In two words: DAMN COOL!

Check it out in the video below.

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The next time a technician visits your house, make sure he knows his cable ABC. A mistake as simple as plugging a power line into the wrong port of a signal amplifier could cause your gadgets and stuffs to go BOOM. That’s exactly what happened to a Comcast customer.

Everything on the desk was blackened with soot and burned either partially or completely. Three external hard drives, a digital camera, videotapes, papers, CD’s, etc. The floor, wall, and radiator cover were burned, along with the tabletop.

Every cable that was connected to the laptop, Ethernet, Firewire, Power, and USB, was forcibly shot out of each portal, and each portal covered with the black soot. Metal bits and electronic debris from the power cable hub and other cables was scattered around the room and some wires had split apart into copper shreds. Molten silver metal flecks are still lodged in the windowsill.

Dramatic eh? But to be fair to the technician, the installation was done on the roof, and the cables there were in a mess.

Don’t let this happen to you.

As if exploding laptops weren’t enough. Now even Hello Kitty toys are lighting up as well.

Takara, maker of this particular Hello Kitty doll, was forced to issue a recall due to discovery of the doll’s combustibility. The doll features a microwavable disc that can be stuffed within it to provide warmth. Apparently, a chemical substance that was used in the disc wasn’t quite stable, causing nasty surprises to any unfortunate souls that happens to be hugging the doll at that moment

So, will Virgin Atlantic be banning Hello Kitty dolls now?

As we know, Dell isn’t the only one using Sony laptop batteries that have potential of exploding in your face. Our favorite Apple iBooks and PowerBooks are just as “hot”.

Apple announced today that it’ll be recalling 1.8 million batteries that are identified as potentially hazardous – less than half of Dell’s 4.1 million. 1.1 million of them in US, and the rest around the world.

The affected models are the 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and the 15-inch PowerBook G4, which were sold between October 2003 and August 2006. If you own one of those, do make it a point to go for the battery exchange. It would hurt me deeply to have one of these explode on my dear readers.

A few days ago, we reported on Dell’s history-making laptop battery recall, which affected 4.1 million batteries worldwide. And as we know, Sony makes these batteries. So without doubt, the electronics giant took a very big hit from the recall. But we aren’t talking just a couple million of dollars. We are talking $430 million cold, hard cash.

Analyst Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies has Sony’s costs pegged somewhere between $200m and $300m, while Macquarie analyst David Gibson says Sony will shell out up to $260m. Those ranges didn’t stop Reuters from claiming the $430m figure and attributing it to no one.

So if you were thinking that Dell is definitely into deep shit from the recall, think again. The company even claims that it doesn’t see a “material” financial impact from the incident. But rather, it’s the bad image that they now have, which I’m sure they are working hard on repairing this very minute.

News of exploding Dell laptops have been popping up every now and then for the past few weeks. What appear to be mere mishaps of a handful of consumers turn out to be defective batteries affecting at least 4.1 million laptops.

With today’s announcement for a major recall, it marks what is said to be “the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry”. It is for specific models of laptop batteries that are shipped between April 2004 and July 18, 2006.

If you are holding on to a laptop battery that is shipped between these dates, do give the Dell Battery Replacement Hotline (1-866-342-0011, weekdays 6:00AM – 6:00PM, weekends 9:00AM – 6:00PM) a call. Alternatively, visit their newly launched DellBatteryProgram.com website, which contains information to check if your battery is indeed defective. Do it now before your laptop becomes as the one pictured above.