ArduinoMania

Maybe you have someone in your life who's an avid gamer or game streamer and you want to get them something to take their hobby to the next level. You're in luck — Amazon's October Prime Day has proven to be a boon for gaming deals, discounting everything from gaming laptops to keyboards to controllers and more. A bunch of brands are included, too, like Razer, Logitech, SteelSeries and more, so you may be able to find exactly what they've been asking for at a more affordable price. Here are the best gaming deals we found for the Prime Day Early Access Sale.

Elgato Stream Deck

Elgato

Elgato's Stream Deck is down to $90 for October Prime Day, or $50 off its normal price. This is a handy accessory to have for game streamer because you can customize its 15 LCD keys to do things like open apps, switch scenes, adjust audio and more.

Razer Blade 14

The Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is $800 off and down to $2,000. The Blade is one of our favorite gaming laptops thanks to its sleek design and strong performance, and this model has a 14-inch QHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate. It's part of a larger sale on Amazon where you'll find a number of gaming laptops at discounted prices.

SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless

SteelSeries

A number of SteelSeries headsets have been discounted in this sale, with one of the best being the wireless SteelSeries Arctis 1 for only $70. It supports ultra-low latency connectivity, a detachable microphone and a USB-C adapter for use with the Nintendo Switch and Android phones.

Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld

Logitech

Logitech's new G Cloud gaming handheld device hasn't even officially come out yet, but you can get it for $50 less than its starting price right now. It supports mobile gaming at 1080p, 60fps, along with haptic feedback, gyroscope controls and remappable buttons.

Logitech Blue Yeti

Logitech's Blue Yeti mic is on sale for $90 right now — not an all-time low, but close to it. It's a solid choice for game streamers, aspiring podcasters or anyone who just wants to sound better on video conference calls. It supports four pickup patterns, onboard controls and a plug-and-play design.

Logitech Blue Yeti Nano

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

Logitech's Blue Yeti Nano mic is on sale for $70 right now. This has been a long-time favorite of ours tanks to its compact design, cardioid and omni pickup patterns and its onboard controls.

Razer Seiren Mini

Razer

Razer's Seiren Mini microphone is $10 off and down to $40, which is only $5 more than its record low. It's an ultra-compact, USB mic can come with you anywhere to amplify your voice on video calls and game streams.

Razer Viper Ultimate

Razer

Razer's Viper Ultimate gaming mouse is down to $60 for this sale. We like is ambidextrous design that makes it good for both right- and left-handed gamers, plus its light weight, low latency and eight programmable buttons.

Razer BlackWidow V3

Razer

Razer's BlackWidow V3 mechanical keyboard has dropped to $95 for this sale. It comes with doubleshot ABS keycaps, customizable Razer Chroma lighting and an ergonomic wrist rest.

SteelSeries Arctis 3 Console

SteelSeries

The console version of the SteelSeries Arctis 3 wired headset is on sale for only $34. It works with the PS5, Xbox Series X and S, the Nintendo Switch and other gaming devices, plus it has a clear cast microphone built in and a comfortable yet durable design.

49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor

Samsung

Samsung's massive Odyssey G9 curved monitor has dropped to $1,000, which is $400 off its usual price. It's a QLED panel and it supports both NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, plus a 240Hz refresh rate.

Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

The Department of Labor has issued a proposal that could make it more likely for millions of people to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Should the proposal become a formal rule, gig workers (such as Uber and Lyft drivers) would likely gain benefits and protections afforded to employees if they're reclassified. Those may include a minimum wage, overtime, unemployment insurance contributions and their employer paying a share of Social Security taxes, as The New York Times notes.

Last year, the Department of Labor rescinded a Trump-era rule that made it easier for companies to classify gig workers as contractors. However, a federal court in Texas reinstated that rule in March, as Bloomberg notes.

Under the latest proposal, the Department of Labor plans to implement a test to determine if workers should be classed as employees or contractors. Factors such as how much control workers have over how they carry out tasks and how much bandwidth they have to increase their earnings by offering other services would be assessed. Other considerations include whether workers need to buy their own equipment and if their work is critical to a company's business. There would be a lower threshold for requiring employee status than the current test.

Even if the proposal does become a final rule, it wouldn't directly affect the guidelines that states and other federal agencies have for determining employment status. It would have more of a direct impact on laws that the Department of Labor enforces, including the federal minimum wage. However, as the Times points out, many employers, regulators and judges may defer to the agency's criteria on worker classification.

