Illegal sports TV streams are popular all around the world—so much so that they’re among the most popular IPTV offerings alongside classic streaming content from Netflix, Prime Video, etc. Unsurprisingly, these streams are also a huge thorn in the sides of authorities. But yesterday, sports piracy took a huge blow after Egyptian police successfully took down Streameast, the largest known provider of illegal sports streaming content. According to the US-based Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), Streameast (and its 80+ related domains) were recently taken offline. With around 1.6 billion visitors per year and content offerings from around the globe—including Champions League matches to Formula 1 races to MMA fights to other sports like the NFL, NBA, and NHL—Streameast was the most iconic provider of pirated sports streams. The operators of Streameast were reportedly tracked down in a large-scale operation on August 24th. Two men from Cairo, who were arrested by police, were apparently responsible for running the sites and have been operating for around 15 years. They also apparently invested a large part of their income in bogus companies and property. It isn’t yet known whether revenue from the streaming portals or material assets were confiscated in the process. All existing Streameast domains will now be redirected to an ACE information page that highlights 140+ legal providers of streaming content and live broadcasts. More action against illegal providers Authorities around the world are increasingly taking action against providers of illegal streaming services, and more and more operators have been arrested in recent years. As a rule, they operate professionally and disguise their operations by distributing offers to potential users via numerous intermediaries and splitting them across several domains. However, users of such sites should be careful because piracy sites can be attack vectors for viruses and other malware. In some jurisdictions, use of illegal streams can result in steep fines and claims for damages. Even if it’s unlikely that the authorities will be able to trace every single user, the providers and their intermediaries usually keep logs of user activity and their associated payment methods, which can then be used to prosecute users after a service takedown. Read...

LG launches the StanbyME 2, a portable 27-inch QHD smart screen in Australia, priced at AUD $2,199, offering flexible, AI-enhanced entertainment at home. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Absolutely stunning display Ripping CPU performance RTX 5050 has huge advantage over iGPU Potent, six-speaker audio system Largely silent operation Cons Mics need noise cancelling Front edge of laptop can dig into wrists Our Verdict If you want a laptop that exudes greatness everywhere you look, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is it. From brilliant performance in its class and respectable battery life to a brilliant display and solid design, this machine makes the price tag seem reasonable. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Usually, when I think of a high-end laptop, I think of one that has pulled out all of the stops, going far too exotic on build materials, cramming too much hardware in too thin a machine, and winding up with an exorbitant price tag that perfectly illustrates the concept of diminishing returns. At first glance, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition looks like it might just be that kind of machine. With a high-power CPU, a discrete GPU, and two display options that both are geared up to dazzle, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition certainly has the hardware, but it’s packed into a modest aluminum frame that’s not overly ambitious in its thinness. And with a $1,949 price tag for the potent configuration tested here, it feels like Lenovo struck the right balance, delivering solid quality everywhere it counts to make for a very respectable machine for folks who need a machine that can do a bit of everything and do it well.  Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Specs and features Model number: 83L00009US CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285H Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-8400 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5050 8GB (100-watt TGP) Display: 16-inch 2.8K OLED, 120Hz, DisplayHDR True Black 1000, Touch Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 5MP + IR Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 with 65-100W Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1, 2x USB-A 5Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SDcard reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition Battery capacity: 84 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.28 x 9.99 x 0.75 inches Weight: 4.52 pounds MSRP: $1,949 as-tested ($1,869 base) At the time of testing, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition was available in just a few configurations. All of them shared the same Intel Core Ultra 9 285H CPU, 32GB of memory, and 1TB of storage. The type of display and GPU were the only different points. Lenovo provides the option between a 2880×1800 OLED display paired with an RTX 5050 for $1,999 and a 3200×2000 Tandem OLED paired with an RTX 5060 for $2,299, though at the time of writing, those prices were discounted to $1,899 and $1,949 respectively. Best Buy also had the former configuration available for $1,949.  