As the CBC reports, Perminder Tung used the Time Capsule to back up two laptops and an iPhone and to store his photos. The Canadian man claims that the device failed last month and that Apple told him that data on it was irretrievable. Tung, a lawyer, says the data included the birth of his first child and is now demanding $25,000 from Apple to compensate him for the broken device and the lost memories.

The Time Capsule has been subject to widely reported manufacturing defects and led Apple to offer free replacements for the device in 2010. Tung, who purchased his Time Capsule in 2008, says he fell outside of the recall period. According to a Guardian report in 2010, Apple didn’t disclose the extent of the problem and declined to extend its replacement offer to all those affected.

Stories like Tung’s are becoming more common in the digital age as people record their memories on fragile, non-physical media. My colleague Mathew Ingram recently offered a thoughtful reflection on this issue when he described looking at photographs at the funeral of a family friend.

(Image by Angela Waye via Shutterstock)

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