Overheating iPod Stops Japanese Rush Hour Train

John Brownlee ()

Overheating iPod Stops Japanese Rush Hour Train

Overheating iPods have been consistently making the news in Japan over the last week. First, Apple admitted that their first-generation iPod Nanos can suffer meltdowns, and offered free replacements to any Japanese iPod owners who’ve experienced the problem. On the heels of that comes this story from Reuters, in which an iPod going nuclear knocked a Tokyo rush hour subway train out of commission.

If not for the bad timing, the story’s pretty funny. Around 8:20am, a train in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward was stopped by officials who noticed a strange, burning smell in the train. Staff members quickly investigated, only to be approached by a sheepish and embarrassed commuter with a smoldering, burst-apart iPod in her hands.

It’s not clear at this point what model iPod burst apart yesterday morning, and it’s almost definitely just a fluke, but one thing’s for sure: Apple Japan is going to have a public relations debacle on their hands if iPods don’t stop melting down.

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in iPod, News |

  • cathrine goss

    Umm…not sure who sent that photo in but that’s a picture of the Chicago commuter train. I’m 41 years old and didn’t buy my 1st car til I was 30. And I always loved ridding in the 1st car in the seat next to the train conductor. I know what downtown Chicago looks like from the train. My sister also drives the train for Chicago Transit Authority in the downtown area everyday. I’ll send the article to her for further verification.

  • John Dough

    Yes, I thought it was Chicago too, funny how they put a Japanese overlay on the photo to make it look authentic. Seriously, how dumb do they think we are?

  • SonicAlligator

    Yes, that’s the Chicago Brownline, northbound Kimball train. Not only is that obviously the north loop of the city, but the train says, in English, Kimball on the front of it. Wah, wah. Cue slide-whistle.

  • z

    Definitely Chicago brown line heading towards Kimball. I take it every day.

  • Crigger540

    everyone gets a cookie! so what?

  • Elmer Fudd

    it also says Merchandise Mart station (machandaisomato eki) in japanese. no doubt a screenie from one of the many many train sim games japanese love.