More Exploding Cellphones In The News

adityapandey writes "It's happened again. Yahoo News has another story on exploding cellphones. Most of these mishaps are blamed on counterfeit batteries and chargers. Recently, Kyocera recalled about 40,000 cellphones for free replacement, because of batteries overheating and venting superheated gases. Yet, cellphone makers claim that such incidents are too rare to care about. Shouldn't cellphone companies be making people aware of the hazards of usage?"

Commercial out-take

[Anonymous Coward]

The "Can you hear me now?" guy trying to talk from his neck.

Well, Let's Take Advantage of It

[Spencerian]

Get the Department of Defense together with Verizon and para-drop a shitload of cellphones in Mosul and other Iraqi hot-spots with flyers on how the insurgents can call their friends.

Instead, they'll be calling Allah.

"Can we blow you up now?" "Good."

The predictions were correct...

[k4_pacific]

Several years ago, I read an article predicting that cell phones would explode in the coming years. They were right!!

I guess the real trick...

[automag]

...is figuring out how *I* can make *your* cellphone explode when you're being a loud a**hole and chatting away at the next table, or what have you...

FAA...

[sv25]

"In later news, the FAA has banned all batteries from all flights... Little Timmy won't be able to play his gameboy on those long flights."

Hazardous devices

[Black Parrot]

> Shouldn't cellphone companies be making people aware of the hazards of usage?

Warning! Using this device in public places such as movie theaters or churches may result in a vigorous ass beating.

They probably do

[Anonymous Coward]

For a company not to have a legal disclaimer somewhere would be an incredible oversight. It's probably written in the manual somewhere - "Don't use counterfeit batteries, use ours..with 200% sales markup instead".

If you're like most Americans you either don't RTFM or you decide that the *OEM Only* warning is only fanatical bourgeois vendor propaganda.

So instead you go buy an "Uncle Bob's El'Cheapo Clone Battery - with Extended Long Life (tm)Runtime" from the guy wearing the long trenchcoat down the street.

Re:how about....

[AndroidCat]

On four occasions, the batteries in the Kyocera phones have short-circuited and heated up enough to trigger a built-in safety mechanism that vents superheated gases in order to avoid an explosion, according to the safety commission.

Obviously the phones need a voice-warning politeness option. Just before venting superheated gas, the phones could speak warnings such "Whooah!", "Pardon me!", "Burrito meltdown!", "Better out than in!". (Enterprising phone companies could sell custom "blow-tone" warnings.)

Re:answer in short

[vespazzari]

we should probably have warnings on powder blue crayons too. cause god know how bad it is when one of those gets jammed up your nose and i know from experience that this happens all the time same with screwdrivers and pencils and pens, and come to think of it every other pointy object, they dont have warnings- it must be ok. There comes a point when people stop paying attention to warnings because they already know that they know better, which is often the case- the problem with this is that more often than not, truly important warnings get glossed over becuase they are assumed to be the regular "do not light on fire", "not to be taken internally", etc... ... extended warranty, how can i lose!

Re:Well, Let's Take Advantage of It

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay! How about the Iraqi patriots defending their country from imperialist pigs dropped a load of booby trapped SUVs in Washington along with flyers telling the lardy inhabitants there are free hamburgers in the next state.

Instead they'll driving home to Jesus!

"the faster you drive the more Big Macs you get!".... Kaboom!

What I want to know is...

[nekoniku]

...will my tinfoil hat protect me from my exploding cell phone?

Re:answer in short

[kfg]

Dude, you've got a 20 gallon high explosive device sitting in your parking space, right now!

You're lucky just to be alive, and the bomb squad will be over in minutes to contain and confiscate it. We hope you drive a Porsche.

KFG

Re:answer in short

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Oh yeah, the guys with the bandannas and the slimjim are members of bomb squad. They will also need to examine your radio for radiation output, and take your tires back to the lab for testing.

By design

[zrq]

I thought they were supposed to do that.

Don't you remember ... in StarTrek, one of the standard ways of getting out of a tricky situation would be to 'switch my phaser to overload', throw it round the corner and hide. Five seconds later, loud bang, and no problem .. er, no wall ... and possibly no building .... depending on the charge left in the battery at the time.

Re:Better than blaming it on the dog

[Anonymous Coward]

because of batteries overheating and venting superheated gases

Umm, it was my phone, honest

Rapid Disassembly

[mr100percent]

I remember the delay in getting my phone earlier this year: The press release said the reason for the recall last time was "Kyocera has received four confirmed reports of rapid disassembly."... "Continued use of the phone with the '-05' battery could result in injury in the form of burns due to the battery's rapid disassembly (which may appear as an explosion), or emission of excessive heat."

So in field of Public Relations objects don't explode, they just rapidly disassemble!!!.....

bwahahahaha

[ocularDeathRay]

excuse me while I call that coworker I hate.... I wonder how long I can keep him on the phone.

Fear not!

[RealProgrammer]

Simply don your Slashdot-approved tin hat (available now at OSDN.com), as it has built-in protection from cell phone radiation. Make sure to use the supplied grounding strap, affixing the free end firmly to the steel pad on the bottom of your shoe.

I've realized why the cell phone makers aren't concerned about random explosions. It just saves their users from succombing to brain cancer. Humane, in a way, and cheaper to litigate.

Re:Rapid Disassembly

[CountrySon]

Yes - - and the PR people dissemble. RIMSHOT!

Some users bring it upon themselves...

[lxt]

...a friend of mine took his phone out with him in a heavy storm, and it got rather water damaged. He decided he'd "dry out the phone" by taking the battery out, and placing it on his radiator...luckily, we were all in the room at the time, and able to enlighten him somewhat...

Re:Very Small Percentage

[Neward Rylet]

More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks
That's the last time I swim in pig-infested water!

Re:Very Small Percentage

[FireFury03]

More children drown every year in 5 gallon buckets than due to guns

Pleazse demonstrate how you drown due to a gun? :)