| Hot Shots: Tech That Keeps You on the Move
Even in the dog days of summer there's always some new tech tool to help a small business run more efficiently. Here's a quick look at a few of the latest products that can help keep you rolling along. Fresh Batteries for Old Laptops
Unleash your laptop you know, the older model that hasn't been further than three feet from a wall socket since its battery went to lithium ion heaven back in 2003. Even a thorough search on eBay failed to find a replacement for it. FreshBattery.com wants to get you mobile again, and so it recently launched its Legacy Power line of batteries designed for more than 1,500 models of aging laptops including those from HP, Compaq, IBM/Lenovo, Apple, Toshiba, Sony and Dell. Most batteries start to lose their full charge capability at about two years.
More exploding Sony batteries recalled
THERE ARE more woes for the maker of exploding batteries, Sony, after one of its customers, Toshiba, recalled 10,000 laptop battery packs. Toshiba said the batteries are a fire risk after three of its laptops made on December 3, 2005 caught fire in the last 10 months. According to Reuters, only 5,100 units of the 10,000 packs are potentially defective, but Toshiba has decided it is better to be safe than Sony, er sorry. It wants to make sure all the battery packs containing targeted battery cells are exchanged. Last year Sony recalled 9.6 million PC batteries as they could catch fire from overheating and it cost the outfit $418 million. A Sony spokesman said the recall should not make too much of a financial dent because after you have recalled 9.6 million, 10,000 is just a drop in the bucket.
NASPerform offers 750GB of networked storage
Other World Computing (OWC) today unveiled its NASPerform 100Mbps Ethernet/USB 1.0 network attached storage device designed for home and business networks. The storage apparatus offers up to 750GB of space and connects to wired or wireless networks for easy file storage and sharing among multiple network users. NASPerform shares data with up to 20 other network users, serving as another hard drive that allows users to drag-and-drop files to and from the device. OWC's latest storage product boasts plug-and-play installation without the need to configure TCP/IP settings or a separate server, and assigns read/write privileges to each network user to prevent unwanted deletion or modification of data. NASPerform includes 16MB of cache, utilizes the Ximeta NDAS 2011 chipset, and features a front panel LED status light.
Users Guide: Tablets are dandy, but not for everyone
Tablet PCs always have been something of a mystery to me. Until a few weeks ago, I'd never known anyone who used one, and I'd never tried one myself. Since their debut in 2002, the sleek laptops with screens you can write on have grown popular with insurance companies, hospitals, warehouses and other businesses where employees need to fill out forms and jot down notes. But they haven't lived up to Bill Gates' 2001 prediction that tablets would be the best-selling PC in America within five years, although prices have come down and more companies are producing them. With some now aimed at consumers, I tested three new models from Lenovo, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard. I wanted to see if it was possible to use one of these Tablet PCs as an all-purpose computer. All three come equipped with Windows Vista and offer the same tablet functionality.
Nokia batteries recall
Nokia's 46m batteries that could overheat will be recalled and will be replaced free to customers, Reuters reported. Nokia is negotiating with battery maker Matsushita over who would bear the costs. Nokia said there have been over 100 incidents globally, but no serious injuries have been reported. .
Toshiba recalls 10,000 Sony-made batteries
Japanese electronics company Toshiba Corp. began recalling about 10,000 Sony-made batteries for laptop computers in Japan and overseas, company officials said Thursday.
Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said there have been three cases in which the batteries caught fire between September and June. There were no injuries from the three fires; two in Japan and one in Australia, he said.
The battery models to be recalled are different from those involved in a massive recall of Sony Corp. lithium-ion battery packs last year. Sony announced that recall after it was found that they could overheat and catch fire.
In the latest case, company investigations found batteries manufactured on December 3, 2005, were a cause of the problems, and there were about 5,100 of them sold in Japan, the U.S., Europe, Australia, China, the spokesman said.
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