A spokesman from Toshiba announced today that the company is recalling a batch of Sony-made batteries for some of its notebooks. Fortunately the count in this recall is only about 5,100 which is significantly less than the 8 million that Sony recalled last September.

The batteries in the recall list are installed in 10 different models of Toshiba computers that were made in December of 2005 and placed in the notebooks between Jan and Apr of 2006. They were put on a recall list due to a few reports of the batteries becoming too warm, but there were no injuries involved.

Toshiba is planning to post a utility on their website that notebook owners can download to identify if their battery is part of the recall, or users can use a list to identify the batteries serial number manually.

Source: WashingtonPost

Could the first gen iPhone already be in danger of extinction? That’s the latest rumor to spread and it comes courtesy of a Chinese outlet called the Commercial Times. According to the publisher they’ve heard reports from Apple partner manufacturers Quanta and Wintek that the next gen iPhone is already in the prototype phase and that the finished model could be ready for sale by as early as September. It may even retail for less than June’s iPhone, clocking in somewhere between $250 and $300.

September is just a short two months away and for Apple to make a move like this so soon after the launch of the first iPhone doesn’t seem to add up. We have no doubts that Steve Jobs has secret plans in motion in Cupertino but the past history of Apple has demonstrated that they like to wait and pounce …

A start-up company called Ooma has announced a new service that could provide free domestic calls through your existing home phone, for life. The program requires you to have a broadband internet connection, your own phone and preferable an active land line for you phone, but that’s not required as long as there are enough people that do.

Through a one-time purchase of a $399 “box” from Ooma you can connect it to your existing phone and make calls that are routed through the Ooma network. The system works through something called P2P, which relies on a network of people that have the Ooma system to be able to route calls across the country somewhat similar to how BitTorrent works, but for voice.

For the system to actually work there needs to be a number of people involved, so aside …

It’s looking as though video game maker Rockstar is breaking away from the Xbox to get at least one game on board the Nintendo Wii gravy train with a new version of its Table Tennis game. RockStar has created some pretty awesome games in the past including a little something called Grand Theft Auto and is the author of the recently controversial Manhunt 2, and this one is sure to be no slouch.

“Ever since we released Table Tennis, fans have been asking us to create a Wii version,” said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games. “By bringing Table Tennis to the Wii and utilizing the motion-sensitive Wii Remote, a new audience can now experience a game that is beautifully designed and impossible to put down.”

The game will allow you to choose from 11 different …

Reports are in that Sony has sold just over 1 million Playstation 3 game consoles in Japan since its launch last November. According to a report from Reuters , publisher Enterbrain said that Sony had sold 1.01 million PS3 consoles as of the 15th of July.

This rate is still a little behind the Nintendo Wii which reached in the 1 million mark in one fourth the time and has sold 2.9 million consoles in Japan as of the 8th of July. The Wii launched in Japan almost a month after the PS3.

The Xbox 360 which is another of the big, current-generation game consoles launched towards the end of 2005 and has been trailing the Sony PS3 in sales in Japan having sold only 420,705 units.

Mobile Wi-Fi fans, here is your BlackBerry. Research In Motion (RIM) has now officially launched that new dual-mode smartphone we’ve all been waiting for. The Blackberry 8820 sports the desirable broad connectivity of working on global cellular networks (quad-band GSM/GPRS and EDGE) as well as 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi networks and it even has GPS built-in.

“The BlackBerry 8820 is an extraordinary business phone for people who really care about mobile communications and productivity. It features all the renowned power and usability of the BlackBerry platform with executive class styling and unprecedented connectivity features, including cellular, Wi-Fi and built-in GPS,” said Mike Lazaridis, RIM President and Co-CEO in the RIM press release.

The 8820 is RIM’s thinnest smartphone yet with a full QWERY keyboard, 320 x 240 display and it supports memory expansion through microSD / microSDHC. The Wi-Fi capabilities …

FairUse4WM has been fairly well known for its ability to the Windows Media DRM and with its latest version 1.3 it boasts to be able to completely remove the digital rights management restrictions from songs purchased from the Zune Marketplace; a feat to which it was previously unsuccessful.

