The AOPEN ISE 2017 stand hosts the European launch of the Chrome Mini range with the Chromebox Mini and Chromebase Mini, as well as the AOPEN Surveillance platform.

The Chrome Mini range consists of a pair of Chrome OS-powered devices. The Chromebox Mini is a solid-state device described by the company as the smallest enterprise-ready Chromebox currently available on the market. It supports Chrome Device Management and features a fanless design, Bluetooth, wide-reaching dual-band antenna and power button extension ports for ease of mounting.

Meanwhile the Chromebase Mini is an all-in-one 10.1 inch solution. It does not require a kiosk protective case, and unlike a consumer touch device it is water- and tamper-proof. It supports AV conferencing platforms such as Google Hangouts, and offers mounting via built-in Vesa stand. Also included are a camera, audio and dual-microphone, while optional extras include recess wall mounts, PoE adapters and adapters for various payment solutions.

Apple confirms reports that it joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member, an industry organisation formed by Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft.

The organisation bears the somewhat Soviet-sounding name of "Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society." It brings together academics, non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics to "conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research under an open license in areas such as ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology.”

An overheating risk leads to HP recalling 101000 laptop batteries across the world-- and the company instructs affected customers to immediately stop using the batteries and send for a a replacement.

The recall program follows a previous incident back in June 2016, when HP recalled 41000 lithium-ion notebook batteries due to risks of fire hazards resulting from overheating. Recently HP "received one additional report of the battery overheating, melting and charring and causing about $1000 in property damage," leading to an expansion of the recall initiative.

Cisco makes one of its biggest deals in recent history as it acquires application intelligence software developer AppDynamics for $3.7 billion just a week ahead of AppDynamics' long-announced IPO.

AppDynamics helps customers monitor the performance of business applications through insights into the workings of said applications. This allows companies to spot chokepoints and performance issues potentially holding back transactions or other kinds of actions, stopping them before it is too late.

HPE sets sights on the hyperconverged infrastructure market as it pays $650 million in cash for SimpliVity, a startup described as the 2nd placed in the hyperconverged infrastructure appliance market.

“This transaction expands HPE’s software-defined capability and fits squarely within our strategy to make Hybrid IT simple for customers,” CEO Meg Whitman says.  “More and more customers are looking for solutions that bring them secure, highly resilient, on-premises infrastructure at cloud economics.  That’s exactly where we’re focused.”

The acquisition puts HPE in hyperconverged pole position, as it brings along SimpliVity OmniStack Software and OmniCube infrastructure appliance. SimpliVity software supports VMware, Hyper-V and KVM hypervisors, and runs on servers from the likes of Dell EMC, Lenovo and Huawei. As such, HPE plans to bring OmniStack to ProLiant DL380 servers within 60 days of the transaction's closing, before it starts offering a range of integrated HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged systems by H2 2017.

Intel reveals a PC small enough to fit in a wallet at CES 2017-- the Compute Card, a device measuring 95 x 55 x 5mm the company claims brings computing power "to virtually any product, anywhere."

The compact Compute Card frame fits an Intel system-on-chip, memory, storage and wifi/Bluetooth connectivity. Chipzilla does not reveal the actual specifications as yet, but it promises a modular design customers will be able to configure with a range of processors, including 7th gen Intel Core CPUs with vPro.

Connecting a Compute Card to a device demands a new standard connector-- one described as "USB-C plus extension." The connector handles USB, PCIe, HDMI, DP and additional signals running between the card and devices, and Intel says it can be used by a wide variety of things, such as interactive fridges, smart kiosks, security cameras, smart TVs and IoT gateways.