Comments on: Apple sued over 'exploding' iPod Touch

A 15-year-old boy's iPod Touch allegedly exploded in his pocket at school, causing second-degree burns and a lawsuit filed against Apple.

[karpenterskids]

haha
I'm not sure if I should be scared, hoping it doesn't happen to me, or be glad that if it does happen, I may be all the richer for it. :)

[ibeetle]

I still cannot get passed a 15 year old boy wearing spandex underwear.

[Brent212]

Yeah, really. Spandex??? Is he a swimmer, or david lee roth?

[Stormspace]

Compression shorts are worn by some kids and it's material is similar to spandex. It helps kids who run track and prevents chaffing.

[Michichael]

Spandex and he had a friend's help getting his pants off? *snicker*

[irishlad1994]

ya seriously wat kind of 15 yr old wears spandex---im a swimmer n i certainly dont

[Fil0403]

@ everyone: Yes, definitely, I think it's the kids fault, I mean, how can anyone sue a company just because one of their products exploded in their pants while they were using spandex?

[codynews]

@brent2212: omg, your comment made me "LOL" for real. haha, i'm still laughing

[SeizeCTRL]

Makes me wonder if it's something like the Under Armor wear and not actual spandex... I mean come on, it's not 1986, no one really wears spandex anymore, but there's a lot of stuff similar, especially for sports, outdoors and winter.

[Seaspray0]

You people sure are giving this kid a rough time for wearing spandex shorts. If he wins, your posts could help ensure a nice settlement for "pain and suffering".

[ilbknownas1]

Tons of kids wear compression shorts that i know, including me, maybe thats what they consider spandex..

[ballmerisanape]

It was all of that porn he had stored on it.

[karpenterskids]

Yeah, some of that stuff is quite explosive.

[wnbear]

@ karpenterskids

You forgot your drum and cymbal...

[karpenterskids]

lol...drum and cymbal?

How did you know that I play drums? Do I know you from somewhere?

[HaredX]

Are you serious? He was obviously referring to a rimshot lol. You know... drum and a symbol... *du dum tsssss" Being a drummer you should know what a rimshot is.....

[kcotham]

$225,000! Come on, the amount is ridiculous. Clearly, the parents are looking to profit off of an accident. I understand wanting a little punishment and of course any medical and legal fees, but give me a break.

Oh, and spandex underpants?!

[Astinsan]

They really should just settle it. 225k to you or me may seem like a lot. It would be better for both parties if they payed (after investigation of the failure)

[ejevo]

Anyone ever hear of "Under Armour"??? Geez Louise.

And of course you size the asking amount appropriately so the settlement arrives in the range you're realistically expecting. No one sues for 25 grand and expects to settle for 23 grand.

[jmpetersen]

Oh, the amount is ridiculous? Have You been to the hospital lately? I can easily envisioin that amount, and perhaps even more for a complete recovery. Then, if it's like this, a law suit, don't you think the attorney is going to demand his third (off the top) and then they start invoicing for everything you can imagine. Apple shoulda given them $400K to shut up and go away without the lawsuit.

[Lerianis3]

I'd really like Apple to investigate this and find out if the kid had done anything to the Touch (accidentally or on purpose) that would have caused it to do this, so that they could warn users not to do what he did.
Oh, and 225K is a little..... expensive for a burn injury, even a bad burn injury. Heck, I worked in a hospital for a short period once, and a person with a full body burn only got charged 40,000 dollars! There is NO way that a small burn on a guys leg, unless it had went down to the bone, would be charged that much.
The parents are trying to profit off this, I agree.

[IceEmQuick]

Ok, to the person who said a person with full body burns with what I assume is the full care that would go into it, would be alot more than just 40G's... If you remember that Amaco plant explosion in the early 90's. My parents friend was the only survior, and he was 88% burned, and was in the hospital for 4 month's at a final cost of $450,000. Now he sue for that and damanges and pain and sufferering and won and got more than asked...

