iOS 10 rollout goes titsup as update 'bricks' iPhones and iPads

The Inquirer ^ | 14 September 2016 | Carley Page

[Shanghai Dan]

Your iPhone can burst into flame, too. But that's OK, you'll say it's an isolated incident, Apple says it's not a problem, and it's a small percentage who have the problem so it's not real. Never mind we've got, what, 0.001% of Samsung Note7s that have had a flame issue?

FUD. Pure and simple. And you love slinging it whilst decrying others posting actual hard facts about your beloved Apple.

The FACT is that not a single replaced Note7 has had ANY issue with batteries. And that Samsung has also issued a temporary FIX for those that have not replaced their Note7 yet. YOU don't like it, so you have ZERO problem ascribing expert status to anonymous techies who think it might still be an issue. That's classic FUD - and you're the master of it!

[FourtySeven]

What’s “FUD” mean?

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

sheesh! what a grouch. As much as I enjoy tweaking this fanboi it’s getting a little old. Before long I’ll have to send the wife out to start the car and get the mail. :)

[Shanghai Dan]

FUD = Fear Uncertainty Doubt. Basically trying to get people to believe in something that MAY happen and use it as a way to sway opinion.

The fact is that Samsung had 35 documented cases (out of 2.4 million phones sold) of battery problems. They voluntarily recalled 100% of the phones, and the replacement phones are rock-solid. And for those who have NOT returned their phone, they have offered a software fix that keeps the battery from any possible issue.

So the problem was incredibly tiny (less than that of the grey screen of death on an iPhone), was resolved for free, and those who did NOT want a new phone have a software fix to cure the problem.

But, you know, some anonymous “tech people” think otherwise about the fix, and since 0.0014% is a massive failure rate - best to get rid of your Samsung phone because it absolutely, positively, guaranteed will blow up and take out your entire neighborhood!

[rlmorel]

Old codgers like you need other pastimes!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I just am not too fond of Apple Salesmen.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Updated 2 iPads 2 iPhones and a watch no problems!

[BatGuano]

I heard that term in 1962...10 years before John Mitchell used it. He might be the first cabinet member to use the term but I doubt that. Wringers on washing machines were history by 1972.

[Swordmaker]

The FACT is that not a single replaced Note7 has had ANY issue with batteries. And that Samsung has also issued a temporary FIX for those that have not replaced their Note7 yet. YOU don't like it, so you have ZERO problem ascribing expert status to anonymous techies who think it might still be an issue. That's classic FUD - and you're the master of it!

The FACT is that Apple has NEVER had to recall the ENTIRE 2.5 million of any SHIPPED and SOLD product, EVER! In fact, Apple has never had to recall any complete product they have manufactured.

Nor have I heard that any one of the recalled Note 7s actually been replaced yet with a repaired or exchanged Note 7 that does not have the problem. Samsung is still in the process of recalling the Note 7 which they instituted just a week ago. That makes me suspect YOU just pulled that claim of no problems with the replacement Note 7s out of your rear!

You keep screaming about such a low explosion rate, ignoring that percentage of phones exploding was those Samsung admitted to being reported to them as just those that exploded in the first WEEK the Samsung Note 7 had been on the market (August 19th US and Australia and the UK September 3rd)! Dan, thirty-five spontaneously destroyed phones and the destroyed property and injuries that went along with them in just one week is a horrendous failure number when you consider how many of those 2.5 million that Samsung claimed they had shipped in three to four weeks were actually sold into the hands of end consumers in one week. Once you consider that, your claimed percentage is a distortion based on the total shipped into the channels in the total three weeks, when many of those are sitting on shelves, waiting to be sold.

Samsung just pushed out a temporary software fix for those that had yet to be sent back that limited the charging to 60% two days ago. What does that tell you about the success of their recall program, Dan? The news media is saying the recall is an incompetent failure on Samsung's part as people are NOT sending the defective Note 7s back!

