Vaishnavi Vaidyanathan for International Business Times:
An 11-year-old boy had a narrow escape after his charging Samsung tablet overheated and burnt a hole in his bed while he slept a few inches away from the device. The incident took place in Staffordshire, England, on Thursday morning.
Callum Hewkin woke up to find his room filled with smoke. He woke up his parents, Amy and Stewart Hewkin, who rushed to the room and noticed the tablet stuck to the bed. The device was minutes away from catching fire and had already burnt a hole in the bed. Firefighters arrived at the scene and told them the incident could have been fatal for the entire family.
“I went into Callum’s room and there was a big burn mark right by where his head had been, and the room was full of white smoke. We have no idea how he didn’t wake up but it goes to show how serious it could have been. I was gobsmacked, I never thought it would happen to us or that something like that even could happen – you don’t expect an iPad or tablet to just start burning like that,” [Stewart] said.
MacDailyNews Take: Not an iPad. A fake iPad. Don’t even use Apple’s registered trademark. You wouldn’t pay for it, so you don’t get to use it, and besmirch it by conflating it with the results of your poor decision-making.
If you’d gotten a real iPad with genuine Apple charging bricks and cables, you’d still have a functional bed and the firefighters could’ve kept playing cards that night. But, you were cheap and settled for a pretend iPad from a South Korean dishwasher maker with a penchant for peddling flammable devices. So, unsurprisingly: 🔥
Is your 11-year-old’s life worth that nickel you think you saved by not buying a real iPad?
Every time we see some cheap bastage on our plane schlepping some random piece of haphazardly-assembled Android junk or plastic PC garbage laptop on his way to the cheap seats, we fear for our safety and the safety of everyone else aboard with real iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TJ” for the heads up.]
Wasn’t it an Apple device that burned a house down and they are suing Apple now? I would laugh if it was actually a Samsung device and they got confused what they had.
Was it actually an Apple device at fault? Or a faulty third-party charging brick and/or cable?
We will be following that iPad case closely, especially concerning what type of charger and cable were connected to the iPad in question. Third-party chargers have often been found to be the culprit in any claimed fires from iPhones and iPads.
Note that our Take above specifically states, “a real iPad with genuine Apple charging bricks and cables.”
Yes. So strange that MDN chose to mock this device while simply citing Apple’s operating instructions which clearly warn that electric things can get hot when that one actually DID start a house fire.
I wasn’t going to go there but since you bring it up….
A real iPad would have burn dow the whole apartment….
Definitely too soon after the iPad fire article (2 days?!) for MDN to do any mocking.
We will be following that aforementioned iPad case closely, especially concerning what type of charger and cable were connected to the iPad in question. Third-party chargers have often been found to be the culprit in any claimed fires from iPhones and iPads.
Note that our Take above specifically states, “a real iPad with genuine Apple charging bricks and cables.”
By the same token, please also follow the above issue closely for the same “what type of charger and cable were connected” to the Samsung tablet in question, as Samsung tablets have the more common micro-USB connector.
A properly designed device would monitor and work with any charger, and refuse to charge if charging irregularly.
That’s non-partisan. Just like fire.
Regardless of the product or vendor, you have to be smart about charging things. When you charge items in bed they are insulated from below and get hotter. They can also get partially or completely covered up by a sheet or blanket or pillow and really heat up. Similarly, when charging a device on a couch or other furniture, the device or its charging brick can slide down between cushions and overheat. Way back in the mid-1990s I was using an Apple PowerBook on a couch and discovered that the power brick had slid down between the cushions and overheated. The plastic housing had begun to melt and sag in one area. That was a wake up call, and I have repeatedly warned all of my kids about the hazards. I do not like leaving stuff plugged in overnight or while no one is nearby.
You gotta be smart about mocking too!