raccoon

Beware! Your cell may just blow up in your face [ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2004 12:36:44 AM] The Economic Times WASHINGTON: Curtis Sathre said it was like a bomb going off. His 13-year-old son Michael stood stunned, ears ringing, hand gushing blood after his cell phone exploded. Safety officials have received 83 reports of cell phones exploding or catching fire in the past two years, usually because of bad batteries or chargers. Burns to the face, neck, leg and hip are among the dozens of injury reports the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received. The agency is providing tips for cell phone users to avoid such accidents and has stepped up oversight of the wireless industry. There have been three voluntary battery recalls, and the CPSC is working with companies to create better battery standards. “CPSC is receiving more and more reports of incidents involving cell phones, and we’re very concerned of the potential for more serious injuries or more fires,” said agency spokesman Scott Wolfson. US phone makers say most fires and explosions are caused by counterfeit batteries and note that in a country with some 170m cell phone users, the number of accidents is extremely low. “Is it a problem? It has turned up, you bet. But statistically it is extraordinarily rare,” said John Walls, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Consumer advocates say the cause goes beyond bad batteries making their way to the market. They point to the increasing pressure on battery and phone makers to fit more capabilities into small instruments. “If you’re cramming more and more power in a small space, you’re making a small bomb,” said Carl Hilliard, president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance. Though legitimate batteries can go wrong, there is a greater chance that counterfeit ones will lack safety devices to detect overheating or overcharging. The lithium-ion batteries can overheat if heat vents are covered. The CPSC is trying to determine if improved venting is enough by itself to ensure safety. “We have seen temperatures as high as 600 degrees, and you can have a torch-like effect if these batteries don’t function properly,” Mr Wolfson said. The commission has announced three battery recalls since January, one from Verizon Wireless and two from Kyocera Wireless. Kyocera’s first recall was blamed on a supplier whose standards had slipped. The other recalls were attributed to suppliers bringing counterfeits into distribution chains. Kyocera, which recalled 1m batteries last month, said it has changed vendors and doubled efforts to test its own batteries. Hoping to address problems that may lie beyond their supply lines, members of the wireless industry began collaborating last week with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standard-setting organisation, to create voluntary design and performance standards for all batteries. “There needs to be high-quality batteries for these cell phones. You have a lot of power in a very small product, so it’s really key,” said Mr Wolfson of the CPSC, which is participating in the meetings between wireless industry members and IEEE. Carriers and manufacturers also are urging cellular users to exercise reasonable care of batteries, chargers and phones and to purchase them directly from phone companies rather than second-hand dealers or off the internet. But even following those recommendations sometimes isn’t enough, as bad products inevitably find their way onto store shelves. Angela Karasek, a 21-year-old paralegal in Philadelphia, bought her Motorola phone and battery together from a Nextel store. She awoke one night a few weeks ago to what she described as a pinging sound and then saw fire. Her cell phone battery had blown out, igniting a doll about three feet away. She ran to her parents’ room for help, and her father quickly put out the fire. “I’m just a light sleeper, and for some reason I sat up and saw all the flames on the doll,” Ms Karasek said. Marcelino Gonzalez of Brentwood, NY, said he suffered second-degree burns after his Kyocera phone exploded in his hand as he turned it on to make a call. “If it was to my face it would have blown up in my face,” said Mr Gonzalez, 62, who has contacted a lawyer. Michael Sathre, who is expected to fully recover from his wounds, was picking his fully charged Verizon LG cell phone off the floor when it exploded by his side. The family chose not to sue and has instead allowed the companies involved and a consumer group to come to their house to study the damage, in the hopes it won’t happen to someone else. “It took my son two months to decide to even be near a cell phone,” said his mother, Cris. “But he needs one.”

What they are charging is another matter ...but they MUST make it possible for users to check their data usage! Beware guys ...else you will not know what hit you when you get the bill at the end of the month!!

Sorry ...yes, I realised that myself ...in the hurry I took it to be for the ringtone thingy...

EEPROM, as usual you have raised a very intresting point! Perhaps that poor boy never sent the alleged stuff ....perhaps he was framed? Hmm ...perhaps you framed him? Reminds me about the story of the celebrated American geek Patrick Naughton (co dev. of Sun Java) & the child porno case ...and the way he argued how porn came on his comp, unbeknown to him! As technology gets more complex, you can fix stuff so that it can get very diffiuclt to prove things 'beyond reasonable doubt'...

I dont think it would be per month! If that were so then we would have to wait for the next month before the quota is renewed! No Rimweb for us for weeks at a stretch then!

Oops, yes! But as usual they give very little detail!

Seems its official now... Todays Indian Exp carries a full page ad: SMS VZ to 1234 on your RIM Phone and you could meet Veer & Zaara. No other details, not even charges, ...nothing! Yuckkk!

