Is the iPhone hotter than we think?

by Tim Stevens posted Mar 4th 2009 at 9:29AM

It's hard to call two incidents of some occurrence around the world a trend, but, when those incidents both involve an electrical device catching fire spontaneously, it creates a situation that's hard to ignore -- especially when that device is the iPhone. On Saturday, Italian blogger Tim Colbourne was charging his 3G handset and, after three hours, it sparked and caught fire at the base. Tim did a little investigation and found a case of a Swedish handset doing the same thing back in 2008, making us a little concerned that there could be more melted chargers out there. Apple replaced that earlier phone after something of a fight, and while we're hoping they'll be a little friendlier here, we're also hoping this gives Cupertino another bit of incentive to go ahead and switch over to micro-USB already. All the cool kids are doing it, and you don't see their cables catching fire -- usually.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Filed under: Handsets, Apple

Tags: apple iphone, apple iphone 3g, AppleIphone, AppleIphone3g, charger, charger fire, ChargerFire, fire, iphone, iphone 3g, Iphone3g, usb

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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msingletary @ Mar 4th 2009 9:43AM

That's crazy that there had to be "something of a fight" to get the iPhone replaced. I've had mine replaced 4 times in an Apple Store for less issues. I got a replacement for a dead pixel, for the home button making a strange clicking sound when pressing it, another one for a screen having scan lines, and another for some light leaking out around the chrome bezel.

The people at the Apple Store have been really friendly and I didn't have to put up a fight any of those times to get a replacement. It seems weird that they'd make you fight for a replacement when your phone could've burned your house down.

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Chris Cox @ Mar 4th 2009 9:50AM

You can't really change the connecter on iPods and iPhones. It would end up pissing people off more than make them happy. One of the reasons people stick with iPods is the fact they have many accessories they have spent money on. LOTS of cars have built in iPod connectors, stereo systems have iPod connectors, boom boxes where I slap my iPod on the built in connector. TONS of things use that connector. And no, you can't exactly say "just make all those devices with USB and it will all be compatible." No, they won't. It will cause more trouble as people plug in their devices and the remote control features won't work because it doesn't know how to work with your device. The brilliant thing about iPods is they all have the same connector AND the same control interface so manufacturers can make things that can control your device .. AND IT WILL WORK.

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bernardino @ Mar 4th 2009 2:30PM

Apple has changed the spec on the connector before, like when they stopped supporting the firewire rail in the iPhone 3G, rendering any 1st gen iPhone chargers useless. I have an iPhone compatible stereo, but it connects via USB and any other USB device can connect as well, so a switch to mini-USB wouldn't hurt me. Also, there are 30-pin to USB adapters out there.

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ThePengwin @ Mar 12th 2009 10:07PM

Nothing would make me happier to rid my electronics of that horrible propietary connector. The only reason i have an iPod is because my car has a connector for one, and it came with it for free, and i got the iPod for free and i dont want to burn CDs. To be honest i think the device is worthless. I Despise the fact that i cant use UMS to throw an mp3 on my car stereo, but i put up with it because the head unit is a nice UI with great audio quality, and i can use floola to bypass having to ever use iTunes.

Apple have made themself a nice little monopoly with that thing, and there are far better connectors. USB, USB mini, hell you can even use wireless with a2dp with most phones for audio, but not when it comes to apple stuff.

My digital camera, phone, calculator, portable hard drive, even playstation controller all use USB mini, the only thing i have an ipod connector for is an ipod. if i leave that one cable behind i cant connect it, but i always have a usb mini lying around because they are so much more useful.

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