There are a lot of things about Apple that are great and then there is their dark ugly intimidating side.

This came to the surface this week when Apple lawyers tried to intimidate an 11 year old girl who complained that her iPhone had exploded.

The girl from Liverpool in the UK simply wanted a new phone. Apple wanted to prevent her talking about it.  

Ken Stanborough from Liverpool accidentally dropped his daughter Ellie’s iPod when it started to hiss. The device started overheating rapidly, so he threw it into the garden where it exploded with a pop and jumped 10 feet into the air, Stanborough told the Times.

Naturally enough, Stanborough contacted retailer Argos where he’d bought the music player, and Apple, to obtain a refund.

After a telephone conversation with Apple, the company sent Stanborough a letter denying liability but offering a refund, so far so standard procedure. But the letter also ordered the family to keep news of the settlement secret, otherwise Apple would seek damages and legal costs.

Stanborough has declined to sign the letter and Apple and Argos have yet to examine Ellie’s fiery IPod.

Despite news of over-heating IPods leaking out into the blogosphere, the fruit-themed toymaker has done its best to suppress the extent of the problem. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission released 800 pages of documentation on IPod problems .