back to article McDonald's launches wearable then pulls it after kid feels the burn

Burger baron McDonald's' short foray into the fitness-tracking wearables caper has ended badly, with a device called “Step-It” pulled after burning at least one child's arm. The Step-It was a simple movement tracker bundled into Happy Meals, the slightly-less-salt-and-fat-laden burger boxen the Golden Arches suggests are fine …

  1. Dr Scrum Master
    Headmaster

    Scolded

    Scald or burn?

    Scalding is from hot liquid or steam.

    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Scolded

      I contest the light heated the moisture on the child skin, or perhaps subcutaneous moisture. Hence scald.

      1. VinceH
        Headmaster

        Re: Scolded

        You contest it? You're arguing against that being what happened?

        Or did you mean to say you contend it?

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Devil

    Who'll think of the kiddies?

    Ronald has gone all Insane Clown Posse!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Childcatcher

      Re: Who'll think of the kiddies?

      Well, it's one way to get the chubby little tykes moving.

    2. David 132 Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Who'll think of the kiddies?

      Ronald has gone all Insane Clown Posse!

      "Happy Meals, Now Even Better Value For Money! Be Pennywise!"

  3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Pedometers for children - now that Daily Fail headline writes itself.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Coat

      @allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      careful there... pedo and children in the same sentence?

      1. caffeine addict

        "careful there... pedo and children in the same sentence?"

        Pretty sure that was the joke...

    2. dan1980

      Paedometers?

    3. Simon Harris
      Coat

      I assume the data collected from these trackers will be stored in pedo files.

    4. Bloakey1

      "Pedometers for children - now that Daily Fail headline writes itself."

      No keep the pedo's away from the children, do not meter them. Hang them high along with the podiatrists and the paediatricians.

      1. renniks

        and therapists ;-)

  4. Tromos

    Wearables?

    One of these days they'll branch out into edibles.

    1. Bloakey1

      Re: Wearables?

      "One of these days they'll branch out into edibles."

      That will be a treemendous day indeed.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. MrDamage Silver badge

    fitting

    > The chain's counter is that Happy Meal toys are all designed to promote either imaginative or physical play.

    Very fitting, given that what they serve takes a lot of imagination to consider it to be "food".

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    "Step-It" ?

    More like FatBit...

    1. Bloakey1
      Coat

      Re: "Step-It" ?

      "More like FatBit.."

      You are not allowed to call her that anymore. You have to call her a horizontally challenged person with canine characteristics yet beautiful in her own bouncy way. In my day Fatbit <sic> would suffice.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Step-It" ?

        Real women™

  8. Tim Jenkins

    Mmmmmm; contextual advertising

    In my FF, the banner advert at the top of this comments page is now for McD 'BBQ Smokehouse Range with smokey BBQ sauce'. Sadly, no hazardous 'lectronic crap appears to be involved...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Enquiring minds...

    Just curious, but if I had wanted to set fire to my kids, where would I have had to buy a happy meal?

    Last week, my kids were allowed a happy meal for the first time this year, and got given some Nerf branded plastic tat. (Unusually, the toys got played with for longer than it had taken to eat the meal.)

    (OK, so I gave them a happy meal, but in my defense, I've got kids who happily go to a restaurant and eat sea food with tentacles, so I must be doing something right...)

    1. Alister
      Coat

      Re: Enquiring minds...

      I've got kids who happily go to a restaurant and eat sea food with tentacles

      Your kids have tentacles?!! :O

      so I must be doing something right

      Umm, no, not so sure about that now...

      :)

      1. David 132 Silver badge

        Re: Enquiring minds...

        I've got kids who happily go to a restaurant and eat sea food with tentacles

        Your kids have tentacles?!! :O

        Yeah! At least give them knives and forks to use like the other kids, help them to feel "normal"...

  10. Michael Habel

    For christs sake its a LCD Watch...

    It seems somehow more likely to me that the Brat has some kind of Nickel Allergy (See blackplate), then any kind of actual "Burn" I could only presume that, this being a (Crappy-Meal Toy), lacks any thing remotely likely to get hot sans the Lithium Button Battery... Assuming they:

    a: Could get to it... , And

    b) Short it out.

    But again this being a Crappy-Meal Toy, I somehow hitherto susspect that , that Nickel plated Backplate I was thinking of earlier was in fact just a plain chepa55ed bit of colored Plastic. Since you really cant open these things up by design.

    And you thought Crapple were bad at this? They could learn a thing, or three from the clown on how to keep the plebes out of their Hardware.

    I chalk this down to some bottom feeding Welfare toting Trailer-park Troll, who's making a play for the Litigious Lottery. In some hope of a Hot Coffee style Payoff...

    1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

      Re: For christs sake its a LCD Watch...

      Pedometers usually use button cell batteries which only support rather low current draws.

      Adding a LED would increase current draw and potentially quite a lot if they skimped on the current limiting resistor to get a short but bright flash.

      A lot of sustained activity (hopefully not the kind adults would engage in to get the wrist working) could lead to the battery over heating.

      1. Michael Habel

        Re: For christs sake its a LCD Watch...

        OK this is indeed a possibility

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Grand Theft Happy Meal

      "In some hope of a Hot Coffee style Payoff..."

      Does that consist of someone from McDonalds giving her a good seeing to? [possibly NSFW] She must be desparate if she's going that far... :-O

      Oh... you meant that hot coffee....? Doesn't sound *nearly* as much fun to me. (^_^)

      1. Michael Habel
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: Grand Theft Happy Meal

        No not that Hot Coffee...

        This Hot Coffee!

  11. cd / && rm -rf *
    Flame

    "Step-It"

    Brought to mind Stephen King's book, It.

    Maybe MacDoodles should give away a free copy with every "Happy" Meal sold. Promote reading, and, oh, you know, nightmares about being eaten by sinister clowns.

    PS. it appears the public reaction to Step-It singeing their brats is "Shove-It". Presumably sideways.

  12. Ru'
    Joke

    Given where the devices were probably made, could we say that maccy Ds gave the kid a Chinese burn???

    1. Nameless Faceless Computer User

      probability of 1:1, "The bag said the toys were made in China."

  13. Fan of Mr. Obvious

    Ban the band?

    I wonder if the kid had the thing flopped so only the band was on top of the wrist. Looks like it could be a friction burn from the plastic rubbing. I agree with others, it does not have enough power inside to generate heat. If it were to have leaked from the battery, I think they would have shown a photo of the leak rather than put it back on the kid.

    How much $ do you think they are going to want from the end of the golden rainbow?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ba ba ba ba baaa

    You're smoulderin'

  15. ecofeco Silver badge

    Incredible amounts of FAIL

    This just gets better and better, doesn't it?

  16. Shovel

    after being forced to pay 1% of their coffee profits for burning that old lady, you think that McDonald's would be particularly sensitive to devices coming in contact with their customers bare skin

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