“Apple is investigating the death of a Chinese women who was allegedly electrocuted by her iPhone 5,” Kaled Ali reports for AppleTell. “The accident occurred while the woman was using her iPhone 5 as it charged on a Lightning connector.”
“Though the Lightning connector was claimed as genuine, there seems to be something amiss; Apple’s iOS device chargers are only available in 5 watt and 12 watts,” Ali reports. “The iPhone 5 charger the electrocuted customer was using would be the 5 watt charger, as that is the one that ships with the device. Many are claiming the 5 watt iPhone charger doesn’t have enough power to electrocute someone.”
Ali reports, “Many sites and forums began discussing the possibility that the woman may have been using a third-party Lightning connector to use with her iPhone, which may have caused the electrocution… This latest electrocution goes to show just how dangerous illegal third party accessories can be and how they can damage your home, your device, and can even cost a life.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
How likely is death by iPhone electrocution? Not very – July 15, 2013
Was this Chinese stewardess killed by her Apple iPhone 5? No – if anything, it was faulty charger – July 15, 2013
Apple to probe electric shock death of Chinese woman who used iPhone 5 while it was charging – July 15, 2013
I’m sure the addition of water to the scenario didn’t help either…
This should shut up those bastards who keep saying Apple cannot execute!
It is sad that she passed away, however I know this would be slightly the cause of her death, and also keep in mind that there are plenty of counterfeit iPhone in China as well as other Western luxury brands. A giant warehouses of counterfeit-products in China worth billion-of-dollars.
Electrocuted while using the Lightning connector. That’s funny.
Shocking!
I believe the term you were looking for was “sadly ironic”, not “funny”.
Keep in mind, he’s just a Dick.
The other question is the electrical wiring of her home. Apparently she was wet from a bath/shower and picked up her phone. She probably would have to unplug it to answer a call, so maybe she tried to unplug it from the wall outlet with a wet hand and was electrocuted in that manner.
It’s China FFS; the ratio of legitimate branded products vs cheap knock-offs is 1 to 99 – and that’s a conservative guess.
What?!? She had an iPhone and a Lightning connector. I don’t think Samsung has bothered to make Lightning connectors since it doesn’t use Lightning in its phones. She wasn’t a thief — even if she had a third party charger, she likely bought it. The poor girl got killed in a terrible accident.
As long as it wasn’t a direct copy, it wouldn’t be “illegal”. It would need to say “Apple” on it, or have the Apple logo. Even then, it’s not illegal. It’s a civil case, which is different.
And we don’t know yet if she was using a copy, rather than the real thing.
Lets not forget that Apple recalled all their older iPhone chargers because it could pull apart with the danger of serious shock. So if your charger doesn’t have a green dot, it’s dangerous. I have two older ones without the green dot, and only use then if all out newer chargers are being used. But it’s risky, according to Apple.
If something shorted inside, the cord could be carrying the full voltage, and it just takes a few milliwatts to kill someone, depending on how it’s being held.
It has been revealed that no one really knows what happened and no one reporting on this story has done any kind on investigation and is just relaying this information like a game of telephone for internet hits.
What is known is that the story began from a Chinese version of Twitter tweet and the young woman supposedly owned an iPhone 4, and not an iPhone 5. Other than that, no yet knows what happened, and certainly not any of the ones reporting on this.
Bingo!
The only statement I found was “they were unsure what caused it”.
But the junior press in this country just pick it up and repeat it as if it has any credibility.
Makes ya wonder about all the other news you read about?
I read in the article that there’s no real risk of electrocution in US bathrooms because of near-universal use of GFCI circuits around water. Obviously, this is another example of how the nanny state is out of control.
I want the freedom to buy a house without all those silly safety features, like smoke detectors and GFCI outlets. The Chinese know all about freedom like that. Their businesses aren’t burdened with environmental controls, zoning laws and clean water this and fresh air that.
Just the way God planned it, right?
Whomever down-voted your comment clearly forgot to turn on his/her sarcasm detector.
You are happy about her death? You are really sick!
The original article is heavily flawed in many ways.
The biggest flaw is assuming that an Apple charger can’t kill you because of the low wattage, so it must have been a 3rd party charger.
Well, besides meaning to say amps, the logic is still flawed. A 3rd party charger would still be within the same amp range. It’s not like as if the 3rd party charger was used to power her air conditioner.
There are a lot of facts missing from the original story. Everything from whether she was electrocuted from something else entirely while using her iPhone to how much of this story is credible in anyway.
Those facts will emerge, but until then, it’s important to realize that we aren’t seeing a lot of other shocks occurring, fatal or otherwise from iPhone chargers.
From the reported details, if true, it sounds more likely as if she was wet, the charger was wet, and perhaps conductive contact was made on the prongs going into a non-GFI outlet. Thus it doesn’t matter what the charger was, although it is remotely possible that a 3rd party charger had a faulty design wherein the hot wiring had some conductive connection to the outside that the woman may have touched, wet, and grounded.
A couple relevant articles. The first one specifically discusses fake ‘Apple’ chargers as well as resulting dangers and damage:
Warning over dangerous fake phone chargers
http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/10093129.Warning_over_dangerous_fake_phone_chargers/
How to spot fake batteries and chargers?
http://www.spotafakephone.com/spot-fake-batteries.cfm
A couple other fake charger articles. The first article discusses another death-by-fake-charger fatality, a seven year old boy:
Unsafe chargers ‘flooding’ the UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7514426.stm
The seven-year-old was found dead by his mother on the floor of an apartment in Thailand during a holiday after using his games console charger.
Fake Chinese chargers could kill
Millions on the market
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1018887/fake-chinese-chargers-kill
China.
Fuck you asshole. This is not good, its terrible
I’ve heard of unauthorized third party accessories, but illegal?
Legally negligent maybe, but not Illegal.