Chinese Woman Suffers Eye Injuries After iPhone 5 Explodes

[Murphintosh]

Dude apple does not have an exploding iphone problem. Chinese lawyers have discovered their version of hot coffee

Just so you know, Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's was a serious case.

To keep this short:
She suffered third-degree burns, was hospitalized for eight days, had skin grafting, and required two years of medical treatment.

She only wanted her medical expenses - $20,000 Mac offered $800.

Mac's coffee was served hotter than industry standards.

Mac had received more than 700 reports of coffee burns and paid $500,000 to settle claims from the previous 10 years.

There is much more to it including pictures if look. This was not an example of frivolous litigation.

 

[benji888]

I'm willing to bet that many many accidents happen/caused by other manufactures phones, its just when it happens with an iPhone it gets pumped up by the media.

that, and, we don't know what kind of standards there are in China...electrical standards...for suing people (sue happy US sues for anything, ugh), as already stated, imitation iphone parts, etc. ...plus, like macbeta says, most of these things don't get media attention from devices made by other manufacturers...but, I don't think media should give a ***t unless someone actually wins a lawsuit, as many of these CLAIMS (which is all it is at this point), are due to NEGLECT.

 

[benji888]

I'm glad you asked, because as it turns out, yes, Apple does in fact have a warning right in the iPhone user manual (although a user really shouldn't need the warning, as it is common sense, they provide it anyway):



And, the manual tells you in the very first sentence (highlighted) in Chapter 2 - Getting started:

Good advise. Now Apple should run a campaign with their billions of Dollars to inform people of this better. Every day MANY people use broken iPhones. Consumer safety should be top priority and it would not hurt putting this warning on the glass cover of a new phone. Or have a warning pop up on the phone when it detects an impact.

"Warning!! A physical impact has been detected on your iPhone. Please have your iPhone inspected at your local Apple store. Use of a damaged iPhone, such as one with a cracked screen, may cause injury."

Maybe include a phone number or link to Apple support.

I think this would be a smart thing to add to any phone.

Millionaire2K, you need to read what HiRez already posted! (same page of thread). There already IS a warning about dropping the iPhone. ...Just because people are too lazy to read the manual, doesn't mean they can blame the person who wrote it! ...it states at the gas station not to light up a cigarette while pumping gas....

 

[parish]

Although given that the screen was admittedly damaged it is possible so was the battery which is under the right hand side of the display. An impact that would chip the screen could have led to a sliver of the display getting into the phone and somehow puncturing the battery soft cell exposing the lithium to air which makes it highly unstable. Since the glass was already compromised from being cracked it isn't hard to believe it would fully rupture etc

Quite feasible, plus there may have been other damage - was the back of the phone damaged when it was dropped? A damaged back is more likely to damage the battery too.

Remember that iPhone that burst into flames on an aircraft in Australia? Same sort of reaction as here but when it was examined (by independent people, the Australian Air Safety people) it turned out that a cowboy 3rd party repairer had left a rogue screw inside the case which punctured the battery.

To those who reckon this is Apple's fault (or, at least, Apple should have somehow made the phone 101% idiot-proof) let me ask you this:

Suppose you had a minor prang in your car that damaged the front wing. Looks a mess, but the car drives OK so you continue using it. Unknown to you however, with the suspension movement the damaged wing is rubbing on the tyre. At 70mph it eventually wears through, the tyre fails, you lose control and slam into a wall breaking both your legs. You'd claim the car manufacturer was at fault for failing to detect the potential danger and disable the starter motor to prevent you driving it until you'd had the car checked out, right?

 

[JGRE]

Why do these things only happen in China?

 

[AdonisSMU]

Good advise. Now Apple should run a campaign with their billions of Dollars to inform people of this better. Every day MANY people use broken iPhones. Consumer safety should be top priority and it would not hurt putting this warning on the glass cover of a new phone. Or have a warning pop up on the phone when it detects an impact.

"Warning!! A physical impact has been detected on your iPhone. Please have your iPhone inspected at your local Apple store. Use of a damaged iPhone, such as one with a cracked screen, may cause injury."

Maybe include a phone number or link to Apple support.

