Apple's iPod flame-out woes continue. The latest victims: Tokyo commuters.
On Friday, Reuters reports, smoke from what turned out to be a self-immolating iPod caused passengers to alert transit officials on a commuter-train line, who quickly shut down the system.
"When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train," a …
This sounds like the same old "Batterygate" problem which was eventually nailed to the likes of Sony some time ago.
Apple don't make the damn batteries in their devices, so if they're exploding, the fault lies with the *battery's manufacturer*, not Apple. Apple just design their products and send the specs to—you guessed it!—East Asia. To companies in Taiwan, Korea and China. And they often buy components from the Japanese too.
This is increasingly shoddy *Japanese* workmanship coming home to roost. (Toyota, anyone?) But the Japanese don't want to hear that. They'd rather just blame Apple for having been so dumb as to buy their batteries from Japanese companies in the first place.
There was a time when "American Made" (or even "Made In Britain") was seen as a mark of quality. Then the Japanese came and, after many years of hard work, finally made the Americans and British workers look like feckless idiots....
...and now it's Japan's turn. Only—like the Americans and British—they're going through their denial phase. No wonder the Chinese are about to steal Japan's "Second Biggest Economy" title.
If it's any consolation, the Chinese will go through a similar phase too eventually.
RE your comment about Asia's shoddy workmanship coming home to roost.
You cant blame it all on Asia and China. Western companies sourcing over there often take a very hard line, playing one company off against another for contracts and forcing them to take short cuts and lower quality in order to be able to meet a price and land a contract (or risk going out of business). And then we blame it all on the Chinese when things go horribly wrong. If allowed to do things properly at a fair price then they will produce quality goods. Same as everywhere, really.
This is, of course, a generalisation and there are always exceptions to every rule, but I think the point stands.
If anything threatens to burst the Apple phenomena it just might be those strongarm legal types doing more PR damage than a couple of squillion on advertising.
Can't the Apple send it's legal beagles back to from whence they came and find a group that does softarm legal challenges aware of consequences to the organisation itself?
I'd guess a good reason to dispense with any contractual abligation the Apple might have with legal beagles doing damage they do might run on lines of: bringing the Apple into disrepute.
It's funny. Metro North Railroad (serving NYC) doesn't consider a train "late" unless it arrives 6 minutes or more behind schedule.
It's been reported by the NYT that 25% of NJ Transit trains are late, 2 in 5 more than 15 minutes late. LIRR doesn't fare much better as both go into NY Penn Station. Metro North does much better as they go to Grand Central instead of Penn.
Eight minutes? I wouldn't even blink at an eight minute dealy on NJT or MNRR (having commuted on both for many years). But in Japan, I'd be surprised. Granted I haven't spent nearly as much time on Japan Rail as on the NYC trains, but from what I've seen, "running like clockwork" isn't an exaggeration.
I love how Apple tries to deflect the blame and says the issue is with the battery maker.. umm no.. the battery is sealed.. the issue is with the people who accepted delivery of the battery.. APPLE itself. Don't shift blame.. fix it! If the battery was built to the specs that Apple specified then It's Apple's fault. If the battery wasn't built to Apple's specs then it's Apple's fault as well because they accepted delivery of the batteries and didn't test them to ensure they met specs.
In short Apple stop trying to deflect blame and take responsibility!
i personally experienced some of them. 2 years ago, on a bus, i had my hp laptop in its bag, on my lap, when all the sudden i smell smoke. then i noticed my lap is warm. when i opened the bag, some smoke came out. but 3/4 of the keyboard melted which took the screen with it. when i sent it for data recovery, the guy said i wasnt the 1st. my 1st experience was with a nokia (the one from the 1st matrix movie). the battery overheated and melted the phone from inside out.
5 mobile phones, 4 laptops, 2 pcs... well, those are only some of the items i've seen that had the same luck. i think my fren still have that toshiba laptop somewhere.
just last week my dvd player burst out sparks and smokes. dont make this an apple thing.
So would this have made international news if it had been a Cowon, Sony, Archos or Creative? Nope! It woudl have been "MP3 player stops trains in Japan shocker!". Instead because it's one of Jobs' little toys the world has stop and heave a giant gasp of disbelief, because a device is not perfect. Who hyped it to be perfect? Wasn't Apple. Apple merely state that you need this to make your life complete, it's the mass media that hypes Apple's products beyond all sense!
When the iPad came out, I was getting sick and tired of iPad stories. ASUS release lots of products and some fantastic tech gadgets, your lucky if you see the name mentioned outside t tech press. Jobs farts and the media sit up like a load of silly little lapdogs!
OH MY GOD! IPOD EXPLODES!
Well so does my arse at least once a day and no one stops a mass transit system or reports it in every major media outlet! ( Maybe they should? Fancy getting my 15 mins, even if it's not my face getting it! )
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Apple's iPod flame-out woes continue. The latest victims: Tokyo commuters. On Friday, Reuters reports, smoke from what turned out to be a self-immolating iPod caused passengers to alert transit officials on a commuter-train line, who quickly shut down the system. "When a member of staff went to investigate inside the train," a …
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Just use the term "Applegate" - their quality control seems to be woefully inadequate
Huh?
