FBI Director Kash Patel`s visit to New Zealand has been described as important, useful, and mutually beneficial - but it`s also business as usual Read...

Who needs a smart home hub you can snag cheap Wi-Fi smart bulbs that connect directly to your wireless router? Sounds like a bargain. Until it isn’t.  Sengled users learned that lesson the hard way as the company’s servers have strained and sputtered over the past several weeks, rendering many of Sengled’s smart lights useless. The situation got so bad that Amazon yanked Sengled’s Alexa skill last week, noting that “we hold a high bar for the Alexa experience.”  Now Sengled customers are scrambling to deal with their unresponsive bulbs, some looking for workarounds while others are resigned to swapping out the dead lights with replacements from other brands.   The episode illustrates a painful truth when it comes to the smart home: cheaper, hub-free smart devices might not be cheaper in the long run. (Sengled has yet to reply to our queries, and the company’s Facebook and Twitter feeds have been dark, save for posts from disgruntled users.)   While Wi-Fi-only smart products that don’t need a hub may seem more affordable at first, they typically rely on the company’s servers to function properly. If those servers suffer an outage or the brand itself goes out of business, your cheap Wi-Fi bulbs will turn into paperweights, essentially flushing your initial outlay down the drain.  The good news for some Sengled smart home users is that the company doesn’t only make Wi-Fi bulbs; the brand also offers Zigbee and Matter bulbs that can be controlled with smart hubs, including Sengled’s own hub as well as those from third parties.  Of course, Sengled’s hub is reeling from the company’s server outages just like its smart bulbs are. But there’s nothing stopping you from resetting your Sengled Zigbee- and Matter-enabled smart lights and pairing them directly with a Zigbee or Matter hub from another brand, an option that isn’t available for Sengled’s cheaper Wi-Fi-only bulbs. Amazon’s Echo speaker, for example, has a built-in Zigbee hub, a solution that allows Sengled users to bypass the now-yanked Sengled skill for Alexa. If you have a Matter bulb from Sengled, you can pair it with the Matter-enabled Apple HomePod or Google Nest Hub. A Zigbee and/or Matter hub from Samsung SmartThings is yet another option.  Once connected to a new hub, those malfunctioning Sengled bulbs will spring back to life, Sengled’s servers be damned.  For those who really don’t like depending on the cloud (Alexa, Google, and Apple smart speakers can fall victim to server failures, too), there are Zigbee- and Matter-enabled hubs that work completely locally. Spin up a local Home Assistant instance, install the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 dongle (which comes with Zigbee and Thread radios), and you’ll be able to control your connected Zigbee or Matter-over-Thread bulbs no matter what happens in the cloud.  Now, going with smart bulbs or other smart devices that require a hub does mean kicking in the extra cash for the hub, which may cost anywhere from $50 to $100 or more depending on the hub’s capabilities. That said, the extra expense of a hub is cheap compared to replacing a host of Wi-Fi bulbs left hanging by a dead server. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lights. Read...

TL;DR: For just $29.97, you can get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows Why rent Office every month when you can just own it? For $29.97, you can score a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows. That gets you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and OneNote, forever, no ongoing subscription fees required. This is one of Microsoft’s most widely used Office versions for good reason. It’s stable, streamlined, and packed with the features that everyday users, business owners, freelancers, and spreadsheet wizards rely on. You get advanced Excel functions for crunching numbers, PowerPoint tools that can help you impress, and Word features that help you let your writing shine. Whether you’re managing invoices, writing your next pitch deck, editing a résumé, or organizing your inbox like a boss, Office 2019 is built to make your life easier. And since it’s a one-time purchase, there’s no creeping monthly bill to sneak up on you. Once installed on your Windows PC, it’s good to go for home or work—no recurring costs, no cloud dependency, and no fuss. Plus, this version’s got some sweet upgrades: better inking across apps, more data analysis in Excel, improved email handling in Outlook, and sleek new transitions in PowerPoint. Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2019 while it’s just $29.97 (MSRP: $229) for a limited time. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Two years after calling out Rugby Australia for inequitable treatment, the Wallaroos will fly business class to the 2025 World Cup led by a full-time coach in a landmark moment. Read...