I think this would be a smart thing to add to any phone.

Or people should just take it upon themselves to read the instructions.

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I have been hearing these sort of news quite extensively these days..another incident where a woman died of the current that flowed through her i phone while talking from it and was connected to the charging pint..same sort of incidents are going on in Samsung as well.

sounds like an excuse to use Chinese phones instead....ohhh wait...

 

[yusukeaoki]

Everything in China explodes.
From phones to human waste.
I mean everything.

 

[Millionaire2K]

Or people should just take it upon themselves to read the instructions.

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I agree... But we all know people don't and still use their phones when they are damaged while not understanding the possible risk.

 

[Brian Y]

You know what, I really wouldn't be surprised if these stories were being pumped into the media by the Chinese government as a way of trying damage Apple's reputation out there.

And for the record, if an explosion is powerful enough to blow glass over a foot into your eye - do you think the (very soft) aluminium bezel would be perfectly intact/unscarred?

 

[olowott]

why must it be from someone in china, whats up with this

 

[Mark Booth]

My dog knocked our 50-inch TV off of the stand onto the hardwood floor. When I picked up the TV, there was a crack in the upper right corner of the screen. I decided to leave it plugged in and use it anyway (it still seemed to work fine). But, a week later, smoke started coming out of it and phhht, there was a big flash of flame which popped the circuit breaker (no fire, fortunately).

The above is not true. But using the TV after it was CLEARLY damaged would have been a stupid thing to do. Stupid is as stupid does.

Just sayin'!

Mark

 

[Reason077]

I have had several iPhones explode over the last 2-3 years. The iPhone 5 seems particularly vulnerable to this. These "explosions" aren't particularly violent or dangerous (IMO) - more like burning than an explosion - but certainly ruin the phone, and, in one case, a nice pair of pants.

In each case the Apple Store has been very quick to hide away the damaged phone and give me a replacement. In each case, the Apple store employees seem to go very quiet when they see the device and make very little comment. It seems to me as if they are aware that there is an issue but are under instructions not to talk about it.

 

[NSeven]

Question is.... Was she running the new Beta????? :O

 

[Popeye206]

Hummm.... drop phone and crack screen... phone starts heating up when in use.... decision, keep using phone. Sorry... not a very smart decision.

 

[BHP41]

Hey did you miss the 1st word of my sentence? I said IF. As in IF it happens they should warn you!! IF!! Do you get the meaning of IF.

"IF the phone will blowup then yes!" I want a warning.

Hahaha. Please do tell us all, how will the phone know "if" it's going to blow up. Stop trying to back peddle. Your original statement is wrong. You want a baby sitter and the reality is, people need to use common sense. Unfortunately, judges feel they need to award stupid behavior. So this women will probably get some undeserved money.

 

[iSRS]

I dropped my palm Prē once. No noticeable damage. About a week later, it started getting very warm in my pocket. I took it out, and could literally watch the battery meter drop, about a percentage per second. So I waited until it was fully discharged and cooled down.

Out it back in the charger, and it would not take a charge. Took the back cover off, and you could see the battery blistered.

Took it to the Verizon store, they gave me a new battery.

This one charged… then proceeded to "meltdown"

This told me two things.
1. Just because I didn't see damage, doesn't mean it wasn't there. A regulating sensor could have gone bad or been damaged. This is especially true in a phone like the iPhone where you can't remove the battery, therefore, not see the hidden damage.

2. This is possible on any device with a battery. I've had it happen on Logitech mice.

So we can be quick to judge, both sides, but the fact is that devices like iPhones are most certainly not made to be ok being dropped. They may, in fact, be ok, but that is not the expectation.

 

[0x0x0x0]

Suppose you had a minor prang in your car that damaged the front wing. Looks a mess, but the car drives OK so you continue using it. Unknown to you however, with the suspension movement the damaged wing is rubbing on the tyre. At 70mph it eventually wears through, the tyre fails, you lose control and slam into a wall breaking both your legs. You'd claim the car manufacturer was at fault for failing to detect the potential danger and disable the starter motor to prevent you driving it until you'd had the car checked out, right?

