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Amazon Black Friday deals include $100 off our favorite Wi-Fi 6 mesh router system

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The TP-Link Deco AXE5400 Wi-Fi 6 mesh router system is on sale for $200 as part of Amazon’s Black Friday commercial festivities. That’s a discount of $100 and matches a record-low price for the device. This deal is for the two-pack, so you get both the actual router and an extender to place somewhere else in the home.

This is a fantastic mesh router setup for most consumers at $300, so that absolutely remains true at $200. There’s a reason, after all, why TP-Link’s device topped our collection of the best mesh Wi-Fi router systems of 2023. We ended up calling it the “best for most people” in that list, citing the budget-friendly price tag and the powerful range, which is more than enough to offer coverage to every nook and cranny within the home.

In our official review of the router system, we admired the “blisteringly-fast speed” and decent reliability. We also liked that the security and parental control features are free, nestled within a proprietary app. The app itself is a bit bare-bones when compared to competing software, but it's still useful.

On the downside, if you can call it that, the hardware itself isn’t quite as attractive as some rival units, like those cute ‘lil Google Nest ovals, but routers typically get stuffed somewhere out of the way, so this isn’t a huge deal. In other words, we are nitpicking. This is a great mesh router system for just about anyone.

Amazon’s primary Black Friday deal is for the two-pack, as mentioned, but the single pack and the three-pack also get some love. You can snag the single-pack system for $120 instead of $170 and a three-pack, which covers up to 7,200 square feet, for $360 instead of $450.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-black-friday-deals-include-100-off-our-favorite-wi-fi-6-mesh-router-system-155618201.html?src=rss

YubiKeys are buy one, get one half off for Black Friday

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If you’ve considered securing your online accounts with a physical key, today isn’t a bad time to start. Yubico has its highly rated YubiKeys on sale for Cyber Week, and you don’t have to wait for Black Friday to take advantage. From today through November 27 (Cyber Monday), you can buy one and get one half off on YubiKeys in the standard and YubiKey 5 series.

A physical hardware key is one of the most secure ways to protect an online account: It’s a secondary authentication method to prevent people from jacking your data with a password alone. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Slack and other big names in the tech world support the accessories. Unlike using your phone for SMS authentication, YubiKeys aren’t prone to SIM card hacks; an intruder would need your physical key and passwords to access your protected accounts.

The buy one, get one half-off deal is appropriate because security experts recommend keeping one hardware key with you at all times and a backup stored in a safe location. This redundancy means you can still access your data even if you lose one key. Just remember to set up both keys with each account you secure. (Scan the account’s setup QR code for each key.)

When shopping for YubiKeys, buy the type that matches your devices’ ports. Yubico sells models with USB-A, USB-C, Lightning and NFC connections — some including more than one. If you have an older (pre-2023) iPhone, you may want to consider future-proofing your purchase with the YubiKey 5Ci, which has both Lightning and USB-C connectors, or the YubiKey 5C NFC, which you can tap against your phone without plugging in. Apple has phased out Lightning in its current products, so getting a YubiKey with USB-C will allow you to eventually upgrade your phone without buying new security keys.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yubikeys-are-buy-one-get-one-half-off-for-black-friday-140046543.html?src=rss

Fellow coffee devices are 20 percent off for Black Friday

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Some folks have a more intricate coffee-making process than "insert pod, press button, get java." Serious coffee fans who don't mind putting in more effort to get a high-quality cup of joe may be interested to learn that Fellow is running a Black Friday sale. Many of the brand's devices are 20 percent off on its website until November 28. The discount will automatically be applied at checkout.

Fellow is behind some of the best gifts for coffee lovers — though of course you can always treat yourself to some of its gear. The brand's Tally Pro scale usually costs $185, but you can get it for $148 right now.

Fellow created the scale with precision in mind. If you know your preferred coffee-to-water ratio, you can indicate that in Brew Assist Mode to reach your target brew weight for your ideal pour-over. More experienced folks might opt for the Timer Mode, which displays a timer and weight in grams side-by-side to guide the brewing process with few distractions.

You can also use the Tally as a small kitchen scale. Switch to Weight Mode, and you can measure anything up to 5.5 lbs. The scale will give readings in grams, ounces, pounds and milliliters. The battery will run for up to three months before you need to recharge it via USB-C.

A good scale is only one part of the pour-over coffee equation: you'll definitely need a kettle too. Fellow's Stagg EKG Pro kettle is not only eye-catching, it should have all the bells and whistles you need. It typically costs $255, but it has dropped to $204 during this sale.

