Acer said it won’t need to recall any notebook PCs for battery problems related to a Sony production glitch. “We do not rely on Sony for batteries,” said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer, at an investors conference on Friday. For the small number of Acer laptops that do use Sony materials in their batteries, Acer’s battery-charging mechanism ensures the batteries will not have problems, he added.

PC maker Everex Systems launched a new energy-efficient laptop with a Via Technologies C7-M central processor inside, and aims to sell it at Wal-Mart Stores for under US$500. The Via microprocessor inside Everex’s StepNote NC1500 provides 1.5GHz performance at very low power consumption of just 12 watts. Without skimping on hardware, the laptop runs on Microsoft Windows XP Home edition and includes a 15.4-inch screen, built-in wireless LAN and a DVD burner. It gives users a 20 percent improvement in battery life over comparable systems.

Heavy cell phone use may have a significant impact on the fertility of men, according to a study released in late October by the prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The study, conducted by Dr. Ashok Agarwal, reported on the results of 364 men who used cell phones for varying amounts of time each day. According to Agarwal, men who used their cell phones for four hours a day or more showed the greatest damage to their sperm.

Phantom Entertainment announced that Alienware has ordered the Phantom Wireless Lapboard and Phantom Wireless Laser Mouse for their Media Center PCs and its PC gear product line. The Phantom Wireless Lapboard and Phantom Wireless Laser Mouse are a combination wireless keyboard, laser mouse and hard surface that enables users to work or play games from a couch, easy chair or any comfortable setting in the home or workplace. The Lapboard includes wireless technology, ergonomic design, one-touch features, and a wireless high definition 1200 dpi laser mouse.

MobiMate announced that its WorldMate Standard Edition 2006 will be pre-installed in the HP iPAQ rx5000 Travel Companion. WorldMate provides portable devices with highly relevant and helpful travel content to make travels easier and more enjoyable. WorldMate 2006 Standard Edition provides a host of travel related services such as weather forecasts, daily currency exchange rates, measurement converters, world clocks, and more. The program will be pre-installed on the HP iPAQ rx5000 series and ready to go right out of the box. Customers will have the option to upgrade to WorldMate Professional Edition 2006, which provides several enhancements including flight schedules for over 800 airlines, real-time flight status, and enhanced weather services.

Apple has issued an update designed to address the lingering problem of unexpected shutdowns of its MacBook notebooks. The MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1, released for download Thursday, tackles a problem that has plagued the notebooks for the past four months. Apple advises people to install the software on all MacBook systems, including those that have received warranty repair.

SplashShopper is more than a shopping list. It’s billed as a “smart list manager” and that’s an accurate description. The program allows you to create a variety of lists, such as movies you want to watch or a list of items at your favorite takeout restaurant, as well as the expected grocery list. Does our reviewer like it? You’ll have to read the article to find out.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Hewlett-Packard and Cingular Wireless announced that starting on Oct. 31, Cingular will be the first delivery service in the United States to offer a new HP iPaq handheld device. The HP iPaq hw6920 series Mobile Messenger gives customers the opportunity to use Cingular’s nationwide GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless data network, Wi-Fi, GPS, infrared and Bluetooth wireless technologies, which allows business customers to connect to email or other applications.

Synaptics, a software company that specializes in products for cell phone texting, communications, and entertainment gadgets, introduced its MobileTouch FlexPad for Pantech Wireless’ PG-2800 mobile phone. Pantech’s PG-2800 phone allows users to text-message others by drawing out characters with their fingers, which the software then translates into numbers and letters, depending on what the user was trying to draw out.

SYWARE announced the release of Visual CE 10, a major new release of its mobile database development tool. The new release significantly extends the capabilities of Visual CE and its drag-and-drop desktop development environment, which enables both business professionals and developers to easily create Windows Mobile based applications with little or no programming.