Sony recalls 100,000 laptop batteries

The Japanese Electronics giant-Sony-on Friday said that it was cooperating in a recall of 2.15Ah lithium-ion cell batteries made in Japan and sold around the world in laptops made by HP(Hewlett Packard), Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and Acer . There have been 40 reports of overheating, in some cases involving smoke or flames, according to a company statement.

Sony-world's second largest Lithium-ion battery manufacturer after Sanyo- two years ago in a similar incident recalled nearly 9 million high-capacity batteries. The result? It affected the economy of all global competing PC manufacturers, and cost Sony close to $400 million! So, why hasn't Sony learned from its previous experiences? Beats me! That's the big question!

Sony stated that the faulty batteries were from the same subsidiary that made the batteries recalled two years ago, Sony Energy Devices in Tochigi, Japan. Sony said efforts to make manufacturing lines there more efficient appeared to have backfired, leading to substandard cells. A possible flaw in the metal foil for electrodes could also have led to overheating, the company said.

Dell and HP have taken immediate measures- HP has a website for its owners to check whether their batteries are defected, and Dell too has a similar website. This is definitely not good news for Sony.

Firmware 2.50 for the PS3 is OUT!!!!

Well, what are you waiting for? Go get it! Oh, so first want to know what are the features so that you don't waste time downloading an update that does nothing-like the previous one. Well then, lets get down to business!

• First of all, the way you create a PlayStation Network account has been redesigned. And believe me, it looks good! I would rather say, more appealing and simple for casual gamers. Then again, only hardcore gamers buy the beloved PS3 right?
• You can also turn off your PlayStation 3 after a background download or an installation has completed!
• Various names have been changed: like 'BD/DVD Settings' has been changed to 'Video Settings'. A feature worthy to be noted, 'Sequential Playback' has been added under the renamed 'Video Settings'.
• If your electricity bills are unusually high, you know who the culprit is-your PS3! Thankfully, Sony has added 'Power Save Settings'-a feature Xbox360 owners have long been used to! It means, you can turn-off your Sixaxis/DualShock3 after a period of inactivity! Cool, huh?
• The method of reconnecting Bluetooth devices has been changed! And, you can select 'HP' as an option under 'Printers' if you want to print your favourite pictures!
• You can use 'Mosquito Noise Reduction', support for Adobe Flash 9 has been added! There's much more! Click this link to get to know all the features!

You know what, I think you've heard enough! GO DOWNLOAD IT IMMEDIATELY!

Microsoft to stop selling XP today...

Microsoft is going to stop selling XP today, despite many harsh words and revolts from PC users and consumers who rebelled against being forced to move to XP's successor- the ill-fated bloat-ware Vista.

Once PC giants like Dell and Hewlett Packard(HP) have run out of stock of computers with XP pre-installed, users who cant live without XP will have to buy Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate and will have to legally "downgrade" to XP. As posted earlier on this very same blog, Microsoft will still continue to support it's six-year old all-time seller XP until 2009 and limited support till 2014- which is good news, or so I guess.

This ought to cheer up the ultra-portable lovers- XP will still be available for all ultra-portable gadgets like the Asus EeePC. Microsoft also stated that it will allow small PC shop builders to resale till the end of January.