By now, you've surely heard about the Sony battery recalls from Apple, IBM / Lenovo, and Panasonic.To heat things up even more (pun regrettably intended), Toshiba and Fujitsu just added some laptop models to the list, and Dell expanded their recall over the weekend, bringing the number of recalled batteries up to 7.7 million!
HP, however, has claimed the recall to be "a Dell issue" and is not planning to recall any laptop models.
According to USA Today, "The company believes it is safe because it reviewed and rejected Sony battery parts for nearly a year before buying any, spokesman Mike Hockey says. Although HP can't say for sure, since it doesn't have all the information from Sony, it believes the problematic batteries were among those that did not meet its quality standards, Hockey says. About 1 million to 2 million HP laptops currently have the Sony battery parts. No overheating problems have been reported, he says."
Imagine using your laptop on your lap and having this happen? Or on an airplane? According to the video below, the FAA has stated that "fire supression systems on planes are capable of putting out laptop fires". I suppose this is some comfort, but I don't want to sit near the wing of a plane wedged between a screaming baby and someone's potentially explosive Powerpoint presentation.
Here is the ABC World News Report on the dangers of lithium-ion batteries:
