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31 Jul 2025

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Quaking in our boots
What is behind the massive surge in reported earthquakes over recent weeks and is the 8.8 quake off the coast of Russia the end of this cluster? And what do aliens have to do with this -- best check with social media for all the inside information!

Black Caps v Zimbabwe: Matt Henry takes six wickets as New Zealand seize advantage in Bulawayo
Even after losing the toss, New Zealand outplayed their hosts on day one.

Matt Henry takes six wickets to put Black Caps on top of Zimbabwe in first test
The fifth five-wicket bag of Henry's test career followed three last year, where he finished with 48 wickets at an average of 18.58 from nine matches.

Recap: Black Caps unbeaten in reply to Zimbabwe’s 149 on day one of first test
Follow live coverage of the first test between the Black Caps and Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

Corsair’s new decked-out Ryzen mini PC is perfect for AI enthusiasts
Mini PCs are exploding in popularity as an affordable alternative to laptops. Even Corsair is entering the market… though it probably won’t appeal to quite the same people. The new AI Workstation 300 is—you guessed it—designed for AI developers, powered by a Ryzen AI Max laptop chip and shipping with absolute gobs of memory and storage. The tiny machine (measuring just 247.5mm or 9.7 inches on its longest side) can be equipped with either a Ryzen AI Max 385 or Max+ 395 processor, with 8 or 16 primary cores, respectively. And it maxes out at 128GB of LPDDR5X memory and 4TB of storage (double M.2 2TB). All that power is surprisingly reasonable in terms of price, with the base model going for $1,600 while the upgraded version is $2,000. That said, this isn’t Corsair’s usual desktop fare aimed at enthusiast gamers. While the Radeon 8050S or 8060S GPUs are pretty powerful for integrated chips, they’re still, well, integrated, and so won’t even compete with mid-range discrete cards. You also won’t be able to upgrade the laptop-based CPU, though that crazy powerhouse will last you quite a while before you’d even want to. Corsair Rather, this thing is designed as a tiny and relatively cheap AI workstation. All that RAM can be dynamically split between CPU and GPU for cranking up local large language models, among other AI applications. The open-source Jan AI and AMD’s own Amuse interface for Stable Diffusion are called out on the promotional page. With this, Corsair is competing with other small workstation machines, like HP’s Z2 Mini G1a, which uses the same Ryzen chips and integrated graphics. While I love the tiny physical design, I have to say that the rear panel is a little underwhelming, with cooling vents crowding out relatively few I/O options. You get single HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C, triple USB-A at various speeds, a headphone jack. On the front you get two more USB-A, one more USB-C, another headphone jack and… an SD card slot. Huh. Corsair says the AI Workstation 300 is available immediately, but less than a day after its launch the US storefront is showing both models as backordered. It looks like plenty of people want this thing.

This high-capacity solar power bank is down to its lowest price
When you’re out and about in the city, a regular power bank can serve you pretty well… but when you’re out in the wilderness with no outlets in sight, a normal power bank will only get you so far. For hiking and camping, you’re better off with something like this solar-powered power bank for $25.49 on Amazon (was $40). At this price, it’s the cheapest it’s ever been, making it the perfect time to snag one for your trips. But the price isn’t the only thing that’s insane about this solar power bank! You’re looking at a jaw-dropping capacity of 42,800mAh, which is enough to charge your phone about eight times over (give or take, depending on your phone’s model). It has two USB-A ports, so you can charge two devices at once. This power bank also has a built-in LED flashlight that lasts up to a continuous 100 hours on a full charge. When it’s depleted, it can be recharged via solar (might take a couple of days) or via USB-C (much faster at about 10.5 hours). And you have nothing to worry about when you take it hiking or camping, as it’s ruggedly waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof for peace of mind. Frankly, it’s an incredible gadget for just over $25, so you should really snag one on sale while you can. Again, it’s the cheapest it’s ever been, and it’s even great as a backup for home power outages. Get this massive solar-powered power bank for only $25Buy now at Amazon