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Amazon Prime Day has arrived and it's brought a ton of discounts on Amazon's own devices. One standout deal is on Amazon's Fire Max 11 tablet, which is on sale for $140, down from its usual price of $230. (It was briefly out of stock on Tuesday morning, but has since returned.) The $90 discount is precisely what you'd need to spend for Amazon's Fire Max 11 Keyboard Case, if you're considering using the tablet as a productivity machine. The Fire Max 11 features, you guessed it, an 11-inch screen with a sharp 2,000 by 1,200 pixel resolution. Its octa-core CPU should be plenty for streaming media and browsing maps, and it also features 4GB of RAM. The Fire Max 11 ships with either 64GB or 128GB of storage, and you can expand that to 1TB using an additional microSD card. It sports 8MP cameras on the front and back for video calls, as well as 1080p video recording. With an estimated 14 hours of battery life, the Fire Max 11 should make for a great road trip companion for the summer. In our hands-on with the Fire Max 11, we found it to feel more like a premium tablet, compared to Amazon's cheaper and kid-friendly Fire line. "With slimmer bezels, a more-premium aluminum build and weighing just over a pound, it's designed for those who also want to do some work and multi-tasking," Engadget's Cherlynn Low wrote. With this new low price, it makes sense to pair the Fire Max 11 with Amazon's $90 keyboard case. It has a kickstand for propping up the tablet, and it delivers a decent typing and touchpad experience. You can also add on Amazon's $35 Stylus Pen for doodling and jotting down notes. With all of those accessories, the Fire Max 11 could be nearly as productive as an iPad or Surface decked out with similar hardware. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-amazon-fire-max-11-tablet-is-on-sale-for-a-record-low-of-140-for-prime-day-2024-173040164.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is finally here and, boy oh boy, the deals overfloweth. Case in point? You can pick up a pair of Google Pixel Buds Pro earbuds for just $120, instead of $200. That's a discount of $80 and a record-low price for the well-reviewed buds. The Pixel Buds Pro made our list of the best wireless earbuds for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we love the sound. These earbuds offer deep and punchy bass, which is a rarity with this class of device. They also have decent ANC, reliable touch controls and wireless charging. There are also some added convenience features for those already tied to the Android and Pixel ecosystems. In our official review, we called these earbuds the company's best offering yet. The tap and swipe-based gestural controls work much better than you think they would. These controls are also mirrored on both sides and a long press will switch on ANC, which is ultra-convenient. No earbuds are perfect. The Google Pixel Buds Pro offer a transparency mode, but it needs some work. In fairness, that's a bit tough to get right with earbuds. Pairing could be quicker, but that's something of a nitpick. Our main gripe with these earbuds, however, has consistently been the exorbitant price, which has been alleviated by this sale. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-bring-the-google-pixel-buds-pro-down-to-their-lowest-price-yet-123540771.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is usually a good time to pick up a new Ring video doorbell and other security gear. One of the best Prime Day deals at the moment is the second-gen Ring Indoor Cam for $30, which is 50 percent off the usual price. The latest model of the camera allows you to get a live look at what's going on in your home from wherever you are with 1080p HD video. There's color night vision support as well. When the Ring Indoor Camera detects movement, you'll get a real-time alert. You'll be able to select the area of coverage so you only get a heads up about significant movement. You can receive notifications via your phone or an Echo smart speaker and watch video from the camera on an Echo Show. One handy feature will let you rewind the footage to a few seconds before an incident that triggered a motion event took place. This advanced pre-roll function will help you get a better understanding of what happened, Amazon suggests. The camera comes with a swivel mount, so you can place it on a wall. But you'll need to be judicious about positioning. The camera is not battery-powered so you'll have to plug it into an outlet. If you subscribe separately to the Ring Protection Plan, you'll be able to record all videos and review stored footage for up to 180 days (but just seven days for still images). You'll have the option of sharing videos too. The deal is part of a broader sale on Ring gear. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-second-gen-ring-indoor-cam-is-50-percent-off-for-amazon-prime-day-173058773.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals have brought a number of steep discounts to our favorite gadgets, and one of the best is on the Dyson Airwrap. This exclusive bundle for the hair tool is a whopping $125 off for Amazon Prime Day, bringing it down to $550. This is one of the most popular pieces of beauty tech as of late, so much so that it can be hard to get your hands on it because it frequently goes in and out of stock. Now's a good time to grab it if it's been on your wishlist. In addition to the Airwrap and its storage case, the bundle includes six attachments: two long barrels, three brushes and the Coanda smoothing dryer, plus a filter cleaning brush, a detangling comb and another storage bag. That's enough to achieve a bunch of different hairstyles with one tool, and you get a couple of ways to store the machine when you're not using it or when you need to travel with it. For the uninitiated, the Dyson Airwrap gained popularity due to the fact that it doesn't use extreme heat to style hair. It instead uses the Coanda effect, which describes airflow's tendency to follow a curved surface, to wrap, dry and style hair all at once. How you do so specific depends on the attachment you're using, be it a barrel or a brush. The Airwrap does use heat, to be clear, but Dyson claims the device intelligently monitors heat to keep it at the optimal temperature. It should never go above 302 degrees Fahrenheit, and that should be less damaging for your hair as opposed to using standard hot tools. If history is any indication, the Airwrap could quickly go out of stock during a sale event like Prime Day. While $550 is still a lot to spend on any gadget, now is a good time to buy this bundle if you've had your eye on the beauty tool for a while. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-2024-get-the-dyson-airwrap-for-125-off-123503655.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is here, so let the deals commence. Here's a pair of well-regarded Sony headphones for just $88, which is a record-low price. The original price is $150, so this deal is nothing to sneeze at. We gave these Sony WH-CH720N headphones high-marks in our official review, calling out the fantastic sound quality and comfortable form factor. The cushioning is on-point and these cans are extremely light. There's also a perfectly acceptable ANC feature, though it struggles with human voices. However, it's great for constant ambient noise. We also loved some of the high-tech bells and whistles here. There's an adaptive sound control feature that automatically adjusts settings based on your location or activity. This will automatically engage the ANC or the transparency mode when needed. The EQ slider is also easy-to-use and great for making manual adjustments. There's an affiliated app, complete with the option for DSEE upscaling. It's worth noting that we heaped all of our praise on these headphones at the original $150 asking price. At $88 it's practically a no-brainer. On the downside, Sony's budget-friendly headphones don't offer automatic pausing and there's a whole lot of plastic in the packaging. Otherwise, these are great, especially for the price. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-day-deals-discount-these-sony-anc-headphones-to-only-88-121533541.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is finally here to empty our bank accounts. Here's a great deal for all of your music lovers out there. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds have dropped to $229, which is a discount of $70 and a record-low price. These are some dang good earbuds. As a matter of fact, they made our list of the best wireless earbuds. We heaped particular praise on the integrated active noise cancellation (ANC) algorithm, calling it the best noise cancellation out of all the wireless buds we've tested." However, these earbuds aren't just for ANC. The sound quality is on par with many rival products. In other words, you won't have to sacrifice sound for noise cancellation. These earbuds also allow for spatial audio without requiring specially-made content. This comes down to the company's impressive Immersive Audio technology. The tech puts users into the middle of the acoustic sweet spot" via a virtualization algorithm. The battery life is better-than-advertised and the gestural volume controls work great right out of the box. On the downside, these are some chonky earbuds, though they ship with a variety of eartips. The Immersive Audio feature is indeed fantastic, but at the expense of battery life. Finally, there's no wireless charging here. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-bring-the-bose-quietcomfort-ultra-earbuds-down-to-229-121532906.html?src=rss

