Payton Spencer was talented enough to choose between two sports and has inevitably adopted a royal nickname in honour of his iconic father. Read...

At a GlanceExpert`s Rating Pros Easily navigable tabbed interface Comprehensive PDF edting features Streamlined sharing feature makes it easier to fill documents and get signatures Cons Rich feature set can be overwhelming for new users Our Verdict Acrobat Pro’s comprehensive PDF features show why it’s still the editor against which all others are judged. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Editor’s note: This review was updated December 9, 2024 to reflect the addition of AI Assistant and current pricing. Adobe created the PDF two decades ago and its PDF editor has continued to rule the category, despite what many users felt was its exorbitant price. But a couple of years back, Acrobat adopted a cloud subscription model that now makes it more affordable for folks without an enterprise budget. Acrobat Pro is composed of three components: Acrobat, which allows you to perform a variety of editing functions on your PDFs on desktop and mobile devices; Adobe Document Cloud, which lets you create and export PDF files, as well as store and send files and collect electronic signatures; and Acrobat Reader, which enables you to read, print, and sign PDFs. This review is part of our best PDF editors roundup. Go there to learn about our testing and how all the competitors performed. Acrobat’s workspace sports an easily navigable tabbed interface. The Home view is where you land if you don’t have a PDF open. It gives you quick access to recent files; PDFs you’ve sent for review or signature; and files stored locally, in Adobe Document Cloud, or in third-party services like Box or Microsoft OneDrive. Adobe Acrobat Pro’s Document view has an intuitive interface with tools neatly organized in a sidebar.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry The All Tools view organizes Acrobat Pro’s wealth of tools in a single pane, organized by function: “Create & Edit,” “Share & Review” “Forms & Signatures,” “Protect & Standardize,” and “Customize.” Any of the individual tools can be added as a shortcut to a sidebar so you can get to them with a PDF open without having to toggle back here. Selecting a tool opens the commands specific to it, or its associated toolbar if you are in an open document. Each PDF file opens in its own tab in Document view, which displays an All Tools menu in the left panel, a Quick action toolbar, and a right side panel. Here you’ll find commonly used editing options, and features like thumbnails, bookmarks, comments, and more. This context-aware design adapts to your workflow, making it simple to perform even complex tasks efficiently. Adobe continues to offer everything you need to work with PDFs in a business environment. You can create PDFs from a variety of file types (Microsoft Office files, images, HTML, scanned documents), send them out for comments and electronic signatures, and safeguard sensitive information with encryption, password protection, and text redaction. Acrobat AI Assistant allows users to generate text or image suggestions, summarize content, and provide intelligent editing recommendations directly within PDFs.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Acrobat’s most significant recent addition are AI-powered tools designed to streamline PDF workflows and enhance productivity. At the forefront is the Acrobat AI Assistant, powered by Adobe’s Firefly generative AI, which allows users to interact with documents in new ways. This includes generating text or image suggestions, summarizing content, and providing intelligent editing recommendations directly within PDFs. These tools aim to simplify complex tasks, like extracting key information or customizing layouts, making the software even more versatile for both personal and professional use. Further reading: 5 ways Adobe Acrobat’s AI Assistant gives you a productivity edge The PDF editor’s document sharing experience remains one of it’s biggest strengths. The interface gives you the option of sending a PDF as an email attachment or as link to the file in Adobe Document Cloud. Filling and signing a document has also gotten easier, thanks to a new tool that asks you who needs to fill and sign first—you or others—and prompts you through completion of that task. Really, if there’s anything about Acrobat Pro to knock, it’s that the sheer amount of features and how they work together can be dizzying for a first-time user. Thankfully, Adobe has added a new on-boarding experience that progressively guides you through the process of making Acrobat your default PDF editor, adding your PDF files, and introducing you to capabilities like combining PDFs and organizing pages. You can access recommended tools at any time from the Home tab and for a quick walk-through. And still there are additional features you’ll undoubtedly discover through use over time. Adobe Acrobat Pro is available for Windows and MacOS for $19.99 a month with an annual commitment, or about $239 a year. The paired-back Adobe Standard drops some advanced editing features and is available for Windows only for $12.99 per month with an annual commitment. Both come with a free seven-day trial. AI Assistant for Acrobat is available as an add-on for either version for $4.99 per month. Is Adobe Acrobat Pro worth it? Though many of its comprehensive features are available in other less expensive PDF editors, Acrobat remains the industry standard and that alone is reason to consider it. Its subscription-based pricing guarantees you’ll always have the latest version of the software without the hassle of purchasing an entirely new install. That’s not insignificant as Adobe regularly updates and enhances its product. (A slightly less pricey option exists in Adobe Acrobat Standard, which has some of the core functionality of the Pro version but is less robust, as we point out in our comparison of the two products.) An Acrobat Pro subscription will also unlock a host of editing features on Adobe’s Acrobat Reader app for iOS and Android. The mobile interface closely mirrors the desktop version, though scaled-down a bit, and makes working with PDFs on the smaller screen surprisingly easy.  Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...

