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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-there-is-a-worm-inside dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Reports are coming out that at least 6 iPhone 8 Plus batteries grew too big for their britches.

There have been at least six separate reports of iPhone 8 Plus batteries swelling to the point of splitting open their enclosures since the phones first went on sale on Sept. 22.

Stories at MacRumors, The Next Web and 9to5mac as early as last week cited social media postings showing what appeared to be separate incidents in Japan and Taiwan where the phones had split apart because of expanding batteries.

More recently, The Guardian has reported on additional incidents in Greece, Canada and China. Taken together, it adds up to at least six cases exhibiting nearly identical symptoms.

An Apple spokesperson said the company was aware of the reports, and looking into them.

Doesn't seem like it's as bad as Samsung's issues with Note 7 batteries - but the iPhone 8 is still relatively new, so I wouldn't go selling your AAPL stock right away.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-8-plus-battery-swelling/


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:14PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:14PM (#581320)

    HAHAHAHAH
    HAHAHA
    *takes a deep breath*
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:21PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:21PM (#581325)

      It's an epidemic of swelling size.

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday October 13 2017, @05:21AM (1 child)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @05:21AM (#581580)

        Well that's just swell...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:00PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:00PM (#581748)

          Is that your iPhone 8 or are you just glad to see me?

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:03PM (10 children)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:03PM (#581344)

      I agree entirely. Hopefully, this problem will get a LOT worse. The Apple cultists were all laughing when this happened to Samsung, so it's only fair that it now happens to them. Apple is getting exactly what they deserve.

      And let this be a lesson to everyone who designs phones with sealed, non-user-replaceable batteries.

      • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:29PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:29PM (#581355)

        Mod parent to +5 Insightful.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:39PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:39PM (#581361)

          Duhhh we would anyway.

      • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday October 13 2017, @02:01AM (5 children)

        by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday October 13 2017, @02:01AM (#581499)

        No, the Apple cultists were laughing when the Samsung phones BURST INTO FLAMES.

        --
        Hurrah! Quoting works now!
        • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday October 13 2017, @02:14AM (4 children)

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday October 13 2017, @02:14AM (#581510) Homepage

          Well still, I don't understand why the Apple cultists were laughing at Samsung users after the "you're holding the phone the wrong way" reception debacle.

          That should have been the first clue to ditch Apple. If I'm gonna pay 1000 bucks for a fucking phone it'd better come with its own solid-gold vibrating butt-plug or otherwise be fucking perfect, not buggy-rushed-to-production crap worthy of an Indian shoe-factory.

          Also, if anybody in America is paying a grand for a fucking phone, it better be made in America where the only employees who attempt suicide are Amazon workers.

          • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday October 13 2017, @02:16AM

            by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday October 13 2017, @02:16AM (#581512)

            Yep, your desire for a but-plug is unsurprising.

            --
            Hurrah! Quoting works now!
          • (Score: 1) by anubi on Friday October 13 2017, @03:55AM (2 children)

            by anubi (2828) on Friday October 13 2017, @03:55AM (#581535) Journal

            I believe Apple is selling to the same breed of people who buy Starbucks coffee, wear designer apparel, and drive expensive sports cars....

            These are not necessarily needed things, rather they are symbols to publicly exhibit one has disposable income.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday October 13 2017, @04:28AM

              by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday October 13 2017, @04:28AM (#581552) Homepage
              Yup, there's a coffee-table article on this presently on the BBC website.
              http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171006-the-psychology-behind-spending-big

              My favourite example of overpriced shit is Beats (by Dre) headphones - when put through rigorous acoustic tests, they perform worse than budget (non-)brands, yet they command the highest prices.
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday October 14 2017, @12:34AM

              by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday October 14 2017, @12:34AM (#582097)

              Exactly, this is why more women refuse to date men without new iPhones than the reverse.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by ilsa on Friday October 13 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)

        by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @04:31PM (#581842)

        No, "Apple cultists" were not "laughing". EVERYONE was "laughing". And the only people who were genuinely laughing were random assholes. Everyone else was going, "Oh shit" or "I knew Samsung devices were crap quality but this is beyond the pale".

        Stop trying to make this an apple vs android thing when it's not.

        • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday October 13 2017, @04:33PM

          by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @04:33PM (#581845)

          I do agree on the non-replaceable battery thing though. That's a trend I would very much like to see reversed.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by meustrus on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:36PM (1 child)

    by meustrus (4961) on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:36PM (#581334)

    I wouldn't go selling your AAPL stock right away

    What? If you think this is going to get a lot worse, now is the time to sell stock. You don't wait until the price falls further.

    --
    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:44PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:44PM (#581337)

      Probably MrPlow hasn't sold his, yet, and would like you to take just a little bit longer to think about it.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:59PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:59PM (#581342)

    Swelling battery is one of the more common failure modes for li-ion batteries, and a fire hazard. A device with a sealed battery that swells means it's kaput.

    • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:56PM (6 children)

      by Justin Case (4239) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:56PM (#581375) Journal

      Does anyone here know what causes them to swell? I had two (primary and spare) replaceable batteries swell to almost double their thickness recently -- at the same time. I think it was exposure to heat or cold, but I don't know which and would like to avoid this damage in the future.

      (Ahhh, the perils of camping!)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:06PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:06PM (#581382)

        Chemistry goes wrong and a gas builds up blowing up the enclosure, just like the trouble B787 had.

