Slashdot Mirror
Apple Recalls 1.1 Million Laptop Batteries
elzurawka writes "Apple has issued a recall of over 1 million batteries in the U.S.. This comes after Dell recalled over 4 million batteries just last week. It appears to be again an issue with Sony produced batteries. From the article: 'Computer giant Apple is recalling upwards of 1.1m batteries used in its laptop computers in the US. The announcement affects laptop computers sold between October 2003 and August 2006 and impacts the company's latest range of machines ... The recall is said to be the second biggest in consumer electronic history and will come as a blow to Apple after its launch of new MacBook and MacBook Pro machines had been hailed as a huge success for the firm.'"
I actually managed to get through to them before the slashdotting, and talked with a CSR there. After confirming that I had a 'splodie battery, what were their instructions?
Go to the website to fill out a form.
I bought a PB17" in 2004, and it's unpleasantly hot when I'm using the processor heavily. One thing that helped a lot was changing the power management setting to "automatic" rather than "maximum" even on AC power -- now I can use it on my lap just fine and it only becomes unpleasant when I'm doing processor intensive work for long periods of time. I don't think that's a battery issue, though.
Who? Well in my experience about 50% (or slightly higher) of those doing professional or broadcast video. Sony, despite all the problems with consumer products, remains incredibly strong with pro-video. The only competition of note is Panasonic - and even they collaborate with Sony on some projects.
Correct...from http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/08/24/ap2 972235.html:
Sony said the recalls will cost it between $172 million and $278 million. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said its recall was not expected to materially affect the company's results. Dell has said the recall would not affect earnings.
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
Just called apple support in China (where I'm located at the moment). In my case, even though I couldn't confirm the serial number online, since it was in the range of affected batteries, I was told just to bring my bad battery in to an official apple care service center in either Guangzhou or Hong Kong and they'd give me a replacement. I'd imagine that should be true as well in other countries.
No, that previous recall concerned a different range of batteries, made by LG Chem.