iPhone 3GS feels the heat, Apple issues warning

Posted by Al Warmington on Thu 2 Jul 2009

Dogs aren't the only things to suffer in hot cars

The Apple iPhone 3GS launched less than a fortnight ago and by now we’d be expecting a few unforeseen problems to have risen to the surface. Normally you’d hope that a few firmware bugs would be the issue, but there’s a more serious reason for Jesus phone owners getting hot under the collar – the must-have handsets are having big problems with heat.

At first, most evidence for the iPhone 3GS’ heating issues was anecdotal, but the problem has become so widely reported that it has reached the ears of Apple support. In response, Apple has issued a warning about potential over heating issues in the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

A temperature warning is built into the iPhone firmware and if you see it, you’ll need to give your handset time to let off steam before you can use it again properly. Overheating – or exceeding “normal operating temperatures” as the support page puts it – can also affect charging, the display brightness and your signal strength.

Apple recommends a few measures to stop your iPhone getting to toasty: 1) don’t leave it in parked car (although there are plenty of other reasons for not doing that), 2) don’t leave it in direct sunlight and 3) don’t use processor-intensive Apps in hot conditions. The examples given are using GPS tracking in a car or listening to music in the sun.

As The Guardian points out, the iPhone 3GS has a brand new, significantly faster processor on board; advances in processor technology should make it better at power management and keeping temperatures low. Right now that doesn’t seem to be the case.

More worryingly, there are a number of reports coming in that suggest the extreme heats are causing white iPhone 3GS models to discolour. Speculation at the moment is pointing to potentially faulty batteries as the cause, rather than the CPU, which is an unfortunate reminder of the Sony laptop battery overheating issues of 2007, which forced Apple, Dell, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Lenovo to issue recalls.

If the white iPhone 3GS discolouration complaints keep coming, it may well result in a product recall, which wouldn’t do many favours for the current king of the smartphones.

There have been plenty of other gadget manufacturing disasters in the past, such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5 which had to be recalled after a plate on the bottom of the snapper was found to warp into a sharp, flesh-cutting edge in certain conditions. Is your iPhone 3GS overheating? Is it turning a browner shade of white? Do you have any other gadget horror stories? Tell all in the comments below.

Link: Apple