On Aug. 24, Apple Computer announced that it would recall 1.8 million Sony-made lithium-ion batteries found in certain non-current models of Apple’s iBook G4 and Power Book G4 notebooks. As with Dell’s earlier recall of more than four million lithium-ion batteries, also made by Sony, the problem is that the batteries have a tendency to, er, catch fire. It’s the largest safety recall in United States consumer-electronics history, but Apple’s home page, reproduced below, shows that Apple is no more eager than Dell was to help Web surfers find necessary information about the hazard and what owners of Apple laptops should do about it. (Dell, I should note, did make its link to battery-recall information slightly more conspicuous after this column complained.) Anyway, if you own an Apple laptop and want to know whether it’s in danger of combusting spontaneously, click here.
(Sony’s home page, incidentally, doesn’t provide any link to battery-recall information. Shame on you, Chairman Howard Stringer! One expects greater public-spiritedness from a Knight Bachelor, particularly one who made his name in the news business.)
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