Another day, another story that makes Apple look bad. Today’s is a charming tale in which Apple is alleged to have placed a gag order on a Liverpool man after his iPod touch exploded. The man complained to Apple, and Apple offered the man “compensation” in the form of so many pounds (the man merely asked for his £162 back), but only on the condition that he never tell anyone about said compensation.

It’s even worse than it sounds, since Apple apparently only offered a full refund if the man signed the gag order.

This is all goes back to when the man, a certain Ken Stanborough, a 47-year-old gentleman from Liverpool, bought an iPod touch for his daughter. He accidently dropped the iPod one day, then “it made a hissing noise.”

“I could feel it getting hotter in my hand, and I thought I could see vapour”. Mr Stanborough said he threw the device out of his back door, where “within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10ft in the air.”

Nice. Can you imagine your gadgets collapsing into a poof of smoke every time you dropped it?

You should know that Stanborough didn’t sign Apple’s gag order, which means he’s out the £l62 he spent.

Oh, also: anyone else think that girl, Stanborough’s daughter, is wearing quite a bit of makeup for an 11-year-old?