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Another PowerBook violently explodes
Just when we think these explosive batteries can't get any worse, then you see a PowerBook that looks like it was hit with a high powered explosive charge -- which, in a manner of speaking, it was. This unit was apparently a year old and wasn't even powered at the time it, um, went off -- 6:00AM. Talk about your rude awakenings. So please, people, learn from this rash of Li-ion explosions: you lessen your chances of battery combustion by returning them wherever possible, so return your frickin defective batteries, ok?[Via Cult of Mac]
Dell laptop + ammo = no go
We'd think by now people might have heard about some of those Dell laptop mishaps, but it looks like a few boxes of ammo and a vintage Ford pickup are the latest casualties in an incident of laptops gone bad. While it's yet to be proved certainly that the Dell Inspiron 1300 in question did actually start the fire that blew up the ammo boxes of two outdoorsmen on a fishing trip (uh, who needs ammo on a fishing trip?) and overtook Jenny, the '66 F-250, we've little doubt that the laptop's, ammo's, and truck's owner Thomas Forqueran regrets ever placing the three within the vicinity of one another. ConsumerAffairs, from whom we sourced this story, did make mention of the Dell battery recall website some Engadget users have been tossing about -- you know, the launched in December of last year to take back some 22,000 batteries. Calls to Dell this week about the program went unreturned, but one thing is definitely for sure: if you've got a Dell laptop, do yourself (and your truck) a favor and still check and see if you can get it taken back, would you? We know you like your lap / desk / shoulder bag / car / plane in good working order.Here's that Dell recall page one more time, keep it handy, would ya? http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/[Thanks, Robert]
PowerBook G4 plays the flame game too
Looks like someone at a Norwegian design firm forgot to trade in his PowerBook G4 battery during last year's recall. See, Dell, you're not the only company getting bad publicity over spontaneously-combusting laptops -- everyone seems to be in on the fun. Read on for a close-up of the offending battery after it was ejected from the docked notebook...[Thanks, Stian]Update: Sølve Skrede, the owner of the battery shot us an email saying that his G4 battery actually was not one of the ones recalled! Curiouser and curiouser.
Dell laptop number 3 explodes
This time it was in Singapore, a Dell Latitude D410. We'll keep posting these until we see a recall or a solution, so please Dell, treat 'em right.[Thanks, Robert]
Dude, your Dell is on fire
Although we enjoy ogling mangled electronics as much as the next person, if you should ever find yourself at a conference with us and someone's laptop happens to burst into flames, we kindly request that you seek out a fire extinguisher before reaching for your cameraphone.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Exploding Shuffle
Kids, take care of your iPods. They entertain you, keep you company, and act as a status symbol (even though you deny it). And, if one day your shuffle decides to go belly up, lay it to rest peacefully by sending it to the big iPod recycling plant in the sky. What you should by no means do is attempt to repair said shuffle by stabbing it with a large metal knife, lest you end up like this foolish fellow who hit a capacitor and had the iPod explode in his face.In all seriousness though, whenever you are planning to open up any kind of electronic device, think first, and think twice. I've been bit more than a few times by capacitors that I hadn't properly discharged, especially when repairing cameras. Via our sassy sister, Engadget.
Exploding SE phone charger hits three year-old
Far be it from us to revel misfortunes of others, but is it really heartless of us to have a chuckle at the thought of a little kid getting nailed in the chest by phone charger shrapnel? Yeah, we suppose it is, but at least we're on the up about it, which is more than we can say about Sony Ericsson and their CST-20 charger. Turns out a UK man recently had a run-in with a rogue CST-20 unit, which after being plugged in for 45 seconds blew up in his kitchen. The room was sprayed with shrapnel, and the man's three year-old son was nailed in the chest with the lid of the unit. Along with tripping the circuit breaker and filling the house with fumes, the explosion managed to get a vulgar yell out of the man's wife upstairs, which really seems to make it all worthwhile. The man doesn't think so, and is of course looking into the matter legally. Sony Ericsson says the CST-20 is built by a different manufacturer than the one responsible for the infamous CST-13 of 2003.[Via textually.org]
Ageia PhysX card makes explosions look pretty
Ageia has posted two videos comparing an explosion in the PC version of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on machines with and without the company's $300 hardware PhysX physics card. It's clear to see that the explosion is much more impressive on the PC with a PhysX card--the shrapnel and massive smoke cloud is entirely absent on the normal machine. However, there's some inconsistency in terms of the explosion's effect on the gameplay. In the video without the PhysX card the screen doesn't shake and a nearby soldier is unaffected by the blast. In the video with the PhysX card the screen shakes relatively violently and the soldier dies (although he's slightly closer to the blast). Of course its possible that the second video could have been tweaked to further differentiate the two machines' explosions, but if simple effects like a screen shake requires $250-300 worth of hardware it's not hard to envision a lot of pissed off gamers.[Update: fixed grammar error (moved over an apostrophe, added an "s")]
