Rotten Apple!

I have had no problems with my Apple iPod at all. Well, none you want to listen to anyway. I used it a lot to listen to my personal music playlists. Flaming hell, I flogged it to death. That was before my iPhone came along. Now my iPod languishes unused on my bedside table, in a manner reminiscent of that thoroughly stupid cartoon advert about turning your discarded mobile phones into cash. I do have several problems with my iPhone, including capricious battery life, complete failure of edge technology and some initially extortionate monthly charges from O2 which I have now eradicated by taking out a pay-as-you-go contract. Now O2 won’t be able to prise so much cash out of my wallet, but even with all the problems, I’m hanging onto my iPhone because I love its touch screen.

I was intrigued but not particularly surprised then to read that one poor 11 year old British girl called Ellie Stanborough reportedly suffered the terrifying incident of having her iPod explode on her. Experts point to the lithium ion batteries Apple use as the source of the problem. So there in the picture in the Daily Mail is Ellie looking suitably forlorn but uninjured, holding up the wreckage of her once shiny iPod. But here’s the most horrendous part of the story... As you would, Ellie’s parents contacted Apple to report the incident and ask for a refund. Apple responded by offering to refund the money, but only if the Stanboroughs kept quiet about the incident. If the Stanboroughs talked to the press, said Apple, there might be legal action taken out against them. Cor, what a rotten Apple!

This kind of gagging tactic, it has emerged, has also been attempted in the U.S. on a number of other occasions when Apple iPods have apparently exploded. One allegedly blew up inside a young lad’s trousers and badly burnt his leg. The boy’s mother is taking Apple to court in Ohio, and we eagerly await the verdict. In fact the first time this kind of thing happened was in Japan, in March last year! So I would imagine that Apple have really got the pip now that the news has also emerged in the national press on both sides of the Atlantic that not only do they appear to have a serious safety issue with the lithium ion batteries inside their famed iPod devices, they also want a complete news blackout when things go drastically wrong. Chew on that for a while...

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