In addition to its preconfigured models, Lenovo offers a custom configuration tool. This starts at $1,869 for the same configuration as the base model above. But you can upgrade to 64GB of memory, an RTX 5070, and the 3.2K Tandem OLED display for $560 more. Or you can stick with the base specs and just upgrade to the Tandem OLED for $150 extra.  Lenovo’s full technical specifications for the product suggest quite a few more configurations to come, including touch and non-touch display options and an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is a great machine. It comes at a price, but the premium isn’t so unreasonable when factoring in all that it brings to the table. Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is simple and elegant, but a little bland as a result. Lenovo has done a nice job rounding corners all over the place for a smoother look and feel, though the edges of the keyboard deck could still be a little more rounded for comfort. That said, it’s still a big gray slab, and nothing about it being an “Aura Edition” gives it anything more than an aura of plainness.  The construction is good. Just about everywhere you look — aside from the keycaps — is smooth aluminum or glass, including the display and its bezels. There’s some flex here and there, but it’s very slight. The display hinge moves smoothly, and is easy to open with one hand thanks to the weight of the base and a little lip at the top of the screen for this purpose and to give more space to the webcam and IR sensor. The hinge does wiggle for a second or two after moving the display or shifting the laptop around, but it holds firm while I’m typing.  The base sits on three rubber feet, a long one at the back and two small ones at the front. These are taller than is typical on productivity laptops, and this helps create an extra large channel underneath the laptop for airflow into the large grille underneath. Most of this grille is filled in, with sections at either side actually serving as intakes for the two fans.  Lenovo has squeezed in six speakers in total with two tweeters and four woofers. You’ll find speakers on either side of the keyboard and on the edges underneath the laptop.  Ports are all packed reasonably close together on either side of the laptop, including a dedicated power plug. The right edge also includes a privacy shutter switch that deactivates the camera — nice to see and easier to avoid accidentally swiping every time I open the laptop, though a little less reassuring than a shutter that actually covers up the camera sensor. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition’s power button is also on the right edge of the laptop, where it’s a little too easy to accidentally press any time I shift the laptop around on a desk or table.  With all the Lenovo has jammed into this 16-inch laptop, it’s little surprise that it’s over four pounds, but at just 4.52 pounds, it’s not unreasonably heavy. The laptop has a tapered design, seeing it sit at about 0.7 inches thick near the front and 0.75 inches thick near the back, though the rubber feet add almost 0.2 inches to that. At 14.28 inches wide and 9.99 inches long, it’s still fairly modest in size for a 16-inch laptop. Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition has a pretty good keyboard on it. It’s a little bland to look at with its drab gray keycaps, but that doesn’t hurt its usability. Thanks to the slight dish to each keycap, good stabilization, and a short, poppy travel, I was able to quickly get up to a 118-word-per-minute typing speed with 98 percent accuracy in Monkeytype. Comfort while typing is an issue though. The laptop’s depth makes the keyboard quite a reach up the keyboard deck even for me (I’m 6’3”), and this leaves my wrists pressing into the front lip of the laptop, which isn’t very comfortable. It also can take some adjusting, as the keyboard is off-center to make room for a full number pad, albeit with keys slightly narrower than standard.  The keyboard has bright backlighting that can even be seen in the daytime with ambient lighting. It effectively illuminates the keycap legends. It has two levels, and a third option lets it turn on automatically. It’s a bit too aggressive, though, turning on even in a room plenty bright for seeing the keys.  The trackpad here is substantial. It’s both wide and tall, providing a huge surface to mouse around on and perform multi-finger gestures. Its glass surface is also wonderfully smooth. It has a shallow travel to perform physical clicks with a nice soft feel. Like the keyboard, it’s off-center, shifted to the left slightly to be centered under the keyboard alphanumerics. For left-handed users, this may be ideal. But for righties, it might not be. I often find this alignment has me largely using the right side of the trackpad, so when I go for a physical click, it ends up being a right click instead of the left click. If you tap to click, it won’t be a problem though. Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition has an absolutely excellent display, and this configuration of the system has the lower-end display option. The upper-tier’s tandem OLED display should only improve on its quality. The only quality to knock is that the screen is glossy, which leaves it subject to glare when set to low brightness levels. Beyond that, it’s brilliant. It’s perfectly sharp for a display its size, and its variable refresh rate keeps visuals smooth at up to 120Hz while also providing energy savings by dropping as low as 30Hz. The display offers 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and provides a reasonable degree of accuracy, hitting an average dE1976 of 0.95 and a max of 2.4 — a bit of calibration would likely have it ready for professional color work. In SDR, the display was able to reach a peak brightness of 486.1 nits for a full white screen, and with its OLED panel, it can achieve perfect blacks for infinite contrast. Turning on HDR, the display’s capabilities leap up even higher. I measured the fullscreen white peak brightness at 606 nits, and when displaying a 10 percent window of white, it achieved 1040 nits. The display is even a responsive touchscreen.  With its set of two tweeters and four woofers, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition puts out impressive sound for a laptop. Most impressive is the clean, low-end it provides, giving musical bass lines a nice heft. Meanwhile, the upper registers get a clean presentation, albeit a little bit lacking in brilliance. There’s even some surprising stereo imaging. When listening to music with the laptop at a comfortable distance for typing, I was caught off guard by how sounds actually seemed to be coming from my sides and not just from the laptop right in front of me. At full volume, the speakers can distort a little, but they sound reasonably loud even at 50 percent volume.  Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Mark Knapp The webcam on the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is excellent. It can exhibit a little noise in the video, but otherwise has a very sharp image with natural lighting that looks great. Though Lenovo doesn’t have a physical shutter to cover the lens, it does provide a hardware switch on the side of the laptop to disable the camera. The webcam also provides Windows Hello facial recognition, which has worked quickly throughout my testing. You won’t find fingerprint scanning though. The mics aren’t quite as impressive. On one hand, they pick up my voice clearly without any weird compression artifacts. But on the other hand, they’re not doing much to eliminate background noise, picking up things like a nearby fan and my hands clapping — noises I’ve seen some laptops completely eliminate while still picking up my voice well.  Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition provides respectable connectivity, both wired and wireless. You’ll find two USB-C ports on the left edge offering Thunderbolt 4/USB4 capabilities and up to 100W power delivery to charge the laptop if you forget the standard charger (a 170W unit with Lenovo’s charging plug). The ports also support DisplayPort 2.1, but you can rely on the HDMI 2.1 port for video output as well. The left side is rounded out by a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side, you’ll find a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports and a full-size SD card reader. It would have been nice to see 10Gbps ports or at least to get the USB-C ports split between the two sides.  For wireless connections, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition offers Wi-Fi 7, and it’s proven both fast and reliable in my testing, never showing signs of lag or being slow to re-establish a connection when booting up the machine. Bluetooth 5.4 is also supported, and it has worked consistently while listening to audio on Bluetooth headphones. Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Performance The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is built like many other productivity laptops in the 16-inch class. This sees it face off against models like the Acer Swift 16 AI, the HP OmniBook X Flip 16, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus, and the Dell 16 Plus, which all offered as-tested prices hundreds of dollars below the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition. But, even as the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition competes on size and weight with these other systems (save for the particularly thin and light Acer Swift 16 AI), it goes a little heavier in performance with a more robust CPU selection and a discrete GPU, an inclusion only the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus made at its as-tested price. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition offers excellent performance thanks to its combination of a high-end CPU in the Core Ultra 9 285H — a 16-core beast — with plenty of memory, fast storage, and its discrete GPU. The RTX 5050 inside gives it a strong edge in content creation, where it outpaced all of these other systems, including the RTX 4060-powered Dell Inspiron 16 Plus.  Cinebench helps us see just how much of an edge Lenovo’s choice of CPU gives the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition. In Cinebench R23, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition simply obliterates the performance offered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V and Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, more than doubling their results. It even cruises ahead of the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus. This is a level of performance that can put the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition in league with heavy-duty gaming laptops, like the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 running on an Intel Core i7-14700HX. The CPU’s single-core performance is also exceptional, giving it all the performance it needs to feel responsive and power through heavy workloads.  