Here's the thing about batteries: they store energy. Lots of it. Channeled correctly, that energy does really awesome things for us -- but channeled chaotically, and... well, you know where this is going, don't you? A man shopping in a Lenovo store in mainland China has been killed after the phone in his chest pocket
exploded, severing arteries and leading to massive blood loss. The make and model of the phone and battery have yet to be identified, but seeing how this is the
seventh high-profile case of an exploding phone in China in the last six years, it really gives you pause before installing that shady off-brand juice, doesn't it?
posted Feb 2nd 2009 1:51AM
I'm going to put my over heating touch pro down now.
My N95 never overheats :P
[/troll]
My off brand juice was made in china. am i in danger?
Sure you are.
Sony Battery!?
7th... In six years... In a country of about 1.4 billion... Where they make the things so cheap, they probably replace them 2-3 times in that amount of time?
I'll take my chances.
Are you talking about the people or the phones?
exactly - one of my first (admittedly sick) thoughts was - "oh no, the Chinese are gonna be extinct soon!"
having dealt with lenovo customer service, i'm guessing the phone was supposed to go off after he'd left the store.
Note to self: DO NOT STORE PHONE IN CHEST POCKET OF MY JACKET.
Well, store it down there and it'll kill your gentleman vegetables.
Death or dishonour?
(Leaves phone at home)
Should be: "note to self - don't buy dodgy unbranded knock off batteries!". Testing - limited. Reliability - suspect. Safety - nil!
I wear mine on my hip. I guess I would rather have hip surgery than a heart extraction or gender conversion (I know someone who wears theirs on a clip in front of their 'area').
Guys, be safe and don't keep your phone in your pocket is possible.
but.. this could be a great opportunity to market a line of kevlar pocket protectors!
@bebop
Are they Chinese made kevlar pocket protectors?
And where, pray tell, would you suggest a man keep his phone?
I'll admit, this does make the case for a man-purse, doesn't it?
Strange and tragic things occasionally happen. Does this mean we should all stop going outside for fear of being struck by meteorites?
Seven exploding phones in six years in one country does NOT represent the same odds as a direct hit with a meteor.
This is a very real danger. I'm certainly not going to buy some cheap knock off battery for my soon-to-be-acquired netbook, now.
We seem to hear more about people getting struck by meteorites while INSIDE houses, than outside them.
Just imagine a Vaio P exploding in your jacket pocket....
hahaha, can you get it to fit? *comfortably*
That's what she said
sorry
Pretty scary. The odds are nothing to joke around with!
anyone ask the Mossad about this?
I hear they know how to make phones go BOOM!
You know the world is fucked up when someone gets killed by an exploding phone battery and people claim a Jewish conspiracy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Ayyash#Death_and_aftermath
It was a reference to this
I keep my phone in my pants pocket. I think i'll move it to my shirt pocket, because I'd rather have it go off there than in my crotch.
Same thing I was thinking... I'd rather take my chances with a shirt pocket or back pocket than the front pocket!!
Don't be alarmist fools. Your odds of being killed by being struck by lightning (60 people in the US last year) are far higher than getting one of these exploding batteries (7 in 6 years).
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medical.htm
Thanks for the heads up.
I'll have to make a note to stop walking in the rain with my overtly metallic umbrella in hand and knock-off iphone in my boxers.
This is why I only carry my mobile phone in the front pocket of my pants and wear iron-clad jocks.
@BobTurbo: the chastity belt makes a comeback!
ahh man how home china gets a lenovo store
the same reason they get everything else
who cares how small the odds are if you happen to be that 1 in 20 trillion?
Why mention Lenovo at all? Is this a subliminal way of linking Lenovo and exploding Batteries?
Or did the Battery realise it was in a Lenovo store and then blow up?
In the newspaper in china, it said "the man is a sale staff of the lenovo store".
But the newest update said "The store is not a certified lenovo store, It is just a computer shop showing big lenovo signs on their window"
Funny thing is that I'm doing a chart for school on China right now.
Should this go under "Technology" or "Other"?
it should be under: 'Other Technology'
Population control?
No video after the break?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-hqyl9wZxbA
the yellow banner says "explosive winter sale"...
maybe it's funny only to me
Funny to me too... Talk about irony...
Here's hoping the iPhone batteries are OK, because you know, it's missing something all other phones have..
My feeling is that with globalization, our economies have moved away from things that last long to things that cost less. A cheap battery? Sure, why not. What's the worst that could happen?
It's sad and it's very unfortunate for the man and those who knew him. But it's the price we pay for looking more at the bottom line. The report doesn't say what brand the phone or the battery were, but with Sony's recent disasters with respect to batteries, I don't think brand matters as much. All in all, in going for the bottom line, we can sometimes pay a huge price.
The Chinaman is not the issue!
Sony Ericsson ? lmao
I swear this is Sony Ericsson, didn't we have a Sony Ericsson batteries problem report here on Engadget a few days ago ?
naww.. Lenovo is cool. Lenovo was also a victim of Sony batteries scandals 2 years back because Lenovo was a client of Sony batteries.
Are you sure that it was a cell phone that exploded, or did he say 'bad' things about the gov't some time before this happened?
Exploding cell phones= little boom
Exploding electric cars = big boom
Petrol car's have been exploding in hollywood films for years, contrary to physics.
Now that car's have litium batteries there's a real chance that car could explode.
Um, I believe that the last time this happened, it turned out that a coworker killed the victim and blamed it on a cell phone battery?
"Shady off-brand juice?" Seeing this is a story about China, you're just milking it, right? :-P
Well, I'm off to find a belt case with a titanium back plate...
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.sina.com.cn%2Fs%2F2009-02-03%2F012817135493.shtml&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&history_state0=
it might not be cellphone
"installing that shady off-brand juice..."
Exactly, anyone who has been, or is even remotely familiar with the "market" knows how China bootlegs everything. The man is dead so i am not going to rub it in with humor. The people who sold him/created the cheaper battery did that for me already. I am sure it wasn't an official* Lenovo battery, but i could be wrong all together. :P
Even "Official" batteries can be fake too. For real, anything in China can be fake. After reading this, I'm gonna stick to my SEK800 from Hong Kong and leave the China Nokia at home. 3rd party batteries usually cost less than 100RMB here. The official ones from Best Buy in Shanghai can cost up to 300+ RMB. Most people in China would rather go cheap. I guess thats what lives are worth here, especially when its death by cellphone(?) or a "cheap" shady battery.
So this is what happens when you don't renew your 2 year contract.
there's usually no contract for cellphone in china
How do you know it wasn't a cheap knock-off cellphone, that received too much interference in the store, causing it to boost power too much trying to keep contact with the local cell? Or that otherwise was poorly designed, or had bad caps or something, causing discharge back into the battery?