Sony Recall: Not Batteries This Time, But AC Adapters

Sony announced a recall of AC adapters for certain all-in-one VAIO desktops due to potential shock hazards. The adapter model number is VGP-AC19V17. It was sold after September 2007 with these systems: VGC-LT; VGC-JS240; VGC-JS250; VGC-JS270; and VGC-JS290.

The adapter was also sold with notebook docking stations after September 2005. The docking stations are model numbers VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1.

The company is replacing the adapters with new ones. You’ll find more information on Sony’s Web site, where you can also confirm whether your specific adapter is affected. (Unplug it if it’s on the list.) You can also call 877-361-4481 for more information. —Donna Tapellini

Apple's bloating batteries (Update)

Since we first blogged about it, our older Apple MacBook Pro battery continued to expand even more than the photo at the right, popping open eventually.

What did not continue was Apple's "battery exchange program"—it closed a year ago. And Apple's battery update notice, recommending a software update and offering a free replacement battery to MacBook and MacBook Pro owners whose batteries had "visibly deformed," also closed in May, 2009.

If you have this problem, other than buying a new battery for more than $100, your only recourse is to try to get Apple to grant you an out-of-warranty replacement. We suggest speaking with a customer satisfaction representative, and refer to our original blog posting, Apple's bloating batteries, to emphasize that you are not the only victim of this design flaw. —Dean Gallea

Getting a charge: Tips on keeping gear juiced on air trips

Powering high powered electronic devices on the go can be a headache. How do you handle it?

Summer travel season can easily create power struggles in airport terminals, as the gaggle of geeks seeking to recharge laptops, cell phones, and other gear outstrips the supply of working outlets.

I had first-hand experience of this last week when I was waylaid in Terminal C at Logan International Airport in Boston after a flight was canceled. Over four or so hours, in a terminal choked with travelers, I saw (and, I confess, perpetrated myself) some quasi-military tactics to take and hold functional, well-located outlets.

But I also witnessed some random acts of power-sharing kindness, and had time — plenty of time — to gather the following tips for energy-seeking air travelers:

Gather intelligence. During my delay, I was blessed by the company of many friendly Coloradans (we were all waiting for flights to Denver). They shared their knowledge about where outlets were and which actually worked (only about half, it seemed). There’s also the AirPower Wiki, which details outlet availability airport by airport – even terminal by terminal, in some cases.

Several devices to charge? Bring a multi-outlet wall adapter. Packing an adapter that allows you to plug several devices into a single outlet increases the chance of getting the power you need, and frees up extra outlets for others. A single outlet should have no problem handling the power demands of two portable-electronic devices. If you’re traveling abroad, you’ll likely need another adapter to handle differing voltage, plug design, or both. Sites like the World Electric Guide can be helpful.

Acer laptop claims 8-hour battery life

We’ve yet to see a Windows laptop with battery life longer than  5  7 hours, unless we add an extended battery to the system. But when Acer launched its new series of laptops this week, one big push was for longer battery life.

[UPDATE: As one of our readers pointed out, we previously had in our Ratings a 13-inch Sony VAIO laptop (in the company's Z series line) with a tested battery life of over 6 hours. Our current Ratings of laptop computers (available to subscribers) also details several recently-tested Windows notebooks that also run for more than 5 hours, but those used an extended battery. —Ed.]

With its Aspire Timeline, Acer is claiming 8 hours of battery life. That’s the same time Apple claims for its MacBook Pro 17-inch laptop, a figure we recently put to the test.

Behind the Aspire’s longer life, says Acer, is the combination of Intel Core 2 Duo ultra-low voltage processors and Intel Display Power Savings Technology (Intel DPST), which Intel says “reduces the display backlight with minimum visual impact.”

Acer had the longest battery life in our recent netbook Ratings, (available to subscribers) with its 10-inch Aspire One lasting 9 hours in our tests. We’ll see if its new 11.6-inch Aspire One netbook, also launched this week, lives up to its predecessor’s battery life as soon as we get our hands on one.

Where there’s power, of course, there can also be heat, especially now that batteries are cramming more power into less space. The Timeline laptops will use another Intel technology to reduce heat by redirecting airflow to the bottom side of the chassis and the wrist rest areas.

While we of course can’t yet say how well that cooling technology might work, when it comes to heat, Acer laptops have run cooler than the competition in our tests in recent years. (Our laptop testing actually includes a “lap test” that measures the temperature of the bottom of the laptop after it’s been stressed; see minute 3:10 our Laptop Buying Guide video. The hottest laptops, thermally speaking, have been models from HP and Apple.) — Chris Lam

Testing MacBook Pro’s 8-hour battery life

When you’re on the road or just trying to work without being tethered to a plug, you want the longest battery life you can get from your laptop. So when Apple claimed that the battery on the MacBook Pro 17-inch laptop lasts 8 hours, we wanted to see for ourselves.

We can’t verify Apple’s claims because the company uses a proprietary test protocol. But when we put the MacBook through its paces in our own tests, we found that it ran for 6.5 hours—not quite the 8 hours Apple claimed, but still the longest life for standard batteries in any of the systems we tested, Apple or Windows. (Extended batteries generally run longer, but cost more, weigh more, and can stick out beyond the edges of your laptop’s case.)

And that’s a full hour longer than the prior version of the MacBook Pro 17-inch, whose battery lasted 5.5 hours in our tests. — Donna Tapellini

T-Mobile wants your kitchen counter

Already common in customers' pockets and handbags, wireless carrier T-Mobile wants to develop a phone for your kitchen counter. The cellular service provider is planning to sell a home phone and tablet computer in early 2010, reports the New York Times. Both will run on Android, the open-source platform developed by Google.

