Are you reading this on a smartphone , tablet , or laptop computer ? Yes ? Cool . That glowing misery rectangle has the capacitance to explode the same direction Milwaukee woman Dina Mitchell ’s Fitbit Flex 2 did last week . Any lithium - free-base rechargeable batterycan . It ’s just extremely unlikely .
The shoddy manufacture practice around “ hoverboards ” andvapesmade irrupt batteries have intercourse to consumer , and Samsung ’s disastrousNote 7 debaclecemented flaming lithium - ion cells in the democratic knowingness . But Mitchell ’s case is a grim admonisher that oh right — wearables . Fuuuuuuuuck .
No surprise then that a gadget designed to be attached to your eubstance does some middling grim things to said body when it goes out in a hell of glory . Not only did Mitchell suffer 2d - academic degree tan but according to the Associated Pressblurb , her doctor at Aurora Health Care had to “ pick pieces of charge card out of her wounding . ”
So should we all ply screaming from Snapchat ’s Spectacles for fear they ’ll one day render us maimed or unsighted ? Jokes aside , most of the advertize battery fiascos of the last few geezerhood were the solvent of cheapjack design . Any electric battery can blow up , but almost none ever do . And to the good of our knowledge , nothing like this has happened with a commercial Fitbit mathematical product so far .
Fitbit sent Gizmodo the statement they sent to just about everyone , which claims :
We have verbalise with Ms. Mitchell and are actively investigating this issue . We are not aware of any other complaints of this nature and see no reason for hoi polloi to stop fatigue their Flex 2 . We will share additional information as we are able .
We were unable to reach Mitchell but reached out to Aurora for a statement on her circumstance and will update if we take heed back .
Update 4/28/17 5:03pm ET : Fitbit supplied a statement to Gizmodo in which the caller claims to have tested the exploded wearable seaworthiness tracker through a “ leading third - party failure analysis firm ” and found that “ external military group caused the legal injury to the equipment . ” We ’d narrate you what to avert doing to your Flex 2 if you ’re not into plant share of it into your wrist , but “ outside forces ” could mean just about anything .
The incident still does not seem to be part of any enceinte style of faulty Fitbits and the ship’s company claim it has“not received any other complaints of this nature . ”
[ ABC , AP ]
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