At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Editing is faster with AI and automation Easy-to-use wizards Cons Limited control in some AI-generated graphics Our Verdict The new AI in CyberLink Photo Director 365 helps achieve results faster, with tools and wizards supporting design drafts. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Cyberlink PhotoDirector 365 Retailer Price PhotoDirector 365 Free Trial Free View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices CyberLink‘s photo editing software has already impressed users in the past with its ease of use and strong results. The manufacturer offers many wizards, straightforward functions, and the option to edit images manually in an editor. Various special functions and templates support the user in their work. The development team has now added extensive artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to the feature list. To access these, you must choose the subscription version of the program, as several functions are not available in the free version. One advantage of the subscription is that new features are added on a fairly regular basis. CyberLink Photo Director 365: Faster, easier editing with AI Various AI functions make it easier to customize and enhance images. Expanding image content, removing people or objects, and optimizing photos are much easier with the current Photo Director 365. Image analysis and built-in suggestions for improvement assist with editing and speed up workflow. This is where users clearly benefit from the new technology. AI also supports editing of all types of portrait shots. The software uses a portrait as its base and can automatically add office attire to the subject. This means you can easily prepare your own photos for job applications or online profiles. The Business Outfit function works in a similar way, generating professional-looking photos of people in suits or elegant dresses. The CyberLink program offers numerous tools for editing portraits and creating professional business photos.Cyberlink Photo Director 365 can also add a suitable background or setting, making the images ideal for company websites or brochures, for example. For print products, the photos can be scaled up with AI to maintain the best possible quality, with the user guided through every step of the process. The built-in image tips are also very useful: the program shows examples of ideal results, along with motifs or elements that should be avoided. These innovations further extend the capabilities of classic image editing. CyberLink Photo Director 365: Creative designs that produce great results The GenAI Studio offers many options for creating a wide variety of documents and designs. Many ideas can be brought to life quickly by using its features. These include style transfer of all kinds–for example, creatively converting an image into manga-style graphics or generating templates with the help of AI prompts. The layout function, which lets you define the result with just a few clicks, is another strong point. The AI feature helps with complex designs, ensuring that objects, people, and animals appear correctly in their designated areas. The mood of a landscape shot can be changed in just a few steps with Remodel Scenes, which offers options such as sunrise or winter. The AI in Photo Director 365 enables creative landscape editing with style presets.Cyberlink CyberLink Photo Director 365: Where it falls short The results are often surprisingly good, but sometimes the software overshoots the mark, leaving images looking overly manipulated. There’s no option to adjust the balance between the original and the edited version. This also applies to the templates for creating videos with stylized collectible figures. All control is handed over to the AI, allowing users to choose captions, colors, and themes would help produce better clips. The templates for special occasions or holidays are impressive, making it easy to create digital greetings cards right on the screen. Read...