Amazon's retail phenomenon is back and everywhere. Prime Day is here to offer deals on stuff you might want (and even more deals on stuff you don't), and so far this year, discounts are pretty substantial on big-ticket items.While a lot of the Kindle deals aren't super compelling, the base Kindle, our best budget ereader, is now $85, if you've somehow resisted ereaders till now. It's also a good year to upgrade your headphones. Sony's best noise-canceling headphones, the WH-1000XM5, are discounted to under $300, while the AirPods Max are now $395. If you've been waiting on wireless buds, the AirPods Pro are now just $169 - a $80 discount.And we say so far," because we wrote this at 7AM - and expect more details to surface as we dig deeper. Keep an eye on Engadget for all the best Prime Day deals.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedHow to install the iOS 18 public betaThe OmniBook Ultra 14 is HP's first AMD-powered next-gen AI PCThe best Amazon Prime Day camera dealsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Apple replaces its black HomePod mini with a black HomePod miniIt's 100 percent recycled fabric now.AppleHoping for new HomePod mini colors? Well, Apple just announced one. But, there's not much to get excited about. The company revealed a Midnight hue for its tiny speaker, replacing the Space Gray version, which was pretty much black.Continue reading.Google's Pixel 9 series leakedWith a big ole' camera bump."Pixophone" on TikTok via YTechBWe're less than a month from the next Made by Google event, and we may already know one of the marquee announcements. TikTok user pixo_unpacking (via YTechB) posted videos of apparent pre-production samples of Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 XL over the weekend. This year's Pixels could have a substantial camera module redesign, changing the camera visor into an elongated oval - one that juts out a fair bit.Continue reading.Tesla's Robotaxi event has been delayed until OctoberMusk wanted extra time for an important design change to the front."Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that Tesla's robotaxi event scheduled for August has been delayed until October. The CEO replied on X (the former Twitter, which he owns) to a user's post that he requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things." This seems to echo what Bloomberg reported last week: delaying the event would give Tesla more time to build additional prototypes. The initial teaser for the company's robotaxi came on the same day Reuters reported Tesla was pulling the plug on a planned $25,000 budget model.Continue reading.Test iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and watchOS 11 public betas nowApple Intelligence won't be here until the fall.Apple's first 2024 public betas have arrived. You can now install early builds of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11 and macOS Sequoia to preview Apple's software updates before their official arrival this fall.However, all these will be missing Apple Intelligence, which won't be available in beta until the fall. That's what powers many of the most exciting features teased by Apple earlier this year, like optional ChatGPT integration, a more powerful Siri, Safari highlights, writing tools and more. Still, you can now make your Messages text animated, and there is, finally, RCS support for texting your Android pals.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-best-amazon-prime-day-deals-so-far-111531283.html?src=rss

After weeks of sporadic deals, Amazon Prime Day is finally here, and there are great savings across categories. Take Anker's MagGo Power Bank, our choice for the best MagSafe-compatible power bank on the market. Right now, the device is down to $63 from $90 - a 30 percent deal that brings it to just a few dollars off its all-time low price. Anker's MagGo Power Bank was one of the earliest Qi2-certified devices on the market, and this early 2024 model is impressive, to say the least. The 10,000mAh and 15W capacities provide you with fast wireless charging. The power bank can bring an iPhone 15 from near-dead to half-charged in just 45 minutes - a feat some of our other top contenders have taken twice as long to do. The MagGo power bank is also good for one full charge and then another to about 70 percent. The device charges with a USB-C port and includes a USB-C to USB-C cable with purchase. Other perks of this Anker power bank include a kickstand, which allows you to watch videos or play games while the phone charges. It also has a digital display that shows its remaining battery percentage, both when you're charging it and when it's charging your phone. The Anker MagGo Power Bank works with iOS and Android phones, but the latter's lack of Qi2-compatibility means Android devices will charge slower than an iPhone 12 or above. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-anker-magsafe-power-bank-is-30-percent-off-for-prime-day-111016323.html?src=rss

Here's a juicy Amazon Prime Day deal: the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air has dropped to $799. That's a $200 discount as part of Prime Day deals, and the savings apply to all color options so you can score one in that beautiful Midnight finish. Unfortunately, that price doesn't include AppleCare+ (you'll have to spend just under $1,000 to get that included), but it remains a fantastic sale price on a stellar MacBook. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that this model isn't exactly top of the MacBook Air line anymore. It's been supplanted by the M3-powered MBA, which is now our pick for the best MacBook overall. But if you'd like to save some cash and still have a very capable Apple laptop to carry around, the M2 variant is our choice for the best budget MacBook - this latest discount just makes it even easier to recommend. Engadget's Devindra Hardawar called the M2 Air a near-perfect Mac" in his 2022 review and gave it a score of 96. One of the first things you'll notice is the 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, which can reach a commendable 500 nits of brightness and has a 60Hz refresh rate. The inclusion of a 1080p webcam is welcome, while the triple-mic array does a solid job of capturing your voice for your calls. The speakers are impressive too, especially for a laptop that's just 11.3 millimeters thin and weighs only 2.7 pounds. Despite that slender form factor, Apple has still kept fans of physical headphone jacks happy by retaining the 3.5mm port. There are two USB-C Thunderbolt ports and a MagSafe charging connector as well. You shouldn't have to worry too much if you leave your charger at home when you head to the office - the M2 MacBook Air's battery should easily last for an entire workday unless you're carrying out very power-hungry work like video editing. The M2 MBA should handle everyday tasks with relative ease, and you'll be able to play a bunch of App Store and Steam games on it too (good luck doing anything else ever again if you install Balatro). One of our main reservations with the base M2 Air is that there's only 8GB of memory. That doesn't seem quite enough these days and unfortunately, Apple charges a premium for RAM upgrades. Still, if you just want a MacBook Air that checks pretty much all the boxes most people will need for a few years, this is a great option. It's also worth noting that there are some cool features on the way when macOS Sequoia arrives later this year, including the ability to mirror your iPhone on your Mac and a new Passwords app. Apple Intelligence features are also coming to M1 and later Macs. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-prime-day-deals-are-here-with-the-m2-macbook-air-down-to-a-record-low-of-799-140716542.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is here, and among the many tech-related deals we've seen is one for the Fitbit Charge 6, which happens to be Engadget's best fitness tracker overall. This fitness watch has received a $60 discount, bringing the price down to a record low of $100. The Fitbit Charge 6's popularity lies in the fact that it has over 40 exercise modes for it to track, up from 20 with the Fitbit Charge 5. You can pair the watch with any exercise machine that has Bluetooth compatibility so that you can see your heart rate in real time during your workout. It also has a side button that works the touchscreen to navigate the tracker's interface, an ECG app that warns you when your heartbeats become irregular and an EDA sensor that tells you how your body responds to stress. If you're subscribed to YouTube Music Premium, you can skip through and control playback on YouTube Music through the device, helping you change songs distraction-free. If you're training for a marathon or a triathlon, the built-in GPS helps you map out your running and biking routes with great accuracy while keeping track of your heart rate and steps, among other stats. The GPS is even more helpful with turn-by-turn directions courtesy of Google Maps. Plus, you can use Fitbit Pay or Google Wallet if you happen to stop at a convenience store for a snack break. Finally, one of its best features is that it can last seven days on a single charge, which is more than we can say for many other fitness trackers and smartwatches. If you're in the market for a new fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 6 is our favorite, and it's even easier to recommend at this price. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fitbit-charge-6-drops-to-100-for-prime-day-110032009.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is here, and it has brought deals on some of our favorite brands' devices. Take the rose-colored Logitech Pebble 2 Combo, down to $47 from $60 - a 22 percent discount. This record-low price gets you the Pebble Mouse 2 M350s and Pebble Keys 2 K380s. You can also pick the set up in black or white, but it will cost you another three dollars. The Logitech Pebble 2 Combo is a great option if you want a solid, reliable keyboard and mouse. I personally own the keyboard and find it very comfortable to use - though it's definitely on the smaller side, so you might prefer taking it out for travel. The wireless keyboard should hold about three years of battery life, while the mouse should last about two years. You can connect up to three wireless devices across operating systems and toggle between them with a switch button. Plus, you can customize the Fn keys for commands like search and screen capture. There are a bunch of other Logitech keyboards, mice and other accessories on sale for Prime Day. We're especially excited about the Logitech M720 Triathlon Multi-Device Wireless Mouse, which is down to $32 from $40 - a 19 percent discount. The wireless mouse lets you switch between three computers, has two years of battery life and has custom shortcuts. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-2024-save-22-percent-on-logitech-keyboards-mice-and-other-computer-accessories-105013581.html?src=rss

