Danny Gorog20 August 2008, 10:37 AM
Uh oh. Apple has confessed some iPods are susceptible to exploding into flames.
In what seems to be an ongoing litany of the tech industry, another case of exploding Lithium Ion batteries has emerged -- but this time it's the first generation iPod Nano, circa 2005.
The problem: overheating iPods may burst in to flames. Definitely sounds like something you shouldn't be carrying in your pocket, or leaving on constant charge from your car's head unit.
According to a report here, Apple found that some iPod Nanos can 'overheat and cause a fire hazard' when a request was made by Japan's ministry of economy, trade and industry to investigate.
The original report, published in Tech On, and converted via Babelfish says (and you'll need to excuse the translation) 'According to the same ministry, accident on 2008 January 8th occurred inside Kanagawa prefecture. The product while charging, we assume inside the residence that the spark rose from the battery part. There was no human damage.'
However, Apple's trouble with the government doesn't seem to be strictly related to the exploding iPods, but rather because the company didn't report the incidents to the proper Japanese authorities.
The model affected are MA004J/A, MA005J/A, MA099J/A and MA107J/A. If your iPod seems to be heating up excessively or you notice sparks, you should contact Apple immediately.
The problem isn't confined to Japan -- an American iPod owner also reported to The Consumerist that his iPod exploded, burning his desk and spewing (probably toxic) soot out of its battery. This guy was given the runaround by the Apple Store in his area, which unwisely refused to give him a replacement iPod until they'd sent the burned one to Apple's engineers for investigation.
Now, after the aggrieved customer wrote to Steve Jobs, Apple has issued a blanket notice to its stores and resellers to replace exploded iPods without argument.
On a more positive note, Apple today an 85 percent customer satisfaction rating from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which represents an 7.6 percent change from last year, and is a full 10 percent higher than Dell in second place. It also shows an increase of 10 percent for Apple since the survey began in 1995, which incidentally was the same year the original Bondi Blue iMac launched.