Griffin Technologies has an impressive history of making accessories for PC, Mac, PSP and Ipod that make our lives easier and add capabilities to our already multifunctional devices. Once again Griffin has announced a product designed to make our lives easier.

The PowerBlock is a USB charging system that helps extend your battery life when travelling. It comes complete with adapters that make it compatible with the power supply on most continents, a dock for charging your Ipod and a pouch to hold your adapters.

Most portable device owners will agree that battery life is the most important factor when taking your portables on the road. The PowerBlock comes with an Ipod charging dock, but it can be used with any device that is charged using a USB port.

When you consider the mind numbing boredom inherent in long trips by air, some type of battery extending solution is a must for all your favorite handheld gaming devices, portable media players and the like. At $34.99 USD, the PowerBlock from Griffin (which is available right now) should quickly become a standard piece of kit for most portable owners.

Water and MP3 players? Doesn't make sense. Before, listening to your MP3 player near a body of water, say in the pool for example, is a big no-no. You just can't afford to have your player and the speaker get wet or else...But now you can, with iFloat.

iFloat is a waterproof case and speaker designed for MP3 players. Now you can enjoy music under any weather condition. You can even take your player with you as you lounge in the pool during hot summer days for iFloat can literally float! It has a reliable hard-shell case with secure, rubber gasket seal that is completely waterproof. See the case in action by plugging it in your MP3 player of choice, as long as the player's compatible with a 3.5mm headphone jack. All it needs is a 9-volt battery and it's ready to serve your listening pleasure.

If you have $35 to spare, you might want to check out this Brookstone product. We must mention though, that there's a note in the product that says it's "not intended for prolonged swimming or underwater use." So just how long can iFloat really be "waterproof", we don't know.

The score: Dell - 3, Apple - 1.

So far, those are the only exploding laptop cases that have been catching attention. Most likely, there are more laptops going boom somewhere, but are left undocumented. Anyway, it looks like Dell is not alone in its misery, as an Apple laptop exploded -- this time in Kristiansand, Norway. The employees of a company, called Ide`til Produkt AS, got the fright of their lives as a battery of one of their  12" Powerbook G4 laptop suddenly caught fire recently.

An employee divulges that smoke appeared from the corner of the laptop, where the battery was located. He moved away from it and then flames shot out of the laptop. The said employee, Ive Skrede, was quick-minded enough to push the battery to a trash can and to take it out of the office. The trash can fire intensified. This type of laptop uses lithium-ion batteries, and they create their own oxygen when they burn. If you could recall, Apple launched a worldwide Battery Exchange Program for the iBook G4 and the PowerBook G4.

After the fiery incident, Mr. Skrede contacted Apple about what had happened. The company took it seriously as the laptop will be sent to Apple labs in Ireland, and replaced. Whether the fire is caused by the company or by the owner's negligence, definitely the Apple brand would be hard to remove from this fiasco.

At $69, Apple's Bluetooth Mighty Mouse is not exactly the cheapest electronic rodent on the block. But if you're willing to open it up to make it more battery-efficient, this reduced power hack may be for you.

Ram, the mouse hacker, was playing with his Mighty Mouse when he noticed its LED came on and off on the bottom of the mouse. When the mouse was not in sync with a Mac, this LED would blink. Once sync'ed, the LED would go out if the mouse is in use. When the mouse is stationary, the LED would go on an stay on. He measured the power usage of the mouse and was proven right: The mouse seems to use less power when in use and the LED is off than when it's resting and the LED is on. Thinking like a hacker, RAM proceeded to devise a way to double battery life "depending on your mouse usage behavior."

He dismantled his Mighty Mouse to remove the pesky power-draining LED. "In the end the hack still saves some power but no where as near as what I was expecting," he says. It's your mouse (make sure it's yours) and if you want to wreck it turn it into an energy miser, well, consider this your warning. Proceed at your own risk! Click here for the how-to.

Here's a company that doesn't want to end up like Dell.

Apple has initiated a worldwide battery exchange program for certain rechargeable batteries that were sold for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops from February 2006 through May 2006. The company recently discovered that some 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries supplied to Apple don't meet their standards for battery performance.

The affected batteries have model number A1175 and a 12-digit serial number that ends with U7SA, U7SB or U7SC. To check if your MacBook is equipped with the batteries in question, just take out your MacBook's battery and check the serial numbers located above the battery's barcode. If you've recently bought an extra battery for your MacBook Pro, check the serial numbers on those babies too.

An exchange form is available in the Support section of the Apple website. You can exchange up to three batteries using the form, and if you need to exchange more than three batteries, you can call Apple. Contact numbers are also listed in the website.

This exchange program is free of charge.