WakeMate USB Sleep Inducer Recalled

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Well, if ever there were a way you didn’t want to wake up in the morning, a crackling fire in your bed is probably pretty high up on the list. And you may think that’s a cruel joke in the poorest of taste but I assure you it’s literal accuracy, as a recall has been announced on the WakeMate USB sleep-aid.

Reports have come in from several fronts detailing how people are going to sleep with their WakeMates–a USB device that connects to your iPhone or computer or the like via Bluetooth and sends data about your sleeping patterns so you can adjust them accordingly and get a better night’s sleep by changing your habits to reflect the data–on their wrists, and waking up to a big and deeply unpleasant surprise: that the devices have burst into flame in the night.

Actually, it’s not the devices so much as it is the USB charger bricks that are attached to the devices that are bursting into flame, but one thing is perfectly clear, something’s burning, and it’s not supposed to.

Word out of the company is blaming the Chinese supplier for the incendiary troubles, saying that the “chargers are spitting out a noisy electrical signal”, which is in turn causing the battery charger to overheat and burst into flame in some cases. But there’s not yet any word on just what exactly WakeMate plans to do by way of recompense to the poor folks who slept with the philosophical equivalent of a ticking time bomb, some of which actually went off.

Whatever it is they actually do for them, frankly, I hope it at least starts with “full refund” and possibly ends with “significant damages”, because for crying out loud, if the device is supposed to help you get a good night’s sleep, the possibility that it might suddenly burst into flame isn’t exactly a huge help!