Acer Inc, the world's fourth largest personal computer maker, and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world's largest motherboard maker, offered reassurance yesterday that batteries used in their laptop computers were safe.
Their remarks came in the wake of Lenovo Group Ltd (
They join Dell Inc, Apple Computer Inc and Toshiba Corp who have all recalled defective Sony batteries within the last two months.
"We have done a thorough check on our batteries since the first recall announced by Dell, and we didn't use that specific Sony cell in our battery packs," said Calvin Chang (
Around 10 percent of Acer's notebook batteries are sourced from Sony, he said, refusing to say if the recent recall issues will impact its relationship with Sony.
Asustek, meanwhile, said that it does not use Sony batteries in its portable computers.
"We have our own list of suppliers that we have been working with," said Kevin Lin (
Lin declined to name the suppliers.
According to Lin, Asustek has taken extra precautions in beefing up procurement quality control as well as the research and development process.
Lenovo Taiwan said it is hard to predict how many faulty batteries are currently in circulation here.
The company told the Taipei Times last week that it did not have plans to recall batteries, when asked to comment on an incident where a laptop's battery caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport.
Asustek, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba, along with Hewlett-Packard Co, are the top five notebook sellers in Taiwan, according to researcher International Data Corp Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the snowballing reports of batteries catching fire have raised consumer eyebrows.
Kevin Hsu (
Both his laptop model and purchase timeline match the Lenovo/IBM recall profile.
"My laptop has been functioning properly so far but I will try to find out as soon as possible if it is affected," he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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