IPhone 3GS has overheating problem | Hacker News Reader

IPhone 3GS has overheating problem

news.com.au

23 pointsnreece11 comments

> Another person on Perenson's blog wrote: “I had my iPhone under my pillow playing music through the headphones for a nap, I awoke with a sharp pain on my left arm under the pillow. I had been burned from the iPhone getting so hot."

This might be part of the problem. User behavior does matter.

Sounds like a manufacturing (or sourced part) problem for a few of the phones. Not terribly surprising.

Somehow the issue gets amplified with the level of secrecy Apple maintains. Some are rather quick in assuming it's a cover-up of some sort.

Ok, more info from my friend: the device is very hot, the radio transimtter appears to be always on (if you bring the iPhone near to an FM radio you'll 'hear' the sound of the phone transmitting forever, even in standby). He can call but can't receive calls, sms, ... Very odd. I've an iPhone 3G and I didn't noticed any of this problems even after the 3.0 update indeed.

> He can call but can't receive calls, sms, ... Very odd

So, in essence, your friend has a malfunctioning phone.

How many iPhone 3GS devices are out there now? Over a million? Given that some portion of the stock will be defective, let's say one in every few thousand, you're going to have hundreds or thousands of devices with major problems.

From the symptoms described above and in the article, it sounds like some combination of software and hardware is causing these phones to burn through battery power at an alarming rate. Ok, fine. So tell your friend to take it to a Genius Bar and let us know if Apple states that this overheating is expected behavior.

Given all that Apple is stuffing into these devices, I'm surprised they work so well for the vast majority of users.

- written from an iPhone 3GS

follow the money: Who stands to benefit from unconfirmed negative Apple rumors?

maybe but a friend of mine has an iPhone 3GS and the other day was telling me by phone about this problem. He is a tech guy and knows it's ok for a device to get a bit hot, but his iPhone was just too hot to be ok.

I've been using mine for about a week and it gets a little warm when playing games, but actually less warm than I remember the iPhone EDGE getting after I'd been using it for an extended clip.

Perhaps there's a problem with some of the phones and not others?

After long sessions of UniWar my EDGE would get super hot.

Have not noticed the same with my 3GS.

That's ridiculous. These are reports from users. True, they are purely anecdotal, but that doesn't mean it's some conspiracy perpetrated by a competitor.

Think logically about this. Apple is not infallible. They can and do make mistakes. Glitches are very common in new gadgets and overheating is always a problem when you're dealing with components that generate heat. It's only made more difficult when you're dealing with a small, enclosed device with components tightly packed together. This is a plausible and very familiar story. Could it be possible that some people are having real problems with overheating?

If the new iPhones are, in fact, overheating Apple should be called out and given an opportunity to respond. Automatically assuming that any criticism of Apple is a ruse designed to discredit them is not only foolish but counter-productive. How are they supposed to get better if their own supporters are willing to overlook and excuse their mistakes?

>These are reports from users<

Users, like blog authors, may or may not be independent. They can have agendas of their own or be hired/paid to say certain things.

Also, I sure hope it is not true (or at least not an inherent issue in the design). I have a 3GS on my birthday list and am really excited to upgrade from my iPhone EDGE.

RIM, Palm, Microsoft, Google to name a few. Not to mention News.com.au who will make money from running the actual story.

Still, even the three I mentioned won't really benefit too much as there still is no clear #2 competitor for the iPhone.

One of the 'reports' was someone who buried their iPhone under a pillow and took a nap. I don't know about you but a music device, under a hot pillow with a hot head on top for a couple hours smells like a recipe for a hot ... anything.

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