iPod overheats, sparks while being charged

By AAP and Marcus Browne
12 March 2008 04:21 PM
Tags: apple, ipod, japan, nano, overheat, sparks, battery, overheate

in brief An iPod nano in Japan overheated and discharged sparks, the Japanese industry ministry said today.

"The battery part of the product overheated while being charged and sparked," the ministry said, adding it was investigating the 8 January incident.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

The company has publicly warned that iPod, iPod Nano or iPod shuffle may generate excess heat while being charged in certain carry cases.

Today's report comes after a spate of battery issues with handheld and other portable devices in the last twelve months, including a number of product safety recalls and other instances of batteries emitting sparks or exploding while charging.

Nokia in particular was plagued by reports of exploding batteries late last year, after it warned of oveheating problems associated with defective batteries in a number of its phone models

A number of other manufacturers -- including Apple -- have experienced similar problems with laptop batteries; ranging from recalls associated with overheating concerns, to reported cases of combustion.

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Talkback 4 comments

    As usual, ZDnet gets it wrong... Michael Dlugos -- 13/03/08

    If you read the original report, the unit in question is a first generation iPod Nano, which has been discontinued since September of 2006. Note that this article here on ZDnet uses a third generation Nano as illustration, implying that the new unit is at fault.
    Note also that millions upon millions of these units were shipped, and so far ONE (1), that is 1 unit has been reported to have this issue.
    If you only take the unit shipments to Japan, then you get a ratio of 1 to 475,000 that have seen this problem.
    Typical of ZDnet to spread some more FUD against Apple. Didja guys get another cash infusion from Microsoft this week?
    Pathetic. Really pathetic.

    Wrong Again Anonymous -- 13/03/08

    Are willfully attempting to damage Apple and the iPod reputation or simply lazy in your reporting. The iPod Nano in question was a FIRST generation model, NOT the latest version that you've pictured. ONE iPod in hundreds of thousands shipped. Geez, what ridiculous hysteria and junk reporting

    Misleading Reporting Anonymous -- 13/03/08

    Your use of the wrong iPod image is certainly misleading. Hopefully it is just an oversight and will be fixed shortly rather than an intentional misleading of your readers.

    Did you investigate whether the iPod had an original battery or a third party replacement? The iPod was well out of warranty and many people replace their batteries with after market versions once the warranty period has expired.

    Additionally the first part of your last paragraph would more accurately (and more informatively) read, "A number of electronics vendors have experienced similar problems with laptop batteries made by Sony, a Japanese manufacturer;"

    Correction ZDNet Australia -- 14/03/08 (in reply to #320097187)

    As Apple did not respond to requests for comment, we were unable to verify which particular model was affected. In light of that, we've removed the picture originally used to illustrate the article until we are able to confirm the model of the nano in question.

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