Asklemmy

Batteries catch fire. Very large ones, or many cells together can mean a very hot, very dangerous fire, with the occasional violence of a cell bursting.

Being in close contact with something like a phone when that happens would cause burns, but they don't "explode" with very much force. (Relatively speaking. You wouldn't get lethal fragmentation for example, I don't think)

The note 7 batteries didn't really go boom in the way an actual explosive does, though the reaction is a sudden and fast release of thermal energy, its not that much energy in terms of explosive devices.

So no. You can't "hack" a phone and turn it into a bomb using just the hardware that is already inside. You could start a fire, and that could be deadly, but as an explosive device the battery in most phones is not that potent.

Not really saying otherwise. What I am saying is that for your electronic devices to have "explosives" in them would require that a supplychain attack of a similar sort.

It's almost definitely not the case that any electronics manufacturers are systematically putting explosives in every smartphone or whatever that they manufacture and supplychain attacks are much more likely to be a targeted thing rather than "all Samsung phones" or whatever. If they weren't targeted, it's pretty certain that the presence of explosives in devices would be noticed even just by regular end-users with a bit of a tinkering proclivity within weeks. So if your devices are more than a couple of months old have been in reasonably normal use for most of that time and you haven't been specifically targeted by any particular government or anyone who might have the ability to tamper with the supplychain, you're almost certainly safe specifically from explosive-laced consumer electronics devices.

Also, it seems unlikely that a state police agency (like the "sheriffs" you're talking about) could leverage enough power to compel an electronics company to allow such a thing without the FBI or DHS involved. I'd imagine state police folks would more likely resort to more low-tech approaches like the Tulsa race massacre air firebombing.

Again, I'm not saying it's impossible that your phone contains explosives. And as I said in another comment, it might be possible to remotely get a device to cause its battery to catch fire. Maybe.

Also, I am in the U.S., but what made you think that was the case?

Ah yes, being heavily criticized for encouraging people to send illegal immigrants to Democrats' houses is the same thing as setting up an explosives front

It's not that new, actually.

Mossad killed Mahmoud Hamshari, a leader of the terrorist cell that kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics with a bomb in his (non mobile) phone. They called him, confirmed he was on the phone and blew him up.

Yahya Ayyash the chief bomb maker of the Hamas was also killed by an exploding mobile phone in 1996.

The size of the operation here is truly impressive,but it's hardly new - and nothing another bad faith state level actor couldn't do. There is a good reason proper governments control incoming shipments of communication devices for their officials and security services very closely.

~~That happened ten years ago.~~

I less than three XKCD!