Apple's Amsterdam Store Evacuated After iPad Battery Explodes (9to5mac.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Sunday August 19, 2018 @01:11PM from the too-hot-to-handle dept.

Slashdot readers radi0man and DeBaas report of an exploding iPad battery in Apple's Amsterdam store. DeBaas writes: An exploding iPad led to the Amsterdam Apple store being evacuated, as reported by 9to5mac and local news in dutch. The store reopened after the fire brigade ventilated the store. 9to5Mac notes that this is the third evacuation this year of an Apple store due to an exploding battery -- the other two were from iPhones. The iPad and its punctured battery were put in a container of sand after it exploded. No major injuries were reported, however, "three employees who experienced trouble breathing were treated by first responders," reports 9to5Mac.

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Re:Was the device plugged in for 2-3 years? by hackertourist · 2018-08-19 19:33 · Score: 5, Informative

Apple knows this and has built its charging circuits with this in mind. When you plug in a Mac or iOS device, it will charge until full, then charging stops. Then, as long as the device is plugged in, it runs on mains power. When the battery self-discharges to 95% (after a few days), charging starts again. This means the device can be left plugged in indefinitely.
This has been common knowledge among device makers for a decade or more. Every laptop uses a variation on this scheme (and has to, because lots of laptops live their life being plugged in 95% of the time).