Own Dell laptop? Check into the big battery recall

Tidbits from the world of tech fill today's space, including the largest consumer electronics recall in history from Dell.

If you've purchased a Dell laptop or replacement battery any time in the last few years, it's pretty likely you're getting a new battery. After receiving reports of a handful of laptops bursting into flames, Dell announced last week that is recalling 4.1 million batteries.

The lithium-ion batteries being recalled are installed in laptops sold between April 2004 and July 18 of this year. According to Dell, the affected laptops are the Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800 and D810; the Inspiron 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400 and E1705; the Precision M20, M60, M70 and M90 mobile workstations; and the XPSTM, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710.

Consumers are supposed to log on to a special Web site and enter the codes from a white sticker on the battery. If covered under the recall, the next page will turn into a free order form.

If you own a Dell, enter all of your batteries at www. dellbatteryprogram.com.

• Microsoft has issued a warning to players of Massively Multiplayer Online games, such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, that their online identities (won by months or years of online playing) could be hijacked.

Using hacks and Trojans, the identities can be taken, then sold. Dave Weinstein, a security engineer from Microsoft, told a recent gaming convention that police may be unaware that accounts could be worth $10,000 or more.

"The police are really good at understanding someone stole my credit card and ran up a lot of money," he said at the convention. "It's a lot harder to get them to buy into 'someone stole my magic sword."'

Microsoft recommends that PC users keep their computers scanned with anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and ad-eliminating software.

(That's good advice for everyone.)

• Apple has released several critical patches for its new Intel-based Macs, so if you have one it is a good time to run Software Update on the Control Panel if you don't already have it set to run daily.

Microsoft also announced it is dropping Virtual PC, which lets Mac users run Windows. The current version runs well on the older Macs (assuming you have enough RAM), but Microsoft now says it will not make a version for Intel-based Macs. That leaves Apple users who want to run Windows with Apple's own Boot Camp or a third-party product like Parallels Desktop or Vmware.