Tag Archives: Technology & Electronics

iRobot’s Roomba Combo j9+ robot vacuum and mop is $600 off for Prime Day

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Prime Day has returned for the fall, which means there are tons of deals to check out at Amazon. Robot vacuums (and cordless ones for that matter) are some of the machines we most recommend picking up during sale events like this because you can often save hundreds on the stick price. One of the best Prime Day robot vacuum deals we found is on the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+, which is a vac-and-mop hybrid. You can snag it for $800 right now, which is $600 off.

This is our pick for the best robot vacuum and mop combo. The Roomba Combo j9+ covers all the bases — and floor types — as it offers just about everything you could want in such a device.

It has strong suction, the ability to give your floors a deep scrub and the intelligence to avoid obstacles. The accompanying Clean Base not only allows the Combo j9+ to self-empty, it refills the robot's liquid tank with water or solution. As such, you shouldn't have to empty the debris bin or top up the base's liquid tank for weeks at a time.

You can set up vacuuming and mopping routines, and ask Alexa or Google Assistant to start an ad hoc cleaning. The Combo j9+ can map out your home faster than previous models and you can label objects to help direct the Roomba to clean a specific area.

The Combo j9+ is certainly a more premium option, but there are other Roombas on sale for Prime Day. Another vacuum and mop combo (Y0140) has dropped from $275 to $219. Meanwhile, you can pick up the even more budget-friendly Roomba Q0120 vacuum for $190. It usually costs $250.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/irobots-roomba-combo-j9-robot-vacuum-and-mop-is-600-off-for-prime-day-172009289.html?src=rss

EA’s Grid Legends racing game careens onto iOS and Android this December

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The EA/Codemasters racing sim Grid Legends is coming to mobile this December, after first releasing for consoles and PC back in 2022. It’s actually a port of the deluxe edition of the game, which was originally released in 2023. This version includes all of the available DLC and some other goodies.

It’s coming to iOS and Android and offers “full support for all popular gamepads”, with touch and tilt controls for those who don’t have a third-party gamepad. There’s a trailer, with footage captured on mobile devices, and it looks pretty darn good. The visuals are, dare I say, console-worthy.

To that end, the game will only run on the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro, and every model released since the iPhone 14. It’ll run on any iPad with an M1 chip or better. As for Android, the game will only run on devices with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips.

Preorders are available now on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. It costs $15. There’s no actual release date yet. It’s just sometime in December.

For the uninitiated, Grid Legends is a well-regarded racing game that draws from both hardcore sims and arcade racers. There’s a lengthy career mode, plenty of multiplayer challenges and an extensive list of courses. All told, there are more than 100 vehicles to choose from.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/eas-grid-legends-racing-game-careens-onto-ios-and-android-this-december-165137002.html?src=rss

Our favorite budget Samsung phone is only $180 for Prime Day

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It’s officially Amazon Prime Day, so be prepared to be inundated with deals if you head over to the online retailer's site. If you're on the market for a new smartphone, one of our favorite affordable handsets has dropped to a great sale price. The fantastic Samsung Galaxy A15 smartphone is available for just $180, which is a discount of ten percent. The typical price is $200 for this budget-friendly handset.

The A15 found a place of distinction in our list of the best cheap phones, in addition to appearing in our list of the best budget Android smartphones. It’s a solid offering with plenty of features typically reserved for more expensive models.

It boasts a fairly robust camera system, with a 50MP rear camera and a 13MP front camera. There’s also 5MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro. It’s lightweight, at seven ounces, and includes an actual OLED display. That’s practically unheard of for budget-tier smartphones. The 5G-enabled handset ships with a 5,000 mAh battery, which gets the job done. 

There are some light caveats. This deal is for the entry-level model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. However, the Galaxy A15 boasts a nano SIM slot that expands the storage all the way up to 1TB. Today’s sale includes both the black and light blue versions of the phone.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-budget-samsung-phone-is-only-180-for-prime-day-152458679.html?src=rss

How to use the new Apple Cash Tap to Cash feature in iOS 18

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iPhone and Apple Watch users who prefer paying with Apple Cash over other apps like Venmo can now send or receive money in person using Tap to Cash. All transactions using this method are private, which means your phone number and email aren’t shared with the other party. Let’s see how you can use Tap to Cash.

To use Tap to Cash, you and the other person must have an iPhone that’s been updated to iOS 18 or an Apple Watch running watchOS 11. Naturally, you should have a verified Apple Cash account already set up. Using cellular data is fine if you’re not connected to Wi-Fi.

It’s important to remember that you can only send or receive a maximum of $2,000 per seven-day period. The minimum amount you can send is $1, and the maximum is $2,000. These limits are unique to Tap to Cash, and if you need to pay more, you must swap to Messages.

