Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Good News: iPods and iPhones Hiss Before Exploding

by Warren Riddle on August 15, 2009 at 07:01 AM


The lithium-ion batteries used in laptops and cell phones possess well-known destructive capabilities. Sony, at one point, was forced to recall 7 million batteries because of incidents involving smoking and exploding gadgets, and Japan even demanded that Apple investigate exploding iPod Nanos.

Earlier this month, an English man hurled his daughter's iPod touch into his backyard when it started smoking and hissing. According to Ken Stanborough, it eventually exploded and launched 10 feet into the air, prompting Apple to allegedly bully him into keeping quiet. Meanwhile, The Awl reports that a French 18-year-old was struck in the eye this week when his girlfriend's iPhone screen shattered (after the gadget started hissing) and rocketed a piece of shrapnel into his face. Thankfully, according to After Dawn, the boy's mother said he "did not lose an eye."

Seattle television station KIRO recently reported that Apple has tried to suppress 800 pages of documents related to over a dozen exploding iPod devices. Since the number is relatively insignificant compared to the number of iPods sold, the reports would not be so troubling if not for Apple's infamous secrecy over the issue. To give Apple credit, though, the gadgets are at least emitting a warning hiss before self-destructing. And maybe that iPod in France just couldn't take any more horrible French Top 40. [From: AFP Via: The Awl, After Dawn and KIRO]

Tags: apple, exploding battery, exploding ipod, ExplodingBattery, ExplodingIpod, iphone, ipod, lithium ion, LithiumIon, top

Comments

2

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular