HP DELL TOSHIBA Recalls Sony batteries due to fire hazard

The U.S. government on Thursday (October 30, 2008) issued a recall of 35,000 Sony Corp notebook computer batteries, calling them a fire hazard to consumers.

The recall affects Sony lithium-ion batteries that were used mainly in computers from Hewlett-Packard Co, with a smaller number in notebooks from Dell and Incand Toshiba Corp .

The recall affects around 32,000 HP notebooks, 3,000 from Toshiba, and 150 Dell computers.

Sony blamed the faulty batteries on manufacturing line adjustments in 2004 and 2005, which it believes may have affected the quality of some cells. Other incidents of overheating may have involved a problem with raw materials.

It may be noted that last month the consumer electronics giant SONY recalled 438,000 of its Vaio laptops due to battery overheating concerns.

According to Reuters, there has been 19 reports of the batteries overheating, including 17 reports of fire with two people experiencing minor burns.

Sony spokeswoman Elizabeth Boukis told that the company will support the U.S. recall, along with that of an additional 65,000 batteries worldwide. On a global basis, PC makers have reported 40 overheating incidents.

Boukis said batteries covered by the new recall are unrelated to those in company's massive 2006 recall. That action covered 9.6 million batteries and cost the company millions.

The HP Mini 1000 Series officially released | Specification & Price

The HP Mini 1000 has been officially released.

The new HP models are:

1. HP Mini 1000
2. HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition
3. HP Mini 1000 Mobile Internet Experience

The HP Mini 1000 comes in a piano-black finish and contains Microsoft Windows XP Home as well as an Ethernet jack, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities and two USB ports.

The HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition reflects the eponymous fashion designer's spring 2009 collection.

The HP Mini 1000 Mobile Internet Experience comes with a preloaded LINUX OS unlike the other two and focuses on providing Mobile Advanced internet facilities

Specification:

Consumers will be offered the choice of an 8.9-inch or 10.2-inch diagonal BrightView display and will be able to select either solid-state or mechanical hard drives. It will be powered by an Intel Atom processor, and it will be available in either Linux or XP. It will have either an 8GB or 16GB SSD or 60GB HDD, and the 3 cell battery is expected to deliver just over 3 hours of battery life.

The keyboard is a generous 92% of full size, and the touchpad is surrounded on both sides by the left and right-click buttons as opposed to having them below. It weighs a mere 2.25 lbs and is under an inch thick, and comes with HP's Imprint Finish, which is black with swirls.

Price:

The XP version will begin at $399, and the Linux at $379.

Still an Ambiguity : Alliance of Google And Yahoo!

The prospects for a Web-advertising partnership between Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have dimmed, with both sides considering walking away from the deal as early as next week, say people familiar with the matter.

The two companies met Thursday with the Justice Department, part of a series of meetings to address the concerns of regulators. While the parties may agree to continue the talks -- or they could reach a resolution -- there are signs they are unwilling to make compromises to address the Justice Department's objections.

Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said his company continues to have "cooperative discussions with the Department of Justice about this arrangement." He added, "We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition, but we are not going to discuss the details of the process."

Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said discussions with the Justice Department are "ongoing," adding, "we believe strongly that this agreement will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position."

The partnership, announced in June, would allow Yahoo to display search ads sold by Google and take a cut of the revenue. The alliance instantly drew criticism that it would give Google too much clout in online ads.

The option to scrap the deal has been on the table before, but Google in particular has begun considering it more seriously as Justice Department talks haven't progressed. One sticking point has been the department's discussion of having the companies sign a consent decree stating the terms of the partnership. That would subject their compliance to continuing oversight by a judge.

A withdrawal would be a big blow for the companies, Yahoo in particular. When the deal was announced, Yahoo rejected a separate search offer from Microsoft Corp. Yahoo hopes the Google deal would help it generate hundreds of millions of dollars in added revenue.

At the time, both sides said they would delay implementing the partnership to allow regulatory review. They later said they would implement the arrangement around early October regardless of whether regulators indicated they would seek to block it. But they haven't gone ahead.

By dropping out, Google would likely be seeking to avoid a legal battle that would spotlight its market power. For Yahoo, backing out would clear a path to pursue other alliances to help turn around its business. Yahoo has been in talks about combining with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.