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Seventeen athletes have been confirmed for next month`s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics - the biggest snow sports contingent that New Zealand has sent to a Winter Olympics. Read...

If you want to avoid cable-like prices for streaming TV, the best way is to aggressively cycle through different subscriptions. A new app called StreamWolf makes that process simpler. StreamWolf provides an overview of all your streaming subscriptions, shows you the total cost, and lets you cancel (or reactivate) individual services with just a button tap. It also offers some watchlist features so you can plan what to pay for at any given time. The app is still a work in progress, but it shows promise and offers some utility even in its early stages. It’s the kind of service that streaming platforms like Roku and Fire TV ought to provide themselves, but won’t. How it works StreamWolf is available for both iPhone and Android. While its creators may eventually charge a fee for its subscription management features (more on that below), the app is currently free to use. After launching the app and creating an account, you’ll be prompted to sign into all your streaming services. StreamWolf doesn’t collect any streaming passwords; it’s merely opening an in-app browser where you log into each service’s website. Jared Newman / Foundry Once you’re logged in, StreamWolf scans the contents of each streaming account page, so it can understand what plan you have and how much it costs. The app then displays the total cost of all your subscriptions, both annually and monthly. The real magic happens when you ask StreamWolf to cancel one of your subscriptions. Instead of just dropping you onto an account page, the app uses some automated browsing tools to handle the cancellation process by itself. This allowed me to cancel (and restart) my Netflix subscription just by tapping a button. Once your subscriptions are connected, StreamWolf provides a centralized way to turn them on or off.Jared Newman / Foundry StreamWolf currently works with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and YouTube. Impressively, it will also recognize add-on subscriptions with those services, such as Amazon’s Prime Channels, YouTube’s Primetime Channels, and Disney’s various bundles. It properly noted, for instance, that my Disney+ subscription is in a bundle with Hulu. While StreamWolf isn’t the only app for managing your streaming subscriptions, I haven’t been impressed with any others. Some require manually inputting subscription details, so they’re barely more functional than a spreadsheet. Others gather that data automatically by connecting to your credit card and bank accounts, which feels overly invasive. (Rocket Money, notably, can share your financial data with advertisers.) By contrast, StreamWolf is focused entirely on streaming, keeps track of your spending without gathering sensitive financial data, and automates the tedium of managing your subscriptions. It’s filling a clear need as the cost of having too many streaming services gets closer to a typical cable bill. What’s not working yet As I mentioned earlier, StreamWolf is far from perfect. While playing around with it this week, I ran into several technical issues and noticed a bunch of ways that the app could be better. The biggest problem is that it didn’t accurately sum up my subscription spending. It lists my Disney+ and Hulu bundle at $11 per month, not the $5 per month Black Friday price I’m paying (or the regular price of $13 per month, for that matter). It’s also overestimating my monthly streaming bill by $34, apparently because it’s counting a couple of expired Amazon Prime add-ons. StreamWolf’s “Discover” section is a bit undercooked as well. You can add movies and shows to a watchlist, but navigation feels slow, and when I added “The Boys” via the search menu, it failed to appear in my watchlist. StreamWolf’s Discover section lets you keep track of what to watch.Jared Newman / Foundry StreamWolf might eventually use your watchlist to suggest the best times to pay for each service; but for now, the payoff of maintaining yet another watchlist isn’t worth the effort. (If the app synced your streaming activity via Younify, like Trakt is doing, that’d be pretty compelling.) StreamWolf could also use support for managing more streaming services. Notable omissions as of now include Apple TV+, Fubo, DirecTV, AMC+, and Starz. What’s next for StreamWolf StreamWolf is the first startup from James Harris and Steve Lewis, a pair of childhood friends from England who got fed up with manually cycling through all their TV subscriptions. They teamed up with Ron Downey, a U.K.-based streaming executive, who now serves as the company’s CEO. (The company is building a team in Columbus, Ohio, where Harris now lives.) In an interview, Harris and Lewis said they plan to eventually charge $3 per month for most StreamWolf features, but for now they’re focused on gathering feedback and improving the app. They also didn’t rule out keeping the app free and making money in other ways, such as through sales commissions when users re-subscribe to a service. Beyond just making the app more reliable, they’re also planning to bring live sports into the watchlist section. This could help users figure out what they need for the teams or leagues they follow—an increasingly complex calculation as sports rights become scattered across different services. If streaming platforms like Roku and Fire TV were actually on your side, they’d offer this kind of service themselves. Instead, they’re more interested in upselling you on extra subscriptions than helping manage what you already have. If StreamWolf can keep streamlining the process of cycling through subscriptions, it’ll be valuable countermeasure against runaway streaming costs. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

Laptops felt different at CES 2026. I mean, literally. While new hardware from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm stole the show, advances in laptop materials flew under the radar. Forget plastic versus metal. PC makers are now competing on physical feel—and there’s a whole new world of different metals and alloys to choose from. Laptop chassis materials are something else these days. I recently wrote about how plastic laptops are underrated—plastic isn’t a bad material for laptops these days, with well-made plastic laptops sporting a comfortable rubbery touch that doesn’t creak like they once did. In a world where spec sheets have less and less to differentiate them, this is the next path for PC makers who want to stand out. Different makers, different philosophies At CES 2026, I found myself touching a lot of Asus laptops with Asus’ new lightweight material called “ceraluminum.” Laptops like the Zenbook A14 aren’t just incredibly lightweight—Asus wants you to know that ceraluminum (i.e., ceramic-coated aluminum) is more durable than a typical aluminum chassis while also weighing less. The Asus Zenbook A14 sports the company’s new “ceraluminum” material.Michael Crider/Foundry Later, I was holding the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 while an HP representative explained that it was made of forge-stamped metal for a solid, heavy feel. Consumers tend to regard thin-and-light laptops as fragile, so HP made this laptop out of forge-stamped metal—”like a sword”—so that it would feel more durable and inspire confidence. While both companies were showing off new laptops with new hardware and their own approaches to marketing, one thing was clear: each went above and beyond the typical aluminum chassis laptop. Not all metal laptops are the same People tend to lump laptops into two categories: metal and plastic. But some of the strongest and lightest laptops are made of carbon fiber, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. And even within the metal laptop market, not all metal laptops are made from the same type of metal. Many metal laptops are made from aluminum, while others are made from magnesium alloys. Other laptops are even made from magnesium-aluminum alloys. The HP OmniBook 7 Aero has a premium magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis.Michael Crider / Foundry Aluminum laptops are less expensive to produce and heavier than magnesium, while magnesium alloys are more expensive and lighter than aluminum. But magnesium scratches more easily and isn’t as robust. That’s why some premium laptops have magnesium-aluminum alloys that are lighter than aluminum and stronger than magnesium, but these laptops tend to be more expensive. Asus’ ceraluminum isn’t pure metal but more of a hybrid material: a ceramic material that’s bonded to aluminum. It’s incredibly lightweight and doesn’t feel like metal—your fingers are touching the ceramic coating—but Asus says it’s stronger than aluminum. There are also different ways of manufacturing the metal body of the laptop. Most aluminum laptops are made with CNC milling where a machine precisely cuts from a sheet of metal. HP’s forge-stamping is a different approach. As HP explains: “You heat it up, you fold it over, you tamp it down—you make it stronger.” Carbon fiber is still underrated Carbon fiber is an even better laptop material than metal and alloys. It’s stronger and lighter—there’s a reason why this material is used in spacecrafts and sports cars. You don’t see it as much in laptops because it’s expensive compared to both metal and plastic. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition has a carbon-fiber chassis.Matt Smith / Foundry At CES 2026, Lenovo showed off the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition, which starts at just 2.2 pounds thanks to that carbon fiber. The high-end Asus ROG Flow Z13-KJP, made in partnership with Kojima Productions, also features carbon-fiber elements. If money was no object, I’d skip metal and get a machine with a strong and lightweight carbon-fiber body. That’s my professional opinion as a laptop reviewer, despite the fact so many believe a “metal laptop” is more premium. (That’ll change when they discover carbon fiber!) Recycled materials are huge once again When I speak to PC manufacturers, they’re always eager to explain how much of their laptops are made from recycled materials. Many are made from “ocean-bound plastic” (i.e., waste plastic that might’ve ended up in the ocean if it wasn’t recycled). But recyclying and eco-conscious messaging includes metal and carbon-fiber machines, too. I took a look at Lenovo’s spec sheet for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14, where the “Responsible Design” section proudly advertises that the carbon-fiber plate is made from 100% biological materials and that the frame incorporates recycled carbon-fiber materials. Joel Lee / Foundry Elsewhere, the laptop’s metal components feature recycled magnesium and aluminum with specific percentages. Laptop manufacturers are increasingly competing on those percentages and on how much of their laptops’ bodies are made from recycled materials. Laptop marketing blurbs often advertise that a machine was made with recycled materials. It doesn’t make a difference in how a material feels, but manufacturers are increasingly using the providence of their materials as part of their overall sales strategies. Don’t underestimate chassis materials when you buy a laptop I enjoy using all sorts of laptops. Some of my happiest computing moments happened on creaky plastic laptops decades ago. You don’t need a fancy laptop material to be happy—and even the average plastic laptop in 2026 feels surprisingly nice. But a laptop’s material does make an undeniably huge difference in the day-to-day experience. Different materials can have significant impacts on weight, durability, and tactile pleasure. A smooth-and-shiny aluminum laptop feels very different from a matte-surfaced magnesium laptop although they’re both “metal laptops.” So, don’t underestimate chassis materials! If you can afford it, you should definitely consider a laptop’s materials when choosing a winner. With pretty much all laptops having Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm parts, this is one way PC makers are really starting to make themselves stand out. Chris Hoffman is always thinking about PCs. Sign up for his free newsletter, The Windows ReadMe, for more thoughts from a real human. Read...

YouTube TV is typically stingy when it comes to free trials, and significant discounts are even harder to come by outside of seasonal deals. That’s why this new and relatively generous YouTube TV offer grabbed our attention.  Available now and running through mid-March, YouTube TV’s new deal gets you a 10-day free trial for the live TV streaming, more than triple the length of the standard three-day trial.  Once the 10-day free trial is over, you can get two months of YouTube TV for $59.99 a month, a $23-per-month discount versus the usual YouTube TV price of $82.99 a month.  The beauty of the deal is that you don’t have to pay for the two discounted months of YouTube TV if you don’t want to. If you like, you can just grab the 10 days of free access and then cancel before the charges kick in.  There are a couple of caveats to the new YouTube TV deal: you’ll need to enter a payment method even if you only intend on using the 10-day free trial, and you must be a new YouTube TV subscriber.  If you’re interested in grabbing the offer, don’t wait too long; the discount expires on March 17.  The YouTube TV deal gets you access to the YouTube TV Base Plan, which includes your local network TV affiliates as well as such basic-cable mainstays as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, AMC, CNBC, CNN, Bravo, Fox News, IFC, NBC News Now, TNT, and more. In all, more than 140 channels are on tap.  The YouTube TV Base Plan also boasts unlimited DVR storage, plus access to add-on channels such as AMC+, HBO Max, Fox Nation, MGM+, Paramount+ with Showtime, and Starz.  While you can grab the YouTube TV bundle now, we’re still awaiting details on the cheaper “genre-specific” bundles that are slated to arrive later this year.  More than 10 of the so-called “skinny” channel bundles are coming to YouTube TV, including a sports bundle that packs ESPN Unlimited, FS1, and the NBC Sports network.  YouTube TV hasn’t given us many details about its upcoming bundles, but they’re expected to be much cheaper than the standard $82.99-a-month base plan.  Get free YouTube TV for 10 daysView Deal This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Read...

A round-up of sports news in brief from around the region, including a new CEO for PNG`s NRL team. Read...