You'd know within a few minutes, trust me, mainly by a distinctive smell and white smoke pouring out from under the wheel arch... The reason- tyres are engineered to give all possible signs of early failure. The reason I know- something similar happened to me (and that was a non-reinforced, i.e. LI 88, tyre)...

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Hummm.... drop phone and crack screen... phone starts heating up when in use.... decision, keep using phone. Sorry... not a very smart decision.

Read the story- she was on the phone for 40 mins, once she noticed it started heating up she tried to turn it off but couldn't...

 

[Intricacy]

Noticed how this and all the previous reports of iPhone causing bodily harm in the last few month originate from China and not anywhere else in the world ?

Notice how there's a sudden and big influx of complaints from china about iPhone and how the media tries to portray Apple as evil. Remember that incident where the Chinese celebrities used social media to badmouth Apple?

Co-incidence? I think not!

 

[Brian Y]

I have had several iPhones explode over the last 2-3 years. The iPhone 5 seems particularly vulnerable to this. These "explosions" aren't particularly violent or dangerous (IMO) - more like burning than an explosion - but certainly ruin the phone, and, in one case, a nice pair of pants.

In each case the Apple Store has been very quick to hide away the damaged phone and give me a replacement. In each case, the Apple store employees seem to go very quiet when they see the device and make very little comment. It seems to me as if they are aware that there is an issue but are under instructions not to talk about it.

So you've had several iPhones explode/overheat/burn? Sorry but I don't for one second believe this.

 

[mollyparrot]

According to the woman's own admission, she had dropped the phone before, which had left obvious damage on the screen. That's the first safety rule, don't use an electric device with obvious damage.

This is scaring me. I am a high school teacher and at least 20-30% of my students have iphones with badly cracked screens. I have no idea what on Earth they do to them, but they even laugh about the damage and compare to see whose screen is most damaged.

My 3GS was still in mint condition (until I had to get a replacement in June), with no case, after all these years. Are the new models that much more fragile?

 

[parish]

You'd know within a few minutes, trust me, mainly by a distinctive smell and white smoke pouring out from under the wheel arch... The reason- tyres are engineered to give all possible signs of early failure. The reason I know- something similar happened to me (and that was a non-reinforced, i.e. LI 88, tyre)

Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. The point I was trying to illustrate is that once you damage something it no longer conforms to the manufacturer's design specification therefore to expect it to still conform to the manufacturer's performance and safety specifications is, IMHO, completely unreasonable.

Plus, as others have asked, why do all these problems turn up in China? Is the US not Apple's largest market so, statistically, you'd expect the largest number of exploding/self-igniting iPhones to be in the US?

 

[Shearwater]

Why is it always the Chinese? I almost don't care about stories like this anymore.

I don't think we should ever stop caring about someone being hurt!!

 

[ValSalva]

Was it attached to the same type of charger (counterfeit) that cause the electrocution in China? Probably not. Man, if something is going to happen it's going to happen in China

 

[rdlink]

Yeah, I meant AppleCare+. And yes it is available in Canada as well.

And since we only let the Canadians think they're a sovereign nation...

Just kidding, hosers. Don't get all up in arms..

 

[Terrin]

Yeah, because they aren't real people right?

Maybe it is because 1) the iPhone has nothing significant to do with the story, 2) these stories only seem to happen in China, and 3) the Chinese have a history of trying to smear Apple's reputation to advance the sale of its own cellphone companies.

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It's happen like month ago I was charging my iPhone 4 I bought i like 3 years ago when they came the first iPhone 4 well anyways I burn my hand no kidding was really hot when i touch the screen seems the dock connector had a short circuit or something internal the speaker was totally melt also part of the motherboard turn sorta black but was working and still working for my surprise but everything was ok so I change the dock connector and the speakers.

Newbie, let me guess you are in China.

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Dude apple does not have an exploding iphone problem. Chinese lawyers have discovered their version of hot coffee

Yes, except with the hot coffee story the lady actually had a case. With MacDonalds they had hundreds of complaints the coffee was too hot, the coffee was hotter than it should have been, and the like 90 year old women suffered third degree burns and was hospitalized for several days.

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AppleCare is only offered in the States.

Yes, except that is not true.