[swiftcoder]

If you walk into a BestBuy and purchase a new one today, it arrives pre-bricked. That seems to meet the definition just fine

[jeffbee]

That's not what bricked means. Bricked is a one-way trip to permanent non-function. For example, overwriting the firmware with firmware that can't boot and also can't update again.

The events in the article are a simple, transient backend malfunction.

[swiftcoder]

“Bricked” is always a matter of perspective. Sure, the manufacturer can almost always unbrick a device, but the end user here cannot, because the manufacturer is not supplying the requisite tools

[Marsymars]

It doesn’t seem like anyone knows whether or not it is, in fact, transient.