RNZ money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions. Read...

It follows in the footsteps of ANZ, which speedily rejected the settlement offer as a `stunt`. Read...

The adjoining Amora Hotel has been closed since 2017 and the bridge has attracted anti-social behaviour since. Read...

Horror movies are storming the box office this year - what is getting us through the doors of cinemas to watch them? Read...

Fortune reports that Delta Air Lines will be doing away with fixed fares on its flights altogether and will instead start using AI to individualize its fare offers on a per-passenger basis. It’s one move as part of a long-term strategy to boost profitability. AI will determine the highest possible price that each individual passenger is willing to pay for their flight ticket. Delta has been piloting the new pricing strategy over the last year, with 3 percent of the airline’s fares being set by AI. The results have been “amazingly favorable.” Delta now aims to have 20 percent of all fares individually set by AI by the end of 2025. But in the long term, the plan is for AI to completely take over the pricing of Delta’s flight tickets. The new pricing scheme has already faced a lot of criticism, with one consumer organization in California accusing the airline of more or less trying to “hack” passengers’ brains. However, there are certain laws that the AI must adhere to with its pricing, and US airlines are not allowed to charge differently for flight tickets based on gender or ethnicity. Read...

Android Authority has been digging around in the files of the latest ChatGPT app (beta version 1.2025.196) and now reports that OpenAI will soon start watermarking images generated using the AI tool. When generating an image with ChatGPT, you will soon be able to select “Save without watermark” in the menu behind the three dots in the top-right corner of the app. Obviously, this feature would be rather useless if images weren’t going to be watermarked. Will all users be able to save images without watermarks? We don’t know yet. Android Authority speculates that the feature may sit behind a paywall and only be available to paid ChatGPT subscribers. None of this has been announced or confirmed by OpenAI as of this writing, and it’s possible this feature won’t make it through to the stable release versions of ChatGPT at all. We’ll have to wait and see. Further reading: Are premium AI chatbots worth paying for? Read...

If you’ve ever wandered through some of the less-legitimate corners of the internet and/or the real world, you may have seen those “stream everything for free” Android TV set-top boxes for sale. As it turns out, they’re a real problem, with many of them hosting malware that turns them into a botnet that hosts proxies and advertising fraud tools. Google is taking an unusual tactic to shut them down: litigation. BleepingComputer reports that the revived BadBox 2.0 malware is now running on over 10 million Android-based devices, mostly those sketchy streaming video boxes. The botnet is mainly used to create fake and spoofed advertising tools that are essentially stealing money from Google and other advertising firms (presumably sending it back to operators believed to be in China) in addition to more varied activities like DDoS attacks, proxies, and ransomware proliferation. Google says those proxy connections are being sold to other criminals, for up to $1,390 USD for 500GB. Fake apps distributed to phones across the world, in third-party stores beyond the control of Apple and Google, are being used to reel in ad money. Google says these cheap Android TV streaming devices and gadgets are being used to host and spread malware.Google While Google can’t do much about hackers in China, it’s siccing lawyers on the companies who host the tools that make this botnet’s basic operations possible. They’ve presented a RICO case (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a frequent tool used by US law enforcement to attack organized crime) that asks the US District Court to shut down more than 100 domains that are allegedly operating the malware and associated tools. If successful, Google and the court would be forcing some pretty big web service companies—including GoDaddy, CloudFlare, Amazon, and Alibaba—to shut down services to these sites. I should point out that, even though these infected devices are running Android, they aren’t your typical Android TV/Google TV setups, and they don’t have Google Play Store or its associated safeguards in place. In fact, this botnet is conceptually no different from the big stuff that used to run almost exclusively across infected Windows machines in the 2000s and 2010s. It’s just that these Android-based boxes are cheap, popular, and easy to compromise thanks to Android’s easily modifiable nature. It’s an unusual move, to be sure, but Google seems to have exhausted the options it has with its own tools, which include monitoring and shutting down ad accounts. It seeks to force registrars to cooperate with Google to identify and shut down the infected domains, with “permanent injunctions” to prevent the hackers from simply repeating the process with new domains. Oh, it would also like some money, in the form of “appropriate equitable relief under applicable statutes and law,” and the usual statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Read...

Artist Anya Beaumont was inspired by `horror` of realising the amount of plastic in her own home. Read...

Windows 11 25H2 is coming this fall, which is right around the corner. But until recently, Microsoft hasn’t given us many details about it, so we’re still pretty much in the dark. But that darkness is slowly receding… and we’re starting to get a better picture of what to expect. The latest news is that Microsoft will be upping the “static analysis” requirements for driver certification, a move meant to improve the security and stability of Windows 11 25H2. According to the Windows Driver Developer blog post from earlier this week, all drivers will be required to undergo a so-called static analysis. “Static analysis is a foundational requirement of Windows Hardware Compatibility Program,” says the post. “The validation … [identifies] potential issues in driver code before deployment.” In other words, companies that want their hardware designated as reliably compatible with Windows 10 and 11 will need their drivers reviewed and validated by Microsoft. Windows 11 25H2 will probably be released at the end of September, but expect the rollout to take a number of months. Further reading: Important Windows settings to change ASAP Read...

Fans of complex strategy games, rejoice! Because this week Epic Games is offering a free PC game that’s truly worthwhile. Starting yesterday, you can get Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Platinum Edition for free! The Platinum Edition not only includes the excellent base game, but also the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions, plus the six DLC packs that came out post-release. It’s a must-have for fans of the series, but it’s especially great as an entry point for Civ newcomers. What makes Civilization VI so special? The Civ series has earned itself a special reputation among strategy gamers, as it combines all the aspects you could wish for—global strategy with different factions, city building, tech trees, and combat—all at a very high level with deeply complex systems. All of these elements take place on a hex map, which is also an iconic feature of Civilization games. Civilization VI is one of the best-rated games with a current score of 88 on Metacritic. The most recently released Civilization VII wasn’t as well-received by fans, so newcomers should try this one first. In the Platinum Edition, you get all of the following content: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Civilization VI: Rise and Fall (expansion) Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (expansion) Civilization VI – Viking Scenario Pack Civilization VI – Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack Civilization VI – Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack Civilization VI – Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack Civilization VI – Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack Civilization VI – Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack If you decide to dive into Civilization VI, you can look forward to many sleepless nights thanks to its addictive “one more turn” nature. It’s great solo (local) and multiplayer (online). How to get Civilization VI for free All you have to do is log in to the Epic Games Store with an existing account and download Civilization VI. If you do this by 11 AM on July 24th, you can keep the whole game afterwards at no extra cost. This is an insane deal since Epic normally charges $79.99 for Civilization Vi: Platinum Edition. Get it for free while you can! Read...