“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable workers,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages. The Department of Labor remains committed to addressing the issue of misclassification.”

Some states have attempted to have gig workers classified as employees, but the likes of Uber and Lyft have fought against such requirements. In 2020, California voted to pass a ballot measure backed by ride-hailing and delivery companies. The passage of Proposition 22 stripped app-based drivers of employee protections by classifying them as independent contractors. A judge ruled last year that Prop. 22 was unconstitutional, but that decision has been appealed.

After 23 years in prison, Adnan Syed is a free man. Baltimore prosecutors on Tuesday announced they were dropping charges against the 41-year-old and subject of the hit podcast Serial, reports The New York Times. Prior to his release in September, Syed had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.

The decision comes after a judge last month overturned Syed’s prison sentence on the recommendation of prosecutors, who said the state was no longer confident of the conviction. At that point, prosecutors had 30 days to decide whether to move forward with a new trial or drop charges. Where the case of Lee's murder goes from here is hard to say. In September, following a nearly yearlong investigation, the state said it had found two possible “alternative suspects.” However, the public identity of those individuals is not known yet.

While Syed maintained his innocence throughout the two decades he was in prison, it’s fair to he probably wouldn’t be free today if not for Serial. His case attracted global attention in 2014 after it was chronicled by former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig in the podcast’s breakout first season. Koenig spent more than a year investigating the specifics of Syed’s case, paying particular attention to the conduct of Cristina Gutierrez, his lawyer at the time. The issues she highlighted proved to be critical in the state's reassignment of Syed's case. 

In 2019, Maryland’s highest court found Gutierrez had failed to properly investigate an alibi witness ahead of Syed’s trial. Moreover, the recent state investigation found “reliability issues” with some of the evidence that was used to convict Syed and that prosecutors may have failed to disclose evidence that would have aided his case.

Netgear already offers one of the few mesh WiFi router systems that can fully support multi-gigabit internet access, but the minimum $1,500 outlay rules it out for most homes. Thankfully, there's now a much more affordable option. The brand has introduced Orbi 860 series mesh routers that offer the 10Gbps Ethernet of the 960 line, but with tri-band WiFi 6 instead of the higher-end model's quad-band WiFi 6E. You can also buy a stand-alone router if you don't need extensive coverage.

The design is familiar if you've seen the Orbi 850, but a new antenna system promises more range and real-world speed than the earlier model. You could see higher performance on the edge of your network. Both the router and its satellites have four Ethernet connections in total, although wired links are limited to 1Gbps on satellite units. Netgear claims up to 8,000 square feet of coverage with a full mesh.

The core router, the RBR860S, is available now in the US for $430, with a similar price for individual satellites. A bundle with the router and two satellites costs $1,100. This is still pricey when an alternative like the Eero Pro 6E costs 'just' $699 for a three-pack. However, Netgear is clearly aiming the Orbi 860 at a different audience — this is for people who want to be ready for next-generation internet service and are willing to pay a (reasonable) premium.

During the first Prime Day this year back in July, we saw a bunch of our favorite microSD cards, portable drives, internal SSDs and other storage devices drop to record-low prices. Now for Amazon's Prime Early Access Sale, many of those same items have been deeply discounted again. It's a good opportunity to pick up a new microSD card for your Nintendo Switch, a speedy drive for that PS5 you finally got your hands on or a pocket-sized SSD for that person in your life who wants to take all of their digital files with them when they're on the go. Here are the best storage deals we found for Amazon's October Prime Day.

Samsung Pro Plus microSD card

Samsung

Samsung's Pro Plus microSD card in 128GB is nearly half off and down to only $18 for Prime Day. It also comes with an adapter, so you can use it with more types of devices. You'll get read/write speeds of up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s, respectively, and a card that's temperature, magnet- and drop-resistant.

Crucial MX500 SSD

Crucial's MX500 in 1TB is on sale for $76, or 24 percent off its usual price. It’s a good option if you need a standard 2.5-inch drive that works with both laptops and desktops. It also has AES-256 bit hardware encryption and integrated power loss immunity to protect your data.

Samsung T7 Shield

Samsung's new T7 Shield portable SSD is down to $110 for this sale. Samsung just came out with these drives back in April, and they're designed to be more durable versions of the standard T7 series with extra drop protection and an IP65-rated design. The other T7 models are also on sale: you can pick up the 500GB T7 Touch for $70 and the 1TB T7 drive for $95.