BBC Sport and the World Sport Photography Awards present a selection of the world`s finest sporting images from this year`s competition. Read...

When Dolby Labs announced Dolby Vision 2 in September 2025, I didn’t really get it. The original Dolby Vision was easy to understand: If your TV and streaming content supported it, you’d get a brighter picture with more color detail, particularly in shadows and highlights. I remember being blown away by the technology when it first debuted at CES 2014, especially compared to the 4K displays and curved panels that TV makers were hyping up at the time. The improvements Dolby Vision 2 promises aren’t as straightforward. While Dolby’s initial press release uses all kinds of jargon to describe the new format (with terms like “Content Intelligence” and “Authentic Motion”), the tangible benefits are tougher to parse. Fortunately, CES 2026 provided an opportunity to see Dolby Vision 2 up close, compare it with the original Dolby Vision, and get some questions answered. While Dolby Vision 2’s benefits are a bit murkier, they at least address some annoyances with streaming video today. Dolby Vision 2 deals with HDR’s darkness issues HDR (high dynamic range) is a feature in many modern TVs that allows for greater differences between the darkest and brightest parts of an image, with more color detail in between. With HDR, for example, a scene depicting an explosion will exude more vivid reds and oranges, instead of blown-out whites, while HDR in a shadowy scene will be rendered with evocative blue and green hues, instead of just depicting a muddy gray. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But with every HDR format—the original Dolby Vision along with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma)—a common complaint is that dark scenes can look too dark. Dolby’s solution is to gather more data about how the content was made—for instance, the creator’s choice of reference monitor, or how much ambient light was in the color-grading room—and adjust brightness on playback accordingly. The idea is to compensate for the difference between what creators see in their expensive editing suites and what viewers see on their TVs at home. Jared Newman / Foundry “We know exactly what shadows were meant to be seen, and not,” said Dolby’s director of business strategy, Jonas Klittmark. Dolby Vision 2 aims to make HDR look better on cheaper TVs While the original Dolby Vision typically required a mid-range or better TV, Dolby is optimizing this new version for cheaper sets through a new tone-mapping engine. This combines additional metadata from creators with local tone mapping, which makes more granular adjustments to the colors of each pixel. Local tone mapping is the process of analyzing the wide range of color of brightness in an HDR image, and then compressing that data into a form that the TV you’re watching can actually deliver. In a demo at CES, the result was a noticeable difference on what Dolby claimed was a $250 TV that didn’t have any local dimming zones. Next to a comparable set running the original Dolby Vision, the new version produced more vivid colors. Jared Newman / Foundry “The new engine is just much more capable of holding onto the goodness of the original HDR source, even on a display that’s quite limited in its capabilities, like this,” Klittmark said. That same tone-mapping engine also gives Dolby Vision 2 a neat new trick: It’ll let users control the intensity of the HDR effect through a slider in their TV settings. Users might want to increase the effect in a window-lit room with lots of reflections, for instance, or dial it back if the picture seems too eye-searingly bright. Dolby Vision 2 allows for smoother motion (without overdoing it) One of the most intriguing Dolby Vision 2 features has nothing to do with HDR at all. Instead, it’s a feature called “Authentic Motion,” which makes for a less jerky picture in scenes with fast motion (the industry refers to this visual jerkiness as “judder”). Unlike the much-maligned motion smoothing effects on most smart TVs, which can be so smooth that it looks like you’re watching a soap opera, Dolby’s feature applies just a small amount of frame interpolation in certain scenes, based on metadata delivered by content providers. In a CES demo, Dolby showed a movie scene in which the camera swept across the room without the usual judder, but in a way that still felt cinematic. “In Dolby Vision 2, we’re dynamically through metadata setting the de-judder just enough to take the edge off of the judder, so that it doesn’t bother you anymore,” Klittmark said. Dolby Vision 2 Max Alongside the standard Dolby Vision 2, there will also be a fancier version called Dolby Vision 2 Max. While both versions will have mostly the same features, Dolby Vision 2 Max will further adjust the picture based on a TV’s ambient light sensors; for example, it will