New Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire (newsweek.com)

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New Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire (newsweek.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday July 1, 2017 @05:42AM from the Samsung-envy dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Newsweek's latest story about fidget spinners: In a development that now seems like it was inevitable, the three-pronged toys are starting to catch on fire. Gizmodo on Thursday pointed to two recent instances of Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners going up in flames while they were charging. In Alabama, a fidget spinner owned by the son of Gardendale woman Kimberly Allums caught fire after being plugged in for less than 45 minutes. In Fenton, Michigan, Michelle Carr said her spinner started smoking after charging for less than half an hour. "He noticed that it burst into flames and he just started screaming," said Allums of her son and his spinner. "I was downstairs and all I heard was 'fire...fire,' and the fidget spinner had literally, It wasn't smoking, It was in flames"... The fidget spinners in question were Bluetooth-enabled so that they could light up and play music as they spun.
Friday CNET ran a column titled "Fidget spinners exploding? Of course they are." It concludes with a warning that "if you choose a powered off-brand tech item, you better pay close attention when you plug it in."

110 comments

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burning by nastyphil · 2017-07-01 05:45 · Score: 2

It's not a bad thing.

--
Dialectician. Archology.
1. Re:burning by Aighearach · 2017-07-01 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  As a wise being once said, "If you have a problem: Solve it with fire!"
2. Re:burning by Applehu+Akbar · 2017-07-01 12:04 · Score: 1
  
  It's not a bad thing.
  If your lazy-ass kid buys a motorized fidget spinner, he richly deserves this fate.
3. Re:burning by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 01:33 · Score: 0
  
  That's right. It's the hard working, motivated, God-fearing children that exert real good ol' fashioned elbow grease to power their fidget spinners that I worry about. For they are subject to second hand tiny burns from sparks flying off of the motorized spinners of their inferior peers.
4. Re:burning by WallyL · 2017-07-03 04:06 · Score: 1
  
  It's not a bad thing.
  When it's electronics, it probably is.
Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by ZippyTheChicken · 2017-07-01 05:45 · Score: 5, Funny

See Atheists there is a God
1. Re: Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 05:49 · Score: 0
  
  Truth report!!!
2. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:19 · Score: 0
  
  No, just cheap-ass Bluetooth devices from China.
  Seriously, if there was a god, Bluetooth would just work.
3. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:27 · Score: 0
  
  Maybe there could a movie series Fidget Spinner, Fidget Spinner: Catching Fire and Fidget Spinner: Mocking The Boss or something like that to celebrate this revelation.
4. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by Z80a · 2017-07-01 14:39 · Score: 1
  
  Not necessarily the christian god.
  Could for example be the god of destruction (of fidget spinners).
5. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by blindseer · 2017-07-01 18:32 · Score: 2
  
  Not necessarily the christian god.
  Could for example be the god of destruction (of fidget spinners).
  Shiva has spoken!
  Or something.
  
  --
  I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
6. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by Z80a · 2017-07-01 21:04 · Score: 1
  
  More like ifrit, as shiva would freeze the fidget spinners.
7. Re:Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire by GrumpySteen · 2017-07-02 10:32 · Score: 1
  
  If defective batteries were proof of God, the question would have been settled with the Galaxy Note 7 last year.
These toys SUCK. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 05:46 · Score: 0

Fuck the consumer class, you DESERVE to catch fire for buying SHIT!
1. Re:These toys SUCK. by RightwingNutjob · 2017-07-01 06:41 · Score: 1
  
  The self-awareness is NOT strong in this one.
2. Re:These toys SUCK. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:43 · Score: 0
  
  Au contraire, you know yourself well. You merely stranded the antecedent rendering your contribution perhaps as useful as the proverbial fidget spinner.
3. Re:These toys SUCK. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:22 · Score: 0
  
  vis-a-viz, the fidget spinner is very much literal. Colloquially, one can understand the antecedent in context.
Lest just call it by JustNiz · 2017-07-01 05:52 · Score: 2

natural selection
1. Re:Lest just call it by techno-vampire · 2017-07-01 10:02 · Score: 1
  
  Better yet, let's just call it evolution in action.
  
