Composting was a big — and daily — part of my life for five years when I lived off-grid. Granted, we were composting more than just food, but I learned a lot about what goes into making a healthy compost pile. Mostly, it’s a lot of work — and now that I live in a city, I don’t do it myself. To be clear, I still believe in composting, especially when you consider that each person in the US throws away an estimated 200 pounds of food per year. Food waste in landfills does bad stuff, like releasing methane and contributing to climate change. In compost, old food does good stuff, like improving the soil and acting as a carbon sink.

Now that more municipal curbside composting programs exist, millions of people have a dead simple way to deal with food scraps. But if you, like me, live where city-wide compost pickup isn’t yet a thing, you have two options: compost at home, with or without a machine to help out, or do what I do and pay someone to compost for you..

How to compost at home

It’s tempting to think of composting as building a holder, throwing in food and coming back a few weeks later to something you can toss in your garden, but the reality requires much more time, space and effort. For me, the toughest part of composting was the consistency it required. At least a few times per week, any active compost pile needs tending, including adding to it, turning it, watering it in dry climates or shielding it from excess rain. In addition to time, home composting requires the space and materials to build the bins. You’ll also need a regular source of “brown” or carbon-rich materials like dried leaves, untreated paper, cardboard, sawdust or wood chips.

Plenty of people (with more knowledge than I) have put together how-tos on the subject. I followed The Mini Farming Guide to Composting, but these online guides will also serve you well:

• EPA: Offers a high-level overview of the process and includes a handy chart with examples of green and brown materials.

• ILSR: A more in-depth guide, complete with illustrations and the reasoning behind each step.

• NMSU: A science-rich reference with multiple methods and troubleshooting suggestions.

• Joe Gardener: A multi-page, highly detailed PDF from Joe Lamp’l, the host of PBS and DIY Network gardening shows.

Each source gives the same basic advice: build your bin, collect your food scraps, stockpile brown materials, maintain your ratios, monitor and amend moisture and aeration levels, then let a full heap finish for six to eight weeks (so yes, you generally need two piles).

As you can see, composting correctly isn’t as easy as chucking scraps into a bin and letting time handle the rest. Of course, if the process appeals to you (and it is pretty fascinating) that’s not a drawback. Gardeners in particular, who are out in the yard anyway, make excellent candidates for keeping up healthy piles — not to mention, they also have the most use for the finished product. People without yards, however, are out of luck (unless they’re comfortable hosting an indoor worm farm).

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Kitchen composting machines

Calling them “composters” is a misnomer, since these devices don’t actually create compost – that requires microbial processes that take weeks. Instead, these appliances chop and dehydrate food, creating an odor-free material that’s substantially smaller in volume than what went in. You can even include meat and dairy – an advantage over home compost piles in which animal products are generally not recommended. As for what comes out, it can be added to your backyard pile, spread in your garden, added to houseplants or thrown in the green bin or trash – where it will take up less room and won’t stink anything up.

I haven't tested any of these devices, but after researching from the perspective of a fairly informed composter, here’s what I see as the pros and cons of a few of the more popular devices on the market.

Mill ($40 to $65 per month with USPS pickups, $30 - $50 per month without pickups)

I like that Mill offers a solution for the substance it produces and that it’s large enough to hold the scraps an average family might generate over the course of a few weeks. Instead of buying the machine outright, you sign up for a subscription, which includes the Mill bin and USPS pickup for the “grounds” it creates. Add food throughout the day and the dehydration and mixing cycles run automatically each night. …Once it's full, you empty the contents into a prepaid box and ship it to Mill’s facility in Washington where the grounds are turned into food for chickens.

You can also keep the grounds, feeding them to your own backyard chickens, adding them to a compost bin or sprinkling them (sparingly) in your yard where water will begin the actual composting process. If you go that route, you’ll pay $30 or $50 per month, depending whether you pay annually or monthly for the bin itself. For the Mill machine plus pickup for the grounds, you’ll pay an extra $10 per month on the annual plan or $15 each month.

Lomi ($828)

Lomi also chops and dehydrates your scraps. The unit is smaller than the Mill, so you’ll likely have to empty it every few days. It offers three modes, one of which, Grow Mode, uses small capsules of probiotics called Lomi Pods to create “plant food” in about 20 hours. Lomi suggests mixing the results with regular soil at a ratio of one to ten.

If you have a yard, it’s easy enough to add a little here and there to maintain the ratio, and if you’re an apartment dweller with houseplants you can mix small amounts into the soil. But the end product should only be used sparingly, like a fertilizer, so you’ll probably need to do something else with the excess. Lomi suggests adding the excess to your compost, dropping it into your green bin if your city provides curbside compost pickup or throwing it in the trash where it will take up less space and won’t smell.

Reencle ($499)

Reencle is larger like the Mill bin, and involves microorganisms in the process like Lomi. You can buy it outright or rent it for $30 per month, but that doesn’t include pickup for the results. I like that Reencle is, in essence, a living pile of fermentation, using low heat, grinders and a regenerating bacterial population to break down your food scraps.

