So you probably remember yesterday's scary report which quoted a Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson predicting that Sony's upcoming US battery recall will expand beyond just laptops, and might include portable DVD players and videogame consoles too.

ENGADGET: CPSC: Sony recall will include laptop batteries only

PS3 is a litmus test for Sir Howard's turnaround effort, one of the aims of which is to get Sony's various divisions to co-operate more fully. (A spat between its electronics and content units left the field open for Apple's iPod.) The company insists that despite recent problems such as the battery recall, the turnaround is going well behind the scenes.

ECONOMIST: Can the PlayStation 3 revive the ailing electronics giant?

The series of laptop computer fires that led Dell and Apple to recall 5.9 million Sony-made battery packs this summer were sparked by those same lithium ion batteries.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The company says it has licked the overheating problem (recall exploding laptops), and its first lithium battery will hit the market in late 2008.

FORBES: Magazine Article

It took them long enough, but it looks like Sony is really coming clean on this battery issue, and urging all affected manufacturers to get on the recall bandwagon.

ENGADGET: Dell recalls 100,000 more batteries while Toshiba and Fujitsu join the fray