Yo, Dell, enough with the exploding laptops already! It's a tired plot device, not to mention so predictable. It's getting to the point that whenever I get within 10 feet of one of your notebooks I hold my hands up to protect my face. To be fair, this time the battery just melted this Dell Latitude 410, and there was no full-on explosion — although smoke filled the room where it happened. The victim: a Dell user in Singapore, and it looks like this week's installment is a prequel, since the incident took place in November, much earlier than the recent flame-up in Japan or the Jerry Bruckheimer-inspired mayhem in Illinois from last week. He (or she) sent pictures of the wrecked Latitude to the Sydney Morning Herald apparently after hearing about the Illinois incident. Dell launched a recall of 35,000 batteries last December, but so far no word from the company about the growing explosive epidemic. — Peter Pachal

The Sydney Morning Herald, via Engadget