Adding scraps daily “feeds” the pile, and when it’s full, you’re only supposed to remove about half of what’s in there, leaving the rest to breed more Bacilli. Again, the material works as a plant food or fertilizer, not like standard compost. Reencle recommends a byproduct-to-soil ratio of one part to four, and that you let the mixture sit for five days before adding to your monsteras and gardens.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Why you should consider a composting service

DIY home composting is a lot of work. Countertop machines are expensive and, from what users say, noisy and sometimes unreliable. Both methods leave you to figure out what to do with the byproduct, whether it’s the finished compost from your bins or the dehydrated proto-compost from the appliances. That’s great for gardeners — compost makes plants happy. Everyone else may find themselves stuck with a delightful pile of black gold and nowhere to put it.

Home composting also doesn’t let you take advantage of compostable dishware, bags and to-go items. Companies like Matter Compostables make cups, plates and utensils that compost down in about a year at commercial composting facilities (but not all of them will break down in home piles). That decomposition time frame sure beats the multiple centuries it takes for a plastic fork to degrade. Matter even makes compostable kitchen trash bags, which I found to be surprisingly strong replacements for plastic.

In cities where municipal composting exists, many restaurants are beginning to offer compostable to-go containers. That not only drastically reduces plastic use, people can also toss unwanted leftovers and the box it came in into the bin. Of course, not all of us live in cities with municipal composting services (I don’t). Which is why I pay for a local service and I recommend it.

Most subscription-based compost pick-up services work the same way: for a monthly fee, they provide you with a bucket and lid. You fill the bucket with leftovers and set it on your front porch/steps/stoop on pickup day. They collect your bucket, leaving you a fresh one on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. Scraps are then composted on a large scale and the results are sold to local farms or people in the community.

Each service has different rules about what you can add, but most let you throw all food and food-related items in the bucket (including meat, bones, dairy and fruit pits). You can also usually include coffee filters, pizza boxes, houseplants, BPI-certified compostable plastics and paper towels (without cleaning products on them). All services ask that you remove produce stickers and pull the staples from your teabags.

I have our pickup scheduled for every other Tuesday. Does two weeks’ worth of food in a bucket stink? It does. To help with that, we keep our bucket outside with the lid firmly on. I keep a canister on the countertop to fill with scraps throughout the day and empty it into the bucket when the canister is full or starts to smell. I also keep old food in the fridge until right before collection day.

Of course, these services aren’t available everywhere, and they cost $20 to $40 per month, so it’s not a universal solution. I pay $22 for a twice monthly pickup and I look at the cost in terms of time: I would spend more than two hours a month maintaining a compost pile, so if I value my labor at $12 per hour, which is my state’s minimum wage, the cost is worth it.

I like the little perks too, like getting a “free” bag of compost twice per year and having a place to drop off our yearly batch of jack-o-lanterns once the faces start caving in. The service I use is also currently working on opening a new composting facility that will allow it to take in more food scraps from restaurants and even create a community space. That’s a much better end game for my avocado pit than being sealed up for eternity in a landfill.

A sampling of composting services in the largest US markets

Modern tech is making it easier for these services to pop up in more cities. Sign-up is done online and most payments are automatic. My driver told me they use the Stop Suite app to optimize their pickup routes, send out text reminders and handle other customer service functions. Composting may be old as dirt, but the way we’re creating it is brand new.

Of the 20 largest metro areas in the US, nine have or will have municipally-run compost collection programs. I spent some time in Seattle, where most homes had three collection bins: trash, recycling and compost. That’s by far the easiest and cheapest way to do it. But if you don’t live in one of those nine locales with city-run services — you’ll have to go the paid route. Here’s a list of the community composting services available in 11 major metro areas:

• New Jersey: Garden State Composting, Neighborhood Compost

• Chicago: WasteNot Compost, The Urban Canopy, Collective Resource Compost

• Dallas: Recycle Revolution

• Houston: Moonshot Compost, Zero Waste Houston

• Washington DC: Compost Crew, Veteran Compost

• Philadelphia: Mother Compost, Circle Compost, Bennett Compost

• Atlanta: Awesome Possum Composting, Compost Now

• Miami: Compost for Life, Renuable

• Phoenix: R.City

• Detroit: Midtown Composting, Scrap Soils

• Tampa: Suncoast Compost

• Albuquerque (the service I use): Little Green Bucket

A mouse may seem like a small consideration for your workstation setup. But after you’ve addressed the crucial ergonomics — raising your monitor to eye-level, using the right keyboard and taking frequent breaks throughout your workdays — it’s a good idea to make sure the mouse you use is comfortable as well. People dealing with conditions like carpal tunnel and wrist pain may be interested in finding the best ergonomic mouse for them. Vertical and semi-vertical designs turn your palm towards your midline instead of downwards, creating a handshake position that may feel more natural. Others employ a trackball to minimize the work your shoulder has to do in a day. I tested out more than 20 highly regarded ergonomic mice to come up with recommendations for vertical, semi-vertical, trackball and more, along with advice about the merits of the different ergonomic designs.

