Apple iPad overheat issue draws lawsuit
I remember my senior year high school physics competition where I managed to boil a half-liter bottle of water (painted black) in under 7 minutes using my mother’s cooking wok covered by some reflective tin foil. With that lesson in mind, it comes as no surprise to me that you can get just about any electronics device to overheat in the sun but that fact doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to the lawyers suing over the iPad.
Anyone that reads me regularly know that I’m not a mindless fanboi of Apple that defends the indefensible from Apple. We’ve given plenty of critical coverage to antennagate but this overheating lawsuit just seems silly. The iPad by all measurements seems to be a device that draws around 2 watts of power so it is very unlikely to overheat under any reasonable operating condition.
The biggest complaint seems to be from beach goers who want to read their iPad on the beach and bake in the sun. But the iPad isn’t designed to be read in the sun since it isn’t a reflective display technology so that seems like a moot point. I’m not even sure if the device can tolerate the sand. I brought a digital camera to the beach a few years ago and the sand literally seized up the zoom lens. If the issue is advertising, that might be a good point but I don’t really recall too many ads with the iPad outdoors. At worst, Apple (or anyone else making this new tablet form factor) should be required to make it clear in their advertising that their device is only for indoors.
This is an abuse of our court system. I feel that who ever brought this lawsuit should be held accountable for the court and legal costs. This is completely unwarranted and should fall under common sense.
I have used my iPad outside several times without a problem, but I don’t do it under direct sunlight. First, because the weather is pretty warm right now and I want to stay in the shade. Second, if I am outside to enjoy the weather instead of messing around with a electronic device.
More power to those who want to blind themselves using an iPad in direct sunlight. I can’t advise it, and I don’t know of anyone with the slighted understanding of thermal dynamics who would.
I suppose that if I place an iPod in a freezer, it would get cold. Or if I use my MacBook in a shower, that device might get wet. Should Apple be liable for this as well?
Shower is less likely, but I’m sure they’ll complain that it doesn’t work in the rain.
Now there are Apple products with far worse overheating issues. We’re talking perfectly normal indoor operating conditions. Example; http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2009/01/password-cracking-vs-cpu-throttling.html
In reading your article, it occurred to me that perhaps the focus of the lawsuit was unclear. The lawsuit alleged false advertising claims insofar as Apple has marketed the product as being readily usable in outdoor conditions and/or in warmer indoor conditions, while reports of the iPad being unsuitable for those purposes are prevalent on the internet. Indeed, our own investigation reveals that the product is virtually unusable in many normal conditions, even when temperature conditions are far less extreme than set forth (e.g., the 95 degree F. limitation) on Apple’s website. Indeed, we even have reports of the unit shutting down inside the home while merely sitting atop the user’s lap. Moreover, our lawsuit does not ask Apple to re-invent or even necessarily recall the product; it asks the company be accurate in its marketing campaign.
Michael Lubofsky, Esq.
Scott Cole & Associates, APC
Class Action Attorneys
Telephone: (510) 891-9800
Facsimile: (510) 891-7030
I’m vacationing along lake superior in upper peninsula Michigan. Temperature is probably 75-80 degrees — quite mild and wonderful. Were camping so brought along the iPad. Has just been wonderful. Had a huge scare yesterday aug. 4th when I used the iPad for no more than 10 minutes in the sun to make a hotel reservation for our trip back home. The iPad overheated. The screen felt like it was 100+ degrees. After letting it cool I turned it back on and it wanted me to sync it to my iTunes —- uh iTunes on my Mac is a few hundred miles away. After leaving it off for a couple of hours it finally turned on ok and didn’t need the sync — great!
Here is my question: why doesn’t my iPhone do this? Afterall isn’t the iPad just one big iPhone? If many of the users of ipads also own iPhones then wouldn’t these users think that you could use the iPad under the same conditions? I mean I’m in the northern most part of the us and it’s mild weather and this happens.
- sent from my iPhone in direct sun light.
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