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17 Jul 2025

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Boxing: Sonny Bill Williams v Paul Gallen
Williams had a point deducted as the Australian claimed the bragging rights with a split decision win in Sydney.

Khandallah murder trial: Lead detective to be questioned by defence
The defence says police developed tunnel vision while investigating Julia DeLuney, after the murder of her mother, Helen Gregory.

Legislation that lets workers talk about salaries likely to pass into law
The Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill has passed its second reading.

MPI accuses researchers of scaremongering over campylobacter death rates
The Public Health Communication Centre says hospitalisations caused by contaminated chicken meat have increased by almost 70 percent in 17 years.

Media Insider podcast: Markets with Madison host Madison Malone – why I’m going it alone; the rise of independent journalists
Going it alone: Business show host on her new path and the demise of tall poppy syndrome.

I love this $13 ethernet switch so much, I bought 3 of them
We all think of wireless when it comes to smart home and home entertainment—Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Thread, Z-Wave, and what have you—but a surprising number of smart devices depend on good, old-fashioned wired ethernet for the best performance. The Philips Hue Bridge? Needs an ethernet cable. Got an Apple TV streaming box? It does Wi-Fi, but ethernet makes it better. That smart hub? An ethernet cable would certainly boost its reliability. Running a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X? A respectable K/D ratio demands ethernet. All those ethernet cables and ports will add up, though, and most Wi-Fi and mesh routers only serve up a handful of ethernet connections—or, most likely, only a single extra port. That’s why I’ve been investing in ethernet switches, and my favorite—this unmanaged 5-port gigabit ethernet bridge from TP-Link—is just $13, good for a 35% savings. Plenty of other configurations are also available, including an 8-port gigabit switch for $27.99 (30% off), 16 ports for $59.99 (33% off), and even 48 ports for $179.99 (25% off). I have three of the 5-port TP-Link bridges in my smart home: one sits under my desk, connected to my PC, my Philips Hue Bridge, and my HDHomeRun over-the-air TV tuner. The link port is connected to my mesh Wi-Fi router, and the fifth port is connecting to… yes, another ethernet bridge. My second bridge lives in a steel cabinet in the corner of the office, and it’s all about the Raspberry Pi’s–four of them, to be exact. Those Raspberry Pi boards run a series of locally hosted applications, including HomeBridge, an app that lets me bring non-HomeKit smart devices into the Apple Home app; Home Assistant, an open-source smart home platform I’ve been tinkering with; and Plex, a self-hosted media server and DVR that works with my HDHomeRun TV tuner. My Raspberry Pi systems will work just fine over Wi-Fi, but a rock-solid ethernet connection makes them far more reliable, especially for streaming media. Finally, my third TP-Link ethernet switch sits in the living room behind my TV, where it’s connected to my Apple TV 4K, my PlayStation 5, and my Denon AVR-x1600H, ensuring perfectly smooth streaming video, cutting down on gaming latency, and preventing audio dropouts when streaming tunes via AirPlay. Setting up these TP-Link ethernet bridges is a snap; because they’re unmanaged (meaning they can’t assign IP addresses on their own), it’s really just a matter of connecting the link port to a nearby Wi-Fi router or mesh hub and then plugging in your ethernet devices. You can have multiple ethernet switches downstream, meaning you can daisy-chain them if necessary. An AC adapter with a small wall wart supplies the power. I’ve been rocking these particular TP-Link switches for years now and have never had any problems; I highly recommend them if you’re running out of ethernet ports in your smart home or home theater setup—the more the merrier. Snag a TP-Link TL-SG105 5-port gigabit ethernet switch for $12.99Buy on Amazon

MBIE warns it will need 100-300 extra staff to review current laws under Regulatory Standards Bill
But David Seymour says the estimate speaks to the agency's productivity, and suggests AI could pick up some of the work.

Freezing fog and black ice on South Island's State Highways 8 and 80
The Transport Agency is warning drivers to avoid travelling in affected areas, if possible.

The return of the property investor - but why?
Property is still seen as a "trusted" asset class for investors.

How friendly fire torpedoed a mayoral campaign
Leaks, lies and leadership. The Wellington mayoral race was shaping up to be dull - but now a dirty politics scandal is splitting the capital.

Commerce Commission chairman John Small defends LinkedIn post about Uber
John Small said his LinkedIn post was intended to show how competition works in practice.

This Ryzen AI 2-in-1 laptop with 16GB RAM has never been cheaper
It’s getting increasingly difficult to find a good deal when it comes to Windows laptops. Oh, you can find deals, sure enough, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to run Windows 11 (to say nothing of a dozen browser tabs) on a typical budget laptop with 8GB RAM. Today, Best Buy is selling a respectable Ryzen AI-powered HP laptop with a big touchscreen and 16GB of RAM for just $529.99. That’s a whopping $370 off. The HP OmniBook X Flip is a form factor you don’t often see these days, with a relatively large 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS screen that’s also touch-capable and can fold back on itself, yoga-style. That extra space also gives the laptop room for big upward-firing speakers, though the keyboard is standard size and the 68-watt-hour battery could be bigger—especially considering the weight, a little over 4 pounds. This laptop isn’t quite in “desktop replacement” territory, but it’s certainly not designed for lugging around all day long either. All that said, this thing is shockingly powerful considering the price. With an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor, it’s packing six primary cores and integrated Radeon 840M graphics, which is some of the best you can get without splurging on a discrete graphics card. That makes this laptop a great choice for students who might want to do a little gaming after wrapping up their homework. The 16GB of memory and 512GB of SSD storage are also pretty good at this price, too. Ports could be better, especially at this size. You get two USB-C (including charging), two USB-A, and full-sized HDMI. I do have to admit, though, that putting both USB-C ports on one side of the laptop annoys me, especially for a 2-in-1 that’ll be squeezed into non-standard positions. For a deeper dive into this design, check out PCWorld’s full review (but note that the review unit is an Intel model with different specs, so performance and battery life might vary greatly). Best Buy is running this as a standard sale without any obvious time limits, so it might stick around for a while. If this doesn’t quite strike your fancy, check out our picks for the best laptops in every category. Get a 16-inch Ryzen AI 2-in-1 laptop with 16GB RAM for only $530Buy now from Best Buy