Audio gear is one of the hottest categories during any big tech sale, so of course there are some great deals to be found during Amazon Prime Day 2024. Several Sonos smart speakers are available at a discount during the event, including the Era 100, which the company introduced last year to replace the Sonos One. The Era 100 has dropped to $199, which is $50 off and a record low. While Prime members can obviously pick up the speaker at that price from Amazon, Sonos is matching the deal. The Sonos Era 100 is our pick for the best midrange smart speaker and we gave it a score of 88 in our review. Engadget deputy editor Nathan Ingraham felt that it delivers great audio quality and loud volume. I have to concur with that - I have two that I use as rear speakers in my home theater setup and the T-Rex in Jurassic Park has rarely sounded as terrifying. Support for Bluetooth and line-in audio is definitely welcome, and the speaker's built-in microphones make Trueplay tuning (a feature that optimizes the audio for the physical space the Era 100 is in) a breeze. On the downside, the loss of Google Assistant support is a bummer and while you can pair up two Era 100s for stereo audio, you won't get true stereo separation. That said, the Era 100 is a great little speaker that you can place just about anywhere. It's a solid upgrade option for those ready to move on from more budget-friendly options like the Echo Dot and Nest Mini. If you're looking for something portable instead, consider the Sonos Roam 2, which has dropped from $179 to $143. Once again, Sonos is matching that deal. That's a pretty solid discount on a speaker that's only been around for a couple of months. The Roam 2 has a couple of immediate improvements over the original model (which we still recommend as a portable speaker option). You don't need to set up the Roam 2 over Wi-Fi before connecting a device to it via Bluetooth, so you can take it straight to the great outdoors. The Roam 2 also has separate Bluetooth and power buttons to reduce confusion after Sonos used a single button for both functions on the OG Roam. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sonos-era-100-drops-to-199-for-amazon-prime-day-104518688.html?src=rss

It doesn't get better than the Google Pixel 8a if you want a quality handset for $500 or less. But thanks to Amazon Prime Day, you can get the excellent Android phone for even less. Prime Day deals have knocked $50 off the Pixel 8a, bringing it down to a record low of $449 - the best price we've seen since it launched a few months ago. The Pixel 8a sits at the top of our list of the best midrange smartphones thanks to its Tensor G3 chipset, 120Hz OLED touchscreen, excellent cameras and strong battery life. The G3 processor not only enables excellent performance, but it also provides handy AI features like Audio Magic Eraser, Best Take and Magic Editor. The 6.1-inch OLED screen produces deep blacks and vibrant colors, and the 120Hz refresh rate goes a long way to making it feel smoother when scrolling. The handset has an IP67 rating as well, so it'll be protected from dust and water. You're getting a rear camera array that includes a 64MP main and 13MP ultra-wide sensors on the Pixel 8a, same as those found in the previous Pixel 7a. But it punches well above its weight, producing images with accurate colors and sharp details, plus Night Sight mode does a good job taking photos in low light conditions. As for battery life, the Pixel 8a lasted over 20 hours in our testing and the handset supports both wired and wireless charging. If you don't want to spend too much money on your next phone but still want a handset with many advanced features, the Pixel 8a is your best bet. However, it's worth noting that Prime Day deals have also brought down the prices of the standard Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro to $499 and $699, respectively. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-discount-the-google-pixel-8a-to-449-091532901.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is here and the deals are flowing like a river made of coupons. Case in point? The well-regarded Dyson V15 Detect Plus cordless vacuum is just $570 as part of Prime Day vacuum deals. This is a discount of $180 and a record-low for this particular model. This is the variation of the model that took home the top prize in our list of the best cordless vacuums, so we absolutely recommend it for those looking for a high-grade cleaning appliance. The suction power on this thing is unreal, particularly for a cordless cleaner. Typically, cordless vacuums struggle with anything beyond simple messes, but this is not true for the V15 Detect. During our testing, we found that we rarely had to go over the same spot twice when using the vacuum. I don't have the V15 at home, so I have to go over the same spot like five times with my current cordless vac. It's also relatively lightweight, making it easy to haul up the stairs for multi-floor cleaning tasks. The battery life is on-point, allowing for 60 minutes of runtime before requiring a charge. This year's Prime Day vacuum deals include the Plus version of the vacuum, which includes additional cleaning heads. The Fluffy Optic cleaner head comes with a bright light to reveal dust and grime, while the Digital Motorbar cleaner head de-tangles long hair and pet hair. However, this isn't a perfect vacuum, though our complaints fall squarely in the nitpicking" category. There's no single-button start option, which can be frustrating in some cases. Also, only the Fluffy Optic cleaner head includes that light. It would have been nice to have that on the other cleaning heads. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-vacuum-deals-include-180-off-the-dyson-v15-detect-cordless-vacuum-090527710.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day 2024 is here and as usual, it's a great time to buy mirrorless, action and compact cameras. If you're a vlogger, photographer or other type of creator and have been holding off for a sale, now is absolutely the time to buy. We're seeing discounts from most of the major brands, including Canon, Sony, Nikon and Panasonic, along with GoPro and DJI. If it's a gift you're looking for, many deals are priced well under $500, and some premium cameras like Canon's EOS R5 have steep discounts of $900 and more. You can see the full lineup of our recommendations in our camera guide. Best Prime Day camera deals: Engadget top picks Best Prime Day deals: Action cams and compacts Best Prime Day deals: Mirrorless cameras Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-amazon-prime-day-camera-deals-on-sony-canon-gopro-panasonic-and-more-082653316.html?src=rss

While you can often find discounts on Echo speakers, Fire tablets, Kindles and other Amazon devices throughout the year, Amazon Prime Day is the best time to buy them, period. The online retailer usually discounts most of its own hardware for its special, members-only shopping event in the summer, and those discounted prices are typically only rivaled by Black Friday sales. In recent years, Prime Day discounts on these gadgets have even been better than those we've seen during the holiday shopping season. For Amazon Prime Day 2024, you'll find most of Amazon's devices on sale for record-low prices (or close to them). These are the best Prime Day deals you can get on Kindles, Fire TVs, Echos and more. If you're looking for even more Prime Day deals, check out Engadget's Prime Day hub where you'll find all of the best tech deals you can get for the shopping event this year. In addition to Amazon devices, Prime Day is typically a great time to pick up big-ticket items like tablets, laptops and robot vacuums, and accessories like power banks, streaming devices, Bluetooth speakers and the like. Prime Day Echo deals Prime Day Kindle deals Prime Day Fire TV deals Prime Day Fire tablet deals Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-prime-day-deals-on-echo-speakers-kindle-ereaders-and-other-amazon-devices-073858193.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is typically a good time to see if you can get a good deal on anything you need for your kitchen. One of our favorite pieces of kitchen tech recently, the Ninja Creami ice cream maker, has dropped to a great sale price as part of Prime Day deals. You can pick it up for $150 right now, which is close to a record-low price. It's the perfect gadget for those who scream for ice cream, but also scream about paying over $6 per pint. We absolutely loved the Ninja Creami in our official review, calling it a fast and easy" way to make surprisingly tasty" ice cream and other frozen desserts. This is actually a consumer-friendly design of a mainstay appliance at restaurants, so the results are going to be a bit better than an average ice cream maker. To that end, we admired just how easy it is to use and that most of the components are machine washable. It's also surprisingly versatile. It handles ice cream, of course, but also sorbets, gelatos, frozen yogurt and more. We recommend just throwing stuff in there to see what happens, having had a fantastic experience with a combination of cow milk and coconut milk. It's really tough to make something disgusting with this machine, unless you throw in pickle juice or something. Heck, even that could work. So what's the downside? The regular $200 price tag inches it away from impulse buy" territory, though this sale helps with that. It's also fairly loud during use, but so is that local ice cream truck careening down the block, am I right? Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-bring-the-ninja-creami-ice-cream-maker-down-to-150-130835347.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is here, with discounts on just about everything under the sun. One of the best Prime Day deals we've found is for the Apple iPad Mini. It's currently on sale for $380, which is a discount of $120 and a record-low price across all color options. This is the fantastic sixth-generation iPad Mini with the A15 chip. If you want a tablet that can easily fit in a bag or purse, this is the one to get. It boasts USB-C connectivity, a 12MP front-facing camera, 64GB of storage, Touch ID and, of course, the 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display. The iPad Mini also works with the Apple Pencil stylus and the company's Smart Folio protective cover. However, both are sold separately. This tablet easily made our list of the best iPads, mostly because of its tried-and-true design and compact form factor. This makes it the best, and really only, iPad that's built for one-handed use. It's just 0.65 pounds. The speakers are great, though there's no option for Face ID. The A15 chip is also getting a bit long in the tooth. To that end, it's highly possible we'll see a refresh later in the year. For now, though, this is the best Apple tablet in its size range. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dropped-the-price-of-the-ipad-mini-to-a-record-low-of-380-for-prime-day-2024-070711397.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is coming in hot with the deals, and no brand is safe. Case in point? Apple's high-end AirPods Pro earbuds have dropped to $169. This is a record-low price for the famously expensive buds. This Prime Day deal is for the second-gen version, which are the ones that made our list of the best wireless earbuds. We love so many things about them, from the incredible sound quality to the active noise cancellation. The best feature is likely Apple's transparency mode, which we said was more natural sounding than any other earbuds by a mile." The battery life is average, six hours on their own and 30 hours with the charging case, and the option for multipoint connections is highly useful. These are specifically designed to excel with other products in the Apple ecosystem, so they are the best earbuds to use with an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac or even a pricey Vision Pro headset. The touch gestures take a bit of practice to get the hang of things, but the learning curve isn't so bad. The primary downside of these earbuds is the exorbitant price, which has been alleviated by this deal. Thanks Prime Day! If you want to save even more money, the regular AirPods are on sale for a record-low of $120. This is the third-generation model. On the other hand, if money is absolutely no object, the ultra-premium AirPods Max headphones are on sale for $395. This is also a record-low, as they typically cost a whopping $550. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-drop-to-169-for-amazon-prime-day-070220217.html?src=rss

