Author Archives: Lawrence Bonk

Prime Day deals bring the Google Pixel Buds Pro down to their lowest price yet

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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 deals discount these Sony ANC headphones to only $88

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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

Prime Day deals bring the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds down to $229

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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

Prime Day vacuum deals include $180 off the Dyson V15 Detect cordless vacuum

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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 dropped the price of the iPad mini to a record low of $380 for Prime Day 2024

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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

Prime Day is over but the iPad deals aren’t — Shop last minute and get up to 24 percent off

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Amazon Prime Day might be over, but there are some Prime Day deals still available right now. And believe it or not, iPad deals are some of the discounts remaining even hours after the shopping event ended. The standout deal you can get right now is still the same as we saw on Prime Day proper: the 10th-gen iPad is down to $299, which is $50 off and an all-time-low price.

This iPad deal is for the bare-bones version of the device with 64GB of internal storage. However, this particular iPad model shines brightest when consuming content and, well, most of that is on the cloud nowadays. Also, this particular model is Wi-Fi only with no cellular service, if that’s a dealbreaker for you. Also: the deal extends to all four colorways.

Despite being released back in the ancient days of 2022, the 10th-gen iPad is still a capable machine with an A14 Bionic chip, a 10.9-inch Retina display, two 12MP cameras and a robust battery that should last a full day before requiring a trip to the outlet. It won’t beat the recently-released iPad Air and Pro models, but it’s also a fraction of the price.

As a matter of fact, this tablet still has a place on our list of the best iPads. We appreciated the solid battery life, the modern design that recalls its pricer cousins and USB-C charging. At the end of the day, it’s an iPad. It’s great, despite being significantly underpowered when compared to the Pro and Air. To put it another way, this is the tablet to get if your primary use cases are consuming content, surfing the web, playing games and writing emails. This is not the tablet to get if you want to start editing videos.

If that is what you're looking for, you'll have to go all the way up the iPad lineup to the iPad Pro, which you can snag on sale for $919 right now thanks to a discount-plus-coupon combo on the 11-inch model. The M4-powered version sits at the top of our list of the best tablets thanks to its incredible screen, superior performance, thinner and lighter design and compatibility with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro.

But the iPad Pro is undeniably expensive even when on sale — unless you're looking for a true laptop replacement, you can likely find everything you need in a more affordable iPad model. The M2-powered iPad Air is the one we at Engadget recommend to most people and it's on sale for $559 still today. Also discounted are the iPad mini, arguably the best iPad for single-handed use, which is down to a record low of $380, and the 9th-gen iPad, which you can pick up for $249.

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-is-over-but-the-ipad-deals-arent--shop-last-minute-and-get-up-to-24-percent-off-070443452.html?src=rss

Apple AirPods Pro drop to $169 for Amazon Prime Day

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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

YouTube Music’s latest features include ‘hum to search’ and AI-generated conversational radio

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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

Prime Day deals include the Ninja Creami ice cream maker for $150

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It’s not quite Amazon Prime Day yet, but the early deals continue to show up. For example, the Ninja Creami ice cream maker is down to $150. This is a discount of $50 and close to the record-low price of $130. 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-include-the-ninja-creami-ice-cream-maker-for-150-130835252.html?src=rss

Amazon’s AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customers

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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.

Chatbot answer
Amazon

It 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