Everyone is still using their Galaxy Note 7 as Samsung fumbles its global recall
Not even explosions will stop you using your smartphone
By James Vincent — September 15, 2016 07:21 AM

Nearly two weeks after Samsung recalled the Galaxy Note 7 due to the risk of explosion, the device is still being used just as frequently by its owners. This is according to data from Apteligent, a mobile analytics company that claims "usage rate of the phone among existing users has been almost the exact same since the day of the recall."

It seems not even exploding batteries can tear users away from their smartphones, but the apparent reticence of users to get rid of their faulty devices is not being helped by Samsung's mismanagement of the recall process. Swapping 2.5 million smartphones is certainly no easy task, but the South Korean firm has not helped the situation by issuing confusing information to consumers. The longer the situation goes on, the more damage it does to the company's brand.

Looking through Samsung's statements on the issues over the past fortnight, it's easy to see why consumers might be unsure of the best course of action. The initial recall on September 2nd said the company would "voluntarily replace [users'] current device with a new one over the coming weeks," but didn't mention whether it was safe to continue using the device. A week later owners were advised not only to exchange their device "now," but to also power it off completely.

Adoption rate of the Note 7. (Image credit: Apteligent)

In the same release Samsung said that exchanging a faulty Note 7 for a new device would only happen "pending [...] approval" from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), but did not give a timeline for this approval process or what the delay might be. The company also said that owners could exchange their Note 7 for an (unaffected) Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge and receive "a refund of the price difference." Alternately, they could talk to "select carriers and retail outlets" (which were not listed in the release) to get a replacement device or a loaner smartphone.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung was also late in coordinating with the CPSC about the problem, with the federal agency only issuing advice to consumers to stop using the Note 7 a week after the September 2nd statement. The CPSC has also yet to issue an official recall, with the delay reportedly caused by confusion over the exact nature of the fault and how it can be dealt with. In South Korea, for example, Samsung has published a software update that will limit the Note 7's battery to 60 percent charge, but this band-aid has yet to be made available in other countries.

Confusing advice means consumers are still waiting to find out what to do

The lack of coordination with the CPSC is also affecting carriers' ability to help with the recall. The WSJ reports that while Samsung has sent an unknown number of Note 7 units to mobile operators, they aren't allowed to distribute them until they receive approval from the CPSC. Samsung, meanwhile, is saying it still needs more time to fully analyze the fault.

Looking at this confusion, it's no surprise that many Note 7 owners are simply sticking with their devices and accepting the risk of explosion, fire, or worse. The prospect of wasting time setting up a new device or being given a much slower smartphone as a temporary exchange won't help either. Ultimately, it's to the benefit of tech companies that smartphones have become such an essential part of everyday life, but it also means it's vital for them to take responsibility when things go wrong. Samsung, so far, has failed to do so.

Per C-Net — "According to Dan Doughty of Battery Safety Consulting, lithium-ion batteries fail at a rate of around one in 10 million. With a production rate of around 6 billion batteries per year, that works out to an average of 600 failures annually. (2012)" Samsung's Note 7, at now over 150 fires in three weeks, is accounting for 25% of that 2012 annual number. Extending that rate to an annual number gives us an annual fire number of 2,600 just assuming that the number of Note 7s in the wild remains at 2.5 million.

Why Note 7?

What makes the Note 7 different: Samsung may have accidentally squeezed its batteries harder than it should.

According to a unpublished preliminary report sent to Korea's Agency for Technology and Standards (obtained by Bloomberg), Samsung had a manufacturing error that "placed pressure on plates contained within battery cells," which "brought negative and positive poles into contact."

"The defect was revealed when several contributing factors happened simultaneously, which included sub-optimized assembly process that created variations of tension and exposed electrodes due to insufficient insulation tape," a Samsung representative tells CNET. . .

. . . Why didn't the phones catch fire immediately?

When Sadowy (MIT materials chemistry Professor Don Sadowy) explains these theories, one thing doesn't seem to add up. Today's cell phone batteries generally charge faster (and get hotter) when they're first plugged into the wall, not at the end when they're trickle-charging the last few percent to reach their maximum capacity.

But these Note 7 phones didn't explode right away. In practically every reported instance of a Note 7 catching fire or exploding, it happened after the phone was plugged in and left charging, sometimes overnight.

Then, there's the little matter of how Samsung plans to make these phones safer -- by issuing a firmware update that keeps the Galaxy Note 7 from charging to more than 60 percent of its full capacity. How could that possibly help, if things heat up the moment a phone is plugged into the wall? — Here's Why Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 phones are catching fire — September 14, 2016, 4:33 PM PDT — by Sean Hollister — C-Net

Only YOU are doubting the "expert" status of people who are questioning WHY a "software fix" limiting charging to 60% would even be considered to effective in preventing the fires, when the fires are demonstrably occurring at ANY STAGE OF THE CHARGING PROCESS, or even when the phones are NOT BEING CHARGED — I told you about TWO that made the national TV broadcast news last evening with surveillance video! Why would anyone thing limiting charging would even work to ameliorate the problem in light of those facts? I think the case has been pretty conclusively shown it is not necessarily a charging phenomenon. I certainly don't think it will be effective. YOU are in denial.

[Shanghai Dan]

The FACT is that Apple has NEVER had to recall the ENTIRE 2.5 million of any SHIPPED and SOLD product, EVER! In fact, Apple has never had to recall any complete product they have manufactured.

No, the fact is Apple never chose to recall. Heck, you and others are spreading FUD about a 0.0014% fail rate when you forgive Apple for the grey screen fail rate of "only" 0.1%. That's a bit of hypocrisy. Apple blames the user, blames everyone else, never accepts their own failures. You're holding it wrong, you're using it wrong, you're storing it wrong, you're carrying it wrong. It's never "we screwed up the design/we had a supplier screw up parts and we're replacing them".

And using a company's PROACTIVE MOVE to recall POTENTIAL (unproven, it's 0.0014% fail rate) issues in all phones to throw around FUD, to rely upon unnamed experts to cast aspersions on the solution implemented by the manufacturer, and show absolute disgust when the same is done to your chosen brand is absolutely hypocritical.

FACT: the battery fail rate is 1/100th that of the grey screen of death on iPhone 6 models. QUESTION: Why don't you castigate Apple for NOT recalling that failure?

Your answer will speak volumes about the "great and fair" Swordmaker...

I'm done, enjoy your Samsung bash-fest and FUD-smearing campaign! But I will tell you now, the same is coming back in spades...

[Shanghai Dan]

By the way:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3462244/posts

Here you're excusing a failure of the same order of magnitude as the Samsung failure. But it's your high-and-mighty Apple, and you fully support Apple's REFUSAL to address the issue, to do a recall or at least provide free fixes for those who have the issue.

Hypocrisy. Pure and simple. Proven so.

Go ahead, write a multi-paragraph missive back to try to justify your position - but the fact is you're caught with your own words as a hypocrite.

[Hodar]

The problem with igniting lithium is not related to the charging process. It may be related to the charge density, which may be why limiting the charge to 60% may alleviate some fires. But, the root cause is defective battery manufacturing and/or design.

[roadcat]

But, the root cause is defective battery manufacturing and/or design.

I agree, looks like shoddy design and manufacturing on Samsung's part. In their haste to increase battery life to try and keep up with Apple, they took shortcuts. One discussed possibility is that they "squeezed" and compressed the battery pack in a too tight space, and caused opposing conductive material to get too close together. A short circuit was inevitable. If one were to explode against a user's face, horrific disfigurement could result. Hence a recall. Easy enough to replace a vehicle. But if a vehicle is on the road and a Samsung phone exploded then a horrific car accident and deaths could result.

People should really stay away from Samsung phones, tragedy waiting to occur.

[Swordmaker]

And using a company's PROACTIVE MOVE to recall POTENTIAL (unproven, it's 0.0014% fail rate) issues in all phones to throw around FUD, to rely upon unnamed experts to cast aspersions on the solution implemented by the manufacturer, and show absolute disgust when the same is done to your chosen brand is absolutely hypocritical.

Keep dancing. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission just issued their own mandatory RECALL this afternoon on ALL Note 7s. Again, just like the news reports from yesterday about the two Samsung phones bursting into fire that were NOT BEING CHARGED and the videos of the doing so, you are probably going to ignore that inconvenient fact as you did those inconvenient video news reports.

