Wait, so they're spending millions of dollars recalling adapters that are only dangerous if they are *physically broken*?
One would assume that a physically broken adapter would no longer be functioning at the designed specifications in the first place. Unless it's a design flaw in and of itself causing these adapters to break, how can a product engineer be expected and responsible for designing around every possible unknown way an adapter can break?
I mean, is Apple responsible if you run it over with your car and then plug it in, and some smooshed wires start a fire?
If you design a car that explodes every time it's broken a certain way and that normally it shouldn't because it's a design flaw. Should you recall that car because of that flaw or just ignore it?
Seems about the same here, a design flaw that makes the adapters dangerous if it brakes in a specific way.
Forget about money or PR, morally, if you design something dangerous and know how to fix that flaw, it's the right thing to do.
maybe it becomes dangerous in a way that is not clearly externally visible e.g. when falling, an event after which most adapters (and laptops too) aren't damage. That's a problem.
Basic principles of Health and Safety law - your products should be designed, as far as possible, so that if someone does something stupid with them they will still be safe. That's the reason we call the things they put in place to ensure that happens "failsafes", not "failsplosions".
Certainly in the EU there are regulations to say that if an electrical item breaks it should not short out, or catch fire, or give anyone an electric shock.
Some problems are unavoidable. Some are avoidable. In the general case manufacturers have a duty to ensure that avoidable problems are avoided, even when someone's done something stupid with them.
> Certainly in the EU there are regulations to say that if an electrical item breaks it should not short out, or catch fire, or give anyone an electric shock.
Absolutely but that does not really apply to this case.
> Some problems are unavoidable. Some are avoidable. In the general case manufacturers have a duty to ensure that avoidable problems are avoided, even when someone's done something stupid with them.
That's US thinking. Pretty much everywhere else in the world a manufacturer may assume common sense and is not responsible for damage caused by abuse or even just misuse of their product. Heck, it is not even necessary to put disclaimers in the product documentation for the dumbest possible unintentional use to prevent some arseholes from legally exploiting any lack of such.
Most likely this is just a preemptive goodwill measure of Apple to prevent negative publicity and and more likely they're going to subrogate against the manufacturer of the "duckheads".
You sound like the type of guy who is going to get me killed when I am just trying to save time and get to work. Remove those labels and then I won't know not to iron my shirt while wearing it as I stand in the shower holding my toaster so I can snarf it down as soon as it's done. You wouldn't believe how much time all of that saves.
>> Wait, so they're spending millions of dollars recalling adapters... is Apple responsible if you [start a fire out of stupidity]
It's not a matter of assigning fault or blame. It's just risk management.
I'm certain that Apple is issuing the recall because some number-cruncher somewhere inside Apple determined that it would cost less money to issue a recall; than it would cost to deal with the alternative (defending lawsuits, negative PR, potential damages, etc).
Because this involves risk of fire or electrical shock, it also means that someone could get seriously injured or die. And once you start getting into personal harm or death, a single lawsuit could cost millions of dollars.
Not to mention the negative PR backlash if something were to happen, if Apple did nothing. I mean, could you imagine the reaction if the news headlines were "3 People Dead from Faulty Apple Laptop Charger. Apple Was Aware of Issue, and Did Nothing."
Apple fanboy: I use a Mac. Macs don't get viruses. Windows fanboy: I use Windows. A Windows laptop won't set my sh*t on fire and kill everyone in my house.
I don't know the real cause, but if those prongs break to socket and user tries to remove them while powered... And all Apple customers are not sober adults with full cognitive capabilities.
Funny how this compares to the Steve Jobs death. Then there was "thumb stone" for a month covering full apple.com, now small blue text at the bottom...
I bet you have no idea what you're talking about. Apple basically invented this (completely underestimated) technology of integrating a changeable plug into the power adapter. And it's ingenious for a number of reasons, not only for the users but also Apple and I really wonder why only few other companies (like Microsoft for the Surface) copied it and are in the vast majority producing fugly bricks with a socket for a separate power cord instead.
The problem here is that (unlike the US where the prongs are metal and do not (and not have to) provide touch protection) the CEE 7/16 "Euro plug" is required to be made mostly of non-conductive material to provide full touch protection. The usual way to produce those is by moulding and as usual plastic is prone to wearing and tearing when not properly reinforced which is the reason for this recall.
If I had to hazard a guess I'd say that >99% of all produced Euro plugs are prone to the exact same problem, potentially even much worse than the Apple versions (I destroyed at least 4 of them myself by accident, none of them Apple made) since producing in China is all about the price and reinforced plugs don't fit in that picture.
