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Mental distress? How's that?

What is the point of sueing the 10 store employees? Does it take 10 employees to sell one I-Pod?

Let's hope he wasn't using a touch with any custom firmware or related software or else Apple will probably bring that up in their defense.

Is this a overheating battery problem since it was close to the body without having ventilation?
I agree with the store employees though. Perhaps, however, there is an alterior motive at hand. I hope there is.
When doctors get sued all the nurses on the same floor even though they had nothing do do with any incidents are always named in lawsuits. I don't know if they narrow them down later to the actual nurses involved, but I can't believe there isn't a better way to determine who actually was involved with the incident.
Seems like a huge waste of time and money and it can be very stressful for the thousands of individuals every year who are involved with lawsuits they have absolutely nothing to do with, including these apple store employees.

Well, even if the iPod Touch was hacked, (I'm sure Apple will use anything and everything to defend themselves) doesn't excuse a manufacturer from an exploding device. Bugs will occur in any type of software/firmware. Thus even under the most of catastrophic conditions, regardless of the cause (malware, virus, or Apple's own potential bugs or bad design, or selection of safe and quality battery provider) a hardware device cannot and should not spontaneously combust, or explode potentially causing injury to the person using it. Period. It's called responsible fail-safe engineering.

Did anyone know Li (Lithium) and all other battery chemicals are extreme poisons? They cannot be disposed of in landfills, and if ignited, release extremely toxic fumes ? Yet Apple has the gull to put ads talking about a "green" laptop, containing such a battery... So they got rid of mercury. What did they replace it with that's on the approved list? (For now.)

Now that said, I hope this is an extremely rare event, and is not a sign of things to come. And also hope this isn't a frivolous lawsuit, such as reported by the http://stellaawards.com

For more on batteries toxicity: And we're not even talking about exploding or fuming batteries!
Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,540,000 for are batteries toxic. (0.10 seconds)

One thing I forgot to ask,

Has this ever happened before?!

Hundreds of Iphones and Ipod touches are out there, in use for a full year or two, and this is the first time I've ever heard of this. Granted, there have been numerous other cases of lion batteries blowing up in laptops and other things, but this is the first ipod touch blowing up I've heard about. Just one blowing up is not a design defect!

Another thing I just thought of, I wonder if static electricity has anything to do with anything. Perhaps it is just one element in many that causes these lion batteries to blow? Possibly when overheated?

In reply to number6 - "Mental distress? How's that?"

C'mon - don't you think if you had something burning in your pants pocket in school and you had to get up and run to the bathroom to take off your pants that you's suffer a little "mental distress"?!!

I'm not saying that this lawsuit in any way has any merit or is frivolous, but c'mon - we're talking about a 15-year-old boy here. In addition to his physical injuries (assuming this actually happened), can you imagine the teasing and ribbing he'll get from his clasmates?!!

Umm, that was supposed to say "classmates" at the end of my last post!

I really do know how to spell! :-)

Well not trusting any battery operated device, in your pants front pockets close to you know what... If this kind of mishap happened to me or my child, I know I would be rather infuriated to say the least. Are not Apple devices sold under the pretext of "Quality"? Is this what you expect from a Quality Device?

Portable devices should be fail-safe. So they become useless. A brick. So what? But potentially and literally explosive, that is another matter altogether.

This isn't like the case of stupid person spilling hot coffee into her own lap, by her own doing, and suing McDonalds and being awarded by a stupid jury $2.86M...

Now in the case of the kid, I would have suggested taking off the burning pants and underwear right there, instead of running to the bathrooms allowing further damage to occur... I'm sure someone would have come to help with something like a coat, a shirt, whatever.

What about the stigma of that "humiliation" as mental distress, be known as the kid whose pants caught on fire and took them off in public...?

Whatever, I think this is irresponsible from any manufacturer to let this happen. It's not like you can put a laptop in your front pants pocket. So there is less danger there of injury.

I speak of experience, once a Duracell Alkaline battery melted my TV remote and burned a spot on the table... I didn't sue Duracell or the TV maker and had to absorb the damages myself to replace the remote and table. (My fault). And I don't care about the monetary value. What really concerns me and makes me mad is the whole family inhaled these nasty fumes.... Do you smell something...? And what if we had not been home? It could have started a major fire...

I think it is actually a defective battery. Not a defective design from the iPod. But regardless, someone has their part of responsibility, when such an incident occurs. The kid didn't buy the defective battery? He bought an iPod from Apple...

My point about defective design, is in case of malware or whatever, should not cause a catastrophic failure like this...

We all live and learn. In all my life, only one such incident with a burning battery in my TV remote occurred to me. I admit it is pretty rare. And I still buy Duracell...

But now I am more concerned and aware about these small portable devices, usually carried inside pants pockets. And will advise my children to do whatever they can to minimize damage on the spot! Pronto!

Perhaps one solution could be asbestos & kevlar flame and explosion proof pockets? Still we will need gas masks for the fumes... ;)

I do feel sympathy for the victim and his family.

If you install the batteries incorrectly, the unit will get hot. Found that out with a tv remote. Lesson learned...Dont't matter who made the unit, put the batteries in the right order or enjoy a very warm experience.