  --
  Good, inexpensive web hosting
2. Re:Lest just call it by No+Longer+an+AC · 2017-07-01 14:39 · Score: 2
  
  Some of us live in multi-unit housing. At least I'm not in some building like Grenfell Tower. I'm sure I could get out alive if my neighbor starts a fire with their cigarettes, Samsung phone, hoverboard or now fidget spinner but that would still be very inconvenient to say the least.
3. Re:Lest just call it by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:50 · Score: 0
  
  It's not really "evolution" where one species suddenly and unexplainedly (magically) turns into another; this is more closely related to "natural selection" where bad traits or mutations are more likely to die out, or something like that.
4. Re:Lest just call it by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 18:53 · Score: 0
  
  Applied Eugenics.
5. Re: Lest just call it by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 00:14 · Score: 0
  
  You realize that ecolution by natural selection is pretty much the simplest way to describe Darwin's theories, right? It is what sets it apart from earlier theories like Lamarckian evolution, and no, it does not require "magic" of any kind.
  The funny thing is that the concept of "species" is an artificially created intellectual sorting device and need not reflect the tidy biological divisions that you seem to think. But hey, anything to contort yourself to recognize the obvious reality of natural selection while hanging on to the truly magical thinking of creationism, right?
6. Re:Lest just call it by KozmoStevnNaut · 2017-07-02 20:34 · Score: 1
  
  That is one of the reasons why I looking to move to a house rather than the apartment I live in now. I don't trust my neighbors to not be idiots. I'm a board member in our association, and I've seen firsthand how idiotic, short-sighted, ignorant and downright malicious our tenants can be. And since it's a condo, it's extremely hard to throw out the assholes.
  
  --
  Eat the rich.
Hook 'em up to a Samsung! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 05:53 · Score: 0

Liar liar pants on fire?
Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners? by fredrated · 2017-07-01 05:57 · Score: 1

Seriously?
1. Re: Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:44 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah how does this even make sense? Does it spin for you and then report on your phone how much it's been spinning? Does that make any sense?
2. Re: Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners? by Tukz · 2017-07-03 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  Measuring RPM I'd assume.
  
  --
  - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
Bluetooth enabled fidget spinners by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 05:57 · Score: 0

First off ; WHY?
Second off ; if you think you need one of those, and it burns your house down, you get what you deserve. It's natural selection still doing its thing.
1. Re:Bluetooth Enabled Fidget Spinners by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 01:38 · Score: 0
  
  I just hope they can act as a backup battery for my kid's e-cigarette.
2. Re:Bluetooth Enabled Fidget Spinners by JustNiz · 2017-07-02 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  They ARE Alabama's entire Internet
Magnetic Gyro Wheel's from the 50's by Joviex · 2017-07-01 06:00 · Score: 1

Paddle Ball
Fidget Cube
Worry Stone
Stress Ball

are reinvented by some millennial.

News at 11.
1. Re:Magnetic Gyro Wheel's from the 50's by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:17 · Score: 0
  
  Apostrophe plurals from the 21st century!
  Why didn't you also write new's?
2. Re:Magnetic Gyro Wheel's from the 50's by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 15:29 · Score: 0
  
  Add USB to the fidget cube and somebody will reinvent it as a way of entering passwords.
Old news... by frank_adrian314159 · 2017-07-01 06:04 · Score: 1

They're about three weeks past their shelf life out here in Oregon. Big for a while but now just a passed fad.

