This is definitely the story that simply wouldn’t die. Lenovo just announced their own battery recall and exchange program, recalling some 526,000 batteries used in Lenovo ThinkPad notebook computers, 168,500 of them sold in the United States and the rest sold around the world. The batteries were manufactured by Sony, and present the same fire hazard that Dell and Apple recalled their batteries for, especially after Dell laptops started exploding. Toshiba insists that their battery recall isn’t because of any hazard, but because the batteries may spontaneously fail, but either way, Lenovo has a pretty significant recall on their hands. According to the article:

In the latest recall, Lenovo cited a potential risk following one confirmed report of a Sony battery overheating and causing a fire that damaged the notebook computer. The batteries were sold between February 2005 and September 2006, separately or along with ThinkPad computers. They were distributed by IBM until Lenovo, a Chinese computer maker, bought IBM’s personal computer division in May 2005.

The reported battery fire, which occurred in an airport terminal as the user was boarding a plane, caused enough smoke that a fire extinguisher was needed to put it out. There was minor property damage and no injuries were reported.

Yowch. If you own a Lenovo ThinkPad computer, or bought an extra battery for your ThinkPad, head over to the article for model numbers and additional information, or contact Lenovo at 1-800-426-7378, or follow the links below to the news article or Lenovo’s battery recall website.

[ CBS News :: 526,000 ThinkPad Batteries Recalled ]

[ Lenovo :: Lenovo Support and Downloads - Battery Recall ]

Over at the Tech Hints blog [ http://tech-hints.org/ ] is probably the definitive guide to recovering data from a dead hard drive that you forgot to back up, from beginning to end, start to finish. I think everyone’s been in the position where they had a hard drive that up and died on them and they either forgot to back up recently, never backed up, or that isn’t theirs and belongs to a friend who either forgot to back up or never backed up, (this is why you should back up your data!) so this is something that can apply to everyone, and everyone can relate.

Starting off with educating you about different file systems and what the acronyms mean (FAT and NTFS, for example) the article starts off with the conceptual and moves into the practical, covering simple situations where you might have just damaged the Master Boot Record (MBR) or accidentally deleted a partition (in which case the data’s not gone, just the partition table’s busted) all the way up to suggesting some file recovery applications, both small and big guns, that you can run against the drive to try and get your data back. And at the end, the author even suggests some more reccomended commercial software that promises to get your data back as well. Another bookmark-worthy article, for that time that you know will be coming soon…if you don’t back up your data!

[ Tech Hints :: Hard Drive Recovery Guide ]

(image above snipped from LifeHacker!)

I’m a huge Lifehacker fan and make no secret of it-I think Lifehacker has to be one of the best possible sites on the web, both for improving your life, improving your work, and wasting time. Every week, Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani writes a column called “Geek to Live,” as opposed to live to geek, which is original content in long-form (that is, a detailed article or how-to) which show you how to do everything from tweak your favorite browser to control your computer from anywhere or setting up a home file server, all the way to topics like making over your filing cabinet and how to use a Knoppix boot CD to recover lost hard drive data.

All of these topics sound interesting? Well, get to reading Lifehacker, but as a quick way to get to all of the goodies I mentioned, in celebration of Lifehacker’s 100th Geek to Live, Gina has published links to all of the previous articles I mentioned as well as a boatload of other winners and other Geek to Live columns that you can scroll through, click on, and read, and put to good use. There are a hundred articles in there, so it’s quite a bit to surf through, but you’ll definitely find some articles you need, and others you never knew you needed. Definitely bookmark this.

[ Lifehacker :: Geek to Live: The 100th Installment ]

Over at ZDNet Australia, blogger Munir Kotadia points out that Symantec made the prediction 18 months ago in their last Internet Threat Report that by this time Mac OS X would be riddled with spyware, viruses, and security threats. Symantec quietly released their most recent report this week, and after it was released and made absolutely no mention of Mac OS X or any security threats to the operating system, quietly said later that it was wrong about the prediction, and that in the past 18 months there have been no viable, serious security threats to Mac OS X. Mac users can breathe a sigh of relief, but should still and always be on guard to new security threats, and to stand against the kind of security threats of which no operating system is immune-the kind that target the user through social engineering like phishing and password stealing.

Kotadia points out that his query to Symantec to get them to own up to their botched prediction was misconstrued by Apple fanatics at MacDailyNews [ http://macdailynews.com/ ] as dissapointment that Symantec didn’t include Mac OS X in their threat report-which is a sad, sad thing. It’s good news for Mac users, but the fanboy reaction isn’t warranted, and I think Kotadia settles the matter rightly. Still, it’s big news that even as many security analysts predicted that OS X would be the next big target on the horizon, it just hasn’t happened yet.