help to avoid scenes that look overly dark. This is effectively an evolution of Dolby Vision IQ, an extension of Dolby Vision that is available in many of today’s mid-range to high-end TVs. More importantly, Dolby believes Max will serve as an overall indicator of TV quality, in the same way it believes Dolby Vision once did. When Dolby Vision first arrived in the mid-2010s, many TVs promised HDR compatibility, but weren’t bright or colorful enough to make HDR video look good. Dolby Vision support became a useful proxy for knowing if you’d get a decent HDR picture. Now that Dolby Vision 2 is heading to lower-end TVs, Dolby hopes the “Max” label will help delineate TVs with superior picture quality. “Dolby Vision 2 Max is for premium TVs, and it will basically replace Dolby Vision in the market,” Chris Turkstra, Dolby’s vice president of home devices, said. “Dolby Vision 2, which you can think of as a standard version of Dolby Vision, that will attach to new TVs that don’t have Dolby Vision today.” It’ll be a while before Dolby Vision 2 matters While it’s worth being aware of Dolby Vision 2 as more TV makers and streaming services get on board, it’s still early days for the format. So far, only three TV makers have committed to supporting Dolby Vision 2: Hisense will offer it in its top-shelf RGB MiniLED TVs for 2026, TCL will have it in its high-end X11L SQD Mini LEDs and mainstream C series sets, and Panasonic will bring it to several new OLED TVs. In other words, the promise of Dolby Vision 2 in low-end TVs isn’t materializing anytime soon. Meanwhile, three other major TV manufacturers–LG, Samsung, and Sony–have not announced their Dolby Vision 2 intentions. Samsung, for one, doesn’t support any version of Dolby Vision today–most likely because it doesn’t want to pay royalties to Dolby. On the content side, Peacock is the only streaming service on board with Dolby Vision 2, which it will support along with the original Dolby Vision for live sports. Given that content makers must also support Dolby Vision 2 in the editing process, it might be a while before more streamers decide to throw their weight behind it. Dolby Vision 2 probably won’t be a factor for anyone thinking of buying a new TV in 2026. But as the format becomes more common in the years to come, it’s something you’ll want to think about, especially if, like me, you finally understand it. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Free 10GB plan Affordable monthly and yearly plans Attractive, easy cross-platform client software Virtual drive allows access directly from Windows Explorer Versioning for both sync and backup Cons No online editing Limited preview compatibility File retention settings are global, not per job Our Verdict Icedrive is one of the slickest online storage services available. There’s no online editing, but there are online previews, sharing, and competitive pricing. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Retailer Price Icedrive $6 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Icedrive online storage Retailer Price Icedrive $6 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices There are a lot of choices in online backup these days, so users can pick and choose the easiest and most affordable. Icedrive competes well on both fronts — proving to be one of my favorites to use. This is my second review of the service, with a look at some features that were formerly in beta. Color me impressed. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best online backup services to learn about competing products. What are Icedrive’s features? As with any online storage vendor, Icedrive’s primary feature is providing an offsite repository for your files. However, it also sports collaboration features such as file sharing, public links, and file requests (others asking to see your files). In addition to its facility for syncing files, Icedrive’s client-side software provides an optional virtual drive. You can change the drive letter but it defaults to I: (Icedrive, “I:”, get it?), which is good enough in my book. Icedrive in action under Windows. The virtual drive acts as a local portal to your online files, as well as an encrypted folder that utilizes a secondary password or passphrase that you define. Icedrive doesn’t have access to this passphrase, so don’t lose or forget it. iOS and Android apps are also provided, so you can back up your phone or other mobile devices. My one caveat here is the lack of a Sync tab as on the Windows client. Instead mobile backups (it’s not traditional sync) are defined under the settings tab — the last place I looked. Icedrive on and iPhone Speaking of such, in addition to the two-way syncing virtual drive, Icedrive’s Windows client offers what it calls “Full sync” and “Backup.” The former is two-way sync and the latter is one-way sync. Both use versioning, which is a bit odd for two-way sync. File