iBook in Flames

There was a little problem with an Apple iBook in Minnesota, where an 11-year-old boy was playing with the laptop as it sat on a carpet. After he left the room for a few minutes, his family heard a popping noise, and noticed the carpet melting underneath the overheating iBook. After the kid's mom promptly took it outside, the thing burst into flames right there on the patio. The battery inside the errant iBook is not one of the ones on Apple's recall list, either. Adding no solace to this sordid tale is the fact that there have been 44 incidents of burning laptops over the past couple of years. And they're not just Apple laptops. Melting carpets and burning notebooks on a patio are one thing, but we would recommend not falling asleep with a running MacBook Pro on your lap. Perhaps the word "laptop" is a misnomer. That said, check out the sensationalized video hype from this ratings-desperate local TV station, a shameless attempt to grab viewers by scaring them.