TL;DR: Get a 1min.AI lifetime subscription for $99.99 (reg. $540) and generate hundreds of images and millions of words each month without paying extra fees. Let’s be real: AI isn’t going anywhere, but your bank account might be if you keep paying for all these tools separately. That’s why this new AI suite caught our attention. 1min.AI is a one-time payment that unlocks lifetime access to GPT-4, Gemini, Meta AI, and more. No subscriptions, no switching between platforms, just all-in-one AI firepower. No need to learn to use a new AI. This all-in-one platform includes the same tools you already know and love. Or, if you aren’t already familiar, they’re easy to try out with 1min.AI’s prebuilt AI templates for generating articles and images, conducting SEO research, or even transcribing audio. 1min.AI doesn’t stop at creating new content. You can also edit existing text, images, and video. Want to edit videos or improve images? It’s all here, with advanced tools like background removers and image upscaling. Plus, you’ll get regular updates, keeping your AI toolkit fresh and ready for whatever comes next—like ChatGPT-5 when it finally arrives in the coming months. Get lifetime access to this all-in-one AI tool for $99.99 (reg. $540) with no coupon needed. 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

The revelation - from the criminals responsible - explains why the Co-op is getting back to business faster than M&S. Read...

If unchecked, foreign bribery will lower trust in NZ as place to do business, says SFO. Read...

The couriers hope to expand their business by combining their `complimentary` services. Read...

HR-Bible has launched an AI-driven HR platform using Microsoft Copilot to simplify HR tasks, aiming to make HR accessible and affordable for all businesses. Read...

Microsoft is laying off up to 3 percent of its global workforce, reports Bloomberg. With Microsoft having around 228,000 employees at the end of June 2024 (the latest reported number), that’d mean around 6,000 to 6,800 people being let go, according to CNBC. This confirms the rumors from last month. The layoffs are to take place in different regions across different employee levels and teams. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. Microsoft plans to cut 1,985 jobs at its Redmond headquarters alone, 1,510 of which will be in the office. One aim is to reduce layers of management, the spokesperson said. Unlike the previous job reduction from January 2025 that hit “low performers,” these layoffs are not performance-related. It’s currently unknown whether the Xbox games division will also be affected by the layoffs, but Microsoft has repeatedly cut jobs in the Xbox division in recent years. These job cuts don’t fit with the latest business figures. At the end of April, Microsoft reported a net profit of $25.8 billion for the quarter, which exceeded expectations, and also issued a positive forecast. Read...

Roku is spending $185 million to get into a business that most other streaming platforms have avoided. In early May, the company announced that it will acquire Frndly TV, the cheapest of all the live TV streaming services. For $9 per month, Frndly TV offers a bundle of channels you’d typically find in a cable TV package, including Hallmark, A&E, and The Weather Channel. While it’s normal for streaming platforms to offer their own free or premium streaming services, most aren’t selling their own bundles of cable channels with optional DVR service. Roku is doing something pretty unusual here, and while it says it’s just trying to boost subscription revenues on its platform, that doesn’t sound like the whole story to me. How Frndly fits in Frndly TV is what’s known in industry jargon as a “virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor,” or vMVPD. You could also use the terms live TV streaming services, streaming channel bundles, or cable replacements. Whatever the nomenclature, the point is that these are essentially cable TV packages delivered over the internet. You get a big bucket of cable channels, a grid-based channel guide to flip through, and DVR functionality for recording live airings and watching them at your leisure. Most major streaming platforms have stayed out of this business, which involves cutting carriage deals with numerous TV programmers (and dealing with the risk of blackouts when renewal negotiations fail). It’s a messy business and one that’s barely profitable, if at all. So while you can access services like Hulu + Live TV and Fubo on a Fire TV Stick or Apple TV 4K, Amazon and Apple haven’t bothered putting together channel bundles of their own. (The only exception is Google, which operates YouTube TV and has its own Google TV/Android TV streaming platform.) Nonetheless, Roku sees an opportunity in Frndly TV, which claimed to be profitable in 2022. While Roku once described itself as an advertising company, lately it’s been talking up its plans to grow subscription revenue as well. The company already gets a cut when users subscribe to services on its platform, but with Frndly TV it can claim 100 percent of the revenue for itself. The near-term playbook, then, will look like it did for the Roku Channel, the ad-supported streaming service Roku launched in 2017. Roku makes more money when people watch the Roku Channel instead of other ad-supported services, so it’s aggressively promoted its own service in practically every corner of its home screen. The company has made no secret of its plans to do the same for Frndly TV. “We’re going to use [the platform] to drive Frndly, which is now part of Roku,” CEO Anthony Wood said during an earnings call. Thinking bigger If all Roku does with Frndly TV is use its home screen to peddle more Frndly TV subscriptions, that’d be pretty boring. And maybe that is the entire strategy. But my theory is that Roku will use Frndly TV as the first step toward offering a broader lineup of pay TV channels. Frndly TV, after all, is a niche within a niche, with channels that focus largely on reality TV and reruns. It carries none of the top 10 cable channels and only eight of the top 50. None of those channels cover news or sports. As of late 2022, Frndly TV had a mere 700,000 subscribers. By entering the vMVPD business, Roku instantly becomes a major player that can negotiate more and better carriage deals on behalf of its 90 million households. It would be weird if those efforts started and ended with whichever programmer has the syndication rights for Columbo and Bonanza. An equally plausible outcome is that Roku expands its channel offerings over time, taking advantage of TV programmers’ newfound willingness to allow for more flexible bundles. It could then tie those offerings into its home screen and live TV guide, with a built-in billing system to manage subscriptions. For folks who still have cable or just want an easy way to access cable channels, Roku could present itself as the simplest solution. I’ve always wondered why no streaming platform has done this—here’s me arguing for Apple to do it in 2017—and now Roku is in the best position to pull it off. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday Read...

Celonis enhances its Process Intelligence platform with AI integration, offering faster, user-friendly tools to optimise business operations and workflow management. Read...

The division specialises in building and managing data networks for businesses. Read...

Vector (NZX:VCT) advises that it is undertaking a strategic review of its fibre business and has appointed Barrenjoey Capital Partners to assist in this process Read...