I have started reviewing USB cables on Amazon because I have gotten fed up with the early cables from third-party vendors that so blatantly flaunt the specification, and I want to hold them to task, he wrote on Google+.You may not just get weird behavior from your devices with these bad cables ... What some of these vendors are doing is downright dangerous.The problems stem from manufacturers not complying with the interface's specifications, specifically the use of resistors: a 56kΩ pull-up resistor should be connected to the Vbus pin to signal that one end of the cable or converter is a legacy USB device that can't handle a 3A current draw.Some converters do not feature this pull-up. So, for example, a Type-C gadget could attempt to draw 3A from a USB 2.0 host or charger via one of these dodgy cables, and cause damage to the wiring and electronics.Leung has taken to publishing reviews on Amazon for USB Type-C cables using the name LaughingMan, and the results have been no laughing matter. Of the 13 cables tested so far, only three were up to spec on power – but even then, some of the highly rated cables weren't fully compatible with USB Type-C when it came to data rates, due to the use of USB 2.0 cabling.

Understandably, Leung used his new Google Chrome Pixel laptop and Nexus smartphone for the tests. He has published Linux commands that can be used to test the efficacy of cables, along with the results needed to know that the hardware will perform as expected.Cabling is a contentious issue in the industry, in part because unscrupulous vendors have tried, and succeeded, to skin consumers for massively expensive HDMI cables. Now the same trick appears to be in play for USB Type-C, so buyer beware. Hewlett Packard Inc is turning to partners to help drive business among the enterprise and small and mid-markets in the UK and Ireland.HP Inc Wednesday announced it would convert 300 of the region's largest, direct business accounts into indirect relationships to woo partners.The newly independent computer and printer-maker told The Reg it wants to grow its business alongside that of partners in “key” growth areas.Those areas are managed services, mobility and core PC.HP won’t remove itself entirely from the relationship with customers, rather fulfilment will now be in the hands of partners eager to sign up.Neil Sawyer, UKI channel director, told The Reg: “A lot of those companies have a rich history and heritage with the partners they work with.”

• Battery for Fujitsu FMVNBP186


• Battery for Fujistsu FPCBP218


• Battery for FujistuFPCBP219AP


• Battery for FPCBP282AP


• Battery for FPCBP281AP


• Battery for FPCBP281


• Battery for FPCBP273


• Battery for FPCBP250AP


• Battery for FPCBP238AP

Also, HP will work with groups of partners serving small and mid-market companies in one of six verticals that changes every 60 days.Sawyer said that every 60 days HP would look at new vertical markets to deliver new opportunities.Verticals will include legal, financial services, transport and logistics.“We see huge growth in the small business and mid-market segments,” Sawyer said. “We want to work with those partners and to collaborate.”Changes will be rolled out over the next three weeks, and with HP looking for partners “who show and interest in working with us [HP Inc] pro-actively.”HP has made much of “pockets of growth”, which it translates as core PC and laptop business, printing services and laser imaging, and mobility.Within the PC core, it is targeting the PC; what it calls hybrid PCs; and immersive technology, such as 3D printing and also 3D workstations for designer.“We remain committed to the core PC and laptop business,” Sawyer said.All well and good, HP Inc might well need partners, but why should partners work with HP?The split from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has left it a vastly reduced operation – approximately 60,000 head count versus more than 200,000 for HPE.And while the PC maker is smaller, it’s facing an unchanged dynamic – the problems, challengers and challenges that landed HP in the predicament that led to split, have not gone away. If anything they will seem even larger to HP Inc by virtue of the fact that HP the PC-maker has shrunk in size.

HP is trading on past reputation and status as world and UKI number-one in PC sales. Also, it remains a Fortune 100 firm with $50bn revenue.Managing director UKI George Brasher said: “We are going to be able to be a more nimble company and come up with more innovative programmes.”Sawyer echoed that: “We have to keep re-inventing how we go to market and work with partners, with new processes and improved processes that makes us more nimble and dynamic as a business.” ICGS The last few years haven't been good for the PC market as the old upgrade cycle died and buyers piled into tablets and smartphones. But Intel is convinced the PC will rise again, thanks to new hardware and form factors.I honestly feel this is a once in a decade moment, enthused Kirk Skaugen, GM of Intel's client computing group during his keynote at the Intel Capital Global Summit this week.Today there are more than a billion PCs that are more than three years old and a third of a billion that are over five years old. People are swinging back to the PC and are refreshing their systems.It used to be the case that people upgraded their PCs every two years or so, but in the last five years silicon has got so powerful that no one saw the need. They still don't, but Skaugen is betting that new form factors, particularly the two-in-one detachable-screen systems, will be a major growth driver.

• Battery for FPCBP220AP


• Battery for FPCBP219AP


• Battery for FPCBP219


• Battery for FPCBP218AP


• Battery for FPCBP145AP


• Battery for FPB0244


• Battery for FMVNBP210


• Battery for FMVNBP199


• Battery for FMVNBP198


• Battery for FMVNBP193


• Battery for FMVNBP178


• www.all-laptopbattery.com

Sales of two-in-one systems are up 150 per cent, he claimed, and are leading to people wanting to refresh their PCs up to 18 months earlier than they would have. The new form factors – including mini-computers – are also inspiring companies that haven't been big in laptops to get in the game he said, citing Microsoft's Surface Book and InFocus' $99 Kangaroo PC as examples.Without the growth in two-in-ones, the laptop market in the US would have shown 4 per cent negative growth, Skaugen said, but the new designs have bumped that up to 1 per cent growth. The new hardware that such systems are starting to carry, particularly 3D cameras, is also going to have people rushing back to laptops, he opined.In the next few weeks both HP and Lenovo are going to be releasing laptops with 3D cameras built into the lid, and Intel has been working with Microsoft to make them integral to the Windows 10 Hello biometric security system. The camera scans the user's face and then opens the operating system, and Intel hopes the system will also replace password logins for websites.Traditionally facial recognition has been relatively easy to fool – just holding up a picture of a face worked often – but Skaugen said the new cameras make this impossible. They take 270-degree scans of the user and have an IR component to make sure that a warm human is in its view.

To add a comment please login by clicking here