Canadian residents will benefit from a $45 credit for iPods purchased before June 24, 2004, following the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Apple. The reason for the lawsuit on behalf of angry owners was that after only one year of use, the rechargeable battery would last only three hours, not eight, as the company said in its advertisements.

And this is just one lawsuit! A second settlement includes $25 to $79 refund for 2.3 million PowerBook and iBook owners, who complained about a series of faulty power adapters that endangered them and their homes (it appears that the adapters set small flames and sparks). However, this hasn’t been established yet, as a final decision is to be expected following the September 8 hearing. The lawsuit dates back to 2006.

Canadians aren’t the only ones to have faced such problems. In March this year, Japan opened an investigation on Apple’s popular iPod nano, after one of them started to produce sparks while recharging. Although no other similar incidents have been reported, the authorities started a detailed investigation to establish whether other iPod nano owners are exposed to the same risk.

In 2001, Apple was forced to recall over 570,000 power adapters after reports of overheating and sparking started to come in, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the settlement with Canadian iPod owners alone will cost Apple around $36 million.

The lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are greatly used in consumer electronics, and most of all, they are used in portable electronics. It seems like producers should pay more attention to these batteries as they have been blamed for multiple series of blazes (Dell was forced to make the biggest recall of laptops in its history in 2006, due to battery problems).