back to article Italian iPhone makes like Roman candle

An iPhone's charging cable caught fire in Italy over the weekend - and it may not have been an isolated occurrence. An Italian blogger has described how his iPhone's cable burst into flames at the point of connection with his phone. You can find a picture of the damage here and read more about it in Apple's forums. Apparently …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple did not immediately respond to our requests for comment

    Do they ever actually reply or do they still hate the Reg?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Mc stuffed

    Flaming Apple-No really (-:

    Serves them right for choosing style over substance.

    Flame cos, well you know.

  3. raving angry loony
    Jobs Horns

    Apple?

    Apple doesn't seem to reply to anyone who has anything negative to say about them. They're nothing more than a self-fisting cult who have taken over the egotistical biz from Ball-more at Macro-soft. I've gone from wannabe-fanboi to "ah shit, they're no better than anyone else" since the release of their ultimate onanistic masterpiece, the iPhone, the device that gets you almost there then leaves you hanging ... onto your wallet as they attach the vacuum cleaner to it.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    On the side of good news

    My g/f dropped her iPhone into a toilet last Friday. It was quite a mess: The SIM slot was full of water drops, the screen flickered, and the touch did not work. She was in tears!

    But...

    After getting the water out of the sim slot and microphone, using a hair dryer on it, the phone booted, and I was able to sync it. The touch screen was finicky, ignored touches or clicked where it shouldn't.

    And...

    After letting it dry over the weekend, the phone works flawlessly again!

    It *is* a Jesus phone!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Nope none here

    Well it is a hot product.......

  6. jubtastic1

    My money is on...

    A Dock full of fluff. I've noticed the iPhone Docking slot collects lint like a fat mans belly button.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: On the side of good news

    I'm surprised it touched the water at all, I though a true Jesus-phone would have just walked on it.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Flaming iPhone

    Don't know about the device burning, but there is never a shortage of flames on this site whenever anyone has a good word to say about Apple. As for you first three, have you considered your replies or just joined the Apple-bashing club in the absence of original thought? It seems to me Apple have produced an as yet untouched device of unrivalled capability that makes the rest of the tech world green with envy and denial. Sure, there are a few areas some people would like to see, such as copy and paste, but I have yet to see a convincing argument that any of these features would enhance an already flawless device. Come on people, stop bleating like blind sheep and accept that Apple have not made a bad product yet.

    Morons

  9. CeeJay

    "It *is* a Jesus phone!"

    I have no axe to grind about iPhone, but my 6210 (which is right here on my desk) has taken a brief dip in an immersion header tank. And my K800i once got the full "seaside funfair" experience by spending an hour or so in my washing machine. Neither appear worse for the experience.

    Admittedly they're much simpler devices than the iPhone, so I guess Apple gets a pat on the head for its apparent robustness in the face of moistness. But it's not unique.

    Mmm. /Moistness/.

  10. Daniel Bennett
    Alert

    RE: On the side of good news

    Shut up, No it's not.

    Same thing happened to a friends Nokia N95.

    None of the buttons would work, charge wouldn't work and screen was waterlogged.

    After as much drying as possible and leaving it alone for the night and drying with a hairdryer again it works.

    Does that make the N95 a jesus phone?

    No, Didn't think so.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    re: on the side of good news

    Surely this just proves the iPhone is a piece of shit?

  12. It wasnt me

    @AC 05:33

    "It *is* a Jesus phone"

    Er - it cant walk on water now can it ?

    Seems to me its more of a turd phone making a pilgrimmage to its birthplace.

  13. eugene

    recovering waterlogged phones is common

    Recovering a waterlogged phone is a very common thing. Just google "recover wet phone" or something similar. There must be a lot of jesuses out there. :)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    title... yeah right

    "Apple did not immediately respond to our requests for comment"

    ho hum. do they ever ;)

  15. Andus McCoatover

    "Apple did not immediately respond to our requests for comment "

    Why don't reporters put something like:

    "We contacted them, but they couldn't be arsed to reply" or

    "We didn't bother to contact them, because they'd deny it anyway" (Best used on Gummint Departments, esp. USA ones, whose motto seems to be "The new American Way: Lie and Deny")

    Think a response would be swift.

  16. Frank

    @AC 05:33 Re. On the side of good news

    " After letting it dry over the weekend.............." Yes, that's the key.

    Most low power electronic equipment will not be harmed by exposure to clean water, provided you make sure to remove the battery and dry it all thoroughly. Shaking or vacuuming most of the water out then leaving it in a warm, well ventilated place for 24 hours is often enough. Then put the battery back in and cross your fingers.

    If it had worked after she'd dropped it in the sea, then I would have been impressed, sea water is terrible for corroding fine metallic components. However, I understand that if you drop an iPhone in the sea, it walks back to shore - can you test this for me?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Re: On the side of good news

    A true Jesus phone would have stood on the surtface of the water in the toilet (assuming that it was water).

    No seriously.

    Please wait for a month before declaring the phone a survivor of the deep dive. Corrosion from water damage may take a while, so the mere fact that you had it turned on while it was still relatively moist (you mention that the touchscreen finicky) may have doomed it.