T-Mobile isn't the only cell carrier attempting to establish itself as a home phone. Verizon's Hub and AT&T's HomeManager are tabletop consoles that attempt to streamline household communication, from phone use to Internet tools like email, checking the day’s weather, or even watching a movie.

The takeaway: Conventional landline customers are, in increasing numbers, switching to cheaper Internet-based plans from cable companies, or relying entirely their mobile phones. Wireless carriers are hoping to snare some of these defectors by offering them a richer array of home-based services and hardware. For more help on finding the right mobile phone for your needs, see our free online buying advice on cell phones and smart phones. And if you're looking for more ways to save money on your phone bills, check out our post on cutting your cell phone bill and tips for finding the best phone deals. —Mike Gikas & Nick Mandle

CES 2009: New batteries for portable devices?

With attendees as laden with portable devices as anyone on earth, the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas is the perfect venue at which to discuss the state of battery technology—and to ask when the batteries that power our portables might be smaller and lighter and blessed with longer run times.

Run time is especially important to the CES crowd, who are constantly moving from one cavernous display hall to another, while remaining  connected via smartphones and laptops. As one manufacturer's rep at yesterday's "Better Batteries" panel discussion conceded, "If you can’t go through the day on a single charge of the battery, we know that's not good enough for the consumer, who doesn't want to have to search out a wall outlet and stop what he or she is doing."

He had my ear, since I was at that moment charging my iPhone at the side of the meeting room, after texting colleagues and checking e-mail for the better part of the day had depleted its charge to the dreaded red zone.

Alas, the panel, which mostly comprised reps from battery manufacturers, promised no imminent miracles. The consensus: For the next year or so at least, consumers should expect only incremental improvements in run time, mostly from closer collaboration between battery and device manufacturers to ensure maximum efficiency delivering power to the device and maximum efficiency in the battery itself. And the technology of choice for the time being, they agreed, remains the lithium-ion cell.

Which isn't to say that new battery technologies on the horizon might not eventually pose a serious challenge to lithium-ion. Some such innovations were on display at the show. Dean Gallea, our computer-testing expert, talks about one such technology, silver-zinc, in the video at right.

—Paul Reynolds

Macworld Keynote: Modest expectations are fully met

There were no lines outside the door of MacWorld this morning, a change from recent Keynotes. Another change: No new "killer" product. Nevertheless, the Phil Schiller presentation played to a relatively full house of very supportive Apple fans.

The high points: Significant upgrades to the iLife and iWork application suites, a new 17-inch MacBook Pro (finishing off the upgrades to the entire laptop line), and the iTunes Music Store is going DRM-free and fully supports both Wi-Fi and 3G on the iPhone.

Here's a quick rundown on each:

iLife '09
The new suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Garageband) sports some major and more robust feature upgrades, including new special effects for iPhoto and iMovie, and mapping/geo-tagging capability to let users sort images by place, or make an animated map of your vacation journey between movie clips. Garageband now offers nine free music lessons for guitar and keyboard as a new feature.

As a bonus, Apple is offering "Artists Lessons" (at $4.95 per download), where artists like Sting will teach you one of their hit songs on piano or guitar, including a bit of history about how the song was created. iLife '09 ships the end of January, free with a new Mac purchase, or upgrades for $79 (single) and $99 (5-seat family license).

Apple's bloating batteries

With all those highly-publicized recalls of laptop batteries, we had yet to have an incident with any of the hundreds of laptops passing through our labs. Until now.

One of our engineers noticed that the two-year-old Apple MacBook Pro, which had been sitting unused and disconnected for a few months appeared to be lifting itself off the shelf! Sure enough, an inspection showed that its normally-flat-sided battery had gotten "fat" due to the expansion of one or more cells in its lithium-ion battery pack. (Click on the picture at right for a closer look.) There was no evidence of overheating or electrical trauma, just the plumping. Even the battery-condition meter on the side still indicated a partial charge.

We checked online, and this battery was NOT within the range of serial numbers included in the official Apple "battery exchange program" (now closed) of a couple years ago. But we also found other MacBook Pro owners' online complaints about expanding batteries; some hinted at a "silent recall" by Apple. We finally found this battery update notice (http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate) recommending a software update and offering a free replacement battery to MacBook and MacBook Pro owners whose batteries had "visibly deformed."

Another recall of Sony laptop batteries

The problems with defective laptop batteries continue. This time the affected manufacturer is Sony, whose laptop batteries were involved in a massive recall in 2007. In the new case, the Consumer Product Safety Commission received close to 20 reports of the Sony-manufactured batteries overheating, including 17 instances of them catching fire.

Laptops with the affected batteries were sold by Dell from November 2004 to November 2005; Toshiba from April 2005 to October 2005; and HP from December 2004 through June 2006. The batteries were also sold separately.

Here's a list of models that might contain the recalled batteries:

• HP Pavilion: dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000
• Compaq Presario: v2000 and v2400
• HP Compaq: nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, nx9600
• Toshiba Satellite: A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, M50/M55
• Toshiba Tecra: A3, A5, S2
• Dell Latitude: 110L
• Dell Inspiron: 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, 5160

If you own any of the above laptops, remove the battery and check the manufacturer's Web site or call the provided toll-free number to see if your system is affected. You'll also find instructions there on how to return the battery for a free one.

You can also check the CPSC's official announcement, http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09035.html, for more information—including images of the laptops and batteries affected by this recall.

Here's the contact info:

• HP: http://www.hp.com/support/BatteryReplacement
  800-889-2031 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.
• Toshiba: http://www.bxinfo.toshiba.com
  800-457-7777.
• Dell: http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com
  866-342-0011 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

—Donna Tapellini