HP Recalls Thousands of Laptops

Hewlett Packard has announced that it's recalling 54,000 laptop batteries. The lithium-ion batteries could possibly overheat and catch on fire. The batteries, which were made in China, came with laptops purchased both in stores and online from August 2007 to July 2008. Many were also sold independently.

According to HP, less than 3% of the laptops have the defective batteries and they company will replace them for free. The batteries can burn someone or catch on fire. The company released a statement saying, "HP fully stands behind the products it makes and has taken a proactive approach to this situation to ensure the safety of our customers and the integrity and quality of our products."

In May of last year the company recalled 70,000 laptop batteries, due to overheating, but the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that more batteries than originally thought were overheating. The recall spans over 31 different brands of computers. Initially, two different consumers complained but later an additional 38 complaints were filed by people injured by handling the batteries and laptops.

HP is not alone in recalling laptop batteries. Over 10 million Sony batteries were recalled between 2006 and 2008. 4 million of those were recalled by Dell, 1.8 million by Apple, 340,000 by Toshiba and 338,000 by Fujitsu. Lenovo, Acer, Sharpy and Sanyo also recalled their laptops. According to Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Scott Wolfson, said that almost any laptop battery can overheat if charged too long or if laptops don't have good ventilation systems.

If your laptop battery has been recalled and you ned a temporary back-up, why not consider a laptop rental?

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Looking for Laptop Rental information? Visit our Tech Travel Agent Laptop Rental Page for a variety of laptop rental solutions for business or personal use. Or call today at 800-736-8772.

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New Details About the HP Slate

If you're a PC person and you've been thinking about making the switch to Apple because you just can't resist those neat little iPads, wait! Hewlett Packard is coming out with its own version of the tablet computer, called the "Slate." Last week, the computer maker released some details about the new computer. The Slate's screen is going to be smaller and have a lower resolution than the iPad but it has more features - from cameras to Adobe Flash Support.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer first mentioned the device at the January Consumer Electronics Show, but of course the constant talk of Apple's iPad drowned out any hype of what could become the device's biggest competitor. But how does it stack up against it?

For starters, the Slate features two cameras, the iPad does not. One works for things such as video conferencing and the other is a high-resolution, three megapixel camera for taking pictures. There's also the SD card reader that holds up to 128GB, a USB 2.0 port (iPad dosn't offer this), audio and HDMI out. And the slate runs on a 1.6 GHz Atom microprocessor compared to the one-GHz A4 on the iPad.

On the downside, the Slate's screen is smaller - 8.9 inches compared to the iPad's 9.7 inches - and the screen resolution is higher: 1024x600 to the iPad's 1024x768. However, the Slate can run higher-def videos 1080p (iPad only goes up to 720p).

The Slate will run an HP-developed touchscreen interface and Windows 7 Home Premium compared to the iPad, which runs the iPhone operating system. But many industry insiders are saying that the real appeal of the iPad isn't the device itself, but instead, the number of apps you can buy from Apple's app store (over 150,000) and with Apple's new deals in the publishing world, you can now or soon read a number magazines, best-selling books, and comics on the the device.

There's no word as to when the Slate will be released, but it looks like the 32GB model (with Wi-Fi) will sell for about $550 and the 64GB model (also with Wi-Fi) will sell for about $599. The entry-level iPad, which is 16GB (with Wi-Fi) sells for about $499. The 32GB model sells for $599 and the 64GB model sells for $699.

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Looking for Laptop Rental information? Visit our Tech Travel Agent Laptop Rental Page for a variety of laptop rental solutions for business or personal use. Or call today at 800-736-8772.

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Many Laptops Fail Within 3 Years

According to a new study by Squaretrade, about one third (31%) of all laptops will fail within three years of being purchased. This includes both malfunctions and accidents, but malfunctions alone make up 20% of laptop failures. While the survey should be taken with a grain of salt - Squaretrade sells extended warranties - according to PC World, their last annual survey returned similar results. In addition to the number of unreliable laptops, Squaretrade also found that Asus, Toshiba, and Sony laptops were more reliable brands than MacBooks.

The study had many other findings that related to laptop durability. For example, the amount of time you spend on your laptop correlates to how likely it is to have problems, with Netbooks giving people the most trouble. The Netbook finding was surprising, considering the computers really just have one good year's worth of data to rely on, but Netbook users experienced 20% more malfunctions than those with more expensive laptops. According to Squartrade, Netbook malfunctions are likely to hit 25% in the next three years, compared to 21% for entry-level laptops, and 18% for more expensive notebooks.

When the study was broken down by brand, Asus had the best malfunction rate at 15.6% with Hewlett Packard the worst with a 25.6% malfunction rate within three years. Toshiba came in second, followed by Sony, and Apple. According to Squaretrade, failure rates are so high because of the sophisticated and delicate parts that make up a laptop, as well the amount of abuse portable computers receive. With numbers like this, it's no wonder more and more people are relying on inexpensive Laptop Rentals for their computer needs.

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HP's Envy: 13 & 15 Inch Laptops

Hewlett Packard's new "Envy" line of laptops is sleek and stylish, and according to PC World, looks a lot like Apple's MacBook Pro line.

The 13.1 inch model or the "Envy 13" has a sharp 1366 x 768 pixel screen and lots of power for its small frame. For $1700, you get a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9400 CPU with 3GB of RAM (including an extra DIMM slot), plus a 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU. For low-end tasks, the laptop throttles the GPU and shifts down to the integrated Intel GPU, extending battery life.

The thin 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.8 inch frame contains a 250 GB had drive and an external 8x DVD-RW drive. It provides two batteries: the standard four-cell battery along with a thinner six-cell battery that sits underneath it. It supposedly has enough power to handle the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

The comfortable keyboard and mouse are backed up by a series of quick-access multimedia buttons along with an "Instant On" feature for browsing the web and playing multimedia files. The laptop also features two USB ports, 802.11n, optional Bluetooh, HDMI-out and a combination headphone/microphone jack that is also suitable for a cell phone headset.

There is also an Envy 15 in the works, but HP hasn't been quick to release the details. What is known is that the machine is a 15-inch model, weighs 5.18 pounds, and will feature a "Future Intel Core i7 Processor" with up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM and 1 GB discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830. That laptop will retail at $1799. More details will be released at next week's Intel Developer's Forum.

Both the Envy 13 and the Envy 15 will go on sale October 18, just in time for the holiday season.

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