Consumer Electronics Daily News

Developing Story: Sony Working on Massive Plan to Recall Laptop Batteries

Not a whole lot of details just yet, but Sony Corp., is apparently working on a massive global battery replacement program to deal with the problem of exploding and overheating lithium-ion batteries in a host of notebook computers.

Sony said Thursday that it will initiate a global replacement program to deal with the problem and that is has been discussing the replacement plan with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Details will be announced soon, InformationWeek reports.

Sony has been supporting the recalls from Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo (to the tune of more than 5 million batteries worldwide), but until today has not publicly discussed any direct recall plans.

VoodooPC Snatched Up By HP

Hewlett-Packard has purchased high-end gaming PC manufacturer, VoodooPC. Following the close of the sale, HP will form a separate business unit within its Personal Systems Group focused solely on the gaming industry.

VoodooPC co-owners  and brothers Rahul and Ravi Sood will remain with the company as HP's Chief Technologist of the new unit and Director of Strategy for the new unit, respectively.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, VoodooPC has a long reputation for providing extremely powerful, uniquely styled personal computers for discerning gamers.

"Voodoo will remain in Calgary and we shall continue to create premium luxury machines with more levels of personalization, and more features than we currently offer.," Rahul Sood wrote in an extend post about the acquisition on his personal blog. "Our strategy for the HP gaming portfolio is yet to be revealed – but expect the unexpected."

For more information, visit www.hp.com.

Philips Sells 80% Stake in Semiconductors Business

Royal Philips Electronics announced today that it has completed its sale of an 80.1 percent stake in its Semiconductors business to a private equity consortium consisting of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Apax Partners and AlpInvest Partners NV.

The company estimates that, after subsequent payment of taxes, it will receive approximately EUR 6.4 billion in cash for the sale, which was first announced early August. NXP, the new name for the stand-along semiconductors company, has an enterprise value of about EUR 8.3 billion.

For more information, visit www.philips.com.

Lenovo, IBM Join Battery Recall

Not content to let Dell and Apple have all the fun with exploding Sony batteries, Lenovo and IBM have announced plans for a voluntary recall, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, of approximately 526,000 lithium-ion batteries worldwide manufactured by Sony Corporation. In the interests of public safety, Lenovo will offer customers free-of-charge replacement batteries for all recalled batteries, which like those made for notebooks from Dell, Apple and Toshiba, are at risk of exploding or overheating. For a complete list, visit www.lenovo.com/batteryprogram.

The recalled batteries were sold with or sold separately to be used with some models of ThinkPad notebook PCs. The companies also announced that Sony has agreed to financially support the recall.

HP Execs Testify Before Congress, More Resignations

Hewlett-Packard executives got their first tongue-lashing by members of Congress this morning at the start of an inquiry into "pretexting" by an oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Pretexting is the method by which private investigators obtain phone records through false pretenses, and the practice has landed the computer giant in hot water after it was discovered that a PI working for top-level executives at HP allegedly obtained the records of several board members and reporters were believed to be leaking information about the company.

In his opening remarks, Rep. John Dingell, D-Michigan, called HP's investigation"a plumber operation that would make Richard Nixon blush."

Three former HP officials - General Counsel Ann Baskins, Chief Ethics Officer Kevin Hunsaker and Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci - all declined to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights, CNN reports. Hunsaker and Gentilucci resigned earlier this week while Baskins did so just hours before appearing in front of the congressional subcommittee.

Due up this afternoon are several witnesses who are expected to answer questions, including former chairman Patricia Dunn and HP security worker Fred Adler, CNet News reports.

For more information, visit www.hp.com.

Intel: Quad-Core Comes to the Masses in 07, 80 Cores in 2011

The Intel Developers Forum wrapped up this week with a confirmation from the world's largest chip maker that the industry's first quad-core processor, Core 2 Extreme, will be available for delivery before the end of the year, and in mass production for desktop computers in early 2007.

According to InformationWeek, Quad-Core Xeon 5300 will ship later this year for servers, along with a lower-power version for workstations and server stations where heat is more of a concern, planned for the first quarter of 2007.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini also took the stage at the  IDF to show off a prototype processor with 80 cores on a single chip. The revolutionary chip is said to be able to perform a teraflop (1 trillion floating-point operations per second) and Intel is aiming to ready commercial versions with five years, Engadget reports.

For more information, visit www.intel.com.

CEA Urges Senate to Reject Tariff

The Consumer Electronics Association is publicly urging members of the United States Senate to vote "no" on legislation proposed by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) that seeks to address China's currency policy by imposing a 27.5 percent tariff on imports from China.

According to the CEA, the Schumer/Graham approach is tantamount to a tax on American consumers and businesses, since the cost of the tariff would likely be passed on to those purchasing Chinese imports. For example, today's average price of a flat panel television is $1,295 but would increase to $1,651 with the proposed tariff; an MP3 player's average price today is $218 but would increase to $277; and, a digital camera's average price today is $299 but would increase to $381.

The tariff would actually be counter-productive to a more meaningful reform, CEA Vice President International Elizabeth Hyman argues. "CEA agrees that ideally the market should determine the exchange rate, but facilitating progress through sector reform, rather than external tariffs, would help strengthen China's financial infrastructure, a step required before its currency can float freely.

For more information, visit www.ce.org.

SYNNEX Enters CE Market With New Division

SYNNEX Corp., a provider of IT supply chain services based in Fremont, Calif., has opened up a new division to focus solely on consumer electronics. According to Pro AV Magazine, NEXCE will be a dedicated CE division targeting traditional value-added resellers, customer home installers and regional/national CE retailers. The divison will offer a variety of home theater and computer products, as well as portable electronics, digital storage and other accessories.

SYNNEX has also sigend a distribution agreement with JVC Company of America, Pro AV reports, to offer JVC's complete line of consumer electronics products.

For more information, visit www.nexce.com or www.synnex.com.

Dell Adds 500 Jobs in Texas

The Associated Press has confirmed Dell's plans to add 500 new jobs to its product development operations in Austin, Texas. While Chairman Michael Dell did not elaborate on the company's plans for the new hires, the company did say it is immediately seeking electrical, software and mechanical engineers and program managers.

The news comes on the heels of a massive battery recall for Dell laptops and an announcement last week from NASDAQ that the computer giant was out of compliance with the exchange's listing requirements because of its late quarterly financial statement.

At the time, the company said it would file the report as quickly as possible and request a hearing before the NASDAQ listing qualification panel, the AP reports.

For more information, visit www.dell.com.

Navman's Image-Based Navigation, GPS

Navman announced today a new generation of portable, in-vehicle navigation devices, the N40i and N60i. Designed with the latest in GPS technology, an enhanced user interface and a sleek new form factor, the two N-Series devices leverage Navman’s innovative image-based navigation technology. NavPix™ lets you identify destinations as pictures, rather than just names, letting you define your world as you see it. With NavPix and a new Navman N-Series navigator, users simply select a picture, touch and drive.

Featuring a new slim line design for enhanced style and added convenience, the Navman N-Series navigators are the most portable devices on the market. Both models feature the second-generation SiRFstarIII chipset for rapid satellite acquisition, as well as an anti-glare touchscreen.

In addition to NavPix, destinations can be entered manually by entering the street address, intersection, zip code or by selecting from the extensive list of Points Of Interest. With preloaded Tele Atlas map data for all of North America, convenient dedicated buttons to locate nearest gas stations and parking facilities, and exclusive Back on Track™ technology.

For more information, www.navman.com.