The Incredible "Exploding" iphone?

cnh

An iphone started "glowing" red on an Australian flight and went into "meltdown" mode (I wonder if that's a new app?)--lithium batteries and QUALITY control in China? Ahem!

This is not the first time this has happened.

It's already known that the "green" Apple is not so green and uses just as many toxic materials as any other Manufacturer. In the end, it's really "all about the money".

Enjoy!

http://news.yahoo.com/iphone-4-explodes-midflight-australian-airline-224014583.html

cnh

exalted512

Crazy, although I'm somehow not convinced Apple is the only company with those problems.
-Cody

nguyendot

My androids do the same thing from time to time...minus the nuclear meltdown. They just start to get very warm in my pocket, exceeding 120F until I notice and pull the battery.

AsSiMiLaTeD

It's happened with many brands of phone, it's not exclusive to Apple products.

And yes, in the end it's all about the money, that's why corporations exist...

cnh

Don't disagree with you there. But if companies continue to slough off quality controls for profits, they won't "exist" for long. Profit, in and of itself, is not bad as long as it is not the "only" operative principle in a corporation--afterall, corps are composed of "people" and are also a kind of society with "responsibilities" to people as well as the need to turn a profit in order to survive, compete.

This is the kind of discussion that is almost impossible to carry on with a "classically" trained Economist who is convinced that his science has nothing to do with Society or the Social but is a self-contained entity that can be studied through things like Economic Theory, mathematical modeling and statistical analysis. But that's another story with a loooongg history. Mistakes were made in the late 19th century when we started to separate sociology from political science from economics and history and created "artificial" disciplinary boundaries and different disciplines whose concerns and judgments actually continue to "overlap".

cnh

nguyendot

I agree, to a degree. But quality doesn't always equal dedicated sales. Look at Monster Cable, and Beats headphones. Those Beats aren't built too well but sales seem to be increasing as time goes on.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I believe that Apple products are generally very well designed and built. Sure there are exceptions, but of all the things people **** about with Apple, quality isn't usually one of them. That's not to say that can't change, Toyota is the perfect example of how rapidly something like that can change...

BlueFox

These things also happen with future technology. The same thing happened to Arnold in Terminator 3. Fortunately, he was able to remove his battery in time before it exploded.

tonyb

Anytime you mass produce anything, a few bad apples will show up, no pun intended. Then enter the bean counters, whose jobs dictate they cut corners to make a buck.

cnh

Like the Arnold example! I'm not a fan of the iphone but I do agree that many Apple products, especially the notebooks, desktops, etc. are fairly reliable. My daughter has a Mac Book, my wife is getting an ipad II for X-mas....shhhhh! And my first computer was a Mac Plus. I also spent some time, as a Grad Student, as a Beta Tester for Macs on Madison Ave (NYC) in the late 80s--Apple helped with some of my expenses there!

And while I use an institutional Dell now....well let's not go there?

cnh

mhardy6647

Lithium ion batteries - a lot of chemical potential energy in a very small package; i.e., a recipe for trouble (if not disaster).

Jstas

You know what the Operation Castle bombs were made out of, right? The one that blew a hole in the Bikini Atoll 6,500 feet wide and 250 feet deep?

Lithium-6 and Lithium-7.

mhardy6647

In fairness, that's a slightly different application of lithium isotopes :-)

Polkersince85

They have had two Chevy Volts that caught fire and melted down after crash testing side impacts.
Chevy has provided loaners to customers until they figure out what to do. Don't park one in the garage for now, it may cook the apple pie.

Jstas

mhardy6647 wrote: »

In fairness, that's a slightly different application of lithium isotopes :-)

In all fairness, you missed my point.

It was mentioned above that lithium ions hold a good deal of potential energy.

The largest bomb blast the U.S. ever made was a 15 megaton blast that created Bravo Crater and it was due to a gross over-site and assumptions on how active lithium-7 actually was under a thermonuclear reaction.

I'd say a thermonuclear yield 2.5 times greater than what they thought they were going to get is a good example of how much energy lithium actually contains. Oh and scientists on the project said that using that method, they could make a 100 megaton bomb.

BTW, the natural state of lithium is a combination of lithium-6 and lithium-7.

inspiredsports

I wonder if the iPhone problem had anything to do with lower air pressure at altitude.

I think airliner cabins are pressurized to what, an equivalency of 8,000 feet?

Could that allow a mismanufacured battery expand a bit and cause a problem?

agfrost

The electrochemical energy involved in lithium ion batteries is significantly different than the nuclear processes it's involved in when one is detonating thermonuclear devices. Thankfully.

dkg999

agfrost wrote: »

The electrochemical energy involved in lithium ion batteries is significantly different than the nuclear processes it's involved in when one is detonating thermonuclear devices. Thankfully.

You just rained on every wannabe terrorists dream :biggrin:

Please hold for the TSA directive to not allow anything with batteries on a flight.

tonyb

dkg999 wrote: »

Please hold for the TSA directive to not allow anything with batteries on a flight.

So thats why they confiscated my vibrator.....damn.

cnh

dkg999 wrote: »

You just rained on every wannabe terrorists dream :biggrin:

Please hold for the TSA directive to not allow anything with batteries on a flight.

tonyb wrote: »

So thats why they confiscated my vibrator.....damn.

I must say that this thought crossed my mind as soon as I posted this thread! Things can get a bit ridiculous when pushed to the extreme...but wait, isn't that what those guys are: Extremists? lol

cnh

mhardy6647

Jstas wrote: »

In all fairness, you missed my point.

It was mentioned above that lithium ions hold a good deal of potential energy.

The largest bomb blast the U.S. ever made was a 15 megaton blast that created Bravo Crater and it was due to a gross over-site and assumptions on how active lithium-7 actually was under a thermonuclear reaction.

I'd say a thermonuclear yield 2.5 times greater than what they thought they were going to get is a good example of how much energy lithium actually contains. Oh and scientists on the project said that using that method, they could make a 100 megaton bomb.

BTW, the natural state of lithium is a combination of lithium-6 and lithium-7.

You're right, I did miss your point. But the nuclear stuff (the so-called strong and weak nuclear forces) is different than the electrochemical potential energy stuff (as another post pointed out in the interim)

Polkersince85

Here we go again: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57334175-71/another-iphone-said-to-have-spontaneously-combusted/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title

What is this two out of 80 billion out there?