| Toshiba Recalls Sony 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. .
Douglas donates battery, charger
An American Red Cross chapter in Louisiana is getting a helping hand from Douglas Battery Manufacturing Co. in Winston-Salem as the agency braces for the heart of the 2007 hurricane season. The company is donating an industrial forklift battery and charger - a $6,200 value - to the Northwest Louisiana chapter, which serves nine shelters in the Shreveport area. The custom-made battery will be delivered next week. "One of the hard-learned lessons from hurricanes Katrina and Rita is that the logistics of moving emergency supplies to these shelters is an enormous task if not equipped properly," said Don Brummett, a volunteer with the chapter in Shreveport. A forklift dealer in Shreveport provided an electric forklift to the chapter, but it did not have a battery.
Des Moines crime report
1700 block of 12th Street, July 8 - A Des Moines man reported a $200 battery charger on wheels and two power tools, collectively worth $370, stolen from the storage shed behind his residence. Unknown suspect(s) gained entry by prying off the hasp and padlock.
1800 block of Seventh Street, June 9 - A Des Moines woman reported her 6-year-old daughter was shot in the neck with a BB gun by a group of approximately 10 unknown juveniles. Responding medics treated the girl for lacerations to her neck.
3700 block of Southwest 33rd Street, July 9 - A homeowner reported more than $420 in personal property stolen from his car, which was parked inside his garage early July 2. The man said he first believed he misplaced the missing items and only realized his property, including a cell phone, had been stolen after his wife and another family member called the cell phone and noticed the voicemail message had been changed.
GM plans spring testing of Volt electric car
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – General Motors Corp. will begin road testing its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in the spring of next year and remains on track to produce the rechargeable car by late 2010, a senior executive said Thursday. As the race to bring a mass-market, rechargeable electric vehicle to the market heats up, GM's global product chief Bob Lutz said he expects to have next-generation lithium-ion battery packs ready for the vehicles by October this year. "We should have the battery packs by October," he said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference. "We'll have some on the road for testing next spring, and we should have the Volt in production by the end of 2010." GM is the only automaker to have provided a timeline on the production of a plug-in hybrid vehicle, even though other companies, such as Ford Motor Co.
Back-to-School: Buying a Windows-Based PC
It's back-to-school time, so getting the right laptop computer is on a lot of people's to-do lists. Here we concentrate on Windows-based PCs in the US$800-to-$1,000 range. You can spend less than a grand and get great quality laptops; $700 can get you a decent setup. Just about any laptop will do for getting facts off the Internet and compiling an A-plus class report, but most students -- whether they're in grade school or graduate school -- want more out of their computers. Don't expect to speed through demanding tasks such as editing video or playing big-name video games for less than $1,000. Here's a dollar-saving tip if you buy computer equipment online: Look for coupons from sites such as dealcatcher.com and 4computercoupons.com. These are Web-only coupons -- you can't take them into a store -- but they apply at checkout if you buy online from a manufacturer such as Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) or from an stores such as circuitcity.com and newegg.com.
Apple gives the iMac a facelift
Apple Inc. unveiled a line of slimmer and more powerful desktop computers yesterday to sustain momentum in its core business at a time when its new phone has grabbed the media spotlight. The new iMacs, which will sport thinner aluminum casings, have displays measuring 20 inches and 24 inches and will cost $1,199 to $1,799, depending on their configurations, chief executive Steve Jobs said at a media event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The cost of the 24-inch iMac has been dropped by $200, and Apple has eliminated the 17-inch iMac computer, Jobs said. The last update to the iMac line was in September 2006, when Apple first introduced a 24-inch-screen model. "This product launch should position them well for the back-to-school and holiday seasons," said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research.
Xenia man designated sex offender
LEBANON — A Xenia man was sentenced Wednesday to three years of community control on one count of felony sexual battery, according to county Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel. Lester Miller, 54, also was ordered to complete a community correctional center sex offender program, and designated a sexually oriented offender. He was sentenced in Warren County Common Pleas Court. .
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