NZCity NewsLinks -

All Links

26 Jun 2025

Search

Every home needs Anker’s 6-device charging station, now just $50
Regular power strips are great and all, but it’s time to upgrade because this Anker model is what every modern home craves. And now that it’s only $50 (down from $66), it’s a good time to snag one. I’m talking about the Anker Nano 6-in-1 Charging Station, which is kind of like a miniature power strip except it also has some USB ports built into it. That means you get two AC outlets on the flat face (for conventional plugs and devices) plus two USB-A and two USB-C ports along the bottom edge (for charging your phone, tablet, and everything else). With up to 67W of charging, it’s super fast and won’t keep you waiting. The beautiful thing about this charging station is how compact it is. Compared to the bulky power strip designs we’re all familiar with, this one from Anker is flat, slim, and shaped like a square. The extension cord is also thin and flat, reaching about 5 feet long, and the plug itself is also flat, so it can be fitted behind furniture if needed. All of this makes the Anker 6-in-1 charging station fantastic for homes, offices, and travel—take it with you to hotels and Airbnbs as a convenient way to keep all your devices charged off of a single wall outlet. Keep the TV plugged in and powered while you’re at it! Get yourself this uber-practical Anker Nano 6-in-1 Charging Station for $50 while you can! Who knows how long this price will hold. Anker's charging station powers up to 6 devices at onceBuy now at Amazon

Crucial X10 review: A killer portable SSD that’s tiny, fast, and weatherproof
At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Very fast over USB 3.2×2 Tiny, light, and IP65-rated Good looking Relatively affordable Cons Opts for 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 instead of USB4 Slows dramatically off secondary cache Our Verdict We applaud the tiny form-factor, light weight, and performance of the Crucial X10, and we love that it offers up to 8TB of capacity. It’s also reasonably priced given the speed and capacity. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Crucial X10 USB SSD Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Crucial’s X10 Pro was one of the most impressively small and fast USB SSDs I’ve tested. The new X10 that I review here is cheaper, almost as fast, and is available at up to twice the Pro’s 4TB maximum capacity. Yup, 8TB in same tiny form-factor. Color me doubly impressed. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparison. What are the Crucial X10’s features? The Crucial X10 is a bluish gray USB 3.2×2, 20Gbps SSD that easily fits into the palm of your hand. Indeed, it measures a mere 2.5-inches long, 2-inches wide and a half-an-inch thick. There’s a lanyard hole on one end, and a Type-C connector on the other. The 2TB version of the X10 that Crucial sent me weighs only 1.4 ounces and I wouldn’t expect the higher capacities to weigh much more. NAND isn’t that heavy. That feather-light feel belies the drive’s IP65 rating. That rating means the X10 is dust-proof and can stand up to a little bit of rain or sprinkler spray. If you are not familiar with the ingress protection rating system, you can read up on it here. Crucial wasn’t forthcoming about the controller inside. However, from the performance when the drive runs out of secondary cache, it’s obvious that the NAND is QLC. Given that it’s available in capacities up to 8TB, it’s also obvious that it’s layered/stacked/3-D NAND. I have two minor gripes about the X10. First off, it’s USB 3.2×2 instead of the far more compatible USB4. In other words, it generally will function at half-speed 10Gbps on USB4 and Thunderbolt ports, and 20Gbps only on the rarer USB3.2×2 port. Then there’s something I don’t often complain about… But, geez Louise, the drive comes sitting in a plastic tray, enclosed in a plastic bag, followed with an adhesive plastic protective sheet? I know this is tech — an ecological nightmare to begin with — but do we really need to squander resources and litter the planet with useless plastic simply to mollify overly picky customers? How much does the Crucial X10 cost? Crucial sells the X10 in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB capacities for $140, $250, $396, $559, and $780 respectively. At least that’s what we saw for retail pricing on Amazon at the time of this writing. Those prices are roughly on par, if not a little lower than those of competing 20Gbps external SSDs. These were the prices at the time this review was written. However, as you can see above, the 1TB drive was on sale for $100, and the 8TB model for a paltry $440. That makes the 8TB model a steal, and the 6TB model a very bad deal. How fast is the Crucial X10? If not for a comparatively weak performance in our 450GB write, the new X10 would likely have ranked almost as high as the older X10 Pro. As it stands, it’s still the 8th fastest out of 18 20Gbps SSDs I’ve tested and the 24th fastest out of 58 external SSDs of all types. Sequential performance under CrystalDiskMark 8 was neck and neck between the new X10 and the older X10 Pro. The newer drive took two wins and the older one the other two. Performance-wise the X10 is about as good as it gets with normal amounts of data. Sequential performance under CrystalDiskMark 8 was neck and neck between the new X10 and the older X10 Pro. The newer drive took two wins and the older one the other two. Random performance from the new X10 was a bit weaker than that of the older X10 Pro, but still very good for an external SSD. Random performance from the new X10 was a bit weaker than from the old X10 Pro. The X10 was aces in our 48GB copies. Shaving 24 seconds off of its predecessor’s very good performance. The X10 was aces in our 48GB copies. The main reason the new X10 ranked lower than the X10 Pro is shown below — a relatively slow 450GB write time. However… A relatively slow 450GB write time ranked the X10 far below its predecessor in this test. …there’s a caveat to that. Look below and you’ll see that the X10 was doing quite well until the 85 percent mark when it dropped to its native write rate of around 200MBps (occasionally fluctuating up to nearly 500MBps). Proof positive that this is a QLC NAND SSD. The 4TB, 6TB, or 8TB versions of the X10 would’ve aced this test due to more plentiful secondary cache. Bear in mind that this is a stress test, and that most users will never write this amount of contiguous data. The X10 is speedy until it runs out of secondary cache. Performance-wise the X10 is about as good as it gets with normal amounts of data. Just be aware that the slow native write rate will kick in if you exceed the relatively generous amount of secondary cache. Don’t do that. Should you buy the Crucial X10? To this question I say yea. (Yea, as in not nay.) If you are looking for an SSD that is tiny, fast, rugged, weatherproof, capacious, and fairly affordable, it simply doesn’t get any better than the X10. Unless of course you regularly write huge amounts of data. Then opt for the X10 Pro.

