A federal judge has barred Louisiana officials, for now, from enforcing a new law that criminalizes sales of violent video games to minors. U.S. District Judge James Brady in Baton Rouge, LA, on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction against a state bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco in June. Under its terms, anyone caught selling to children video games that “depict violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors” faces fines of between $100 and $2,000 and up to a year in prison.

Proporta has releases a plethora of their accessories for the O2 Xda Trion, including the Advanced Screen Protector, Docking Mount, and Alu-Leather Case in both Book and Flip styles.

Australia’s Qantas Airways is telling passengers with Dell laptops that they might not be able to recharge their machines in-flight. Earlier this month, Dell issued a recall for 4.1 million laptop computer batteries because of a potential fire hazard. The company received several reports of laptops bursting into flames while charging and tracked the source of the problem to faulty batteries supplied by Sony. Qantas said laptops with batteries that are subject to the recall and that have not yet been replaced can be used on flights, but only on battery power or through the onboard power supply with the batteries removed.

Lenovo has begun equipping one of its ThinkPad notebooks with the BroadbandConnect wireless WAN service from Cingular Wireless. The PC maker, which already offers hardware that allows several of its ThinkPad models sold in the United States to connect to Verizon Wireless’ EvDO (Evolution Data Optimized) service, on Aug. 22 began offering ThinkPad T60 models with the hardware needed to use the Cingular service as well.

Authentication software specialist CryptoCard introduced an updated version of its network security offering on Aug. 23, adding support for BlackBerry wireless handhelds to its IT systems access platform. Crypto-Server 6.4 boasts a retrenched architecture that promises to speed authentication input processing, along with improved administrative functions. Other additions to the product include a feature meant to enhance encryption of laptops when the devices are connected to unfamiliar networks and a retooled version of the company’s Crypto-Web technology, which is used to protect Web servers.

Apple is recalling 1.8 million battery packs for its iBook and PowerBook notebook computers because of an overheating problem, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday. The cells in the lithium-ion batteries in the iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 computers–the only two models affected by the recall–were produced by Sony.

Dell has quietly pulled the plug on its DJ Ditty music players, less than a year after the world’s largest computer maker launched the device to compete with Apple’s iPod Shuffle. The company stopped selling the Ditty on August 17, Dell spokesman Venancio Figueroa said Wednesday. He declined to characterize the decision as Dell bowing out in the face of competition from market leader Apple. Dell is trying to focus on its core areas of PCs, printers and flat-panel televisions, he said.

T-Mobile and Research In Motion announced an expansion of T-Mobile’s portfolio of BlackBerry handsets with the introduction of the new BlackBerry 7130g in the UK. The BlackBerry 7130g provides an exceptional balance of performance, design and function for users that prefer a narrower phone-style design. It offers a premium phone experience with dedicated phone keys, speakerphone, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, Bluetooth support, quad-band network support for international roaming and intuitive call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding. It also features SureType keyboard technology that enables quick and accurate message typing and phone dialing.

BoxWave has released their Gamer ActionGrip for Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP. Enhance your gameplay with this new BoxWave’s Gamer ActionGrip hand grip. BoxWave’s Gamer ActionGrip is uniquely designed with a rubber grip texture to give you more comfort and control of your gaming device. Now you can hold your gaming device like a game controller. And for added convenience, the Gamer ActionGrip has a collapsible design that makes traveling easy.

Apple Computer will pay $100 million to rival Creative Technology to settle patent lawsuits over technology for navigating through songs on the popular iPod digital music player. In June, the U.S. International Trade Commission agreed to investigate whether Apple’s iPod infringes on one of Creative’s patents. Singapore-based Creative filed the ITC complaint and a federal lawsuit, alleging that iPods infringed on its patent for a navigation system used to organize and access music on its Zen media players.