Apple Cash is currently only available in the US. For those outside the US, you'll have to rely on other payment methods. Venmo is also US-only.

On your iPhone, open the Wallet app and look for your Apple Cash card. Note that you won’t be able to do this by double-clicking your iPhone’s side button to get into Apple Pay — you’ll need to unlock your phone and open the Wallet app directly. Select “Send or Request” and then tap “Tap to Cash.” You can then enter the desired amount to pay the recipient, and there’s an option to add a note specifying the payment’s reason or context. Tap “Next” to proceed.

You’ll now have to double-click the side button to confirm your payment, ensuring you’re paying the recipient. After doing so, hold your iPhone so the top is close to the recipient’s iPhone or Apple Watch. Confirm the transaction went through, and you’re free to make another one.

To check the transaction, open the Wallet app and tap on your Apple Cash card. The transaction should be under “Latest Transactions” and have a Tap to Cash icon beside it.

The process is similar to using Tap to Cash on iPhone. You must first open your Wallet, tap your Apple Cash card and then pick “Tap to Cash.” Enter how much you want to send and proceed by tapping “Next.”

Double-click the side button to initiate the transaction. Hold your Apple Watch next to the recipient’s Apple Watch or iPhone before making sure the money went through. You can also look at the latest transactions by opening the Wallet, tapping on your card and tapping a transaction to see if it has “via Tap to Cash” in the information.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-use-the-new-apple-cash-tap-to-cash-feature-in-ios-18-151915913.html?src=rss

Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones drop to a new low of $130 for Prime Day

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Update 11:54am ET: This deal has sold out, but you can find the rest of the best Prime Day deals here.

There’s little better than finding a killer deal on a great product, and here’s an October Prime Day deal that checks pretty much all the right boxes. Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones are on sale for $130, which is a new record low. They often sell for $348 and the previous record low price was $198.

These aren’t quite the very best Sony headphones on the market anymore. The XM5s are now at the top of the mountain (they’re our favorite noise canceling headphones overall). However, the XM4s are still a fantastic set of cans, especially at this bargain price.

We gave the XM4s a score of 94 in our review. The powerful, customizable active noise cancellation was a major selling point, as was the immersive audio. The "pause when you speak" feature is quite nifty, while multipoint connectivity is always welcome. The price was one of our main drawbacks, but thankfully that's now far less of an issue.

Sony says you'll get up to 30 hours of usage from a single charge (which matches up with our testing) and you'll get five hours of playback time after a 10-minute quick charge. We felt that the touch controls worked reliably well, while the five-microphone array should help make your voice clear on calls.

In addition, the XM4s support Sony's 360 Reality Audio format for immersive sound. The songs typically sound better than standard tracks and the library of supported music has grown over the years, but not every streaming service supports the format. Amazon Music Unlimited is the best-known option. Tidal, on the other hand, dropped support for the format this summer in favor of Dolby Atmos.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-wh-1000xm4-headphones-drop-to-a-new-low-of-130-for-prime-day-142955371.html?src=rss

Prime Day laptop deals include the M2 MacBook Air for a record low of $749 on Amazon

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Amazon's October Prime Day sale kicked off today, bringing a wide range of discounts on gadgets and gear we recommend. We have a roundup with all of the offers worth your attention, but if you're specifically looking to grab a new laptop, one of the event's best Apple deals cuts the entry-level M2 MacBook Air down to $749. That's $50 below the notebook's usual street price in recent months, $250 less than buying from Apple directly and a record low for what we consider the best budget MacBook on the market.

In our initial M2 MacBook Air review, we were impressed by the laptop's thinner design, gorgeous 13.6-inch display, great quad-speaker setup and the M2 chip's excellent performance. It had been our top pick for the best MacBook, period, but the new M3 model has taken that top slot. However, the M2 Air doesn't skimp — those on a budget (or anyone simply looking to save some cash) will still get a lot of laptop and a lot of power choosing this machine.

One could argue, and our Daniel Cooper did, that the best thing about the M3 MacBook Air was the price drop given to the M2 Air after its launch. The M3 chip is pretty similar to the M2, and while there's no doubt that those who want the latest and greatest should get an M3 machine, an M2 laptop will be more than enough for most people using it as a daily driver. And, when you consider the M2 started at $1,200 when it first came out in 2022, it makes this discount even more compelling (it only received a price drop to $1,000 after the M3's debut).

There are other discounts on the MacBook lineup at Amazon at the moment, too. The M3 MacBook Air is $250 off and down to $849, which is only $50 more than its record-low price. The 15-inch MacBook with an M3 chip is $255 off and on sale for $1,044.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-laptop-deals-include-the-m2-macbook-air-for-a-record-low-of-749-on-amazon-121848050.html?src=rss

The Morning After: The first Apple Intelligence features should finally arrive on October 28

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It's been a wait. Apple Intelligence will start rolling out on October 28, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple said last month it was targeting October for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 — which will bring some of the first Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 16 and the rest of the Apple family.

