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30 Jun 2025

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'Holes right through the ceiling': Taranaki woman shares terror of tornado
Waitara woman Shirlene Paterson recounts the moment it hit her 100-year-old house in the early hours of the morning.

Bougainville finally gets all Rio shares in Bougainville Copper
The Papua New Guinea government has announced it is going ahead with a handover of shares in Bougainville Copper Ltd to the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). The former owner, Rio...

Devon Funds Morning Note - 25 June 2025
US stocks surged on Tuesday while oil prices fell heavily again as investors took the view that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran will be an enduring one. After being frustrated by some initial breaches

Kiwi Steven Alker shares lead in PGA Tour Champions major
New Zealander Steven Alker shared the lead with Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez after the third round in the Kaulig Companies Championship.

What's going on with Briscoes shares?
The price lifted from less than $5 at the start of the month to $6.19 this week.

LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W review: This huge OLED monitor packs TV smarts
At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Attractive design and good build quality Great image quality in both SDR and HDR Versatile webOS with smart TV features USB-C input with Power Delivery Cons Not as sharp as most current OLED monitors Speakers are included, but weak Confusing menu system Our Verdict The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is a gigantic 39-inch ultrawide monitor that can double as a smart television, for better and for worse. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W Retailer Price $1,299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Blink and you’d miss it, but it’s true. Smart gaming monitors are here. Both LG and Samsung now offer monitors marketed at gamers that include a fully functional TV operating system that works much as it does on each brand’s smart TVs. The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W brings this concept to a big, beautiful OLED panel. It looks great, but it’s not perfect. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparison. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W specs and features The most notable specification on the LG UltraGear 39GX90SA-W’s spec sheet is its size. It’s a 39-inch ultrawide with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and while a 39-inch display may not sound significantly larger than a 34-inch ultrawide, it results in a 31 percent increase in display area. Put simply, the 39-inch LG feels way bigger than a 34-inch alternative. Display size: 39-inch 21:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3440×1440 Panel type: WOLED Refresh rate: Up to 240Hz Adaptive Sync: Yes, Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium, Nvidia G-Sync Compatible HDR: HDR 10, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 CertifiedHDR Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts of Power Delivery, 1x Ethernet, 2x USB-A (2.0), 1x 3.5mm audio-out Additional features: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, remote control, LG webOS Audio: Speakers included Warranty: 2-year parts and labor warranty Price: $1,599.99 MSRP, $1,299.99 retail at time of review The 39GX90SA-W is also notable because it includes LG’s webOS smart television operating system. It works just as it does on an LG Smart TV and provides access to a wide variety of apps, as well as connectivity to many digital content libraries, like movies you might have purchased through YouTube. It even supports cloud gaming services like GeForce Now. Pricing is high, though not more than expected. The retail MSRP is $1,599.99, but a glance at price tracking websites shows the sale price of $1,199.99 is more typical. That’s expensive but expected for a huge, high-end OLED monitor. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W design The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is a 39-inch ultrawide monitor with an aggressive 800R curve. Though obviously not as large as 45-inch ultrawide alternatives, it has serious presence and takes up a lot of space on a desk. The aggressive curve stands out immediately and will prove polarizing. If you like a curved monitor, it’s great. If not, you’ll have trouble putting up with it. Size and curved display aside, the 39GX90SA benefits from an alluring ultra-white design. The rear panel and display stand both feature a stark, clean, almost clinical look that will fit in with minimalist desk setups. Most of the monitor’s materials are plastic, but the bottom half of the stand is metal, and the plastics used were sturdy when I picked up the monitor. Matthew Smith / Foundry The stand is huge. It includes a broad neck, a large base, and a deep reach that places the ultrawide display panel relatively close to the user’s face. It can be difficult, or impossible, to find an ideal position if your desk is less than 30 inches deep, or less than 50 inches wide. That’s to be expected given the 39GX90SA’s huge ultrawide screen, but it’s still important to keep in mind. Most people will find a 34-inch ultrawide a better fit for their desk. Even so, LG’s design is a win. It’s at least as premium as Samsung’s Odyssey G8 and G9 monitors, and more attractive than recent alternatives from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI (among other brands). It works especially well as a mixed-used monitor in a room that serves as a home office during the day and a gaming den at night. The aggressive curve stands out immediately and will prove polarizing. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W connectivity Connectivity is mostly a highlight for the LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W, with a few caveats. On the plus side, the monitor includes a lot of video connectivity. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. That’s a total of four video inputs and a good range of options for connecting laptops, desktops, and game consoles. The USB-C port also supports data and up to 65 watts of Power Delivery. I’m happy to see a USB-C port with Power Delivery included, as it reinforces the monitor’s identity as a display for both work and play. Owners can use a single cable to connect and charge a thin-and-light laptop that has USB-C. The monitor’s additional connectivity includes two USB-A ports (both USB 2.0) and Ethernet. The Ethernet port is useful if you plan to make the most of the monitor’s smart connectivity, which I’ll get to shortly. If you don’t have Ethernet handy, however, that’s fine: The monitor also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A 3.5mm audio jack rounds out the connectivity. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W menus and features LG calls the Ultragear 39GX90SA-W a “smart gaming monitor.” What does that mean? It’s basically a smart TV. While it lacks a TV tuner (meaning it can’t accept cable or antenna TV input), it otherwise works much like any LG television that runs LG’s webOS. It provides a huge variety of streaming apps, from Netflix to Crunchyroll, and even supports cloud gaming apps like GeForce Now (which means you can technically game without a PC or console by connecting a Bluetooth game controller to the monitor). WebOS is quick, attractive, and easy to understand. However, the 39GX90SA-W suffers a few problems when it comes to how the monitor interacts with PC inputs. For example, when a new PC input is connected, the monitor will ask if you’d like to switch to that input. The prompt doesn’t stay on-screen for long, though, so I often found it had disappeared by the time I climbed out from under my desk to connect my desktop. I also had small but noticeable issues with the responsiveness of the monitor’s on-screen menu, which occasionally hesitated as I moved through options. I even encountered a loading screen icon while swapping between monitor menus. That’s not something you’ll see on a monitor that lacks a smart TV operating system. This is most obvious when using the Game Optimizer mode. Opening the on-screen menu in this mode opens a Ultragear-branded menu that otherwise doesn’t appear. It doesn’t support adjusting many features, however, and the swap from the Ultragear menu to the standard menu takes a few seconds, during which a loading icon appears. On the other hand, the 39GX90SA-W ships with a compact remote that provides easy access to monitor options. While the menu system’s sometimes slow performance is annoying, it’s less annoying than adjusting monitor menus using a joystick or buttons on the monitor itself (a joystick is still found on the monitor, though, in case you lose the remote). The streaming apps I tested, such as YouTube and Netflix, worked as expected. Matthew Smith / Foundry Speakers are bundled in the 39GX90SA-W, but they’re not loud enough to be useful in most situations. I found them tepid at maximum volume even in my home office, which has no significant noise besides my home HVAC. The 39GX90SA-W’s speakers could hardly compete with that. I’m not sure everyone will find the 39GX90SA-W’s smart features a win, but it’s always interesting to see them on a big, ultrawide monitor. This is effectively a 39-inch ultrawide smart TV—something that doesn’t exist in the traditional HDTV market. It’s unfortunately not large enough for use in most TV dens, but I do think this concept will appeal to shoppers mostly interested in viewing movies or playing PC games. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W SDR image quality The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W utilizes an LG WOLED panel. These panels have been tested in numerous monitors and are generally slightly less vibrant compared to Samsung’s QD OLED panels, although they still perform well in terms of contrast and brightness. The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W remains on-script. Matthew Smith / Foundry I measured a sustained SDR brightness of about 246 nits from the 39GX90SA-W. As the graph shows, that is a typical level of brightness for a modern OLED monitor in SDR. Although it’s not especially bright, it’s enough for use in a room with some light control, like blinds or curtains. If you are sitting near sunlit windows, however, glare can become an issue. The monitor has a semi-gloss coat, but its aggressive curve can have the effect of focusing light sources depending on their angle, which can amplify glare. Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is a strength of OLED panels. They can reach a minimum brightness of zero nits, which means they have an effectively infinite contrast ratio. The result is the deep, immersive image that propelled OLED to the top of image quality rankings. The 39GX90SA-W is no exception, but it also doesn’t stand out. All the OLED panels found on modern monitors reach a minimum luminance of zero nits, so there’s no meaningful difference here. Still, contrast is a key reason to select the 39GX90SA-W instead of an ultrawide LCD competitor. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 39GX90SA-W’s color gamut spans 100 percent of sRGB as well as 96 percent of DCI-P3 and 88 percent of Adobe RGB when tested in the standard monitor preset. That’s an excellent result and enough to provide a vibrant, highly saturated image that most people will find pleasing. As the graph shows, QD-OLED monitors like the Alienware AW3425DW tend to have slightly better color saturation. The advantage is subtle, but noticeable, though the LG’s color gamut is still excellent. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 39GX90SA-W has good color accuracy in its standard image preset, although as the graph shows, it’s not the best in its category. The image looks realistic, and I had difficulty noticing any major color issues aside from color temperature. It is important to note that the monitor offers a comprehensive range of image quality presets, including expert presets. These presets significantly enhance color accuracy, reducing the average color error to an impressive 0.85. In standard mode, the gamma was 2.3, which is above my target of 2.2, and the color temperature was 7400 K—which is cooler and more sterile than the preferred 6500 K. The expert image quality preset again improved matters dramatically, shifting both gamma and color temperature to our preference. Sharpness, however, is a problem that can’t be mitigated. The 39GX90SA-W has a native resolution of 3440×1440, which is typical of most ultrawide monitors. But most alternatives have a smaller 34-inch panel, and spreading the same number of pixels across a 39-inch panel noticeably degrades sharpness. Small fonts have clear pixelation and color artifacts around them, while small buttons and interface elements can look blocky. It’s tolerable, but the 39GX90SA-W is not for those who want a crystal-clear display. The 39GX90SA-W’s overall image quality is good, but it’s a bit below-average for an OLED monitor. It shares common OLED strengths, including an incredible contrast ratio and wide color gamut. However, LG’s WOLED still doesn’t rival Samsung’s QD-OLED in color volume, and the 39GX90SA-W’s sharpness will be an issue for eagle-eyed buyers. It’s an attractive display but doesn’t stand out from the OLED crowd. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W HDR Image Quality LG’s UltraGear 39GX90SA-W supports HDR and is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certified. That’s the typical level of certification for an OLED monitor. However, as the graph below shows, the monitor can reach a higher level of brightness than that certification would suggest, with a maximum sustained HDR brightness of 783.5 nits. Matthew Smith / Foundry When I compare the 39GX90SA-W to its competitors I’m forced to repeat myself, as once again it performs about as well as most other OLED monitors on the market. Its HDR brightness figures are similar to recently tested WOLED monitors. Samsung QD-OLED are currently a better choice for HDR overall, but I wouldn’t call it a night-and-day difference, and it should only sway you if HDR performance is among your top priorities. Still, I was pleased with the LG’s HDR picture. It’s vivid in most scenes and games, with only scenes that attempt to push brightness across the entire display really challenging the monitor. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W motion performance The LG UltraGear 39GX90SA-W has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, which provides a buttery-smooth image in PC games that can reach frame rates that high. It also benefits from OLED’s low pixel response time, which drops as low as 0.03 milliseconds. In practice, this further reduces motion blur. As a bonus, it also translates to relatively minor motion blur at lower refresh rates (like 60Hz or 120Hz). There’s more to it than just motion clarity, because the monitor also provides broad adaptive sync support with official support for Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync standards. While most monitors that support any of these will also unofficially work with all three, it’s good to see official support to give gamers peace of mind. As with other aspects of the 39GX90SA-W, the monitor’s only downside is that it’s basically the same as other OLEDs on the market. There’s a very wide variety of monitors that have a 240Hz refresh rate or higher, so while the LG looks great in fast-paced games, it doesn’t look better than the competition. Should you buy the LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W? The Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is another competent entry into LG’s ever-growing line-up of OLED monitors. It delivers an immersive, colorful, contrast-rich image with superb motion clarity, though it suffers from sub-par sharpness. The monitor also provides LG’s webOS smart TV operating system with access to familiar apps including Netflix and GeForce Now, alongside Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. That means it can serve as an all-in-one gaming and entertainment display even without a PC attached. That makes the 39GX90SA-W alluring if you want an ultrawide monitor that’s larger and more feature-rich than most competitors. If you don’t care about smart features in your monitor, however, a smaller and less expensive alternative like the Alienware AW3425DW will make more sense.