        No, I don't know how/why. Hope some chemistry/material science people can enlighten us.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:26PM (4 children)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:26PM (#581431)

        And a phone design with replaceable batteries minimizes the damage when this happens: the back just pops off. Phones should be required to have user-replaceable batteries for this reason alone.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Justin Case on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:29PM (2 children)

          by Justin Case (4239) on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:29PM (#581433) Journal

          I agree, why is why *I* required that when buying my phone. Fortunately, I am now out only the price of two batteries, not a whole phone plus the hassle of reinstalling everything.

          Why others don't do the same, I cannot understand. But then, it seems to me that millions of people do stupid self-destructive things for no apparent reason. Sigh.

          • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday October 14 2017, @12:37AM (1 child)

            by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday October 14 2017, @12:37AM (#582099)

            People do those sorts of things because they're dumb sheep, and like to follow the herd. All their friends have iPhones, because they're hyped up with marketing, so they have to get one too. My girlfriend ran into this; she thinks iPhones are stupid too, but a bunch of her friends have them. But it's not enough to just have one and be happy; no, these "friends" had to actually *badger* her and complain about how she doesn't have an iPhone. To be fair, I don't think any of these friends are particularly close friends.

            • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday October 14 2017, @03:35PM

              by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday October 14 2017, @03:35PM (#582301) Journal

              these "friends" had to actually *badger* her

              To which, naturally, she responded with a swift boot to the face.

              Right?

              I mean, who the hell do they think they are telling her what to buy?

              Of course I don't know your girlfriend, but generally it seems a lot of the problems women complain about are brought on by their efforts to gain the approval of other women, which is always one more hurdle away, and worthless if ever attained.

        • (Score: 4, Informative) by BasilBrush on Friday October 13 2017, @02:04AM

          by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday October 13 2017, @02:04AM (#581502)

          if it happens, you take the phone back to Apple and they'll replace the whole phone. Even out of warranty.

          --
          Hurrah! Quoting works now!
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Sulla on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:11PM (1 child)

    by Sulla (5173) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:11PM (#581346) Journal

    Why are these people complaining, don't they know that this is a feature?

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:58PM

      by arslan (3462) on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:58PM (#581447)

      Exactly.. walking around with a bulge in the crotch, bonus. Heat to warm your loins when it gets cold, extra bonus.

      Oh yea it can take calls too... without removing it for those bonus features, they're call AirPods.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:12PM (2 children)

    by DECbot (832) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:12PM (#581347) Journal

    If Apple kept the headphone jack it would have worked as a pressure relief mechanism allowing the excess pressure in the phone to escape. Now when the battery is overcharged and filled beyond capacity, it swells and there is no port to properly equalize pressure and thus the phone case splits.

    --
    cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:49PM (1 child)

      by Bot (3902) on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:49PM (#581408) Journal

      Actually I am confused. I thought that having no female jack plug meant they could not get pregnant. What kind of sorcery is this.

      --
      Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:05PM (#581751)

        Immaculate Misconception.

  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:29PM (1 child)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:29PM (#581356)

    Is that an iPhone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:36PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:36PM (#581438)

    There's a fair number of counterfeit iPhones floating around. We can't rule out fake phones yet.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:47PM (#581443)

      Are they really counterfeit if they come out the back door of the iPhone plant in China? Maybe they are just seconds that didn't quite meet final quality inspection and were slated for re-work or to be crushed?

  • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Friday October 13 2017, @02:07AM (6 children)

    by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday October 13 2017, @02:07AM (#581506)

    Six faulty phones! Out of the hundreds of thousands they will have shipped already. It's a catastrophe!

    --
    Hurrah! Quoting works now!
    • (Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:55AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @02:55AM (#581523)

      s/t

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @09:43AM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @09:43AM (#581669)

      This is why no one likes Apple fanboys.

      Why can't you admit Apple has fucked up? Did you see Note 7 owners deny it had issues? No, they just wanted a fixed phone or a refund. Because they're normal people.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @11:36AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @11:36AM (#581696)

        Quit being sexist. That could have been a comment from a fangirl. Use the PC fanbeing, so you don't offend anyone or anything.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ilsa on Friday October 13 2017, @04:46PM (1 child)

        by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @04:46PM (#581857)

        Because there are fundamental differences. Having a battery fail safely (ie: swell) is a MASSIVE difference from exploding. The Note 7 had almost 100 cases of *explosions*, which caused burns and property damage. There is no mention of battery swelling. Samsung sold about 2.5m Note 7s total. Compare that to 10 millions iphones Apple sold just in september. That means the % failure to devices sold is significantly worse for the Note 7 than the iPhone 8.

        I'm not saying that there isn't a problem, but the rhetoric needs to be toned down a LOT, because at this point in time, the situation with Apple is not even close to the scale of problems Samsung hand, and also because there hasn't even been a full investigation done yet.

        • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday October 13 2017, @04:50PM

          by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @04:50PM (#581862)

          Correction, I misread the Forbes article I found. It is estimated that only 5.5 million iphone 8's have been sold in September. But my point still stands.

      • (Score: 2) by quacking duck on Friday October 13 2017, @07:43PM

        by quacking duck (1395) on Friday October 13 2017, @07:43PM (#581969)

        Did you see Note 7 owners deny it had issues? No, they just wanted a fixed phone or a refund. Because they're normal people.

        Yes, plenty of Note 7 owners denied it had issues at first. Several months after the recall 4 percent of Note 7 owners still refused to return them [cnbc.com].

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