The Wairarapa Sports Artificial Surface Trust is $223,000 in debt after new turf was laid at the Clareville hockey complex this year without securing all of the funding needed to pay the contractor. Read...

Anti-gang and sports corruption detectives have swooped on houses and clubrooms as part of an investigation into potential corruption. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent 4K front day captures Integrated GPS Above average 1440p rear captures Unique external storage feature Cons Detail lags in night captures Really, really expensive Our Verdict The Viofo A329 with its 60fps, 4K UHD video is one of the two best daytime dash cams we’ve tested and we love the ability to use external SSDs for storage. However, it’s also very, very expensive and detail drops off significantly in night captures. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Viofo A329 two-channel dash cam Retailer Price $469.99 View Deal Viofo $469.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who knew we’d run across a new and unique feature — support for capturing video to external SSDs — in our latest look at a dash cam from solid but generally mainstream Viofo? The company’s high-resolution, high frame rate A329 takes fantastic day captures and sports all the bells and whistles, including GPS, voice commands, and Wi-Fi. It does, however, set you back quite a bit of coin. What are the Viofo A329’s features? The Viofo A329 is a 60 frame per second, 2160p dash cam (front), that’s available in both single-channel (front-only), and dual-channel (front/rear) flavors. I tested the latter with its 1440p rear camera. The front camera features an 8 megapixel Sony STARVIS 2 IMX678 sensor and offers a 140 degree field of view, while the rear camera uses a 5 megapixel Sony STARVIS 2 IMX675 with a 160 degree field of view. There’s a 2.4-inch color display, with five indicator lights (power, recording status, GPS status, microphone status, and Wi-Fi status) directly below. Aligned with the status lights are five buttons for the menu, record on/off, emergency save, microphone on/off, and Wi-Fi on/off. Logical enough, though all of the buttons are multi-function pulling duty for menu navigation and other purposes. On the right side of the body are the microSD slot, miniature coax port for the rear camera cable (a fair amount of pressure is required for insertion and removal — as with the rear camera’s coax port), and a mini-HDMI video output. Further reading: See our roundup of the best dash cams to learn about competing products. The coaxial rear camera port, microSD slot, and mini-HDMI output on the right side of the A329. The left side of the front camera body sports a Type-C port for power and direct connection to a computer for offloading videos. Serving as mass storage when connected is a feature I appreciate, but has seemingly fallen out of favor with many vendors. You get a bit of a show from the status lights when the A329 is in mass storage mode. Nice. There’s also a reset button on the left if the unit goes wonky. Better than that, you can actually attach an external (up to 4TB) SSD to the Type-C port and use it in lieu of the internal SD card. This is the first time I’ve run across this capability and it makes the price of the A329 easier to bear. The Type-C USB port and pinhole reset button on the left side of the Viofo A329. The GPS is in the sticky mount that comes with the A329. You slide the camera onto the mount from the right, and there are metal contacts on both halves to facilitate the connection. If you want the GPS, you must attach the Type-C to Type-C cable to the port on the top of the mount — not the camera. To be honest, I’ve screwed that up before. Much to my consternation when I looked at resulting videos. The Viofo app with the live view, library, and settings pages There is of course, an app (shown above) that features a live view, library of captures, and access to all the camera settings. It communicates via the integrated Wi-Fi hot spot. How much is the Viofo A329? Hang on to your hat for this next bit. The two-channel version of the A329 I tested is $470. Yowser. Even sans rear camera, it’s a hefty $400. That, dear friends is not what was once commonly referred to as chump change. Artsy view of the A329’s rather pricey front camera lens. No doubt part of the pricing is for electronics capable of dealing with 60fps, 2160p video. But geez — there’s some pretty awesome competition for considerably less. Note that you’ll also go through TF cards faster, albeit not as much faster as you might think (see below). How are the Viofo A329’s captures? No mystery here, as I’ve already spilled the beans. The A329’s front day captures are second to none, and the rear day captures are also among the best I’ve seen. If the detail had been maintained once it got dark, I would say that Viofo was justified in its pricing. Alas, while still decent, the night captures are nowhere near the quality of daytime video. And couldn’t hold a candle to the Miofive S1’s night video. (Yes, that was on purpose.) The level of detail in the day capture is spectacular. The A329’s front day captures are second to none, and the rear day captures are also among the best I’ve seen. The level of