What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.304 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -18/+90"Apple has been hiding major problems like this for far too long."
Please back that up. Oh wait, your statement is as much BS as this "news story".
Lets see, their $1000.00 + laptop starts smoking, so they take it outside - still plugged in mind you - and then they lacked the common sense to try to put it out when it started burning, but still had the foresight to grab the video camera and make a movie out of it.
Something is definately BS about this story. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -14/+72"Hi, I'm a PC."
"And I'm a pyromaniac." - heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -13/+53Apple computers: Designed in California, made in China.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+46That's what happens when you put Big Momma's House 2 movie in your laptop... probably had no choice but to self destruct
- CatfishJones, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37Major problems? "These incidents are among the 43 reported incidents in the last two years. Nick Brown's computer makes 44."
[sarcasm]Wow, 44 in the last two years. I'm not going to buying anymore laptops... those things are death traps![/sarcasm] - itsallgeektome, on 10/12/2007, -11/+38Warning: This laptop could make you a Unix.
- Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23The RIAA's latest anti-piracy efforts seem to be meeting with some success.
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -13/+34Very funny rebrad, if you RTFA, you'll see the problem is inherent with notebooks from a variety of vendors, not just Apple.
- cwoolf34, on 10/12/2007, -7/+28now "flamers" has two meanings in the mac community.
- MadMac, on 10/12/2007, -18/+37Give me a break. 44 laptops in 2 years out of how many million? And obviously not all Apple's. Please. Move along.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Gateway laptop fire: http://www.complaints.com/directory/2005/october/17/22.htm
Fujitsu-Siemens laptop fire: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/061505-fujitsu-siemens.html
Dell laptop fire risk: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123979,00.asp
HP Laptop fire problems: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330
I'm just saying... - nilobject, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21Dear god. You people.
"Oh my god! One iBook had a defective battery! THEY'RE ALL DEATH TRAPS!"
Digg: Where the kids modded "-2: Idiot" on Slashdot go to play. - longofest, on 10/12/2007, -11/+25funny, but if you read the article, you will notice that dells and other PC's have the same problems. They just are capturing this Mac on film.
- gab00n, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17Who would just stand their and take pictures of their laptop burning? The first reaction is to put out the flames, this looks like ***** to me.
- gaius_baltar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15I noticed that too. What do you do when your computer is on fire? Leave it plugged into the mains, bring it outside and take pictures! Whatever happens, do not try to put out the fire until you have a bunch of good photos of it in flames! Be sure to inhale lots of that yummy smoke coming from the Lion battery and the plastic casing that's melting.
Idiots. - cwoolf34, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15I love taking my MBP and rubbing it all over the carpet and then using it to shock people.
- rr525356, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15This is nothing new. Any laptop can catch fire if you ignore basic safety procedures highlighted in every owners manual of every device that generates heat. Don't leave things on carpet or surfaces that block vents. This is why we can't have nice things.
- 11thDay, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Heh. I was wondering about that myself. At least they brought the burning iBook outside first. Grabbing a camera would probably be the last thing on my mind. I would be thinking, "My data!!!" and "I hope insurance covers this..."
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"In 2004 and 2005, Apple, Dell and Hewlett Packard collectively recalled more than 300,000 laptop batteries due to fire hazards."
Sounds like it's not one manufacturer's problem alone... - schlongmeister, on 10/12/2007, -7/+18@radu79:
Hey Windoze fanboy---You might want to check where your computer was made and/or assembled. A crispy dollar bill says it too was probably made in China.
Trying to turn this into a slam solely against Apple shows your ignorance. - sonmiles, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16Soulmaster is right. You shouldn't have a laptop sitting on carpet. Look at the air intakes!
- zaren, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16a) that's an old G3 iBook, which has had batteries under recall for YEARS now.
b) They left it on the floor ON THE CARPET, preventing it from getting proper air flow to keep it cool
c) This report is duplicated with a dateline May 23rd at another CBS affiliate station - http://cbs11tv.com/watercooler/local_story_143165456.html
d) I can find no references in google to a laptop catching fire in Warren, Michigan. I live just outside of Ann Arbor, so I'm pretty sure that if a laptop caught fire in my vicinity, I'd have heard about it on the news.
In fact, the ONLY references I can find to such an incident are in those two news reports. That laptop that they report as having caught fire in Ames, Iowa? Those reports are the ONLY two hits in Google News... although when I search with omitted results included, I find two more CBS affiliate stations running the exact same report within the last week.
I call shenanigans. - SoulMaster2, on 10/12/2007, -15/+24Not to mention that it was on carpet to begin with, not a good idea either
- randf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10i have to agree, still plugged in (at least the power cord would have been yanked out as the person was dashing outside) and a camera available so quickly? i have a similar ibook. the battery is not in the center. and what exactly is so combustible on a laptop that is going to produce such a large flame like the last photo in the series? seems pretty suspicious.
- heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -10/+19If you watch the video, they had an Mac which caught fire, but replaced it with an PC.
- LaughingMan11, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12This is pure sensationalism on the part of this local CBS affiliate. This is just like when the news media went crazy over the killer bee scare last decade or etc etc...
"Is your computer at risk of spontaneously combusting? Find out, film at eleven..."