--
That is all.
1. Re:Old news... by Aighearach · 2017-07-01 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  Yep.
  The new fad is DIY electric skateboards.
  They're riding along in the street with headphones staring at their cell phones. The only thing saving their lives is the screeching sounds coming from the bearings. (pro tip: spherical roller thrust bearings)
  Or if they're poor or hip enough, the sound of the two stroke leaf blower engine.
  The Harry Potter era was better.
2. Re:Old news... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 08:14 · Score: 0
  
  Pea gravel thrown on the sidewalk usually cures that.
3. Re:Old news... by AHuxley · 2017-07-01 20:44 · Score: 1
  
  Soon the headphones will connect to a Walkman playing a cassette tape.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
4. Re:Old news... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 13:44 · Score: 0
  
  The new fad is DIY electric skateboards.
  I think we are in an in-between phase at the moment. Yesterday my son was telling me about a YouTube video from a guy who bought a skateboard just to take the wheels off and make fidget spinners with. I guess the next step is to buy Bluetooth enabled fidget spinners to make replacement skateboard wheels for your "electric" skateboard.
Wait... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:05 · Score: 0

...did Samsung release one?
1. Re:Wait... by digitig · 2017-07-01 06:28 · Score: 1
  
  Quite. "Off-brand" isn't necessarily the issue.
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
CCC = cheap chinese crap by Joe_Dragon · 2017-07-01 06:16 · Score: 0

trump is right we need to make more stuff in the USA.
1. Re:CCC = cheap chinese crap by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:26 · Score: 0
  
  OBlamer decimated our fidget spinner manufacturing base with his Paris treaty
  Thank God we can now bring our spinner manufacturing back home, to AMERICAN plants staffed by AMERICAN robots, all powered by AMERICAN clean coal
  MAGA
2. Re: CCC = cheap chinese crap by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:35 · Score: 0
  
  Bring back the Ford Pinto!
3. Re:CCC = cheap chinese crap by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  WTF is with the election tears still Jesus Christ grow you sissy so what your mentally and physically ill corrupt diaper wearing, influence peddling, war mongering/saint candidate didn't win get over it.
  I am sure 100% of the people who voted for Trump did so not because they were tired of career politicians with a history of getting nothing done but because they are RACIST,SEXIST and whatever else now stfu you can't always get what you want but you got what you needed.
4. Re:CCC = cheap chinese crap by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:14 · Score: 0
  
  Oh yeah, absolutely. You should do stuff in the USA. More stuff, definitely. Like fidget spinners.
Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Kierthos · 2017-07-01 06:16 · Score: 2

Can someone explain to me why someone would need a Bluetooth enabled fidget spinner?

--
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
1. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Calydor · 2017-07-01 06:20 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I am reminded of an old comic strip in which Mickey Mouse on one of his many adventures got tossed into the future, around year 3000 or so. Among other things, exercise bikes now came with an engine so you wouldn't over-exert yourself.
  This is kinda like that.
  
  --
  -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
2. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:20 · Score: 0
  
  How else am I going to pair it with my SmartTV?
3. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:23 · Score: 0
  
  Can someone explain to me why someone would need a $700 phone?
4. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:29 · Score: 0
  
  Can someone explain to me why someone would need a WiFi enabled refrigerator?
5. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:35 · Score: 0
  
  Can someone explain to me why someone would need a Bluetooth enabled fidget spinner?
  IoT!
6. Re: Perhaps I'm just old, but... by slazzy · 2017-07-01 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure but I love my Bluetooth toilet.
  
  --
  Website Just Down For Me? Find out
7. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by SCVonSteroids · 2017-07-01 06:46 · Score: 1
  
  I need to be explained why someone needs a fidget spinner at all.
  
  --
  I tend to rant.
8. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:53 · Score: 0
  
  Have you never heard of a toy before?
  Do you buy toothpaste? You don't need toothpaste to keep your teeth clean. The brush by itself works just as well. And yes, there are studies to back that up. Go use a search engine.
9. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Aighearach · 2017-07-01 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  So that they can watch a little numerical counter go up. Visual feedback through the phone.
  Exists, but not a successful product.
10. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by istartedi · 2017-07-01 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  Summary says it lights up and plays music when you spin it. It must download songs via Bluetooth. Some redneck just needs to glue a boom-box and a flash-light to a lazy Susan. That'll do 'er.
  
