UPDATED Warning: Girl dies answering iPhone 5 while it was charging UPDATE: 2nd person now in hospital

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  snappy1234 on 16/07/2013 - 21:11

  Err… Darwin award strikes again-
  Yep i stopped using my hairdryer in the shower after reading that ;)

  • 

    minijumbuk on 31/07/2013 - 17:57

    Dear genius,

    USBs are meant to be low amperage. Hairdryers are not.

    Regards,

    Your friend.

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  Wallyt99 on 16/07/2013 - 21:23

  +1

  Charger is low voltage. IImo only way this could occur is if water poured down line creating a short to the mains power.

  • 

    cannedhams on 16/07/2013 - 22:06

    Its very unlikely that you would have an unbroken bead of water going all the way down the cable, and even if you did, plain water isn't much of a conducter.

    More likely, the charger was faulty. Most chargers use dropping capacitors to step down voltage rather than transformers to save space. If the plates in the capacitor short, the charger will send mains power straight down the cable. Normally though, you have a smoothing capacitor as well as a limiting resistor further down the circuit, which should stop this from happening in theory, but if this was a cheap chinese power supply, those components might not have been present in the charger.

    • 

      Cluster on 17/07/2013 - 02:15

      +1

      There's also the issue of whether this was a genuine Apple charger, a third party unit, or a counterfeit knock off. I've seen counterfeit power supplies that overheated, had falsified safety certification, etc. We need more information as to what this woman was using.

    • 

      retiredfeline on 31/07/2013 - 18:03

      Strange term you use "dropping capacitors" but that concept of the charger is wrong. Practically all chargers these days are switching mode power supplies (look it up). Yes, even the ones inside your desktop computer. There is a transformer, but because it operates at a much higher frequency than the mains, it can be much smaller. Yes, there is a possibility of a path from the high voltage side of the circuit to the low voltage, but not through "plates in the capacitor short".

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  Benicio on 16/07/2013 - 21:36

  'Allegedly"

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  alspa on 16/07/2013 - 22:05

  Not exactly sure whether this is related but I had a 65W Magsafe adapter for Macbook Air and the magnetic connector cap became damaged and used to come off. While unplugged I glued the cap back on the connector. I then plugged the unit into the mains and as soon as I switched it on there was an almighty bang. The earth leakage had tripped and the entire unit was black, including all the way down the low voltage cable to the connector. So in theory a short on the low voltage side could cause the unit to go up in smoke as I found. I guess this a function of lack of protection circuitry to keep the costs down.

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  c64 on 16/07/2013 - 22:36

  i doubt it had anything to do with the iphone or the charger. i'm guessing water got to the mains outlet somehow.

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  chillipaste on 16/07/2013 - 23:05

  there is no mention of shower? what are you guys talking about?

  • 

    Moots on 17/07/2013 - 00:26

    -1

    This article had more information but had taken out the shower bit; but the shower bit obviously makes sense.

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  grasstown on 16/07/2013 - 23:41

  Is this thread about apple or China?
  Reminds me of this stuff http://m.afr.com/p/national/arts_saleroom/the_australians_ja…

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  arislan on 18/07/2013 - 13:58

  -1

  Is the iphone of the variety that takes 2 sim cards and the apple bite is on the left side of the apple? :D

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  Moots on 24/07/2013 - 12:57

  Updated: A second person has now sustained serious injury for the same reason.

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  scotty on 24/07/2013 - 13:21

  Maybe these were intended to aid Apple's argument to buy licensed Lightning cable/adapter?

  • 

    Moots on 24/07/2013 - 18:42

    It is a good point; but Apple may have to come sort of mutual agreement of costs; $30 on average for a genuine replacement wall charger or $1 on eBay.

    As the old saying goes, some people have more dollars than sense.

    • 

      scotty on 24/07/2013 - 20:09

      some people have more dollars than sense

      But that's what some companies are hoping for, and not limited to the fruity one here either :( Now they can just use scare tactic to get people to buy licensed cables, lest you want to be electrocuted.

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  RockyRaccoon on 31/07/2013 - 02:06

  +1

  And for another perspective

  http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/07/29/samsung-galaxy-s4-fi…

  Samsung just cant let Apple get away with anything…. :)

  • 

    scotty on 31/07/2013 - 11:26

    That piece of "news" is just so believable… /sarcasm

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    ProspectiveDarkness on 02/08/2013 - 17:07

    Just for a bit of perspective: the last case where a Galaxy was accused of exploding, it was found that the owner actually microwaved it. Take this type of news with a large pile of salt.

    • 

      RockyRaccoon on 03/08/2013 - 14:07

      The real point is ALL this news like this needs to be taken in perspective.

      And one report about something can often be matched by another report about something else.

      With something like 50 million plus units sold when our friend Moots gets so excited about a "reported" incident I was trying to indicate you can find "reported" incidents on anything if you look hard enough, and if they were that concerned about public welfare maybe we could see more WARNINGS

      Reading the article he linked to on his second WARNING this is what wassaid.

      Wu reportedly yelled "I'm getting shocked" after connecting his iPhone 4 to a charger. His sister rescued him by pulling the charger - later found to be a counterfeit or third-party product - from the socket.

      So this WARNING that our friend issued should have included the bit about third party adapters which would probably be more helpful.