While we love to hear about your attempts at hacking your iPhones, we also love to hear that all your digits are still intact! That's why we'd like all enterprising iPhone modders to pay attention to what happened to Hackint0sh forum member Pipas, during what appears to be an attempt to unlock the handset using the hardware method.
"We were so happy, all the software part was done, so we started opening the iphone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. I was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burnt my fingers. So, this is for shure the most difficult part of the whole process"
Current thinking is that it was a shorted circuit across the iPhone's Li-Ion battery pack which, since it's not meant to be user-replaceable, probably lacks the shielding that such units designed for us mortals to touch would have.
The key thing to remember is that even though your iPhone may be switched off, the battery still contains a charge and there's still a current going through the electronics inside. These guys were lucky to get away with burnt fingers - we'd like all of our readers to keep all of their faculties!
[via iPhone Matters]
Doesn’t look like the battery exploded, just a short circuit and some burned parts. They were very lucky. A real lipo explosion would have engulfed the entire work area in flames, and almost certainly have resulted in injury.
Hi everyone, I oppened an iPhone, and when I was tring to close it, the cover didnt close well, soh I oppened it again, but then from inside it came a smoke so I quikly oppened and stoped the fire with my thumb.
It didnt explode, I will try to replace the battery, because the circuit board is intact. I hope everything works fine.
May it be that these brainfryers are particularly DESIGNED to explode to prevent jailbreak modification?!?
IMO that stinks badly of a self destruction mechanism – much like James Bond’s self-combusting briefcase.