By We just caught wind of an interesting story over at Droid-Life: a Dallas man – according to Fox – was using a Motorola DROID 2 when it suddenly exploded while it was up to his head, causing him to get 4 stitches. One “sciency” commenter over there believes it’s fake because the damage doesn’t indicate an outward “blast”. The man also doesn’t have health insurance. Their theory is that the hole came from something completely unrelated, so he’d try to blame Motorola and the phone so they could cover his medical costs. (He could also be trying to get a new phone in the process.)
What do you guys think? I’ve never heard of a phone just “exploding” (except for the iPhone, but I have my reservations on that, too), and the damage area just doesn’t make sense. The processor, GPU, and battery are nowhere near the apparent point of “explosion”, and even if they were, I’m certain a “blast” would do more damage to the backside of the phone than the face of it. If any blast did occur, the CPU or GPU would be the most plausible culprits: why is the phone still working? And what are the chances that it would happen as he was talking on the phone? If this story is true, then I feel sorry for him, but I’m just going to take it with a grain of salt for now. We’ll see if Motorola comes out and says anything regarding this. Your thoughts? [Fox for the full video and report]
Calling BS
Why would a CPU or GPU be a culprit in an explosion. There is absolutely NOTHING in them that would blow up (unless you are making processors out of C4 these days). The most likely cause would be battery.
shenanigans!!
Droid phones are officially trying to assimilate us!
Yeah if anything were to blow up, it’d be the battery. Which is on the back of the phone… Not under the glass screen..
That’s why I said it didn’t make sense. The CPU and GPU would be the only things in the area of the explosion. I’m not saying it’s possible for them to blow up, I’m just saying that – if anything – they’d be more likely to do damage than – say – the camera sensor. And I did note that the battery was a candidate, but that it was more toward the bottom of the device where no damage was to be found. (And that’s where I noted that there would be more damage to the back of the phone than anything.)
Check out this slightly-related and titillating article from 1999 about deadly explosions caused by cell phones… http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa062399.htm
heres what happened… idiot dropped his phone.. ok fine… couple days later.. making a phone call while getting in the car.. sliced his ear with the shattered glass…. idiot gets a ‘brilliant’ idea… omg phone exploded in my ear.
Man is full of shit. Any burn marks on anything or is that blood on the phone?
Most likely the other guy in the call sent a bomb by phone!!!
Possibly could be a stress fracture of the screen.
Glass can do funny things (much like you see here) when heated/flexed/etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc6Z2KDIQXY&feature=fvst
The Taliban and the rest of the insurgents are taking advantage of our love for technology. Apparently a Verizon employee who goes by the name of Hamed Aseem Ackmhed decided to plant explosives inside popular Android phones at the same Verizon store where this phone was purchased. Investigators are contacting customers who may have purchased a Droid line of devices during his employment tenure. :)
“calling BS” ????
does BS stand for ‘Bomb Squad’ ?
phones explode every day people ! This is really scary stuff. It’s a communist plot.
@kidd You got it right!
Fox will believe anything if it suicides their agenda.
This is the miltary’s newest weapon for our boys. The problem is when you pull the pin you need to throw it…not put up to your ear. Joun the military son an learn how to use it by the book!
Hmm. I have a droid 2 and have not had any explodiness yet.. I think i will continue to use my phone and in the odd case it does manage to explode out of the front of the screen, sweet because i can sue motorola and get some free moneys. Rock on legal system!
It may be bollocks, but it’s fair and balanced bollocks.
Defiantly BS no way it exploded where the speaker is.
@ImSpartucus & @Simon – Nice try dumbA$$, The “Fox” is a local station. Aren’t you so smart :)
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/Man-hospitalized-after-phone–111203854.html
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2010/12/02/exploding-cell-phone-sends-man-to-hospital/
http://www.wwmt.com/articles/phone-1384522-right-blood.html
Ha! Ha!
Maybe he was talking to a soprano opera singer who wanted to show him her high-pitched-glass-breaking note or maybe an app that resonates the speaker until it explodes! Wouldn’t have happened with Gorilla Glass I guess…
My captivate farted!
I’m with kidd.
Brian K
That was my thoughts.
I can see how it can happen on a glass patio table, place a warm plate on a cool table and the expansion can cause it to shatter, same with a cold object on a warm table.
The phone is a different story. I doubt you could make it crack if you placed an ice cube on it after it sat in your car in the sun and got heated.
This time of the year here in Texas it isn’t all that warm so I doubt it could hot enough even if left in the car but he was getting into the car so the phone hadn’t been in there.