That performance is showcased well in our Handbrake encoding test. This is effectively an extension of our CPU test, as it tasks the system with a long multi-core workload encoding a large video file. This not only requires a powerful CPU to perform well but also solid cooling to prevent heat from building up and slowing the system down as the test stretches on. Here, we see the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition do a great job, keeping its encoding time at under 11 minutes. That’s not only well underneath the encoding times of these other machines, some of which almost ran for 30 minutes, but it even slips underneath the encoding time of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370-powered Razer Blade 16 (2025).  Though the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition might have already successfully set itself apart from its competition on CPU performance alone, its discrete GPU helps take it to another level still. Intel Arc graphics work wonders for lightweight productivity machines, but even lower-tier discrete GPUs provide a world of difference. That’s true of the RTX 4060 in the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus and even more so for the RTX 5050 in the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition. That discrete GPU soared ahead of the competition in 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark, a rather demanding graphical test. Despite its thinner design and largely quiet operation, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition actually managed to offer performance that lines up with many RTX 4060-powered gaming laptops.   Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Battery life With as much performance as the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition was happy to put down, it’s unsurprising that it falls a bit behind its rivals where battery life is concerned. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition still managed a commendable runtime of almost 14 hours, but most of the other machines pushed closer to 17 or 18 hours, except the Dell 16 Plus, which also had a small 63Wh battery.  While that’s not as impressive as these other machines, it’s not a bad showing, particularly for a machine with a discrete GPU and higher-power CPU. It’s striking a nice balance with performance that borders on gaming laptop while maintaining battery life more in line with productivity machines. Its offline video playback performance also carried over well into real-world use, where I was easily able to get through a full workday on battery power (albeit without tapping into the dGPU).  Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Conclusion The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is a great machine. It comes at a price, but the premium isn’t so unreasonable when factoring in all that it brings to the table. Not only do you get exceptional performance from the internals, but you get them in a well-built package with plenty of extras to get excited about. The speakers and display combine for a great entertainment experience. The chassis is elegant and feels solid. And even with such high-power hardware, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is happy to run on battery power for an entire workday. If you need a machine that largely excels in every respect, you’ve just found it. Read...

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The best way to watch Monday Night Football without paying for a full TV package or ESPN subscription could be short-lived if Disney gets its way. Disney is suing Sling TV over its Day Passes, which provide access to Sling’s Orange bundle (including Disney-owned ESPN and more than 30 other channels) for $5, with weekend and weeklong passes also available for $10 and $15 respectively. By comparison, a full month of Sling Orange costs $46, and ESPN’s new streaming service costs $30 per month on its own. With Day Passes, Sling is solving a real problem with sports streaming: Even if you’re only interested in a single game, you must pay for an entire month of service. Programmers like Disney should be embracing this approach to reach audiences who otherwise might not pay anything, but they’re too short-sighted to realize it. Why Sling is right While we all want more flexible options, new standalone offerings from the likes of Fox and Disney’s ESPN are insufficient. Both companies have intentionally set prices high—$30 per month for ESPN, $20 per month for Fox One—hoping to prolong the pay TV model that’s collapsing under them. The appeal will likely be limited. We’ve already seen this play out with regional sports networks, most of which now offer their own standalone services in the $20 to $30 per month range. Despite offering more local team games than ESPN and Fox combined, these offerings aren’t gaining much traction because they’re just too expensive. The networks themselves have admitted it. Meanwhile, younger viewers are tuning out. According to