This, like most of these situations, will likely be short lived. Microsoft is undoubtedly already well on there way with a new version of software for the Zune to combat the latest FairUse4WM version. But, until then you can use this to release your songs from the DRM clutches. If you’re too late for this version you’ll likely get another chance, that is until Microsoft figures out who the heck “viodentia”, (the FairUse4WM author) is.

via Electronista

Last year Google launched something called the Google Custom Search Engine, which is a tool that allows the addition of a custom-looking Google search box to just about any website. It met a lot of needs in providing a comprehensive search tool to the websites of many businesses, but it to the dismay of some it came with ads. The advertisements are how Google can afford to provide these tools without charge, but often the ads would take away from the professional branding of the site and even have the potential of showing advertisements from competitive products or services.

Tuesday Google launched a service that builds on the Custom Search called Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE). CBSE allows businesses to place the search tool on their site and customize the results, without the Google ads. Businesses can implement their own logo …

It sounds like some hackers have found a hole in the Nintendo Wii game console that will allow them the bring up their own home-style games to play on the Wii.

Reportedly the Flash Player running on the game console through the games Internet Channel is a relatively minor challenge to crack and it won’t be long before home made games will start taking the place of the ones available from Nintendo, but with these you won’t need to pay Nintendo any Wii points. We can’t imagine that Nintendo will be all-too happy with this one and will probably be following up in not too long with an update to the console, because Nintendo doesn’t have a problem with you putting your own games on the Wii, as long as you do it their way.

via T3

Intel has announced the first laptop CPU for the companies Extreme Edition of processors called the Core 2 Extreme X7800. The X7800 is a 2.6GHz processor with 4MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus which all makes for great news to gamers who would like to get desktop-like gaming performance out of a mobile computer. In addition, this new high-end mobile chip will have nothing to stop you from overclocking it, at your own risk of course.

Sony has officially come out to say that they are going to replace the original version of the PSP with the newer, slimmer PSP when it launches in September.

“The newly designed PSP will replace the original PSP design starting in September with the $169.99 PSP Core Pack and the $199.99 Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack.”, said Senior Public Relations Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, Patrick Seybold in an interview with IGN.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone since the newer one is basically the same product. It’s a little bit lighter and thinner, has a couple new cool features such as the video out port and it will go for the same price. Of course if you like your things a little on the bulkier side then this will come as bad news, but I’m going to …

On Friday Intel announced that it will join Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative to provide inexpensive computers to the children of developing nations. This announcement came as somewhat of a surprise to many since Intel also has a similar, what some might say competing, initiative with its Classmate PC.

The Classmate PC from Intel is priced at $225 and requires external power, while the OLPC machine, originally targeted for $100, is now costing $175 and is powered by cranking a handle on the side.

Intel may have gotten a “can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em” attitude, or it could be that both companies simply realized that they both had the same goal and could possibly achieve a greater good by combining forces. There are speculations that the two products may go …

There’s been a lot of talk and speculation lately in the current generation game console market, with Nintendo taking a significant lead in console sales over Microsoft and Sony. Many analysts have predicted that both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 would see some price cuts to make themselves more competitive with the Wii, and Sony recently knocked $100 off of their 60GB PS3 game console.

Most thought this was indeed to make the PS3 more competitive price-wise with the Wii, but we’ve learned now from David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, that the $100 price reduction is only to push more of the 60GB models out the door since Sony is doing away with them to transition to the 80BG model. Reeves thinks that all …

It’s got to be difficult to carry the fame that the Apple iPod enjoys without getting some bad press once in a while. A couple months ago we saw that the player can adversely affect pacemakers, and today an article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that wearing your iPod in a Thunderstorm might not be the best idea.

The report cited a case at a hospital in Canada where a man was out jogging during a thunderstorm when lightning struck a tree that was next to him. As a result, the man was thrown about 8 feet, suffered some burns, a jaw fracture and blown out eardrums.

The physicians that treated the man concluded that the injuries he sustained were due to the iPod he was wearing. The burns were found on his …

The cellphone company Sprint has recently sent out break-up letters to 1,000 of its customers stating that they are going to terminate their contract in 30 days, giving them until the end of July to find another carrier.

These 1,000 customers were not necessarily singled out and let go because they weren’t paying there bill or were breaching any agreements, but they were just too needy according to the company.

“Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information,” stated a form letter sent out to these high maintenance customers. “While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable …