You’ve likely heard of the many smart assistants available today, like Siri, Bixby, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and others. While they all have their strengths, in my experience, only Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant truly excel when it comes to smart home integration, thanks to their extensive range of compatible devices.

I’ll focus mainly on Amazon Alexa, or simply Alexa, as I have been using it for over eight years now.

Does Alexa work in Mauritius?

Yes and no. I’ve had Alexa in my home since 2016, witnessing its evolution from barely supporting Mauritius to gradually making progress. However, there’s still a considerable way to go.

Officially, Alexa does not yet support Mauritius, but with the right know-how, you can navigate around this. Although Amazon states that the international version is necessary for it to function outside supported countries, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s dive in!

The Alexa App

Before you even consider using Alexa, you’ll need the app on your phone. Unfortunately, you won’t find it in the App Store or Play Store. For Android, it must be sideloaded, and for iPad and iPhone, you’ll need a US iCloud account. But don’t worry, once downloaded, it will update normally when required.

Setting up is straightforward – just log in with your Amazon account. I recommend setting your country to the United States, or you can choose Mauritius to simplify the process for your smart devices. Keep in mind, though, that Mauritius isn’t fully supported, so it may have difficulty recognizing locations.

Which Echo device?

Decide how you want to start, big or small! Is sound important to you or you want to test the functionalities of Alexa?

If you want to start small, get the latest generation of the Echo Dot. They usually run for $49.99 but you can get them for $29.99, $24.99 or $22.990 when on sale, which is most of the time.

The 5th generation Echo Dot performs excellently. You can use it to ask for the time, set alarms, play songs from Deezer or Spotify, listen to the radio, control your smart home devices, set reminders, build a grocery list, and much more. It also features an indoor temperature sensor.

On the other hand, the 4th generation Echo is pricier, typically costing $99.99, but often goes on sale for $69.99 or $79.99. Although it shares the same shape as the Echo Dot, it’s significantly larger and boasts superior sound quality, easily surpassing my first smart speaker, the Harman Kardon Invoke. It also includes an indoor temperature sensor and a smart hub. As of last year, it supports Matter, allowing it to act as a bridge for all smart home devices compatible with the ZigBee protocol, including Philips Hue bulbs. I’ve been using the Echo for quite some time and am very satisfied with it.

I personally own a lot of Alexa devices, from the second generation Echo dot to the fourth, the Echo 4th generation, Echo Auto, Echo Show and Echo Buds. I am primarily invested in the Amazon ecosystem.

Quick Start Guide

Once you have everything you need, it’s time to get started. It’s always a good idea to keep your account settings to the US, but change your device location to Mauritius in the settings, which is now supported. This way, you’ll be able to get weather updates, approximate traffic information (Alexa accurately estimates travel time without traffic), and sometimes nearby restaurant information.

After setting the location, ensure your time is correctly set, and change the measurement units to Celsius and kilometers. Once these adjustments are made, you’re good to go. You can then start asking Alexa to perform various tasks for you.

Conclusion

Using Alexa in Mauritius is entirely feasible if you know how to get the app, and it can be incredibly helpful. Many manufacturers in Mauritius now offer devices compatible with Alexa, making it a valuable investment not just for yourself, but for your entire home. Alexa assists with reminders, alarms, time, radio, and even proves beneficial for kids. Alexa can spell words, help with homework, and introduce new vocabulary, making it a fantastic educational tool. My kids interact frequently with Alexa, which aids them in managing smart home devices without needing to touch electrical outlets. Alexa wakes them up and helps with their to-dos.

Additionally, Alexa routines are an excellent feature, automating tasks like announcing bedtime, turning off lights automatically, and scheduling times to play radio stations.

I hope this has provided you with more insight into Alexa and assisted you in making an informed buying decision.

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Smart home is not just about making your home smart or automating stuff, it’s also about energy savings. Saving energy here and there has an impact on a few things including your bill and also on the PLANET. I won’t go into details on why we need to save energy or how does it matter to the planet as we all should very well know that!

The idea of having a smart home is to help us with daily stuffs and automation. That very concept is a first step in saving energy. The cost of electricity in Mauritius is kind of average but it may go up soon. Rumors are there!

IFTTT has a challenge called #EnergyChallenge which basically looks at connecting smart devices to save energy, money and the environment. There are numerous ways to save energy with smart home and I will try to list some of them and provide an example of how to automate it.

