It is something of a good and bad news day for mobile phone giant Nokia. On the same day that it announces shipping of the new N900 handset, based on the open source Maemo 5 software, Nokia is also recalling a staggering 14 million mobile phone chargers due to concerns that they represent a potential electric shock hazard.
Although Nokia itself states that it has started an exchange program for "a limited number of Nokia-branded chargers manufactured by a third party supplier" it is understood that the number involved is actually 14 million.
It seems that the plastic covers can come loose and expose internal components which could, potentially, pose an electric shock hazard as a result of touching these while the charger is plugged into a live socket.
Nokia says that the affected chargers are manufactured by Chinese company BYD between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 and of model types AC-3U, AC-3E and those manufactured between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009 of model type AC-4U. The chargers might have been sold with a Nokia device or sold as an aftermarket accessory, so Nokia users are being urged to check all chargers to be on the safe side.
The exchange program and more information can be accessed here.
Meanwhile, the N900 has actually started shipping with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and up to 1GB of total application memory. Forget about the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, or 32GB of storage that comes as standard, all anyone is talking about is the open source software it is based upon.
A Nokia spokesperson says "Nokia works closely with the developer community and has recently seen significant innovation happening with Maemo. As a result, people will be able to discover a wide range of games, utilities, themes, panoramic wallpapers and service plug-ins for photo-sharing and messaging for the Nokia N900 through Ovi Store and Maemo Select, starting later in the year. In October Nokia announced official Qt port to Maemo 5. This means developers can use Qt software to target the Nokia N900 and that applications can be easily ported to all Qt's supported platforms including the next Maemo 6 release as well as Symbian".