versioning can serve as a kind of ad hoc backup: Older files are kept just in case. Icedrive does it better than most. Instead of moving the older file to a visible sub-directory, or renaming the older file and leaving it in plain view (this can get messy with a lot of versions), it retains the files out of sight. IceDrive was very quick to spot new and changed files. Shown are the older versions of this test file. Sync is enhanced with the choice to delete files locally (or not) after they are deleted online (mirroring the online version), and to delete files online (or not) after they were deleted locally (mirroring the local data repository). Select both and you’re in effect doing “Full sync,” or two-way sync. Alas, the delete options are not available on a per-sync job basis — they apply to all sync pairs. Icedrive offers an online document preview feature that handles many common types. PDF, JPEG, MP3, Wave, and even FLAC/OGG/M4A (lossless included) play just fine, so an A for audio file support. It still, however, will not correctly display my Excel spreadsheets. No editing of said documents is available, so if you’re looking to work online, Icedrive is likely not your cup of tea. At least for now. That said, Icedrive doesn’t make claims in this regard. As simple storage with easy access, it’s a winner. How easy is it to use Icedrive? Icedrive is easy to get up to speed with, once you understand all the sync/backup options. If you know the ins and outs of sync already, that shouldn’t take long. The Icedrive virtual drive for macOS and Linux relies on the public domain macFUSE driver — a separate download. OpenDrive for Apple machines also relies on this macOS extension, which seems to work well. To access your encrypted folder from the “local” I: drive, you must enter the passphrase online, then open the local client and under the Mount tab, choose Crypto Lock, and enter the passphrase. Simple, and after that, it’s all transparent. Icedrive is easy to get up to speed with, once you understand all the sync/backup options. Icedrive’s Encrypted folder provides a private second layer of security for important or sensitive data. Dragging a few files to the IceDrive Virtual Drive is certainly the easiest way to upload them, but there’s local caching going on so you can eat up disk space (especially important with internal SSDs) in a hurry. You can move the cache file to an external location, and there’s also an “upload” context menu option that bypasses the major caching and copies the files directly online. Sadly, this context menu item is not available for the Mac. On that platform you’ll need to upload using a sync pair to avoid local caching. Icedrive’s virtual drive is your window into your online storage. Some is cached locally, Note that you can set the online storage as read-only if you want to be sure files don’t get mucked up. How much does Icedrive cost? The five-year plans that the company once featured are gone, while the monthly and yearly options remain. Simpler is generally better when you’re trying to support a large number of users, no doubt. The five-year plans have been dropped in favor of pure annual and monthly rates. The monthly plans as of this writing are $8 for 1TB and $20 for 5TB, while annual prices at the time of this writing are: $29 for 2TB (discounted from $99), $49 for 4TB (discounted from $159), and $99 for 6TB (down from $269). The discounted yearly plans I saw are outstanding values and there’s always the free 10GB plan (without the encrypted folder) so you can kick the tires. Note that the discounts are only good for the first year you use the service, and the above offers may only be temporary. Don’t just click blindly through on my reporting. And while the discounted plans are excellent deals, the normal fees are on the pricey side. How does Icedrive perform? Any online storage service will of course be limited to the upload/download bandwidth of your broadband connection. That said, the program was quite speedy in my testing under Windows, and without throttling the rest of the system. It also found new versions of files quickly and synced them to the cloud in darn close to real time. Nice. The experience was largely the same with the macOS version, with the exception that the IceDrive client tended to thwart my attempts to shut down the computer. I had to use “Force quit” on the program on several occasions. Also, the “pause backup” button was sometimes less than responsive. Basically, the Mac client needs to poll the system for OS commands more often. No biggie, but annoying. Should you sign up for Icedrive? Icedrive is easy to use, versatile, and its pricing is quite competitive — when discounted. Drop a half star from the rating at the normal prices. But it’s still definitely worth a look-see. Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...

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