Fire fighting robots have been put to work for little to no pay once or twice before, but it seems as if the exception is slowly becoming the rule. Just recently, a smattering of fire stations in Daegu (just south of Seoul, South Korea) enlisted the help of two robotic firefighters to jump into "the center of blazing infernos" if need be. The Fire Spy Robots are fully automated and equipped with wheels, though it should be noted that their help is currently labeled "a trial run." Both of the critters were constructed by Hoya Robot and can be maneuvered via humans watching the surroundings through an onboard camera, and while the company claims that these guys can shake off temperatures as high as 500 degrees Celsius for over an hour, there's no mention of what kind of mental meltdown it would surely have should it arrive to extinguish the work of its cousin.

[Via FarEastGizmos]

Reports of iPhones exploding, starting fires and killing people in cold blood have been around since the inception of the handset. They've also been relatively sporadic, seemingly short on evidence, and Apple hasn't given complaints much credence or response. So when we heard a story from France the other day about a security guard's iPhone "exploding" and sending a shard of glass into his eye (though apparently not serious enough to warrant a hospital visit), it was a little hard to believe, but with a few other stories of cracking screens due to overheating cropping up in Europe over the past couple weeks, French authorities have taken an interest in the story. Anecdotally, a teen says his phone "imploded" in Belgium and gave him a headache, a woman's phone cracked without warning, and ten or so victims in France have come forward to complain of similar problems, picking up the interest of a French consumer watchdog group. Apple is naturally not new to the concept of overheating in its battery-powered devices -- in fact, it's just entered into its first full-on iPod nano recall in Korea of the 1st-gen players after numerous reports of battery faultiness worldwide -- but with 26 million iPhones out and about, and the iPhone 3GS tending to run a bit hotter than its siblings, a systemic problem with one or all models of the handsets isn't something consumers or Apple would take lightly.

Herve Novelli, France's top trade official, met with Apple France's Michel Coulomb today to discuss the problem, and so far Apple is sticking to its guns: it claims that reported incidents are in the single digits, and that all cases it's investigated fully so far have turned out to be blamed on "external force" to the screen. Herve and Michel seem to have parted on friendly terms, promising to keep in touch over the issue, and the EU's alert system for dangerous consumer products (inexplicably dubbed RAPEX) is staying in the loop as well, asking the 27 member nations to keep tabs on the situation. Novelli says it's "too early to blame anyone," and we'd have to agree, but we hope Apple keeps up the (freshly) open communication about this issue going forward.

Read - French minister meets Apple exec over iPhone problems
Read - Apple denies 'exploding' iPhones
Read - Apple denies battery problem with exploding iPhones
Read - Belgian teenager latest victim of exploding iPhone phenomenon

Electronics and small, potentially lethal bouts of combustion go together like peas in a pod, but you know phones -- they're always branching out, conquering new markets, getting smarter, and doing things they've never done before. Take the common exploding battery, for instance; what happens when that trick gets played out? One creative option would be to find the closest source of natural gas and ignite it from afar, which is what one New York gentleman's Sony Ericsson (a classic P910i, we believe) has taken to doing. It seems that the phone somehow triggers the burners on his Magic Chef range to ignite when it's called -- in fact, they don't just light up, they go straight to the hellish "HI" setting, as the appliance's display is eager to point out -- and other phones tested have incited similar effects. For its part, Maytag (Magic Chef's parent company) says "this situation is highly unusual," so we wouldn't freak out about setting our phones on unlit ranges just yet -- unless you've already got a healthy fear of burning your $500 phone to a crisp for other unrelated reasons.

[Via Yahoo! Tech]

The Tokyo Fire Department faces somewhat stiffer challenges than your run-of-the-mill blown battery or imploding workstation, so we're happy to see them enroll the use of some hi-tech machinery into their arsenal. The latest entrant is a human extraction bot, designed to do the heroic fireman thing without risking the lives of any actual, uh, men. Operated by remote control, it gets into hot, wet or earthquakey zones, finds the unconscious humanoids and devours them for later regurgitation. What's not to love? We haven't got a name for it yet, though we know it has a bigger brother equipped with all sorts of cameras and environmental detectors, so we suspect this is a pretty intelligent little beast as well. Just mosey on past the break already, and try to keep the Soylent Green jokes to a minimum.