Front Office Sports, the average primetime NFL viewer is 62.5 years old, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro acknowledged that executives at the company worry about resonating with young audiences. A recent survey of sports executives found that 65 percent are concerned about maintaining live sports’ relevance. So here’s a wild idea: Maybe make it easier for people to get in the door. Let them buy access to a game, or a weekend, or a week, and maybe they’ll come back for more. If not, at least they’ll have paid something instead of turning back to piracy. The old TV business model is falling apart regardless, so now is the time to try new things. Disney: Sling didn’t ask us As we’re learning now, Disney isn’t the one willing to experiment. While Sling previously indicated that it briefed its programming partners on the Day Passes, it never explicitly said that they were on board. Disney, meanwhile, says it didn’t even get the memo. “Sling TV’s new offerings, which they made available without our knowledge or consent, violate the terms of our existing license agreement,” the company said in a statement to media outlets. It wants the court to make Sling remove Disney’s channels from the Day Passes. Keep in mind that in the pay TV world, distributors like Sling typically pay a per-month, per-subscriber “carriage fee” to programmers like Disney in exchange for their channels. The per-subscriber fee for ESPN alone was reportedly around $10 per month a couple of years ago, and that cost gets passed onto customers. The fact that Sling launched its day passes without Disney’s blessing raises some knotty questions, like: How much does Sling pay Disney when someone only signs up for a day? Is it counting per-subscriber carriage fees in a different way, or eating the month’s fee in hopes that day pass holders become regular subscribers? Were any other programmers on board with the idea, or was this all just a gambit to bring them to the bargaining table? Sling’s PR department didn’t answer those questions, but said it plans to fight the lawsuit, which it called meritless. “We will vigorously defend our right to bring customers a viewing experience that fits their lives, on their schedule and on their terms,” the company said. A long history of short-sightedness Unfortunately, this kind of hardball hasn’t ended well for TV distributors in the past. Back in 2015, Verizon tried to offer a flexible TV package for Fios customers, with a base channel lineup and a selection of “Channel Packs” for things like sports and news. Disney sued over it, and while Verizon initially claimed it was within its rights, it eventually watered down the offering and settled the lawsuit. Then, in 2020, T-Mobile tried to launch a new TV service with two distinct packages—one with broadcast, news, and sports channels, and one focused on entertainment. Programmers flipped out, claiming that T-Mobile tricked them into splitting up their channels, and T-Mobile wound up exiting the TV business entirely. With the bottom dropping out on the pay TV business, programmers have only now started embracing a modicum of flexibility, with companies like DirecTV offering “Genre Packs” for less than a typical pay TV package. But even that only happened because DirecTV was wiling to wage a PR war against Disney and subject its customers to extended blackouts. These kinds of changes shouldn’t have taken a decade, and deep down, programmers know it. They’ve quietly bemoaned the destruction of the pay TV bundle, yet they did nothing to avert it. With day passes, programmers like Disney have another chance to innovate on a tired business model and reach folks who might not otherwise even pay for their services. While it’s no surprise that they’re against it, hopefully Sling can force the issue. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more streaming TV insights every Friday. Read...

Back in 2019, an indie game launched with a simple tagline: “It’s a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose.” And Untitled Goose Game tells no lies. This one sentence describes its premise accurately. I tell everyone to play it.  I’ve been especially vocal during the past week, when its price on Steam dropped to its all-time low of just $7 for the second time ever. Normally, it’s $20 and already worth the several hours of entertainment it provides. Why is being a jerk to everyone in the most serene, chill, and nonviolent hamlet so delightful? I’m too cheap to pay for the therapy to unpack that. I’d much rather sing the game’s praises. Developer House House calls its creation a “slapstick-stealth-sandbox” game, which is decently accurate (and pretty funny). I’d call it humor masquerading as a low-key puzzle game. With the ability to terrorize everyone with your honking. Assassin’s Creed: Goose (I’d play that game if it were real.)House House / Steam Already have played the game? At $7, it’s cheap to gift a copy to friends who’ve so far missed out. The sale runs until next week, ending September 4 at 10am Pacific, so you can think a bit on who deserves such an act of love. Or self-defense. You learn a lot about people as they inflict psychological warfare on harmless village inhabitants. While also desecrating their belongings. Especially if you’re playing with said loved ones during local co-op mode. Get Untitled Goose Game for $7 on Steam Read...