  --
  For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
11. Re: Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:24 · Score: 1
  
  "Another successful bowel movement brought to you by Blulets! For added smoothness, try Blupaper, it's extra smooth! Tap here for more!"
  Your phone must never leave your side...
12. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by JustNiz · 2017-07-01 07:42 · Score: 1
  
  Its just another product designed to take advantage of the weak-minded and gullible.
13. Re: Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 07:57 · Score: 0
  
  My powerball had a small display on it to show the RPMs it was rotating at. I could take that over 12000
14. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 08:02 · Score: 0
  
  Well because you don't ask stupid questions like that when your in the cult. The question should be where can i get my $700 phone.
15. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 08:34 · Score: 0
  
  I don't get the fad, but I do understand the need to keep your hands busy and fidget spinners do indeed do that. Like many people here on slashdot I'm a programmer. I generally keep some form of playdogh or clay along with a few small puzzles and items that just click and clack and move in satisfying ways. Whenever I'm working through a problem I almost always have one of these things in hand. Most of the time I don't even notice, but a little stimuli like that helps the thought process.
  These fidget spinner videos on youtube and the fad? I don't get it one bit.
16. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by iggymanz · 2017-07-01 08:45 · Score: 1
  
  I thought lottery tickets filled that void perfectly, and paid for state education to boot
17. Re: Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 08:53 · Score: 0
  
  Bluette is not crap! It's just misunderstood.
  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.java.gui/so0GMliIypw
18. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:04 · Score: 0
  
  Great comment. However -
  I remember when lotteries were introduced to help finance higher education. Soon afterwards, kids started graduating with massive debt. Guess that plan didn't work out so well.
19. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Megane · 2017-07-01 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  Summary says it lights up and plays music when you spin it.
  Fisher Price had stuff that did that back in the 1980s. It may not have been MP3s, but it was music. And it didn't catch on fire.
  
  --
  #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
20. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by jellomizer · 2017-07-01 10:06 · Score: 1
  
  Well I googled them. They seem to have LED lights and can play music. You don't need a fidget spinner in general so you don't need a Bluetooth fidget spinner. But it's a toy and Bluetooth features could be fun.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
21. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by jellomizer · 2017-07-01 10:08 · Score: 1
  
  Because most homes are not built with category 6 cables in the kitchen... Duh!
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
22. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by PPH · 2017-07-01 13:05 · Score: 1
  
  Lights and music.
  What I don't understand is: You hand this thing to some Aspie who will be spinning it to save his life. And you can't tap just a tiny bit of that rotational energy off to run the electronics?
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
23. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:09 · Score: 0
  
  Not old enough. In my day, if some kid had extra energy to spare, we'd hand him an axe and a pile of firewood. Or pull weeds and mow the lawn. Etc, etc.
24. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:37 · Score: 0
  
  Can someone explain to me why someone would need a $700 phone?
  Because they can't afford the latest iPhone?
25. Re: Perhaps I'm just old, but... by blindseer · 2017-07-01 18:41 · Score: 1
  
  Your phone must never leave your backside...
  Fixed that for you.
  Reminds me of a comment my not-a-fan-of-Apple brother said about my new iPhone, he told me that it should work well for scraping the shit off my ass. If he ever asks to borrow my phone I'm going to refuse.
  
  --
  I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
26. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Dog-Cow · 2017-07-01 19:22 · Score: 1
  
  The plan worked perfectly. You just fail to understand who the planners were :P
27. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by AHuxley · 2017-07-01 20:38 · Score: 1
  
  AC re "Can someone explain to me why someone would need a WiFi enabled refrigerator?"
  So the CIA can spy on you.
  "CIA: We'll spy on you through your refrigerator" (March 19, 2012)
  http://www.zdnet.com/article/c...
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
28. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by 91degrees · 2017-07-02 01:23 · Score: 1
  
  People like to fidget.
  
