eric rochow : social media handyman

I own an Apple Macintosh G4 Powerbook, and it works great. I noticed right away at how warm the battery was, so whenever I charge the laptop, I slide a pen or something under it to allow some air flow, and I never leave the laptop charging alone.

A bit of paranoia, but after seeing that Dell Laptop in flames, I’d like to avoid a repeat.

The NY Times did an article recently on batteries that power laptops and it can be a volatile mix in a small space.

Hearing about the Apple recall, I went to their website and typed in the search field: “battery recall” and got no responses. I then went to the NY Times website and read the recall article which provided a link to the Apple site. I learn here Apple is calling it an ‘exchange program’.

A few days later I received an email from Apple describing the ‘exchange’ with instructions to check my battery’s serial number. A quick check showed it was one of those recalled. Apple provided a link within the email to their site, where I quickly typed in the information they needed to send me a new battery.

Not bad at all, and since they did it before any fire engulfed Powerbooks showed up on the web, I, and most pundits don’t think Apple will take a hit on its stock price or reputation.

We’ll see how warm the new battery is. Its smart of Apple to come out quickly with this.