TechWire

Linux laptops enter the mainstream

Lenovo has launched its first Thinkpad laptop with a Linux operating system. The Thinkpad T60 uses Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on top of an Intel Centrino Duo chip. No Irish price has been announced yet, though the Windows version starts at €1,270.

4.1 million Dell laptop batteries recalled

4.1 million laptop batteries are being recalled by Dell. The batteries could catch fire, apparently. "It is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause a risk of fire," said a statement from Dell Ireland today.
The laptops affected were sold between April 2004 and July 2006 and include: Dell Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810; Inspiron 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705 and Dell Precision M20, M60, M70 and M90 'mobile workstations'. It also relates to XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710.

Irish mobile industry: we can't jam phones in cinemas

The representative body for mobile operators and companies in Ireland has come out swinging against last week's accusation from a cinema group that the mobile industry isn't bothering to do anything about noisy mobiles in cinemas. Specifically, the Ward Anderson group of cinemas had said that the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA) and its members is not trying hard enough to comply with Comreg's ruling that mobile phone jamming technology must allow emergency calls through. But Tommy McCabe, director of the ICIA, said that it's not that simple.
"The trouble is that you could block it outside the cinema as well," he said. "And besides it's not just 999 calls. You could be trying to get an emergency call from a childminder or the like."

Take a Loox At Me Now

Get ready for a spate of Our-PDA-Is-Actually-Fun type marketing pitches from big manufacturers in the post-summer season. First up is Fujitsu-Siemens with its new Loox N110, which "can play MP3s at the same time as navigating" with its on-board Navigon MobileNavigator 6 GPS device. It holds 20 hours of music and costs €370.