  But it's hard to work out what bluetooth adds to this.
29. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by 91degrees · 2017-07-02 01:28 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently it has sensors that detect spin speed, count number of spins and the like. The app allows you to challenge others to - I dunno - see who can spin fastest or something.
  
  Whether this answers your question or not, I have no idea.
30. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Highdude702 · 2017-07-02 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  Actually they are now a days, most new homes are built with a phone line in the kitchen, and they just run a cat-5(I know not cat6) and if you have a good builder they all run to a central cabinet so you can re-purpose them.
31. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Highdude702 · 2017-07-02 03:30 · Score: 1
  
  You for got a d and another i.
32. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by PPH · 2017-07-02 04:50 · Score: 1
  
  Gee. I don't know
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
CHINESE BATTERIES by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:20 · Score: 0

Elon loves them!
The moral of the story... by presidenteloco · 2017-07-01 06:20 · Score: 1

Stop Fidgeting !!!
Like your mother told you.

--

Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
1. Re:The moral of the story... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:05 · Score: 0
  
  Stop Fidgeting !!!
  Like your mother told you.
  If you play too much with your "thing", it will catch on fire?
What's next, connecting them to Internet? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:27 · Score: 0

So the whole world can be kept up to date how many full rotations your fidget spinner has achieved? Are fidget spinners going to be the next horde of IoT zombie devices that the NSA and CIA will use to attack European infrastructure and industry? Jesus fucking christ.
Fidgets got it's maker nada by Trax3001BBS · 2017-07-01 06:35 · Score: 4, Interesting

"As the inventor of the original fidget spinner – the ubiquitous new toy that has quickly become a craze in playgrounds around the world – Catherine Hettinger should be enjoying the high life."
"Hettinger held the patent on finger spinners for eight years, but surrendered it in 2005 because she could not afford the $400 (£310) renewal fee."
https://www.theguardian.com/li...
1. Re:Fidgets got it's maker nada by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 15:22 · Score: 1
  
  They are a great educational toy - so many things that can be done:
  - How frictionless bearings work
  - Explaining how hard disk drives can spin so fast
  - How ceiling fans are so silent
  - Angular momentum
  - Comparison of different spinners in terms of precision engineering and behavior
  Maybe she should look at making science kits
2. Re:Fidgets got it's maker nada by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-05 06:46 · Score: 0
  
  Some other education children can get from these is identifying their own herd mentality and consumerism. If only...
3. Re:Fidgets got it's maker nada by NoSalt · 2017-07-06 06:47 · Score: 1
  
  Actually ... Hettinger is not the inventor of the fidget spinner.
Perfect, give all of the to asspies by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 06:53 · Score: 0

These spinners would be perfect gifts for asspies all over the world.
1. Re: Perfect, give all of the to asspies by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 20:48 · Score: 0
  
  Asspies are lots o' fun. We used to do quite a number on them back in school. Ever set off a firecracker behind one of them spazzies? Lol.
2. Re: Perfect, give all of the to asspies by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 21:35 · Score: 0
  
  This. We had this windowlicker around who couldn't even sit properly. We used to give him dog turds telling him it was chocolate and he would eat them. That's why we called him "dogshit boy".
Leave it to the media by markdavis · 2017-07-01 07:15 · Score: 1

>"CNET ran a column titled "Fidget spinners exploding? Of course they are."
Here we go again. Nothing "exploded", it was just a lithium battery catching fire (although it can be violent sometimes). Gotta make it into an attention-grabbing headline, though, as if it were TNT or C4. Anything poorly made/designed (or the product is abused) with a lithium battery inside it can catch fire, unfortunately. And it is most likely to happen when being charged.
It does make one wonder if we should be charging all these devices on a large, non-flammable surfaces. Hmmm...
1. Re:Leave it to the media by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 08:12 · Score: 0
  