A person holds Fellow's Stagg EKG Pro kettle.
Fellow

A Guide Mode will help you pick a preset temperature for different coffee brewing styles or varieties of tea. If you're more confident about the ideal temperature for your drink, you can set it manually and even schedule a time for the kettle to warm up. There's even an option to set your altitude to stop the water from boiling over. A hold mode can maintain a certain temperature for up to 60 minutes as well.

As with the other products mentioned here, the kettle comes with a two year warranty. If you register the device, Fellow will extend the warranty to three years.

In addition, coffee buffs will want to have a capable grinder on hand for their preferred beans. The Opus Conical Burr Grinder (currently $156) and Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 ($276) are each 20 percent off as well. The Opus has more than 40 precision settings. It has six-blade 40mm conical burrs with a burr speed of 350 RPM. There's a 110g capacity, but you can load it up with a single serving to help ensure maximum freshness.

With the Ode Gen 2, Fellow promises a quiet grind and an automatic stop. It has what the company claims are best-in-class Gen 2 Brew Burrs along with anti-static tech that's said to reduce grind mess. There are 31 grind settings and the grinder has a 100g capacity.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fellow-coffee-devices-are-20-percent-off-for-black-friday-150007766.html?src=rss

Most of OpenAI’s staff threatens to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates Sam Altman as CEO

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The OpenAI chaos took another twist on Monday morning as most of the company's staff threatened to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates former CEO Sam Altman and ex-president Greg Brockman. According to Wired and Kara Swisher, around 500 employees — including several executives — signed the letter at the outset. 

By Monday afternoon, the number of signatories had swelled to more than 700, according to Bloomberg. That's almost all of the company's approximately 770 employees. Several staff members, including Chief Technical Officer Mira Murati (who held the company's top job on an interim basis for less than a weekend), wrote on X early Monday that "OpenAI is nothing without its people."

The letter to the board is the latest development in a series of events that started on Friday afternoon, when OpenAI's board fired Altman. The board claimed Altman had not been "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." As such, the board felt it no longer had "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." Brockman told OpenAI staff in an email on Friday that he was resigning as chairman "based on today's news." 

Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap later said in a leaked internal memo that Altman was sacked due to “a breakdown in communication,” not “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.”

Altman and Brockman held crunch talks with OpenAI's board over the weekend in an attempt to get their jobs back. But those discussions did not work out in the favor of the former CEO and chairman. It emerged late Sunday night that the board had instead opted to hire former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as OpenAI's interim chief executive.

There was yet another major development late Sunday/early Monday morning, as Microsoft hired Altman, Brockman and several of their former OpenAI colleagues to head up a new advanced AI research team. Microsoft is OpenAI's biggest investor and it's using the company's tech to help power its generative AI-driven products such as Copilot. The news of Altman's firing reportedly caught Microsoft by surprise. Even though there were suggestions that Satya Nadella has effectively acquihired OpenAI for free, the Microsoft CEO said his company remains "committed to our partnership with OpenAI."

Although Nadella says Altman, Brockman and others now seemingly have new positions at Microsoft, that may not yet be a done deal. According to The Verge, Altman and Brockman may still get their jobs back at OpenAI if the board steps aside. 

If Altman and Brockman don't return to OpenAI, hundreds of employees may end up joining them at Microsoft. In their letter, OpenAI employees accused the board of acting against the best interests of the company.

"Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees," the letter reads. "We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman."

Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI board member and the company’s chief scientist, was reportedly the person who coordinated the coup against Altman. However, Sutskever has now expressed regret for "my participation in the board's action" and pledged to do "do everything I can to reunite the company." Sutskever is one of the letter's several hundred signees.

Update 11/20 2:33PM ET: Updated to reflect that more than 700 OpenAI employees have signed the letter. Also noted that Altman and Brockman's move to Microsoft isn't necessarily a done deal.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/most-of-openais-staff-threatens-to-quit-unless-the-board-resigns-and-reinstates-sam-altman-as-ceo-142138044.html?src=rss

The best gifts to buy tea lovers in 2024

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Forget coffee — for billions of people around the world, a freshly steeped cup of tea is the best part of waking up. Take that Folgers. But with so many varieties and methods of preparation out there, it can be difficult to find the right gift for the tea lover in your life. So to help you out, we’ve put together a list of our favorite products, from kettles to samplers, with a wide range of prices so you can pick out the perfect tea-themed present.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-gifts-to-buy-tea-lovers-140022326.html?src=rss

Max is offering 70 percent off its ad-supported plan for six months in Black Friday sale

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Black Friday is almost here, and deals are springing up everywhere from tablets to streamers. Max, the streamer formerly known as HBO Max, is offering 70 percent off its Max with Ads plan, dropping the price from $9.99 per month (or $100 if you pay for an entire year) to $2.99 per month. The reduced cost lasts for six months, at which point you can cancel or pay full price — all depends on how badly you want to watch reruns of Succession.