US stocks rise to the brink of a record and recover nearly all their 20% springtime drop
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and is sitting just 0.05% below its all-time closing high, which was set in February.

US stocks hang near record
US stocks are hanging near their all-time high, bolstered by hopes that the Israel-Iran war will not disrupt the global flow of crude oil.

US stocks rally on hopes Iran will not disrupt global flow of crude oil
Iran has the ability to block access to much of the world’s oil, but it would also hurt its own economy by doing so.

Billy breaks down Game 2 and the path to Game 3 | The Billy Slater Podcast EP 17
Maroons coach Billy Slater breaks down Queensland's crucial Game 2 victory, revealing how "we changed our discipline" to level the series. Billy also shares his insights on the NRL's tight competition, praises Penrith's young guns, comments on the "hole" the Titans find themselves in, and marvels at the Storm's unique balance. Plus, hear Billy's thoughts on Canberra's young spine, the "Billy Ms," listener questions, Ampol Power Surge picks, and a look ahead to Round 17.

Windows 10 is dying as scams skyrocket. We asked a security expert for advice
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus hot news from across the web. This week, we dive into security with ethical hacker Mike Danseglio. Among our topics: Windows 10, Linux, DNS, those USB drives Adam keeps picking up off trade show floors. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox every Friday? Sign up to The Full Nerd on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd… In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, and special guest Mike Danseglio chat about the likely security implications of Windows 10’s coming death, scams, and a heck of a lot more related to online security. (I may have definitely sidetracked us with questions about DNS security.) We cover so much ground the episode runs a full three hours! We fightin’Willis Lai / Foundry When Windows 10’s end of life arrives this October, will you switch to Windows 11? Or is your PC too old to make the jump? It’s a divide that many won’t be able to cross, and so we ask Mikey for his thoughts on what behavior he expects to see.The resulting conversation ends up crossing through multiple lanes, but the heart of the question peers into what we enthusiasts do versus what most mainstream users will end up doing. Does Linux once again pop up as a topic? You betcha. With scams continuing to rise, we also pick Mikey’s brain on not just what to expect, but also how to protect ourselves against the onslaught. Once again, we zigzag our way through multiple branches of related thought, including why certain forms of modern communication have vulnerabilities. AKA: Why SMS is such a weak form of communication from a security perspective, and why it’s not as well-protected as DNS resolution—also a system with known vulnerabilities. Normally our Q&A section of episodes is lighthearted, but this time Mikey and I put up our dukes and square off. (The reason: I may have proposed to Mikey that maybe writing down passwords on paper isn’t such a bad idea after all.) Overall, we cover even more ground about password managers, when a passkey is ideal, two-factor authentication, and when to choose a passkey vs a password. Among other things that cause more sparring. Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s best PC hardware nerd news Remember this? I bet you didn’t want to.Microsoft Why is it that most security news is grim? Two alerts went out in recent days about severe flaws—and that’s not unusual these days. (Perhaps that’s why I’m losing so much hair.) But not everything of note is dark. Turns out, when you lose a garage, you can gain an unexpected retro battlestation find. A hacker could steal encryption keys from your AMD Ryzen CPU: If you have an AMD Ryzen 3000 series or newer processor, patch its firmware pronto. The newest AGESA update fixes a flaw that allows an attacker to send commands to your TPM—which would put your encryption keys (e.g., Bitlocker), biometric data (e.g., Windows Hello), and other stored secrets (e.g., passwords) at risk. A critical flaw in Asus Armoury Crate lets hackers take over: Running Asus’ all-in-one app on your PC? Update it ASAP. A vulnerability that lets hackers have full Windows admin rights has been found—a pretty nasty security hazard. Cloud gaming is winning? Brad’s long-running advice of leaning on GeForce Now’s cloud gaming has taken root at last. A study suggests a majority of gamers under 40 are open to the idea of cloud gaming, so long as latency issues were minimized—at least, that’s the vibe while GPU prices are so high. DDR4 is reaching an end: Two weeks ago, I shared news about increasing DDR4 prices, and how that could effectively kill AMD’s AM4 as a platform. I did not want to be right about that, much less how fast that demise may be coming. I’m legitimately bummed. What year is it? Windows Insiders got an unexpected jolt from the past when Windows 11 started using Windows Vista’s boot sound. As reminders of rough periods in Windows history goes, this isn’t the worst that could have happened to the Windows faithful (no other way of really classifying Insiders), but Vista still is second-to-last in my rankings. At least it wasn’t Windows ME. Ugh. The RCA Spectra 70/35 control panel discovered. So cool! SonOfaDeadMeme / Reddit Lose a garage, gain a RCA Spectra 70/35 terminal: A Redditor shares a surprise finding on r/retrobattlestations—an rare IBM control panel from the 60s, which was just quietly living out its retirement days in a garage until its discovery. This older Anker power bank is a fire hazard: Not quite enthusiast news, but worth a PSA. Anker’s been having a rough spell of it—four power bank recalls in just over two years. This latest one affects an older 10,000mAh models sold between 2016 and 2022. If you’re affected, get your free replacement ASAP, as the recall is prompted by reports of burns, fires, and explosions, plus cumulative property damage totalling over $60,000. Microsoft is making PC gaming great again? I wasn’t around for the dark years, but based on the bleakness of the stories told by grizzled vets (aka TFN conspirators Brad & Will), Microsoft having its Xbox team work with its Windows team to “make Windows the number one platform for gaming” may herald a new era we’ve never seen before. At least, hopefully less traumatic than the 00s. Framework’s latest 2-in-1 DIY laptop is pretty neat: I’m the perfect audience for this. I like 2-in-1 form factors, I like building things, and I like the idea of being able to swap the motherboard/CPU combo for something newer down the road. Price isn’t bad, either. Worried about your GPU’s 16-pin power connector? This RTX card uses its RGB lighting to warn you of danger: People love to hate on RGB, but you know what? You can’t argue with this practical use of color contrast. (Yes, the melting shouldn’t be an issue, but sometimes we don’t get what we expect in life.) AMD reveals benchmarks of Ryzen Threadripper 9000: This info comes direct from AMD, so as usual, wait for benchmarks to prove these claims. But for the moment, it looks like AMD’s next gen of HEDT chips will provide between 16 to 25 percent uplift compared to Zen 4 Threadripper. Zoom zoom. Summer starts this Friday in the U.S.—and while I’ll be the oddball updating some of my security practices to match Mikey’s suggestions, I’m still very happy about the longest day of the year falling right on a weekend. Catch you all next week! -Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.