Serious usability issue 15 Aug 2006

Dell is recalling 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they could erupt in flames.

"In June, a Dell notebook burst into flames during a conference in a hotel in Osaka, Japan. In July, firefighters in Vernon Hills, Ill., were called to the office of Tetra Pak, the food processing and packaging company, to extinguish a notebook fire hot enough to burn the desk beneath it.

"That same month, a Dell notebook in the cab of a pickup parked alongside Lake Mead in Nevada caught fire, igniting ammunition in the glove box and then the gas tanks. The truck exploded. 'A few minutes later and we'd have been coming up out of the canyon when the notebook blew up,' said Thomas Forqueran, owner of the laptop and truck. 'Somebody is going to wind up getting killed.'"

Read more at The New York Times...