美国发生iPhone4充电时自燃爆炸事件

In what appears to be the first reported case of its kind on US shores, a Colorado woman alleges that her iPhone 4 caught fire while charging overnight and wants Apple to warn customers of the device's possible combustion issues.

The woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said she took her story to tech website Mashable in order to spread public awareness over the reported issue, claiming that Apple has been reticent to acknowledge the alleged incident.

The unnamed source claims that she awoke in the early morning during a recent trip to the east coast to find her year-old white iPhone 4 making "sizzling" and "popping" noises. After an unspecified amount of time there was “not quite an explosion, but an immense crackling,” and smoke plumed from the device creating "an awful, putrid smell, almost like you were ingesting plastic of some kind.”

Inspection of the provided pictures yields no clues as to which components were heated to the point of creating smoke, though it a bulging battery is clearly seen to have expanded enough to force apart the iPhone's casing.

According to the report, the iPhone was connected via an Apple-branded charger to a power outlet that was later inspected and found to be working normally.

The woman goes on to say that when she asked Apple to be upgraded to a replacement iPhone 4S, the company furnished her with another iPhone 4.

The alleged incident is reportedly the first of its kind in the US, though there has been at least one similar instance in Australia involving the iPhone 4.

This is not the first time Apple has seen problems with overheating batteries as it extended a replacement program for its first-generation iPod nano in 2011 due to a defect that caused the device's battery to overheat. The Cupertino, Calif., company first acknowledged the problem in a 2008 press release that stemmed from an investigation by the Japanese government.

There have been no reports of severe overheating issues with the iPhone 4S or any other products in Apple's current lineup.

双语资讯

(Agencies)

美国科罗拉多州一位女士近日称，她的iPhone4手机在夜间充电时着火，希望苹果公司提醒iPhone4的用户这款手机可能发生爆燃。这是美国首次报道发生类似事件。

这位不愿透露姓名的女士称，她将这一消息爆料给科技网站Mashable，以唤起公众对这种事故的注意。她表示苹果公司不愿公开这起事故。

这位女士称，最近去东海岸的旅行中，某天清晨她醒来时发现她刚买了一年的白色iPhone4“嗞嗞”作响，还发出爆破声。不知过了多久，她发现iPhone4“虽算不上爆炸，但发出响亮的爆裂声”，还冒出烟，让人闻到“难闻的腐烂味儿，就像在吞咽某种塑料”。

根据所提供的照片，还看不出手机的哪些部位过热导致冒烟，但可以很清楚地看到电池已经凸出来，膨胀到撑开了iPhone的外壳。

根据报道，当时这部iPhone正通过苹果品牌的充电器连接到电源上充电，根据随后的检查，电源工作正常。

这位女士还向苹果公司要求以最新款的iPhone4S来代替iPhone4，但苹果公司只给她换了另一部iPhone4。

这是美国首次报道发生类似事故。澳大利亚也发生过有关iPhone4手机的类似事故。

这不是苹果公司首次遇到电池过热导致的问题，他们曾在2011年发布第一代iPod nano播放器的更换计划，原因是存在电池过热问题。苹果公司在2008年的一篇资讯稿中首次承认这一问题，而这还是源自日本政府对此开展的调查。苹果公司总部位于美国加州库比蒂诺。

在苹果最近发布的iPhone4S和其他产品中，还没出现严重的电池过热问题的报道。

Vocabulary:

combustion: 燃烧

reticent: 无言的，沉默的

putrid: 腐败的，放出恶臭的

to the point of: 达到……的程度