detail in the day capture shown in the image above is spectacular. The colors are spot-on for a gray day here in San Francisco, fish eye is minimal for the FOV, and there were no motion artifacts of any sort. 60 frames per second will help with that. Despite the high level of detail, the 4K UHD/60fps video chews up only around 310MB per minute. Most h.264 4K captures use anywhere from 220MB to 250MB every 60 seconds — I don’t consider 25 percent too hefty a penalty; however, you’ll want as close to the 512GB maximum TF Card as you can afford. In case you weren’t aware, unless you or the camera (due to the g-sensor kicking in) explicitly lock or save a video, it will eventually be deleted to make room for newer captures. First recorded, first deleted. If you see something interesting you want to view in the future, keep this in mind. Being 1440p helped quite a bit with the detail in the rear camera day captures. Being 1440p helped quite a bit with the detail in the rear camera day captures, an example of which is shown above. These are h.264 to the tune of approximately 145MB per minute. Color quality is similar to the front camera’s, as is motion compensation, but fish-eye is more noticeable. Alas, the front night captures aren’t nearly as outstanding as the front day video. Alas, the front night captures (above) aren’t nearly as outstanding as the front day video. Color is still relatively accurate, there are no motion artifacts, and headlight flare is minimal, but detail is comparatively poor, as you can see in the license plate to the right. The rear night captures fell off similarly to the fronts. The rear night captures (above) fell off similarly to the fronts. Despite the STARVIS moniker, this seems to be a trend with Sony’s sensors. Color and other qualities are fine, but detail suffers greatly from the lack of light. In total, the A329 is among the best daylight dash cams I’ve tested. I’d rate the detail of the front captures second only to the Wolfbox X5’s ultra-wide 5K (single-channel) and its motion compensation second to none. However, its night captures are a far cry from the standard set by the Miofive S1. Should you buy the Viofo A329? I’m an admirer of the A329’s stellar day captures as well as the overall product. Especially the game-changing ability to capture to external SSDs. However, I was a bit startled when I visited the product page and saw the price. Even without the rear camera, it’s $100 more than the 5K Wolfbox X5 and almost twice as much as the 4K Miofive S1 with its stellar night captures. A very worthy product, but only for those with the means. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Fastest host memory buffer NVMe SSD we’ve tested More affordable than DRAM designs Available with up to 8TB of capacity Cons 8TB capacity is pricier per GB than the others Our Verdict If you want excellent overall performance, and the option for 8TB of capacity, the SN850X is a top choice. That said, you can save money with two 4TB SN850X drives if you have the slots. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: WD SN850X NVMe SSD Retailer Price $649.99 View Deal Sandisk $649.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket There are only a handful of NMVe SSDs available in the 8TB capacity, of which WD’s SN850X is one of, if not the best. Indeed, it took the overall performance crown for DRAM-less SSDs, far eclipsing its previous results. Speaking of which… This is a refresh of our original review of the SN850X. The 2TB version we tested previously had slipped to 5th place (now 6th) in performance among some fierce host memory bus competition, while the 8TB version, as mentioned, now ranks first. What are the WD SN850X’s features? The SN850X sports the usual 2280 (22x80mm) M.2 form factor and is PCIe 4 x4 NVMe SSD. The NAND is BiCS6 162-layer TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) with what the company claims is a Western Digital designed controller. Note that the other capacities use the older BiCS5 112-layer TLC NAND. The drive is a DRAM-less (host memory buffer) design. I.e., it uses approximately 64MB of your devices memory for primary caching duties. This technology is every bit as fast as DRAM designs when it comes to sustained throughput, but offers only around half the random performance dedicated cache memory can provide. Note that said random performance is still very, very fast. The back of the 8TB SN850X with its two additional NAND chips. WD’s solid state drive expertise comes courtesy of SanDisk, a company it purchased a while back, and that’s the name on the controller. WD provides a generous five-year warranty, but the 600TBW (terabytes that may be written) rating for every 1TB of capacity is less than half of what Seagate offers with the FireCuda 530. The 8TB SN850X tested noticeably faster than the 2TB version in nearly all phases. How much is the WD SN850X? As you might guess given its performance, you won’t be seeing the WD Black SN850X in the bargain bin, but it’s far less expensive than it was when it first appeared. The 1TB capacity is available for $84, the 2TB for $160, the 4TB for $310, and the 8TB we tested for $650 (but as high as $810 currently on Amazon). Yes, you’re paying a $30 to $100+ premium for the top capacity. If you have the slots, you might opt for multiple 2TB or 4TB models to save money. Add $10 to $30 if you want a heatsink (most modern motherboards provide their own). How fast is the WD SN850X? The 8TB SN850X tested noticeably faster than the 2TB version in nearly all phases, which vaulted it up to the number 6 position among all NVMe SSDs and again — first place among DRAM-less, host memory buffer designs. The 8TB proved faster than the older 2TB in all the sequential tests, though not by a whole lot. This new 8TB model’s random performance is appreciably faster than the older 2TB SN850X’s. Especially with multiple queues — something Windows, unfortunately, still does not use. This new 8TB model’s random performance is appreciably faster than the older 2TB SN850X’s. The 8TB SN850X also excelled on our 48GB transfers, knocking a ton of time off the 2TB version’s performance. The 8TB SN850X also excelled on our 48GB transfers. Topping off its victory was the fastest 450GB write we’ve seen to date. By only a second, which is within the margin of error, but hey… A win is a win. Topping off its victory was the fastest 450GB write we’ve seen to date. The overall results say something has changed for the better with the SN850X beyond mere greater capacity. Faster NAND, an updated controller…. We’re not sure as to the reason, but we like it. Caveat: We can’t vouch for the performance of the other capacities, not having tested them. However, given that they use the older BiCS5 112-layer NAND, bank on them being the same as what you see from the 2TB version in the charts above. Should you buy the WD SN850X 8TB? The 8TB WD Black SN850X is a stellar choice if you’re looking to save money with a host memory buffer design. It’s an excellent performer, though we wish you didn’t pay such a hefty premium for the top capacity (and likely better performance). Regardless, a very desirable SSD from WD. Very. How we test IDG’s storage tests currently utilize Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of memory total). Intel integrated graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which also contains the operating system. Each test is performed on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that as any drive fills up, performance will decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, and other factors. The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped as well as the capacity tested. SSD performance can vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to read/write across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report (systems being roughly equal), by all means—let us know. Read...

BBC Sport takes a look back at Sports Personality of the Year nominee Alex Yee`s year in five photos. Read...

Juan Soto has signed the richest deal in professional sports history, joining the New York Mets for $1.2 billion. Read...

Racing Minister Winston Peters wants to bring in legislation to extend the TAB`s current monopoly over sports and racing betting to also cover online betting. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Good day captures Nicely rendered phone app Attractive physical design Cloud storage and optional emergency service (phone-based) Integrated GPS Cons Expensive for a single-channel dash cam Middling night captures Our Verdict The Piqo is a pint-sized, phone-connected, GPS dash cam from Nextbase with a classy design. It also offers cloud uploads, location, and emergency services, but via your phone rather than integrated LTE as with the company’s iQ. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Nextbase Piqo Retailer Price $149.99 View Deal Nextbase $149.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Our last look at a Nextbase dash cam was the large-and-in-charge, LTE-enabled iQ. The Piqo that’s the subject of this review is far smaller — a single-channel, non-LTE, GPS dash cam whose diminutive profile reminds us of our favorite Garmin models. The Piqo sports a handsome, modern design and, appealingly, offers phone connectivity and cloud storage (manual, via your phone). But it delivers only middling night capture quality for a somewhat steep price. Further reading: See our roundup of the best dash cams to learn about competing products. What are the Nextbase Piqo’s features? The Piqo is single-channel (front cam, of course), 2,560-pixel horizontal resolution dash cam available in 1080p (140 degree field of view) and 1440p (145 degree FOV) vertical resolutions. I tested the higher resolution, wider aspect ratio model, but both feature integrated GPS. The Piqo is around 4-inches tall — including the semi-permanent adhesive, two-piece slide-off mount. The camera body is about 1.5-inches wide and 1-inch thick, including the front lens body and protruding multi-function button on the back. The body is married to the mount via a ball joint, which makes it adjustable in any direction. Nice, but I did find I had to readjust the camera sometimes after pressing the button. Be gentler than I was. The rear of the Nextbase Piqo with its large, easy-to-press multi-function button. The status LED is a ring light surrounding it. The SD card slot is situated on the left side of the camera