It's not particularly impressive to have a standardized plug mechanism where it can be sold in multiple different plug styles that just pull off and plug back on. Those "fugly bricks" you mention have the same thing except the "duckhead" is called a "cable" and you just pick up a local one when you want to run your device in a new country. I did this when I moved to Switzerland - just stopped in a local electronics store and bought a new laptop cable with the Swiss plug, cost me all of 10CHF. While there's more than one style of cable, the number of styles is far lower than the number of laptop manufacturers. With Apple, they've always had tight control over their hardware so it's not surprising they can standardize things with themselves.
The other nice thing about cables? They take up the least amount of space on a power strip. The duckheads put the power converter right on the strip, how is that possibly a fantastic idea. If you want to avoid that, then you need the cable from Apple and oh look, now you've just bought two things.
> It's not particularly impressive to have a standardized plug mechanism where it can be sold in multiple different plug styles that just pull off and plug back on. Those "fugly bricks" you mention have the same thing except the "duckhead" is called a "cable" and you just pick up a local one when you want to run your device in a new country.
Guess what, you can actually connect a regular ungrounded cable to the Apple power bricks as well if you like unwieldy solutions. Everything else you said is true for Apple PSUs as well.
The nice thing about the Apple solution is you can *either* use the duckhead (for a all-in-one ungrounded connection) *or* use the cable and get the little unwieldy but grounded connectivity e.g. for desktop use -- unlike other vendors this will actually also provide proper grounding to the casing.
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meacupla - Thursday, January 28, 2016 - link
If the NA version is not included, I take it that the adapter itself is fine, but the pronged part shorts out when broken?Ryan Smith - Thursday, January 28, 2016 - link
That would seem to be the case.Mushkins - Thursday, January 28, 2016 - link
Wait, so they're spending millions of dollars recalling adapters that are only dangerous if they are *physically broken*?One would assume that a physically broken adapter would no longer be functioning at the designed specifications in the first place. Unless it's a design flaw in and of itself causing these adapters to break, how can a product engineer be expected and responsible for designing around every possible unknown way an adapter can break?
I mean, is Apple responsible if you run it over with your car and then plug it in, and some smooshed wires start a fire?
Le Québécois - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
That's a good question.If you design a car that explodes every time it's broken a certain way and that normally it shouldn't because it's a design flaw. Should you recall that car because of that flaw or just ignore it?
Seems about the same here, a design flaw that makes the adapters dangerous if it brakes in a specific way.
Forget about money or PR, morally, if you design something dangerous and know how to fix that flaw, it's the right thing to do.
Paul Tarnowski - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
All glass products everywhere that are not made of safety glass will now need to be recalled. It's just the right thing to do.Meaker10 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
Glass is obviously dangerous, an adapter plugged into the wall may not be.willis936 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
I don't think you need to be an electrical engineer to know that what you just said lacks common sense.Kvaern2 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
When something is broken it does things it shouldn't or nothing at all. That's kinda why we put the label broken on it.Murloc - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
maybe it becomes dangerous in a way that is not clearly externally visible e.g. when falling, an event after which most adapters (and laptops too) aren't damage. That's a problem.mkaibear - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
Basic principles of Health and Safety law - your products should be designed, as far as possible, so that if someone does something stupid with them they will still be safe. That's the reason we call the things they put in place to ensure that happens "failsafes", not "failsplosions".Certainly in the EU there are regulations to say that if an electrical item breaks it should not short out, or catch fire, or give anyone an electric shock.
Some problems are unavoidable. Some are avoidable. In the general case manufacturers have a duty to ensure that avoidable problems are avoided, even when someone's done something stupid with them.
Daniel Egger - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
> Certainly in the EU there are regulations to say that if an electrical item breaks it should not short out, or catch fire, or give anyone an electric shock.Absolutely but that does not really apply to this case.
> Some problems are unavoidable. Some are avoidable. In the general case manufacturers have a duty to ensure that avoidable problems are avoided, even when someone's done something stupid with them.
That's US thinking. Pretty much everywhere else in the world a manufacturer may assume common sense and is not responsible for damage caused by abuse or even just misuse of their product. Heck, it is not even necessary to put disclaimers in the product documentation for the dumbest possible unintentional use to prevent some arseholes from legally exploiting any lack of such.
Most likely this is just a preemptive goodwill measure of Apple to prevent negative publicity and and more likely they're going to subrogate against the manufacturer of the "duckheads".
masouth - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
You sound like the type of guy who is going to get me killed when I am just trying to save time and get to work. Remove those labels and then I won't know not to iron my shirt while wearing it as I stand in the shower holding my toaster so I can snarf it down as soon as it's done. You wouldn't believe how much time all of that saves.kent1146 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
>> Wait, so they're spending millions of dollars recalling adapters... is Apple responsible if you [start a fire out of stupidity]It's not a matter of assigning fault or blame. It's just risk management.
