Posted on 07/27/2007 9:48:20 PM PDT by Swordmaker
It was bound to happen. It seems that a guy called Trujillo has been the first to file a class-action suit against Apple and AT&T because of the iPhone. The reason? You guessed it—it's the battery. Read all about this dumbtastically stupid lawsuit, including the entire complaint text, after the jump.
Trujillo, hopefuly not related to the former Dominican dictator, claims that he didn't know that the battery is a "sealed unit with it's [sic] battery soldered inside" and that:
"The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone."
Putting aside that this guy's lawyer's grammar is worse than mine, is he really that ignorant? Does he think that the judge is going to be stupid? (OK, you don't need to answer that. It was a rhetorical question.)
The fact is that the iPhone battery lasts for more than "300" charges and doesn't need to be changed after that. According to Apple, the battery "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles."
Photocopies of the original complaint.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Don’t laugh. Plaintiff’s attorney graduated near the top 90% of his class at Mbogo College of Law and Pedicure.
"Charge Cycles: A properly maintained iPhone battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 400 full charge and discharge cycles. You may choose to replace your battery when it no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs"
This is a John Edwards-type lawsuit.
Well it does kind of stink that a customer can’t even replace his iPhone’s battery.
Am I missing something here? Is the battery hard wired into the iPhone and can’t be replaced? What’s the problem with replacing the battery? Has this guy never owned a cell phone before?
The gripe is that the battery doesn’t just pop off like a typical cellphone battery; it must be sent in to Apple or the phone must be disassembled to replace it.
Is this true that the battery has to be un-soldered to be removed and the replacement soldered in?
The projected life of the battery sounds about normal. But if the phone has to be taken to a service center to have a battery replaced, the phone is worthless junk. And the only reason a phone would be designed that way is to deliberately fleece consumers.
Since, as far as I know, all cell phones have drop in batteries, the consumer is entitled to a reasonable expectation that this phone does also.
If anyone buys a phone knowing that the battery is soldered in, they deserve what they get. Screwed.
So, someone tell me if the battery is indeed soldered in.
I can’t say I’m disapointed with this news. I can’t stand this iPod generation, unable to live without music constantly blasting in their ears. Music isn’t necessarily bad, but it has many of the qualities of being a drug.
Well...no. That is quite a statement to make. I can imagine the Apple engineers sitting around a table having the following discussion:
ENGINEER1: "Well, we REALLY need to find a way to stick it to anyone stupid enough to buy our product. Besides making it as buggy as we can, why don't we design it so that the battery runs down and can't be recharged after 300 cycles?"
ENGINEER2: "Piker! Why don't we make it fail after only 100 cycles? And make the battery non-removable to boot. We can use a friction-fit connector, but...if we SOLDER it in, that makes sure that fewer enterprising users can replace it themselves!"
That statement you made sounds like the argument I saw a woman make on an aviation forum where she said air shows and car races were like the Nuremburg Rallies, and planes and missles were designed by sexist men who designed them to resemble phalluses, not because an elongated shape was aerodynamically efficient.
Engineering is all about compromise. That is likely why the battery is enclosed, because that was the only way to make it so thin. I hope you were being facetious when you made that statement, because if you weren't, it makes you sound pretty ignorant. If you don't like the product or don't like Apple, be intellectually honest enough to say so. Because what you said is just nonsense.
You can say you think an electronic device is deficient if it has a non-user replaceable battery, but to say it was designed that way to "deliberately fleece customers" makes you sound like a 9/11 Truther.
That there’s the hang up, isn’t it?
And how many people use palm pilots today? ^_^
While a class action lawsuit is a waste of time I do have to say that soldering in the battery so after an average of a year or so, you have to send the iphone back to apple and for the small installation fee of fifty dollars plus another 70 for the battery a brisk four to six weeks later you get your phone back.
That’s going to piss alot of people off and is very poor bussiness sense.
That statement you made sounds like the argument I saw a woman make on an aviation forum where she said air shows and car races were like the Nuremburg Rallies, and planes and missles were designed by sexist men who designed them to resemble phalluses, not because an elongated shape was aerodynamically efficient.
Horrible analogy, as the argument made by the previous poster doesn't remotely resemble that. Sounds like you are bristling from one silly argument and now you see it whereever you disagree with somebody.
I disagree. The comparison highlights a complete lack of logical underpinning in the statement of the original poster and an overdependence on an emotionally based thought process.
I have been very happy with my iPhone’s battery usage.
I typically will use it for about an hour a day browsing the Internet via Edge, use it for a normal day’s worth of cell phone calls (an hour perhaps), and then use it as an iPod when I am at work and don’t have to interact with people — for about 4-5 hours.
I can go two days of usage like this before it gets down to about 20%.
Not too bad IMHO.
They say three business days, but yeah, that turns me off for the iPhone. From apple:
How much does it cost to participate in the program?
The program costs $79, plus $6.95 shipping. The program cost is $85.95 per unit.
All fees are in US dollars and are subject to local tax. Service may not be available if your iPhone has been damaged due to accident or abuse. Please review Apple’s Repair Terms and Conditions for further details.
Will the data on my iPhone be preserved?
No, the repair process will clear all data from your iPhone. It is important to sync your iPhone with iTunes to back up your contacts, photos, email account settings, text messages, and more. Apple is not responsible for the loss of information while servicing your iPhone and does not offer any data transfer service. Please do not send any accessories with your iPhone.
How long will service take?
The repair process normally takes three business days. See the iPhone Service FAQ for information about getting an AppleCare Service Phone for you to use with all of your data while your iPhone is being repaired.
Your exaggerated mock engineer conversation that was designed to make the orignal argument look silly was nothing more than a straw man really. No logic there, so your counter has to be considered invalid.
Your reference to an unrelated argument on an unrelated topic on an unrelated forum was not a counter. However, it would indicate that you were highly miffed by that encounter, and therefore responding in this one with emotion, rather than logic.
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