Samsung 980 Pro SSD

Samsung's 980 Pro is one of the best internal SSDs you can get right now and it's 44 percent off and down to $129 right now. You're getting the drive and a heatsink, which means it'll be ready to use in your new PS5 almost out of the box. It has sequential read speeds up to 7,000MB/s and it'll work with the PS5 as long as you have a heatsink attached.

Crucial X6 SSD

Crucial's compact X6 portable drive in 1TB has been discounted to $80. It supports 800 MB/s read speeds, plus it works with all kinds of machines include Windows, Mac, Android and iPad devices, and even game consoles if you have the right connecting cable.

Crucial P5 Plus SSD

Crucial's P5 Plus SSD in 2TB is a whopping 47 percent off and down to $170. It's one of our favorite drives for the PS5 thanks to its 6,600 MB/s sequential read speeds, plus its relatively budget-friendly starting price.

SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD

SanDisk's Extreme Pro SSD in 1TB is down to $170 right now, or 45 percent off its usual rate. We like its compact, durable design that's IP55 water- and dust-resistant, plus its support for up to 2,000 MB/s read and write speeds.

Western Digital Red Plus NAS internal HDD

Western Digital

WD's 8TB Red Plus internal drive is nearly 50 percent off and down to only $130. If you're ok with adding an HDD rather than an SSD to your system, this is a good way to get a huge amount of storage without spending too much money.

Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Snapchat has launched a set of new lenses that you can use to find Halloween costumes for parties and events you're attending this month. These new AR lenses will give you a way to virtually try on costumes from some of the shows and movies in recent history that had helped define pop culture as we know it. And yes, you can purchase them from within the app. The selection includes characters and costumes from Harry Potter, Squid Game, Stranger Things, Hocus Pocus, Transformers, Power Rangers and other titles.

Snap says it conducted a study with consulting firm Ipsos and found that shopping has become the number one reason why people use augmented reality. Indeed, more and more retailers and companies have started offering augmented reality tools that you can use to try on the goods they're selling. Snap itself has been expanding its AR try-on features for a while now and launched the ability for brands to connect their catalogs to their AR Lens experiences on the app back in August. In its announcement, it says it's creating more tools centered around augmented reality shopping.

If you want to shop for Halloween costumes on Snapchat, you only need to take full-body features. Snapchat's computer vision tech will overlay the product image onto your body in the photo, and you can take a Snap and share with friends if you want. You can find the Halloween try-on Lenses in Disguise Costumes' account. Simply search for that username in the app or search for specific show or movie titles in Snapchat's Lens Explorer.

It's not just Tesla that can offer games to play while you're waiting in your car. BMW is teaming up with AirConsole to deliver casual games in its cars starting in 2023. The technology downloads games to your infotainment system, and uses your phone as the controller. This is clearly meant to keep you distracted while you charge your EV, but the automaker sees this as helpful for any time you're waiting in the car — say, to pick someone up at the airport.

BMW didn't say which vehicles were first in line for the gaming upgrade. However, it pitched AirConsole's tech as a 'perfect' fit for the Curved Display already in use in vehicles like the iX.

This isn't quite as flexible as Tesla's approach to games, which lets you play using dedicated controllers and even the car's steering wheel. However, it could still prove valuable if you want to do more while waiting than fiddle with your phone. It's also an acknowledgment that the role of a car's infotainment is shifting in the EV era, when you can spend half an hour at a charging station. They now serve as media hubs that are just as useful when your car is idle.

Google has announced a string of updates for Workspace, including one that may be especially useful for those tasked with recording meeting minutes. Users can already save Google Meet calls as video files and they'll soon get an automatic transcription of their meetings too. You'll be able to receive a transcript in a Google Doc. This feature will be available in English starting this week. Support for French, German, Spanish and Portuguese is coming next year. This follows an expansion of live translated captions for those languages.

Later this month, Google will roll out a Meet feature that will automatically center meeting participants in the frame of their video tile before they join a call. You'll be able to reframe yourself manually at any time.

Google

Looking further ahead, Google revealed two other useful Meet features that will arrive in early 2023. One called "meeting room check-in" will let everyone see a list of all participants, which seems like an overdue update. It will also show the names of multiple people who are joining a call from the same physical conference room.

