back to article iPhone 4 burns, hurts owner

Some bloke's iPhone 4 has reportedly caught fire. Well, kind of. What appears to be a duff USB port - whether on the handset or the device it was connected to isn't known, the marks on the cable's connector suggest the former - caused the conflagration which scorched the phone and melted the dock cable's plastic surround. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Gordon is not a Moron
    Coat

    Must have been the users fault

    as he wasn't holding it properly.

    Mines the one with the Apple resistant coating

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Havn't Aple owners been burnt enough already?

    Everytime they buy something from Apples walled garden they get burnt.

  3. Captain TickTock
    Coat

    Clever little...

    ...BGR...

    yeah, just jealous.

  4. lansalot
    Grenade

    omgomgomg

    Class action lawsuit !! Compensation !!! Recall !!! Terrorism !! Knife crime !!!

    Well, somebody had to start the hysteria-ball rolling :-).....

  5. tiggertaebo
    Flame

    Not a huge deal at this stage

    It's certainly not the first Apple device to get a little too toasty but given the number of iPhone 4 handsets sold so far one bursting into flames is little more than a statistical footnote. If it starts happening more frequently then it'll be a big deal but at the moment I'd suggest it's the least of their problems!

    Flames because.. what else? :)

  6. Disco-Legend-Zeke
    Pint

    My Guess...

    ...a short in the cable, right at the connector. A dead short would presumably blow some kind of fuse internal to the i<device>, but a weak short would act like a miniature toaster.

    Where's those bagels now?

  7. SuperTim
    Jobs Horns

    USB port?

    iPhones don't have a USB port, they have a Dock connector and any number of accessories that plug into it, including a USB data cable. Are they suggesting that the USB Port on the aforementioned "bloke"s computer was to blame? How convenient.

    1. BRYN

      @Super Tim

      Accept it clearly reads to anybody normal that apple have accepted the unit as faulty. Numpty

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Headmaster

        Except

        (see title)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      RE: USB port?

      "Are they suggesting that the USB Port on the aforementioned "bloke"s computer was to blame?"

      Where do you think the power was coming from? The phone?

  8. DannyAston
    Jobs Horns

    Signal

    Good job he can't get signal, otherwise it could have mutilated his face!

  9. PhoneticDuck
    Flame

    Had same problem

    Only Mine didn't go on fire - but it was like a hot potato and refused to power up - ever again. Was replaced by local Apple Store, no questions asked - in fact they looked somewhat "knowing" and rather quick to make me happy and send me on my way...

  10. Ant Evans
    Jobs Halo

    A miracle!

    And it was said in those times that there would come a prophet, and that the people should not know him, but that his Jesus phone burn with a holy light.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Halo

      Fixed it for ya

      ...there would come a profit,...

  11. Seanie Ryan
    Terminator

    obvious

    a muppet could see that the connector melted and left a mark on the phone, not the other way around.

    Unless the phone is capable of bursting into flames, melting nearby plastic and somehow repairing itself through nano-technology to appear like it suffered a minor heating.

    Now theres a conspiracy for the Transformers fans !!

    why isnt this story classed as ROTM?

  12. DrunkenMessiah
    Coat

    Well....

    Steve Jobs has always maintained that the iPhone was "hot stuff"

    ...

    I'll get me coat...

  13. Big Knox

    android

    I bet all the Android fanbois are thinking "if it was running Android, it wouldn't have happened" lol

    1. sage
      FAIL

      re: android

      Uhhh, nope. Android is software, and this is quite clearly a hardware issue.

  14. DT

    It's the fault of the usb port

    ...unless it happens to be a USB port of a mac

  15. pctechxp
    Coat

    Port of fire

    "And it burns, burns, burns; the port of fire, the port of fire."

    Mine's the one with the miniature CO2 extinguisher in the pocket.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    RotM Surely

    that is all

  17. James 6
    Jobs Halo

    I always forget the title...

    "the marks on the cable's connector suggest the former"

    The end of the cable that was damaged doesn't really indicate where the fault was, just where it got hot.

    I would have thought the most likely explanation is that it's a duff cable, or maybe a bit of conductive material like foil got stuck in the connector and shorted it out.

  18. Rob Crawford
    Boffin

    USB port

    Any machine I have ever used shuts down the USB port if it detects a short.

    It's more likely to occur using a shitty mains charger.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @ All those suggesting a faulty cable

    Please note that Apple have exchanged the phone as faulty.

    1. Disco-Legend-Zeke
      Pint

      The Cable...

      ...surely came with the phone.

      Cables and the attached connectors are always denigrated in purchasing, just making an electrical connection is not enough. Support, and it's enemy, flexing are critical in the equation|incantations needed to make a proper cable.

      Anyone that has made an RJ-45 or RJ-11 has a gut understanding of the problems involved. Good old AT&T; in the old days they were wonderful. Robber Barons are generally better than Greedy Carriers (tm.)

      Did you know that in the USA there is a $1500 fine for selling an RJ connector with less than X microns of gold on it?

      Are you throwing away "YOUR" gold?

      1. Captain Thyratron

        $1500, eh?

        If you are sure of the value of the fine, could you be bothered to dig up the value of X and an explanation of why it is a length, noting that microns are a unit of length? For that matter, how about the law governing the aforestated fine, evidence of which I cannot seem to find anywhere?

  20. Stuart Halliday
    Happy

    One Cheap USB charger for sale?

    USB 2 only gives off 5V at 0.5A so that's 2.5W. Hardly enough to get warm let alone toast plastic.

    I bet he's used one of those cheapo non-standard USB power chargers that like to supply a couple of amps for some reason. A disaster waiting to happen those things.

    1. david bates

      AA Batteries

      Short one out - see how warm they can get.

    2. David McMahon
      Alert

      Actully...

      As long as the charger supplies 5VDC then the charger could be a Billion amps lol

      Thats why you can have a 2KW PSU running an PC motherboard and not have to replace it when you decide that life is worth more than having 4 GPU's

  21. JaitcH
    Alert

    Another example of 'stunned'?

    The word 'stunned' is what best describes the Apple hardware designers.

    After a series of fires emanating from several models they have marketed in recent years you would have thought Apple would have designed in current limiting components.

    Guess Jobs can't fix this latest with another software patch! And as they have already absolved the iCrap owner of fault that leaves only one entity ... Apple.

    Maybe they should get HTC to design the iCrap5. They never seem to have fires or bad antennae.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      RE: Another example of 'stunned'?

      "After a series of fires emanating from several models they have marketed in recent years you would have thought Apple would have designed in current limiting components."

      Yeah, last time around the problem was limited to those who had their iPods under their pillows with their heads on top. That did a good job of preventing air circulation. Guess what? Bed clothes are usually pretty good insulators (for obvious reasons). Go back and check the articles about the fires - they were all caused in similar ways!

  22. sage
    Joke

    Clearly that's not USB

    ... it's FireWire.

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Antenna problem solved, almost.

    If we up the power by attaching this car battery that should boost the signal, right?

    Is it supposed to get this warm?

    Well?

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