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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...

Chinese company Biwin has unveiled a new type of storage drive called the Mini SSD—also referred to as “1517”—that combines an extremely compact form factor with high data transfer speeds. The Verge writes that the Mini SSD measures 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm, only slightly larger than a microSD card yet delivering up to 3,700 MB/s read speeds and 3,400 MB/s write speeds via a PCIe 4×2 connection. The Mini SSD is IP68-rated so it’s resistant to both water and dust, plus it can withstand drops from a height of 3 meters, and it uses a SIM-like slot with a slide-out tray, designed for laptops, mobiles, cameras, and more. The price and launch date are not yet known, but two Chinese handheld gaming computers—the GPD Win 5 and the OneXPlayer Super X—are already reportedly incorporating the technology. Read...

Normally, automatic software updates are a good thing. They keep you running the latest versions of software, including essential security and stability updates, often necessary for everything from tiny apps to Windows. But there are some good reasons why you might want to avoid these, as exemplified by Windows updates. Now it appears Microsoft has removed automatic app updates from the Microsoft Store. Previously, you could disable automatic updates for Windows apps and games in the Microsoft store by diving into the Settings menu. But as German site Deskmodder (spotted by PCMag) notes, this menu now restricts you to a maximum delay of 5 weeks, after which Windows Update presumably installs updates again whether you want them or not. Security and stability are the obvious reasons for this mandatory change, but I can’t help but worry about some fairly obvious malicious applications here, if you’ll pardon the pun. We’ve seen companies buy up popular browser extensions only to fill them with adware, and apps have been hijacked to spread viruses, trojans, and other bad stuff before. Having an integration with the Microsoft Store and Windows Update (and by extension, Microsoft Defender) would seem to bring in a lot of extra security you don’t get from a manual download or an update system fully integrated into the app itself. But these integrated systems, while more secure in general, aren’t perfect either. The security of an “app store” setup has been circumvented many times. And beyond that… maybe you just don’t want an app to update because it’s changed in ways you don’t like, or it’s broken some particular feature. I’ve got plenty of installers for old, outdated versions of programs squirreled away on my PC for exactly that reason. Read...

Great monitors don’t have to break the bank, and this Acer model is proof of that. It’s only $220 right now on Amazon, a sizeable drop from its original $300 price and a solid deal for the specs. This Acer XV272U is a 27-inch display that features an IPS panel with a crisp 1440p resolution—the “sweet spot” for many PC gamers—that delivers crystal-clear images, vibrant contrast, and impressive color accuracy. Whether you’re working, studying, streaming Netflix, or gaming, you’ll love the visuals here. The cherry on top is the 240Hz refresh rate, which is hard to come by at this price. If you have a PC that’s capable of pushing that many frames per second, you’ll have an amazing time with this affordable monitor. Even during fast-paced action scenes and boss fights, you’ll enjoy ultra-smooth visuals. And with its 1ms response time, ghosting is kept to a minimum. The monitor also offers solid connectivity, including DisplayPort 1.4, double HDMI 2.0, and 3.5mm audio. You can set this monitor up exactly how you need it, allowing you to adjust its position by tilting, swiveling, pivoting, and adjusting its height. Alternatively, the VESA mount makes it easy to set this up on a monitor arm. Don’t miss this chance to grab this 27-inch 1440p 240Hz gaming monitor for just $220 on Amazon, the best price we’ve seen this year. Save 27% on Acer`s budget 27-inch 1440p 240Hz gaming monitorBuy now at Amazon Read...

If there’s anyone you can trust to keep your copy of Windows up and running, it should be Microsoft, right? That’s true… until it isn’t. Some recent updates are causing severe stability issues for Windows 11, and the latest one might just make your solid-state drive (SSD) or hard drive (HDD) unreadable, though thankfully it seems to be an isolated issue. According to Japanese user Necoru_cat on Twitter/X, the Microsoft Defender update issued last week for Windows 11 and Windows 10 introduced a new bug that’s causing some storage drives to be inaccessible. That includes drives that are hosting Windows itself, effectively borking the entire PC. Neowin reports that it’s an issue specifically for the latest 24H2 versions of Windows 11 (KB5063878, KB5063875) and Windows 10 (KB5063709, KB5063877, KB5063871, KB5063889). Several other users are having the same issue, worried that their storage drives are broken. Neowin thinks that it might be a problem with some drives that have a specific NAND controller from supplier Phison, showing a mix of issues, some of which can be fixed automatically with a reboot and some of which can’t. Reportedly, this bug is being triggered by heavy write sessions to NVMe SSDs and hard drives, possibly resulting in file corruption. Rebooting might help, but the problem seems to be persistent in the small amount of users it’s affecting, apparently only showing up when writing or backing up 50 gigabytes or more. Unfortunately it hasn’t been narrowed down to a specific range of drive models affected, and which might be saved by a firmware update. A similar issue was resolved in that way last year. Read...

The private members` club chain is returning to private ownership after four years on the New York Stock Exchange. Read...