body, and the Type-C power port is on the right. There’s also a mic on the interior face to accommodate the Piqo’s voice command capability. An LED ring light circling the center of the large multi-function (Save/Bluetooth pair/etc.) button lets you know the unit’s status. I’m happy about Nextbase’s choice to utilize Type-C connectors. Type-C cables are much easier to source and replace than proprietary coax types. Even the auxiliary power adapter’s twin ports are Type-C. If you have older Type-A accessories or cables, you’ll need to grab a Type-A to Type-C adapter to use this adapter. There’s an app of course — the iOS version of which is shown below. Note that it’s a new app specifically for the Piqo and it allows you to download videos, share them, and map your travels using the GPS info. The Piqo connects to your phone via Bluetooth, with the live view carried over Wi-Fi. The pairing and Wi-Fi logon processes are quick and efficient, though I grew weary of being asked to join the Piqo’s Wi-Fi hot spot every time I wanted to view a video. Just do it, Nextbase. An initial setup screen, one of the settings pages, and the Live view in the Nextbase app. I mentioned voice commands, which are very handy, and largely necessary thanks to the lack of a display. The Piqo’s parking/surveillance mode (and everyone else’s), where it wakes when the g-sensor notes a disturbance, requires constant power — either wire tap/fuse box or an OBDII adapter. Both are available from Nextbase. One Piqo oddity I found. Simply turning my car’s ignition key to the on position wasn’t enough to power up the Piqo, as was the case with the nearly 100 other dash cams I’ve reviewed. I had to turn the engine on for it to fire up. The reason for the behavior wasn’t explained, and I didn’t find a voltage-sensing setting to adjust. My battery is in very good shape, being only a year or so old. How much does the Nextbase Piqo cost? The 2560×1080 Piqo retails for $130, and the 2560×1440 version is $20 more at $150. The front of the Nextbase Piqo. There’s no ongoing subscription costs for the Piqo itself as there’s no integrated LTE, but if you want 180-day, rather than 30-day retention of videos that you upload from the phone app to Nextbase, as well as the phone-based Emergency SOS function, it’s $5 monthly. You could of course rely on your own cloud storage. More on those features: Emergency SOS alerts emergency services with precise location information in the event of an incident based on a severe g-sensor reading. Guardian Mode Lite automatically saves timestamped, GPS-marked video clips if triggered by an event. Nearly all dash cams will do this — however, the Piqo lets you set a speed that when exceeded can trigger an event. Hence the fancy name. Voice-activated Witness Mode Lite saves footage, as you can also do with most dash cams via voice or button. The unique thing here is that it’s shared instantly with a designated emergency contact if you’re connected to your phone at the time. Again, all of these features require that you be connected to your phone. Hence the “lite” in the designations. What’s the quality of the Nextbase Piqo’s captures? I was expecting a tad better default capture quality from a $150 dash cam from industry stalwart Nextbase. Daytime captures are good, but the detail isn’t quite as sharp as I was expecting from 1440p. Color is accurate, but I had to dial back the exposure a notch. The capture below is at the default exposure setting, in a relatively low-light area for a sunny day. Note that these videos were from was 10/31/2024 and 11/1/2024, not 1/11/2024 as shown. I didn’t set the date before testing. The time, however, is correct, most likely set automatically via GPS. This daylight capture from the Piqo is good, if not spectacular. Capture quality drops off quite a bit at night. The image below is with my headlights on and detail is still hard to come by. Parked with the headlights off, detail in surrounding areas was even more difficult to spot. More detail will start to appear when you up the exposure using a photo editor, but extensive post-production is not something most users want to do. This Piqo night capture is far fuzzier in terms of detail than we like to see. For day use the Piqo is more than workable, if not the best I’ve seen. At night, well it’s no Mifofive S1. I’ve seen a half dozen cameras recently with more detailed night captures, even sans headlights. Operationally, I found downloading videos to the phone and then up to the cloud both rather tedious, though smaller thumbnail versions allow you to quickly preview them. The Piqo also tends to run a bit warm. Not unexpected from a dash cam this small sporting integrated GPS. The Piqo’s night captures improve when you up the exposure using a photo editor, but extensive post-production is not something most users want to do. Should you buy the Nextbase Piqo? The Piqo is a well-designed, single-channel dash cam, that has all the bells and whistles including free cloud storage. But the night capture quality is bit wanting, and to take advantage of the extras, you must have your phone with you at all times. If those services are what you seek, you might be better off with the Nextbase iQ. Damned the expense. Read...