A whole bunch of companies involved in the use of LEDs and laser diodes in mobile phones, high-def players, and data storage devices are currently facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission on charges of patent infringement. More in the full article.

Nokia's recent announcement  to replace BL-5C batteries may end up costing the battery manufacturer, Matsushita, JPY 10 billion (US$ 86 million.) It was only this month when Nokia announced that the batteries may overheat while charging. Two cases have already been filed in Japan of overheating, one classified as a fire. The call to replace will be affecting 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita.

Although a subsidiary of Matsushita - Matsushita Battery Industrial Co - will cover the costs of the repairs, the main company would still be affected. Some Japanese analysts speculate that because of the incident, the financial cost would extend to the company's stocks which may end up losing up to JPY 138 billion (US$ 1.18 billion.) The company already slid down 5% since the announcement half a month ago.

Nokia Japan President Tyler Mcgee apologized with a deep bow in front of a news conference. He also says that customer safety and product quality are Nokia's top priorities and explains that he was not aware of cases of batteries overheating outside of Japan until Nokia made the announcement on August 14.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that according to its sources, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. knew from as far back as May that a defect could cause its cellphone batteries to overheat.

Defective Matsushita batteries used in Nokia phones have already overheated and caused two accidents in Japan alone. On Tuesday, Nokia announced a worldwide recall of around 46 million defective batteries.

According to the Asahi Shimbun's sources, Nokia informed Matsushita Battery back in December 2006 of a possibility that its BL-5C lithium-ion battery could overheat. In May, Matsushita discovered that a glitch during the manufacturing process led to a short circuit in the battery which could then cause overheating.

Matsushita did not reveal the problem publicly but did inform Nokia. The latter was, according to the report, "apparently reluctant to disclose the fact".

Giant mobile phone manufacturer Nokia recently circulated a product advisory for the BL-5C battery that's being used on its phones because the said batteries are prone to overheating while charging.

Do take note that this is only applicable to the Nokia-branded 46 million BL-5C batteries that were manufactured by the company Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. between the time period of December 2005 to November 2006.

Nokia employs other suppliers for the said kind of battery and advisory only applies to the ones from Matsushita. Nokia also announced that those who have the defective batteries are entitled to a free replacement.

The following instruction was provided by the company on how to spot Matsushita BL-5C batteries manufactured on the said time period:

On the reverse, the Nokia mark appears at the top and the battery identification number (consisting of 26 characters) is found at the bottom. Consumers should refer to this identification number to determine if their battery is among the batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.

The Read link below should take you to Nokia's advisory page where you can also learn how to apply for free battery replacement.

Motorola is giving Linux a big push with plans to install the OS on 60 percent of its mobile handsets within the next two years. The Razr2 V8, Motorola's follow-up to its GSM Razr phone, will be the company's first Linux phone in the U.S. when it debuts here within two months.

Christy Wyatt, Motorola's vice president of ecosystem and market development, said that Linux will be a big help in expanding the mobile phone software developer community. Motorola has also formed the LiMo Foundation along with NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung, and Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) to further consolidate the dev community with a single Linux platform.

While Linux will be the dominant platform for Motorola phones, the company still expects to sell handsets running on different platforms to specific target markets. Windows Mobile devices will be aimed primarily at enterprises while Symbian phones will be marketed in Europe. Low-end phones with simpler and more closed platforms will also still be produced.

Motorola also plans to roll out Linux-based CDMA phones. According to Wyatt, a lot of porting and development work has to be done first on CDMA phones, however. A non-Linux CDMA handset comparable to the Razr 2 V8 will be released in the meantime.

Let's be a little forgiving towards Sony regarding its exploding computer batteries. Apparently, Sony is not the only company that's had problems with those Lithium-ion batteries. Matsushita, best known for its Panasonic brand, also recalled 6,000 PC batteries just this month for the very same reason: overheating. Kyocera Corp. also recalled a million cell phone batteries on the same account.

From this, it can be gleaned that the problem isn't necessarily the fault of the manufacturing company, but probably with the technology itself. According to Peng Lime, Chief Executive of MTI Micro Fuel Cells, a unit of Mechanical Technology Inc., "Battery technology is energy technology (and) it is n ot growing as fast as compared to  microprocessors of hard drives."

What seems to be the biggest challenge of the Lithium-ion batteries is that it is currently unable to keep up with the revolutionary changes in consumer gadgets. Laptops, for example, are now used not only for documents and spreadsheets, but also for power-eating tasks such as video conferencing, hosting websites and interactive games. Even portable digital players and mobile phones also play host to full-length movies already.

The next generation of batteries that they are looking into are those from fuel cells, but admittedly, that would be a long way to go, say, 5-10 years.

Although these fuel cells will be able to supply 10 times more power, and will be instantly recharged, it' still too early for us to be rejoicing that there may now be a solution for those exploding batteries because, according to analysts, mass deployment is years away, after a long period of testing and tweaking.

"We are very cautious and we don't rush anything to the market. We want to make sure things are working properly and safe," said Brian Kimberlin, director of marketing for Panasonic Battery Corp of America. Got it. Better safe than sorry, definitely.