Just tried the POP3 ...though Im able to retrieve mails, Im unable to send any mails using Gmail's SMTP server! Checked the settings thrice in my MS Outlook. Is it working smoothy for you guys?

Man has long believed that laws will curb "misdeeds". Hasn't worked till now ...else we would be in paradise! Cellphones only for adults ...because of such incidences??? Now thats like throwing the baby with the bathwater! Besides you think adults will not do something similar ...or worse?

Why make only Reliance the black sheep? For years they (BSNL) have exploited and harassed... Try dealing with with them ...you will have a tough time deciding who is worse!

Ya, I saw that ...definitely seems that way Beetle. Chiraag, its kinda similar to email ...if you know what I mean... But the mechanics of it dosent help the fact that it still makes life difficult for users...

I sent a message to myself. This is how it displays: INTERACTIVE 02:11 am Nov 24 MESSAGE 0937XXXXXXX: Hows this as an example frm me? - Racoon When I tried the "Reply" option, it displays "No reply phone number received." So as you say EEPROM, apparently the "from" number is not revealed ...or rather it seems its revealed (as its clearly showing above) but its not being recieved in the "headers" (and thats why the "From" function is not working). Perhaps its just being sent as a part of the message body? Either way the senders number seems to be revealed ...so its not right to say that the Message Centre is not revealing the "from" number, right? This will definitely make life a bit difficult for us, as the senders name will not display from the addr book & we cant use the "Reply" f(x) either ...but then in RD 2030 you can't get a delivery receipt if you use "Reply" ...so at least I never use it anyway! RIM .......arrrggggggggggg!!!

arey yaar even 2280 supports 160 ch and can send 10 messages at once. well now reliance introducing 3105 and 2112 i am dead sure these phones will supports 160 characters, lets wait for nokia phones to be launched by reliance and we will get everything wat gsm users gets . 19794[/snapback] How will just the launch of these handsets solve all RIM problems??? No ways it will "get us EVERTHING that GSM users get"! I'v already mentioned the n+1 issues ...so I better not repeat here...

Yes, 16 chord polyphonic ...like the RD 2030. But I really wonder if they deliberately make it sound so ambigious...

Anybody on prepaid has tried to get ringtones this way? How are they charging? I tried getting a couple of ringtones ...but they are really sad.

Lemme add: NO yahoo integration, bad highway coverage, no SMS thru web, handsets, network & tariffs very SMS unfriendly, incoming SMSes beyond 140/160 characters will go into oblivion, handsets have poor battery life, rotten ringtones, very inflexible policies, latest features like Bluetooth, etc, not availabe in any handset, etc, etc...

Really EEPROM, these guys are masochists ...why stick on to something which is making you so miserable??? Yes, you would loose your free SMS and your number ...but you cant have it all!!! Quitting rather than cribbing can be lot more effective! PS. and don't pay your bills on the way out (esp. if u think RIM ripped u off)...

You mean to say you would be charged/billed only if you click on the "Save" option??? I was under the impression that you would be charged for sending the SMS request for the rightone?! If that is true, then its great because then you could actually check out if you like the ringtone ...and you pay only if you want to keep it...

Did you try more than once at a different time with a different ringtone ID?

Mayank, thats strange! Can you explain what exactly you are doing? As I said earlier, MMSing a ringtone recieved this way dosent seem to be possible because it dosent get deposited in the MMS inbox! You will need to get it yourself ...else someone with a ringtone in his MMS inbox could fwd it to u.

Tried it, and it worked ...got the Lucky Ali ringtone. But dosent sound so good on my RD 2030... Unfortunately it seems its not coming as an MMS ...so can't fwd those ringtones to other phones thru MMS either...

Hes perhaps talking about POP3 access from the mail app. in R World ...not WAP. Anybody tried that?

Unfortunately that is true. But to get around it you could send it from different ids (which is a pain) ...and also Yahoo seems to "forget" about the messages you sent after few days/weeks. Those who have Sancharnet (BSNL) ISP accounts - its perhaps currently the best option for sending SMSes thru net (email) ...and just for 30 paise (deducted from your balance). Most other paid SMS sites seem to charge much more ...like Rediff charges 1 buck. Another site Im just trying out - www.sms.ac. It seems to be working pretty well too. But seems they give you limited free messages... Not working for RIM phones though.

Basant, how can that be possible? Can one use a RIM recharge voucher to refill a Tata Indicom mobile? And Id think there would be a lot of "benifit" cus as of now, Reliance is very, very inflexible with its policies. This new system should certainly make things more flexible.

I belive I saw a non OEM data cable for the LG 5130 on Baazee, yesterday. Obviously, it was priced much less... Check out the stuff there before paying almost 1.5 K for a @&$#! data cable to Reliance.