Apple is MUCH more interested in proliferating Lightning as a Standard than they are in wringing every single penny out of License fees, much less using it as a tool for "vendor lock-in".

    So why doesn't Apple just Open Source Lightning? I do not know; but considering how many other things that Apple has Open Soirced, I wouldn't be surprised if they soon do exactly that. But the same thing could be said of the abovementioned examples of "Standards" that are still "Licensed"; some after decades of widespread use.

  54. Re:you can't open the door in flight the presser i by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Opening, maybe (if the safety is defeated). Closing it again without getting thrown out may be more difficult.

  55. Announcements in Japan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was on a domestic flight on Japan Airlines yesterday and they specifically called out the Note 7 before takeoff.

  56. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

    I have a set of bluetooth Sennheiser headphones. The battery life is over 20 hours. The noise cancelation on them is nice too. I got them specifically to do as you do.

  57. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

    Wifi and bluetooth can be turned on while in airplane mode. This is also useful while roaming. Also you can get bluetooth headphones that last for 20+ hours now.

  58. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    Sennheiser doesn't seem to make bluetooth earbuds? I can't sleep in full headphones.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  59. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

    Don't think so. I have over-ear ones.

  60. Not worse. by DrYak · · Score: 1

    the old "but something else is worse" fallacy.

    It's not a question of "worse". It's all about deaths. You can't be "worse dead than dead". The issue is the same: you're dead.

    It's a question about numbers and "should I give a fuck about them".

    There's a difference between something that has claimed less than 10 deaths since the dawn of humanity, and something that is likely to claim the life of nearly 50% of all people you've met in your life.
    For the people themselves, it's all the same : they're dead anyway. No one is worse than anyone else, they are all in the same situation, as bas as it can gets.

    It's for organising something.
    If you're going to introduce drastic measures that will require people to completely change their habits and lifestyle, and will prevent them from doing some activities for ever, it'd better be worth.

    It's a "cost" vs. "benefit" analysis.
    If the cost is high (making some everyday task unbearably annoying, banning for ever some activities, etc..) the benefit ought to be a bit more significant than "prevents 1 death out of trillion" (e.g: chance of dying following a direct meteor impact)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  61. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by exomondo · · Score: 1

    Yet no one in their right mind would dream of calling those "Not a Standard". So, since Apple will allow ANYONE who meets their criteria and pays their License Fee to design and sell Lightning-compatible products, claim MFi-Compliance, and be "guaranteed to work" with other Lightning-equipped products, how is that NOT a Standard?

    Because nobody else can use it in their devices, you can only use it to make accessories for Apple products.

    So why doesn't Apple just Open Source Lightning?

    Because they can extract license fees from it and this would allow for companies to make accessories that easily work for both iDevices and non-iDevices. It's in their interest as a for-profit company to do exactly this.

    But the same thing could be said of the abovementioned examples of "Standards" that are still "Licensed"; some after decades of widespread use.

    No, it couldn't. Because anybody can make a DVD and a DVD drive and all they need to do is pay the license fees, you cannot do the same with lightning. HTC can't just come along and make a phone with a lightning port.

    But this is all beside the point, the point is what they did is made their newer device more of a pain in the ass to use than their previous one without adding any replacement technology, this is a step backward for Apple in general and I'm not sure what makes you so desperately defend that.

  62. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by exomondo · · Score: 1

    Wifi and bluetooth can be turned on while in airplane mode.

    The whole point of Airplane mode is to stop wireless connections. Of course you can selectively turn those features back on but whether it's Windows, Android or iOS when you turn on airplane mode it turns off wifi and bluetooth.

    Also you can get bluetooth headphones that last for 20+ hours now.

    Which ones?

  63. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by macs4all · · Score: 1

    Yet no one in their right mind would dream of calling those "Not a Standard". So, since Apple will allow ANYONE who meets their criteria and pays their License Fee to design and sell Lightning-compatible products, claim MFi-Compliance, and be "guaranteed to work" with other Lightning-equipped products, how is that NOT a Standard?

    Because nobody else can use it in their devices, you can only use it to make accessories for Apple products.

    Prove it.

    So why doesn't Apple just Open Source Lightning?

    Because they can extract license fees from it and this would allow for companies to make accessories that easily work for both iDevices and non-iDevices. It's in their interest as a for-profit company to do exactly this.

    Nice selective editing. You disingenuously left off the part where I noted that Apple doesn't seem to be interested in going after manufacturers nor vendors of "bootleg" non-MFi Lightning products.

    But the same thing could be said of the abovementioned examples of "Standards" that are still "Licensed"; some after decades of widespread use.

    No, it couldn't. Because anybody can make a DVD and a DVD drive and all they need to do is pay the license fees, you cannot do the same with lightning. HTC can't just come along and make a phone with a lightning port.

    Prove it.

    Apple licensed FireWire, too, yet there were FireWire ports on everything from competitors' computers to cameras to audio interfaces to mixing consoles to who-knows-what. And your assertion flies in the face of your reasoning that Apple wants to enrich themselves with Licensing fees. If that were the case, why WOULDN'T they want to extract a License for a Lightning interface on anything and everything, and ESPECIALLY on competitors' products like phones and laptops?!?

  64. Re:Astrotrufing anyone? by plasm4 · · Score: 1

    I don't think airlines care about wifi and bluetooth, I mean I've never heard them ask people to make sure they keep their wifi off when everyone has a laptop.

    https://en-us.sennheiser.com/m...
    https://en-us.sennheiser.com/w...

    The second ones say up to 30 hours of battery. The first are 22 I think.

  65. Base use by DrYak · · Score: 1

    There's a difference of design and purpose of these object.

    Lawn darts are basically like scissors.

    Lawn darts have a pointy bit, that might get dangerous when use unsupervised.
    But they have a use: they are toys, designed for play. Most of people will use it to play, most people will be successful at playing without getting hurt.

    (Just like scissors have a sharp edge that could get people hurt. But scissors are extremely useful tools, so they won't get banned)

    A kid with a bazooka doesn't serve any purpose. A bazooka is a weapon designed to bring destruction and/or death.
    Though some extremely creative (or deranged kid) might be succesful at designing a fun game around one, that's not their typical use.
    (Same also why some people, specially people living in the safer parts of the world like me, don't really see the point of needing to own guns).

    That's why you're likely to find very few people complaining about the ban on giving their kids bazookas, whereas you'll constantly see people complaining when some random toy they've used to play with when they were kids is suddenly considered too much dangerous and gets banned (like Kinder Suprise chocolate eggs).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]