The Max with Ads plan comes with concurrent streaming on two devices, full HD 1080p and, of course, ads. Max currently offers three plans: With Ads, Ad Free and Ultimate. Ad Free is $16 each month or $150 for a year and includes the same benefits as the cheapest plan, just no ads and up to 30 downloads. Ultimate is $20 per month or $200 for a year and allows for simultaneous streaming on four devices, certain titles available in 4K UHD with Dolby Atmos and up to 100 downloads. All new plans include the Bleacher Report Sports Add-On through the end of February 2024.

You have a few days to decide if you want to lock in the discounted subscription or put your money towards other deals, as the sale is available from now through Monday, November 27. Both new and returning customers can access it when signing up for a Max With Ads plan.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/max-is-offering-70-percent-off-its-ad-supported-plan-for-six-months-in-black-friday-sale-140005554.html?src=rss

Amazon will host free ‘AI Ready’ courses in an effort to boost the AI talent pool

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OpenAI may grab all the headlines, but Amazon has been quietly toiling on AI across all its divisions and even using AI-powered robots in its warehouses. Now, in a bid to expand the AI talent pool, the company is launching a free program called "AI Ready," with the aim of providing generative AI training to two million people globally by 2025. 

Consisting of eight free courses, the classes will be available through Amazon's learning website and offered to non-Amazon employees as well. They'll teach people AI skills including the generative AI technology that powers ChatGPT and other language models. 

They're designed for beginners and advanced users in both tech and tech-adjacent roles. Three courses are aimed at business and nontechnical users, while five are designed for developer and technical audiences. Along with the classes, Amazon announced that it's providing Udacity scholarships valued at more than $12 million to more than 50,000 high school and university students from underrepresented communities around the world. 

 "The goal of AI Ready is to help level the playing field of AI education, supported by the new initiatives we're launching here today," said AWS VP of data and AI, Swami Sivasubramanian. "If we are going to unlock the full potential of AI to tackle the world’s most challenging problems, we need to make AI education accessible to anyone with a desire to learn."

AI technology has been in use for some time now in field ranging from medical research to retail customer assistance — but it really exploded with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT virtual assistant. The field is still in its teething stages and systems are notoriously complex, however, so there's a serious shortage of qualified programmers, technicians and others. Amazon notes that 73 percent of employers say that hiring AI-skilled talent is a priority, but three of four are unable to find qualified people. 

Amazon said its aim is to "democratize" generative AI education, noting that the program will benefit not just its own employees but its enterprise customers who seek workers with prompt engineering and other skills. It could also help AWS (Amazon Web Service) customers as several courses are based on its own platforms including Amazon Bedrock AI and Amazon CodeWhisperer, a tool that automatically generates code. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-will-host-free-ai-ready-courses-in-an-effort-to-attract-new-talent-133851547.html?src=rss

Tinder profiles just got a ‘rizz-first’ redesign

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There has always been little more to swiping right or left on a person's Tinder profile than if you like how they look. Now, the dating app is finally introducing a range of features that provide a more rounded idea of people, such as profile prompts and basic info tags.

Anyone who has used apps like fellow Match Group-owned Hinge or Bumble will likely find many of these updates familiar. Profile prompts, for example, are a long-standing feature on both, with Tinder users now able to share their responses to statements like "The first item on my bucket list is" or the ever-popular "Two truths and a lie." Basic info tags let people share facts such as their zodiac sign, drinking habits and love language. More unique is the addition of a quiz, which should highlight a user's interests and preferences (they can add these results to their profile). Plus, there's now an option to report specific details of a person's profile that are alarming versus reporting the entire account.

Tinder is openly looking to engage Gen Z, and that couldn't be clearer than the pointedly named "Rizz-first Redesign." There are UI updates, enhanced animations, and even a new "It's a Match!" screen. At the same time, Tinder has also introduced a dark mode feature for more discrete swiping while out in public or dimmer lighting at night. 

