A whole bunch of companies involved in the use of LEDs and laser diodes in mobile phones, high-def players, and data storage devices are currently facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission on charges of patent infringement. More in the full article.

When it comes to the DVD format wars, we usually look to the United States as a sign of the trend, but what about elsewhere? Well, according to a recent study made in Japan, it seems Blu-ray is also thoroughly surpassing HD-DVD in sales.

The numbers? Blu-ray's adherents apparently took in 90 percent of sales, while HD-DVD only had four percent. More on this development after the jump!

Collaborations among big companies are all the craze these days, and in the LCD TV industry, that rule applies too. Consumer electronics giants Hitachi, Panasonic, and Canon are all coming together to push the envelope in LCD technology. What does it take to pull off a pact like this one? Find out in the detailed version.

Blu-ray backer Matsushita, the parent company of Panasonic, has announced that it will be launching three new Panasonic Blu-ray recorders in November - the DMR-BW900, the DMR-BW800 and the DMR-BW700.

Of the three new recorders, the 1TB HDD-equipped DMR-BW900 will have the most storage capacity. The DMR-BW800 and the DMR-BW700 will have 500GB and 250GB HDDs respectively. All three recorders will also support the new interactive features of Blu-ray movies such as picture-in-picture video commentaries.

All three recorders will come loaded with other cool features including a high-precision color signal processing called the PHL Reference Chroma Processor. This will apparently enable the recorders to offer near-original, high-quality video standards. Both the DMR-BW900 and the DMR-BW800 will also have 1080p HD playback capability with a frame rate of 24 FPS.

The new Blu-ray recorders will become available in Japan on November 1.

Nokia's recent announcement  to replace BL-5C batteries may end up costing the battery manufacturer, Matsushita, JPY 10 billion (US$ 86 million.) It was only this month when Nokia announced that the batteries may overheat while charging. Two cases have already been filed in Japan of overheating, one classified as a fire. The call to replace will be affecting 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita.

Although a subsidiary of Matsushita - Matsushita Battery Industrial Co - will cover the costs of the repairs, the main company would still be affected. Some Japanese analysts speculate that because of the incident, the financial cost would extend to the company's stocks which may end up losing up to JPY 138 billion (US$ 1.18 billion.) The company already slid down 5% since the announcement half a month ago.

Nokia Japan President Tyler Mcgee apologized with a deep bow in front of a news conference. He also says that customer safety and product quality are Nokia's top priorities and explains that he was not aware of cases of batteries overheating outside of Japan until Nokia made the announcement on August 14.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that according to its sources, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. knew from as far back as May that a defect could cause its cellphone batteries to overheat.

Defective Matsushita batteries used in Nokia phones have already overheated and caused two accidents in Japan alone. On Tuesday, Nokia announced a worldwide recall of around 46 million defective batteries.

According to the Asahi Shimbun's sources, Nokia informed Matsushita Battery back in December 2006 of a possibility that its BL-5C lithium-ion battery could overheat. In May, Matsushita discovered that a glitch during the manufacturing process led to a short circuit in the battery which could then cause overheating.

Matsushita did not reveal the problem publicly but did inform Nokia. The latter was, according to the report, "apparently reluctant to disclose the fact".

Giant mobile phone manufacturer Nokia recently circulated a product advisory for the BL-5C battery that's being used on its phones because the said batteries are prone to overheating while charging.

Do take note that this is only applicable to the Nokia-branded 46 million BL-5C batteries that were manufactured by the company Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. between the time period of December 2005 to November 2006.

Nokia employs other suppliers for the said kind of battery and advisory only applies to the ones from Matsushita. Nokia also announced that those who have the defective batteries are entitled to a free replacement.

The following instruction was provided by the company on how to spot Matsushita BL-5C batteries manufactured on the said time period:

On the reverse, the Nokia mark appears at the top and the battery identification number (consisting of 26 characters) is found at the bottom. Consumers should refer to this identification number to determine if their battery is among the batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.

The Read link below should take you to Nokia's advisory page where you can also learn how to apply for free battery replacement.

Motorola is giving Linux a big push with plans to install the OS on 60 percent of its mobile handsets within the next two years. The Razr2 V8, Motorola's follow-up to its GSM Razr phone, will be the company's first Linux phone in the U.S. when it debuts here within two months.

Christy Wyatt, Motorola's vice president of ecosystem and market development, said that Linux will be a big help in expanding the mobile phone software developer community. Motorola has also formed the LiMo Foundation along with NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung, and Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) to further consolidate the dev community with a single Linux platform.

While Linux will be the dominant platform for Motorola phones, the company still expects to sell handsets running on different platforms to specific target markets. Windows Mobile devices will be aimed primarily at enterprises while Symbian phones will be marketed in Europe. Low-end phones with simpler and more closed platforms will also still be produced.

Motorola also plans to roll out Linux-based CDMA phones. According to Wyatt, a lot of porting and development work has to be done first on CDMA phones, however. A non-Linux CDMA handset comparable to the Razr 2 V8 will be released in the meantime.

And in the techie side of things, Blu-ray enthusiasts may want to know that, as CDRinfo reports, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd has just announced a monolayer/dual-layer Blu-ray drive doubling the read and write speed of 2x Blu-ray burners available to 4x, while still keeping power consumption to 130 mW - a 2x burner power maximum.

25 GB of data can be recorded into a monolayer BD-R disc in 23 minutes, while 50 GB burned to a dual-layer BD-R medium may complete in 46 minutes. The drive was developed in accordance with the "Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Part 1 Version 1.2" standard, released recently by the Blu-ray camp.

And in light of the constant linear velocity drive (CLV), Panasonic will be releasing 25 GB BD-R discs by late July or early August, aimed specifically for the new burner. But reports are also coming in about Hitachi LG's 6x GGW-H20L BD burner which should release this July while talks on Pioneer's front on their own 4x Blu-ray burner.

Earlier today, Nintendo left Panasonic maker Matsushita in the dust as the company driven by its dual-screen handheld and waving sticks closed the gap against competitor Sony.

Ninty increased its market capitalisation to ¥6.30 trillion, running past Matsushita's 6.23 trillion and nearing Sony's 6.64 trillion. These world leaders in electronics have sales eight times bigger than Nintendo, but the Wii and DS are obviously enough to stay on track.

During the last couple of years, the folks responsible for the PS3 earned 72% increase in shares. It fades in comparison to Nintendo, which experienced shares growth four-fold during the same period.

KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide comments:

Nintendo is a market leader in everything it does now, which is basically the handheld as well as console gaming market. We haven't seen Nintendo being a market leader in both products for over a decade. It shows what a fantastic market position Nintendo has at the moment in its industry.

Sounds good, considering that the GameCube failed hard last consoles race. Not saying that Sony is having a hard time, but let's hope everyone learns from Ninty's model which appears to be very effective. Affordable and fun games for everyone? We're in!