Lights Only when you need them!

This one is basic enough and the title says it all. Turn on light only when it is needed. Let’s take an example of a garage, most of us will turn the garage on at dusk and then turn it off when we are back home or when we remember it.

How can we automate this?

An automation that turns on the light at dusk and then turns it off at a certain time. This can be achieved easily with a Sonoff Basic device. However, we can go the extra mile and use geo fencing. This automation will turn on the lights when you are approaching your home and you can set it to turn off after 10 minutes. You won’t be needing lights for longer than that if you’re only parking your car in the garage. Below is an example of an automation using home assistant which will turn on the garage light for 10 minutes between 17:55 and 05:00 the next day when it sees my phone approach my house.

We have gone down from using 7+ hours of energy per week to 70 minutes of energy per week.

There are other ways of achieving this using smart home tech like motion sensors which will trigger whenever motion is detected. However, you will still be using more energy since it might be triggered by animals or other persons within its range. The above example can be used with any other room where lights need to be on for a few minutes only.

The above example has covered quite a few ways of saving energy. I am listing a few more below:

• Day and Time – (Turn on and off during specific days and time)
• Geo Fencing – Turn on only when I am coming home or in a specific place. This will not trigger when you are home.
• Sensors – You can achieve the above by using sensors such as motion detectors etc. I have a motion sensor installed in my hall and it will turn on the hall light every time it detects motion and then turn it off after some time.
• Sunrise / Sunset automation – This can be put under day and time but I prefer it separately as you can configure automations to turn on/off lights or appliances during these two events.

How to achieve this?

A simple Sonoff basic device will hep you achieve this. It retails around $10 online and Rs. 350 – 500 in Mauritius. Please use a qualified technician for all electrical installation. If you are comfortable with electrical installation, you can do this yourself, either near the light switch or near the light fitting (live and neutral wires required). You could just cut the wires and add the device in between. Again, use a qualified electrician.

Devices that consume electricity – Can it be automated?

Let’s face it, we all have huge electricity hogs in our house. Cooling and heating are the main ones, we all feel super hot in summer and need that AC or we all feel cold and need that heater. Some of us do not have AC or heaters in our house, yet we have a huge bill. Did you know that it could be your kettle? Have you checked the power rating before you buy? Do not fill your kettle completely as it will take more time to heat and use more energy.

Let’s automate the AC and make is smarter.

Smart ACs are a thing now, you can turn them on and off remotely and even set the temperature and fan speed. But is that efficient or saving me energy? Not really!

Automating an AC requires baselines, such as when to turn on the AC and when to turn it off or when to turn on the heat and when to turn it off.

There are a few ways of automating an air conditioner, you can go the cheap way or expensive way. The cheap way includes devices such as:

1. SwitchBot hub and Temperature sensor
2. Broadlink RM Mini 4 and temperature sensor
3. Home assistant for native integration
4. Sensibo (expensive)

I have the first 3 and use broadlink along with Home assistant.

Switchbot Hub and Temperature sensor

Switchbot is fairly new to the market but has very strong products and they keep innovating. I like that! With the use of a Hub and temperature sensor, you can add your AC and set it to come up at a specific time, temperature or humidity. SwitchBot also allows you to create manual remotes for devices that are not supported and then they can be linked to scenes. For example, I have a routine that says if the temperature exceeds 27 degrees as from 21:00 to 04:00 the next day, turn on the AC and turn it back off, if it goes below 26.5 degrees. This is an acceptable range for me as it allows me to sleep peacefully.

This is a very nice device which can make your AC smart for under $50.00 (Rs. 2500) and also make you save energy. We do not need that AC to run all night.

Broadlink RM Mini 4 and Temperature Sensor

Broadlink has the same functionality of SwitchBot but I find it’s a bit more complex to use. One of the advantage of Broadlink is that it can be paired with any AC with its manual configuration. Additionally, Broadlink integrates natively with Home Assistant. I have an automation to turn on when temperature is above 28 degrees and off after 30 minutes.

Home Assistant

Home Assistant is very useful, one of the main advantage is that it is native to your home and does not require internet to work and it connects and binds most devices locally. In case the internet is not working, your smart home is still online. Another major advantage of Home Assistant is that it bring all your smart home tech together. Most smart home will not work with other products, Home assistant bridges that gap.

With Home Assistant, you can tap into sensors that would normally not be available directly to you. Let’s take the example of a Gree Smart AC wifi, this will allow you to turn it on, turn it off or schedule time on/off. But what if you need to turn it on and off when the temperature is at a certain degree. Well Home Assistant can help you do that as it can read the internal temperature sensor and use that to trigger automation. In my case, I can use this sensor to turn on AC or heat depending on winter or summer.

The above example will read the AC’s internal temperature and if it sees that it is above 29 and it is 19:00, it will cool the room down for 30 minutes. After that I have another automation that will run to keep the room going above 29 while you sleep.

What has been achieved?

As you can see from the above, using automations, I can effectively reduce energy consumption by allowing ACs to run at specific times and keeping the temperature within a certain range to avoid unnecessary cooling. That alone can save around Rs. 500, 1000 on your electricity bills.

Conclusion

I feel that I could go on and on about this topic, however whilst this post concentrates on lighting and heating and cooling, the same logic can be used everywhere. To summarise, with smart home tech, you can achieve massive energy savings by just automating a few simple things. Lights and appliances do not need to remain on and that will save you a few bucks yearly and you do not need to keep an AC on forever, keeping it into a defined range will help reduce the bill and help the planet. If you are up to it take the #EnergyChallenge and save the planet!

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The personal computer landscape has been constantly evolving and some of us are still sporting the first to eighth or ninth generation of Intel processors. If you have anything older than that, then you definitely need to upgrade.

Before we actually dive in and from personal experience, if you have a second generation processor or higher, you definitely can run this for a few more years or until Windows is no longer supported. I am going to concentrate on Intel processor here as I have less experience with AMD and this post tackles upgrading current hardware only without a major cost.

The sample PC specification listed below, that was built back in the days, could easily run a few more years if upgraded.

• Intel 2nd generation core i5 or i7
• 4GB RAM DDR3
• 250GB+ 5400 or 7200 RPM hard disk
• Intel H or Z series motherboard
• 400 watt power supply
• Nvidia or AMD graphics card 512 GB or 1 GB.

Using the above specification, today, with Windows 10 would definitely make you pull your hair! Luckily a simple upgrade to an SSD will have a major impact and you will see a boost.

Upgrading your PC for AAA game titles, then this post is not really for you unless you are on a very tight budget and need to use what you have. Before going further, it is important to understand what can be upgraded or if it is worth the upgrade.

Hard Disk Upgrade

Like I mentioned above, upgrading to an SSD will improve the speed of your PC in terms of booting and normal usage. SSDs are faster and have crazy speeds compared to typical HDDs, with moving parts. An SSD does not have moving parts! Crazy speeds you say, an SSD has!

Let me get one now! WAIT! WAIT! Before embarking on an SSD change and getting the greatest and best out there, get to know your specifications first. Having an old PC, we will not have an M.2 SSD slot (wait, what?), you will have SATA on your motherboard maybe up to 6 of those nice SATA ports. There are tons of SATA SSD out of there, so any of them will work! Typically, yes but you need to look at your motherboard specifications to see whether you have SATA1, SATA2 or SATA3! In simple layman terms, SATA1 is 150MB/s, SATA2 is 300MB/s and SATA3 is 600MB/s. SSDs nowadays are 500+ MB/s read/write speed.

So how does it compare? If you have SATA1, upgrade is a no go as you will not be really seeing an improvement over the normal speed of 75 to 100 MB/s of 5400 and 7200 RPM drives. If you have have SATA2, you can opt for lower specification SSD like Kingston or if you have SATA3, go for the big boys like Samsung, Western Digital amongst other.

Once you have got your SSD, you will need to tackle moving your data to the new SSD or through a clean install. I always prefer a clean install. Migration is a topic for another day.

Memory upgrade

If you have 4 GB or less RAM or Memory as we prefer to say it, you will need to upgrade it. I believe 8GB is the bare minimum to run a stable or performing computer. Unfortunately, getting new DDR3 might be tricky or expensive but you can find used ones on sale. You can also get them new from part resellers but these might cost a few more bucks. In terms of memory, it is important to look at your motherboard specifications to know what type of memory is needed. Either PC3-800 to PC3-1600. Anything above that, I consider a risk to our current setup as it may result in an unstable system. If your motherboard has native support for above PC3-1600, then go for it.

Power Supply Upgrade

Whilst upgrading your power supply is not really necessary, you need to make sure that you have a true power rating power supply. Applications are demanding nowadays and to cope with that processor cores draw more power from the motherboard, you need to ensure that you have enough juice to supply the processor. Hence a true power rated supply is needed. A 500 watt power supply should be enough if you are not planning to throw in a power hungry graphics card. Nowadays, you have the option to choose between, modular, semi-modular or normal power supply. A modular or semi-modular allows you to power only devices that you need. In short, no power supply cables to hide later. Good power supply brands include Corsair, Cooler Master, Asus, amongst others.

Graphic Card Upgrade

I believe most of you are waiting for this part. Graphic card plays a major role in a PC specially if you are looking to game. Here are a few things you should know.

• Your PC even as old as it is can run most graphic cards but will be limited by the processor.
• Choose your graphic card carefully, do not go for cards over 2060 models if you gave 2nd to 6th generation processors.
• PCI express are backward compatible so if you PC has a PCI express 2.0 slot, a PCI Express 3.0 graphic card will mount but will operate at reduced performance.

Lastly choosing a graphic card is not something that we can cover here as it depends on what you will be using it for. But if you are going to use if for light gaming, such as Fortnite, and do not care about huge graphics settings, anything from a GT 1030 to GTX 1660 would do. Although the later would be very expensive at the time of this article.

Extending the life of your PC!

The above are the major upgrades you can perform on your PC to get it running at a decent and acceptable speed without too much of complaining. Remember, we are extending the life of an old PC here. Additionally, you might want to invest in a good cooling system and a good case to keep things fresh in your setup. These can seem like non-needed but a PC running cool will extend the life of its components. Add fans if your case supports it. You can add a lot of them but make sure you have an input and output setup. That is, cold air in and hot air out, like an exhaust system.

If you can, invest in a AIO liquid cooling system. This will greatly help your CPU not run hot and extend its life again. I have personally seen phenomenal temperature drop since I moved to AIO cooling. This solution will have a cooling head that is bolted to the CPU, fans and a radiator to cool that liquid. It comes in 120, 240 and 360mm size for the radiator and fans.

Finally, choose a good case that has plenty of space and can handle all the fans that you wan to add in. You might want to add some bling if you wish, like RGB fans or light strip.

Final thoughts

I have been running a Core i7 2600 and and MSI Z68 motherboard since 2011 and I had decided to scrap it and buy a new one last year. Then I thought why not try an upgrade! The first thing I did is buy an SSD off Amazon. That was an awesome decision and I found myself with a fast PC that can boot under 15 seconds to the desktop. I also upgraded to a GT1030 MSI graphic card as my Radeon HD 6670 died. I added some cool RGB fans and an AIO with a Thermaltake case to top it up and I have a workhorse workstation.

You can use UserBenchmark: PC Speed Test Tool – Compare Your PC to do a before and after test to see the difference.

Finally, upgrading can have its benefit when you will be finally moving to a new generation PC like the 12th gen or so. You can always re-use parts that you have upgraded such as SSD, power supply, fans, AIO Cooling, graphic cards and the case to keep cost down. In this scenario you are not spending too much on a new PC.

A side note on PCs older than 8th generation, Windows 11 is not supported and you will need to upgrade to a newer generation with TPM to use it. There are unofficial ways of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware but with an upcoming release, you will soon find a message on your computer saying hardware requirements not met.

Windows 10 will continue to run on older generation processors until 2025.

Happy upgrading!

The post Running a 10 year old PC, should you upgrade? appeared first on VS Online.

Last year, I posted quite a lot about smart home and what it takes to get it going. With a lot of eco system around, it gets difficult to manage.

One of the major challenge with smart homes is having different ecosystems to interact with each other. Investing in one ecosystem might be a good idea but the risk is too high. For example, I have Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue, Sonoff, Tuya, Switchbot and others in my house and its not possible to automate them in one routine. You have to create routines on each of these apps and then remember to manage them!

What if I need an automation that says if the Philips Motion Sensor detects movement in the house, do not arm the alarm at night? Well, you simply cannot with the base apps. You need an all-in-one solution that can use all these lights, sensors, switches, etc. and make them run like one ecosystem. This is very much possible with Home Assistant.

