Leading the charge of new tablets, the iPad Air has been selling like hot cakes. Yeah it's a really hot, so hot in fact it exploded at a Vodaphone store in Australia, earlier this week.
Sparks have been flying over the new super thin tablet, in fact instead of sparking debate, the iPad Air charger sparked a fire.The fire department was called and they doused the flames and the store was evacuated.
There have been other problems with chargers and Apple devices, such as a Chinese woman who was killed by shock when answering a call on an iPhone.
Apple later claimed that the charger may not have been an original Apple charger and started a program for trading in chargers for authentic Apple chargers.
Apple reported that counterfeit chargers may have safety issues while official Apple chargers have been thoroughly tested for safety
The iPad Air has a 64 bit processor, as you move up processor speeds and power, it produces more and more heat. The iPad Air unlike desktop computers does not have fan to cool the processor. This fire however appear to have started from the cable and lightning connector.
An electric shock can go through house wiring. When lightning struck near our office, it shorted out a keyboard, motherboard and scanner. There could have been an electric shock in the Vodaphone store wiring. Also it the model was in constant use int he store, if the wire was damaged the open wire touching a piece of metal of other electric source could have cause the fire.
It is also possible that someone started the fire in the store on purpose.
Apple has not commented on the incident, yet. In the past, Samsung Galaxy S III users reported device explosions which in fact were not true after investigation.
"A burst of flames" appeared from the charging port of an iPad demo model. After the fire fighters arrived sparks continue to come out of the port. An Apple rep was sent to the store to investigate.
Meanwhile, don't get the iPad air confused with the new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 which has a much brighter screen according to Displaymate and costs over $100 less.