Yeah I know, I said no updates, but this came up before I left Wednesday, so I figured I’d give you something to look at while I was gone. 🙂
As we enter the holiday shopping season, it might be prudent to double check the quality of what you’re buying for your loved ones. Especially if it’s a cell phone:
WASHINGTON – Curtis Sathre said it was like a bomb going off. His 13-year-old son Michael stood stunned, ears ringing, hand gushing blood after his cell phone exploded. Safety officials have received 83 reports of cell phones exploding or catching fire in the past two years, usually because of bad batteries or chargers.
Now that’s a picture you want in your mind as you’re paying for that Kyocera pre-paid phone for your chatty relatives, eh? By they way, the reason I pick on Kyocera is because two of the three major battery recalls over the past two years have come from Kyocera. Nokia shares in the notoriety.
But it looks like for the most part, cell phones aren’t too prone to exploding as long as people don’t cheap out and buy knock-off batteries instead of original equipment. I too used to think cheap couterfeits were just as good, but let’s face it, Lithium Ion batteries are really effective incendiary devices if they’re not properly constructed or charged.
I am a little irked by by the last paragraph of this story though, talking about the same kid mentioned in the lede:
“It took my son two months to decide to even be near a cell phone,” said his mother, Cris. “But he needs one.”
Call me old school, but does a 13 year old really need a cell phone?