
Apple did not immediately respond to our requests for comment
Do they ever actually reply or do they still hate the Reg?
An iPhone's charging cable caught fire in Italy over the weekend - and it may not have been an isolated occurrence. An Italian blogger has described how his iPhone's cable burst into flames at the point of connection with his phone. You can find a picture of the damage here and read more about it in Apple's forums. Apparently …
Apple doesn't seem to reply to anyone who has anything negative to say about them. They're nothing more than a self-fisting cult who have taken over the egotistical biz from Ball-more at Macro-soft. I've gone from wannabe-fanboi to "ah shit, they're no better than anyone else" since the release of their ultimate onanistic masterpiece, the iPhone, the device that gets you almost there then leaves you hanging ... onto your wallet as they attach the vacuum cleaner to it.
My g/f dropped her iPhone into a toilet last Friday. It was quite a mess: The SIM slot was full of water drops, the screen flickered, and the touch did not work. She was in tears!
But...
After getting the water out of the sim slot and microphone, using a hair dryer on it, the phone booted, and I was able to sync it. The touch screen was finicky, ignored touches or clicked where it shouldn't.
And...
After letting it dry over the weekend, the phone works flawlessly again!
It *is* a Jesus phone!
Don't know about the device burning, but there is never a shortage of flames on this site whenever anyone has a good word to say about Apple. As for you first three, have you considered your replies or just joined the Apple-bashing club in the absence of original thought? It seems to me Apple have produced an as yet untouched device of unrivalled capability that makes the rest of the tech world green with envy and denial. Sure, there are a few areas some people would like to see, such as copy and paste, but I have yet to see a convincing argument that any of these features would enhance an already flawless device. Come on people, stop bleating like blind sheep and accept that Apple have not made a bad product yet.
Morons
I have no axe to grind about iPhone, but my 6210 (which is right here on my desk) has taken a brief dip in an immersion header tank. And my K800i once got the full "seaside funfair" experience by spending an hour or so in my washing machine. Neither appear worse for the experience.
Admittedly they're much simpler devices than the iPhone, so I guess Apple gets a pat on the head for its apparent robustness in the face of moistness. But it's not unique.
Mmm. /Moistness/.
Shut up, No it's not.
Same thing happened to a friends Nokia N95.
None of the buttons would work, charge wouldn't work and screen was waterlogged.
After as much drying as possible and leaving it alone for the night and drying with a hairdryer again it works.
Does that make the N95 a jesus phone?
No, Didn't think so.
Why don't reporters put something like:
"We contacted them, but they couldn't be arsed to reply" or
"We didn't bother to contact them, because they'd deny it anyway" (Best used on Gummint Departments, esp. USA ones, whose motto seems to be "The new American Way: Lie and Deny")
Think a response would be swift.
" After letting it dry over the weekend.............." Yes, that's the key.
Most low power electronic equipment will not be harmed by exposure to clean water, provided you make sure to remove the battery and dry it all thoroughly. Shaking or vacuuming most of the water out then leaving it in a warm, well ventilated place for 24 hours is often enough. Then put the battery back in and cross your fingers.
If it had worked after she'd dropped it in the sea, then I would have been impressed, sea water is terrible for corroding fine metallic components. However, I understand that if you drop an iPhone in the sea, it walks back to shore - can you test this for me?
A true Jesus phone would have stood on the surtface of the water in the toilet (assuming that it was water).
No seriously.
Please wait for a month before declaring the phone a survivor of the deep dive. Corrosion from water damage may take a while, so the mere fact that you had it turned on while it was still relatively moist (you mention that the touchscreen finicky) may have doomed it.
The important thing when a phone is dropped in water (or milk or ...) is:
1: Get the battery out immediately
2: Get contaminants out (if the liquid is something other than water, you may actually consider rinsing in water)
3: Dry the phone completely.
4: then you can consider turning the thing on again.
<rant> Moron. If you get an electronic device wet (referring to water; alcohol or fizzy drink is a different matter altogether) you should leave it as disassembled as possible for AT LEAST 24 hours, regardless of how much hair drying you do to it - because there will still be internal components that the hairdryer won't reach, which you will have to wait for the water to evaporate in its own time. No wonder it was still funny when you first switched it on, you were probably responsible for a number of minor short-circuits and voltage instabilities. The fact that you let it dry over the weekend before (presumably) using it again is most likely the only thing that saved it. </rant>
Of course, you could have just plugged it into its charger, I suppose the heat from the fire would have dried it out quickly enough.
Looks very much like a badly inserted or damaged plug shorting out. Normally you'd expect your mainboard to simply cut the power to the faulty USB plug, but if that doesn't happen (e.g. because your board or USB card is garbage) this is pretty much the result I'd expect.
I mean... this is evidently a connector problem not being any issue when properly fused and this type of charging cable has been around for years without changes.
No news here, i'll better get my coat...
which if it is, uses a magnetic coupler to attach to the phone.
if memory serves me correctly, there are 4 flat spring loaded pin-plates inside. if the pins are dirty or oxidised (a common problem on electrical terminals) then given sufficient ampage, it could easily generate enough heat to catch fire.
That's the principle (in laymans terms) on which welding works. The weakest part of the circuit will get the hottest. Does the magnetic coupler still work if the charger isn't plugged in? If it doesn't that means it uses an electromagnetic coil, which also could generate excessive heat if not functioning correctly
Does anyone know the V/A rating of the charger?
Just thinking that the first thing I ever do when a bit of electronics gets soaked is pop the power out of it so it doesn’t short then let it dry… I liked the days when you actually could do that before some half wit designer decided that you would never need to do such a thing…. Although it is very useful for finding stuff like was proven to me last weekend.
AC to avoid the rabid fanboism that this article is sure to incite!
Wikipaedia refuse to allow the term "Jesus Phone" to be included anywhere in the description of the iPhone. It's mentioned in the discussion page but the "cult" figures who control the main article page won't make any reference to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
iPhone in a toilet. I guess the guys in the Vatican can use that if their phones get hot / catch fire.
It's only because the iPhone is so hot!
I bought the iPhone yesterday after using the Blackberry for 6 years, The iPhone is so much better.
Just downloaded my first app from app store, JigSee, which is a really cute puzzle game, you take a picture with the iPhone camera and it tirns it into a puzzle game, great for the kids!