NZCity NewsLinks -

All Links

24 May 2025

Search

Wow! This Acer OLED laptop with 16GB RAM is over $500 off
Typically with laptop deals, you have to settle for specs that are a year or two out of date. Not so with the Acer Swift 16 AI, which has an 8-core Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor. Paired to 16GB of RAM and an OLED touchscreen, it’s a pretty serious little machine. Today, you can get it refurbished for just $690—that’s over $500 off the retail price. Those looking for a little extra breathing room for work will appreciate the 16-inch 2880×1800 screen, which will also look gorgeous for video and some light gaming thanks to the OLED panel. Other highlights include 16GB of RAM—the bare minimum I would suggest for Windows 11—plus a full 1TB SSD, an infrared camera for Windows Hello, and an extended keyboard with a number pad area. There are plenty of ports too, with double USB-C, double USB-A, and full-sized HDMI. You can read more about it in PCWorld’s Acer Swift 16 AI review, and it looks like the model on sale at eBay is the same as our review unit. Note that this is a refurbished laptop, and even though it’s being sold by the official Acer account, it’s “eBay Refurbished,” which means a 2-year Allstate warranty. That’s longer than usual from the factory, though probably not as seamless to actually claim. If this one is just above your price range, check out this Asus Vivobook deal for $550, which is still on sale at the time of writing. We’ve got other picks for the best affordable laptop deals, too! Get a 16-inch Acer OLED laptop with 16GB RAM for $690Buy now on eBay

My favorite USB accessory? This $6 retractable 3-in-1 charging cable
Phone chargers are a pain in the neck. It’s great that Apple has finally been forced to use USB-C on its latest devices, but for years my iPhone-using friends and I were stuck with mismatched proprietary cables. We could never help each other when our phone batteries dipped low. My gripes with charging cables don’t end there. I hate that they tangle up if you so much as look at them wrong. I hate that they aren’t pocket portable, especially the longer lengths. And I hate that there are so many different standards—not just for the connector types, but also for charging speeds. Some cables simply can’t fast charge. But this little charging cable changed all that for me. It’s got USB-C, Micro USB, and Lightning connectors built into a single head, and it’s fully retractable so it never takes up space. I can carry it with me in my pocket, and I can share it with friends when they need to top up their phones—even if we have different device types. It also reaches up to 3.3 feet in length, which is plenty long enough for me most of the time. Jon Martindale / Foundry The only real downside is that it isn’t very fast, and it’s doubly unimpressive when charging two devices at once. But if you need a dirt-cheap compact charging cable that’s compatible with most recent-generation devices, I highly recommend this one. It comes in a two-pack for $12, so that’s just $6 each. Split with a friend if you don’t need both. Buy 3-in-1 retractable USB charging cable There are other multi-head charging cables out there, ones that look like a hydra with one cable splitting into multiple cables. Those might even be faster than the one I have. But I like that mine has all the connectors on a single triple-prong head. Those hydra-style cables are rarely retractable, and the ones that are still tend to tangle easily. Speaking of retractable, the spring-loaded windup of this charging cable is a real treat. To extend it, you just grab both ends and pull—it’ll run out to about a yard before maxing out. When you’re done, simply give it a light tug like you would for window blinds. It’ll zip right back up, winding into itself for a clean tuck-away, neat and tidy for when you need it. Jon Martindale / Foundry Again, my only wish is that it charged faster. It’s not bad, mind you. It supports up to 15W through USB-C and up to 12W through Lightning, with less power through Micro USB and even less if you split the power by charging multiple devices at once. But it’s fast enough for overnight charging or a supplementary top-up during the day. And that’s the best way to think of this retractable 3-in-1 charging cable. It’s a supplementary helper for emergencies. It’s super portable and widely versatile. Any device, any time, you can get a little boost of juice when you’re running lower than expected. I use it to charge my phone and my Logitech G915 TKL wireless keyboard that frustratingly still relies on a Micro USB connection to charge. So, just know that if you stop by my place with a dying phone, I’ll have a charging cable you can use. No need to bring your own. It won’t be the fastest, but if you’re used to Lightning charging, you’re not exactly at the cutting edge of power delivery anyway, are you? Buy 3-in-1 retractable USB charging cable

Ultra Violette proves tech transformation is a team sport
Australian skincare brand Ultra Violette credits its rapid international growth to strong team alignment alongside new NetSuite tech, not just systems alone.

Biwin unveils record-breaking PCIe 5.0 SSD in 1TB/2TB/4TB options
At Computex 2025, Biwin presented a brand-new PCIe 5.0 SSD called the Black Opal X570 Pro, which reaches sequential read speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s and almost fully realizes the potential of the PCIe 5.0 interface. The M.2 2280 SSD is connected via four PCIe 5.0 channels and comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. The Pro model is equipped with the Silicon Motions SM2508 SSD controller, which Biwin provides with a DRAM cache to buffer write access. The cache is 1 GB per 1 TB of storage capacity. This means the 2TB and 4TB versions of the X570 Pro can reach sequential write speeds of up to 13,000 MB/s, whereas the 1TB version (with only 1GB cache) doesn’t exceed 12,000 MB/s. Biwin claims that its new SSD can achieve up to 1.6 million input and output commands per second (IOPS) for random writing and 2 million IOPS for reading. Biwin also intends to offer a slightly cheaper version called the Black Opal X570, which dispenses with the additional DRAM cache and buffers write access in a reserved memory space area, which is then addressed as an SLC cache, which costs speed when writing. Biwin specifies sequential write speeds of up to 7,800 MB/s (1TB model), 10,000 MB/s (2TB model), and 11,000 MB/s (4TB model). Sequential read speeds are very high at 14,000 MB/s, 14,500 MB/s, and 14,500 MB/s, respectively. There are also major differences between the three storage capacities for random read and write. The 1TB model achieves 1.6 million input and 1 million output commands per second; the 2TB model reaches 2 million input and 1.4 million output; and the 4TB model can deliver up to 2 million input and 1.5 million output. Biwin offers a five-year warranty on both X570 and X570 Pro SSDs. Prices haven’t yet been finalized.