A large package set for delivery has caused quite a stink for one courier company, causing it to dial in the help of the police. After the box was dropped off at New Zealand Couriers in New Plymouth, an employee noticed it was emitting the “distinctive odour” of cannabis. But the police didn’t have to look far to figure out who was behind the package, with the source having provided his name and contact details on the package receipt. Today, Anthony Ellison, 40, appeared in the New Plymouth District Court charged with possession of cannabis and cultivation of cannabis, to which he pleaded guilty. Judge Gregory Hikaka said Ellison dropped off the “large white box” to the courier on October 24 last year. Inside was 445g of dried cannabis leaf material, intended to make the journey across the Cook Strait to an address in Takaka. But after the employee clocked the smell of cannabis, the police were notified. This led to a search of Ellison’s house in New Plymouth, where police found four “large” cannabis plants growing in pots on his deck. A “jungle grow tent”, grow lights and a set of scales were also found and seized. When speaking with the police, Ellison said he had gone to the couriers to drop the package off for a friend. He admitted the plants growing at his house were his. In court, defence lawyer Emily Forsyth submitted there was no element of commercial gain in Ellison’s offending, and he was in fulltime employment with a recent opportunity to advance his career. She said he undertook random drug-testing at work and had offered to do the same through Corrections. The appropriate sentence was community detention, with a weekend curfew to facilitate the weekday travel Ellison undertook for work, Forsyth submitted. Police prosecutor Lewis Sutton had no issues with the defence’s submissions but asked for a destruction order to be made in respect to the cannabis and equipment. Judge Hikaka said Ellison had “a lot of previous convictions” but none for drug offending. “You could count yourself fortunate. You could have faced different charges on the basis of that quantity, and your posting, as well as your admission that it was to supply someone else.” The judge agreed the appropriate sentence was community detention, with a weekend curfew, imposing the sentence for three months. However, he added six months of supervision and made a destruction order for the cannabis and equipment. Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 and is currently an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Maori issues. Read...

New Zealand ticketing and event listing business Eventfinda has sold to Ticketek. Read...

A couple years ago, I finally said goodbye to my old bucket of a car and dove back into debt with a new one. Besides the stability and peace of mind that come with a fresh-out-of-the-factory car, what I really hoped for was that I’d be able to properly enjoy Spotify while driving. And I could… except my entertainment system was a wired model, which meant I had to plug in my phone every time. That got annoying fast. See, while my car technically has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, it doesn’t do it wirelessly. I have to plug in with a cable and wait for it all to come alive. Sure, it works… but it’s also annoying. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry Fortunately, I searched around and eventually found a little gadget that fixes my issue for me—a wireless adapter that only cost me $50. That might seem like a lot, but I decided it was reasonable after some price comparisons and realizing how much convenience it would afford me on a day-to-day basis. I’m talking about the CarlinKit 5.0, which is small, out of the way, and works with a wide range of cars. I love how easy it was to set up. I just had to plug it into my car’s USB port, turn on my phone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and connect it to the wireless adapter. In a snap, I had instant access to my car’s entertainment system (either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, depending on what phone you have). It literally took only minutes. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry These days, I forget I even have it—it’s that seamless. I just plop down into my car and my phone automatically connects to the CarlinKit, launching Android Auto with Waze and Spotify. It’s been 2.5 years and it’s still one of the best things I’ve bought for my car. It’s reliable, it’s effective, and it doesn’t overheat (which my phone used to do when I had to plug it in directly). Maybe my phone’s battery drains a bit faster via wireless, but that’s not a big deal since I can always plug it in and charge via my car if necessary. Where to get it CarlinKit 5.0 Wireless Adapter Best Prices Today: $54.48 at Amazon The only issue I’ve had with the CarlinKit? Every few weeks or so, it acts up and I have to give it the good ol’ unplug-and-plug-it-back-in maneuver. There’s also a spot a few miles from my house where there’s enough interference to kill my phone-to-adapter connection until I pass through. These are inconveniences, but minor ones. Neither is enough to ever get me to give up this wireless Android Auto adapter. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry If you have a wired Android Auto or Apple CarPlay setup and you hate plugging in every time, I highly recommend the CarlinKit 5.0. The Motorola Sound MA1 and AAWireless Two were also on my shortlist, but those only work with Android Auto. Ultimately, I picked the CarlinKit since I might get an iPhone one day and wanted to ensure future compatibility. Turn your car`s Android Auto/Apple CarPlay wireless for just $50Buy now at Amazon Read...