[Via Ubergizmo]

While Apple may have moved on to selling the 4th generation iPod nano, consumer protection agencies are still focused on gen-1. For good reason too, apparently, as there's mounting evidence that those early white and black plastic players have a tendency to overheat, swell, and possibly burst into a nasty chemical fire. Responding to four formal consumer complaints made between December and June, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards sent a request to Apple on June 25th recommending that Apple "aggressively" collects first generation iPod nano with Lithium Ion batteries made by the Chinese company ATL. Initially, Apple agreed to replace faulty units as they did in Japan upon request by the consumer. However, KATS is now reporting that Apple will recall the players under its own initiative making this the first formal iPod nano recall we can, uh, recall.

HP just recalled a hefty 70,000 laptop batteries earlier this month, but it looks like it still has a few more fires to put out, and it's now recalled another 15,000 batteries sold in China. No reports of any actual "flames / fire" this time around but, as with countless other recalls, the batteries are apparently prone to overheating, and can indeed pose a pesky fire hazard. Word of specific models affected is also a bit hard to come by at the moment, but the batteries were apparently used in laptops manufactured between late 2007 and early 2008, and include models sold under both the HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario brands. If that sounds like your laptop, you can get in touch with HP China for a free replacement battery.

Just a note to everyone who carries around a spare smartphone Li-ion in their rear pocket: buy thicker underwear. The scene you see above was all caused by an obviously volatile HTC Touch Pro battery, one that the pants-wearer claims is an authentic HTC cell and not a cheap-o alternative from eBay. As the story goes, a foul odor led him to a laundry pile, where he uncovered eight moist socks, a torched battery and a ruined pair of pants. Look, we're glad this guy's okay and all, but seriously, can you imagine what this testy little thing would've done when tossed into the dryer? It's a blessing in disguise, kiddo.

[Via phoneArena]

It's been quite awhile since we've seen a major recall surrounding volatile laptop batteries, but it looks as if HP is the company bringing the topic back to the forefront. Announced today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, has issued a voluntary recall of about 70,000 Li-ion batteries. Reportedly, these cells can "overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers," and so far, the firm and CPSC have received two separate reports of batteries that have overheated and ruptured, resulting in -- wait for it -- "flames / fire that caused minor property damage." For a look at what units are affected, head on past the break -- oh, and if you're reading this on an HP lappie right now, go ahead and grab the fire extinguisher just in case.

Those aesthetics aren't the only "dangerous" aspect to Acer's Predator gaming desktops. Apparently the insulation on some of the computer's internal wiring can become stripped, and has proceeded to short-circuit and melt internal components and the external casing in two separate reported incidents. Acer is recalling the ASG7200 and ASG7700 machines sold between May and December of last year, and customers can contact Acer for a free repair. Number of boxes affected? About 215. Not exactly raining fire in the streets, but we suppose those 213 remaining folks would like to know their Very Important Session of The Witcher is about to be interrupted.

We're not so sure who thought it'd be a bright idea to invite Torayan, a 7.2 meter tall, fire-breathing robot to what appears to be an otherwise calm and collected choir practice, but that sucker is going to burn.

[Thanks, Chris]

Nilay: "Look, he wants you off the ****ing set."
Ross: "Turns out he's a little sensitive about being compared to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man."
Paul: "Needless to say, there were a few rule revisions to the RoboSoccer games the following year."
Chris: "Years of steroid abuse have drastically altered Asimo's personality and physical appearance."
Joe: "This could be the biggest thing to happen for Open Source, EVER!"
Jacob: "I AM THE VOICE OF THE GENERATION!"
Darren: "Ah, so that's what those waivers that mom had to sign were for."
Richard: "Kanye's backstage rants have really gotten out of control, haven't they?"
Thomas: "Wait until you see me pee."

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.