Samsung is being roundly drubbed in the press for a failed incompetent recall that was muddled and incoherent as to what to do. Recall, turn off, don't charge them while using, etc. I posted one such report from the Verge, but it was only one of dozens you can find in just a simple Google search. . . but you won't bother to do that. I could have posted links to all of them, but that was unnecessary overkill. The one covered the issue sufficiently to point out all of the issues. C-Net also covered the problem in its article.

You make up facturds you pull out of your rear end and cannot show ANY Apple product worthy of being recalled.

There IS no Apple iPhone 6, 6Plus screen failure rate of 0.1%. NONE. That's just another one of your facturds. That would mean that of the 250,000,000 iPhone 6 and 6 Pluses sold since they were released, there would be over 250,000 would have been reported as developing this problem. Yet that is simply NOT the case. IT HAS NOT HAPPENED! Instead, it is under 2000 that have been reported world wide after the affected model being ON THE MARKET FOR TWO YEARS!

You go to the primary source of this story, the company with the so-called fix, and you find out they based their story on "getting in several per week" to repair. The company then came up with a very lucrative method of fixing the problem that requires micro-soldering two new ICs onto the logic board and started advertising this fix instead of replacing the logic board! To advertise this, they sent out a press release claiming the problem exists and pushing their amazing fix for it.

As I told you I was at a major Apple Authorized Repair station about three weeks ago, when this was making headlines during FUD season. I asked their head technician about the so-called "Touch Disease" iPhone problem, and he said they had seen ZERO iPhones with the problem. ZERO! This is a company that handles thousands of Apple products a year, and they have not seen a single one. Nor has that problem risen any further after the company trying to drum up business that reported it made its press release publicized its claims. That number does not justify any kind of a recall of all 250 million iPhone 6 or 6 Pluses sold. Quit lying, Dan.

I just demonstrated to you using Samsung's own data that your "0.0014%" claimed figure is totally bogus and you continue repeating it. . . It's not a fail "rate," it's a number of phones based on only ONE WEEK of sales. . . which is now reported BY SAMSUNG to represent only 1 million Samung Note 7 actually SOLD in 3 weeks of the 2.5 million SHIPPED to be recalled from the sales channels (so how many of those were actually sold to the public in the first week?) that the 35 fires was based on.

The news tonight reported that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission cited 97 fires in the United States alone in justifying their mandatory recall. . . and that does not count the Note 7s sold in Australia, Korea, and the UK! The word is the total number is somewhere over 200 fires.

I am NOT spreading FUD when the reports are true, Dan. It is FUD when what is reported has little basis in fact or is exaggerated. That is a requirement for it to be FUD!

There is NO UNCERTAINTY, and NO DOUBT, and and there IS LEGITIMATE FEAR for those who own these fire starting phones that is way out of the ordinary run of risk to own these Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones that YOU want to deny. There is NOTHING unproven about the risk. Samsung has identified the issue and they are NOT, in fact, substituting a Note 7 for the exchange for those who take theirs back to a carrier. They are being given a lower value Samsung phone to replace their Note 7s.

". . . unnamed experts to cast aspersions on the solution implemented by the manufacturer"???? I posted the direct quotation from a NAMED MIT PROFESSOR who is an expert on Lithium Ion batteries who was one of those "unnamed experts" who "cast aspersions on the solution implemented by the manufacturer." He did not merely cast aspersions, he outright criticized their whole theory of limiting charging to 60%! Obviously, you either don't read or you have a SEVERE reading comprehension problem. He is just one of the technical experts who is questioning the short sighted "solution" offered by Samsung in response to the problem of people NOT responding to their half-hearted, confused, incompetent recall efforts.

FACT: the battery fail rate is 1/100th that of the grey screen of death on iPhone 6 models. QUESTION: Why don't you castigate Apple for NOT recalling that failure?

More made up Facturds. There is NOTHING to recall. Please point out what there is to recall?

