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Thai Man Reportedly Electrocuted After Using a Charging iPhone 4S

Compile 'em all said:
You never lost anything in your life? Chargers are objects. Just like anything else. Many people have more than one charger. One at work, one at home, one in the car, one in a suitcase...etc etc. Most people whose work requires frequent traveling need more than one charger. And easily lose chargers. If no one needed extra chargers, Apple wouldn't be selling them.

I still stand firm by my point. Cutting the chargers price in half, will solve this problem a great deal.
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You can afford a 700€ smartphone and can't afford a 19€ additional charger ?
 
While it is almost definitely the chargers fault, a plastic case would have saved the user from the charger.
 
We do not have any idea at all about the facts, it may in fact be nothing to do with the phone or the charger but the house wiring. Or maybe it was connected to a dodgy power board.

We have very stringent safety rules in Australia and I've bought half a dozen $3 chargers over the years as I'm sure have many others and there have been no reports at all over here of any issues regarding them.

On the other hand my friends mother was killed by a faulty powerboard.
 
9000 said:
Couldn't it simply be the wall socket electrocuting some of these people and not the charger? Eastern Asia has high-voltage wall sockets. One of the incidents was in a bathroom.
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Just FYI: In Germany, it is quite common to have a water heater in your bathroom running at about 11Kilowatt (220 Volt, 50 Ampere). It's safe if you know what you are doing, which includes turning off power _very_ quickly if something goes wrong.

But anyway, the path of electricity is wall socket -> charger -> cable -> phone -> human. It is the job of the charger to turn 220 Volt into 5 Volt max. Whether it is in the bathroom or not doesn't matter (except that a dangerous charger will be more dangerous in humid conditions).

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inscrewtable said:
We have very stringent safety rules in Australia and I've bought half a dozen $3 chargers over the years as I'm sure have many others and there have been no reports at all over here of any issues regarding them.
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These cases _are_ rare. Even dangerous chargers will _very rarely_ kill people. I would think that most dangerous chargers will develop some signs (like smoking) before they kill, and then you throw them away. Or they stop working instead of killing. You'd need a charger that turns from "no signs of dangers" to "lethal" without any intermediate steps. It is quite possible that there are plenty of dangerous chargers in Australia, but so far everyone has been lucky.
 
inscrewtable said:
We do not have any idea at all about the facts, it may in fact be nothing to do with the phone or the charger but the house wiring. Or maybe it was connected to a dodgy power board.

We have very stringent safety rules in Australia and I've bought half a dozen $3 chargers over the years as I'm sure have many others and there have been no reports at all over here of any issues regarding them.

On the other hand my friends mother was killed by a faulty powerboard.
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lol we get all the same cheaply chargers as everyone else, has nothing to do about being in Australia. You're not going to find them in a real supermarket just like you wouldnt in Thailand.
 
Well, its their own fault buying fake chargers. Just buy it at Apple. It may cost you a fortune but it will last longer.
 
JAT said:
So, here's my question:
Does this incident make YOU think twice about electricity? Not just for your phone, but every other device that uses it. Obviously, this poor man did not.

Some of us do. Although this makes me think about my kids. I think it's time for some more training for them.
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Good point. Yes; it does indeed make me think. And it's a great idea to educate our children to make them aware and safe.

Even though safety regulations are in all likelihood much more stringent in the UK (and, i presume, the USA), it's worth remembering the potential danger of electricity, and not being careless around it.
Also, saving a little money here and there by buying cheaper, knock-off accessories is, IMHO, not worth the risk.
 
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota– A man in Minnesota was badly injured after he said a knockoff iPhone charger exploded in his hands.
Tim Tyrell told KMSP-TV that he needed a new charger for his iPhone, so he turned to e-bay so he could pay less.
Tyrell said he was reaching for his charging phone when a jolt tripped the circuit breaker, destroying the charger and exploding in his hands.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/stor...ger-leaves-man-with-electrical-burn-infection

I think that knockoff iPhone charger was cheap and fake from eBay.
 
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