Another day, another laptop battery recall. This time it's Matsushita, parent company of Panasonic, recalling lithium-ion batteries used in Panasonic laptops sold in Japan. Unlike the Dell and Apple recalls, which involved nearly 6 million batteries, this is a drop in the bucket--only 6,000 suspect units.

The problematic Dell and Apple batteries were made by Sony, but Matsushita, without revealing the manufacturer, says that neither Sony nor Panasonic supplied the bad batch currently being recalled. According to the company, the problem lies not in the battery circuitry itself, but with a faulty spring-loaded latch, which could jar loose and cause a short if the laptop is dropped or hit. No cases of actual fires have been reported.

The recall affects Let's Note CF-W4G laptops produced in April and May 2005 and sold in Japan.

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