  Wait what those things have batteries for what?
  I am just over 50 and keep seeing fidget spinner links on YouTube i had no idea what they were and the name told me i did not need to know.
  Fads never cease to amaze me i guess now i have to find out what the battery is for.
2. Re:Leave it to the media by markdavis · 2017-07-01 08:33 · Score: 1
  
  Some models have lights and play music when you spin them.
3. Re: Leave it to the media by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:35 · Score: 0
  
  The battery runs the vibration for when the user inevitably crams it up their ass.
Pro Tip for the manufacturing sector by nehumanuscrede · 2017-07-01 07:25 · Score: 1

Not everything requires batteries, wifi, bluetooth and the like. Simple spinner would not suffer from such problems.
Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.
1. Re:Pro Tip for the manufacturing sector by plover · 2017-07-01 10:12 · Score: 2
  
  Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.
  You didn't run that idea all the way through the Capitalism 101 grinder: "if people will buy it, and you can make money selling it, sell it!" It's the practical application of the century-old P.T. Barnum quote, "There's a sucker born every minute."
  Anyway, I've learned not to begrudge people for buying or selling useless-to-me items, just because I disapprove of their lack of utility. Why not? Because I'm not in their shoes, and I don't know what motivates them or makes them happy. Besides, I certainly don't want somebody else questioning my every purchase, just because they lack my imagination.
  
  --
  John
Sounds more like... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:47 · Score: 3, Insightful

jumping the gun on when to patent it, and when to market it.
The fact that they became so popular 12 years after it was 'surrendered' and 20 years after it was patented indicates either a failure to market it correctly or a failure to wait to patent it when the market would bear it.
Either way it would have been out of patent this year so she wouldn't have made back the licensing fees anyway.
1. Re:Sounds more like... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 13:52 · Score: 0
  
  The fact that they became so popular 12 years after it was 'surrendered' and 20 years after it was patented indicates either a failure to market it correctly or a failure to wait to patent it when the market would bear it.
  I think it indicates a failure of the patent system to notify potential manufacturers that the inventor no longer has an interest in profiting from their invention. The reason companies waited 20 years after patent filing before copying is that the maximum patent term is 20 years. But that they could have launched 12 years earlier is information that is not publically available until some journalist tracked her down and interviewed her.
Too Lazy to Spin it Yourselves!?! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:06 · Score: 0

I guess the millennial generation has sunk to new lows. Now they cannot even spin their stupid spinners by themselves and must have a motor and a smartphone app to figure it out, or maybe mommy and daddy do it for them remotely whenever their little snowflakes ring the bell.
God I'm so ready for the Russians to take over.
There's nothing wrong with the product by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:45 · Score: 0

These people are holding it wrong.
Re: burning (mod down -5, dumbass) by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 15:26 · Score: 0

If you took a moment to read the story, the purpose of the Bluetooth enabling is to let it light up and play music (over, presumably, a Bluetooth speaker, or something,) not to make it MOTORIZED.
Or were you just trying and failing to be funny?
Can they make'em... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 18:32 · Score: 0

... Bigger? And add some aerodynamics? Because a throwable fidget spinner that can burst into flames by remote control would be cool.
Bluetooth Enabled Fidget Spinners by nuckfuts · 2017-07-01 19:10 · Score: 1

Do they connect to Alabama's "Internet of Thangs"?
Latest research... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 03:05 · Score: 0

I have read new research indicates that excessive use of fidget spinners can induce homosexuality and transgenderism.
Anyone who buys ... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 05:09 · Score: 0

... a Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinner deserves to die by fire.
What's next? An IoT yo-yo? An AI-enabled Slinky?
Darwin Award by DrYak · 2017-07-02 10:42 · Score: 1

You think adding bluetooth to a fidget spinner is a brillant idea ?!
You're *this* close to winning a Darwin Award.

--
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
1. Re:Darwin Award by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-03 04:20 · Score: 0
  
  it is the easiest way to get it to also function as a speaker.