Meanwhile, the second-screen Companion Mode feature is moving beyond the web, Nest Hub Max and Meet-dedicated hardware to mobile. You'll be able to virtually raise your hand, chat and ask questions from your phone while you're on a call on your computer or tablet.

Elsewhere, Google will support inline threaded conversations in Google Chat starting later this month. It will try to take on the likes of Slack on another front by offering custom emoji later this year.

It's always a good idea to check out the laptops and tablets on sale during Amazon's Prime Early Access Sale. We saw a bunch of great deals for the first shopping event this year back in July, and now for October Prime Day, another swath of discounts has pop up. While buying a laptop from Amazon isn't as flexible as it is when you're buying one directly from the manufacturer, it's still a good way to get your hands on a new machine. You're mostly limited by the number of configurations Amazon has available at the time. So if you want to spec out your new machine to a tee, we recommend going directly to Dell, Razer, Lenovo and other OEMs to do so — but if you're fine with a pre-made model, Amazon can be a good place to get a laptop for less. Here are the best deals on laptops and tablets we found for this October Prime Day.

MacBook Air M1

The previous-generation MacBook Air with the M1 chipset is on sale for a new low of $799. Although the latest model is outfitted with the M2 chip, this version remains a solid, speedy laptop. We gave it a score of 94 for its impressive performance, excellent keyboard and trackpad and fanless design.

iPad

The 10.2-inch iPad is down to $269. We gave it a score of 86 for its improved performance, excellent battery life, better front-facing camera and increased base storage.

iPad Air M1

Apple's latest iPad Air with the M1 chipset is on sale for $519. We gave it a score of 90 for its extremely fast performance, improved front camera and excellent battery life.

iPad mini

Apple's latest iPad mini is $100 off and down to $399 right now. We consider it to be the best small tablet you can get, and it earned a score of 89 from us for its refined design, Center Stage cameras, solid performance and good battery life.

iPad Pros

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 chipset is cheaper than ever with a starting price of $899. This version earned a score of 87 from us for its excellent performance, gorgeous screen and new Center Stage cameras.

Razer Blade 14

Engadget

The Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is $800 off and down to $2,000. The Blade is one of our favorite gaming laptops thanks to its sleek design and strong performance, and this model has a 14-inch QHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Microsoft's 13-inch Surface Laptop 4 is on sale for $899 right now, and you're getting an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for that price. That's a fairly powerful configuration, so the fact that you can get it for less than $1,000 makes it a great deal. We gave the 15-inch model a score of 87 for its speedy performance, great keyboard and excellent battery life.

Acer Aspire 5

Acer

Acer's Aspire 5 laptop has been discounted by $120, bringing it down to $260. The Aspire 5 series is a solid option for those looking for an affordable Windows laptop. This model on sale includes an 11th-gen Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Lenovo's 2-in-1 Chromebook is $150 off and down to $280, which is a record-low price. This model earned a spot on our list of favorite Chromebooks thanks to its bright touchscreen, backlit keyboard and its combination of USB-C and USB-A ports. The model on sale includes an 11th-gen Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

ASUS Chromebook Flip C434

ASUS

ASUS's convertible Chromebook is on sale for $350, which is $190 off its usual price and a record low. This particular version has a 14-inch FHD touchscreen, a Core M3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Amazon's Prime Early Access sale may represent an ideal opportunity to snag a high-performance portable. The company is selling Razer's late 2021 Blade 14 gaming laptop for $2,000, or a whopping $800 off. That gets you an eight-core Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, a smooth 165Hz 1440p display, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and, crucially, GeForce RTX 3080 graphics. This is an easy-to-carry machine that can readily handle the latest games.

This Blade 14 configuration isn't using one of the latest Ryzen chips, but it's still a beast that competes well against other gaming laptops, including larger 15- and 16-inch systems. You'll have plenty of ports, and the display is a treat whether or not you're engrossed in the latest action title. Combine this with a 3.9-pound weight and Razer's system might be ideal if you want a do-anything computer that can follow you most anywhere.

There are a few sacrifices. As you might guess, a Ryzen 9 and an RTX 3080 generate a lot of heat in this form factor. The keyboard is a bit cramped, and you'll be stuck with the included RAM. You'll want to look elsewhere if you either game directly on your lap or see yourself requiring 32GB of memory in the future. With this kind of discount, though, you're getting a lot for the money.

Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.