Scared the hell out of me, I had it plugged in to my surge protector and as soon as I plugged in something else it (The Apple Charger) immediately lit up orange as if it were on fire and popped and a small puff of smoke came out of it. It ended up blowing a fuse in my bedroom, but the electricity seems to be working fine now that I reset the breaker switch. I called up Apple to report the incident and so I could find out if the charger is fake or real. They didn't even care about it until the end of the conversation, they were more concerned with my safety and the outlet and making sure nothing in my home is damaged more than anything which was really kind to hear. They ended up taking down my information and are mailing me out a new charge dongle and lightning sync cable regardless if it is real or fake, but want me to hang on to the one that burnt out in case I'm asked to mail it back in. Very scary stuff..So please I can't stress it enough as cheap as the knock offs are and while the price may seem enticing. Be safe, and perhaps get a real authentic charger.
The original reports of the charger fires/electrocutions in china were all reported as original chargers I think apple just brung up the idea of fake chargers as damage control, hard to say if it was the chargers fault or not though people seem to be very fond of overloading plugs crazily over there. If I was you I'd get plenty of photos and all the evidence you can gather, not doubt they will want to get the charger away from you fast and make sure it never see's the light of day again.
Everything I've read contradicts that. There's a shitload of fake and cheap chargers out there, some of them very dangerous. I haven't seen any reports on original Apple chargers malfunctioned in any dangerous way.
I agree. I bought a cheap fake charger a while back (was away and was desperate for a charger) A month or so later it was hot as anything. Went to turn it off and it exploded ! Big noise, smoke and a burnt finger! Never again
That was close, you might wanna be careful next time. I hear a lot of cases of i phones going wrong, causing even deaths.
Warning to all.. don't buy unofficial lightning cables for iPhone 5s.. they don't work. I tested the same cable on my old iPhone 5, it worked on that fine.. but displayed a message stating the cable or accessories in use was not official (both on iOS 7) I guess some hardware in the 5s, has completely removed the ability to even use 3rd party cables & plugs. No doubt the iPad Air and Mini 2 will be affected by this, and all future iOS devices.
I've read up on this subject a little when noticing my 3rd party/fake charger's was much hotter than the usual one's I'd used. I looked at the specs rating on each and compared them to the original's and were not the same. Some of those other charger's will work although not recommended as it's a strong possibility the batteries life can be shortened more quickly than using the original's.
Now it does the original report I read was it was an official apple charger though, I can remember that from the first time I saw the story a few days later Apple started with the whole fake charger thing and the story was reported as being a fake charger contradicting the earlier ones. My guess is someone was using about 20 things on one plug though which is a recipe for disaster. Also read earlier today about an iPad Air catching fire in store I'm betting that story does a vanishing trick later in the week as well http://bgr.com/2013/11/08/ipad-air-explosion-fire/
I took a few photos of my charge dongle and sync cable and surge protector. My sync cable is legit, it's the one that came out of the box with my iPhone 5. My charge dongle I don't think is, after comparing it with my mom & dads charge dongles that came with their iPads. http://postimg.org/gallery/81qvw2o8/
The original reports were erroneous assumptions that were later cleared up when it was revealed that the hardware involved wasn't genuine. It wasn't a case of Apple making things up to cover themselves. It wasn't an Air, and the original news report was altered to reflect that. Just looking at the thing makes that very obvious:
At no point should anyone take any article from The Daily Mail at face value. I'm from Denmark, and even I know that....
No point arguing but it's obviously an Air lots of different sources including vodafone themselves said it's an iPad air. I find it pretty amusing you try to say it's not despite all the evidence
No, those sources were simply taking their information from the original mistaken report, a report that was later corrected to remove all references to the device in question being an Air specifically because the device wasn't an Air. Again, the photo of the remains of the device reveals quite clearly that it is not an Air.
Looks really like an air to me the dimensions look spot on, a few articles mention 9to5mac confirming it's an air. As far as I can see everyone on the internet accepts it's an Air but you, nowhere else is it even in question.
Then you need to familiarise yourself with the Air, because you've apparently never actually seen one. Below is the iPad Air next to a 3rd-gen iPad. iPad Air, taken apart: 4th-gen iPad, taken apart: The bezel in the aftermath photographs is roughly the same thickness all the way around, and clearly belongs to an old model iPad, not the iPad Air; certainly neither set of parallel sides is narrow enough to belong to the Air. There's really no debate to be had on the matter. Not even close, and the irony is that the report you linked just points to the (now corrected) original article, which doesn't mention the iPad Air even once. While the original article all these other sites are taking their information from already corrected its error (as MacRumors noted), the other sites appear to be either too lazy or too reliant on sensationalism to do likewise. Right now you're swearing black and blue to something that the original news report says is wrong, and all the physical evidence clearly shows is wrong. You should probably stop now.
Many stores around the world still have last-gen devices for sale and on display. Vodafone Australia (whose store was involved in this incident) still officially offers the 4th-gen iPad, for example.
Just post one single article that states that it isn't an iPad air, theres dozens that say it was including the vodaphone spokeman and sites like macworld, until you can do that you have no arguement.