Have you heard this one before? A scrappy entertainment company launches a small catalog of ad-free streaming movies and TV shows for cheap. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, because the content is mostly B-movies and reruns, but it proves popular with consumers and goes on to change television entertainment as we know it. I could be referring to Netflix, which started down that exact path with its “Watch Now” streaming catalog way back in 2007. But I could also be prognosticating about Howdy, the $3-per-month streaming service that Roku launched just last week. The parallels are obvious. Roku is starting with a small catalog, heavy on filler, and claims it’s not trying to compete with incumbents. But it’s also arriving at a time when consumers are increasingly frustrated with the larger streaming services, which are becoming more like the bloated, expensive cable packages they once aimed to displace. Howdy might seem insignificant now, but like Netflix, it could become the start of something bigger. Howdy vs. Netflix Roku People tend to remember Netflix as offering an endless bounty of content in its early years, but in 2007, its catalog was tiny, with just 1,000 titles at the outset. Roku’s Howdy catalog is similarly small, with “thousands of titles,” according to Roku, and less than 10,000 hours of entertainment in total. This isn’t about quality over quantity, either. While Howdy has a handful of standouts, including Mad Max: Fury Road and Apocalpyse Now, it’s also filled with such forgettable TV shows as Nikita and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. (The catalog has some overlap with The Roku Channel, Roku’s long-running free ad-supported streaming service, but there are unique titles on each.) That’s how it was with Netflix back in the day as well. “[T]he selection is fairly small, at least once you subtract the mind-boggling gigabytes of B movies — more like C or D movies — like Addicted to Murder III: Bloodlust and Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood,” David Pogue wrote of Netflix’s streaming launch. Early users created forum threads for recommending quality content—shows like The Office and films like Groundhog Day—from within the cruft. Of course, Netflix’s streaming catalog got better over time. The service struck a deal with Starz in 2008 to get new-release movies onto the service, and it outbid premium networks (including Starz) for Disney’s movie streaming rights in 2012. A series of deals with AMC brought such prestige TV shows as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Mad Men onto the service, where they became more closely associated with Netflix than the cable network that originally aired them. By 2013, it was launching its own buzzy originals with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. One could imagine Roku scaling up its own service in similar ways. The subscription business requires big hits to encourage sign-ups (something Roku itself has acknowledged in the past), so the company will surely seek flashier content deals for Howdy in the future. Its original programming arm could play a bigger role as well. Not rocking the boat Roku Here’s another parallel to consider: In its early years, Netflix claimed it was not competing with the incumbent cable business. Speaking to Kara Swisher in 2011, Netflix co-founder and (at the time) CEO Reed Hastings noted that cable subscriptions were up even as Netflix grew. “So it appears that to the consumer, Netflix is complementary,” he said. We all know what happened next: While Netflix kept growing, cable began to stagnate. And pretty soon, most major media companies were preparing their own streaming services to take on Netflix directly. Netflix was always going to compete with the incumbents, but it had to insist otherwise because it needed to keep licensing their content. Now, Roku is taking a page from Netflix’s playbook. In a press release, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said Howdy is “designed to complement, not compete with, premium services.” I doubt he actually believes that, but it’s something he’s obligated to say while Roku builds up the Howdy catalog. The next wave Roku I’m drawing these parallels so we can better understand what else is next for streaming, because all we’ve seen from the incumbents looks a lot like cable. Netflix keeps getting more expensive as it pursues more high-dollar sports programming, and services like Peacock and Paramount+ are following suit. The endgame for major streamers now is to push people toward bundles they might not need, with ad-supported tiers that pack in more commercials than were originally promised. I believe a new phase of cord-cutting is inevitable, in which the folks who initially fled cable will start to reevaluate their relationship with major streaming services as well. Free streaming services such as YouTube, Tubi, and even TikTok will play a role in this shift, but there’s also a room for ad-free services that are cheaper than the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. That’s a gap that Howdy could fill. Just as Netflix was able to build its streaming business off the success of its DVD rental program, Roku can build up Howdy on the success of its streaming players and smart TV platform. Before long it could become what Netflix once was: a successful, affordable streaming service that disrupts everything that came before. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more streaming TV insights every Friday. Read...

The liquidation of Wellington event equipment hire company Hiremaster has sparked concerns for event planners. Read...

TL;DR: Get a 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan lifetime subscription on sale for $79.97 and bring multiple top-tier AI models and tools into one secure, all-in-one workspace with zero extra fees (MSRP $540). Still juggling work across multiple apps and paying separate fees for different AI tools? Get on the 1min.AI bandwagon. It combines all the heavy hitters, like GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, into one dashboard with powerful tools for writing, image editing, video production, audio transcription, PDF analysis, and more. You can save 85% for a limited time on the lifetime plan, meaning no recurring fees—ever. Need to crank out a blog post, summarize a research PDF, or translate a client document? You can do it without hopping between tabs or leaking sensitive data into a dozen different services. Want to generate product images, replace a background, or upscale assets? The same workspace handles it. Audio and video work—including transcription, translation, and editing is just as seamless. Tech-savvy users will appreciate the flagship AI models, unlimited storage, custom brand voices, and a public roadmap of weekly updates. Collaboration is built in with up to 20 team members and shared workspaces. Get lifetime access to this all-in-one AI tool on sale for $79.97 (MSRP $540). No coupon is needed to get this price. 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Wellington company Hiremaster had been in business for more than 70 years Read...

Data Army wins Snowflake ANZ Partner of the Year for Industry Solutions, recognised for proptech data solutions and AI-driven business value creation. Read...

Auckland CBD`s business association is asking the government to collaborate on a plan to revive the city`s economy. Read...

Go1 co-founders Vu Tran and Andrew Barnes are unveiling their next business, which they say can be just as big as their first. Read...

But police and a business organisation are imploring shopowners to report all crime, saying it`s essential they have the full picture. Read...

BPM founder Dan Bradley says the productivity gained from ConTech Solutions saves his company from hiring another five or six people. Read...