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Apple Lawyers Downplay iPod Overheating Problems?

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A complaint over a faulty battery filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Courtesy KIRO TV.

Reports of faulty iPod batteries — from the torched Saab or the recent problems in Korea over Nanos –  are occasionally in the news.

One investigation now claims that Apple lawyers tried to hush-up battery problems that have led to fires.

Amy Clancy at KIRO TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle, spent seven months trying to obtain documents about iPods from the national Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The delay? Apple lawyers filed “exemption after exemption,” her report says.

She eventually got through the smoke to obtain 800 pages said to be the first comprehensive report into how many iPod batteries go up in smoke, some of them burning their owners.

Those pages contained some 15 incidents of fiery MP3 players, some you can download from the TV site, including a jogger who says she still has a penny-sized burn scar on her chest from wearing an overheated iPod. Apple is said to have told her it was an “isolated incident.”

Out of the millions of iPods sold, are the faulty batteries too few to be significant or  not?

Via ZDnet

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.

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One comment

    They look like they have a problem …
    I was on holiday last week with my ipod touch, and came to use it and found it would not switch on, thinking it was a low battery I put it on charge, then tried after a few minutes to switch it on but it would not respond, even to a re-boot.
    At this point I noticed it was VERY HOT, so I took it off charge, and after a few more failed attempts to re-boot, I decided to put it in the fridge to cool down as it was almost too hot to touch.
    After about 30 mins I took it out and tried a re-boot, and it showed the apple logo and started up, once running it has carried on like nothing was wrong.

    I suspect the microprocessor was in a fault loop, which caused the overheating, and me charging it when not needed did not help, what would have happened if I had not cooled it I dread to think … will Apple own up to a possible problem on these ipods .. ?

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