TL;DR 1min.AI gives you access to GPT-4o, Claude 3, Gemini Pro, and more in one platform — Lifetime access is just $79.97 (MSRP $540). Running a business, making content, and scaling a brand takes more than one bot. For writing, editing, designing, researching, and automating, you don’t need a single assistant. You need a whole AI workforce. 1min.AI gives you access to every major AI model in one place: GPT-4o, Claude 3 Opus, Gemini Pro, Llama 3, Mistral, and more. It’s built for serious output across content, image, audio, and video, all from one browser-based dashboard. No clicking from tab to tab. The Advanced Business Plan includes 4 million monthly credits, with up to 450,000 bonus credits just for daily check-ins. Use it to generate blog posts, summarize PDFs, clean up audio, create videos, write social content, or translate documents — and collaborate with up to 20 team members. Unlimited storage, custom brand voices, and prompt libraries come standard. With a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot and over 100,000 users across industries, it’s the clanker that responds “Roger, roger” to every task. No more juggling subscriptions or overpaying for monthly access to one model at a time. Get lifetime access to 1min.AI for just $79.97 (MSRP $540). 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

TL;DR: Amsflow is your all-in-one, AI-enhanced investing research hub—track portfolios, screen global markets, and uncover trends with powerful analytics for just $49.99 for a year. Running a business? Managing your own investments? Or just tired of pretending you understand what’s happening in the markets? Amsflow might just be the super-sharp tool your financial toolkit’s missing. This AI-powered platform crunches more data than your brain can and actually helps you make smart decisions. With Amsflow, you’ll get real-time insights into over 70,000 assets—stocks, crypto, forex, commodities—and tools like “Lisa,” an AI assistant that can answer natural-language queries like “show me small-cap clean energy stocks with strong momentum.” There’s also “X-Ray,” which zeroes in on trends across multiple timeframes, making it easier to spot patterns before they become headlines. Amsflow’s visual tools, heat maps, and alerts make it approachable for solo investors who want real clarity. And if you’re a founder or entrepreneur, it’s an efficient way to track your portfolio, monitor markets that affect your industry, and maybe even find the next smart investment. You’ll also get portfolio management tools, real-time global price tracking, customizable alerts, economic calendars, and live financial dashboards to support you. Pick up one year of Amsflow for just $49.99 (MSRP: $228) for a limited time. Amsflow AI Financial Analysis: Pro PlanSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

`Why would the business owner want to pay for that when they can’t on-charge?` Read...

The Northern Explorer traverses some of the most spectacular rail routes on Earth. Read...

The United States Federal Trade Commission tried to make it easy to cancel subscription services in 2023. The judiciary threw it out earlier this year, just before it was scheduled to go into effect, on the grounds that the FTC had overstepped its authority and skipped procedural steps. Now the legislature, or at least a few members, will try to achieve the same thing. The newly proposed Congressional bill is being provisionally titled the “Click-to-Cancel Act of 2025.” It’s essentially trying to do the exact same thing that the FTC attempted, explicitly stating that it wants “to codify the rule issued by the Federal Trade Commission relating to click-to-cancel.” The two-page submission merely points to the original FTC filing, which says that customers must be able to cancel a subscription by the same means it was originally agreed upon. So if the bill passes, Americans couldn’t be forced to call or even snail-mail to cancel a subscription that was begun online or in an app. They’d also get an annual reminder before they were charged for re-upping a subscription for another year. It’s being proposed by a trio of Democratic congresspeople from California, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, as Ars Technica reports. And unfortunately, that means it has little hope of passing under the current administration. At the risk of oversimplifying, the US Congress is currently bitterly divided with a slim margin of control held by business-friendly Republicans, who have gutted federal safeguards over industry at all levels. The conservatives are likely to keep any progressive proposals, no matter how popular, stymied. With the Trump administration apparently keeping an iron grip over the judiciary as well, it’s possible that even if the law were passed, it would be either sued out of existence or simply not enforced by federal regulators. The odds of any progress being made in the area of exploitative subscription tactics used against consumers seem slim to none, at least in the short term. Read...

Just because it’s tiny doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. This Kamrui Hyper H1 mini PC proves it–it’s small enough to tuck under your monitor, yet powerful enough to rule your workday. Plus, it’s only $400 right now thanks to a 20 percent discount at Amazon. The beauty of mini PCs is that they can sit on your desk or mount behind your monitor, clearing up space completely. The Kamrui Hyper H1 includes a VESA mount and all the screws you need to set it up easily. Speaking of monitors, you can hook up to three of them to this tiny computer. There’s a well-rounded mix of ports available, including Type-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort, all of which support 4K displays up to 60Hz. This device can handle any app you throw at it thanks to its AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU. With 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, it’s already a powerhouse. But if you want to give it even more oomph, you can upgrade to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of storage. Accessing the memory and storage is as simple as lifting the lid on the mini PC. For $400, this Kamrui mini PC is an absolute steal–grab it before the deal disappears. This snappy mini PC is $100 offBuy now at Amazon Read...