    The important thing when a phone is dropped in water (or milk or ...) is:

    1: Get the battery out immediately

    2: Get contaminants out (if the liquid is something other than water, you may actually consider rinsing in water)

    3: Dry the phone completely.

    4: then you can consider turning the thing on again.

  18. Ru

    Re: It *is* a Jesus phone!

    I would say that a *real* Jesus phone would not sink in water.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @On the side of good news

    I'm glad you managed to rescue it but would you say it was more or less full of shit after being dropped in the bog?

    Although I can see an up side to incendiary iPhones, less estate agents!

  20. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    Hot Apple iPhone

    Where's the iCustard application?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @ On the side of good news

    <rant> Moron. If you get an electronic device wet (referring to water; alcohol or fizzy drink is a different matter altogether) you should leave it as disassembled as possible for AT LEAST 24 hours, regardless of how much hair drying you do to it - because there will still be internal components that the hairdryer won't reach, which you will have to wait for the water to evaporate in its own time. No wonder it was still funny when you first switched it on, you were probably responsible for a number of minor short-circuits and voltage instabilities. The fact that you let it dry over the weekend before (presumably) using it again is most likely the only thing that saved it. </rant>

    Of course, you could have just plugged it into its charger, I suppose the heat from the fire would have dried it out quickly enough.

  22. Peter Nuding
    Coat

    faulty USB port?

    Looks very much like a badly inserted or damaged plug shorting out. Normally you'd expect your mainboard to simply cut the power to the faulty USB plug, but if that doesn't happen (e.g. because your board or USB card is garbage) this is pretty much the result I'd expect.

    I mean... this is evidently a connector problem not being any issue when properly fused and this type of charging cable has been around for years without changes.

    No news here, i'll better get my coat...

  23. Andy ORourke
    Happy

    @ on the side of good news

    Me too, Dropped it down the crapper, shook it vigourously, placed it on a raditor on some kitchen towel for a day, good as new (and clean with hint of pine freshness, thank God I had flushed or it might have had a hint of something else!)

  24. Ron Eve
    Thumb Down

    And in other news...

    .... a car broke down and me mum's washing machine packed up.

    How many iPhones sold? How many have suffered this problem?

    Good grief. Slow news day lads (and lass)?

    /El Fail

  25. Ascylto
    Black Helicopters

    Is it?

    In the photo of the burned-out cable, the iPhone seems odd to me. Mine doesn't have the shaping around the 'Home' button. Is this a fake or is there a different model?

  26. Lionel Baden

    @AC 05:33

    So did your gf phone catch fire to to hence the velocity drop into the toilet ???

    :)

    but common to describe that itty little bit of plastic as bursting into flames is a bit silly !!

  27. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Flame

    Non-Apple batteries or chargers?

    Saw my first non-Apple batteries about a month after the first iBones debutted, and recently seen hordes of fake Apple charges being sold by street vendors. Did anyone check if these were genuine products in these cases?

    /good excuse to use the flames icon ;)

  28. Psymon
    Jobs Horns

    That looks like the same connector design as the laptops...

    which if it is, uses a magnetic coupler to attach to the phone.

    if memory serves me correctly, there are 4 flat spring loaded pin-plates inside. if the pins are dirty or oxidised (a common problem on electrical terminals) then given sufficient ampage, it could easily generate enough heat to catch fire.

    That's the principle (in laymans terms) on which welding works. The weakest part of the circuit will get the hottest. Does the magnetic coupler still work if the charger isn't plugged in? If it doesn't that means it uses an electromagnetic coil, which also could generate excessive heat if not functioning correctly

    Does anyone know the V/A rating of the charger?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE: On the side of good news

    Just thinking that the first thing I ever do when a bit of electronics gets soaked is pop the power out of it so it doesn’t short then let it dry… I liked the days when you actually could do that before some half wit designer decided that you would never need to do such a thing…. Although it is very useful for finding stuff like was proven to me last weekend.

    AC to avoid the rabid fanboism that this article is sure to incite!

  30. Steve Foster
    Joke

    @AC: "On the side of good news"

    Ah, so just like it's namesake, it died on the friday, and came back to life on monday...

    :)

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @good news : Jesus Phone

    Wikipaedia refuse to allow the term "Jesus Phone" to be included anywhere in the description of the iPhone. It's mentioned in the discussion page but the "cult" figures who control the main article page won't make any reference to it.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone

    iPhone in a toilet. I guess the guys in the Vatican can use that if their phones get hot / catch fire.

  32. bygjohn

    Re: Is it?

    Might be a screen protector.

  33. Ivan Headache

    @That looks like the same connector..

    design as the laptops...

    Only it isn't. It's a standard ipod connector.

    Anyway, considereing the number of iPhones and iPods sold - all using the same connector - this is as newsworthy as the earlier post about the washing machine breaking down.

  34. david kaufman

    iPhone is Hot

    It's only because the iPhone is so hot!

    I bought the iPhone yesterday after using the Blackberry for 6 years, The iPhone is so much better.

    Just downloaded my first app from app store, JigSee, which is a really cute puzzle game, you take a picture with the iPhone camera and it tirns it into a puzzle game, great for the kids!

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