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.