Apple investigating reports of iPhone 8 Plus battery swelling

The iPhone 8 may have a battery problem. There are at least 6 different reports of the iPhone 8 Plus splitting along its seams because batteries are swelling in size. Apple says it is looking into reports which are coming from at least five countries in the past two weeks since the phones first went on sale September 22. Social media posting show what appear to be separate incidents of customers with expanding batteries in Japan and Taiwan. And The Guardian reported on additional incidents in Greece, Canada and China. This could be a serious issue. All batteries do expand and contract but tiny bit with normal use But a phone is supposed to be built to account for that, now these photos make it appear that the batteries are expanding too much. And when a lithium-ion battery swells to this degree, it could be unstable, and it should not be used or recharged. In fact, it could potentially cause a fire, although there have been no reports of fire yet. It is too early to tell. If this is going to be a widespread problem to the level we saw with Samsung's Note 7 battery problems. With that recalled phone, more than 100 incidents were eventually reported. Apple has not released sales numbers for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, so it's unknown how many of these phones are out there. I'm Bridget Carey. You can read more details about this story at CNet.com.