Home Assistant is free and allows you to manage your home in one central place. The only caveat here is that you need dedicated hardware to run it. You can also design nice dashboards for controls (pictured above).

I have been testing and using Home Assistant over the past few months and automating nearly everything possible. While I will not be going into details in this post, you can expect the following in the coming weeks /months!

• Home Assistant (What hardware am I using, how am I automating it and some general ideas to simplify your life)
• SwitchBot Eco System (Automating Air Conditioners, all infrared devices and routines).
• Broadlink IR devices for automating dumb a/c (using Home Assistant)

Stay Tuned and Stay Safe!

The post Smart home update 2022! appeared first on VS Online.

In Order to get Alexa to work with the Motion Sensor and Temperature Sensor, you need to pair it directly with a Echo device that has a built-in hub like the Echo Plus or Echo 4th Gen.

Steps:

• Delete the Hue Motion Sensor from the Alexa App
• Delete the Hue Motion Sensor from the Hue App.
• Reset the Hue Motion Sensor
• Press the setup button and Ask Alexa to find new devices.
• After some time, it will find the Hue Motion Sensor.

You will now be able to create routine based on temperature and motion.

The post Hue Motion Sensor and Alexa Temperature Routine appeared first on VS Online.

I recently had to research about how to get Alexa to run routines based on temperature and the results were not so great.

There are many reasons one might want to have routines based on temperature. These could be to counter heat waves / summer heat or to get some heat during cold nights of winter. In Mauritius, it is becoming quite the standard to have air conditioner(s) in every house for those who can afford it.

I recently had to replace an AC in the kids room and wanted to buy something smart but not too expensive and found the Gree Pular series with WiFi and Alexa capabilities. No more needs to be said.

It is quite good actually, being able to ask Alexa to turn on/off the AC, set the desired temperature or turn on heat or cold. Then came winter and I needed a way to automate the heating so the kids could stay warm at night. It gets pretty cold!

How to get the AC to turn on the heat automatically when the temperature drops?

I tested this with an Alexa 4th generation Echo and a Philips Hue Motion Sensor. (Yes, the Hue motion sensor has inbuilt temperature.) There are some catches though. You can’t query Alexa about the temperature on it – I haven’t been able to do so until now. The only way to see the temperature is through Apple Homekit or Home App.

To setup the routine, go to your Alexa app

• Select routines from the menu
• Enter a name for the routine.
• Under When this happens, select Smart Home
• Find your Echo device that has an inbuilt temperature sensor. Mine is the Echo 4th Gen
• Then you will get the option of selecting what type of routine you want, either above or below certain temperature, adjust with the slider and click on save
• Then under action, set the smart device you want it to control and what actions you want done.
• Don’t forget to set a time for it as well.

A few things you should know.

I have had a tough time getting the routine to kick in. It seems that it always needs some kind of motion to trigger it. Once triggered it works fine.

I had to find another solution as this method is unreliable.

The real deal!

I went on to research more and didn’t getting much results as there are limitations with what can be done with temperature routines. Then I found Sonoff Temperature Sensor. The SNZB-02 is a ZigBee device that works with Sonoff Bridge (I don’t have a Sonoff Bridge). My Echo 4th generation has an inbuilt ZigBee hub and I wanted to use it.

I thought I would give it a try and I am glad I did. This thing works great. It is a very small device that you just stick and forget.

How to setup the Sonoff SNZB-02

Follow instructions on how to setup and power on from the package, but do not link it to you ewelink account. This is important.

• Put the device in pairing mode and ask Alexa to find new devices. Note that you need an Alexa device that has built-in hub compatible with ZigBee.
• Once device is found, rename it.
• Go to all devices and find the sensor and click on it, you should now see the temperature and an option to create a routine.

• The steps are the same as the Hue sensor but this time no motion will be required to trigger it.

Limitation!

While this works great, there is one thing that I believe Alexa is not able to handle. Let’s say you have the routine set to turn on heat when the temperature is below 24 degrees during specific hours. If that hour comes and the temperature is already below 24 degrees, the routine will not trigger as the conditions have not been met.

I believe Alexa expects the temperature to decrease from 24+ to 23.9 or something else. I do hope that they get this fixed or if a workaround is available do let me know.

.

The post Alexa and Temperature routines appeared first on VS Online.