Did you work in healthcare in Colombia or something?? Where the cost of care is probably MUCH cheaper than it is here...

Hell, I was admitted for a High BP condition for 3 days and the bill was 27,000... Either you are full of... well you know what, or you are just trying to sound like you know more than you do..

[Jlmc727]

To the person reguarding the Amaco plant explosion I remember that and the survior with the 88% burned was a third degree fire and chemical burn. major difference from second degree burns. I could see a 100% second dgree burn costing under 50k.

[tcr071]

Yeah. This kid has a minor second degree burn on a small portion of his body. I doubt he was in the hospital over 72 hours. The medical bills for this won't cross $15,000 and even that is being awfully generous.

Unless this kid was wearing gold laced diamond pants the $225,000 is way out of the ballpark for damage done but I am actually surprised the figure is even this low. I have grown so accustom to the pathetic lawsuits from people trying to make money and the numbers in the millions a number this number seems low.

McDonalds lady spills coffee on herself and makes out with millions. This guy is actually a victim of an accident and if asking for fractions of that stupid *****.

[Notoapplefanbois]

Well it's actually 150k + whatever he has to pay their lawyer.

But c'mon, if you weren't an apple fanboy and your apple product blew up then who wouldn't sue apple that much, he was giving out $300 pieces of apple kit for free to rich kids for goodness sake.

[make_or_break]

Obviously some of the posters here don't have a CLUE at how expensive healthcare can be, nor do they recognize how expensive LAWYER FEES are as well. Frankly, Apple is getting off EASY if they're only penalized $225k. An exploding li-ion battery (gee, sounds awfully familiar, don't it?) isn't exactly unheard of...just ask Sony about their little problem with faulty battery production. If this Touch got a defective battery...or has something else wrong with his specific Touch...that wouldn't surprise me a bit. There's no such thing as a perfectly made product with each and every unit.

I'm curious as to whether this may be a more serious problem. I have noticed that my 32GB 2G Touch does get bloody warm when I use it over extended periods of time. However, I don't do spandex...

[romodoc]

you guys are missing something, what about psychological damage. Imagine you are a 15 yo boy and wake up wan day to school and you are the cool guy with the cool gadgets (a 300 buck mp3p) next day you are the boy who wear spandex underpants lol. plus your gadget exploded and you mommy is taking care of everything.
Now if they get the 200k + then he will be the coolest guy on school for sure.

[punlman]

PUTATIVE damages in the millions of dollars, as a class action suit, would be more appropriate for this type of negligence.

[camp88]

ROFL

I think there's a _statue_ of limitations on putative damages.

Perhaps you mean puNative damages? Where there is not statute?

[Dylan_Wisor]

Dumb.

[pentest]

A class action suit, for an event that affect one person?

Clearly you don't know what a class action suit it.

[stefanvolos]

Maybe it was this kid's nylon/spandex hotpants that caused the iPod to overheat?!

[ikramerica--2008]

Well, not likely, but he may have had the unit ON in his pocket during class to hide it, which caused it to overheat. But it shouldn't explode.

[ikramerica--2008]

The real question is if they also sued the maker of the underwear. It is very possible that if he were not wearing plastic underwear, it would not have burned/melted into his skin like that nor would it have been as hard to get off. Cotton does not behave in that fashion...

[codynews]

hahaha, stop. You guys are killing me today. That's the second comment that made me seriously augh out loud

[pentest]

The kid should have taken them off immediately. It is stop, drop and roll. Not run and make it worse.

[wnbear]

Just picture the whole thing...

You're back in high school in the middle of class...it's the first class after lunch so you're debating whether or not it's nap time.

All of a sudden, a LOUD pop...and the kid a couple rows up from you fly's out of his desk half running/hopping (cursing about fire or something) out of the classroom and into the hall...his crony follows, half blinded by the smoke trail that lingers.

