Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve seen a major recall surrounding volatile laptop batteries, but it looks as if HP is the company bringing the topic back to the forefront. Announced today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, has issued a voluntary recall of about 70,000 Li-ion batteries. Reportedly, these cells can “overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers,” and so far, the firm and CPSC have received two separate reports of batteries that have overheated and ruptured, resulting in — wait for it — “flames / fire that caused minor property damage.” For a look at what units are affected, head on past the break — oh, and if you’re reading this on an HP lappie right now, go ahead and grab the fire extinguisher just in case.

Continue reading 70,000 HP laptop batteries recalled due to fire hazard

Filed under: Laptops

70,000 HP laptop batteries recalled due to fire hazard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 15:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a tip folks: don’t get in car wrecks. If you someday find such a situation unavoidable, however, here’s another: keep that laptop of yours in the trunk, or at least in a case tucked down behind the driver’s seat. Mounties in British Columbia are reporting that a Canadian woman who perished in a car accident last month was actually killed by the laptop within her vehicle. As the story goes, the 25 year old’s vehicle was struck by a tow truck, flinging her laptop into the rear of her head. A coroner pegged the cause of death as a “blunt force trauma,” and investigators believe that the whole thing was survivable had the machine not been in the back seat. Not surprisingly, officials are using the incident to encourage others to secure their belongings whilst traveling.

[Via Switched]

Filed under: Laptops

Canadian killed by unsecured laptop during car wreck originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hate to break it to you, but that clairvoyant you’ve been paying daily to read you fortune cookies while blindfolded actually isn’t some sort of medium. Tough to swallow, we know. That said, researchers at Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital are getting closer to equipping entrepreneurial individuals with the tools they need to read minds. By measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue, scientists were able to decode a person’s preference for one of two drinks with 80 percent accuracy, all without a single minute of training on the human’s behalf. This research gives promise to finding out true feelings of those who can’t speak or move due to physical limitations, though there’s no word on how close it is to becoming viable outside of a lab. As an aside, we hear Professor X is pretty perturbed.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Mind reading gets closer to real thanks to Canadian scientists originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that settlement RIM reached with the Ontario Securities Commission yesterday? Well, details of the arrangement have emerged, and Reuters is reporting that in addition to over $90 million CAD being repaid, the company’s co-CEO will be stepping down from its executive board as part of the deal. Jim Balsillie will reportedly have to fork over $5 million CAD (~$4.1 million USD) and his position on the board for at least 12 months — though we’re not sure if he intends to return (or if he’ll be welcomed back).

[Via BlackBerry Cool]

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM’s co-CEO Balsillie stepping down from board as part of backdating settlement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ruh roh. LG Electronics has just issued a voluntary recall of around 45,000 LG 150 phones in Canada, and for whatever reason, Bell Mobility has agreed to assist in cleaning up the mess. Of course, it probably helps that basically every single one was used by a Bell subscriber, but we digress. Reportedly, LG was “notified by one of the independent bodies responsible for the certification of mobile phones that the LG 150 mobile phone is no longer certified as meeting the Radio Standards Specifications 102 (RSS 102), Radio Frequency Exposure Compliance of Radiocommunication Apparatus,” thus LG decided it best to go ahead and make this here move. Users who just so happen to be reading this while yapping on an LG 150 can hit the read link for all the pertinent exchange information, and watch out, ’cause it could implode into a furry ball of molten cuteness at any moment. Just kidding.

[Via IntoMobile]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG Electronics recalls 45,000 LG 150 phones in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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