Apple has announced a worldwide recall of 1.8 million
laptop batteries because of a fire risk.
The lithium-ion batteries, made by Sony, could overheat “posing
a fire hazard”, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission warned.
Users were urged to stop using the recalled products
immediately.
The affected batteries, used in some iBook G4 and PowerBook G4
models, were sold worldwide from October 2003 to August 2006. Apple
will provide free replacements to users.
The Apple recall follows Dell’s recall earlier this month of
more than four million laptop batteries – also made by Sony – due
to a fire risk. Sony has since agreed to share the costs of
providing replacements with Dell.
Apple has received nine reports of batteries overheating,
including two reports of people suffering minor burns from handling
overheated computers. Minor property damage has also been caused,
but no serious injuries have been reported.
In a separate recall earlier this month, Apple recalled faulty
batteries used in its 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop computer because
they did not meet “our high standards for battery performance”. But
these batteries were not considered a safety risk.
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