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Apple Pledges Investigation After Chinese Woman Reportedly Electrocuted Using a Charging iPhone 5
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USB 2.0 spec is 500mA @ 5V, Apple wall chargers ( iPhone and iPad ) are 1A @ 5V...it would take a long time to charge at 2mA.
This is a sad story. There has to be more involved here, I can't imagine someone was killed using an iPhone just plugged into the wall.
A few problems with this:
1. The output of the charger should be low voltage
2. If the charger was malfunctioning and China's mains 240VAC was somehow "bleeding through" to the iPhone, the iPhone would not operate. The article states that she was using the phone, so that would mean that this would have to happen while she was using the phone somehow. 240VAC would be sufficiently high enough to electrocute someone in a variety of configurations. If this were the USA at the 120VAC level we have our mains at, it would be highly unlikely. You would have to be standing in a puddle of water with a good connection to earth in order to get electrocuted from 120VAC.
1. The output of the charger should be low voltage
2. If the charger was malfunctioning and China's mains 240VAC was somehow "bleeding through" to the iPhone, the iPhone would not operate. The article states that she was using the phone, so that would mean that this would have to happen while she was using the phone somehow. 240VAC would be sufficiently high enough to electrocute someone in a variety of configurations. If this were the USA at the 120VAC level we have our mains at, it would be highly unlikely. You would have to be standing in a puddle of water with a good connection to earth in order to get electrocuted from 120VAC.
The story neglected to mention that she was using the phone while in the bathtub, using a toaster on the side of the tub.
Source for that?
Not when the voltage (which represents the pressure to push the current) is only 5VDC.
The high resistance of human skin typically blocks all that available current unless enough voltage is present to overcome it.
I'm sure you're right...it needed to be challenged nonetheless.
Extremely clever, but not responsive to the question
It is humor saying that she was using the phone while in the bathtube? Strange sense of humor
Can you buy tar & feathers in bulk online? Amazon is out of stock.
I wonder how this happened but note that even if people say the probability of death is low because the amount of power is low, we don't know her health. I once had a sparklets delivery guy tell me about his buddy who was a runner. He had a heart attack when he guzzled ice cold water right after running a half marathon. It shocked his heart. He was in great health but what if this woman had a heart issue already that was undetected?
USB 2.0 spec is 500mA @ 5V, Apple wall chargers ( iPhone and iPad ) are 1A @ 5V...it would take a long time to charge at 2mA.
Ahh, I take back what I said earlier then. I thought the wall chargers used the same current as the USB cord. 500 mA would hurt like hell, but I don't think it's be fatal unless someone had a current going through them for about 30-45 seconds.
...which makes me think it isn't cheap knock off wall chargers that are the problem here. There'd have to be something wrong within the iPhone itself. Something like an exposed wire in the Lightning port that'd make the antenna or the aluminium casing into a live circuit.
edit: I just looked it up, and I'm wrong. I assumed anything approaching 1 amp was fatal, but 500 milliamps is well over twice the amount of amperage required to drop you dead. You can die from a current as low as 100mA, and anything over 200mA is almost guaranteed fatal.
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I'm gonna scream if I hear this one more time. It's blurted out by people who clearly don't know much about electricity in an attempt to sound like they do.
Amps don't go anywhere without volts to push them. If you take the path between two points on a body as a fixed resistance (depends on which parts, how close they are, and how wet!!) the number of amps that flow between those two points will be proportional to the voltage applied. Yes it's the amps that kill, but it's the volts that determine how many amps there will be!!
Some updates...
The details of this news are not entirely accurate. I would like to give you some update since I could read Chinese....
1. This was a true event, not some news satire or anti-Apple smear campaign somebody mentioned before;
2. It's iPhone 4 not 5.
3. She bought it from Hong Kong with original (legit) British standard AC power plugs charger and a convertor to use on Chinese sockets.
4. When she found dead, the phone was plugged in charging.
5. She was not taking a shower.
6. The charger and cable were still good after the tragedy. Phone showed sign of burning but was still functioning.
The details of this news are not entirely accurate. I would like to give you some update since I could read Chinese....
1. This was a true event, not some news satire or anti-Apple smear campaign somebody mentioned before;
2. It's iPhone 4 not 5.
3. She bought it from Hong Kong with original (legit) British standard AC power plugs charger and a convertor to use on Chinese sockets.
4. When she found dead, the phone was plugged in charging.
5. She was not taking a shower.
6. The charger and cable were still good after the tragedy. Phone showed sign of burning but was still functioning.
Attachments
Did you forget to observe that 100% of all genuine iPhones & their chargers come from China?
Currently, the story is high on my CNN home page, and makes no mention of water or showering. It ends with a warning that Apple users should not use their iPhones while plugged into power (a.k.a. USB).
No matter what happened, it's natural to seek meaning or someone to blame in the event of a tragedy, whether there is blame or not. We'd all have such emotions. (Not that the media needs to play on them.)
(Kind of wonder if the phone will turn out to have been shocked along with her by some other source, rather than shocking her itself. USB cords never scared me. Seems like we may actually get the facts eventually.)
These are NOT facts. These are allegations. There's a difference. Learn it.
Learn what racism is. Questioning "news" from China is not racism. It's realism. China, a nationstate, not a race, has well-earned its reputation and a prudent person would be skeptical no matter where this alleged incident took place.
I suggest you may owe many posters an apology for calling them racists without any facts.
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Sadly probably a knock-off
When I was young, we lived next to a field with a notice 'Trespassers will be prosecuted'. I thought that was the same as 'electrocuted' but I still trespassed.
This is a sad story but it was probably a knock-off iPhone with a knock-off charger from a knock-off Apple Store. The UK (and, I imagine, everywhere else) is now flooded with counterfeit chargers, chainsaws, pharmaceuticals, etc. from China. There have even been counterfeit aircraft parts. These are not just fraudulent, they are extremely dangerous.
When I was young, we lived next to a field with a notice 'Trespassers will be prosecuted'. I thought that was the same as 'electrocuted' but I still trespassed.
This is a sad story but it was probably a knock-off iPhone with a knock-off charger from a knock-off Apple Store. The UK (and, I imagine, everywhere else) is now flooded with counterfeit chargers, chainsaws, pharmaceuticals, etc. from China. There have even been counterfeit aircraft parts. These are not just fraudulent, they are extremely dangerous.
having friends with family in china, i wouldnt be surprised if this was just the government carrying out a hit...
I dont believe this effng story one bit. And it seems these stories always originate in places that aren't as accessible as the USA.
HMMMMMM!
HMMMMMM!
yeah and I hate I can't use my toaster in the shower. It is an obvious design flaw.
USB 2.0 spec is 500mA @ 5V, Apple wall chargers ( iPhone and iPad ) are 1A @ 5V...it would take a long time to charge at 2mA.
This is a sad story. There has to be more involved here, I can't imagine someone was killed using an iPhone just plugged into the wall.
Let's see obviously they are saying the charger malfunctioned. No one is saying she was shocked by the regular usb voltage. You think that there is a chance that a faulty charger could bridge the full wall voltage (240v in china?) straight through to the phone somehow?
I still think this is sketchy but no one here is saying she died from usb 5v 500ma...