Dev's iPhone cable melts after iOS 5 upgrade An iDevice software developer has claimed his iPhone 4's USB cable "caught fire" after he installed iOS 5 on the device. Florida-based coder Gus Pinto, whose Twitter profile has his occupation as "pioneering Mac desktop virtualisation", Tweeted today: "My charging cable caught on fire while charging my iPhone 4 running iOS5 …
In my experience, Apple's cables are junk - I've had one DC-cable melt-down on a laptop PSU, one near-miss on another laptop (I went to pick it up, and burned my fingers).
The cheap stranded tin/copper cable used in these is brittle and not adequately protected from mechanical strain. The result is that when the strands break from flexing, there's not enough connected cable left to carry the required current.
I'd recommend a workalike from Belkin ( # F8Z328EA ) or any other competent cable maker, rather than shelling out £25 for another fire hazard from Apple.
Something in iOS5 may be provoking this (maybe a faster battery-charging regime), but the root cause is penny-pinching by Apple.
Electrical Engineers on stand-by, please advise: how to build a device with thermal and over-current surge protection to be connected to this cable. Apparently Apple was not able to do it.
I know my UPS has a current limiter when charging my 45Ah battery set... I know my processor has a thermal protection instruction...
And it's not the first time El Reg brings us this sort of scorching news.
Oh NOs, my phone is only going to work correctly for another 26 years!
BTW, that's what is know as the UNIX millennium bug. Feel free to post a smug comment in 2038 on a website of your choosing... Assuming you can find a website still working!
After all, there's only something over a quarter of a century to fix that in........assuming Android's still around in its current form by then of course.
If that worries you, I strongly suggest that you don't come here any more. Some of the articles are quite likely to cause heart failure in someone of such a fragile disposition.
From my experience (and I'm an electrician) I'm going to guess the more probable culprit is a faulty charging cable. Even the one Apple supplies with the phone is of incredibly poor quality (I amalready on my third - just picked up a Belkin that is made from thicker gauge wire).
I haven't noticed high temps while charging but definitely have seen them during heavy discharge - if I'm using the GPS in my vehicle with Bluetooth connecting to my stereo and the wifi hotspot enabled, the phone becomes uncomfortably hot - to the point where I won't even put it in my pocket.
Runaway process in beta OS (heavy load on battery) + shitty Apple cable = shorted, melted charging cable.
Would love to know what the other end of this cable was plugged in to, and what happened to it!
Come on a little bit of research please, there's nothing new in this story or related to iOS 5.
It has happened on the iPhone 4 before, last year in fact: http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-4-catches-on-fire-thanks-to-defective-usb-port-0893410/
Before you all go thinking this is specific to Apple, it has also happened in microUSB devices: http://www.goodandevo.net/2011/04/htc-evo-4g-microusb-cable-could-damage-your-computer-burn-your-house-down.html
and i wonder why it caught fire wierd how can a cable catch fire just buy installing a update did it cause a heat issue hum possible or maybe cause its apple and they dont care about heating problems instead they give customers stuff and forget the consicquences. wasnt there another apple product that caught fire to hum seems to be a commen thing. and you wonder why i never touch em lol
"The Monster Cable® extreme hyper-throughput USB connectivity solution (£200 + VAT + £50) contains high grade quasi-linearly aligned copper crystals to channel the electricity in its purest form from your power supply to your iPhone. The iPhone will run 16-23% faster, allowing tri-simultaneous in-ear voice transference coupled with neo-proto-exponential rates of battery charging. You may also be slightly more attractive to other people - results vary with time, light and looks"
One benefit, for consumers, of internationally accepted connectors is that there are numerous sources for them, eliminating monopolies and exorbitant prices but also has the added attraction of being tested against accepted standards.
But some vendors love the extra revenue stream afforded by their unique, sub-par, connectors.
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