iPhone Overheating: Apple Blames The Weather

Reports began circulating on the web last week that the new Apple iPhone 3GS was regularly overheating. The phone, released on June 19, would become warm during use -- in some cases allegedly too hot to handle -- and the screen would become discolored. Was there a design glitch in Apple's new roll-out?

After almost a week of silence, Apple has posted a warning on one of their support sites. And they blame... "the weather," according to a cheeky headline in a British newspaper.

From The UK Telegraph:

In its message, Apple says that the iPhone has a safety feature which warns users that the device is becoming too hot. As well as leaving the handset in a car, it says that the phone may overheat when left in direct sunlight for prolonged periods, when GPS tracking is used in a car on a hot day or when its iPod function is used in direct sunlight. [...]

iPhone 3GS users on Mac forums complain, however, that the handset becomes hot when it is not being used in a car. In a posting on the macrumors.com forum, one user complained that using the new device's video recording feature had caused it to overheat while another complained that after carrying his phone in a backpack, it got so hot that the plastic case became distorted with tiny bumps.

Comments

[LeeCalif]

Was that the excuse they used at the beginning of the Macs overheating, as well.

[verticallychallenged]

Pardon me, I meant to say Business moderator.

[EtOH]

I

[Jaywalkker]

I don't have an iPhone and don't want one, but how come this wasn't an "issue" or precautionary notices assigned for the 1st gen or 2nd gen iPhones? I don't buy the weather.

[jonthebru]

Some one needs to develop an "App" that is a fan or air conditioner, maybe one that covers the sun when using the iphone outside.

[frantaylor]

Apparently "weather" takes place inside a steel box.

[Mark B]

It's all hogwash.... Mine is running cool and fine since it's release... it's just a couple of faulty ones, from a batch of 5 million... BIG DEAL.... GET OVER IT.... it's all MEDIA HYPE...

[mjb5406]

Maybe, maybe not... other dvides made by other companies have exhibited overheating for SOME users, not all; often, it turned out to be defective batteries. Just because you have a fully-functional unit doesn't mean the complaints are "hogwash".

[DomainDiva]

Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I don't leave cellphones and laptops in the sun. ANY electronic device will overheat and malfunction in high heat. Product type does not matter.

[mjb5406]

Seems to me that the "do not leave in sunlight" warning has been around so long that it's part of common sense. If, in fact, some 3GS units are overheating, Apple's excuses are lame.

[Klatu68]

I am more concerned about overeating than overheating, eh?

[AlaninElkGrove]

I believe that this is a stealth app that turns your iPhone into a handwarmer.

Just turn it "OFF"...

[frantaylor]

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of carrying a telephone around with you?

[Quattro]

I have a iPhone and have turned off most of the apps just to save battery. Friends ask me to upgrade but I don't want to because any new upgrades or new apps will just tax the battery more and I can't take any chances. I'm stuck and I definitely will not buy nor recommend an Iphone to my friends. Its just not worh the money. The craze lasts for few days and then you get into a habit of watching the battery life icon constantly as you use the phone.

I can imagine somwhere in the product cycle Steve Jobs made decision that Users will forgive Apple of the poor battery life of iPhone when they compare it to the cutting edge technology. But I think it was a mistake. Fixing the battery issue should have been the first priority and it was never fixed.

[MartyinLA]

You sound like a shill for the competition. I've had the new iPhone since the 1st day it came out and have NEVER had a problem with overheating. I use the hell out of it but don't put it out in the sun - duhh. I also use the video camera for incredible shorts that I post to Facebook. The battery easily lasts about two days with constant use. Plugs into the car or monitor if needed. So what's the problem?

[Niasia]

Ok wow I see a lot of animosity here. If you do not like the product feel free to NOT purchase it. Simple as that. My phone got hot a few times but I was in direct sunlight and using the inernet and so on. If you take your laptop out in the blazing heat it may just overheat. The Iphone may have a problem ok fine. I wish people would get this adamantly upset about world issues like Hunger and poverty, rather than a cell phone! Ok it may have issues if you don't like those issues do not buy one! Someone bought it for me anyways...and mine only cost 100 bucks! So I will take how it is! When it got hot I stopped uinf it for a while and I got it out of the heat...commone sense fix.

[KaLaPa111]

"I wish people would get this adamantly upset about world issues like Hunger and poverty, rather than a cell phone!"

That's why America's in the crapper today. Too much concern with money and trinkets, not enough concern with the human interest.

[Klatu68]

The America Eye live in is not in the crapper. How dare you? We are merely in the post-Bush recovery era.

[motodude]

May over heat in a car or with use in sunlight? This is a cellphone we are talking about. Good grief Apple.