This sounds like the same old "Batterygate" problem which was eventually nailed to the likes of Sony some time ago.
Apple don't make the damn batteries in their devices, so if they're exploding, the fault lies with the *battery's manufacturer*, not Apple. Apple just design their products and send the specs to—you guessed it!—East Asia. To companies in Taiwan, Korea and China. And they often buy components from the Japanese too.
This is increasingly shoddy *Japanese* workmanship coming home to roost. (Toyota, anyone?) But the Japanese don't want to hear that. They'd rather just blame Apple for having been so dumb as to buy their batteries from Japanese companies in the first place.
There was a time when "American Made" (or even "Made In Britain") was seen as a mark of quality. Then the Japanese came and, after many years of hard work, finally made the Americans and British workers look like feckless idiots....
...and now it's Japan's turn. Only—like the Americans and British—they're going through their denial phase. No wonder the Chinese are about to steal Japan's "Second Biggest Economy" title.
If it's any consolation, the Chinese will go through a similar phase too eventually.
Yes, but...
RE your comment about Asia's shoddy workmanship coming home to roost.
You cant blame it all on Asia and China. Western companies sourcing over there often take a very hard line, playing one company off against another for contracts and forcing them to take short cuts and lower quality in order to be able to meet a price and land a contract (or risk going out of business). And then we blame it all on the Chinese when things go horribly wrong. If allowed to do things properly at a fair price then they will produce quality goods. Same as everywhere, really.
This is, of course, a generalisation and there are always exceptions to every rule, but I think the point stands.
Dear Steve Jobs....
...come on baby light my fire.
I thankyou.....
Ah well, what the ...
If anything threatens to burst the Apple phenomena it just might be those strongarm legal types doing more PR damage than a couple of squillion on advertising.
Can't the Apple send it's legal beagles back to from whence they came and find a group that does softarm legal challenges aware of consequences to the organisation itself?
I'd guess a good reason to dispense with any contractual abligation the Apple might have with legal beagles doing damage they do might run on lines of: bringing the Apple into disrepute.
Batterygate?
I use free-range gates only.
Actually
I use the line everyday to work and luckily I was not around during the meltdown.
Otherwise I would have melted myself in this hot summer crushed by one million people.
What constitutes a "late"?
It's funny. Metro North Railroad (serving NYC) doesn't consider a train "late" unless it arrives 6 minutes or more behind schedule.
It's been reported by the NYT that 25% of NJ Transit trains are late, 2 in 5 more than 15 minutes late. LIRR doesn't fare much better as both go into NY Penn Station. Metro North does much better as they go to Grand Central instead of Penn.
Eight minutes? I wouldn't even blink at an eight minute dealy on NJT or MNRR (having commuted on both for many years). But in Japan, I'd be surprised. Granted I haven't spent nearly as much time on Japan Rail as on the NYC trains, but from what I've seen, "running like clockwork" isn't an exaggeration.
shifting blame
I wonder if the person was holding it wrong?
I love how Apple tries to deflect the blame and says the issue is with the battery maker.. umm no.. the battery is sealed.. the issue is with the people who accepted delivery of the battery.. APPLE itself. Don't shift blame.. fix it! If the battery was built to the specs that Apple specified then It's Apple's fault. If the battery wasn't built to Apple's specs then it's Apple's fault as well because they accepted delivery of the batteries and didn't test them to ensure they met specs.
In short Apple stop trying to deflect blame and take responsibility!
internal device combustion
i personally experienced some of them. 2 years ago, on a bus, i had my hp laptop in its bag, on my lap, when all the sudden i smell smoke. then i noticed my lap is warm. when i opened the bag, some smoke came out. but 3/4 of the keyboard melted which took the screen with it. when i sent it for data recovery, the guy said i wasnt the 1st. my 1st experience was with a nokia (the one from the 1st matrix movie). the battery overheated and melted the phone from inside out.
5 mobile phones, 4 laptops, 2 pcs... well, those are only some of the items i've seen that had the same luck. i think my fren still have that toshiba laptop somewhere.
just last week my dvd player burst out sparks and smokes. dont make this an apple thing.
Jesus, much ado 'bout nothing!
What a storm in a teacup!
So would this have made international news if it had been a Cowon, Sony, Archos or Creative? Nope! It woudl have been "MP3 player stops trains in Japan shocker!". Instead because it's one of Jobs' little toys the world has stop and heave a giant gasp of disbelief, because a device is not perfect. Who hyped it to be perfect? Wasn't Apple. Apple merely state that you need this to make your life complete, it's the mass media that hypes Apple's products beyond all sense!
When the iPad came out, I was getting sick and tired of iPad stories. ASUS release lots of products and some fantastic tech gadgets, your lucky if you see the name mentioned outside t tech press. Jobs farts and the media sit up like a load of silly little lapdogs!
OH MY GOD! IPOD EXPLODES!
Well so does my arse at least once a day and no one stops a mass transit system or reports it in every major media outlet! ( Maybe they should? Fancy getting my 15 mins, even if it's not my face getting it! )
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