Good tip squishie.

What follows isn't directed to you.

But that wasn't our problem with the TV remote control. And in Apple, I do not think you can replace batteries? The point is when a battery fails, or shorts internally, all the electrochemical energy contained herein, will react... Usually with explosive effects if there is enough energy in it.

Anyone thought of a simple bridge rectifier, which will 'idiot-proof' reversed batteries? Mere cents at the manufacturing level. Millions of cents, seems like good insurance to me, in case of mishap ^1^... And before catastrophic failure, the bridge will act as a fuse! Thus preventing users from hurting themselves through their own stupidity. Same concept goes for helmets on motorcycles, seat-belts in cars, and padding of any kind in sports. To prevent injury 99.99% caused by the very stupid human beings causing harm to themselves. Think of protecting a toddler. I guess most of us never grow up. None of these things would be necessary in the first place, if people stayed out of harm's way, like any intelligent being should.



PS: I do not only criticize. I attempt to offer solutions as well... To Make Things Better.

~~~~~~~~~~
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
~ Warren Buffett
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^1^ Reminds me of the Ford Pinto exploding gas tank when rear-ended. History and Justice revealed bean counters and lawyers determined that it would cost less to deal with potential lawsuits than to fix the problem for a mere $11. But a recall of millions of cars, was unpalatable to Ford... So they didn't mind the bunch of people that burned alive to death, to save $11 per car sold... Don't believe me? Open your eyes, and just google it: Results 1 - 10 of about 4,270 for exploding ford pinto when rear ended. (0.20 seconds). That's why I won't buy Ford. Ever. Henry Ford, a man who I admire and respect would be turning in his grave, if he realized what happened to his company.


With these kinds of ethics from top level management, no wonder the big three are suffering... Didn't Lee Iacocca do Chrysler as well?

Interesting about the bridge rectifier, I guess to companies, a few cents adds up in the long run. It was dumb of me to put the batteries in wrong on the tv remote in the first place. Even without the little arrows, I know the negative side of the battery always goes against the terminal with the spring. Oh well, those were my drinking days. (No excuse). This reminds my of when I was about 8 years old. I had a dead flashlight and a model train transformer. With all my 8 years of great wisdom, I decided to see if I could recharge the batteries. So I took one "D" cell out of the flashlight and taped the neg wire to the neg side and pos wire to the pos side of the battery. And I cranked the train transformer all the way up. About 5 mins later, just as I was reaching for it, it exploded. Mom rushed in after hearing a loud pop, to find me staring at my hand and the walls that were covered with battery guts. (I was uninjured). I came to the conclusion that my experiment was a utter and complete failure. After that, I had a little more "respect" for batteries.

Biggest bull i have ever heard. I think that these people just want some money and think they can win this case. Everyone seems to be sueing Apple now. Why you ask? It is all because Apple is a large corporatin with lots of money and we are in a recession almost a depression. Everyone is losing their jobs especially Ohio i know cause i have friends there and people are getting desperate for money so they figure ill sue its easy money and i have to do is make a good case. Also i have never heard of someone having mental condtions from burns of that sort. Apple makes good products no doubt about that and i dont think they would design something that could combust like that. It could have been a a single flawed one that the battery got screwed up but still very extremely small chance.

Is it possible that this is not the kid's fault?
1. He could have dropped it one time too often.

2. Could the pod have been water damaged?

3. Is it the original battery from Apple? If the orginal battery had been replaced, is this an Apple supplied battery or third party?

4. Batteries can explode if overcharged.

I don't know if its his fault or Apple's, just thought I'd throw those ideas out there.
Message was edited by: rkinne01

Anyone who has ever been to an Apple Store has to realize that all the employees are essentially brainwashed into spewing Apple's marketing rhetoric. With that many people in one location who do not actually think for themselves outside of their training, it's not surprising that it takes 10 employees to sell 1 iPod Touch. Zombie-like stupidity like that displayed by Apple's store employees is exactly why I avoid their store (and other products) when possible and either buy electronics online or at stores like Best Buy. I prefer to gather information about a product either ONE-ON-ONE with a single store employee or by myself through reading the packaging. Apple really needs to learn not to mob their customers to get people to buy their products.

For the employess at the store that is just good marketing

"it's not surprising that it takes 10 employees to sell 1 iPod Touch."

Now, come on, that comment is not entirely fair. I'm totally anti-mac, and it's fun to bash Apple, but sometimes comments are just too much. The "brainwashing" is just normal business. You cannot expect a good microsoft store employee to bash the products they are trying to sell to earn a paycheck! And most importantly, lawsuits usually name everyone working on the same day even if they have absolutely nothing to do with the sale or the lawsuit. It's obvious one or two people made the sales pitch and maybe one extra person rang it up at the cash register, and everyone else was dealing with other customers or working behind the registers.

While I agree in principles with your statements, in actuality, it is the opposite that happens. Apple bashes anything un-Apple. Not the other way around. The reason is simple: the others are a multitude of unrelated providers, whereas Apple is a single entity. Example? When I walk into Best Buy, all they try to do is to sell me a system, Apple or otherwise (HP, Sony, etc...).