The dating app points to Gen Z's responses in its recent Future of Dating Report as motivation for the updates. "At Tinder, we understand that connecting today is about authenticity, depth, and the desire for connections that go beyond the surface. This suite of features is the response to this evolving need," Mark Van Ryswyk, Chief Product Officer at Tinder, said in a statement. "We know the new generation of daters prioritizes value-based qualities such as respect (78 percent) and open-mindedness (61 percent) over looks (56 percent). They care about authentic connections formed through shared interests and common causes and have no time for the 'game-playing' of previous generations." Was connecting not about authenticity in the past? That's for someone else to debate.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tinder-profiles-just-got-a-rizz-first-redesign-131015062.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Microsoft recruits recently fired OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman

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OpenAI’s board of directors announced Friday it had fired CEO Sam Altman. But he’s doing okay. By Monday morning, he had joined Microsoft “to lead a new advanced AI research team,” according to the company.

Altman cofounded OpenAI with Elon Musk in 2015 as a nonprofit and served as the CEO for the for-profit arm since 2019. He was originally fired from OpenAI over “a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board,” according to an internal staff memo. Several key members also resigned, including co-founder Greg Brockman (who will now also join Microsoft) along with a few senior researchers. “Dozens” of OpenAI employees reportedly announced internally they’d be quitting too, with some expressing interest in joining a potential new Altman startup.

According to Bloomberg, the board had reportedly considered reversing Altman’s firing, though the ousted exec wanted the existing board to resign and issue a public apology — and I fully endorse all this drama, if true.

The company did not apologize, however.

— Mat Smith

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What is RCS and how is it different from SMS and iMessage?

Apple will finally support it next year.

Following the news that iPhones will support Rich Communication Services next year, what exactly is RCS? Well, positioned as a next-generation replacement for SMS and MMS, it adds modern features you may already use on WhatsApp, including read receipts and the ability to send high-resolution images and more. We wrestle with what this means, and how iMessage fits into it all.

Continue reading.

Nothing pulls its iMessage-compatible Chats app

The Sunbird-based app, which was still in beta, has been removed from the Play Store.

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Nothing

It’s a weird week for messaging and texts. Nothing has pulled the beta of its new messaging app, Nothing Chats. The company touted the Sunbird-based app as the answer to the longstanding Android versus Apple texting woes, supporting RCS and iMessage. However, critics voiced concerns over the security risks workarounds like this bring. Nothing Chats does not have end-to-end encryption, and 9to5Google noted attachments sent by other users could easily be accessed in plain text.

Continue reading.

SpaceX loses another Starship and Super Heavy rocket

There was a double explosion during testing.

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SpaceX

SpaceX's second test flight of its Starship spacecraft — which it hopes will eventually ferry humans to the Moon and Mars — ended in an explosion Saturday morning, minutes after taking off from the company's spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. After completing stage separation, when the Super Heavy booster detached itself from Starship, the rocket's first stage exploded. Starship, however, continued for several more minutes, with a faint explosion heard around the eight-minute mark. Unlike its first test, Starship was able to reach space this time. The company is framing it as a success, even if it did… explode.

Continue reading.

The best Black Friday Deals we’ve found so far

From Amazon, Walmart, Target and more!

We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday deals on tech we’ve tested, and we expect many of the live deals to run through to Cyber Monday. As a taster, we’re already seeing record lows on iPads, wireless earbuds, PS5 controllers, Xbox consoles, Sonos gear, smart TVs and more.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-microsoft-recruits-recently-fired-openai-ceo-sam-altman-121523955.html?src=rss

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad falls to a new low of $230 in an Amazon Black Friday deal

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We're only a few days out from Black Friday, and the sales keep building. The latest deal worth checking out comes courtesy of a new all-time low price on Apple's ninth-generation iPad. The 64GB device is currently available for $230, down from $329 — a 30 percent discount. 

The ninth-gen Apple iPad is a great option if you want a simple, well-performing iPad that does everything you need. It's the cheapest option on the market (even more so now), with us naming it the best budget iPad for 2023. It first came on the scene in 2021, getting an 86 in our review thanks to updates like Apple's A13 Bionic chip and doubling the amount of storage it has for the same price. 

Apple's 2021 iPad also has True Tone technology, changing the color based on the room's ambient light, and has a 12MP front-facing camera. Plus, it offers up to 10 hours of battery life when watching videos, playing music or on the internet. Accessory-wise, it's compatible with the first-gen Apple Pencil. If you want a bit of an upgrade, Apple's tenth-generation iPad is also on sale, with a 22 percent discount dropping its price to $349 from $449. 

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-9th-gen-ipad-falls-to-a-new-low-of-230-in-early-black-friday-deal-104050480.html?src=rss