I'm certain that Apple is issuing the recall because some number-cruncher somewhere inside Apple determined that it would cost less money to issue a recall; than it would cost to deal with the alternative (defending lawsuits, negative PR, potential damages, etc).
Because this involves risk of fire or electrical shock, it also means that someone could get seriously injured or die. And once you start getting into personal harm or death, a single lawsuit could cost millions of dollars.
Not to mention the negative PR backlash if something were to happen, if Apple did nothing. I mean, could you imagine the reaction if the news headlines were "3 People Dead from Faulty Apple Laptop Charger. Apple Was Aware of Issue, and Did Nothing."
kent1146 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
On the flip side, you could also imagine saying:Apple fanboy: I use a Mac. Macs don't get viruses.
Windows fanboy: I use Windows. A Windows laptop won't set my sh*t on fire and kill everyone in my house.
mkozakewich - Saturday, January 30, 2016 - link
Actually, it will. Microsoft has also recalled faulty AC cables that can cause sparking if damaged in a certain way.DominionSeraph - Saturday, January 30, 2016 - link
>Unless it's a design flaw in and of itself causing these adapters to breakDuh.
You're kinda slow, aren't you?
tbone213 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
Does it include the corded adaptors???Ryan Smith - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
No, only the duckheads themselves are affected.Anato - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
I don't know the real cause, but if those prongs break to socket and user tries to remove them while powered... And all Apple customers are not sober adults with full cognitive capabilities.Funny how this compares to the Steve Jobs death. Then there was "thumb stone" for a month covering full apple.com, now small blue text at the bottom...
name99 - Friday, January 29, 2016 - link
I bet Apple is now wishing they hadn't used THIS guy to design the adaptor!https://twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/6914449055...
alin - Saturday, January 30, 2016 - link
OMG! Perfect example of a simple design, made stupidly complex just because "we can". Way to go Apple. Just as always you go the extra mile.Daniel Egger - Sunday, January 31, 2016 - link
I bet you have no idea what you're talking about. Apple basically invented this (completely underestimated) technology of integrating a changeable plug into the power adapter. And it's ingenious for a number of reasons, not only for the users but also Apple and I really wonder why only few other companies (like Microsoft for the Surface) copied it and are in the vast majority producing fugly bricks with a socket for a separate power cord instead.The problem here is that (unlike the US where the prongs are metal and do not (and not have to) provide touch protection) the CEE 7/16 "Euro plug" is required to be made mostly of non-conductive material to provide full touch protection. The usual way to produce those is by moulding and as usual plastic is prone to wearing and tearing when not properly reinforced which is the reason for this recall.
If I had to hazard a guess I'd say that >99% of all produced Euro plugs are prone to the exact same problem, potentially even much worse than the Apple versions (I destroyed at least 4 of them myself by accident, none of them Apple made) since producing in China is all about the price and reinforced plugs don't fit in that picture.
joex4444 - Sunday, January 31, 2016 - link
It's not particularly impressive to have a standardized plug mechanism where it can be sold in multiple different plug styles that just pull off and plug back on. Those "fugly bricks" you mention have the same thing except the "duckhead" is called a "cable" and you just pick up a local one when you want to run your device in a new country. I did this when I moved to Switzerland - just stopped in a local electronics store and bought a new laptop cable with the Swiss plug, cost me all of 10CHF. While there's more than one style of cable, the number of styles is far lower than the number of laptop manufacturers. With Apple, they've always had tight control over their hardware so it's not surprising they can standardize things with themselves.The other nice thing about cables? They take up the least amount of space on a power strip. The duckheads put the power converter right on the strip, how is that possibly a fantastic idea. If you want to avoid that, then you need the cable from Apple and oh look, now you've just bought two things.
Daniel Egger - Sunday, January 31, 2016 - link
> It's not particularly impressive to have a standardized plug mechanism where it can be sold in multiple different plug styles that just pull off and plug back on. Those "fugly bricks" you mention have the same thing except the "duckhead" is called a "cable" and you just pick up a local one when you want to run your device in a new country.Guess what, you can actually connect a regular ungrounded cable to the Apple power bricks as well if you like unwieldy solutions. Everything else you said is true for Apple PSUs as well.
The nice thing about the Apple solution is you can *either* use the duckhead (for a all-in-one ungrounded connection) *or* use the cable and get the little unwieldy but grounded connectivity e.g. for desktop use -- unlike other vendors this will actually also provide proper grounding to the casing.
alexmckay - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Wow I'm glad my Mac wasn't included in this, I would have never known.