BatteryProblem

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  • iPhone 4 combusts on Australian flight, looks madder than a spurned Qantas employee

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    11.28.2011

    On an airline that's actually serving the great country of Australia these days, an iPhone 4 decided enough was enough. Shortly after Regional Express flight ZL319 landed in Sydney from Lismore, "a passenger's mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow." What happened next is a bit of an Aussie mystery, but it seems at some point that the glow was "extinguished successfully." No one onboard was harmed, and the handset in question has been handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for "analysis." It suffered only mild reception issues prior to its final collapse, and if faced with a similar situation, Siri reportedly stated that it would consult a therapist before discharging hot fury. Update: Ross let us know that officials from the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau are investigating the incident.

  • Sony's VAIO CW draining the battery while asleep?

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    03.25.2010

    Thinking of picking up a VAIO CW over the weekend? You might want to hold those horses just a bit, at least until Sony (or someone) figures out what exactly is causing the batteries on these to zap themselves while asleep. Based on a raft of complaints -- nine pages strong and growing -- over at Notebook Review, it sounds as if the batteries within the outfit's new CW series (at least those with Core i3 CPUs and the 330M GPU) are fading inexplicably quick while resting, leaving many with next to no juice once they crack open the lid the next morning. All sorts of theories are flying, but one in particular seems to note that a bundled Sony battery management application could be causing cells to only charge to a certain percent even when the machine is "off." For now, some folks are actually flipping the battery out for a fraction of a second and popping it back in after putting it to sleep for the night in order to prevent the drain, but we get the feeling that a less janky fix should be in order. Right, Sony?