That's funny.

[Perry_Clease]

I wonder what it would take to bend an iPod Touch and if that could be accomplished by sitting with the iPod in a pants pocket. What I am thinking is that a bend might have shorted the battery causing the explosion.

[firefoxluva95]

It depends on what pocket. I infer that it might be the front pocket since it burned his leg and the article did not mention anything about his behind getting burned...just his leg. Interesting insight...but probably not a hypothesis I will try to test and validate. Submit idea to Mythbusters.

[Perry_Clease]

@ firefoxluva95

You are probably right. If I have my iPhone in a pants pocket it is a front one because that can accommodate it. A back pocket could put a lot of pressure on the device.

[tipoo_]

Jobs: "Its a feature!"

[karpenterskids]

hahahaha...good one.

[Shaun822]

Jobs: "We told you this was the hot product of this generation"

[tech_junky48]

Jobs: "And the new iPod Touch even has a built-in leg warmer for those cold days!"

[SeizeCTRL]

I can see the new young hipper yuppy terrorists strapping 50-60 iPhones/Touches to their chest and boarding a plane hoping to bring it down in one mighty explosion.

[AL_Law]

"PUTATIVE" damages are alleged damages, i think you mean "punitive" damages (ie damages to punish) Anyway, 225k is way too high of course and they'll probably settle at about $50-75k

[Notoapplefanbois]

Fanboy

[sparrowhyperion]

Man... Talk about Baked Apples.... Anyways, I think part of the punitive damages are for psychological trauma. I mean now this kid has to go through school with everyone in the school knowing he wears spandex nylon underwear..... Just more proof that Hotpants are not yet out of style...

[johnqh]

+100. The poor kid may have to change school after this.

[shadowself]

This suit is totally asinine.

Think about it. It "exploded" and "caught fire" in his pants -- in the classroom, while he was seated, while it was off. Then he had to get up, get out the attention of a friend to come with him, get to a restroom, then (with the help of a friend) get his pants off --- all the while it was in flames and melting his spandex underwear. This HAD to take several seconds -- maybe 10 seconds or more.

The doctor claimed there was only second degree burns -- nothing worse than blistering. Melted spandex is hot enough to cause third degree burns and sticks to the skin. It is NOT easy to get off. Additionally, it was melting onto his skin for many seconds. Only a bit of blistering is NOT consistent with the needed heat and time of the claimed incident.

Something smells here and it's not this kid's spandex underwear!

[ckurowic]

You are totally correct. Something does not add up here, and melting spandex is a really big deal, ask a soldier that has had that stuff on him during an IED attack. You end up with material fuzed onto and into your flesh. Sorry but this kids a liar.

[viper396]

You're just speculating and assuming he should have reacted the same way you think you would have in the same situation. Have you ever actually been on fire before? You do not have the full details of how the situation actually went down nor first hand experience. You're just a poser sitting on the sidelines pretend to be an expert.

Either way, the battery in a phone should not explode nor catch fire.

[Reaper0700]

I have a friend who's old Razor exploded in his pocket while it was off. The first thing he did was take it out of his pocket, and throw it away from himself as he ran off to get baking soda on the battery acid which was threw his pants and now on his leg. a co-worker quickly followed him cause you tend to follow the guy you know who just took a flaming phone of of his pocket. In the end, Only got first degree burns because in reality he didn't get any battery acid on him, just in his pants pocket and got his pants off fast enough to be ok.

Now I'm not going to say whether or not the kid did that...but it seems like a natural reaction to get the thing away from you, and run to get whatever it touched off you, and cleaned up. And if you have a friend near, they might just follow you cause Yelling I'm on fire as you run and throw a phone that's on fire across the room, gets attention pretty fast.

[Norseman]

Liar, liar, pants................well, you know.

[DanielDaly]

+2 Internets to you good sir. I lol'd.

[ikramerica--2008]

ROFL. Double ROFL. I almost peed my pants. Maybe this kid should have tried that. Or maybe that's what caused the fire?

[Apple_fan_95]

Oh my gosh, all they need is some burn cream and a bandage. That much money is ridiculous, what are they going to hire a plastic surgeon to replace his leg? all they need is a five dollar tube of burn cream, and a new pair of spandex underwear. They just want to make some money. You have to hate when liberals sue over crap like this. If the plaintiff reads this post., get over it. The only thing you need from apple is a new ipod. My sister got third degree burns, she didnt even go to the doctor, and she was fine.

[firefoxluva95]

So you make the assumption that everybody that receives third degree burns will be fine. It all depends on size of burn, time it took for the burning object to be removed, and severity of the burn (there are different severities to third degree burns). So look at the iPod touch...imagine flames bursting out of it and realize that it could have burned an area equivalent to more than half of his upper leg on one side. He might need some skin grafting there too; he might not. He may need antibiotics to prevent infection; he might not. If there is enough damage, he might need reconstructive surgery; he might not. It's best to know the full situation before jumping to conclusions like "all they need is some burn cream and a bandage" because some situations can be more severe than that of your sister

[Lerianis3]

firefoxluva95 gets it right. There are differing severities to third degree burns, and some of them would require reconstructive surgery if they were extremely deep, and that can be expensive and some asinine insurance companies won't pay for that.

[ballmerisanape]

A 2nd degree burn is what you get with a bad sun burn. A focal 2nd degree burn requires clean gauze and maybe a little antibiotic. Not a big deal, really. Not that I would want one.. but it shouldn't even buy you a trip to an ER.

[random truth]

The problem is that its a second degree burn, not a third degree burn.

[redwall_hp]

$225,000? No way. I can see suing for compensation for the medical costs, but no "punitive" charges. Anomalies like this happen; it's not like the entire line is flawed or anything.

I'm guessing either the battery installed was faulty (do the iPod batteries come from Sony?) or like Perry_Clease said above, the iPod was mistreated (accidental bending, exposure to extreme temperatures...) in some way and the battery was damaged.

And if the batter was faulty...you should be suing the maker of the battery, not Apple.

[Lerianis3]

That's faulty reasoning: we don't KNOW if the entire line of products is flawed or not yet. That will have to be proven by an investigation done into what is left (if anything) of the kid's Touch, and even then they might not be able to prove whether the thing was faulty or not.

[shadowself]

Also Krazit's believing that the iPod touch did indeed explode is unreasonable. We only have this kid's word for it (there are many, many other possible explanations that fit the doctor's report) -- that and his mother's and lawyer's.

I would have hoped Krazit would have been a bit more analytical about this than assuming an iPod touch actually did "explode".

[firefoxluva95]

How is believing that an electronic device with a battery can explode unreasonable? It has a battery...so it always will have that possibility of explosion. It's not a great probability but it can't be ruled out 100%.

[pithenumber]

Batteries explode
fact of life
stick two 9volts together and see, it isn't a spectacular fireball or anything, but it explodes
laptop recalls: why? because there's a chance that the battery might explode
are we on to something?

[random truth]

@firefoxluva95
It is not that it exploded that is unreasonable, it is the circumstances that just don't make any sense. Lithium ion fires range from 100- 300 degrees celsius. Spandex melts at 250 degrees celsius... The metal, and the glass that make up the chassis of the ipod touch have much higher melting points and are attached tightly through its design. For it too have "exploded" It would have needed quite a lot of cubic pressure. So much that it probably would have shot through his pants and caused injury to his leg... Spandex when melted is a sticky substance... at +250 celsius the kid would have gotten much severer burns than second degree. A second degree burn ranges from a bad sunburn to a cyst caused by caused by touching a hot stove. This guy is clearly a liar because if he was experiencing that kind of heat he would have been screaming his head out and would not make it to the bathroom. Imagine this.
<
OMG, my ipod exploded in my pocket.
You, my friend come help me get it out of my pocket in the bathroom.
*heads to bathroom
I need help getting my spandex underwear off.
> 2 minutes at least. His story makes no sense.

[GajaKannan]

Apple products fail? That never happens. If it does, it would be called as microsoft and dell...

[celticbrewer]

Ya, and every XBox360 owner is on their first console. Get real! I know people who have gone through up to 4 ipods becuase they kept crapping out.

[firefoxluva95]

I know...new revelation right. Apple products actually fail? The world is coming to an end...

[abundantsnotbob]

Apple products fail when the warranty is over. I think they design the battery to last 2 years and a week. I have heard that Xbox 360s die alot, but I think they all have 3 year warranties. I have only had mine for a few months and only used it about 15 times. So far I mostly play demos that don't use the disc drive.

[Notoapplefanbois]

@celticbrewer

Actually they are, since they give you the same box back with a different cpu/gpu/mobo/ram/fan and heatsink/dvd drive.

[Apple_fan_95]

also, his ipod shouldn't have even been on during school.

[firefoxluva95]

On or off the battery could still short out and explode, off just reduces the likelihood but doesn't eliminate it. After all, a battery doesn't have to be in use to explode when subject to extreme conditions.

Most normal people would think standby with the volume turned down to mute would be sufficient enough in school. Also note that the kid wasn't playing with the iPod either so it probably was in standby and not disturbing anybody...until it blew up.

[Dylan_Wisor]

What objectivity, Apple_fan_95.

I don't think Apple's lawyers are going to try and use that defense.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

did it or did it not happen like this?
surely some details are missing.
Are these people trying to make a buck during hard times?
hmm...

[ewsachse]

All you Apple fanbois are ready to dismiss the case and orally service Steve Jobs. Clowns.

[pentest]

And you are ready to believe it all and go fap thinking about it. Clown.

[efreak1]

Stupid

[ktwbc]

I'd bet money that he had his Touch in his pocket with coins, and the edge of one of the coins went into the dock connector slot and created a short. And that's not the fault if Apple.

[firefoxluva95]

Why is it called "pocket change" if it shouldn't be carried in a pocket? Apple knows their device would be carried in pockets too and should have realized that other common objects such as coins may also hitch a ride next to each other.

Doubt anything in the connector slot would cause a short, otherwise plugging in the USB cable to one end (the iPod end) and not the other (the computer end) would probably also short out the iPod. Again, if the USB dock connector can cause explosions from shorting, it probably is faulty and may explode upon connection to a computer.

[Lerianis3]

firefoxluva gets it right once again. Pocket change in a pocket with something like this should NOT cause the thing to short. Most of these things, including phones, have a thing where if the phone detects that the charging port is shorting out, they automatically shut off the charging ports flow of juice.
No, pocket change in a pocket would NOT do this, and because that is a NORMAL condition of someone's pocket, Apple would be negligent if they truly didn't take that into account!

[SeizeCTRL]

Yet every manufacturer seems to be doing recalls on laptops and exploding batteries... I don't think people carry their laptops around in their pocket, or start shoving coins into every crevice they can find in their notebook. Exploding batteries seem to be frightening common occurrence now.

[Sam Papelbon]

haha

'you're honor, the plaintiff had coins in his pocket at the time of the explosion, which caused a short'

'COINS?! in his POCKET? son what in b'jesus name you doin with coins in your pocket? tryin to burn the school down? case dismissed! not so fast, boy, i only dismissed YOUR case. i hereby sentence you to 25 years incarceration for negligent usage of pockets to hold coins. oh, and bailiff, search him for nickels before you lock him up'

[coachgeorge]

OMG,
Another early April Fools Joke. The second one tonight!
I have to assume you are kidding.

I say, Burn baby Burn. Not the kid, APPLE!