An Ohio mom is filing a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of her son, whose "iTouch" popped in his pocket and proceeded to torch his pants. He had to be treated for second degree burns on his leg, had a hole burnt through his pants pocket and got an underwear melting to top it all off. Also, according to the lawsuit, "He continues to suffer from both physical and mental conditions which will cause him to suffer pain, mental distress, emotional distress, and otherwise for the rest of his life." Poor kid! In addition to Apple, the lawsuit seemingly randomly names 10 Apple retail employees, and wants $150,000+ and attorney fees in damages. While we've seen a couple
burnt charging cables of late, this is the first we've heard of an iPod touch "popping," and it's especially odd because the lawsuit claims the iPod was turned off at the time of the incident. Whether or not that's true, we'll be certainly keeping an eye on a trend developing here. When it comes to our children, burning pants are
everyone's business.
posted Mar 13th 2009 9:01PM
"...odd because the lawsuit claims the iPod was turned off at the time of the incident."
Liar liar pants... ehhh... well...
At least they're suing for a "reasonable" amount... $150k for burnt pants, undies, and leg sounds right to me. A mil for a lost xbox, not so much.
Yeah, David, I was really surprised at how reasonable the amount requested was. I naturally expected something to the order of a bagillion dollars with a side of Bagel Bites.
---------
Also, Engadget, how about deleting oo's comment? That's just really highly disturbing.
O_O
I however, want you to burn to death by a million iPods while you are stoned by 360 power bricks for that terrible image that cannot even be burned out of my mind by the fire of Sony Li-ion laptop batteries.
oo, you call yourself? eww is more like it.
Yea "i" know... my comments get deleted and low ranked because they are Pro-Apple, buy this rapist who want to go Chris brown on a kid get his comments undeleted?
@David: Apple is counter suing for $10 billion though. Why? The kid used his iPod Touch as a weapon of pants destruction
@iGoon
So that wasn't you? When I read that post I thought to myself, "Wow... Clak just went to a whole new level"
Well, you need to remember that engadget is not omniscient, and in this case just plain wrong.
Short of draining or removing the battery, it's impossible to fully turn off the ipod, since there is no power switch (buttons don't count unless they are toggle, and this one is clearly not). Hence it doesn't matter if the ipod was playing music, video, or just on standby, since the battery is always powering the device. Short anywhere will cause you to be unable to turn off the device, and in extreme cases that can lead to a battery meltdown.
Considering the devices are compression fitted to keep everything together, if the battery does light, and the screen is somehow kept cool enough to not combust, the next thing that would happen is an increase in pressure and an eventual pop as the device gets torn apart. Try it with some water in tupperware in a microwave, thing just pops open (unless you got the cheap chinese stuff, in which case it'll melt before that happens).
Ive always said we need to burn the trolls....
...
@basroil
"Short of draining or removing the battery, it's impossible to fully turn off the ipod, since there is no power switch"
You hold down the power button and slide to confirm a total power turn off on an iPod Touch or iPhone.
Why do people insist on giving us a lecture on stuff they know nothing about, it's bloody embarrassing!
P.S. If Engadget doesn't remove oo's comment I'm suing for considerable emotional damage.
"He continues to suffer from both physical and mental conditions which will cause him to suffer pain, mental distress, emotional distress, and otherwise for the rest of his life."
So $150,000 will cure him? What a expensive brain he has.
@who?: That's like saying you can turn off a computer by pressing the power button. Ever had total hardware failure? That button does jack except to tell the computer to go into a standby mode (generally low enough to clean out the memory too). But guess what? Power still runs though the system, even if it's not much. The power supply is the same way, it'll stay on until you unplug it, giving you 3, 5, and 12 volts even if the power is close to zero. One of the big reasons why the european union and even epa are pushing for 0W power off devices, my desktop (and monitors) draws a whole 5 watts when shut down, not even close to negligible, even further from being off.
As said before, the only way to make sure a device has zero power when turned off is to have a physical severing of the connection between the power source and the device (can be electromechanical, but a slide switch is much cheaper, electromechanical stuff is generally for large machines or similarly non-apple friendly things). Sadly, no matter how much you may believe apple's comments, if you can turn the ipod on after turning it off like that, there is no way that all power was cut off. Ask an engineer to explain it to you. Well, ask another engineer, cuz this one is tired of small children that think directions are the same as specifications.
But yea, oo's post is goddamn annoying, do any mods actually check reported posts or do they just sit around all day?
How come nobody noticed the ominous inclusion of the guy from Freddy vs Jason in the background of the photo on the ""iTouch""
@basroil
"Short of draining or removing the battery, it's impossible to fully turn off the ipod,"
You can remove the battery?
Ah, but there is a power switch, albeit a software one, so your statement was still far from correct. You can turn off the power by simply holding down the power/lock button.
