Ghana man killed by exploding handset?
[Via textually]
Posts with tag explode
While Nokia and Matsushita were busying settling the disputes that arose when the phone maker had to recall some 46 million handset batteries, a lady in India has been injured by a Nokia-branded cell that's not on that list. Located in eastern India, the woman noted that the BL-D3 series battery "blew up about 10 minutes after it was put on charge," resulting in a "ball of fire" that led to minor burn injuries to the user. According to Nokia, the incident was "isolated," and if it finds that the handset, battery, and charger are original, the 30-year old victim will supposedly be compensated.
Sketchy batteries doing bad things to you and your phone are nothing new. Sanyo has set an interesting new precedent, however, turning a good battery bad with software. Some half million units of their W32SA clamshell for KDDI's network are being sent home for faulty software that can prevent the battery from fully charging. That, in itself, isn't too scary -- but here's the twilight-zone part of it: there have been documented cases where the batteries "have cracked and become deformed." From some faulty software, people, written by the US' favorite cellphone manufacturer, no less. Happily, afflicted handsets can be flashed at the local KDDI shop, but our paranoia is getting the best of us here; could rogue KDDI employees send bogus OTA firmware updates to grenade the phone in your pocket?





Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: