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There’s something fishy going on with some iPods out there. Sure, I’ve talked about how some iPhone 3GS models are getting quite hot in the past, but they haven’t been exploding, which is exactly what happened to one girl in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

In this case, all the girl and her dad wanted was a refund from Apple. However, Apple wouldn’t simply give them a refund for their explosive iPod Touch. Apple wanted the family to sign a settlement form. The form would have meant that they coudn’t talk about the incident or Apple could sue them. Apple could also sue them if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement.

This isn’t the first time that Apple has tried to shut people up about problems with its devices either. Many other times, it has been able to get customers to sign the agreements when their iPhones and iPods overheated.

The whole incident sounds pretty scary when the dad describes what he did when the iPod started acting funny. He said, “It made a hissing noise, I could feel it getting hotter in my and, and I thought I could see vapor.” After throwing it out of his house he said, “within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke, and it went 10 feet into the air.”

When he contacted Apple, they sent him a letter that had a refund for the 162 pounds he paid for it, but with the money he agreed to the company’s denial of liability and that he will “agree to keep the terms of and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential. Any breach of confidentiality may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages, and legal costs against defaulting persons or parties.”

After the news came out, other people started coming out of the woodwork with people saying that their ipods had similar problems and some even burst into flames. Some iPods burned their owners. It appears as though the problem stems from the batteries that the devices use. The lithium ion batteries tend to overheat in iPods as well as laptops (remember when Dell issued that HUGE battery recall in 2006?).

I wouldn’t be too happy if my iPod exploded in my pocket. I usually keep my iPod in my car’s console because it stays hooked up to my radio and if it exploded in my car it would be a particularly bad situation for me (and I would make it a VERY serious issue with Apple).

Jeremy

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