Hewlett-Packard along with its Compaq division has recently issued a recall of approximately 70,000 notebook PC batteries because of fears that these batteries could overheat.

The lithium-ion batteries that are contained in certain notebook computers were the subject of two reports that were submitted to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as Health Canada. The said reports were said to contain examples of minor property damage.

The batteries affected by the recall were those manufactured between August 2007 and March 2008. Among the computer models that likely contain the faulty batteries are:

HP Pavilion
dv2000
dv2500
dv2700
dv6000
dv6500
dv9000
dv9500
dv9700
dv6700

Compaq Presario

A900
C700
F700
V3000
V3500
V3700
V6000
V6500
V6700

HP Compaq

6720s

The recalled batteries will also have the following barcode levels. Please note that the ^ denotes any letter or number in the code:

62940^^AXV^^^^
65033^^B7U^^^^
65033^^B7V^^^^
65033^^BGU^^^^
65035^^B7U^^^^
65035^^B7V^^^^
65035^^BGU^^^^
65035^^BGV^^^^
67059^^V8U^^^^
67059^^V8V^^^^

It is interesting to note that the last time a battery recall happened, which was in 2006, it began a series of recall announcements from a number of companies. This means that this could be the beginning of a massive recall move from other companies as well.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2009 currently being held in Las Vegas is proving to be an exciting one for laptop lovers.

ASUS unveiled its two EEE PC tablets at the show recently. The T91 and the T101H are 8.9 – and 10 – inch screens that posses the Atom processor, a direct spec link the the EEE netbooks that are probably the most popular laptops in the market today. The great innovation for this line is the tablet functionality allowing a user to swivel the screen flush and fold it flush to the keyboard.

I am quite excited about the T101H not only because of the size but also because of the good looking chiclet keyboard. No price has been given yet for these new EEE stars but I’ll definitely be getting this when it gets released.

Remember my post yesterday about updating your Macs? Well, better put it on hold first.

An update released this Monday for the Leopard operating system is proving to be a faulty one with users reporting that the update to Mac OS X 10.5.6 has completely killed their units.

According to reports, some people who turn on their updated Macbooks will hear a spinning sound, the LED lights will turn on but then nothing else will happen. The initial speculation is that it could be a logic board failure. The solution is a replacement board but then the cost of the board is as much as a new unit.

The update to 10.5.6 was released in order to make improvements to some features, and this includes syncing between the address book and the iPhone, the roaming capabilities of AirPort connections, encryption alert that appeared in the iChat window.

Now the errors reported with the update include broken Bluetooth connections, no sound to popping sounds during boot-up, and dead USB ports.

Apple has not yet issued any statement regarding this problem.

With netbooks becoming more and more ubiquitous not just in the business space but also among casual internet users, its further evolution is going to be assured.

One part of this evolution would be in the area of broadband access. Based on an article on Wired, netbooks in the next few years may start arriving bundled with built-in WWAN radios, only with the caveat that a subscription will be required, which would fall along the $60 a month category.

Acer, Radioshack and AT&T are already requiring buyers of the Acer Aspire One to get a contract for broadband access. As I have posted before, the subsidy comes in the form of ultracheap Aspire Ones ($99) but a requirement of a two-year contract.

Is this development a good or bad thing for users? Time will only tell but it will depend on how much freedom manufacturers and provider will give users.

Amazon’s surprise hit and Oprah-endorsed gadget, the Kindle ebook reader is so in demand this holiday season that there is a big backlog of orders. A cursory look at the Amazon site indicates that shipping Kindle will take 11 to 13 weeks.

What Amazon is basically selling now is a place in the long line of desperate customers who want to buy the Kindle for themselves or as a gift.

At this point, I’d rather just use my trusty Nokia E61i as my default ebook reader. I’m currently reading Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule and I’m not experiencing any problems or difficulties in reading despite the smaller screen.