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24 May 2025

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Google’s Will Smith double is better at eating AI spaghetti … but it’s crunchy?
Veo 3 is a major leap in AI video synthesis, but the sound effects need more cooking time.

Rotorua airshed loses its polluted status
Once breathing NZ's worst winter air, the city has shed its 20-year-old 'polluted' label.

On The Up: Drone-maker Syos Aerospace wins top honour at NZ Hi-Tech Awards
The company recently inked a $66.8m deal with the British Defence Force.

Mozilla is discontinuing Pocket and Fakespot
According to The Verge, Mozilla is officially shutting down Pocket, the web bookmarking service that was once known as Read It Later. The tool was integrated into Firefox back in 2015, then acquired by Mozilla in 2017 but continued to operate as an independent subsidiary. Pocket will stop working on July 8th, 2025. If you use Pocket, you’ll be able to export your data up until October 8th, 2025. After that point, Mozilla will permanently delete all user data. In July, Mozilla will also start cancelling paid Pocket subscription and issuing prorated refunds to anyone who prepaid for an annual plan. As of this writing, the Pocket extension and app have both been removed and made unavailable, but anyone who has previously installed either will be able to redownload until the October deadline. According to Mozilla, they’re discontinuing Pocket because “the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved” and they plan to focus their efforts more fully on Firefox. “This shift allows us to shape the next era of the internet—with tools like vertical tabs, smart search and more AI-powered features on the way. We’ll continue to build a browser that works harder for you: more personal, more powerful and still proudly independent.” In addition to Pocket, Mozilla is also shuttering its Fakespot fake reviews detector, which the company acquired in 2023. The Fakespot-powered Review Checker feature in Firefox will stop working on June 10th, 2025.

Digg founder pitches Mozilla to save Pocket
Pocket’s imminent demise has been bemoaned across the industry. Now, one entrepreneur has expressed interest in keeping it alive. Kevin Rose—who founded Digg.com, became a venture capitalist, and is now trying to bring Digg back—has petitioned Mozilla to let Digg take over Pocket. Rose published a tweet on X (via TechCrunch, which is owned by Foundry but operates independently of PCWorld) that both supports Pocket and petitions Mozilla to keep it going. “We love Pocket at @digg, happy to take it over and continue to support your users for years to come!” On May 22nd, Mozilla said that it would shut down both Pocket and Fakespot. Fakespot analyzes the authenticity of user reviews. Pocket, however, was a subscription service that allowed users to save posts and online articles for later—basically a bookmark, though Mozilla pitched it as an “online discovery app.” That description dovetails nicely with what Digg was, and presumably what it could be again. In 2010, Digg released a major redesign of its site, and users rebelled for a number of reasons, including a virtual monopoly of the site by a handful of power users as well as the removal of the “downvote” button. Now, Rose has a chance to once again win the internet’s favor with Digg’s revival—and this time he’s partnering with Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit. In the tweet, Rose also tagged Peter Rojas, who founded Gizmodo, Engadget, and Joystiq. If nothing else, Rose’s tweet won the upcoming revamped Digg some free publicity, which is what the site will need to succeed.

I love these 5 wild and weird PC cases from Computex
Computex 2025 is drawing to a close today, putting a period on a fairly sleepy convention—at least, compared to previous years. But while the big hardware announcements may have left PC building enthusiasts craving more, fun components still could be found around the show. Like PC cases. I haven’t been on the show floor, but I’m still pumped for the news that I’ve been devouring while at home. I wasn’t exactly planning a makeover for my rig just yet, but I’m now awfully tempted by what’s coming down the pipeline. Especially by one case in particular.(It’s not the one all my colleagues want.) Interested in all the best hardware out of Computex? Check out our staff’s picks! InWin ChronoMancy InWin IT'S TIME!!!! Presenting #InWin's newest signature chassis, ChronoMancy! Paying homage to InWin's 40th Anniversary. The blue top showcases iconic cases while the middle section opens completely with a press of a button or wave a wand! More details to come! #Computex2025 #Computex pic.twitter.com/hSokT2p8kO— InWin (@InWin) May 19, 2025 For its 40th anniversary, InWin pulled out all the stops. At Computex, the company unveiled the ChronoMancy, a jaw-dropping piece of spectacle that stands over 3 feet tall (!). This E-ATX case looks like a bit of wizardry with cyberpunk overtones—transparent blue plastic set against a sleek, dark gray aluminum body. When lit in a full build, the shimmering effect of RGB lighting makes the whole array look like a device meant to bring the dead to life. Personally, I dig how the rounded panels curve around to reveal the components inside, which stack like the spine of a mechanical beast. Also, the fact you can open this chassis with the wave of a wand. (You can also press a button, but that’s way more boring.) Sinking money into this likely super-expensive case seems like a good idea. Right? Right. Hyte X50 Air Hyte Call me a curmudgeon, but it feels like every case is a sharp-edged box these days. Don’t get me wrong—when the O11D first appeared on the scene, its clean lines provided a needed break from “gaming” cases that had aggressive ridges, fins, and slanted front panels. I never wanted the whole industry to lean so hard into that single look, though. Thankfully, Hyte is swimming upstream with delightfully (and literally) bubbly, colorful cases. Its X50 Air has me seriously considering putting cash down to rehome my current desktop build. I adore red PC cases, and they don’t often appear in the wild. But the X50 also sports pink, lime green, and periwinkle options in addition to standard white and black, too. Heck, as hard as I fell for the red color, even the white case could be fun for a project—maybe a “skittles” build? Use the white as a base for color accents from across the rainbow (custom cables, perhaps). Just peeks of color through the mesh panels could be cute, given the rounded, curved shape of the case edges. (Rather than incongruous on a sharp box.) An X50 variant with a glass panel exists as well, but nah. I love the meshy, huggable vibe of the X50 Air. Not for you? Just think of how you could tempt the kids in your life away from their consoles. SilverStone FLP-02 Willis Lai / Foundry I have to be honest—I love to hate this case. Just as with the neon vomit everyone associates with the 1980s, I also want to leave beige cases firmly in the 1990s. Not my coworkers, though. SilverStone made a beige throwback case as a joke awhile back, and the tech media took off with spreading word of it. And now we’re here with the SilverStone FLP-02. In the year of our lord 2025, did I expect a chassis with 5.25-inch bays, a front panel with grills dead center and along its edges, and even a turbo button? And also a lock? Nope. Are we getting one? Yep. Pretty sure my boss is going to be first in line for this ATX case, which he calls a piece of junk debris memorabilia out of a time machine. But one that is fully modern inside, despite its looks. I will grudgingly admit though—you could definitely use this as a sleeper build. Shove a RTX 5090 in it and never worry about it being stolen. You know, like those fake cans of soup you were supposed to hide your money and spare keys in, as seen in ’90s commercials. Yes, I remember. Phanteks Evolv2 Matrix GearSeekers / Phanteks Who really wants gigantic LCD screens inside their PC? Me, actually, but Phanteks showed off a case at Computex that has me potentially reconsidering. Perhaps I should be aiming for something a little more practical (aka visible)–but no less cool. The Evolv X2 Matrix has a fun extra at the bottom of its chassis—a display that shows text in a pixel font. Text that can scroll, to boot, wrapping from front panel to side without a hitch. The look perfectly blends retro vibes with enough modern style to turn my head. Somehow, seeing the sample temperature bars for your CPU and GPU rendered in blocky lines is just so charming. For a closer look, hit up this video from our friends over at GearSeekers. In Nick’s own words? “Huh, that’s pretty cool, I haven’t really seen that before.” Me either, dude—it’s slick. Even more fun? It apparently comes part of a line of Matrix cases. Also I realized plenty of room still exists for an AIO with a screen, so I’m now asking my future self: ¿Por qué no los dos? Cooler Master MasterFrame 360 Panoramic OC3D TV / Cooler Master Some people have expert-level cable management skills. (I do not.) But we can still aspire to such lofty heights—particularly when you have a good purchase to motivate you to improve. For me, that challenge buy would be the Cooler Master MasterFrame 360 Panoramic, which wraps glass around three sides of the case for a full view of the build. You can’t hide your frustrated attempts to quit cable management early with this chassis. Softening the harsh demand to git gud are the lovely curves on the front panel of the 360 Panoramic—I find the gentler aesthetic less intimidating. Sure, I don’t do custom water cooling (another solid skill to make the most of this look), but you know what? Do I really need to, when there are AIOs with gigantic screens I could feature inside? You may think seeing one fish tank style case means you’ve seen them all, but not anymore. You’ll understand when you take a closer look at the case, courtesy of OC3D TV.