[ ZDNet Australia :: Symantec's OS X Spyware Prediction in Flames ]

At the same time as Sony was getting good reviews of the PlayStation 3 console at the Tokyo Game Show, the furor of excitement over the Nintendo Wii hasn’t faltered at all, and Nintendo’s success with the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system over Sony’s PSP (PlayStation Portable) gaming system and multifunction device (which also plays music and movies for example) is being read by some gamers and analysts as a harbinger of Nintendo’s resurgance to the top of the gaming market, beating out Sony and Microsoft at a competitive market that Nintendo essentially started.

The Wii’s low price and innovative controller, that initially got lukewarm and even laughable reviews but subsequently has brought both gamers and game developers to the fold, both promise to make significant inroads to the next-generation console market come the holiday season. The Wii is expected to go on sale in North America in early December, less than a month after Sony’s PlayStation 3 release, but with more consoles available for purchase, and more importantly more games and a cheaper price point, which has led many price-concious gamers who are skeptical of the PS3’s high price and small number of launch titles to abandon Sony’s side altogether. Still, time will tell, but Nintendo is in a pretty good position.

[ PC World :: Nintendo Could Beat Sony in Game Console Race, Experts Say ]

At the Tokyo Game Show last week, gamers lined up to see the PlayStation 3 and play some of the launch titles that will be released alongside the platform when it makes its retail debut later this year-granted the game show took place in Tokyo, Japan, which is homefield as far as Sony’s concerned-everyone loves Sony there. Microsoft has had significant difficulty selling the XBox and XBox360 platforms in Japan, and Nintendo is only now coming to the fore with a platform to really challenge the next gen systems in the form of the Wii.

However, new games and goodies were unveiled for the Playstation 3 at the TGS last week, and the general reception that the PlayStation 3 recieved was positive. Sony’s been deluged with horrible press and gamer focus on its missteps around the PS3, including the predicted shortage of the platforms when they’re released in the United States later this year, the shortage of blu-ray drives to go in the PS3 units to be sold, the high price points, and so on, but it remains possible that these problems could yet be overcome by launch, but only time will tell. In the end, the games will be what matters, and so far those, at the very least, are looking good.

[ PC World :: Gamers Applaud PlayStation 3 ]

According to PC World, movie downloads have been pretty brisk since the announcement that movies would be available on the iTunes Store, amassing over a million dollars US in less than a week since a slew of Disney movies were unveiled and readied for download online through the massively popular music store.

Most people didn’t expect quite so much success, and chalked Disney up as a supporter namely because Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is also major stockholder in Disney and has a seat on their board; but it looks like Disney’s investment has been more than rewarded, and Disney expects to bring in significantly more money by the end of the year and offer more movies for download. Disney and Apple have gotten the picture: Digital delivery of content and services over the net is a reality, and it’s the way to go for the future, whether it’s music and movies or video games and applications-from the PC World article:

The initial success of the venture, with more than 125,000 Disney titles sold in a week, should help boost confidence in the Internet as a lucrative place for entertainment companies to deliver content to users. It should also help allay fears over movie piracy, an issue the movie and recording industry has fought a tough battle against.

“We are very, very bullish on consumption over electronically delivered media and we’re taking a very optimistic view of technology as a friend, or a great enabler, and not a great predator,” Iger said.

[ Disney Film Sales Brisk on iTunes ]

Toshiba appears to be getting in on the game now as well; they announced today that they’ll be recalling something like 340,000 notebook computer batteries because of worries that those batteries might be faulty. The batteries, again made by Sony, were used in Dynabook and Dynabook Satellite notebook computers made between March and May of this year.

The story was announced today, but Toshiba says that the batteries aren’t a fire hazard, like the ones used in Dell and Apple computers that were recalled earlier this year, but that the batteries could fail regardless of how carefully they’re used, and that the company wanted the opportunity to replace them.

While Toshiba announced the program, they’ve provided no details on where people can go to get more information on the program, and don’t seem to have set up a site yet. UPDATE :: Toshiba Battery Exchange Site Linked Below!

[ Toshiba Support :: Toshiba Battery Exchange Program Information ]

[ PC Mag :: Toshiba Will Recall 340,000 Notebook Batteries ]

[ PC World :: Toshiba Battery Exchange ]

So details have arisen in the blogosphere, merely a day after the Zune was revealed in a private press gathering yesterday that the only real innovation in the Zune is “viral DRM,” meaning that using the Zune’s new “social networking” feature that allows other Zune owners to stream music to one another wraps up YOUR OWN MUSIC in Windows Media DRM before streaming, and, of course, doesn’t let it go. Blatently violating Creative Commons and trampling on your own personal rights to your own music-not just music you might download from Microsoft’s “Urge” music service-and enforcing DRM on music that Microsoft has no idea how you obtained; you could have ripped it from your own CD without DRM, and suddenly it has DRM if you own a Zune.

Not a smart opening salvo, Microsoft. Seriously-what are you guys thinking?

