More exploding Apple products (ie now iPhones)

[CharlieChomper]

Following some of the reported issues with the iPods, it appears some iPhones have had complaints involving explosions (with some injuries reported--including a teenager who was said to have suffered a serious eye injury as a result of the explosion) and with the current likely suspect being the batteries once again (as with the iPods...).

Currently, the French consumer affairs authorities has begun investigating the situation (there have also been complaints in a number of other countries where the iPhones are sold, notably the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, as well as the US--however, France has been the most high profile in terms of countries actually pursing the matter and investigating it).

The article also goes on to mention other incidents of late involving explosions of Apple products (also suspected of having been tied into the batteries) such as a Powerbook explosion which injured someone in London as well as incidents in Japan last year involving iPod Nanos and the company being forced to replace the batteries of any Nanos sold there.

However, Apple (not surprisingly, just given their past history anytime a problem has arisen with their products) has publicly gone on to deny there actually is a problem with one of their products. Instead, they initially blamed "external forces" for the problems.

As a follow-up to this, Apple has since gone on to claim that somehow users are to blame for the problems.

In France, at least, if the investigation does prove that Apple is at fault and/or the batteries are the problem, iPhones may be pulled from sale in that country.

[Zilla]

I don't have a IPhone or any other type of cell phone for that matter, but I'm really curious about what is going on with Apple. They were supposed to be the lesser of the two evils as far as company standards go when compared to Microsoft and they seem to have become complacent with what is deemed as upstanding quality and workmanship.

If being complacent is the issue, I hope they wake up really soon. I own a Mac and I haven't been proud of that for awhile after some of the stuff they've been putting out lately. i.e- Shake The Baby app for IPhone is one example..

[CharlieChomper]

As far as companies go, I don't know if I would quite call Apple "the lesser of two evils" to be honest (I wouldn't call them the worst of them either, however).

I've actually worked with their products for a longer period of time than I actually have with Microsoft products or even the architecture that both platforms currently "share" (although, I would also like to note that I came into things from yet another platform entirely), and they're both about equal--just in different shades of it.

You can almost think of it more like two halves of a coin or different "sides" of a mirror in some ways, really.

Unfortunately, as with Microsoft at times (or a number of other large companies in that industry I can probably list at times...), it sometimes can take a very large enough amount of attention (and sometimes complaining) and action at times for Apple to do something about addressing a problem or even acknowledge it--and even then, that's no guarantee anything will change (unless someone may somehow force their hand at it sometimes).

It's hard for me to even say this is even anything new with them either anymore than the complacent attitude/denial of a problem/failure to acknowledge it/blaming the user-line of thinking is or complacency issues or problems with their products is, etc.--one difference between the past and present, however, is that people are now sometimes being very seriously injured at times or being put at serious risks due to what's going on and more people are actually starting to question it.

Also, it's actually being given more exposure than it used to be.