Begun the Note 7 Recall War-Hunt It Has.

So, remember the Samsung Note 7? New smartphone, excitingly thin, very popular, had a distressing tendency to ignite.  Samsung has managed to get 90% of the ones that they sold back, but the remainder seem to be owned by people who will give up their Notes when you pry them from their charred, dead fingers. Personally, I’d just reprogram all those rogue Note 7s out there* with a terse IF YOU USE THIS PHONE YOU MAY DIE, BUT MAY NOT SUE US, but I guess that there’s a legal reason why they can’t let evolution do its intricate dance of consequence. Instead…

Judging from Korean news reports, however, Samsung is ready for the final step. It plans to issue software updates that stop the phone from working altogether.

The big question now is whether the type of people who’ve been determined enough to keep using the phone for so long are also the type of people who’d find a way to block or disable such an update.

Seriously, no phone is worth this kind of hassle.  Although: it occurs to me that turning off the phone is probably good enough due diligence to get Samsung off the hook, here.  I mean, what more are they allowed to do?  Send out strike teams to hunt down the aforementioned Rogue Note Sevens?

Moe Lane

*Rogue Note Seven sounds like a great band name. There’s a faint anime feel to it, you know?  You get the feeling that it’s a literal translation from whatever the name was in Japanese.