Dells exploding. Apples melting scrotums. Now Lenovos conflagrant. And it’s all apparently over pesky Sony batteries.

The good news is that Sony’s recalling practically all of their batteries, regardless of the manufacturer of the laptop itself. The bad news is that recall is still up to the discretion of the laptop manufacturers.

Strangely, it doesn’t appear that Sony is the bad guy in all of these exploding laptops, despite providing the small thermonuclear device installed into their bellies. Sony claims they can’t reproduce a laptop fire and they fault the laptop engineers for shoddy design. Given that most of the laptops exploding are Dells, we’re far more willing to give Sony the benefit of the doubt than usual.

Sony battery fiasco escalates [Financial Times]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.