I'm not saying that there is no power flow in the device, just that it isn't making it to any of the major systems. Obviously the battery is still attached to something in the device, but no power is actually being utilized, which makes any battery malfunctions much less likely.
Oh, and comparing the iPod to a desktop computer is plain and simply not good science. They are very different electronic devices. For example: the iPod doesn't need to be constantly ready for a remote boot, a feature that it doesn't require, while most desktops need to be taking in power in anticipation of a boot signal. Power flow within the iPod is at a near standstill when you turn it off, and while I'm sure some power is dissipating in that state (the headphone jack seems to hold a slight charge), it is still much more likely that he had locked it while playing a game and put it in his pocket, which would increase the heat output significantly.
lol.....nice one
@who?
the power button is controlled by software, which lies on a chip. Even when the device is off, that chip still requires power to detect when to turn the main power back on.
sure its not much, but there could be a chance that it was that circuit that caused a short and blew the battery...
@who
You are still wrong as the device isn't really off, it's only "off". The way modern electric devices work is that the off on switch is just a toggle switch that is connected to one of the processors legs. The processors program reads the switch and goes to deep sleep whicth the manufacturer has renamed "off". The processor is still connected to the power supply, there's no switch between it and battery. You want proof? There's clock in your ipod? If it doesnt stop when the device is off your off isn't really off but "off".
But all this is moot. The iPod can burn even if you strip all electronics from it because main reason for burning devices is li-ion battery, and usully for internal short. They can explode even if it isn't installed into any device.
He's probably probably a liar liar.
Yea, but Apple will probably settle by shipping him 2 Shuffles and a couple of unlocked iPhones...
Shenanigans!!! If your iPod gets that hot, you will take it out before it "pops", or burns a hole in your skivvies. Its a metal and glass device, you would be able to feel the heat. Second, why would you give a young child an iPod Touch? OF COURSE they are going to mistreat it!
You know, there are such things as RICH SPOILED BRATS!
I one saw a teenie bopper driving around in an Aston martin... Parent will buy kids anything...
Is that an exploding iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
@iGoon:
Yeah apple is going to give him a year supply of undies too!!!!
HAHAHA!!!
It doesn't say it was in his front pocket. I think it's more likely that this child was morbidly obese and put the touch in his back pocket, after which he sat down and snapped it with his own hiny (battery included).
Just a theory, I know it seems a little out there, but if you think about the overprotective mother (she is at least $149,550 more protective than your average mom)...
Also, the psych evaluation seems dead on for a chronic over eater:
"physical and mental conditions which will cause him to suffer pain, mental distress, emotional distress, and otherwise for the rest of his life"
Sounds like a chubster to me... :P
Yeah. I think it's this kid:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/06/dtv-coupons-begin-flowing-once-more-waitlist-should-be-clear-in/
When does anybody completely turn their iPod Touch off? I didn't discover that I actually could turn it off all the way until I owned it for two months.
Anyway, get over it, kid. Scarred for life? Please. Are you really that fragile? Chalk it up to a learning experience.
Emo.
Boxxy
Same here, I couldn't figure out why the battery kept going dead, if I left it my bag for a day it would just be at like 20% power annoying me (I only bought it for downloading youtube videos/web, haven't used it for music yet, because of iTunes).
Back in the day when people smoked and listened to Walkmans I had a pack of matches go off in my pocket when I was fiddling with my Sony Sports Walkman. It was traumatic, but I didn't sue anyone.
Yeah the emotional distress seems like a joke, but I agree with the 150k lawsuit for the fact you don't buy a product to scorch you in your pants, its more like a poke to Apple(or any company) saying to stop selling crap that pops, overheats, or catches on fire.
This is such BS. It sounds like a crappy lawyer who is trying to make a buck off some BS story.
Bullcrap, complete and utter bullcrap. What next some of that TImothy Sykes short penny stocks drivel?
I still have no idea what an iTouch is.
Yes you do. You've touched yourself sometime and you know it.
Search itouch on apple support
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&q=itouch
yeah its become iTouch
It's bette known as an iPod Touch, look it up on apple.com
It was featured on here awhile ago actually. http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/26/keepin-it-real-fake-part-lxvii-the-pasen-itouch/
It's a Logitech keyboard silly~! Everybody and their neighbor's dog has it!
@AwlAmericanDawg
Better known as iPod Touch? Yeah right.
It's because he jailbroke it. Or at least that's what Apple will say...
And he'll say that he was just running the "Fireplace" app from the App Store.
i feel that its ridiculous that they would name retail employees. they didnt make the ipod nor make it explode in the kids pants, they are merely sales people.
What kind of underwear melts?
candy underwear. Mostly sold at sex shops.
Most underwear's made entirely or significantly out of polyester (stretchy). Not surprising. Certainly concerning.
synthetic fiber, you'd be surprised.
iUnderwear