Qantas Considers Flight Restrictions for Apple Laptops

· by · News

Australiais Qantas Airways Limited is considering imposing flight restrictions on Appleis iBook and PowerBook laptops following the recall of over 1 million batteries. APC reports that Qantas is working to determine if the G4 PowerBook and iBook pose the same fire risk as Dellis laptops.

Currently, Dell owners are limited to using their laptops in flight on battery power, or they can use first class or business class electrical outlets if they first remove their battery.

If the airline imposes the same restrictions on Apple laptops, itis likely to be an issue for MacBook Pro owners. The PowerBook G4 and MacBook Pro look almost exactly alike, and flight attendants probably wonit be able to tell the difference between the models.

On Thursday, Apple issued a recall for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 batteries that Sony manufactured. The batteries can potentially pose a fire hazard due to microscopic metal fragments in the battery cell.

Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

Sign Up for the Newsletter

Enter a valid email address

Join the TMO Express Daily Newsletter to get the latest Mac headlines in your e-mail every weekday.

Adding to list…

No Comments

Add your comment

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.