Tag Archives: Technology & Electronics

Apple’s AirPods Max at are their lowest price ever for Prime Day

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While earbuds are convenient, there's something about over the ear headphones that's just irreplaceable — though they can be quite costly. However, Apple's AirPods Max wireless headphones are currently down to $395 from $549 — a record-low price — and one of many great Prime Day deals. The 28 percent discount is available on all five colorways but doesn't include AppleCare+.  

Apple released the AirPods Max in 2020 and have yet to produce a next generation model. At the time we gave the headphones an 84 in our review due to a great range of features like solid active noise cancellation and their easy to use controls. We were also impressed with their audio quality which provides a great balanced sound. 

There were a few aspects of Apple's AirPods Max that we were less impressed with. The price was one of our biggest points of contention, though the sale certainly helps with that. The headphones weigh almost 385 grams, much more than one of our favorites, Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones — though a wider headband means we barely noticed it. The earbuds were where we had a bigger issue, as we could feel the rings through the foam after just a few minutes. 

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/apples-airpods-max-at-are-their-lowest-price-ever-for-prime-day-125050936.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

This Prime Day deal brings the Essential Roomba robot vacuum and mop down to its lowest price yet

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The Roomba Combo Essential was already pretty budget-friendly to begin with, but you can now get the 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop for $85 less than its retail price of $275 in a Prime Day deal. The robot vacuum is currently on sale for $190 as part of this year's Amazon Prime Day festivities, and it's a great discount — as well as a record low — for a model that was released a mere three months ago.

When iRobot announced the Roomba Combo Essential, it said the vacuum-mop hybrid outperforms the Roomba 600 Series and has 20 times more suction power. This model is 25 percent better at picking up dirt from hard floors than the Roomba 600 Series, iRobot said, and it has a longer battery life. Its smart navigation system can clean your house in rows — for up 120 minutes — and its app will let you set cleaning schedules, so the Roomba can do its job even if you're not home.

The robot can even return to its charging station by itself when its battery runs low, so you don't have to worry about having to plug it in when you come home. When you are home, you can start a cleaning session anytime either by tapping the Clean button in the iRobot Home app or issuing a voice command via Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. 

If you don't really need a mop and just want a regular robot vacuum, you can get the Roomba Vac Essential Robot Vacuum instead. It has the same features as the Combo Essential and will only set you back $160, which is the lowest price yet for a device that usually goes for $250. 

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/this-prime-day-deal-brings-the-essential-roomba-robot-vacuum-and-mop-down-to-its-lowest-price-yet-113051271.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals discount the Google Pixel 8a to $449

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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

The Morning After: The best Amazon Prime Day deals so far

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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 Smith

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Apple

Hoping 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.

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"Pixophone" on TikTok via YTechB

We’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.

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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.

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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

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

Anker chargers, accessories and speakers are still on sale for Amazon Prime Day

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You can never have too many charging cables and adapters, and thankfully Amazon Prime Day is typically a great time to stock up on charging gear. Anker accessories are among the plethora of Prime Day deals this year, and the best ones we curated yesterday are still available during day two of the sale. All kinds of accessories from power banks to USB-C adapters to wireless chargers have been discounted, with many down to all-time lows. Anker sales aren't exactly uncommon — we typically see a few standouts once or twice a month — but these Anker Prime Day deals present a good opportunity to save on the gear you use most.

In addition to some of the best chargers, a bunch of other Anker gadgets have been discounted as well. Key among them are some of our favorite robot vacuums and portable speakers. We've collected the best Anker Prime Day deals below so you don't have to go searching through them.

Let's start with power banks, since a number of our top picks for the best power banks are on sale for Prime Day. The Anker Prime Power Bank 200W has dropped to a great sale price for Prime Day, and this model includes its special charging base (not needed to use the bank, but a nice add-on to have, particularly when you can get it at a discount). It's got a premium design complete with a built-in display that shows how many watts of power are flowing out to each device you're charging, plus the overall charge remaining in the brick itself. The power bank has two USB-C and one USB-A port, and the base includes a few extra connectors as well.

Also on sale is our favorite compact battery pack for Android: this 5K power bank has a flip-out USB-C connector that makes it easy to power up Android phones (and the latest iPhones) while on the go. For those who feel more secure with a plugged-in charger rather than a magnetic or wireless one, this power bank is a good option.

As for standard chargers, there are plenty of solid gadgets to choose from at compelling sale prices. The Anker 313 wireless charging stand is hard to beat in this Prime Day deal if you're just looking for a basic wireless charger at a low price that can reliably power up your phone, be it an iPhone or Android device. While most will put their phone in portrait mode on this stand, it also supports charging in landscape mode as well, in case you want to watch videos while powering up.

You can never have too many good AC chargers, and a few of Anker's higher-wattage models have been discounted. This 67W USB-C charger includes two USB-C and one USB-A port, and the AC prongs fold up when you're not using it. For more simultaneous charging, this 150W USB-C adapter includes three USB-C and one USB-A port and can power most mobile devices at fast speeds, including laptops, tablets and smartphones.

iPhone users will want to check out the MagSafe options on sale today, which include our top MagSafe pick in our guide to the best power banks. Anker's 10K MagGo power bank is Qi-certified and a big improvement on previous versions thanks to that new certification. In our testing, it brought an iPhone 15 back from near dead to half full in 45 minutes, and its 10,000mAh capacity allows it to still have enough juice left for a decent charge after that. The small display on one edge shows the percentage charge left in the bank and the amount of time left before the power bank itself is refilled when you're charging it.

This model also has a strong MagSafe connection, so you won't have to worry about it falling off if you're a little rough with your iPhone while using it. Plus, it has a handy kickstand that lets you more comfortable do things like FaceTime or watch videos while it's working its magic.

Other MagSafe options include a couple of multi-device charging stations: this 3-in-1 station can handle an iPhone, Apple Watch and pair of AirPods simultaneously and the fact that it folds down to about the size of a deck of cards makes it an excellent option for frequent travelers. This cube-shaped model is more stationary, but it handles the same three devices at once and it comes with the necessary 30W AC adapter needed for optimal charging speeds.

When it comes to robot vacuums, Anker makes a number of relatively affordable options. But our top ultra-budget pick in our best budget robot vacuum guide is a steal at this Prime Day price. The Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max did a good job cleaning all floor types in our testing, and it's slim profile allows it to more easy get underneath furniture like side tables and couches — something most other robovacs can't do.

The main thing to know about the 11S Max is that it doesn't have Wi-Fi connectivity like our other top picks for the best robot vacuums do. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the 11S Max comes with a remote that lets you do things like change vacuum modes and set cleaning schedules.

Two of our top picks for the best portable Bluetooth speakers have dropped in price for Prime Day as well. The Soundcore Motion 300 offers bright, punchy audio in a compact, IPX7-rated design. In addition to support for hi-res audio using the LDAC codec for Android users, this model also works with Anker's Soundcore companion app for EQ customization.

As for the Soundcore Motion+, it has bright, bassy output plus Qualcomm aptX support for hi-res audio. It, too, has IPX7 water resistance, and its design is better suited for those who prefer a bit more heft in their speakers. It has a metal front speaker grille plus a soft-touch, rubberized exterior, and you're getting a 3.5mm aux input for wired connections, too.

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/anker-chargers-accessories-and-speakers-are-still-on-sale-for-amazon-prime-day-080704584.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

Alleged Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 XL leak shows a redesigned camera bar

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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.

Two alleged prototypes for the Pixel 9 XL (left) and Pixel 9 in hands. Purple and green background.
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Google 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