However, keeping it looking new and shining was always a matter of concern for me. With the outdoor elements, paint gets discoloured, faints or even gets micro scratches over time. Micro scratches are the worst to have and they come really quick and are so visible on a new car! Searching online on how to protect your paint and car yielded a lot of results from waxing to polishing and all sorts of product. But one thing particularly caught my attention; Ceramic Coating!

Ceramic coating was at that time something new to me and I had to do a lot of research to know what it is. Ceramic coating is a product that is applied to the clear coat of your car to protect it. It’s based on nanotechnology and forms a thin and transparent layer on your paint which is invisible to the eye. Invisible you say! Look at the shine after it is applied! Researching ceramic coating in Mauritius didn’t bring a lot of result like nowadays where everyone is doing Ceramic coating , you can even get them on the road or bazaar! One company did catch my attention and it was Ceramic Pro Mauritius.

I contacted them on Facebook and didn’t have to wait long to get a reply, very professional and courteous. I still wasn’t sure and then dropped by at their Quatres Bornes garage and had a chat with them. I was given a very good explanation about what is included and what type of protection I would be getting! No gimmicks such as it will protect your paint from fire! I went for the silver package, which included 3 year protection – rims, windows, windscreen and interior. As a bonus, I got my engine bay coated.

I personally feel that it is difficult to explain what ceramic coating is, you really need to apply or have someone with the knowledge to explain it. The level of protection that I have had with Ceramic Pro has just been incredible. I once had a trolley in a supermarket bump with my car and leave a scratch on it, I was damn scared at that time. Then I called Ceramic Pro and was kindly instructed to try and wipe away with a clean microfiber cloth, I was like is he serious now! And he was damn serious, clean microfiber and a bit of gentle scrubbing and voila scratch was gone! I was like WOW! I have had a few of those scratches over the years and Ceramic Pro has definitely helped me.

Taking care and cleaning the car! That is so easy, everything just glides off no matter how dirty it is. Here, I don’t mean put water and the dirt will wash off, that is only for light dirt with is fresh enough. What I mean here is when you apply soap to your car, it just glides and removes the dirt with a single pass. Did I mention that your car becomes super slick?

Some Washing tips that I have used over the past few years.

Always use the two bucket method, one with clean water and the other one with soap. Once you do a pass with the soap wash the mitt in the clean water and get soap and repeat.

Use PH neutral soap, do not use dishwasher product. I have read quite a lot about this and everyone agrees to use PH neutral soap.

Wipe your car dry with microfiber only after washing. Be careful not to press too hard or you will get micro scratches.

What I use for washing:

I am a big fan of Chemical Guys and always get my stuff from Amazon US.

1. I use Chemical Guys HydroSuds for regular washing.
2. For small washes I use Chemical Guys Mr. Pink or Honey Dew.
3. For drying the car, I use Chemical Guys yellow microfiber 60x90cm and 40x40cm. All bought from Amazon directly.
4. Chemical Guys Chenille Microfiber Premium Scratch-Free Wash Mitt. I have used it for 3 years and recently changed it as it got torn internally.
5. Stihl water pressure and Stihl foam gun.

Those are only for maintenance washes or home washes. They produce a very good shine after washing but if you want the ultimate shine you simply send it to Ceramic Pro for washing and you will be wowed!

Enough talking, here are some images!

What I love above Ceramic Pro is that the colour of the car is really “voyant” specially at night, it is just at another level. The shine is not just on pictures, it is truly seen on the road. You can feel people looking at it. Even while driving looking at the shine in your mirrors makes you smile.

One thing that is really important is maintenance, you need to follow it to ensure that your coating keeps on performing. Ceramic Pro recommends doing it every 6 month and it is once again totally worth it, the car comes back as if it has been recently coated.

The above was around 3 years ago and I did notice recently that the Coating was wearing off. But it has certainly done its job for 3 years, my car is mostly kept outside during weekdays and Ceramic Pro has kept my paint and car looking brand new.

Few weeks back, gave the guys a call at Ceramic Pro and told them that I needed some more protection on my car, not a problem they said and I sent the car to them to get the coating for another two years. The best thing about Ceramic Pro is that it is layer based, so you need not wait for two years to re-apply the coat, it can be added at any time to your car to give it additional protection.

The pictures do speak for themselves, the paint is as new and really shining, super slick and most importantly without micro scratches or scratches.