Thanks to Amazon Prime Day, the second-generation Ring Video Doorbell is half off and on sale for only $50. That's the best price we've seen on the 1080p video doorbell that includes motion detection and night vision. The device also supports two-way audio, so you can communicate with anyone approaching your home. This Ring model is battery-powered, so you won't need to worry about a complicated wired setup. All you have to do is mount it and connect it to your Wi-Fi network through the Ring app. (You can still hardwire it to your existing doorbell system if you don't want to bother with occasional recharging.) When you pair it with the Ring app, you'll receive notifications when someone rings the bell or triggers its motion sensors. The doorbell works with Alexa, including optional announcements when someone arrives. You can also view its live feed or recordings on Echo devices with screens and Fire TV products. The doorbell has night vision for clearer shots when it's dark. In addition, you can manually set its motion zones to avoid streets, sidewalks and other high-traffic areas outside of your home. The Ring video doorbell comes with a mounting bracket and the tools required to get started. If you're in a rental, you may want to consider a third-party mount that latches onto the side of your front door without requiring any drilling. Amazon also has other Ring devices and accessories on sale, including bundles with Ring Chime, Ring Stick Up Cam and more. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-include-the-ring-video-doorbell-on-sale-for-50-194202740.html?src=rss

Now that Prime Day 2024 is here, you can snag Amazon gear at some of the best prices we've seen all year. That includes the Echo Dot, which is down to $25 for the shopping event - that's only about $2 more than its record-low price. Also discounted are the Echo Pop, which you can snag for only $18, and the full-sized Echo, which is down to $55. As to be expected, these are some of the best Prime Day deals on tech - particularly Alexa-toting tech - that you can get this year. The Echo Dot is a good way to get Alexa into your home without taking up too much space. It's also a good option for students who have little space to spare in cramped dorms and apartments, or anyone who wants to add a bit more smarts in their home office. It's one of our top picks for the best smart speakers you can get right now thanks to its minimalist, compact design, physical volume adjustment and mic-mute buttons and its general Alexa chops. The latest model is also a much better speaker than previous versions, with louder and clearer audio. If you're on a tight budget, or you want to give Alexa a try without investing too much money, the Echo Pop is a good alternative now that it's down to $18. If you were to slice the Echo Dot in half, you'd get the Echo Pop. It makes for a decent bedside speaker, and it has built-in eero functionality, meaning you can extend the range of your home's Wi-Fi network with the Pop if you have an eero router already. But for the best sound quality out of these, you'll want the regular Echo smart speaker. It has the biggest footprint of all three, and the biggest internal speaker along with a 3-inch, built-in woofer. In addition to Alexa chops, it has a temperature sensor and a Zigbee smart home hub inside, which allows you to connect gadgets like smart lights, smart door locks and more without the need for a separate hub. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-echo-dot-is-on-sale-for-only-25-for-prime-day-2024-155547899.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day has arrived and it's brought a bunch of great discounts on Amazon devices, including Fire TV streaming gear. Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max is just $35 for the shopping event, which is $25 off and a record-low price. Most other Fire TV devices are on sale as well, including the Fire TV Stick Lite for just $15. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is Amazon's most capable portable streaming device. Just plug it into your TV's HDMI port (or a TV while on vacation), and you'll instantly have access to all of your favorite streaming apps, like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon's own Prime Video. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports fast WiFi 6E connectivity, and in addition to its 4K resolution it offers Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG to make your shows and films look their best. With a 2GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of onboard storage (double what the cheaper Fire TV devices have), the Fire TV Stick 4K Max should be zippy and have enough space to your favorite apps and games. Its WiFi 6E support also makes it a great option for streaming games with Amazon Luna. The bundled Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced gives you instant access to Amazon's virtual assistant, allowing you to search for shows or just ask about the weather. If you don't need all the bells and whistles of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, there's also the Fire TV Stick Lite on sale for $15, one of our favorite inexpensive streaming devices. And if you need Ethernet and hands-free Alexa support, Amazon's Fire TV Cube is now just $100 as part of this Prime Day Deal. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-bring-the-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-down-to-a-record-low-of-35-123038175.html?src=rss

A hacking group leaked over a terabyte of confidential data from more than 10,000 Slack channels belonging to Disney, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The leaked information includes discussions about ad campaigns, computer code, details about unreleased projects and discussion about interview candidates among other things. Disney is investigating this matter," a company spokesperson told the Journal.Nullbulge calls itself a hacktivist group advocating for the rights of artists. A spokesperson for the group told the Journal that it targeted Disney due to concerns about the company's handling of artist contracts and its approach to generative AI. For weeks, the group teased its access to Disney's Slack, posting snippets of confidential information such as attendance figures for Disneyland parks on X. Nullbulge told the Journal that it accessed Disney's confidential information by compromising an employee's computer computer twice, including through malicious software that it buried in a videogame add-on.For more than a year, generative AI has sparked tensions between the companies that make and use the tech and members of the creative community who have accused corporations of using their work to train AI models without consent or compensation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-hacking-group-reportedly-leaked-confidential-data-from-thousands-of-disney-slack-channels-001124844.html?src=rss

We're less than a month away from the next Made by Google event, and we may already know what one of the marquee announcements will look like. TikTok user pixo_unpacking (via YTechB) posted videos over the weekend of apparent pre-production samples of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 XL.The phones in the video have different backs: a glossy finish on the standard Pixel 9's rear and a matte one on the larger Pixel XL's. 9to5Google notes that they appear to include rear-panel etchings Google uses for prototypes, although they're mostly covered in the clips by labels.Based on the video, the Pixel 9 appears to have two cameras, while the Pixel 9 XL has three. In addition, Google seems to have changed the camera visor into an elongated oval. It appears to be quite the protrusion, as evidenced by the video's sections showing the two phones together.asljkdfGoogle sent out invites last month to the August 13 event. Although (unsurprisingly) devoid of details, it promised to showcase the best of Google AI, Android software and the Pixel portfolio of devices." The event will be at Google's Mountain View headquarters instead of the typical New York City setting for Pixel launches.In addition to the Pixel 9 series, we expect a next-generation Pixel Fold, a new Tensor chip and a third-generation Pixel Watch. (And a possible Pixel Buds appearance.) Of course, since this is 2024 and no company can hold an event without an almost comical obsession with AI, we're practically guaranteed to hear more about new Google AI features- like the rumored Pixie AI assistant. In addition, the phones could include iPhone-like emergency satellite messaging.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/alleged-pixel-9-and-pixel-9-xl-leak-shows-a-redesigned-camera-bar-205144133.html?src=rss

About a month after Apple announced it at WWDC 2024, macOS Sequoia is available to test-drive as a public beta. Although we don't recommend installing it on your primary Mac, here's how to get the 2024 version of macOS up and running ahead of its official rollout in the fall.Compatible MacsFirst, you'll need a recent Mac to run the Sequoia public beta. Apple's software supports the following models:

Now that it's available, you can test-drive Apple's iOS 18 public beta before the software's official arrival this fall. Here's everything you need to know about setting up the iOS 18 (along with iPadOS 18 and watchOS 11) beta.First, remember that, as its beta" name implies, this is pre-release software that will likely reveal itself as such in ways that frustrate and annoy you. Some third-party apps may be broken (banking apps especially), and plenty of Apple's features may be inconsistent or buggy until the company irons out the kinks in future updates.We don't recommend installing it on any device you use as your main one-or at least not if you aren't willing to accept some risks and compromises.iOS 18 supported devicesYou'll need a recent iPhone to try the public beta. For iOS 18, that means the following models:

Apple's first 2024 public betas have arrived. You can now install early builds of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11 and macOS Sequoia to preview Apple's software updates before their official arrival this fall. You just need to enroll your Apple ID (soon-to-be Apple Account) in the Apple Beta Software Program to join the pre-release fun.Although it won't be available in beta until the fall, Apple's take on generative AI - Apple Intelligence (get it?) - is the common thread in this year's updates. Intertwined in each platform's 2024 software, Apple Intelligence is a blend of on-device and cloud processing, and it includes optional ChatGPT integration. It adds a new superpowered Siri, Safari highlights and summaries, writing tools and much more.As for what you will see in the first public beta, iOS 18 gives you more control over your Home Screen. You can place apps and widgets on any open spot on your screen and even change app icon colors, personalizing your phone with a unified aesthetic. The Control Center also gets a redesign, with easier access to your most used toggles, including new customizations. In addition, Photos gets its biggest overhaul to date, and Messages includes new formatting and effects.AppleMeanwhile, iPadOS 18 carries over many of those same changes while adding a native Calculator app for the first time and smart handwriting features.Much more than a port of the iOS version, the Calculator app includes a new Math Notes feature for the Apple Pencil (or keyboard) that can evaluate expressions, assign variables and plot graphs in real-time: Type an equals sign, and Math Notes solves the problem. In parallel, the Smart Script tool in the Notes app can smooth out your sloppy handwriting (while still looking like your penmanship) as you write, and you can turn recordings into searchable live audio transcriptions.macOS Sequoia adds iPhone Mirroring, letting you view and control your phone's screen from your Mac. A new Passwords app pulls your stored credentials out of iCloud Keychain and Safari's settings and into a standalone app. (That S.O.S. call you hear is from 1Password's developers.) Window Tiling lets you magnetically" snap windows into various grid patterns, similar to Microsoft's Snap tiling feature in Windows 11. Finally, new video call features let you replace your background with built-in images or personal photos.ApplewatchOS 11 lets you pause your daily Activity Rings when you need a break (like when you're sick, injured or have other disruptions) without losing your streaks. You can also change your goals based on the day of the week and customize which metric the Fitness app shows. A new Vitals app expands on sleep tracking to show you at a glance whether any of your overnight metrics deviate from your norm. And a training load tool gauges how your workout intensity may affect your body over time.If you've never installed an Apple software update with the Apple account you use on your devices, head to the Apple Beta Software Program website to register it. Then, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update on your device, choose the Beta Updates menu, select the Public Beta option and install the update on the Software Update screen.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-ios-18-ipados-18-macos-sequoia-and-watchos-11-public-betas-are-ready-to-download-202921608.html?src=rss

Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that Tesla's robotaxi event scheduled for August has been delayed to October. The CEO replied on X (the former Twitter, which he owns) to a user's post that he requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things."Musk's X post appears to echo what Bloomberg reported last week. The publication claimed on July 11 that delaying the event would give Tesla more time to build additional prototypes. It added that the company had communicated the delay internally and that the design team was told to rework certain elements of the car," which sounds like Musk's order to change the front design.The CEO said in early April that the company would unveil the Tesla Robotaxi on August 8. The teaser came on the same day Reuters reported that Tesla was pulling the plug on a planned $25,000 budget model (often casually referred to externally as the Model 2) in favor of a full-court push for robotaxis. Musk claimed Reuters was lying" without listing any specific points of contention.A few weeks later, Tesla cut more than 10 percent" of the company's over 140,000 personnel (at the time). Two weeks after word of the layoffs broke, the EV maker let go of two senior executives as Musk warned staff that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction." In what sounded like a threat, he added, While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so."Tesla delivered nearly seven percent fewer vehicles in the first half of 2024 and produced nearly 15 percent fewer in the second quarter than in the same period in 2023.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-confirms-the-tesla-robotaxi-event-has-been-delayed-to-october-184519959.html?src=rss

YouTube Music is rolling out some fun new features, including the expansion of the hum to search" tool that has been in beta for Android users since March. The company says this tool allows users to search the YouTube Music catalog of over 100 million official songs" by using natural sound.All you have to do is tap search" and look for the waveform icon. Then it's up to you. The tool lets people hum the song, sing the song or even play the song on another instrument. The feature is rolling out to YouTube music subscribers on both iOS and Android.It's also been working on something called AI-generated conversational radio. This isn't a platform in which AI DJs take jobs away from Wolfman Jack or whatever. Rather, it's a tool that lets people use natural conversation to describe the type of radio station they want to listen to. The algorithm will take in that information and create some tailor-made radio. This is sort of like Spotify's AI DJ from a while back, but the conversational element should make the algorithm zero in on your exact tastes as described.The bad news? It's only available to select subscribers at this point, as it's in a testing phase. If successful, it should roll out to more users in the coming months. After all, YouTube first announced the hum to search" tool in March and its already becoming widely available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-musics-latest-features-include-hum-to-search-and-ai-generated-conversational-radio-175153746.html?src=rss

No matter how you swing it, Apple's computers are expensive, making sales crucial in the pursuit of taking one home. Fortunately, Amazon Prime Day is basically here and one of the best Prime Day laptop deals we found is on Apple's 13-inch 2024 MacBook Air with an M3 chip. Our top pick for the best MacBook overall is down to $899 from $1,099 - an 18 percent discount. You'll get this sale price on the model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it doesn't come with AppleCare+ (which isn't surprising). Historically, Prime Day deals on laptops can be hit or miss, but this is a great one to consider right now if you've been eyeing a new MacBook to replace your aging laptop. Apple's 2024 MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display that can support one billion different colors. We gave it a 90 in our review thanks to offers like a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, three mics and up to 18 hours of battery life. The M3 chip makes it a faster device, with an 8-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU. It also supports dual external displays - though the MacBook must be closed. If you're in the market for a larger screen, check out the sale on the 15-inch version of Apple's M3-equipped 2024 MacBook Air. This model is also on sale, dropping to $1,099 from $1,299 - a 15 percent discount. It weighs an extra half a pound, but with a 15.2-inch screen, the additional space might be worth some weight. Plus, it offers six speakers, compared to the 13-inch's four. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-day-deals-on-laptops-include-200-off-the-m3-macbook-air-134232077.html?src=rss

