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Apple Legal Reportedly Hinders Reporter's Investigation of iPods Catching Fire

Smells like a journalist trying to make a name for herself. Not sure what MS have to do with it though - you'd have to be a bit wacky to make a connection there.

But, yeah, if there's a problem then it needs sorted.
 
What shocks me isn't that iPods are catching fire... but that Apple is behaving like a vile fascist pig when a reporter tries to do their job !! Like many other big corporations they seem more interested in pleasing $hareholders than being decent and honest !
 
clearly apple could do a better job with PR on these issues. There are lots of stories about people calling customer service (or visiting an apple store) with genuine concerns, only to get dismissed like they were idiots. I've had similar experience with my old apple iBook that had documented design issues and apple's 'genius' bar would do nothing but dismiss it as normal wear and tear. they are totally $$$$ driven.

That being said... this journalist is based at a seattle news station known for hack reporting. And if you look her up on facebook you will notice that she has more than a handful of microsoft 'friends'. And she even admits, "We didn't FOIA the iphone records, just ipods. However, it could happen to anything powered by a lithium ion battery."

In other words, she clearly targeted the ipods. It makes some sense from the standpoint that ipods are 70% of the mp3 market. But from a journalistic point of view she has a duty to point out that ANY device using lithium ion batteries carries the exact same risk of overheating and fire.

Even MS points out in their Zune manual, "The Zune device contains a built-in battery, improper use of which may result in explosion. Do not heat,
open, puncture, mutilate, or dispose of the product in fire. Do not leave Zune in direct sunlight for an extended period of time, which could cause melting
or battery damage."
 
Welcome to big corporations. If you have millions of anything, some are bound to be made poorly.

Anecdotal.
 
Reminds me of the sony laptop battery recall.

It's not like this is the first issue of batteries having issues.
Sony Battery Recall

And people that state it's not Apple's problem need to realize that they order the batteries from company x so they must take responsibility for those batteries in their devices. The whole cover-up deal is shady, but I do agree that it has more to do with the tendencies of people to sue first, on the other hand I feel Apple has a responsibility to release all records to the appropriate authorities. I guess in this case it's the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Hopefully, this is just a few flukes and Apple's starts to look for better QC on batteries.
 
This is one in 11 million iPods with a problem

there are baby cribs out there with a higher injury rate and people still buy them
 
TEG said:
If anything is to blame, it is the batteries. Those are the companies that should be worried, not Apple.

Then again, KIRO is the "News of the World" of Seattle, so take anything they say with a grain of salt the size of Texas.

TEG
Click to expand...


Yeah Yeah. That's why you would sue the manufacturer of the particular part of your car if your car had started burning down while you were driving.
 
drumcat said:
Amy Clancy of KIRO 7 TV in Seattle

FAIL
Click to expand...

I don't see anything wrong with Seattle. Also, I watched this on the news on Kiro 7 and it was actually interesting, but we just need to use common sense. Do not use an iPod that is getting too hot. That way it will NOT engulf in flames.
 
KCMichaelB said:
If you were one of the 15 and had second degree burns is it still meaningless?
Click to expand...

There is no logic to thinking 15 failures out of 175 million is a design or manufacturing flaw that is predictable or controllable. It is more likely some random and rare combination of circumstances caused these incidents.

To understand how small a number this is, compare to the fact that there are about 1.2 million car-related fatalities per year worldwide relative to 600 million cars. An iPod presents virtually no threat compared to a car.

One should scale the intensity of one's emotions in proportion to the numerical weight of the problem.
 
Nem Wan said:
There is no logic to thinking 15 failures out of 175 million is a design or manufacturing flaw that is predictable or controllable. It is more likely some random and rare combination of circumstances caused these incidents.

To understand how small a number this is, compare to the fact that there are about 1.2 million car-related fatalities per year worldwide relative to 600 million cars. An iPod presents virtually no threat compared to a car.

One should scale the intensity of one's emotions in proportion to the numerical weight of the problem.
Click to expand...

The worst case is that those few ipods/iphones, have gotten batteries that have small metallic fragments (same issue occurred with laptop batteries).
 
Nem Wan said:
To understand how small a number this is, compare to the fact that there are about 1.2 million car-related fatalities per year worldwide relative to 600 million cars. An iPod presents virtually no threat compared to a car.
Click to expand...

Unless all of those fatalities are down to design faults that's not a valid analogy.
 
Nem Wan said:
To understand how small a number this is, compare to the fact that there are about 1.2 million car-related fatalities per year worldwide relative to 600 million cars. An iPod presents virtually no threat compared to a car.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you don't drive iPods around at high speeds :p
 
Anuba said:
15 is very close to the tipping point when it comes to these things. In 2005, Microsoft recalled and replaced 14 million power cords for the original XBOX because of 30 reports of incidents (7 instances of minor hand burns, 23 instances of smoke damage or minor damage to a carpet or entertainment center). With the kind of publicity the iPod fires have been generating lately, it won't be long before another 15 previously unreported incidents surface.
Click to expand...

To put this in perspective, there are currently 175,000,000 shipped iPods. Yes, 175 million. That's over 12 times your quoted number of XBOX. And then there's only half as many incidents of fire, and none that caused any injuries. I think it's safe to say that you're over-reacting a bit and not really thinking clearly.

The Xbox situation was 20 times worse, of course a recall was necessary.
 
Vague

"a number of occasions", "in some cases"

Oh, puh-lease! What is it? Three? A hundred thousand? If real numbers were given, readers' reactions might either be, "Oh, is that all?", or, "Wow! That's serious." Either reaction is desirable. The current vagueness (all too common in blogs and articles) is simply irritating.

Maybe we should be reading, "An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals three Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly smoldered a bit, causing a one inch burn on one person's hand and damaging a couple of pieces of paper and a cushion." Hmm. Just doesn't have that panicky bite.
 
uberamd said:
Thank you. How many tens of millions of iPods are in circulation? 15 incidents? Wow....
Click to expand...

Ya..... OOH OOOH I know.... Lets build a giant metal ceiling in the sky around the entire earth to block 3 people a year from being struck by lightning lol!!! :rolleyes:
 
Uhm Hi, Seattle here.

For the record, Seattle ≠ Redmond. I'd bet one out of three or maybe four people has an iPhone (from what i've seen) , and being a college town you see your share of Macbooks, Pros and even Powerbooks.

Thx all.
 
.Andy said:
My favorite tech company wouldn't do this. I'm going to post aggressively so as to protect them from these outrageous allegations.
Click to expand...


LOL! It is a bit sad, isn't it? I love the products but Apple are a multinational company and make their fair share of blunders like all big companies do.

Blind devotion is so... childish.
 
Okay, the batteries thing doesn't really worry me. Batteries do that some times. Its unfortunate, but not something I think Apple is directly responsible for.

However, I do disagree with Apple's lawyers trying to tie up a FOIA request. That is just downright dirty, and proves that as much as some mactards may worship Jobs and all things with an apple logo, Apple is still a company. And companies resort to dirty tactics sometimes.

Finally, I don't understand why everyone who is criticizing the reporter because she is from Seattle. Anyone in the US, and many outside for that matter, can file an FOIA request. Just because it was filed by someone at a local station vs. CBS/FOX/ABC national news automatically means they're lying? Please.
 
It's not Apple's fault. They don't make battery cells themselves, but buy it from specialized battery vendors. I remember when Apple issued a recall for iBook G4 batteries, they were supposedly made by Sony. Thankfully, my iBook's battery serial number was not in the problematic range.
 
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