I would also like to mention that ceramic coating is not completely shielded against water spots, they do get it but it is less than a non-coated car, however it can easily be removed by them. The guys at Ceramic Pro always return a spotless car. Ceramic coating is also scratch resistant not scratch proof, anyone claiming that has a problem! Most scratch are superficial and not deep enough to damage the ceramic or clear coat hence easily wiped off. But if I was to take a nail and scratch the car, I can assure you it will leave a deep scar! Probably on you as well!

Finally, ceramic coating does provide a good level of protection, shine and your car is easier to maintain. It gives your car that fresh and new look. Ceramic Pro really helps in rainy days as water just slides off your windscreen and the water beading is just awesome. Proper maintenance and using approved or the right soap helps in maintaining your coating longer. Head over to the Ceramic Pro Page on Facebook to get in touch with them or to view their past jobs.

I seldom vouch for a product or company but where praise is deserved it must be given!

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Call of Duty, Apex legends, Fortnite and WarFrames are examples of games that you can now play without any subscription.

This change is applicable to Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One S and the original Xbox One. This is a very much welcome change since some gamers love playing free-to-play games and no longer need a subscription to play with friends and family.

Read more from Microsoft here.

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Surface products are in a category of their own and if you happen to own one, you know that’s it not the average laptop or tablet that you can buy off the shelf. Microsoft pride themselves in the build quality, the amount of details and I must add durability. I have personally owned several Surface devices from the Surface RT, to the Surface 3 and now Surface Pro 6 as my daily driver and it is still going strong.

Surface Laptop 4

Surface Laptop 4 has the same great build quality you would expect from a Surface device. This year’s specifications are as follows:

• 3:2 PixelSense touchscreen display – 13.5 or 15 inch
• Alcantara or Metal finish with a new Ice Blue Finish.
• Incredible low-light capability HD front facing camera and microphone array.
• Dolby Atmos Omnisonic Speakers
• 11th Gen Intel Core Processor or AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors and a model with Radeon Graphics
• Fast Charging

Read More Here

Accessories

Microsoft also announced a new Surface Headphones 2+ for Business with dedicated Microsoft Teams button for those meeting that keep on happening. It includes all existing features that customers love about their Surface headphones as per Microsoft. It has 13 levels of active noise cancellation, advanced 8-microphone systems for incredible voice clarity and the awesome earcup dial. 18.5 hours of music an 14 hours of voice calling is pretty impressive.

Microsoft also announced Modern USB and Wireless Headsets, Modern USB-C speaker and Modern Webcam.

These are all certified for Microsoft Teams. The headsets have a greater focus and call privacy specially in shared workspace as per Microsoft. With the dedicated Teams button, you can join a call without much clicking here and there and you also have a physical mute button to avoid any blunders. These headsets will be available as from June.

You can read more on these accessories here.

These of course will not be available officially on our market and will need to be purchased in countries where they are available. However, these can be shipped by services like Shop and Ship by Aramex.

I will post a detailed configuration of Surface laptop 4 as soon as it is available for purchase on Amazon US, where I normally buy.

The post New Surface Laptop 4 and New Accessories appeared first on VS Online.

15 years has passed since I got my Microsoft Certified Trainer certification and a lot has changed since then. Microsoft has made a lot of changes to the program.

There are some important changes that you should be aware if you are a Trainer and have not visited MCT Central lately.

Certification Renewal – MCT and MCP 

Microsoft announced a new approach – free certification renewals – to reduce stress, complexity, and cost of keeping your certifications active.

Certification is valid for two years however you need to renew it before it expires. You can start renewal six months before the expiry date. Your learning dashboard will show when renewal is required and you can complete the renewal process on Microsoft Learn. Renewal is for the certification and not the individual exams. Read more here. The list of exams that are available for renewal is available here.

Renewal Fees Waived

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Microsoft has waived the renewal fees for MCT until 30th June 2021. Renewal still needs to go through the official channel and you need to maintain the requirements. Please stay tuned to MCT Central for further updates.

Feedback and Metrics that Matter

As a reminder, you need to ensure that you use Metrics that Matter for your classes and students must provide feedback through that. You may use another survey tool, however you will need to provide evidence to Microsoft.

Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) are the premier technical and instructional experts in Microsoft technologies. Read more here about how to become one.

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