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Program expanded in January 2017. It is essential to recheck your battery, even if you did so previously and were informed that it was not affected.


If you have already received a replacement battery, you are not affected by this expansion. 

In January 2017, in cooperation with various government regulatory agencies, HP announced an expansion of its ongoing worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for certain notebook computer batteries, which was announced in June 2016. The program has been expanded to include additional batteries that were shipped with the same notebook products. These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers. 

Because these batteries pose a fire and burn hazard, it is essential to recheck your battery, even if you did so previously and were informed that it was not affected. However, if you have already received a replacement battery, this expansion does not affect you. 

The affected batteries were shipped with specific HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario, and HP Pavilion notebook computers sold worldwide from March 2013 through October 2016, and/or were sold as accessories or spares, or provided as replacements through Support.

Customers should cease use of affected batteries immediately. Customers may continue to use their notebook computer without the battery installed, by connecting the notebook to external power. HP’s primary concern is for the safety of our customers. HP is proactively notifying customers, and will provide a replacement battery for each verified, eligible battery, at no cost. For customers with 10 or more potentially affected batteries, HP has put in place a process to assist with the validation and ordering process. For details please refer to the FAQs tab on this website. 
Getting Started 

Note: Not all batteries in all HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario, and HP Pavilion Notebook Computers are affected.

Click here to find out if your battery is affected.

Alexa, a cloud-based speech recognition software from Amazon and the brain of its black cylindrical loudspeaker Echo, has been a big hit around the world – except for the younger ones, who take it for granted. Children will grow up alongside it, just as Alexa will evolve, as the AI powering it learns to answer more and more questions, and perhaps one day even converses freely with people.

PhotoScan is a new scanner app from Google Photos that lets you scan and save your favourite printed photos using your phone's camera. Picture perfect and glare free.... 

Create enhanced digital scans, wherever your photos are.

This is a great app if you are out somewhere and there is, say a old black and white photo of one of your ancestors. The app guides you through a process of photographing the picture in segments then seamlessly joining it up to reproduce the original photo.

IoT and Smart Home Tech.
We will see much more integration and development in the Internet of Things and Smart Homes area with Amazon, Google and Apple getting involved.

AR and VR.
We will see significant developments in the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology with companies producing software and apps.

Machine Learning.
Machines and systems using a type of artificial intelligence will become much better at recommending products based on prior purchase history to gradually improving the user experience.

Automation.
Advanced technology will enable the automation of previously human-exclusive tasks. 

Physical-Digital Integrations.
We will see more use of our smartphones to find and pay digitally then collect the goods from a physical location

Everything On-Demand.
To satisfy our desire to have everything on demand through our smartphones, we will see many more of the ‘Uber’ type apps

Lastly something fun for Christmas.  We haven’t tried one of these ourselves, but they look like fun.

JJRC have released a foldable G-sensor Mini remote controlled selfie drone for under $60.

It has altitude hold, WiFi for smartphone remote control, 720P video and selfie camera, 6 axis gyro plus 3D flips and rolls.

See a video of it in action here.

Arriving early 2017.

The Surface Studio is designed for the creative process. The 28” PixelSense™ Display gives you a huge canvas for all kinds of work. Use it upright, or draw on it like a drafting table.

Surface Studio, with its strikingly large and incredibly thin 28” PixelSense™ touch screen Display with a 4500 x 3000 resolution, lets you visualise ideas as you paint, edit, and design. Then watch those ideas leap off the screen with 13.5 million pixels of true-to-life colour and clarity.

This stunning desktop computer is available in either i5 or i7 CPU options, 1 or 2TB hard drive versions and can take up to 32GB of memory.

Check out the video of it in action here.

See the friendly sales team for more info.

Until now, Microsoft Access was only included in the Office 365 ProPlus, E3 and E5 plans. Microsoft today announced that they are including Microsoft Access in the Office 365 Business and Business Premium plans so that small and mid-size businesses can get access to this great database management solution.

Microsoft Access will be automatically installed for Office 365 Business and Business Premium customers as part of their next regular Office client update, rolling out between December 1, 2016 and January 30, 2017. Customers who have updates set to the Deferred Channel will receive this update in June 2017.

Follow this link to see all the improvements in Office 365.

For those of you using a Windows 7 machine, Microsoft has ended mainstream support for this operating system. 

There is no need to panic as your system will still work and receive security updates. Mainstream support mainly refers to free phone and online support, as well as non-security updates, which are offered for five years after the release of an OS or two years after its successor hits the market.

Microsoft won't end security updates for your Windows 7 PC until January 2020. By that time, Microsoft hopes you will have upgraded to the latest version of its operating system.

Lost your car and can’t remember where you parked? It happens to the best of us: wandering aimlessly through parking lots, clicking the panic button on your key chain to get your headlights to illuminate. Now there is a cheap solution to one of life’s most annoying problems. 
You don’t need some high-end radio transponder to keep tabs on your car because now there is an easier, much cheaper solution.
Standalone GPS and radio triangulation units can cost hundreds. And that’s not counting the installation and (frequently hefty) activation and monthly fees associated with whatever service you do choose. For most of us, it’s overkill. The good news is that some of life’s biggest problems seem to be disappearing because of new technology. If you frequently forget where you parked your car, there is a tiny gadget and app that could be what you’re looking for. 
Trackr is a small and discreet device the size of a coin that is revolutionizing the way people track their vehicles using their smartphones.

Visit their website here.

One of our team attended the preview last week of the new HP Elite X3 Windows 10 Phone.  This is HP’s latest venture in to the phone space, but they see this more as a tiny computer with phone capabilities.
The Elite X3, once back in the office, can be slotted into a small dock which has a monitor, keyboard and mouse connected.  The phone then becomes a desktop PC allowing the user to run the phones applications on the big screen.

There is also a “laptop” option which is basically just a screen, keyboard and battery which once the phone is connected behaves like a laptop.  This laptop device can be left in the glove-box of a car without concerns of losing data as the applications and data are held on the phone.

This is a powerful and small device which will be ideal for users who need mobility and want to cut down on the number of devices they use.