The first wave of Apple Intelligence-powered features will include its summarization tool, Writing Tools and smart audio recording and transcriptions for Mail, Notes, Pages and other apps. I’ve been testing the beta, and so far, the most useful feature has been the summarization tool, tackling my forest of notifications and messages and parsing them into glanceable summaries.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

TMA
Lego

Scammers hijacked the toy brick maker’s website last week. They switched its banner and used it for a crypto scam. A banner with illustrated golden coins bearing the company’s logo claimed the "Lego coin is now officially out." It even promised secret rewards to those who’d buy some. The incident happened overnight at Lego’s headquarters. The company responded relatively quickly, removing the unauthorized banner and links. Lego told Engadget no user accounts were compromised.

Continue reading.

A more immediate update from Apple: It has released two new patches, including iOS 18.0.1 for iPhones and iPadOS 18.0.1. The patch fixes recording issues with all the iPhone 16 models in the Messages app. The iPhone’s microphone would accidentally start recording a few seconds before becoming activated with the orange microphone icon.

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X tried to avoid a $400,000 fine by claiming Twitter (its old name) no longer exists. The … creative legal argument came amid a more-than-year-long dispute with Australia’s eSafety Commission. The commission had asked the company to provide details about its handling of child sexual exploitation on the platform last February. X failed to answer several questions and was slapped with a $415,000-plus fine for non-compliance. The argument isn’t exactly new: CEO Linda Yaccarino has also repeatedly claimed X is a “brand new company” in a bid to avoid scrutiny. She repeated the line multiple times earlier this year while testifying at a Senate hearing on child safety issues. Australia federal judge Michael Wheelahan, however, was not having it.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-the-first-apple-intelligence-features-should-finally-arrive-on-october-28-111544744.html?src=rss

Apple’s revamped Mac mini and iPad mini could be here as soon as November 1

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It seems Apple has a slew of hardware announcements in store for us this fall. In the Power On newsletter this week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is gearing up to announce new MacBook Pro models, the redesigned Mac mini, the M4 iMac and a new iPad mini before the end of the month, and is targeting a release date of November 1 for “at least some” of these products.

According to Gurman, we’re likely to see a low- and high-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, both packing the M4 chips. There will also be a 16-inch high-end MacBook Pro. As for the Mac mini, Gurman previously reported that the upcoming M4 Mac mini may be tiny compared to its predecessors, with a build roughly the size of an Apple TV box. The size reduction may also mean it drops the USB-A ports. Following the fall releases, Gurman predicts Apple will have a bunch of other products ready for early 2025, including a 13-inch and 15-inch M4 MacBook Air, along with a refreshed iPhone SE and iPad Air in both sizes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apples-revamped-mac-mini-and-ipad-mini-could-be-here-as-soon-as-november-1-171029304.html?src=rss

The first Apple Intelligence features are expected to arrive on October 28

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Apple Intelligence will start rolling out on October 28, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple said last month that it was targeting October for the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 — which will bring some of the first Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 16 and other Apple devices — but it didn’t set a firm release date at the time. The first wave of Apple Intelligence features will include the text editor and summarization tool, Writing Tools, along with smart audio recording and transcriptions for Mail, Notes, Pages and other apps.

We’ll also likely see the new Memories feature in Photos, which is designed to be an easy-to-use editor for making movies with images from the gallery, and Clean Up, which can remove objects from the background of images. Other Apple Intelligence features, like ChatGPT integration and Genmoji, are expected to come with later versions of iOS 18 that will roll out across the end of the year and early 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-first-apple-intelligence-features-are-expected-to-arrive-on-october-28-144459627.html?src=rss

Google’s theft protection features have started showing up for some Android users

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Three new theft protection features that Google announced earlier this year have reportedly started rolling out on Android. The tools — Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock and Remote Lock — are aimed at giving users a way to quickly lock down their devices if they’ve been swiped, so thieves can’t access any sensitive information. Android reporter Mishaal Rahman shared on social media that the first two tools had popped up on a Xiaomi 14T Pro, and said some Pixel users have started seeing Remote Lock.

Theft Detection Lock is triggered by the literal act of snatching. The company said in May that the feature “uses Google AI to sense if someone snatches your phone from your hand and tries to run, bike or drive away.” In such a scenario, it’ll lock the phone’s screen. 

Offline Device Lock, on the other hand, can automatically lock the screen after a thief has disconnected the phone from the internet. You can already remotely lock your phone with Google’s Find My Device, but the third feature, Remote Lock, lets you do so without having to scramble to figure out your Google account password. All you’d need for this is “your phone number and a quick security challenge using any device.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-theft-protection-features-have-started-showing-up-for-some-android-users-210634941.html?src=rss