Apple to recall 1.8 million notebook batteries

[boise1]

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

Recall is second-biggest in U.S. history involving electronics or computers

Reuters
Updated: 3 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Computer Inc. will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook batteries after nine devices overheated, causing minor burns in two users, U.S. safety regulators said Thursday.

The recall is the second-biggest in U.S. history involving electronics or computers, after No. 1 PC maker Dell Inc. recalled 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries last week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. In both cases the batteries had power cells made by Sony Corp..

Cupertino, California-based Apple will recall 1.1 million batteries sold with notebooks in the United States and 700,000 abroad, the safety agency said. They were sold with Apple iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 computers from October 2003, through this month, according to the safety commission.
------------------------------

Lithium-ion batteries are really making a mark in consumer electronics these days...

[Momgonepostal]

1. Interesting...what do Mac-ies have to say for themselves?

Everytime something goes wrong with a PC, Mac users tell them it's because the PC is not a Mac. When the Dell recall hit, I heard that a lot.

[Sherman A1]

4. Still will take my Macs over the PC's I own any day of the week.

Those are the last PC's (desktop and laptop using XP ) that I will ever own. Slow, constantly dealing with software updates, just don't have to fight that on the Mac's I have...

[DainBramaged]

8. Notice they aren't flocking here to defend Jobsie Boy

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[alfredo]

31. Why should we? It was Sony batteries.

[THX1138]

9. Get a Mac!

Get a Mac! Squawk! Get a Mac! It's the solution to EVERY computer problem dont you know!

[alfredo]

10. I think we should ask the Sony people. They were the ones

who made the defective batteries.

Dell is a good target because they are big bush supporters. It wasn't too long ago that Michael Dell said the best thing Apple can do is return their investors money and shut down. Now he is looking over his shoulder because Apple is going gang busters in the consumer market and in the stock market.

The fascination with Apple is more than the product, it is how they play the game. I've been following their moves since the mid to late 90's when an insider that was working on the Mach Kernel gave me a heads up on what was going on with their overall strategy. He's the one that told me and many others to learn Linux for two reasons. The first was that Apple was moving to a UNIX style OS, and also if MS was able to kill off Apple, we were all going to shift over to the Linux platform and make our stand against MS there.

Jobs cut a real good deal with Gates which included access to Windows API's and you are seeing the fruits of that deal in his move to Intel and soon with the release of Leopard. Jobs told Gates that allowing Apple to survive and offering Office for the Mac, he could avoid trouble with the DoJ. Gates got a good deal on non voting stock and made over a quarter billion before he cashed out. QuickTime wasn't killed as Gates demanded, but HyperCard was abandoned. All their programmers went over to the Quicktime 3 development team. Quicktime is an essential part of the OSX interface.

It has been fun watching this all unfold. Apple has made few missteps since Jobs took over. Things have unfolded pretty much as I was told they would. If OSX will be able to run Windows applications without having to purchase Windows, it is game, set, and match.

The battery recall is not a bad issue for Dell or Apple if they handle the recall properly. Sony is the one that is going to be hurt, and they don't need the bad press right now. Apple had a down tick in their stock when the recall was announced, but it has rebounded well. Sony has taken a nearly 3% hit today.

[DainBramaged]

11. They moved to Intel because Lenovo shut down Apple cpu production

when they took over IBM. You have got to be kidding. Jobsie didn't want to pay more for his outdated designs so the technology is now property of Wal-Mart's biggest supplier.


And Intel wins. Just like Beta and VHS. Eventually, Apple will become just another PC company. Cute, but overpriced. With bad batteries just like Dell.

Want to bet the REAL source of the Sony batteries is Sanyo and NOT Sony?:dilemma:

[alfredo]

17. Apple has been planning a move to Intel since day 1.

Every release of OSX for PPC had an Intel version. We had hints of this because Apple kept Darwin for X86 up to date. There were sightings of an Intel laptop running OSX back in the early 2000's.

IBM and Motorola was not able to keep up in speed and production. They were not able to make a laptop G5 chip that had low enough power demands and heat. IBM and Motorola were more interested in embedded systems and IBM was eyeing the game console market. IBM now dominates the console chip market with its Cell Processor.

We've been watching the growing dissatisfaction with IBM and Motorola and been waiting for Jobs to make a move to a new processor. This has been going on long before Lenvono.

You know that there's an AMD optimized version somewhere deep in the bowels of the Cupertino campus. If Intel stumbles, Apple will make the switch.

[DainBramaged]

22. Apple will never again attain dominance, not in our lifetimes

Jobsie still thinks "niche". Even though computers have become the microwave of the 21st century.

And regarding your sentence Apple has been planning a move to Intel since day 1 I would question the truth in that opinion. Don't believe Macrumors. They've run out of things to write about.

Get me Steve Jobs on the phone please.:argh:

[alfredo]

30. It wasn't Mac Rumors. Jobs said that when he intro'd the

Intel Mac. Go back and find the video.

Why else would he have kept an open source Intel version of Darwin in development, then gave it away for free?

[DainBramaged]

33. But, you don't understand, I don't care about MAcs, period

and unless the Mini becomes $299 with free shipping, 17" lcd monitor, and 1 GB of ram, it won't even be a blip on my radar, and even then, maybe only as a curiosity to show my friends.

[alfredo]

34. Then why are you busting our chops and spreading Rovian

style misinformation?

[DainBramaged]

38. You hate America, don't you?

:spank: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[alfredo]

40. I've stopped beating my wife too.

[DainBramaged]

43. Beat your wife Potvin, beat your wife

We chanted that in Madison Square Garden in the Eighties at Ranger/Islander hockey games.


http://experts.about.com/e/d/de/Denis_Potvin.htm

[alfredo]

46. I don't think hockey players need any prompting to beat

anyone.

