Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Q. Hi Kim. I recently read on your Breaking Tech News Page that a woman in China was A. You're not alone. Many people are concerned about the scary details in this story, including Apple itself.
In July alone, there were two reports of serious injury and death resulting from answering an iPhone: Ma Ailun was killed by electric shock on July 18. She answered her iPhone while it was still on the charger. Meanwhile, a man in China was also shocked and is in a coma after he connected his phone to the charger.
What gives? Who is responsible?
It turns out it's not the iPhone, but the knockoff chargers the victims were using. People often buy these to avoid the cost of the real deal.
These shady chargers are cheaply made and sidestep safety regulations, making them quite dangerous. Therefore Apple has released several statements urging users to beware of knockoff chargers.
So, how can you avoid them? I understand that buying a knockoff or no-name brand of phone charger is tempting. After all, everyone wants to save money, and paying $1 for a charger is a lot more enticing than paying $20. But this is a corner I wouldn't cut.
Cheap chargers could cause your electric bill to go sky high. Also, your phone could overheat, cause a fire, or as we've seen now, can even kill you.
At first glance any charger could look like the real deal. Sure, it's only $2 and looks exactly like what you need. But if you dig a little bit deeper, you'll see that there are a lot of little differences.
For starters, if it's $2, it's probably too good to be true.
Next, take a look at the markings on the outside of the charger. Does it say "Designed by Apple" or "Designed by Abble"? Knockoffs are usually plagued with misspellings and mistranslations. Bad grammar should be a strong hint.
If you have an iPhone 5 or new iPad, it uses the Lightning connector. You won't have to try so hard to decide if it's genuine. These cables have authentication chips installed to ensure your safety. Only Apple-approved suppliers can get the chips.
electrocuted when she answered her iPhone while it was charging. How common is this problem? What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen to me?