You are using your pulled out of your rear, made up iPhone 6 so called failure percentage, which has caused zero damage to anyone, on a two year old model, to justify your made up minuscule Samsung Exploding Note 7, which has destroyed houses, cars, and injured people causing third degree burns, on a one week old device percentage.

Samsung was being illegally "proactive" by NOT reporting the problem to the US CPSC and trying to recall the Note 7 below the notice of the CPSC to avoid potential fines and costs the CPSC would impose. By NOT reporting the issue to the CPSC, they put all those people who were injured after they knew about the problem at further risk. They waited until the airlines, bus lines, and train lines started ordering that their product could not be carried or operated on their flights, trips, or cars before they really started taking serious steps. That didn't work. Now the US Government is involved. As is the Korean and Australian governments.

YOU don't like that. You keep on dancing, but it doesn't reflect well on you, Dan. I am just reporting the facts, AND I've posted links to the facts, but you are trying to distort everything about this, postulating and kicking and screaming, making up your facturds, trying to put a bandaid on Samsung's severed artery.

C-Net pointed out that the reason Samsung had to do something is that the number of actual fires and the calculated rate of fires was 600 TIMES greater than any other phone ever manufactured before. They had to act. The total recall was not a voluntary act out of the goodness of their hearts but an act of existential desperation to avoid the potential for devastating lawsuits.

[Swordmaker]

I missed pinging you to my last response to Dan.

[Swordmaker]

Here you're excusing a failure of the same order of magnitude as the Samsung failure. But it's your high-and-mighty Apple, and you fully support Apple's REFUSAL to address the issue, to do a recall or at least provide free fixes for those who have the issue.

No, I am not. A non-destructive failure rate of a product that has been on the market after TWO YEARS of use is NOT the equivalent as a failure rate in a product that has been on the market for only one week!

For example, if one percent of Product A fails after being on the market for two years, it is NOT the same as Product B having a one percent failure in just one week. A failure rate is always calculated over a period of time. You keep forgetting TIME in your assertions. Do you see your error?

Assuming a steady failure rate, by the time two years will have passed, 104% of Product B will have failed, while only 1% of Product A will have failed.

YOU are the hypocrite who would leave a dangerous product on the market just because it is Android.

Yes, there have been a few Apple devices that have caught fire, but they are in line with the known normal rate that lithium Ion batteries in the industry themselves fail in that manner. It has nothing to do with Apple's design or handling. It has to do with the inherent failure rate of the battery product of one in 10,000,000 that may overheat and/or catch fire. According to C-Net, the Samsung Note 7 is catching fire at 600 times that rate! Approximately one in 16,700 will catch fire!

But that's assuming all 2.5 million were sold into the hands of consumers. However, Samsung has now said that only one million were actually sold into the hands of consumers. If that is the true number, then the rate is actually one in 6,700 will catch fire! Do you think that is an acceptable risk? I certainly do not.

[Swordmaker]

No, the fact is Apple never chose to recall. Heck, you and others are spreading FUD about a 0.0014% fail rate when you forgive Apple for the grey screen fail rate of "only" 0.1%.

By the way, you AGAIN used your trade mark pattern of misquoting me to try to shoot down something I said in a previous post or thread. I did not specify a screen fail rate of "only" 0.1% as you claim. I stated it was "far less than 0.1%" which truthful and is a quite different thing. . . and it is a far less than 0.1%. Your pattern of lying through misquotation is reprehensible.

I later, after doing some preliminary research, modified that to "less than 0.05%" based on what I found in reports from repair stations. . . and also reported that the general failure rate for iPhone 6 and 6plus was 2.4% after two years. In other words, the failures due to this modality is hardly a blip in the reason that an iPhone might fail after two years. In fact, it is only 0.021% of the 2.4% failure reasons that an iPhone of that model might fail. To put that in absolute number terms, it's 0.00021. Nice try. No rotten bananas.

[TheBattman]

I am a regular participant in the public betas - iOS 10 was almost trouble-free from PB2 - I then installed the release iOS 10 the day of release (in fact, I woke up that morning with my phone asking permission to install it). Went without a hitch - iPhone 6+ 128GB.