If the iPhone is overheating under the circumstances listed then something is wrong to begin with, as all that certainly is not anything out of ordinary use.

In typical corporate misdirection and minimization Apple's statement is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the real extent of the problem if the device fails under such normal use.

[MartyinLA]

Don't believe everything you read. Its not any hotter than any other phone I've ever used. Jesh what a non-story.

[mountainweb]

Hey, you have to hand it to Apple, outstanding marketing, produce a product that true status seekers "must have" and you don't have to produce a quality product!

[HawaiianPunch]

Why is it, exactly, that so many of these individuals posting here appear to take such glee in the fact that some group of people are having problems with their cell phones? Seriously, what's your pathology around this?

Last year my wife gifted me an iPhone for my birthday. I didn't necessarily want one at the time, but I was pleased to receive it nonetheless. As the year has progressed, I'm really enjoying it; it's definitely very cool, and the thing hasn't given me a minute of hassle. I find some of its features quite convenient, as well.

So, what's the deal with these bitter and angry little people on here that wish my phone would blow up and injure me? I wish you nothing but the best with your cell phones (and with everything, honestly), so why is it you have a problem with me and mine? All this seems a bit mental to me.

[dnddays]

No one wishes that your iPhone will catch fire in your pocket. But for years people who use Windows have been dealing with arrogant Mactards, telling us how Apple builds products that are so much more superior to our when we and 90% of the people in the world know is not the case. I love my iPod and I love iTunes, but hearing some knucklehead nauseatingly extol the virtues of everything Apple to the point of religiosity brings a smile to my face when I read a story like this. You like your iPhone? Good. Don't use it as a springboard to tell me how your Mac 'just works' or how Windows is full of viruses or crashes or spell Microsoft with a $. Because no, Macs don't just work, I haven't had a virus in XP in years, haven't had a crash in years and Microsoft is no different than any other company including ones who blame the convection coming from your pocket on the weather or the iPod that catches fire in your pocket on how sexy you are.

BTW, People hate the term Mactard, but not all Mac users are Mactards, just the ones who pop up on some tech forum or similar board to answer someone's question about how to fix a runtime error with the phrase 'get a Mac it just works durr'. This also applies to Ubuntu guys who tell me you can run anything with WINE so just switch to Linux.

[cheshyre c]

i am offcially a fan of you. i made a post that speaks these same sentiments. it's not a way of life, it's a product. nothing more, nothing less.

[HawaiianPunch]

Good god. All I wrote is that I like my iPhone and that mine works fine. I even threw some conciliatory comment in at the end there, and this is what I get as a reply?!:

"You like your iPhone? Good. Don't use it as a springboard to tell me how your Mac 'just works' or how Windows is full of viruses or crashes or spell Microsoft with a $. Because no, Macs don't just work, I haven't had a virus in XP in years, haven't had a crash in years and Microsoft is no different than any other company including ones who blame the convection coming from your pocket on the weather or the iPod that catches fire in your pocket on how sexy you are."

When and where did I do any of that? To be honest dhddays, iPhone users aren't the ones looking like the a-holes in this message board. Drop the defensiveness, man. Happy Fourth.

[macintoshsauce]

Mactard? You are damn right not all Mac users are Mactards. I am a Computer Analyst/Programmer and I can honestly say that programming on a Mac is much better than programming on the Linux or Windows platforms.

I am a computer expert and when someone asks me what computer they should buy, I tell them the honest truth. Buy what you require for your daily needs. More often than not, people will ask me what I have and then that's when I tell them about Mac OS X. Then they go buy a Mac.

BTW, you got that right. On a Mac everything just works. I have been a Mac owner since 1996 and believe me - everything just works especially with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

[deepfreezevideo]

I'm a film and video editor.
I am trained on the "three A's" (Apple, Adobe, AVID) and I find Sony Vegas to be a very capable product, easily equal to the others, but editors are, for the most part, extremely conservative types who never stray once they've decided on a platform.
Trying to tell a peer that Vegas is worth a look is like blaspheming about Allah in a Taliban madrassah.
I am also officially a fan of you.

[deepfreezevideo]

"What's particularly impressive about the way Vegas handles resolution is that you can change project settings at any time with no impact at all on your media. Unlike virtually all other NLE's the working space and the media on the timeline are totally independent and the engine is format agnostic. As such you can put your 4k on the timeline, set your project space to something much smaller, like 720HD, cut away in superb real-time with Vegas decoding the 4k to the smaller 720 preview for efficiency. Then when you're ready to finish you simply change the project settings back to 4k. Likewise you can at any time swap project settings back and forth between 4k, 2k, SD and HD to see how your film looks at different resolutions corresponding to output delivery. There's no rendering, no conform, no restart, no manipulation at all; just a real-time click of the mouse."
OUCH!