No matter what type of portable devices you carry around you certainly don't want them to explode on you. Unfortunately, as we have seen in the past few years, there is always the small possibility of portable batteries overheating or having some other issue. Sony's defective battery scandal was just one of many reminding us of that, and there have been isolated reports here and there about batteries that catch on fire or even explode. Even if it's a one in a million chance, it only takes that one incident for an irate customer to file a lawsuit. That's exactly what happened to Apple, in regards to an iPod touch that supposedly exploded, and must now face the courts.
We've seen several of these cases before, though many of them ended up being an instance where the device had a clone battery not sanctioned by the manufacturer or some other issue. Given that the iPod Touch doesn't have a user-replaceable battery, though, this case is likely to get more attention. The lawsuit isn't asking for millions upon millions of dollars, which most do, but rather less than a quarter million - a more reasonable figure, but one that Apple is still likely to defend themselves against. The company of course has issued no comment on the matter, but it will be interesting to find out the details of the exploding iPod.