The drama caused by lithium-ion batteries just continues to snap, crackle and pop along, according to our friends at Epicenter, as an old-school iPod nano reportedly began shooting sparks out while recharging at a home in Japan.
Overall, details remain spotty about the case, but the problem supposedly surfaced in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo. Once again, officials are blaming those occasionally unstable lithium-ion batteries. While no one was injured during the mini fireworks show, Japanese officials have publicly chastised Apple for failing to report the incident earlier (the company submitted its report on March 7). In the meantime, Apple has been ordered to look into the matter further and report back to the Ministry.
This could be a major black eye for Apple is it turns out to be a widespread problem. A recall on the previous generation iPod nano would be extraordinarily costly. Has anyone ever had problems with older nano batteries?
4 responses to “Nano Spurs Investigation After Sparks Fly in Japan”
I was a Mac Genius during a timeframe which encompassed the introduction of the original Nano and ran up through the latest Nano release. I saw hundreds of iPods come to the Genius Bar, and never, ever, ever, ever had anyone complain of sparks emanating from them. The closest thing I saw was a few that got too warm, and a large percentage of those, including my personal Nano (oops!), were water damaged.
FWIW
I’m glad my iPod isn’t painted, too. I wonder if my Chinese-manufactured shoes are going to start emitting gamma rays (Hulk mad!!)