Time will tell.
KM
Looks like something got dropped on the phone the way it shattered. Why are people trying to always blame cellphones for their own stupidity?
fake.
Total BS.
@derrickONLINE SEROUSLY?!?!? how close minded people have become….
I wish I had this technology when I was still in the military. I could have sent this phone to Boin Laden as a present, then repeated called him until the mission was accomplished, talk about sweet!!!
you guys are all dumb. havent you seen the episode of 24 where the bad guy tried to kill the president with a cell phone bomb? its obvious someone is trying to assassinate him
The only thing in that area is the headphone jack. Any bets the jackass plugged something like a 3.5mm power supply plug into the jack, trying to charge the phone? Also, I thought gorilla glass didn’t shatter leaving sharp edges like the glass on an iPhone does. From this distance, it looks like user error and fraud to me.
Love all the comments. Hilarious
Resistance is futile.
Woah, thats crazy.. them droids always be exploded on people for no reason lol.. but uh, is that blood on the top of the screen?
Im with kidd on this one.
Guy dropped his phone, didnt know it was cracked around the ear piece and cut himself using it. Either that or someone punched him in the ear while he was on the phone.
Only thing on the phone capable of actually exploding would be the battery itself and thats at the lower rear portion of the phone. Whats in the area where this phone “exploded”? The speaker???
I was watching the football game when they threw an awesome touchdown pass…It was just *BOOM*, right to the reciever.
Bob…Bob… You there?
My phone farts on a daily basis. I hope one day it doesn’t get constipated or my skull is in serious trouble….lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_glass_breakage
It happens on rare occasions and is a quite plausible explanation, no need to call this guy a liar.
Definitely fake, what else could explode besides the battery? Ive never heard of PCBs or LCDs/LEDs exploding.
I shattered my screen in the EXACT same spot this last month. That cutout area for the ear piece seems to be a weak spot in the gorilla glass. Even dropping it doesn’t cause a break like that. You have to hit it with something harder than the glass exactly along the edge of that cutout. My wedding ring did the deed in my case :S Thank goodness for insurance!
User damage, plain and simple. the glass screen is behind a plastic membrane. if the glass broke on its own the plastic would be intact. If he cut himself the break extends through the plastic.
Looks like he left his smoke on the phone, heat cracked the glass and burned/melted the plastic. But it just a guess :)
the droid phone has obviously gained sentience and was attempting to kill his human overlord
Ok, so let me get this right. His cellphone explodes in his ear causing profuse bleeding and he goes to his wife to get pictures of it first instead of the ER???? I know for one if that happened to me I would be at the ER and let them contact my spouse. Someone needs to get on fark about this one if they have not already. I smell shenanigans.
@OMG Ponies!: Yea, I was thinking an external heat source as well, and you cigarette theory sounds very plausible, as the scorch marks appear to have been caused externally. I don’t believe that is blood for one second. That would also explain why the phone is still functional after the alleged “explosion”.
Ahh yes….drop the phone or had it in his pocket…broke the screen while partying…..made a call…..”omg…..my ears bleeding” …. “I know just what to do”
Only way I can think it could’ve been an explosion was if the case is that strong that the battery exploded but left the case in tact and the only place for the explosion to go was out through the ear piece cracking the screen and hitting his ear…yea right.
the guy looks like an idiot has a head doctored up by an ambulance chaser and clearly is pathetic if it did explode it was due to darwins ghost expediting the process
Did any one note, his wife is a “school teacher” and he had no health care coverage? Why not? Did his wife’s employer or his employer (who ever that is) not offer any health care coverage?
Also, yes, glass can break “spontaneously” as a result of improper annealing, but that is usually with in HOURS of being taken out of the kiln. Good call from NeoteriX, but I actually work with heating and cooling glass. I’m going to call that possibility null in this case. I’ve made that mistake to my glass before, cool stuff to watch happen. But it would have never have survived the rest of the production and transport process.
Why exactly is there blood on the phone itself? If something explodes in your ear, are you going to keep holding against your head long enough for blood to get on it? And where exactly did the explosion come from, the speaker? Calling BS.
I saw this on the news this morning. I have to think it’s BS, however, if you look at the blood spatter on the phone and you see the guys ear/temple area, it looks like it could be real. This is a case for CSI!
As for taking pictures of it first before the ER as SouthernBelle stated….that is exactly what you should do in a case like this. How do you come up with proof it actually happened otherwise? They absolutely did the right thing if in fact it is real.
http://desiredcreations.com/misc_spontglass.htm
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22911606/detail.html
Tempered glass (and other types) can spontaneously explode.
is Gorilla Glass a type of tempered glass? I have no idea. But this story is well within the realm of the possible.
Why doesn’t this man have a serious ear injury? Something is fishy here.
How did this guy get an Iphone app on his Droid phone cause I’m pretty sure it was an Iphone app that made it blow up.
I call BBBBBBSSSSS!!!
I call BS on this!
Not saying anything about this guy’s phone and alleged explosion but I’ve had a glass container go off from heat stress, sounded like an M80 fire cracker going off. Won’t give details ’cause I was an idiot. Just never mistake a dish thinking it’s Pyrex and it isn’t. :-/
Now for the rest of the story…..Guy was at home…mad girlfriend comes over and whacks him upside his big head…he gets in the car to go to his wife’s work…tells her it is a phone explosion…she believes him..still doesn’t know about the girlfriend..What a retard..or is he?
This man fell on his phone and busted his head lol best guess i have.
That popping noise was his wife slapping him along the side of his head,after she said she needed to talk to him and he was to slow ending the call.
I hope motorola doesnt buckle and fights this. Either he cant afford his bill, doesnt like the phone, dropped it or just wants his day on the sun… Fast money
LAW ABIDING CITZEN WHAT? nah this is BULLSHIT. you fat fuck you dropped your phone reaching for a french fry while driving. you broke the screen and you cut your ear on the glass when you tried to still talk on it while still driving.
i dont even own a DX and i know theres no fuckign way that shit happened. More retards trying to get money off big companies. Hell remember the taco bell/wendys (i forget which one it was) finger incident? complete horse shit
should’ve killed him! One less BSing idiot on the planet
GORILLA GLASS!!!! explosions should not penetrate it! lol. but stabbing it with a nail and hammer might do the trick to give it that nice puncture.
I have worked in the glass industry for over 20 years and have on occasion seen glass spontaneously explode. But it has ALWAYS been TEMPERED glass! As you can see by the cracks on his screen, the glass is NOT tempered. If it was, it would have completely shattered, not cracked. My opinion…he is FOS.
It seems a ruse. As numerous other observations have been stated, any explosive item, if any would at all, are not in this area. Sounds like another typical lawyer or politician selling their moral and ethical values in the Metroplex.
Motorola is the codename for Skynet! We are dead, we are all dead!!!
hmmm, looks like he dropped his phone and staged this “accident”. either that, or it was karma telling him that he shouldn’t be talking on the phone while driving. imagine if he had killed someone because he was too preoccupied with talking on his cellphone and not watching the road. perhaps he should be charged for potential reckless endangerment?
The injury of Aron Embry was to his left ear. Perhaps a coincidence, the pattern of blood residue on the phone resembles that which would habe been made by a right ear. The investigation of evidence will eventually lead to the true story of what happened.
This requires Dexter Morgan to investigate the crime scene and the blood splatter pattern, and Dr. G to tell us if his wounds are caused by glass cut or explosion. I have a Droid 2 phone, too, and I just don’t see how it could explode. I talked up to 3 hours once and it didn’t even get hot like other phones I had before. If his phone exploded I doubt that it can still work and slide out.
Looks like the glass broke. no explosion though. He just wants some money I guess. I will say though, I owned a LG phone that literally melted in my pocket and burned my hand. Phones do melt. Maybe they explode… But not this time.
Anyone pick up that the story is he ended the call and then the phone exploded afterwards?!? I don’t know if I’m different, but when I end my calls I immediately remove the phone from my ear! This is complete BS and I can’t stand people like this!
I worked at Motorola and we have had quite a few phone explode in the past. Yes the battery. BTW silicon can also explode due to over-current conditions (e.g. short circuit). The most recent products are pretty sound though…
Damn!! Where did he get that App. I need to install it on someone I know phone..
Dropped Phone + Firecracker = damage shown above.
What a jackass.
This is the consequence of lying:
Rev 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
It won’t be worth any money he might gain from Motorola
You report no insurance but his wife is a teacher? Hello teacher union insurance, best in the country? My girlfriend gets massages 4 times a week through her teachers union insurance.
B.S but maybe some type of truth if there is a capacitor or some other sort near the speaker, we used to pop capacitors in class with batteries and let me tell you, the small ones that are about the size of a screw for one of these phones will sound like a .22 pistol going off, and if enclosed behind the glass and plastic, only exit point for the combustion would be the ear piece.
a little old now, but my friends droid blew up, not on him or anything, but it did blow up