Ring harnesses generative AI to power Ring Video Descriptions
Ring is bringing generative AI to its family of home security cameras and video doorbells with a new feature called Video Descriptions. Once this feature is enabled, the motion alerts triggered by Ring cameras will be accompanied by an AI-generated analysis of the motion that triggered the camera to record. In a blog post earlier today, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff described how the push notifications Ring users receive on their smartphones when motion is detected will be enhanced with text descriptions of what that motion was. “This new generative AI feature,” Siminoff said, “helps you quickly distinguish between urgent and everyday activity with a quick glance at your phone.” Ring will use genereative AI to deliver descriptions of the events its security cameras and video doorbells capture on video.Ring Once you’ve enabled the feature, Ring’s notifications will be accompanied by text descriptions of what triggered the camera to record a clip, along with whatever action the people in the camera’s view are taking. Ring provided two examples: “A person is walking up the steps with a black dog,” and “Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway.” Siminoff says Ring “also designed the feature so the descriptions are intentionally concise, allowing you to quickly discern if something needs your attention.” Ring aims to increase its use of generative AI to add more features designed to improve your home security profile, such as intelligently combining multiple motion activities happening around your home into a single alert. Siminoff described another new feature in development—anomaly alerts—that are generated only when something that happens on your property is a deviation from the ordinary at your specific property. The AI will learn your home’s routines and alert you when something happens that doesn’t fit the usual pattern. This news is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. “We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI,” said Siminoff. “I feel like we are back to the very early days of Ring again—I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors.” Ring says Video Descriptions will be to roll out in beta today, but you’ll need to have an active Ring Home Premium subscription to receive them. Ring Home Premium plans cost $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. Professional monitoring of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system costs an additional $10 per month.