BREAKING: Apple recalling 1.8 million laptop batteries, fire hazard cited

[WilliamPitt]

CNN.com banner:

Apple Computer is recalling 1.8 million laptop batteries supplied by Sony, citing a fire hazard, The Associated Press reports.

http://www.cnn.com/

...hmm...

(headline corrected to reflect new CNN headline, here:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/24/technology/apple_recall/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Nimrod2005]

1. OMFG!!!!

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. I wonder if Sony Vaio computers will end up being involved.

I have always thought my computer runs Way too hot.

[EFerrari]

Same here. AND my fan just went out. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. My fan has become REALLY loud lately.

Did that happen with yours before it went?

[EFerrari]

14. Yes! They get loud and then, they die. n/t

[blogslut]

15. ahhh

This is why I don't have a more powerful laptop. CPUs run super hot. The faster they are, the hotter they run. I noticed the VAIO internal fan is on the bottom of the unit. I suppose it's the only way to do it with a notebook and keep it slim. Still, it's gotta be hard on the batteries. Maybe that's part of the problem for Dell and Apple. Could be a problem for other laptop (and battery) manufacturers in the future...

[EFerrari]

19. The fan is on the bottom and rendered less than useful unless you

elevate it.

Too bad. Those are some nice machines otherwise. :(

[slackmaster]

3. Impossible

Apple computers iz da shizzle, yo.

[Pierre.Suave]

7. Day Iz

thas fo sho

jk, I have a mac and I love it. Much more than I ever liked (more like loathed) my previous PC laptops.

[htuttle]

4. Wasn't this done a few weeks ago?

I signed up and got a replacement at least a week or two ago. I think it was just the MacBook Pro batteries at the time.

[meegbear]

5. Gonna get me a new battery

:woohoo:

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. It's not on the CNN page now- correct link? n/t

[WilliamPitt]

9. I'm looking right at it

Bright red banner across the top of the page.

[meegbear]

8. Link to story ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14500443/

[tridim]

10. John Hodgman just bought a fire extinguisher..

Preparing for the next Apple Vs. PC ad. :)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. That's why I only use PC's...

I keeed, I keeed..

I am happy to report I own no shares of Sony stock, however.

[Nikki Stone 1]

23. Dell PCs are also affected according to the article

"Apple's recall comes 10 days after Dell Inc.'s recall of 4.1 million faulty laptop batteries also made by Sony — the largest electronics recall in the Consumer Product Safety Commission's history."

From the MSNBC story at:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. Yep, saw that the other day

To which there was a flood of that's why I only use Apple post.

It was a very poor attempt at humor on my part. :)

[Nikki Stone 1]

33. Ah...Context is everything.

:)

[RedEarth]

12. Get an Apple....

oops.....this is an Apple....

[WilliamPitt]

16. HEADLINE CHANGED

CNN changed it from 1.1 million to 1.8 million.

[wicket]

17. kick

:kick:

[EFerrari]

18. I'm glad you posted this, Will, because my kid has one of those

machines.

He tells me it runs so hot that he actually has in the past put a tray of ice cubes under it when he was burning music files to a cd.

Yikes.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. Mine runs very hot too

But I bought it reconditioned and not from Apple. Damn I don't know what to do now.

[EFerrari]

31. It's a puzzle. You'd think you could go to the battery manufacturer

and negotiate. I mean, you HAVE the bad battery.

My pc has a battery made by these folks, and I was about to go get a new fan installed. A fan that probably burned out BECAUSE of the battery.

[LifeDuringWartime]

20. thanks again, Sony!

years ago apple had a powerbook model (5300 series) that also had batteries supplied by sony. i think a few of those actually caught fire. and now dells have been burning and apples have been getting hot. seems like sony doesn't care what happens with the batteries they manufacture for other makers. yeesh.

free battery though! luckily mine hasn't lost much charging capacity in the year that i've had it.

[cascadiance]

35. Any place where they talk about the specific batteries affected?

I just replaced my old Powerbook with a newer Macbook Pro because the older Powerbook appeared to have died when something on the motherboard was frying, likely due to overheating. When I was setting up the newer box and about to pull out my older hard disc to mount on the second one for file transfers, I was suddenly able to power it up again. It was an older generation powerbook, and I actually had the original battery and a spare I bought. I'd like to find out if I can:

a) get new batteries to replace those. Might be able to recover more of the cost of my older powerbook with newer batteries to sell if it turns out to be history.
b) don't know if Apple will do anything about it, but perhaps I could make the case that these batteries (if they turn out to be the bad ones) contributed to my older machine's motherboard condition and get a new motherboard swapped into it. They probably won't do it since it's way out of warrantee (it's about three years old), but it might be worth a try if they are the bad batteries.
c) Want to make sure my newer Intel Dual Core 17" Macbook Pro battery also isn't one that should get replaced too.

[high density]

21. Sony sucks

They had already lost me as a customer before this battery fiasco. Their engineering these days is very cheap and as such I'll buy electronics from the dozens of competitors that they have.

[dpbrown]

22. Only affects 12in iBook and 15in Powerbook - no fires reported

This is preventative, unlike Dell (which numbers keep falling, and which can no longer compete with Apple on price).

Dell computers actually burst into flames.

Just had to get you digs in on Apple, though, didn't you.

Let's pick on a company that hasn't been adjudicated an illegal monopoly, that has a CEO who only donates to Democrats, that has Al Gore on the BOD, that makes computers that are cheaper than Dells and run both the best operating system in the world and Windows.

What stupid scare tactics.

[WilliamPitt]

24. "Just had to get you digs in on Apple, though, didn't you."

I LOVE how prickly sensitive Apple people are. It fucking cracks me up every time.

Yeah, my digs...because I control the content of CNN, the New York Times, etc.

Actually, I was simply hoping for a response exactly like this one. It makes me smile.

:P

[dpbrown]

26. You're the one supporting the monopolist and the GOP, not me

But I'm glad to make you smile as you sell progressive politics down the river by supporting those who do just that.

This is "latest news" and the only reason to post it in "General Discussion" is to get your digs in at Apple people, so of course you get this kind of response. Most people probably already know of your weird anti-Apple stance and just shake their head at this kind of pranking.

But as you have said in the past, you do stuff just to poke people.

Oh, well.

:thumbsdown:

[WilliamPitt]

27. Please don't stop

:rofl:

[Poiuyt]

25. Dude, your Dell's on fire!

[AtomicKitten]

28. Same lithium batteries as Dell.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Great! I just bought an ibook G4

[Taxloss]

34. Careful, Will, criticise Apple at your peril!

It seems healthy suspicion of corporations goes out of the window when Apple is involved ...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Taxloss/119

[WilliamPitt]

36. See posts 22 and 26

:)