If you were hoping for new colors of the HomePod mini, Apple just announced one. But, there's not much to get excited about. The company revealed a Midnight hue for its tiny speaker, replacing the Space Gray version that had been available since the mini debuted. So, yes, Apple replaced the black HomePod mini with another black HomePod mini that looks so similar it's hard to tell the difference. Even in the photo below, the shadows are likely to account for some variation in the color. However, the material for the new color, is different. Apple says the Midnight version is made with 100 percent recycled mesh fabric. All of the rest of the HomePod mini lineup, including the Space Gray option, has a cover made with 90 percent recycled plastic. Everything else about the new option is identical to the existing speaker, from the edge-to-edge illuminating touch panel to smart home controls and decent audio quality. Apple Aside from the higher recycled content in the mesh cover, this provided Apple an opportunity to bring the HomePod mini's color scheme up to date with some of its other products. The regular HomePod's black is already dubbed Midnight. What's more, the company ditched Space Gray for Midnight when the iPhone 13 debuted. It has carried it over to the Apple Watch, but there hasn't been a wholesale swap throughout all devices. The iPhone 15 lineup, for example, has Black Titanium and plain ol' Black as its darkest hues. The Midnight HomePod mini is now available to order from Apple. It will be at the company's stores and other retailers on July 17. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-replaces-the-black-homepod-mini-with-a-black-homepod-mini-162647248.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day 2024 will be here tomorrow but the deals are already abundant. The online retailer has gotten into the habit of teasing early Prime Day deals leading up to the big event, with most of them being available exclusively to Prime members. However, there are always some good tech deals on Amazon available to everyone at the same time. We've collected the best early Prime Day deals here so you don't have to go searching for them. We'll be updating this post regularly, so check back to see the latest discounts. As a reminder (and for the uninitiated): Engadget treats tech deals with the same care as we would regular" tech news. When we scour the web for deals, we're looking not only for the best prices possible, but also the best products as well. Our goal with our deals coverage, especially surrounding events like Amazon Prime Day, is to surface only the best deals we can find on the gadgets we've tested and rated highly, or that we've used and know to be worth your money. Best early Prime Day deals: Engadget top picks Best early Prime Day deals: Apple Best early Prime Day deals: Amazon Best early Prime Day deals: Anker Best early Prime Day tech deals Amazon Prime Day FAQs When is Prime Day 2024? Amazon Prime Day 2024 lands on July 16 and 17 this year. The shopping event focuses on exclusive deals for Prime members, which means you'll have to be a Prime subscriber on Prime Day to take advantage of most of the savings. Amazon still offers a 30-day free trial to new Prime subscribers, so you can start your free trial now to participate in the event. Is Prime Day the same days every year? No, but Prime Day usually happens during the summertime in the United States. In recent years, Amazon has held a second sale event in the fall as well, dubbed October Prime Day, which is similar to the summertime sale. Can anyone shop Amazon Prime Day? Amazon Prime Day focuses on exclusive deals available only to Prime members. However, if you don't pay for Prime and have no intention of doing so, you should still check out Amazon on Prime Day for sales that are available to all shoppers - there are always a few of them. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-prime-day-tech-deals-we-could-find-ahead-of-amazons-sale-tomorrow-110027281.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day may technically be two days long, but the discounts actually start before that. As it happens, just before Prime Day gets underway on July 16, we've spotted a decent discount on a Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop. This model (we'll get into the specs in a second) is available for a record low price of $2,500. That's $200 off the regular price of $2,700. This version of the laptop has a 14-inch QHD+ 240Hz HDR display. Combine that with the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU and 32GB of DDR5 RAM and most games should look and run very nicely on this system. There's a respectable volume of storage too as it has a 1TB SSD. We gave the latest Razer Blade 14 a score of 85 in our review. While we feel that it's pricey (this sale will take some of the sting out of that) and the lack of an SD card reader is a disappointment, it's a great gaming laptop overall. It has a great build, strong performance and better-than-anticipated battery life (it ran for a shade under seven hours in our testing). We liked the bright, high-refresh-rate display too and a built-in webcam shutter is always welcome. In fact, the Razer Blade 14 is our current pick for the best high-end laptop for gaming and school. The blend of power and portability is tough to beat, especially when you factor in Razer's typically robust build quality. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-include-200-off-the-razer-blade-14-gaming-laptop-145218018.html?src=rss

Windows laptops are in a bit of transition thanks to the recent introduction of Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs. However, that designation currently only applies to systems featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. But now, with some help from AMD, HP's OmniBook Ultra 14 is packing even better AI performance in a thin and light chassis.Powered by AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series chips, the OmniBook UItra 14 is said to deliver up to 55 TOPS of AI performance, which is more than the 45 TOPS you get from the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus' Hexagon NPU. HP claims this will support a range of new features including faster AI image generation, improved camera effects in video calls and more. Meanwhile for non-machine learning-related tasks, the OmniBook Ultra also sports an integrated Radeon 980 GPU. But perhaps most importantly, because AMD's Ryzen AI 300 silicon is based on x86 architecture, you won't run into app compatibility issues as you do with the existing crop of Arm-based Copilot+ PCs. That means you can play games like Fortnite and League of Legends whose anti-cheat systems have not yet been updated to work on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips.To help expand the OmniBook UItra's AI abilities, HP also created its own AI Companion app, which includes the company's Wolf Security system, an improved version of its Smart Sense performance optimization tool, support for Windows Studio Effects and Poly Camera Pro and more. Notably, HP says the laptop will also get a free update that will unlock all of Windows 11's current AI features like Image Creator and real-time transcription, which will make the OmniBook Ultra 14 an official Copilot+ PC. That said, there's no official timetable for when that patch will be available.As for the rest of the system, careful observers may have already noticed that the OmniBook Ultra sports a very familiar design. That's because unlike HP's Qualcomm-powered OmniBook X which was built using a brand new chassis, for its latest AI PC, HP reused the frame from one of its Spectre laptops for the Ultra. This is why the notebook features those distinctive angled corners.The OmniBook Ultra also has two Thunderbolt 4 ports (a first for any AMD-powered HP laptop), one USB Type-A slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. And while both the OmniBook X and OmniBook Ultra are 14-inch systems, the latter features a larger 68 Wh battery (versus 59 Wh for the OmniBook X), resulting in a slightly bulkier device that weighs 3.5 pounds and measures 0.65 inches thick (compared to 2.98 pounds and 0.57 inches for the X).Unfortunately, at this point, it remains to be seen if AMD's new AI-focused chip can deliver the same level of longevity we've gotten from current Copilot+ PCs, though HP is touting around 13 hours of life in Mobile Mark and up to 21 hours of continuous video playback.The HP Omnibook Ultra is slated to go on sale sometime in August starting at $1,450.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-omnibook-ultra-14-is-hps-first-amd-powered-next-gen-ai-pc-143126124.html?src=rss

Even moderate exercise has been shown to improve mental health and lower stress in college students. But it can be tough to prioritize a run or a HIIT session when you have a lot going on at school. We're not saying these products will magically open up time in your schedule, but a little motivation from a fitness tracker, good audio from workout earbuds and affordable apps that get you moving without a gym membership might make raising your heart rate a little easier. Here's the fitness gear we've tried over the years that's relatively affordable and doesn't take up a lot of space. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-fitness-tech-for-college-students-130020316.html?src=rss

A new space suit designed by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University, inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune, could make spacewalks longer and less disgusting by recycling expelled urine in a special filtration backpack.The traditional NASA spacesuit design has been in circulation since the 1970s and only has an absorbent polymer to catch astronauts' urine. This outdated waste system has also led to hygiene and medical issues, like urinary tract infections (UTIs) and gastrointestinal problems, for astronauts. It's not just for sci-fi whimsy.The new stillsuits' have a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit" astronauts carry on their back. The suits were designed for future NASA space missions, including the Artemis II and Artemis III missions, both headed to the moon. However, NASA hasn't adopted this spacesuit or its technology yet.Oh, and prime yourself: Amazon's Prime Day kicks off tomorrow.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedWhat to read this week: An astronaut's journey and queer horror that bites back at clicheThe best budget Android phone for 2024Amazon's AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customersYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!OpenAI whistleblowers want SEC probe into NDAsThey say the NDAs keep employees from speaking out on safety risks.Whistleblowers penned a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that OpenAI employees were made to sign illegally restrictive" agreements preventing them from speaking out on the potential harms of the company's technology. The whistleblowers ask the SEC to take swift and aggressive steps" to enforce the rules they say OpenAI has violated. They allegedly include making employees sign agreements that failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations to the SEC" and requiring employees to get consent from the company before disclosing confidential information to the authorities. The letter also says OpenAI's agreements required employees to waive compensation intended by Congress to incentivize reporting and provide financial relief to whistleblowers."Continue reading.There's finally a retro PC emulator on the App StoreBut you'll need to download virtual machines.Retro PC game emulator UTM SE is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, marking the first time Apple has allowed a PC emulator for iOS onto its marketplace. You'll first need to either download a pre-built virtual machine - several of which UTM offers for free on its website - or you can create your own from scratch.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-dune-inspired-spacesuit-recycles-astronauts-urine-into-drinkable-water-111540921.html?src=rss

The horde is relentless. Every time I naively get overconfident in the timing of my laser sweeps and think I finally have the advantage over my enemies, the next wave comes in tenfold just to put me back in my place. I flatten them, they come back stronger and overtake me, and our little dance starts all over again.In Laser Sphere, a Playdate game made by Pulp creator Shaun Inman, it's just you and your prone-to-overheating space laser against the world. From the game's description:

The retro PC game emulator UTM SE is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, marking the first time Apple has allowed a PC emulator for iOS onto its marketplace, per The Verge. UTM SE will let you run classic PC games, but you'll first need to either download a pre-built virtual machine - several of which UTM offers for free on its website - or you can create your own from scratch.

