Overheating iPod delays rush-hour train in Tokyo
Poor Apple. The company just can't catch a break these days. On Wednesday, Apple Japan began offering customers iPod nano replacements, giving in to local government demands to better address an overheating battery issue affecting Apple's first generation iPod nano players. Then Friday morning (making the English-language press only now) a busy rush-hour commuter train was stopped in Tokyo to investigate a smell. According to a spokesman, "When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train, a passenger came over showing him that the iPod she was listening to had burst apart." No injuries were reported and the exact iPod model is still unknown. However, we can be certain that the eight minute delay on Japan's notoriously timely railway system caused many commuters to question their ability to go on.
[Image courtesy of Maruhachi-kotsu]
[Image courtesy of Maruhachi-kotsu]
























@iPhoneOrAndroid The Zune makes the news if someone buys one.
@Unverified User
Bazinga!!
Well played good sir.
@(Unverified)
Hahahahahahaha. I was eating food when I read that, I almost couldn't keep it in my mouth.
@JJV
That's what she said.
@iPhoneOrAndroid
It is the other way around; Engadget would make it huge so the bursting iPod's don't seem that bad.
i think i just heard an Apple fanboy cry himself to sleep.
Poor Apple?
WTF are you smoking, Thomas?
@jpxdude
Well, this is a battery issue, and Apple doesn't make the batteries. They're basically victims of the battery manufacturer. Much like it wasn't really Dell's or Apple's fault that Sony shipped millions of faulty batteries to them.
@jpxdude
He's inhaling the fumes from his burning iPod battery.
@ashwinkn
Yes, and no.
You are correct that Apple doesn't make the batteries, but they *are* responsible for two things in this case:
- designing a case for the iPod that doesn't encourage over-heating. Apple's designs are increasingly thin, which is beautiful but pushes the boundaries of how much heat they can take.
- selecting a battery manufacturer that can actually support their products.
@ashwinkn
I wonder why.... ;)
So how long before we start seeing Android powered mp3 players? I'm anxiously holding my breath in anticipation of "Phandroid vs iPhan - the MP3 wars"!
@OffRoad First thing that needs to happen is Google needs to do something with their PoS music player on Android. Its pathetic.
@OffRoad
There actually are a few out there. Archos 5 internet tablet certainly looks promising if you're interested. Unfortunately most aren't likely to be price competitive with an iPod touch, because Apple buys 33% of the world's flash memory supply, and gets very good prices as a result. The real reason there's few Android PMP's is that smartphones made PMP's obsolete. Google isn't going to invest heavily in a dying market. Apple's own iPod sales are falling 10% annually.
This would never happen on the London Underground. I don't know anyone brave enough to investigate the strange smells there.
@driftingoffshore
According to news in Japan it was the Denen-Toshi Line, which is this very famous movie was taken in one of its stops;
> Japanese train station during rush hour
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0A9-oUoMug
I guess they took 4 minutes to "unpack" people, 3 and half for re-packing.
Basically the news coming out of Japan is don't buy unreliable American junk, buy Japanese instead...
Payback for Toyota? Don't doubt it.
Ahhh quality.
"Poor Apple. The company just can't catch a break these days."
Yes, I really feel sorry for a multi billion dollar corporation; those poor, poor bastards.
@num0 it is actually amazing to see how Denen-Toshi is packed. I once got off from subway station at Shibuya which has though service to Denen-Toshi around 7pm, there were approx a thousand people waiting to jam in that train ....
Poor Apple?!?!?!
tokyo commuters get refunds if trains are over a minute late and stations give out 'late passes' for people to give to their bosses if this makes them late for work..
They have gone toyota on Apple. Tokyo metro system ticks like a Swiss watch, it takes 5 minutes to figure out how it works and then you can move around the town fast and cheap.
Japanese train delay during rush-hour is almost inconceivable!
Wow, has no one commented on the girl in the pink shorts bending over for the camera? You pervs are lagging. I just hope it's not some transvestite geisha for your sake :-P
I wish the United States could be on time like Japan. Asia > America in soooo many ways :-(
In a North American subway system, the strange smell would be coming from an iPoo'd
*crickets*
now the truth of Apple products come out.. wonder when the first iPhones will start bursting..
N-rays. They're all through the Japanese subway and train systems. And they're beginning to find out how they affect anything starting with a lowercase "i".
Dude, that train is pretty cool