Sony New Zealand just sent word that Sony - which manufactured the lithium iron batteries involved in the Dell, Apple,Toshiba, HP/Compaq and Fujitsu recalls - is now recalling certain models in its own Vaio notebook series.

Sony is due to post the following link on its NZ Vaio page today (Oct 26).
http://www.css.ap.sony.com/VAIO/Website/General/AnnDetails.aspx?ID=57488

A spokesman says: "The New Zealand models that may be affected and eligible for a new
battery are VGN-FE15, VGN-FE18, VGN-T27 and VGN-T37 models.

On November 7 there will be details posted on how eligible customers can
receive their replacement battery."

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

B-Day has arrived. October 26 marks the day Telecom turns the taps on full, giving us all the maximum speed internet connection its pipes will allow. How's it working out for you? Join those leaving comments after Geoff's blog here.

Tell us what speed you're clocking, and see how others are going. October revolution or bust?

Posted by Chris Keall at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

There's a clear benefit from everything from PCs to cellphones to smart cars, smart fridges and iPods being connected to the net. You can access internet stuff anywhere, anytime, and easily share it (and don't laugh at the fridge bit - there are now more machines with IP addresses than people-controlled PCs). Cellphone viruses have so far been confined to the lab. But now comes the worrying news from Apple that the first iPod virus has emerged.

Mac-heads will chuckle that the virus, RavmonE.exe, only affects Windows-connect iPods. But once the concept's out there, it could quickly spread to all platforms. Apple says a small number of Video iPods that shipped after September 12 were sent to customers with the virus, which will only attack your Windows PC, not the iPod itself. RavmonE.exe can infect any attached storage device, so Apple suggests recent iPod purchasers get those scanned, too. Apple says any up-to-date version of Symantec Norton Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus or any other major security product should eliminate the virus.

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

The BBC has an interesting take on Google's $US1.65 billion YouTube buy: previously, there was little point in movie studios, record companies et al suing the rebel video-sharing site. Afterall, it had no revenue. But now - woah, baby, line up the lawyers.

On the flip-side, Google has a few lawyers itself, and the YouTubers are lining up street-legal deals with the likes of Sony and Universal.

In any case, why sue? Bandwidth and time restraints (YouTube posts are restricted to 15 minutes) mean the service can't be used for wholesale piracy. Instead, it's brilliant publicity - for an established, old media outfit or a newcomer. Just ask Kiwis gone large on YouTube loneygirl15 (and her 4 million views) or Flight of the Conchords (now sporting an HBO deal).

Posted by Chris Keall at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

For about a year, only Aucklanders have been able to watch low-fi but loveable music channel Alt TV (if you haven't seen it, re-tune your TV immediately). Now Orcon says that in a New Zealand first it will simulcast Alt TV via its recently revamped website www.orcon.net.nz. As well as Alt presenters like Nucky - sorry, Nicky - Watson and a constant stream of music television, Orcon is promising an iTunes-style service soon, in partnership with Digirama, that will offer 1 million songs for download.

Watch for many more internet TV (IPTV) developments over the coming year. As we covered in the July edition of PC World print, Telecom now has a general manager of TV and video services, Philip King, who is looking to launch a multichannel IPTV service for Xtra customers once DSL2 is up and running. And, in a separate but maybe not unrelated development, Sky TV CEO John Fellet told me Sky has a new version of its decoder on the way soon that will have built-in IPTV capability. Fellet says Sky will over several new channels that will be broadcast via IPTV only. There's no time frame for launch yet, however.

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

As predicted on these pages, Vodafone has bought land-lubbing ihug. It's not such a surprise move given that Vodafone worldwide has been looking for landline partners for its cellphone business - the better to be able to offer the so-called convergence 'triple play' of voice calls, broadband data, plus on-demand music and video (the really bandwidth-hogging, cable-necessitating part of the equation (incidentally, founders Tim and Nick Wood originally sold ihug to iiNet for around $70 million. Aussie-based iiNet has been in financial strife recently).

Read Computerworld's coverage here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

As you ease yourself behind your desk to start another week in front of the 'puta, think of Jan Chipcase, a Nokia employee who flits from war-torn African villages to the supreme weirdness of Tokyo to back-alleys of New Delhi and much else in his endless travels. It's all in the interests of helping Nokia "ethnographers", psychologists and designers understand local markets, apparently. I say 'apparently' because Jan hasn't actually published a paper yet explaining exactly what all this means for the humble cellphone, but he does keep a rather intriguing photo blog.

Posted by Chris Keall at 7:21 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Back in the dim, dark mists of time, or at least 1998, the 100 billion dollar bohemoth that is Google started life in a garage. Feeling sentimental, co-founders Larry and Sergy just had their company buy said garage. See it here.

Amusingly, the pair asked the Associated Press not to publish the garage's address, but fans are turning up anyway, having found the suburban home's Silicon Valley location on, what else, Google.

Posted by Chris Keall at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )