Although it was no doubt scary when a Note 7 recently caught fire on a Southwest flight, the passengers and crew in that case were lucky that the plane was still on the ground at the gate. It was easy to get everyone off the plane safely and quickly. That option doesn’t exist at 30,000 feet, but the number of devices — and therefore, potentially flammable devices — on board is only going to keep going up. The solution? Swift containment. [More]
galaxy note 7
The Newest Feature In Air Travel: Fireproof Bags For Exploding Phones
By 10.14.16 — Updated: 10.17.16
Why Don’t Carriers Just Kick The Galaxy Note 7 Off Their Networks?
By 10.13.16
Even when a recall is heavily publicized, not all of the items are recovered and returned to the manufacturer. That may be the case with the Galaxy Note 7, a smartphone that has a small chance of suddenly exploding for reasons that even the manufacturer still doesn’t fully understand. So why don’t phone carriers just block the devices from their networks, or why doesn’t Samsung remotely brick the devices to force customers to stop using them? Turns out that’s a tricky legal and ethical issue. [More]
Samsung Officially Recalls All Galaxy Note 7 Phones, Including Replacement Devices
By 10.13.16
Not even two months after Samsung first released the Galaxy Note 7, the phone has already been recalled and replaced, only to be discontinued. Now, for the second time in five weeks, Samsung and U.S. safety regulators have issued an official recall covering all Galaxy Note 7 phones. [More]
Recycling 2.5 Million Galaxy Note 7 Phones At Once Is An Environmental Disaster And An Opportunity
By 10.12.16
Samsung is now gathering up the millions of discontinued and recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold around the world, with the help of retailers, ground transportation companies, and kits that include safety gloves and multiple layers of fireproof boxes. Yet that’s just the first step in retiring all of those devices. “Recycling” smartphones still usually means recycling their parts into a refurbished phone, not recycling the phone’s materials into a new phone or another object. [More]
Samsung Unsure Why Galaxy Note 7 Catches Fire, But Sends Fireproof Boxes For Returns
By 10.12.16
The end of the line came for Samsung’s fiery (literally) Galaxy Note 7 phone this week. The company has killed off the phone for good, but there are still several million of them out there worldwide, in warehouses, stores’ back rooms, and consumers’ hands, and getting them back safely is an… interesting logistical challenge. [More]
Samsung Permanently Scraps All Galaxy Note 7 Production
By 10.11.16
Having to recall a line of premium, high-end smartphones once for exploding is bad enough. But when the replacement, supposedly safe phones also turn out to be unexpectedly flammable, well, that’s a sign that perhaps the phone is a dud and should be consigned to the scrap heap of device history for good. And, reports say, that’s exactly what Samsung is doing with the now-infamously defective Galaxy Note 7. [More]
U.S. Safety Regulators: Power Down Your Replacement Galaxy Note 7s
By 10.10.16
First, Samsung halted production on the non-recalled Galaxy Note 7, then all the wireless providers and Best Buy stop selling the phone. Now the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is saying that folks who have one of these devices should power them down while the agency investigates new reports of exploding and overheating phones. [More]
Best Buy & All Major Wireless Providers Have Stopped Selling Note 7
By 10.10.16
Following last night’s news that Samsung had once again halted production on the Galaxy Note 7, all four of the nation’s major wireless provider, and its biggest electronics retailer, say they have all pulled the Note 7 from sale. [More]
Samsung Reportedly Halts Production On Samsung Note 7… Again
By 10.9.16 — Updated: 10.10.16
More than a month after Samsung first halted production on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 amid incidents of exploding and smoking batteries, a new report out South Korea claims that the electronics giant has once again stopped producing the phone following news that supposedly safe Note 7 devices might have a similar defect to the original. [More]
Federal Safety Regulators Investigating Report Of Replacement Samsung Note 7 Catching Fire
By 10.5.16
Earlier today, a Southwest Airlines flight from Louisville to Baltimore had to be evacuated after smoke and fire began to spew out of a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, one that was replaced and should not have had an overheating battery. Now, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has confirmed that it is looking into this incident. [More]
Replacement, Supposedly Non-Flammable Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Catches Fire On Plane
By 10.5.16 — Updated: 10.7.16
We’ve heard from dozens and dozens of readers who have had trouble exchanging their defective Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones since the recall became official. Consumers who do get their hands on new phones, though, are supposed to be able to trust that those units are safe — or at least, as safe as any other new phone — and are not going to catch fire while in use. [More]
Report: Some Replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Phones Still Too Hot To Handle
By 9.28.16
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was officially recalled about two weeks ago, because it has this way of potentially catching fire or exploding — both pretty horrible traits in a smartphone (or anything else, really). New, non-defective units are in, so owners have been swapping out their old phones and new consumers have been buying up the new ones, too. Except reports say those may not be quite right, either. [More]
What’s Going Wrong With Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Exchanges — And What You Can Do
By 9.23.16
Samsung issued an official recall of the defective, flammable, potentially exploding Galaxy Note 7 phone just over a week ago. Since then, consumers who own the defective devices have been trying to get the exchanges they’re due… but it’s not always going so well. [More]
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Owners Report Phone Exchange Program Not Going So Well
By 9.22.16
Nobody really wants their pocket to explode or their purse to catch fire. That’s bad. So owners of defective Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones, which have a manufacturing defect in the battery that can lead it to catch fire or explode, have been told to exchange theirs. That, however, is proving much easier on paper than in reality. [More]
Authorities In Korea Order Samsung To X-Ray New Galaxy Note 7 Batteries
By 9.22.16
Samsung has now shipped out some replacement devices for recalled Galaxy Note 7 phones, with enough new phones to replace maybe half of the 1 million phones sold in the United States so far. Meanwhile, in Samsung’s home country of South Korea, the government has a relatively low-tech way to check the battery status of the high-tech phones: Samsung X-ray the batteries. [More]
Carriers Now Taking Orders For Non-Exploding Version Of Galaxy Note 7
By 9.21.16
If you’ve been waiting for the now-official recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone to conclude before ordering your own phone, good news: as replacement phones are about to arrive, at least one carrier has opened orders up to people who want the phone and don’t yet own one. [More]
Sprint CEO: This Whole Note 7 Recall Thing Will Be Forgotten In 6 Months
By 9.19.16
Despite weeks of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 grabbing headlines — first for reports of exploding devices, then for the drawn-out process that eventually led to an official recall — at least one person thinks the whole controversy will be forgotten sooner rather than later. [More]
Report: Samsung Rushed Galaxy Note 7 To Beat Predictable iPhone 7 To Market
By 9.19.16
The Galaxy Note 7 has been plagued by reports of fires and explosions almost since the day it launched. After a few tumultuous weeks and a “product exchange,” the phone finally received an official safety recall on Sept. 15. But Samsung’s been making smartphones for a while now. The previous iterations of the Galaxy Note, and the company’s other popular series, the Galaxy S, generally do not explode. So how did they blow it so badly on this one? [More]
