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Apple Pledges Investigation After Chinese Woman Reportedly Electrocuted Using a Charging iPhone 5

ItsWelshy said:
I think you'll find it's natural selection at play here...

Anyone using a phone plugged in, whilst they take a shower, shouldn't really have any complaint
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If only natural selection was as effective as people think, we would end up with a lot less dumb comments on this forum (and others)...
 
Was it an Apple-made charger? I've seen the Chinese knock offs and I wouldn't even give one of those to someone I hated.
 
well apple, you've done it again...i hope you will compensate for this unfortunate event.
 
Reason077 said:
Whatever the circumstances, there is obviously a serious design flaw when a phone can kill someone. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for releasing such a dangerous product.

I'm certainly going to take extra care when using my iPhone in the shower from now on - especially when it's plugged in.
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Seriously? It's plugged into a receptacle it's full power being transformed to lower power. Either the transformer was bypassed by water, or water ran down the wire directly into the receptacle. Using any powered device while wet/in shower etc. is ill advised, especially without a GFCI, which in the US is code in all wet locations.
 
Fire trap

I recently stayed in the #1 hotel in a mid-size Chionese city (Xian)- 7 million population. In the shower, there was water running inside of the electric light... this was a brand new hotel.

I strongly suspect that crappy home/building electricity is at fault
 
Voltage leakage from my iPhone charger as well

My iPhone 5 is sitting on an official Apple charger at the moment (admittedly an iPad one). This is definitely not a knock off or had its innards changed, as it came direct from Apple. There is voltage leakage to my iPhone and/or iPad. As someone else commented, you get a buzzy feel if you stroke the back of the iPhone or iPad. These devices are not earthed as the earth pin is a plastic dummy. Perhaps they should be.

I notice this when I am at my French house with 1970's era wiring, where a lot of the sockets are still 2 pin other than in the kitchen, bathrooms and the two 30 amp sockets. I get the same buzzy sensation from my Macbook Pro when on charge plugged into a 2 pin socket, so I think it is an earth leakage issue. I don't get this in the UK, where all power sockets are earthed and the MPB charger has a metal earth prong, which connects via the location button on the charger brick. I am slightly surprised that none of these devices are double insulated.

I agree with others, making smart Alec snide comments about someone's death is crass and reflects the mentality of the poster. How would you feel if it was your mother/sister/daughter?
 
jread said:
Was it an Apple-made charger? I've seen the Chinese knock offs and I wouldn't even give one of those to someone I hated.
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You immediately jump into the discussion, but you couldn't even be troubled to read the entire article (all 200-words worth), now could you?
 
Wire Gauge

Anyone know what gauge wire Apple uses in their current cables?

If you hooked all four pins of the USB to 220V AC on one end and ground on the other end, then how long would it take to melt the copper wires in the USB cable?

Getting electrocuted with a USB cable is definitely strange...
 
I got two electrical shocks while using the iPhone charging.

But I was leaving the shower all wet and without any kind of shoes. It was a very weak shock anyway...

Of course now I don't grab the iphone while I'm wet... lol:rolleyes:
 
NachoGrande said:
Seriously? It's plugged into a receptacle it's full power being transformed to lower power. Either the transformer was bypassed by water, or water ran down the wire directly into the receptacle. Using any powered device while wet/in shower etc. is ill advised, especially without a GFCI, which in the US is code in all wet locations.
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he was being sarcastic...


FUN FACT!!

Electrical discharge (shock) from static electricity can be anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000 volts :D

So obviously voltage has nothing to do with what can kill you.
 
I'm not seeing anything saying she was in the shower on the CNN website.

Any other linkable sources saying this?
 
Jsameds said:
Whilst I'm not gonna say that she was using a 3rd party charger (I would rather stick to facts than speculation) - I just thought I'd share my experience of one. I bought a cheap charger off eBay a couple of years ago.

It worked great, then one day I plugged it into the wall, and the other end into my iPod and *bang* - the charger exploded, it shot the charger out of the wall and across the room, charring the wall and blowing the circuit breakers.

Luckily there was no fire and no one was hurt, and the iPod was ok (somehow!) but I couldn't help but think that I was lucky and I could have received one nasty shock from that thing.

I now buy all official chargers every time, it's just not worth it for the sake of a few pounds.
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I used a knock-off cheap usb car charger I got from amazon for $5 or so a couple years ago. Worked great until one day it didn't. When it stopped working, it was because smoke started coming from it, so I yanked it out and threw it out of the car into my driveway. The thing was melting inside! I'll stick to official chargers from now on too... electricity is too touchy to take a chance with cheap components
 
willmtaylor said:
You immediately jump into the discussion, but you couldn't even be troubled to read the entire article (all 200-words worth), now could you?
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The article says her parents _claim_ that she was using "Apple's official charger". That doesn't mean she was using an Apple made charger.

The charger could have been exchanged before she even bought the iPhone. She might have later paid for an "official Apple charger", but that doesn't mean she got what she paid for. Someone might have swapped her charger for a fake one. She might have bought a fake replacement without telling her parents. There are possibilities that are worse.
 
If it turns out that she wasn't using an Apple-approved charger or Lightning cable, I hope the facts of the incident get widespread publicity and the public is more informed of the potential dangers of using cheap knockoff products. Saving 10 or 15 bucks sounds great but there are always potential risks. Caveat emptor.
 
Um

How is this anything to do with Apple?

Last I checked it was still a bad idea to combine using something plugged into the wall while taking a bath...I didn't know the laws of electricity have changed.

I guess we need a big warning on iDevices now that explains to people about all the potentially stupid things they shouldn't do with the device. So instead of just "Designed in California" moto, we need 3000 words of warning and a bunch of symbols on how not to use the device.
 
smithrh said:
I'm not seeing anything saying she was in the shower on the CNN website.

Any other linkable sources saying this?
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I have noticed the same thing. I have not found any news outlets reporting anything about a shower. The only place I find mention of that is on this forum. Not saying that she didn't do that, but where the heck does that come from??
 
Dorje Sylas said:
It isn't really Voltage that Kills. It is Amperage, and not much at that. 0.1 amp across the heart can be enough to kill. The iPhone charger spits out 2.1 amps so yes, with the right environmental circumstances it could be lethal... so can an electric shaver.
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Well, No the iPhone charger has only 1 amp the iPad charger has 2.1 :rolleyes:
 
rhuber said:
I have noticed the same thing. I have not found any news outlets reporting anything about a shower. The only place I find mention of that is on this forum. Not saying that she didn't do that, but where the heck does that come from??
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Thanks, you got there before me. I'm seeing all these posts about the victim being in the bath or shower, but no sources mentioned...other than some earlier poster saying it with no sources.

This apparent canard was picked up and now many are blaming the victim...with no apparent reason other than the unsourced post.
 
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