Apple Investigates: “Exploding” iPhones and iPods
Numerous press reports are claiming that iPhones and iPods are “exploding” — well, three isolated devices, at least so far. Apple is said to be investigating these reports and have no answers as of now.
“These are isolated incidents and… there is not a general problem, For the cases which have been reported in the media, Apple [is] trying to get more information on the details of the incidents and will do tests as necessary to investigate the possible cause.”
It was last August that we reported on the iPod fires that were taking place. Three recent claims in the past few months have sparked this new investigation:
- we had a teenager in France who claims his girlfriend’s iPhone blew up and sent glass flying
- an 11 year old girl who claimed her iPod “made a hissing noise and went pop”
- and on August 2, a Dutch man who claimed his iPhone 3G went up in flames and burned his car seat.
Thankfully no one was injured in any of the above incidents. With the millions of iPods and iPhones sold to date and only a very few being proven “faulty” this is nothing you should be too concerned about. In fact US Consumer Product Safety Commission claims that a total of 15 Apple devices since 2001 have been recorded as faulty, while none included any serious injury.
[Via Ars Technica]
August 20th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
One word, TERMINATOR!!
August 20th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
On of the Seattle TV stations has been investigating this issue for almost a year.
http://www.kirotv.com/money/20089894/detail.html
August 20th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
What about the one a year or 2 ago when one started smoking and burst into flames while in the pocket of an airport worker while he was at work.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Damn that killswitch!
August 20th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
What would be great is if we could make this happen from MobileMe… rather than just that boring Remote Wipe.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
3 out of millions and millions ain’t bad. There are always outliers.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Y2K
August 20th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Y2K (Apple way)
August 20th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
FastLane: lmfao!! I agree with your comment.
August 20th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Would be more funny if they were detonating whenever they got plugged into Windows Vista. “oh hell no”, boom
August 20th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
They should investigate why my brand new Nano keeps locking up and spazzing out.
August 20th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
@sommerface – try taking the Dixie Chicks music off it
August 20th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
this one could burn you up
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/20/meet-the-fune-microsofts-new-smart-phone-its-really-hot/
August 20th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
@sommerface – Take it to the genius bar. They will fix or replace on the spot.
August 20th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
does anyone know how to restore homescreen to normal size from zoom??
August 20th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Darren double tap the screen with 3 fingers then go into settings general accessability and turn of Zoom
LOL at blowing up vs remote wipe, “this iPhone will now self destruct”
August 20th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Hmmm…I’ve had 4 faulty iPhones. You’d better jump that number to 19.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Is it just the iPhone 3GS that has been exploding? Or have the earlier versions overheated/exploded too?
August 21st, 2009 at 8:23 am
I had faulty iPhone 3G oveheating and hangs up Ma calls.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:31 am
@Mike M: The funny thing is I do have the Dixie Chicks in my iTunes, but I never put it on the Nano.
@Al: Thanks for the heads up.:)
August 21st, 2009 at 11:17 am
As Al says, 3 out of millions is not too bad a rate. The 11 year old’s case is interesting, though. Since Apple attempted an effective “gag order” as a precondition for her refund (not a settlement, just a refund), how many others are out there who accepted that deal?