Month: March 2019

HP expanded their recall of lithium-ion batteries for their laptops on Tuesday because the batteries can overheat and are at risk of causing burns or fire, according to a recall noticefrom the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

There have been eight new reports of battery packs in the U.S. overheating, melting or charring, HP said in the notice. Those reports included one minor injury and two reports of property damage that totaled $1,100.

The company is recalling 78,500 units in addition to another 50,000 units they recalled in January 2018.

The batteries were sold at retailers nationwide and online along with computers and mobile workstations from December 2015 through April 2018 and cost between $300 and $4,000.

The batteries were also sold separately from December 2015 and December 2018 for between $50 and $90.

The lithium-ion batteries were used for HP commercial notebook computers and mobile workstations including: HP ProBooks (64x G2 and G3 series, 65x G2 and G3 series, 4xx G4 series), HPx360 (310 G2), HP Pavilion x360 11 in. Notebook PC, HP 11 Notebook PC and HP ZBook (17 G3, and Studio G3) mobile workstations.

They were also sold as replacement batteries for those products, as well as the HP ZBook Studio G4 mobile workstation, HP ProBook 4xx G5 series, HP ENVY 15 and HP Mobile Thin Clients (mt21, mt22, and mt31).

HP recommends checking their battery safety recall and replacement program website for instructions on how to have the defective batteries replaced.

Google announced that the latest update for the Chrome browser, Chrome 73, has begun rolling out to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. While these updates normally cover security fixes, system-level changes, and new tools for developers, Chrome 73 also includes a handful of new features for general users as well—including the much-requested Dark Mode—although their availability will be different depending on the platform you’re using.

Let’s go over the new features found in Chrome 73, when and where they’ll be available, and how to enable them.

Dark mode

After what seems like ages of user pining for a dark theme in Chrome, Google is finally adding the feature—though it’s initially only available on macOS, but will soon be rolling out to Windows as well.

Sure, you could download “dark mode” themes from the Chrome store before, Chrome’s native dark mode features the design sensibilities one would expect from Google. Chrome’s Dark Mode looks a lot like incognito mode: A Dark charcoal grey replaces the usual bright white and grey for the browser window, toolbar, settings tabs, and Google home page, as well as automatically applies a dark theme to supported web pages. Other parts of the browser maintain the classic white color scheme for now, such as the settings page.

Since Google has engineered Dark mode to work with macOS’ dark mode display options, it must be enabled by turning on your Mac’s dark UI mode from the Apple system settings, rather than in Chrome itself.

Open the Apple settings and click System Preferences

Click “General.”

Locate the “Appearance” setting, and select “Dark.”

Chrome will automatically transition to Dark Mode.

Quick note: Since enabling Dark Mode makes the normal and incognito browsing modes look identical, Google has added a prominent incognito icon to the right of the URL field when in Incognito mode.

As for the imminent Windows version of Chrome’s Dark Mode, it will also require that you enable Windows 10’s dark theme at the OS level first.

Auto PIP and video features

Google began testing native picture-in-picture (PIP) video mode for Chrome last year, but Chrome 73 sees the feature getting an expanded presence on the browser’s desktop version, extending PIP support to progressive web apps. This means supported videos will now automatically transition to PIP mode when users switch to other tabs or web apps. The update also integrates early versions of a Skip Ad feature for PIP videos and the ability to quickly jump back to the video’s tab or app. While these features don’t require any special settings to be enabled on the user’s end, developers will have to build support it into their web apps and pages in order for them to be available, so functionality may differ between web pages and apps.

In addition to the wider support for PIP mode, Chrome 73 will also let developers add hardware media key support to web apps. Developers can now let users play, pause, and skip tracks or other playlist media using buttons on their keyboard or other connected hardware, even when the media is being played in the background.

Other features

Aside from Dark Mode rollout and new media playback options, Chrome 73 adds other notable features for both users and developers alike. Users get enhanced spell check, a new option for “safe browsing extended reporting.” Chrome 73 also consolidates all options related to Google’s sync feature under the new “Sync and Google services” section that was added to the settings menu with Chrome 72 (these changes are still being rolled out following the update, so may not be immediately present for all users).

While Chrome 73’s initial launch only covers the desktop versions of the browser, Android users can look forward to new, clearer download progress notifications when saving files in the mobile browser. The update will also include a redesigned download history page that lets users filter their download history by file type.

Finally, as Chrome 73 adds progressive web app support to the macOS version of Chrome, and developers can now add badge API to web apps for desktop browsers so that notifications alerts (such as unread notifications) can be displayed over the app’s icon from Chrome’s home page.

The Chrome 73 update will be rolling out to all desktop users in the coming days. Support for features like Dark Mode on Windows and other changes will hopefully follow soon after, but Google hasn’t given any specific timetable. The Android and Chrome OS versions of Chrome 73 are also expected to launch soon, though you can check out the new features early by downloading the Chrome beta.

Windows 7 will be a decade old when Microsoft discontinues support for the legacy OS on January 14, 2020. Leading up to that date, the company is planning to once again badger Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 by pinging them with notifications.

“Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC. This is a courtesy reminder that you can expect to see a handful of times in 2019,” Microsoft states in a blog post.

Microsoft says its hope is that by dishing out the reminders around nine months in advance that Windows 7 users will have ample time to “plan and prepare for this transition.”

The good news is, you could potentially only see the notification once. Microsoft says there will be an option to “do not notify me again,” and assuming Microsoft/Windows respects that decision, you won’t receive any further reminders.

According to Microsoft, there are now more than 800 million devices running Windows 10. The company originally hoped to reach 1 billion devices within the first 2-3 years, but that proved to be a bit ambitious.

It’s not clear how many people are still using Windows 7, but the available data suggests it’s still a lot. StatCounter, for example, pegs the usage rate of Windows 7 among Windows systems at nearly 34 percent. That’s well below the nearly 55 percent share that Windows 10 holds, but is not an insignificant chunk.

Last week, Lenovo threw a curve ball by removing all but the 4K model of the Yoga Chromebook from their site. Despite hints that it may be permanent, our contact at Lenovo assured me that the 1080P models would return.

As I was enjoying my lunch today, the email came through that the “lesser” Yoga models are officially back in Lenovo’s storefront and one of them is even on sale.

The 4K model is still discounted by $108 but for those not willing to fork over $800, you can pick up the 1080P version with identical specs (sans the display) for $633.59. While the FHD display is definitely a step down in quality from the UHD Yoga, it’s still a great Chrome OS experience.

The base Core i3 model is listed with same-day shipping while the Core i5 Yoga’s have a 3-weeks ship date at the moment. Any way you slice it, we’re glad to see the return of the Yoga lineup and are hoping to see something in the 13-14″ genre from Lenovo in the near future.

Lenovo has been busy over the past couple of weeks. We uncovered a new lineup of Educations devices featuring Intel’s Gemini Lake processors. The expedition that led to that discovery was spurred by an email from George E. informing me that their flagship Yoga Chromebook line was about to be…

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We’ve grown rather fond of our in-house Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630. While it isn’t the 4K UHD version, it makes for a great addition to any Chrome OS armada and with the recent discounts, it has been a very easy Chromebook to recommend. Sadly, Lenovo has the Yoga C630 listed…

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Lenovo has continued to expand their Chromebook portfolio with educational devices and now it looks like they are fanning out in the consumer market as well. Today they added a new convertible device to their Chrome OS line-up. I was a bit taken aback when I first saw the news as…

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