There are many things that can cause a device to “brick” (though my understanding is that these iOS 10 brick issues are not really bricking the phones - connecting to your computer and doing the setup through iTunes is apparently the “cure”) -

The Android devices I’ve used have, every one of them, had an Android update screw up - so the problem is not an Apple- exclusive (and one ASUS device actually was bricked - nothing would get it back to running - ASUS finally replaced it).

[Shanghai Dan]

Less than 0.01% battery failure. That's less than the Apple fail rate that you excuse. Hypocrite.

But hey, you're so insecure in your position you like to copy in your posse to participate. Just like a hypocrite. Or a liberal - lie, make hypocritical statements, and attack in packs.

[Swordmaker]

Less than 0.01% battery failure. That's less than the Apple fail rate that you excuse. Hypocrite.

But hey, you're so insecure in your position you like to copy in your posse to participate. Just like a hypocrite. Or a liberal - lie, make hypocritical statements, and attack in packs.

Hypocrite? Let's actually look at what your link actually says:

"Samsung Electronics Co was sued on Friday by a Florida man who said he suffered severe burns after his Galaxy Note 7 smartphone exploded in his front pants pocket. The lawsuit by Jonathan Strobel may be the first in the United States by a Samsung phone user against the South Korean company over a battery defect linked to the Note 7. It was filed one day after Samsung recalled about 1 million Note 7s sold in the United States. Samsung has received 92 reports of batteries overheating in the United States, including 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, U.S. safety regulators said. "We don't comment on pending litigation," Samsung spokeswoman Danielle Meister Cohen said in an email. "We are urging all Note 7 owners to power their device down and exchange it immediately." Strobel, 28, of Boca Raton, said he was in a Costco store in Palm Beach Gardens on Sept. 9 when his Note 7 exploded. He said the phone burned directly through his pants, resulting in severe burns on his right leg."

Was he charging his Note 7 phone while strolling through Costco with it in his front pants pocket? You keep shooting your own arguments in the foot, Dan.

That's after a week on the market. So multiply your figure by 104 to get a comparable rate. Now you are at 1% just in the United States alone. . . with only those actually reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, not those that have actually burned and gone unreported yet. Oops, now it doesn't look so good, does it, Shanghai?

Has the iPhone 6.6 Plus "touch disease" problem ever resulted in a iOS device burning "directly through his pants, resulting in severe burns on his right leg"? No, I didn't think so.

Doing a false, distorted equivalency comparison to a "few iPhones 6 and 6 Plus a week coming in with the touch disease" by the reporting company who raised the stink about a TWO YEAR OLD APPLE iPhone model, which you don't hear any more about, which caused NO INJURIES, and which caused no property damage, and burned down ZERO HOUSES, as you are attempting to do, trying to create an false equivalency where none exists. . . except in your own delusional mind. . . is a complete STRAWMAN logical fallacy that we all see through, it is such a transparent attempt to deflect from a severe problem your favorite company is having, which is severely impacting not just the Note 7, but several other phones in the S7 model range which share the same basic electronic designs.

I am pinging people not because I am insecure at all in my position but rather people I am pinging people who have argued your delusional positions in the past to validate their conclusion. . . THAT YOU ARE DELUSIONAL.

I assure you that am quite certain of my analysis: You are the delusional one who implied that Apple should have recalled all 250 million iPhone 6 and 6 plus phones sold over a period of two years, because of the failures of a just a very few after those TWO YEARS on the market without any such failures appearing during those two years, as somehow being an equivalent disastrous design failure as the explosions and eruptions of fire that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 had shown in its first WEEK on the market. That kind of equivalence of risk claim is truly off the wall out in left field, especially when you claim that Apple is completely remiss in electing NOT TO RECALL ALL 250 Million devices because of the "touch disease" problem!

And then go on to claim that I am hypocritical for publicizing the recall so that our fellow Freepers may know about it, when it became necessary for Samsung to do a recall of a very dangerous product and not criticizing Apple for NOT recalling a perfectly safe product which does not have a problem. SHEESH! You continue your delusional rants.

Keep dancing, you are hilarious with your antics.