Stuff to play on people's fears and drive up their ratings. Statements like "Computers are not the only devices that use lithium ion batteries. Several other small portable devices, such as cell phones, also use the technology. They too have been part of recalls due to fire hazards."...
this kind of ***** pisses me off so much. We're at the point where if you listen to everything the local news tells you to be afraid of, you'd become a total luddite and an agoraphobic... - Zorkon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Not an Apple apologist - just want to say that bad batteries do happen, regardless of the manufacturer. Try Googling for "battery recall" and see what turns up - it's very enlightening.
Although, strangely enough Dell seems to be in the #1 position on that list year after year after year - not sure what their deal is ... I've heard very little from Toshiba and Fujitsu on battery recalls ... Apple has them every few years, as does HP. - mvnicosia, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11RTFA, these batteries were put in Dell and HP machines, too.
- ddegner, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I am a journalist and I must say that I am saddened by how much sensationalism, and fear-mongering went into this story. For the record, Local TV Stations aren't good sources of news. Most of the talking heads got into the profession out of vanity instead of a desire inform the people.
Pay attention to the report. 44 Laptops have caught fire in 5 years. That's less than 10 a year out of 36 million laptops sold each year, a .0000002 failure rate. Lightning will hit you before your laptop catches fire.
Did you notice how they mentioned that people could possibly die from these fires and that we should be afraid? Then they ended with the quote "It is very frightening what might have happened."
Oh, and you gotta love the tip: "don't place your laptop on flammable material". I guess I should stop playing Quake in a pool of petrol.
From now on stick with Newspapers and NPR. - daedal, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17iSmores?
- dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Radu:
The eating babies reference... from David Cross' comedy? Funny stuff.
Besides that, you're absolutetly right. A "few" casualties from something as avoidable as a laptop SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUSTING is not acceptable by any means.
Though, I must say, I agree with the poster who mentioned that something is fishy about this family's situation. My first intuition would be to put the damn thing out with water, not to let it burn while I took pictures, unless, of course, I set fire to it in the first place, and was looking to remodel my living room with the settlement... - weezerrock86, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The thing is they left it sitting on a carpet floor. Did they ever think about how the thing was going to keep cool without having clean air flow underneath it? Yea you sit it on a polyester/cotton floor for too long Im sure its gonna get a little hot.
- heydigital, on 10/12/2007, -15/+23One should not have to worry about a computer catching on fire, even if it is on a carpet or a bed. This is bad design. He did the right thing by documenting the issue with hard evidence.
- ahawks, on 10/12/2007, -7/+15Except that the batteries are chosen and authorized by Apple. If it was a 3rd party add on, you'd be right, but it's not.
- twistx, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12"We all could have died, and the house could have burned down."
Please. I'm calling ***** as well. I suppose he had the time to walk outside and put his (on fire) laptop on the ground. Then he just happened to have his camera near by and ready to take pictures. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"Someone's taking themselves a little too seriously."
That is the definition of local news. - lindmar, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12its BS.
They took it outside but managed to plug it on?
f-that. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9If you look closely at the flames you can see Steve Jobs
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I'm going to mod you up, not down, because I think a hit & run comment like yours should be answered.
"Burying the truth" seems like the opposite of what people are doing. The article was misleading, as it seems to imply that the iBook is somehow an unusual fire risk. People are pointing out that laptop batteries have been recalled as fire risks in many computers, including Apple, HP, Dell, Gateway, and Fujitsu.
They are also saying that the person whose laptop caught fire seemed to be acting in an irresponsible manner after it happened.
No one's saying any manufacturer is error-proof, they're just defending against the kind of knee-jerk response by people like yourself who use words like "fanboy" and seem irrationally upset by the mention of the word Apple. - mglukhovsky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Wow, the ppl that put the special together (in the news story via streaming video) really need to take it easy with the video special effects. The flashing images, the camera snapshot noises make it look amateurish.
Someone's taking themselves a little too seriously. - lnxaddct, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7noahhoward is right though. Not to mention that this thing seems fishy. I've seen laptops burn before (don't ask), and they don't burn like that. The laptop's burning also originated in the wrong spot, and the damn plug is still in. Way too many things wrong with this picture. Li-ion batteries are known to have problems in *any* electronic device, but this is sensationalist. no digg.
- Ilyanep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7So do you think I could get those images in wallpaper resolution?
- keithzd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The main problem is that people don't read the warnings. Laptops today get very hot, and the warnings tell you to not place it on a surfaces like blankets or carpets. I love that in the news story, the kid is on the ground again, are they trying to burn the house down again?
I used to work at a college with a laptop program and a girl burned herself because she passed out with the laptop in her bed. As far as I'm concerned, if people can't us common sense then this is just natural selection. - mjar81, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Lets hear it for sensationalism!! YAY!
as Rush would say: they're the "Drive-by Media". - adamcrown, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Dugg. Not because I'm worried about anything like this ever happening. But because I'm a pyro and seeing a laptop go up in flames is just too cool :P
- shout, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11Tackle - He actually said it was "hopless" which is even worse.
- joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"It was on fire. Most likely really, really, hot. I'm not going to unplug that."
But you will pick it up, walk it outside, set it on a rock, then take a picture? - chickenselects, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13look at all the apple fan boys going nuts over this.
P-P-P-P-Powerbook! - Hungryhaney, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Lawyers
- Kickersny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Did anyone notice that in the video, when they mention "about a month ago, Dennis Brown was doing just this..." and they show him using his computer, it's clearly running Windows XP (Luna theme and all)? Not calling a hoax or anything, just found it amusing.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 299 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is