[illumn8d]

18. Actually they will be a consumer electronics company

That's where the $$ is.

[DainBramaged]

21. Appliances, no money in consumer electronics, Ask Sony

Circuit City dropped appliances a decade ago from their stores and regrets it today. Until Best Buy expanded, the ONLY place you had (on a National basis) to buy appliances was Sears. Appliance prices go up every year, even though content goes up too. But people will pay more for a washer and dryer but want the cheapest TV or electronics they can buy. You have to sell A WHOLE lot of $39 retail cd players to make money.

(edit for spelling)

[Paulie]

25. Lenovo didn't get chip production with the purchase of IBM PC Company

Freescale (spinoff of Motorola) made the G3/G4's, IBM itself made the G5 (and some G3's but mostly used for embedded applications). Lack of producing a desirable product by Freescale and IBM has more to do with the transition to Intel.

[Placebo]

13. Umm, did you even read the article?

They're being recalled because of SONY technology.

[Momgonepostal]

29. I saw that...Sony parts used in Macs (and Dell, etc.)

So it may have been due to Sony, but the parts were in the Mac.

I'm sorry, I'm a bit sensitive to this because 1) I just bought a Dell, and had a few Mac users smugly tell me Macs are better because their batteries don't explode and 2) have listened to many a Mac user over the years tell PC users that the answer to all our PC problems is just to buy a Mac because nothing bad ever happens to them.

I actually like Macs...I used one for a computer class years ago and looked into buying one when I was in the market for a new system. The price scared me off. With this laptop we just bought, I looked at the price of a Powerbook and was sad to see the base model was about $400 more than what I would spend on a similar Dell, except that the PB had a smaller screen and was white, which I don't like. Maybe someday I will be in a position to spend that much extra money on a computer, but that day is not here yet.

[Endangered Specie]

41. Funny how that fact was conviently ignored in the Dell battery threads.

[alfredo]

2. Dell and Apple will take a hit, but not near as bad as

Sony. They will have to Replace all they sold to those companies.

[boise1]

3. Generally, a supplier problem will hit all manufacturers

Same thing happened with Dell and HP as on newly released iMacs with bad electrolytic capacitors:
http://news.com.com/PCs+plagued+by+bad+capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html

[alfredo]

12. I'm wondering if HP will follow suit with a battery

recall. Are there others who can supply batteries?

[illumn8d]

15. The article states that HP doesn't use Sony batteries

They will not be affected.

[alfredo]

20. good for them.

I love their new ad campaign.

[boise1]

28. HP does use Sony's, just not the ones affected by the recall:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/08/21/battery/index.php

[NYC]

35. Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Fujitsu.

Fujitsu, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard (HP) said on Thursday that they use Sony Li-ion batteries with their systems, but that the batteries are different from those being recalled by Dell. The companies said they did not see a fire risk for customers and did not plan on doing a battery recall.

“We’ve worked with Sony to identify whether the cells we used were part of the contaminated batch,” said HP spokesman Mike Hockey. “We’ve not seen any issues whatsoever.”

[B3Nut]

45. Bad caps hit everyone using Intel boards for awhile

including Micron. I've had some Intel D865GBF motherboards fail in the field due to this. I just pitched another one in the recycle bin yesterday.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[n2doc]

5. Here's the link to the recall from apple:

https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/index.html

[stop the bleeding]

6. hasn't hurt their stock at all

took a $1 dip when the news was announced, has since recovered that and is now trading higher - I love the stock market.

[DainBramaged]

7. Only days ago the Apple smugs were bashng the shit out of Dell

for their battery recall, now Stevie has the same problems.

The circle ALWAYS returns from where it came.

[Placebo]

14. This better not turn into a Bash Apple & Mac Users Free-for-All!

Sure this is a problem, but they're only being recalled because of SONY technology. All of you trying to use this as an instance to slap around Mac users and act like you're so high and mighty all of a sudden are just sad.

[DainBramaged]

16. Read this thread. And who are you to dictate the content here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1934229

THE DEATH OF THE PC: Dell Posts a 51% DECLINE

[Placebo]

19. Who's dictating anything?

:shrug:

[jayfish]

23. You've Got To Be Kidding.

All of the bashing that PC users are forced to endure and your going to forgo them a bit of turnabout? BTW, I would be willing to bet that any responses you see "bashing" Macs are more than a bit tongue n' cheek. PC users aren't really fanbois like the Mac/Linux crowd. :hide:


Jay

[minkyboodle]

37. yep

you said it man. All one needs to know is to check out the
previous mac/pc bruhaha linked to in this thread, you know
some are gonna be out for a little get back lol

[Solon]

42. Isn't this like the pot calling the kettle black?

I mean, seriously, where do you come off in asking for civility here. By the way, Macs ARE PCs, just LOCKED DOWN ONES.

[MindPilot]

24. Funny thing that Sony hasn't recalled their own laptops

I suspect it may have to do with the circuitry that regulates the battery. Wouldn't surprise me to find out that both Dell and Apple may have cut corners in that area against Sony's technical recommendations. Just a guess...

[DainBramaged]

26. Sony, no baloney, Hannity STILL sucks ass

[illumn8d]

27. Then why pay for the recall?

[Anakin Skywalker]

32. Shitty Batteries Made in

Taiwan! #$*@

[NYC]

36. My friend's Dell battery was made in Japan,

and was NOT one of the problem batteries.

[Endangered Specie]

39. Karma is a bitch.

funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlHFd2y_SZI

[DainBramaged]

44. Bouncing around like a fucking Jack Russel Terrier

I spit my coffee outall over my desk

[Endangered Specie]

47. Heres another gem...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNoOom8wng0&NR

[DainBramaged]

48. A bump for fucking karma