Getting into a good sleep routine can make a world of difference in your day-to-day life, and smart clocks like the Hatch Restore 2 are designed to help you achieve that. The popular sleep device, which allows for customized bedtime and wake-up routines, is deeply discounted on Amazon right now in an early Prime Day deal, bringing the price down to $145 from its usual cost of $200. The clock comes in three neutral colors - Latte, Putty and Slate - all of which are covered by the 28 percent price cut. Hatch Restore 2 has features to help put you to sleep, and wake you gently in the morning. To get the absolute most out of it, you'll also need to subscribe to Hatch+ for $5/month, but the system is still usable with limitations if you don't want yet another subscription in your life. In our review, we found it to be genuinely helpful for winding down at night and starting the day off on the right note, but you may need to play around with the settings over the course of a few days to figure out what works best for you. Hatch Restore 2 has audio segments to help you relax at night, like a 25-minute narration called Train of Thought" in which a train conductor talks you through her ticket collections and interactions with passengers, and tells you train facts.Engadget's reviewer Amy Skorheim said the audio became more effective at putting me to sleep than popping a melatonin." Restore 2 also offers ambient sounds like naturescapes, white and pink noise, and the sound of cars passing by. In the morning, a sunlight light will start to shine before your alarm goes off to help gently wake you up. You can assign rotating routines to start your day off differently each morning. The Reset," for example, will play affirmations. The Hatch Restore 2 gets sleep routines right, but it's definitely pricey for what it offers, so take advantage of that $55 discount while it's still available. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-hatch-restore-2-smart-sleep-clock-drops-to-a-record-low-for-prime-day-150049284.html?src=rss

Good news for anyone who's been waiting for a better way to run the Delta game emulator on an iPad - with version 1.6, which is available now, iPad support is here. The latest update is a major one, not only bringing a version of the emulator that's optimized for iPad, but also seamless switching between iPhone and iPad, some improvements to DS compatibility, new skins and menu button gestures, and a new logo. (Delta had to scrap its old logo after Adobe threatened to sue over similarities to its signature A').The Delta version 1.6 update is live on both the App Store and the AltStore PAL. It comes barely three months after Delta creator Riley Testut promised iPad support was on the way, and will allow for both full screen play and multiple windows using Stage Manager and Split View. Before you run and download it, though, take note of the devs' warnings about DS games: This update is incompatible with existing DS save states. Please save normally in-game before updating to avoid losing progress." The Delta team has also created a new app, Delta Legacy, to help users migrate their save states. Instructions for the process are on the Delta website.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ipad-support-has-arrived-for-the-nintendo-emulator-delta-with-its-latest-update-213509165.html?src=rss

A new report from Reuters claims OpenAI is developing technology to bring advanced reasoning capabilities to its AI models under a secret project code-named Strawberry." Among the project's goals is to enable the company's AI models to autonomously scour the internet in order to plan ahead" for more complex tasks, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The project previously went by the name of Q* (pronounced Q star"), demos of which showed earlier this year that it could answer tricky science and math questions," Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources who witnessed the demonstrations.At this stage, much remains unknown about Strawberry - including how far along in development it is, and whether it's the same system with human-like reasoning" skills that OpenAI reportedly demonstrated at an employee all-hands meeting earlier this week, per Bloomberg. But the ability for the company's AI to conduct deep research," as is said to be the aim of Strawberry, would mark a huge leap forward from what's available today.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-is-reportedly-working-on-more-advanced-ai-models-capable-of-reasoning-and-deep-research-202419228.html?src=rss

OpenAI's NDAs are once again under scrutiny after whistleblowers penned a letter to the SEC alleging that employees were made to sign illegally restrictive" agreements preventing them from speaking out on the potential harms of the company's technology. The letter, which was obtained and published online by The Washington Post, accuses OpenAI of violating SEC rules meant to protect employees' rights to report their concerns to federal authorities and prevent retaliation. It follows an official complaint that was filed with the SEC in June.In the letter, the whistleblowers ask the SEC to take swift and aggressive steps" to enforce the rules they say OpenAI has violated. The alleged violations include making employees sign agreements that failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations to the SEC" and requiring employees obtain consent from the company before disclosing confidential information to the authorities. The letter also says OpenAI's agreements required employees to waive compensation that was intended by Congress to incentivize reporting and provide financial relief to whistleblowers."In a statement to the Post, OpenAI spokesperson Hannah Wong said, Our whistleblower policy protects employees' rights to make protected disclosures," and added that the company has made important changes" to its off-boarding papers to do away with nondisparagement terms. OpenAI previously said it was fixing these agreements after it was accused this spring of threatening to claw back exiting employees' vested equity if they didn't sign NDAs on their way out.According to The Washington Post, the SEC has responded to the complaint, but no details have yet been released regarding any action it is or isn't going to take. But the whistleblowers say enforcement is of utmost importance even if OpenAI is making reforms in light of the public disclosures of their illegal contracts." The letter says it is necessary not as an attack on OpenAI or to hinder the advancement of AI technology, but to send the message to others in the AI space, and to the tech industry at large, that violations on the right of employees or investors to report wrongdoing will not be tolerated."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-whistleblowers-call-for-sec-probe-into-ndas-that-kept-employees-from-speaking-out-on-safety-risks-171604829.html?src=rss

NASA and its partners, the European and Canadian space agencies, are celebrating the second year since the James Webb Telescope started sending back photos of the universe by releasing an image of the Penguin and the Egg galaxies. These are interacting galaxies collectively known as Arp 142 located 326 million light-years from Earth, captured by the James Webb in interactive light.The galaxies first interacted between 25 and 75 million years ago, causing new star formation. Based on previous research, 100 to 200 stars have formed per year in the Penguin - yes, that is the galaxy at the center of the image that looks like a bird's head - whereas the Milky Way only produces between six and seven new stars per year. In this image taken by the James Webb, the interaction between the two galaxies is marked by a faintly glowing upside-down U. Take note that while the Penguin appears bigger than the Egg galaxy at its left, they have approximately the same mass. If either galaxy were smaller, they would've already merged.In addition to the galaxies prominently featured in the image, you'll also see more distant galaxies in the background. The space agencies said it's a "testament to the sensitivity and resolution of Webb's infrared cameras." NASA and its partners launched the James Webb Telescope in late 2021 after more than a decade of delays caused by spiraling costs and construction woes. The agencies released the first image it ever captured, the deepest image of the distant universe, in July 2022. Last year, they also commemorated its first anniversary with an image of a nearby stellar nursery.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-telescope-marks-second-anniversary-with-an-image-of-the-penguin-and-the-egg-galaxies-143052704.html?src=rss

New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.Bury Your Gays by Chuck TingleChuck Tingle may be best known for his oft-memed erotica titles, but the author has also been making a name for himself in mainstream horror in recent years. Tingle's second full-length horror novel, Bury Your Gays, was released this week, and if the title didn't make it abundantly clear, it calls out one of Hollywood's tiredest tropes: queer storylines that inevitably end in tragedy or erasure.In Bury Your Gays, bizarre circumstances befall the book's protagonist, an Oscar-nominated scriptwriter named Misha, after he refuses studio executives' orders to either kill off two lesbian characters in a blaze of gay glory" or make them straight. It's got monsters (not just the corporate kind), gore and basically all the ingredients for a great summer read. And, for anyone who prefers audiobooks, the narrated version of Bury Your Gays has a particularly stacked cast, including Mara Wilson and authors Stephen Graham Jones and T. Kingfisher.Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change by Cady ColemanIf you'd asked me a few days ago how I thought astronauts sleep on the International Space Station - something I've never really given much thought to - I probably would have made a little joke about them floating around in sleeping bag cocoons, occasionally bumping into walls and furniture over the course of the night. Just one page into the first chapter of Sharing Space, former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman confirms this isn't actually that far off from the truth, at least for some ISS dwellers:

Meta, the parent company of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has decided to remove restrictions placed on former President Donald Trump's accounts.Meta updated its original statement announcing the end of Trump's suspension on Facebook and Instagram in January of 2023 to reflect the Republican presumptive presidential nominee's new online status. Axiosfirst reported on the news.Meta removed Trump from all of its platforms following the attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 amid extreme and highly unusual circumstances," according to Meta's original statement.Seven people were killed as a result of violence on or collateral damage as a result of the attack on the Capitol building.The following May, the Oversight Board ruled that Facebook failed to apply an appropriate penalty with its indefinite suspension of Trump's accounts for severely" violating Facebook and Instagram's community guidelines and standards. Trump said in a video statement released less than three hours after the violence began We love you. You're very special" and called the insurrectionists great patriots." Those and other statements made in the wake of the US Capitol attack convinced the board that Trump violated its standard against praising or supporting people engaging in violence on its platforms.Two years later, Meta restored Trump's accounts following a time-bound suspension with stricter penalties for violating its terms of service, a standard that was higher than any other user on Facebook and Instagram. Meta noted in its latest update that the ex-president will be subject to the same standard as everyone else.With the party conventions taking place shortly, including the Republican convention next week, the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated," according to Meta's statement. In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis."Twitter, now X, also took action against President Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol for three tweets he posted that were labeled for inciting violence. It started with a 12-hour suspension on Jan. 6, 2021. Two days later, Twitter banned him completely after determining that subsequent posts also violated its community standards. The following year, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk conducted an informal poll on his account asking if he should remove President Trump's ban and reinstated his account a few days later.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-rolls-back-restrictions-on-trumps-facebook-and-instagram-accounts-220203014.html?src=rss

Three US Senators introduced a bill that aims to rein in the rise and use of AI generated content and deepfakes by protecting the work of artists, songwriters and journalists.The Content Original Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media (COPIED) Act was introduced to the Senate Friday morning. The bill is a bipartisan effort authorized by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), according to a press alert issued by Blackburn's office.The COPIED ACT would, if enacted, create transparency standards through the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) to set guidelines for content provenance information, watermarking, and synthetic content detection," according to the press release.The bill would also prohibit the unauthorized use of creative or journalistic content to train AI models or created AI content. The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general would also gain the authority to enforce these guidelines and individuals who had their legally created content used by AI to create new content without their consent or proper compensation would also have the right to take those companies or entities to court.The bill would even expand the prohibition of tampering or removing content provenance information by internet platforms, search engines and social media companies.A slew of content and journalism advocacy groups are already voicing their support for the COPIED Act to become law. They include groups like SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Songwriters Guild of America and the National Newspaper Association.This is not the Senate's first attempt to create guidelines and laws for the rising use of AI content and it certainly won't be the last. In April, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) submitted a bill called the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act that would force AI companies to list their copyrighted sources in their datasets. The bill has not moved out of the House Committee on the Judiciary since its introduction, according to Senate records.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/three-senators-introduce-bill-to-protect-artists-and-journalists-from-unauthorized-ai-use-205603263.html?src=rss

The controllers available for consoles like the Xbox Series X and the Nintendo Switch and even some for PC gaming are the peak result of an evolutionary ergonomic transformation. The days of boxy controllers like the NES GamePad and even the Atari 2600 joystick are almost gone from modern gaming but 8BitDo has done a great job of preserving those classic designs without totally sacrificing their functionality. 8BitDo has been making these modern throwback peripherals for 11 years and it's marking this anniversary with a pair of limited edition gold and silver SN30 Pro controllers. These controllers aren't just matte painted in gold and silver. They are made with a zinc-alloy metal" so they weigh a hefty 381 grams. They also cost just under $100 each. They are compatible with the Nintendo Switch and computers running Microsoft Windows, according to 8BitDo's website. The new gold and silver limited edition controllers have the same layout as the original SN30 Pro with a Super Nintendo-esque button layout and two analog sticks. A metal version may give it the little bit of extra weight the original needs so it feels a little more balanced. Plus, a metal controller that looks like gold or silver just makes you feel like a total baller. Such a confidence boost could transfer from your brain to your hands and may improve your game. So it could be an effective controller or just a cool looking paperweight that you might find on Elon Musk's desk (assuming he stops tweeting long enough to notice it exists). This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/8bitdo-marks-its-11th-anniversary-with-gold-and-silver-metal-controllers-195616688.html?src=rss

If you're considering a premium foldable phone, these pre-order deals ahead of Prime Day may be the way to go. You can get a $300 Amazon gift card when you reserve the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and a $200 one with the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Both phones begin shipping on July 24. The Samsung Z Fold 6 will typically cost $1,900 for 256GB of storage and $2,320 for 512GB. But Amazon's deal gets you the 512GB with a $300 Amazon gift card for $1,900. (The 256GB model costs the same, so there's no reason to go with it.) That's still loads of money to spend on a phone, but if you were going the premium foldable route anyway, at least this offer doubles the storage and adds a nice chunk of store credit for the same entry price. The Z Fold 6 has the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and more RAM than its predecessor. It also adds a 12MP ultra-wide camera and a brighter display (up to 2,600 nits). In Engadget's hands-on, Sam Rutherford found the phone to be sharper and sleeker than its predecessor. The Z Fold 6 has a new dual-rail hinge with Samsung's enhanced Armor Aluminum for a lighter feel. The main screen's slightly tweaked dimensions also improve the viewing experience. The phone even has a 60-percent larger vapor chamber to help cool the phone during intense gaming sessions. Sam Rutherford for Engadget For the Z Flip 6, you can also pre-order the 512GB model for the same price as the 256GB model ($1,099), and you'll get a $200 Amazon gift card with your purchase. The smaller foldable had more changes in this year's upgrades. These include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, 12GB of RAM, a 4,000mAh battery (the largest on any Z Flip) and cameras to match the excellent ones on the Galaxy S24: a 50MP main one and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. Of course, it wouldn't be a 2024 flagship phone without AI features, and both phones have plenty. Carrying over from the Galaxy S24 series, both phones add generative tools like browsing assist, dictation, new translation tools and Circle to Search. Both phones arrive on July 24, and the deal is only valid through July 23 or as long as supplies last. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-adding-a-free-300-gift-card-when-you-pre-order-the-samsung-galaxy-z-fold-6-193426527.html?src=rss

There's another chatbot in town. Amazon's AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customers, albeit in a beta version. This follows a testing phase that began back in February. Rufus looks to currently be tied to the app and not the web version of Amazon.So what does it do? It's an Amazon chatbot so it helps with shopping. You can ask for lists of recommended products and ask what specific products do and stuff like that.I've tooled around with it a bit this morning and it seems fine, though a bit boring. I will say that I cross-referenced some of the recommended products with the web version and Rufus does not automatically list promoted items, at least for now.AmazonIt spit out a seemingly random list of well-reviewed products on several occasions. That's fine by me, though I'm not about to buy something based on the word of a one-day old chatbot. You can also ask specific questions about products, but the answers seem to be pulled directly from the descriptions. As any regular Amazon customer knows, some of these descriptions are accurate and others aren't. The chatbot is tied to your personal account, so it can answer questions about upcoming deliveries and the like.Amazon says that the bot has been trained on its product catalog, along with customer reviews, community Q&As and public information found throughout the web. However, it hasn't disclosed what websites it pulled that public information from and to what end. It didn't even confirm that these were retail-adjacent websites.If you want to try it out, update to the latest version of the app and look for the colorful icon on the bottom-right. Maybe, if we all work hard enough at asking ridiculous questions, we can break it just in time for Amazon Prime Day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-ai-chatbot-rufus-is-now-live-for-all-us-customers-190938911.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner so summer deal season is in full swing, including on some manufacturers' own storefronts. Ooni is running a flash sale at the minute and the company has slashed 20 percent off the price of some of its pizza ovens, including the Karu 12 and Koda 12. The Karu 12 has dropped to $239, which is $60 off the regular price. The Koda 12, meanwhile, is $80 off at $319. The sale runs until July 17. Ooni makes some of our picks for the best pizza ovens. While we generally recommend larger models, there's no harm in going for the Karu 12 or Koda 12 if you prefer to make smaller pies or want a more compact model for camping trips . The Karu is a multi-fuel oven that uses your choice of wood, charcoal or gas to cook pizzas. Bear in mind that you'll need to purchase a gas burner separately if you prefer that fuel. The Karu 12 doesn't come with a peel either, unfortunately. Ooni says the Karu 12 can reach temperatures of up to 950F or 500C and that it can hit the optimal baking temperature of 850F or 450C in just 15 minutes. From there, it'll take just 60 seconds to cook a pie. Along with baking pizzas, you can bake, roast and sear in the Karu 12. You can control the temperature by adjusting the airflow on the chimney. The oven weighs 26.lbs (12kg). As for the Koda 12, that's a gas-powered model that comes with a regulator and hose to hook up to your propane tank (you'll still need to buy a peel separately though). It's also more compact than the Karu 12, as it weighs 20.4lbs (9.25kg). Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ooni-flash-sale-includes-20-percent-off-karu-and-koda-pizza-ovens-180029123.html?src=rss