Toyota just announced a recall of its 2010 hybrid cars. Four hundred thousand worth. The reason? A change in “brake feeling” caused by faulty antilock braking software.

As if the Aino’s odd name wasn’t handicap enough, Sony Ericsson’s taking another hit on its high-end Remote Play -capable full-touch (but Symbian -free) phone today with news that it’s got a dodgy touchscreen. It’s unclear exactly what’s wrong or how it’s ultimately going to get resolved, but several British retailers — most notably behemoth Carphone Warehouse — have elected to yank it from shelves until they’ve gotten confirmation that the mothership has fixed the problem. A company spokesman notes that “Aino has sold in limited numbers in the UK, so this issue affects only a very small number of customers,” which is a backhanded way of saying “for once, we’re incredibly lucky no one wants this thing” — though considering that the Satio’s on hold now , too, “lucky” might not be the right word for it. For what it’s worth, Sony’s US SonyStyle store is still hawking Ainos for $600, so part with that six-pack of Benjamins at your own risk. Sony Ericsson acknowledges touchscreen issues on Aino originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

New Nokia owners take notice: Espoo just launched an “exchange program” for certain Nokia-branded chargers. According to the world’s largest handset maker: “We have determined that the plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger’s internal components and potentially posing an electric shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket.” The chargers affected are models AC-3E and AC-3U, manufactured between June 15 and August 9, 2009, and model AC-4U, manufactured between April 13 and October 25, 2009. Fortunately, Nokia provides a website that removes all the guesswork from obtaining your free replacement. Show full PR text NOKIA PRESS RELEASE November 9, 2009 Nokia initiates charger exchange program Espoo, Finland - Nokia today initiated a charger exchange program, in which consumers owning certain Nokia-branded chargers manufactured by a third-party supplier are recommended to exchange these chargers for free replacements. During a routine quality control process, Nokia identified a potential product quality issue with certain chargers manufactured by one of its third-party suppliers.

Say what you will, but Canon ’s customer service / engineering department definitely looks out for consumers willing to spend just under two large on a new body. Merely days after the outfit made public that a ” residual image phenomenon ” was negatively impacting EOS 7D images under certain conditions, it has now published a firmware update to wipe all of those woes away. Firmware v1.1.0 specifically “corrects a phenomenon that in images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible.” Hit the read link if you’re looking to put said phenomenon to bed. Or don’t. We don’t care

Oh, Sony. You’ve been doing so well with not making things blow up lately. Even a seemingly minor fizzle turned out to be a false alarm . While it’s not laptop batteries this time, it seems that Sony has run into a bit of trouble with some of the AC adapters used for its VAIO all-in-one desktops and docking stations. Specifically, the insulation used in adapters for the company’s VGC-LT and VGC-JS2 series desktops and VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1 docking stations can apparently fail over time and pose an electrical shock hazard for users, although there have been no reports of injuries to date (and only four reports of any short circuiting)

Sony is recalling around 69,000 VGP-AC19V17 AC Adapters used in Vaio all-in-one desktop computers (VGC-LT series and VGC-JS2 series) and docking stations (VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1). Apparently, four reports of adapters short circuiting has alerted Sony to a weakness in the insulation, which could pose a shock hazard. So far, no one has been injured, but if you happen to have one of these adapters, you can contact Sony for a replacement. [ CPSC ]

Canon’s $1,900 EOS 7D DSLR just started shipping a month ago to pros and those who’d like to be, and already the thing is causing all sorts of fits when shooting continuously. In a service notice posted today on the outfit’s website, we’re told that images “captured by continuous shooting and under certain conditions [can exhibit] barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame.” The phenomenon isn’t apt to be noticeable with optimal exposure, but apparently a number of Photoshoppers have been irked by the additional (and unwelcome) elements added to their shots. Canon assures us that a firmware fix is on the way, and you can bet we’ll point you to a download link as soon as it hits. [Via DPReview ] Filed under: Digital Cameras Canon’s EOS 7D experiencing ‘residual image’ phenomenon, fix is on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

Acer’s issued a voluntary recall for some of its Aspire laptops — all of which were manufactured before September 15th of this year. It seems that some of them are experiencing an overheat of the microphone cable after “repeated” and “extreme” pressure is applied to the left palm rest. The affected models include the AS3410, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG. Acer’s set up a website where you can enter the serial number of your device to see if yours might be one of the affected. Filed under: Laptops Acer issues recall for some Aspire laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:32:00 EST

We already knew that NVIDIA had to shell out anywhere from $150 to $250 million last year to resolve issues related to its defective GPUs , but it looks like that may have only been the beginning, with The Inquirer now reporting that the company has also been forced to pay an additional $119.1 million over the past four months to fix a faulty die and weak packaging material used in the affected graphics chips. What’s more, NVIDIA apparently won’t say whether it expects to incur any further charges related to the defective chips or not, although it simply describes the whole situation as “small distraction,” and says it hasn’t affected its ability to launch new products. Filed under: Laptops Faulty GPUs reportedly cost NVIDIA another $119 million originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

While Apple may have moved on to selling the 4th generation iPod nano, consumer protection agencies are still focused on gen-1. For good reason too, apparently, as there’s mounting evidence that those early white and black plastic players have a tendency to overheat, swell, and possibly burst into a nasty chemical fire . Responding to five formal consumer complaints made between December and June, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards sent a request to Apple on June 25th recommending that Apple “aggressively” collects first generation iPod nano with Lithium Ion batteries made by the Chinese company ATL. Initially, Apple agreed to replace faulty units as they did in Japan upon request by the consumer.