Apple Tried to Silence Exploding iPod Victim with Gagging Order
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 3rd Aug 2009 08:47 UTC, submitted by anonymous
Apple I think we just found out why we aren't hearing more stories of exploding and burning iPods. Ken Stanborough had to throw his daughter Ellie's iPod Touch outside, because it got too hot to hold, and he could see vapour. Within 30 seconds, he could see smoke, he heard a pop, and the Touch went 10ft into the air. After contacting Apple, the company denied liability, but offered a refund. However, Apple said that in accepting the money, Stanborough was not allowed to talk about the existence of the agreement - or else Apple would sue him. Update: Apple told Sky News Online that the letter with the gagging order is standard practice.

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RE: Whenever I see stories...
by andydread on Mon 3rd Aug 2009 12:39 UTC in reply to "Whenever I see stories..."
andydread
Member since:
2009-02-02

...like this I think about all those Windows PC's I've removed viruses from over the years where I've asked people things like "what have you been using the machine for" and "have you been keeping your virus scanners up to date" to be given answers like "I only use it for internet browsing and email" and "yes I update the virus scanner all the time" to find that there are numerous PTP apps, online poker games and every variety of instant messenger known to man, the firewall is disabled and the virus scanner was last updated in October 1998.

In other words, how much of the story are we hearing?

Had the cute innocent 11 year old inadvertently taken the thing into the shower, forced the wrong plug up it's tail, sat it on the sandwich press while she was making the sandwich to put in there, had it plugged in to charge while listening to it when she was out sun bathing on a hot humid summer's day?

The problem with these sorts of stories is that the "victims" will rarely if ever tell the whole truth because just as with the computer loaded with viruses they don't want to look like a complete idiot for doing the wrong thing in the first place - a factor the governing safety body considers when assessing these things. In a case like this there is no proof she wasn't doing the wrong thing, only her word and the word of her father, so Apple's response to offer a refund was from their position a fair and reasonable gesture, and for the exact reason demonstrated by this article - trial by the media without evidence - they require that the incident remains unpublicised.

Sadly the majority of the journalistic community overlook THEIR moral obligation to ensure there is evidence before openly attacking others - oh wait that's right - freedom of the press - hmmm. If there is evidence to prove this story then yes it can rightly be said that Apple have tried to suppress it. But there certainly isn't any evidence in the journalistic messterpiece that is the original article, and without evidence its just fud - believed only by those who themselves engage in posting it...


Blame the victims, blame the press. The rational of some of the die hard apple cultists is amazing to me. So Apple makes a faulty product (not on purpose), finds out its faulty, threatens with a letter for the customer to shut up and be silent and its the victims fault? Oh and the evil non Apple press for reporting something that does not jive with Apple. You rush to defend Apple in this situation is baffling.

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