Yes, I was just shocked and I'm not on carpet. I have plastic between my chair and the carpet. Never happened before with other brands of earplugs, just Apple.

... I ever had" according to one Apple fanboy I know. And I believed him too.

Obviously he'd figured out a better place than his ears to hang the little shockers.

Com-on people! Have you never hear of a Dehumidifier and what it does? Hey this was my first winter (And I used to live in the Caribbean) and I must say It was Shocking one (darn)!!!!

Buy the Dehumidifier or do what ErikTheRed does! (lol)

Many have wondered how Mr. Jobs was able to spawn a gigantic flock of uncritical worshipers who gladly tithe large portions of their income into Apple's bank accounts. The answer is now apparent -- these Ipod devices are engineered to deliver pulses of electrical stimulation to the brains of Apple-users, converting them into walking money-dispensing machines for Apple. The Iphone must also have this "feature". Oy veh, what a world!

Same happens with my Koss PortaPro but very rarely. I think it has something to do with my clothes and static thing. But I'm not letting those go anytime soon :-)

Again, Apple is shown to have poor engineering capability ;-)

Apple has poor standards of customer care if electric shocks to the head doesn't instigate a recall. This is hilarious and ridiculous.

Headphones have been doing this for many years before the iPod came about. If you walk on a rug or there are very dry conditions, you will get shocks on various parts of your body. What is the big deal. Static electricity shocks that you get from walking about in your home never killed anyone.

When I was much younger, I used to play with a Wimhurst electricity generator all the time and it didn't do any harm at all. Except maybe for a possible impotency cause, but that theory hasn't been proven yet.

Why are these people accusing Apple of something that can happen even without earphones. Bunch of crybabies and worryworts.

Nick is a CUNT

@ErikTheRed

Who doesn't like having their nipples shocked ;-)

The article doesn't mention when the shocks occur. If the shock occurs while the iDevice is plugged in to something that is grounded, that's normal. However, if the shock occurs while a iDevice isn't plugged into a grounded source, then a shock should not occur and faulty engineering is to blame. I personally can't say I've ever been shocked by a correctly functioning portable electronic device that wasn't grounded by a electrical cord or some other type of cable such as a network or usb cable.

@Luke - you can't avoid being shocked, but you can ameliorate the effects by discharging yourself through a part of your body other than your hands (especially the fingertips), where you have a much higher concentration of nerve endings (obviously this eliminates certain other body parts as well unless you really enjoy having your nipples shocked).

Anyway, I've found that in these cases, using an elbow creates much less discomfort.

"Stupid enough to buy [Apple products]?"

Oh, please.

They're just music players, prettier than most. They play MP3s (and AACs, if you really must). They don't eat babies or anything. Any laws of physics that may cause static electricity to discharge apply to any other device that's not grounded (and hence "portable"). Seriously, you guys are normally quite level-headed and enjoyable but as soon as anyone says "Apple" (or "Qualcomm") you start screaming hysterically like somebody set your testicles on fire.

Maybe we should just be more like Obama and go buy a Zune.

"Anyone who lives in a dry climate during the winter has felt far worse static shock though :D"

I'm not worried .. i like in Blighty. There is no such thing as dry anything here.

As Salman Rushdie said (ya know the muslim peoples favourite son)... "Living underwater most of the year ... in days the colour of night"

Congrats Nick, you made it: An article without any value.

Every pair of earphones has done that to me. The cheap ones and the expensive ones, especially in th winter if I keep the wire inside my coat.

Thank you Luke. I thought most of my jobs have been irrevocably boring and tedious.

You have made me understand that there are other's out there such as myself. (as if the movie, Office Space, wasn't enough validation)

Yes, the cost/benefit analysis of your job was such that not being mildly shocked by harmless static was worth not working there at all. That is particularly impressive.

The last place I worked, I swear to God, every single door knob would shock me. I was a shipping clerk so I was constantly in and out of internal offices that kept the air conditioning so low and the humidity so dry that the shock was inevitable. I consulted a janitor about the issue and he said the best was to deal with it was to just grab the knob and accept the shock. When I quit, it felt like a victory over electromagnetism.

Years ago while using a treadmill I would VERY occasionally get shocks via the headphones on my Walkman WM-1.

Anyone who lives in a dry climate during the winter has felt far worse static shock though :D

This is just science though! I've used earplugs other than Apples, and more often received more shocks from those other brands. If anything, at least Apple admits it and gets this warning out there. For the record, I think being spit on is more dangerous than being "zapped" by such a small electrical force.

...with my razer protone m100. Not that bad, but you wonder if it's an implicit electroshocktherapy ;)

Perhaps someone should explain to the wearers the strange pulsing sounds they hear are called "music".