The train stopped but the story does not seem to stop.
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Overheating iPods have been consistently making the news in Japan over the last week. First, Apple admitted that their first-generation iPod Nanos can suffer meltdowns, and offered free replacements to any Japanese iPod owners who’ve experienced the problem. On the heels of that comes this story from Reuters, in which an iPod going nuclear knocked a Tokyo rush hour subway train out of commission.
If not for the bad timing, the story’s pretty funny. Around 8:20am, a train in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward was stopped by officials who noticed a strange, burning smell in the train. Staff members quickly investigated, only to be approached by a sheepish and embarrassed commuter with a smoldering, burst-apart iPod in her hands.
It’s not clear at this point what model iPod burst apart yesterday morning, and it’s almost definitely just a fluke, but one thing’s for sure: Apple Japan is going to have a public relations debacle on their hands if iPods don’t stop melting down.