Apple is voluntarily recalling certain types of AC power adapters for Macs and iPads sold outside of the US, due to the risk of the adapters breaking and causing an electric shock.
The recall involves two-pronged wall plug adapters sold with Macs and the 10-watt adapters shipped with iPads between 2003 and 2015, in Argentina, Brazil, Europe, New Zealand, and South Korea. It doesn't affect adapters designed for the US, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, or the UK. The recall also does not include USB power adapters, but it does apply to adapters included in Apple's $29 "world traveler" kit.
Apple described the affected adapters as having "either four or five characters, or no characters, on the inside slot" where they attach to the main Apple power brick. The company says it is aware of 12 incidents that have occurred around broken adapters in the past 12 years, though it didn't specify what those incidents were.
The, uh, shocking news comes a week after Microsoft's recall of some Surface Pro power cords, after a "small number of customers" reported that their AC power cords were overheating. And in 2014, HP had to issue a recall for six million laptop cords deemed to be a fire risk. That incident followed a smaller recall for HP in 2013, this time in conjunction with Google after some Chromebook 11 cords overheated and melted.
Recalls aren't especially common in Cupertino, but they tend to get a lot of notice, because Apple. In August the company said it would replace faulty cameras on some iPhone 6 Plus models, and in June the company recalled the Beats Pill XL speaker due to fire hazard (a product that came to market before Apple acquired Beats).
Way back in 2008 Apple launched a Power Adapter Exchange Program for the iPhone 3G due to similar-sounding risks: prongs could "break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock." And in 2012 Apple launched a similar replacement program for European power adapters sold with the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S.
Apple is pointing affected users to this site to exchange their faulty adapters.
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