I know what they’re thinking-in order to prevent copyright infringement through their sharing service, they essentially default to encrypting your tracks with DRM before sending them to a friend. It makes some sense, but in the end it’s simply not Microsoft’s business how you obtained your mp3s, and if they want to put in a feature that allows other people to hear your music, it’s not their responsibility to enforce that aspect of copyright law; although it seems that either that or the music industry believes they have the right to take one that responsibility themselves. From BoingBoing:

The new Microsoft Zune player (their soi-dissant “iPod Killer”) applies DRM to all the files you move onto it, even the Creative Commons-licened music. The problem is that CC licenses prohibit this. What’s more, CC licenses are machine-readable and could, theoretically, be detected by Microsoft, if they cared enough about copyright to ensure that they were adhering to the license policies set out by creators.

There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding.

The link to that story, which includes a link to the information at a site called “ZuneInsider,” is here:

[ Microsoft Zune Will Violate Creative Commons Licenses ]

The story goes on however, and that’s horrifically sad. We’ll see what Microsoft has to say about it in time, but knowing them they won’t back down. Bad Microsoft, bad bad bad. People complain all the time about Apple’s DRM and protected AAC format and how you’re locked into iTunes and the iPod, and apparently that part of the complaint hasn’t fallen on Microsoft’s ears-as this is sure to mean that any content ported to the Zune will only be playable on the Zune, and likely only really compatible with either Microsoft’s Urge service, or compatible subscription-based services like Napster, and we all know how subscription services are.

At least Apple’s DRM is so easily hackable and breakable that it’s incredibly difficult to consider it real DRM-you can always burn your music to CD and then re-rip the CD to mp3, (although the nitpickers will claim you lose audio quality, I truly wonder if that quality is hear-able to anyone but the most die-hard audiophile and not just an excuse by Apple haters to spout nonsense) and if it’s that easy, in my mind, it doesn’t count. The existance of the Hymn Project, and the fact that the DRM in iTunes 7 was cracked after only ONE DAY, makes me wonder how serious Apple is about DRM, and the fact that they’re walking the line between being serious about it and being soft enough that users who care enough can actually get around it makes me very happy.

[ Wired:: iTunes 7 DRM Already Cracked ]

Apple’s taking the approach to DRM that many analysts have been arguing for for a long time. In order to reduce piracy, you don’t have to cripple people’s computers with DRM like Sony did, you don’t have to intrude on all of their music like Microsoft is doing, you just have to make it so the majority of people either don’t know how or can’t figure out a way around it, and subsequently just comply with the law. Apple’s even given the layperson a way around it in the form of burning and re-ripping, but the Apple haters apparently can’t figure that out either. The trick is to make DRM restrictive to enough people that MOST people don’t pirate and MOST people go the legal route, and the people who truly care about DRM and want their music to be playable everywhere on any platform can figure out ways around it-they buy their music legally, they just want the freedom to take it where they want to go, and they don’t want to be treated like criminals-that’s what programs like Hymn allow. As for the rest? Just complaining.

But Microsoft’s taking the entertainment industry’s side in this-they want aggressive, intrusive enforcement of copyright, and apparently Microsoft has swallowed their coolaid. All this, and on top of it news is breaking that the Zune doesn’t even support Microsoft’s own “PlaysForSure” DRM scheme. Things are looking worse and worse:

[ Wired: Microsoft Zune Still Doesn't Support PlaysForSure ]

All this, the mysterious disappearance of Microsoft’s promise to let users trade in their iTunes songs for content from Urge (wow-trade Apple’s DRM for Microsoft’s more intrusive DRM! What a great idea!) and instead just import them to the yet-unspecified jukebox software Microsoft is supposedly releasing with the Zune (yet another player-jukebox binding bundle-that should make the Apple haters turn on Microsoft as well, but I doubt it…it’s just too vogue to hate Apple) which will do the conversion for them (which then raises the question-will Microsoft be violating the DMCA by breaking Apple’s protected AAC format in order to change it to Windows Media DRM? Probably-so how are they going to make this work? Not well, looks like the early answer…) presents even more points of failure for the Zune.

This is looking worse and worse as every new detail arises, and more and more like the Origami fiasco-a decent idea, something that could have forced an entire industry to innovate and come up with new features and ideas and stay competitive, but instead looks to be turning out to be another device in a cluttered market that does the same things that others do already, just worse than the existing products.

More on the Zune’s viral DRM as Medialoper:

[ Zune’s Big Innovation: Viral DRM ]

From an inmate matching service to renting Chris Pirillo’s chest, from poor Pets.com to Whitehouse.com, PC World has a rundown of their top 25 worst websites ever, and yes, some of them are heraldes from the dot.com era like Pets.com, some of them were relics from former internet memes like whitehouse.com, some of them are just plain funny like neuticles.com (which offers affordable testical implants for your pets post-neuter) but all of them are, to some extent, serious about themselves.

What’s the number one worst website ever? I won’t spoil it for you, but personally? I wholeheartedly agree. And odds are you’ve been there, or go there frequently. Check out he list to find out what the offending site is!

[ PC World :: The 25 Worst Web Sites ]