iPod Dangerous When Wet

puggsincyberspace writes "What do you do when your mom washes your iPod? Fix it, of course. A teenager in Australia found out the hard way that messing with the insides of his iPod is dangerous and needed medical attention after it exploded."

The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdri

[Anonymous Coward]

The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screwdriver. It wouldn't matter if this was an iPod, rio, nomad, dell dj, mobile phone or the interior of a LiIon laptop battery from any manufacturer.

The kid tried to argue with the laws of physics, and as always - lost.

Great

[t_allardyce]

Good bye iPods in planes, trains, work-places and public buildings...

Re:I heard somewhere that

[kthnx]

as is opening up any electrical device which was not designed to opened by end users... Hints such as no screws on the outside case spring to mind.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[t_allardyce]

No, all that matters now is that when the press runs a story with the words 'iPod' and 'exploded' it won't matter how much you talk about LiIon batteries, people are going to believe that iPods are the problem and that they randomly explode.

How does this look?

[t_allardyce]

Is this anything like exploding capacitors? I remember a class where my teacher accidentally turned a capacitor into a toxic smoke-grenade, it was a pretty impressive sight to see all that stuff come out of one little cylinder.

Re:All I have to say is

[psavo]

I think this is where RFID could help a LOT. There's just no reason for electronics class device to be inside a washing machine.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but the did the battery open of its own accord (e.g. as it exploded), or was this the deed of the misguided adolescent emergency techno-wizard wannabe?

Re:I heard somewhere that

[88NoSoup4U88]

Not being able to open a device doesn't always constitute the device itself being dangerous though.

More times I've seen devices that don't even have the power to lightly shock you, but are , imo, just made that way so once it breaks, you're fudged, and you have to buy a new one (long live the quick-consumer society we're living in).

For example, my Logitech mouses, all are a hell to get opened : Once opened, it's even more trouble to get them closed up again.
While a mouse isn't a million dollar investment, I find it very consumer-unfriendly that I am not able to, for example, replace my right-mouse-button myself after it fails to work properly.

Re:Great

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, might as well wave farewell to cellphones for the same reason then.

Nice tabloid journalism there...

[Harker]

Teenager's iPod goes boom

You don't see what really happened until much further down the article (around 3/4 of the way through) emphasis mine:

"It wasn't working, the young fella tried to undo it or fix it with a screwdriver and at that stage there was an explosion, or more of a pop.

Gotta love the media. Anything for a sensational headline.

H

Re:If..

[Anonymous Coward]

Or rather, if you don't know what you're doing, *definately* play with it...

I've learned more through trial and error (alot of error) than any academic setting I've been in -- Experience is the best teacher.

I have really hurt myself a few times, and I have been pretty lucky too. But I understand how most everything around the house works, and can fix it (if I have the time). My boss, on the other hand, hires some barely trained high-school kid to come fix his john for $150/hour.

Have some balls. Blow stuff up. Take risks. Along the path you might learn something and not have to rely on the status-quo for the rest of your life.

It's just a hacker.

[HansF]

I mean, it's just a kid. His expensive Ipod was dead, he prolly panicked. And he messed with stuff he knew nothing about.
It's a stupid accident I have to admit. But isn't mucking about with stuff you don't (yet) understand one of the trademarks of the true hacker?
Cut him some slack. It could well be possible he could've gotten the moist out before the oxidation got too worse. With a bit of luck he could have re-assembled it and be listening to it right now.
He's learned a lot of things now, maybe he'll do better in the future.

Re:Great

[Solder Fumes]

Due to demand for higher power and longer life, batteries in all mobile devices are approaching power densities of explosives. It's a chemical compound that is designed to hold a lot of energy in its structure, and be able to release it at varying rates. This is only going to become more of a problem as battery technology improves. Fuel cells especially will be tricky to get aboard aircraft.

Give him a break?

[GreasyBloater]

It seems like just about everyone posting thinks this kid is a moron for opening a consumer electronic up.

I used to do this all the time. Mostly with broken electronics that would otherwise be thrown in the trash.

I'm surprised more geeks aren't on his side.

What's with the comments about natural selection, and darwin and killer ipod. You are the morons!!!

Natural selection doesn't work just because you have "breathing difficulties". You have to DIE before reproducing.

"In other news, the boy's Mom cut her finger while chopping celery. Geeks everywhere make Darwin jokes."

Re:I heard somewhere that

[ashridah]

Why weren't you expecting it to explode?
The tool probably damaged the lithium ion battery pack.

Those things turn into small flamethrowers when nicked with a knife or other pointy object.
They're even more dangerous when they're shorted (which soapy water is apt to do to batteries, naturally), although I presume the kid let it dry before poking at it.

It's one of the reasons why most lithium ion batteries come in a hard case (like mobile phone and laptop batteries).

Of course, for the consumer device market, that're not designed to be openable, they often use soft cells (less weight).
This is one of the reasons I much prefer my Iriver H140 that has a lithium polymer battery instead. Supposedly, lithium polymer's not supposed to go up in flames when the packaging is compromised.

Andrew

Re:I heard somewhere that

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be confusing the terms "customer" and "consumer". Your mouse is not "customer" friendly, since it does as you say. It is, however, "consumer" friendly, since a broken mouse means an opportunity for you to buy a new one.

Ain't capitalism great?

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[DrLex]

The combination of Lithium with water is also a very bad idea. It simply explodes -- that's why throwing pieces of lithium into water was one of my chemistry teacher's favourite experiments.
Maybe either the machine washing treatment caused water to get inside the battery, or more likely, the iPod was still wet inside when the kid was opening it. If he then damaged the battery and water got inside, it was only logical that the battery exploded. Even humid air is enough to cause the Lithium to react!

Re:I heard somewhere that

[Anonymous Coward]

It never fails. For every subtle joke on Slashdot, there will be somebody to come along and over-explain it.

Re:I heard somewhere that

[Anonymous Coward]

You would also defend yourself if someone was trying to screw you in the wrong hole.