Table of contents

• What to look for in an ergonomic mouse

• How we test ergonomic mice

• Best ergonomic mouse for 2025

• Other ergonomic mice we tested

Best ergonomic mouse for 2025

What to look for in an ergonomic mouse

Like everything related to ergonomics, the mouse design that works best for you will depend on your body and what you need to do on a typical day. So the shapes, added features and how the mouse communicates with your computer will determine which you should get.

Types and shapes of ergonomic mice

When we’re talking about ergonomic mice for productivity purposes, it usually refers to mice that look distinctly different from the standard, typically with shapes that tilt your hand towards a more “handshake” position instead of facing your palm downward. A vertical ergonomic mouse has the most severe up-and-down angle, semi-vertical mice split the difference and trackball models stay put on your desk while your thumb controls the movement of the cursor. Gaming mice have an ergonomic category as well, but that simply refers to a mouse with curves designed to fit either the right or left hand. It differentiates those mice from ambidextrous models, which don’t conform to a particular hand.

Each of three ergonomic mice shapes can help address different concerns. If you’re trying to avoid twisting your forearm, a vertical mouse could be what you need. Clicking a vertical mouse feels more like pinching your finger and thumb together, which could relieve certain other wrist issues as well.

A semi-vertical mouse feels the most like a traditional computer mouse, with an angle closer to 50 or 60 degrees from your desk. Semi-vertical mouse clicks can feel easier too, since you're pushing down instead of pinching. Some vertical and semi-vertical mice have an optional flange that supports the heel of your palm. Instead of pivoting on those bones to make your cursor move, your palm and wrist stay aligned and the entire arm controls the motion.

A trackball mouse can also keep your wrist from bending, as it keeps your forearm planted. My personal struggle is with neck and shoulder tension, so trackballs and very lightweight vertical mice work best for me as their configuration lets me keep my forearm from moving. 

DPI, weight and buttons

As this guide focuses on productivity mice, gaming-specific stats like polling rates and IPS values don’t really come into play. (My colleague Jeff Dunn does a good job of explaining those metrics in his gaming mouse review guide.) What matters here are numbers like DPI, or dots per inch, which indicates how sensitive a mouse is. The higher the setting, the faster your cursor will move across the screen. Low DPI settings let you do precision work like pixel-by-pixel editing in Photoshop. All the mice here have at least two and as many as five settings, ranging from 400 to 3,200 DPI. Mice that make it easy to switch from high to low DPI might make sense if you do a lot of detailed work.

Weight makes a difference in vertical and semi-vertical mice (but not trackballs, since they stay put). A lighter model will be easier to move around, which could put less strain on your wrist and arm. That said, a little weight can make your movements feel more precise. For reference, a featherweight gaming mouse might weigh 45 grams and a large vertical mouse with a flange attached might weigh 140 grams. The latter may feel a little heavy, but if it has smooth feet and is used with a decent mouse pad, it will feel lighter.

It's always nice to have easily clickable buttons, but that matters even more when body health is a concern. Pressing hard on a button tenses up my arm and shoulder like nobody’s business. Since it’s an action desk workers perform hundreds or thousands of times a day, it's essential that it be effortless — nothing ruled out a mouse quicker in my tests than tough buttons.

Extra features

All mice have the basics: a right and left button and a scroll wheel. All mice in this guide also have a DPI selector button. Some have other functions such as a scroll wheel that can click with a press or handle horizontal scrolling by tilting the wheel to the right or left. Many also have back and forward buttons for browser windows, and sometimes those two are programmable to perform different functions in other apps.

More complex mice have additional buttons to customize, typically using a mouse’s proprietary software. Depending on that software, you can set buttons to mute calls, copy and paste, undo and redo, switch tabs and more. Performing multiple functions without extraneous movement is a big plus in ergonomic design. Of course, there are a number of keyboards that let you program multiple functions into specific keys, which cuts down on superfluous movement even more, which you can read about in our ergonomic keyboard guide.

Connectivity and compatibility

All the mice here will work with Mac's operating system as well as Microsoft Windows, and some work with Chrome, Linnux and even iPadOS (though I didn’t test those) as well. They connect in three ways: Wired, via Bluetooth or with a 2.4Ghz wireless dongle. More devices have incorporated USB-C interfaces, but most mice still use USB-A. So if you have a laptop that only sports USB-C ports (looking at you, MacBook), you’ll need an adapter to use a wired or dongle-enabled mouse. You can use a hub or docking station for this purpose, but in testing this guide, I ran into connectivity issues using a wireless USB receiver in a docking station, particularly when there wasn’t a direct and completely clear path between the mouse and receiver. Everything worked far more reliably with just a direct USB-C to A adapter.

The difference between wireless and Bluetooth is twofold: a wireless dongle connection tends to be quicker to set up. You just plug in the accessory, turn on the mouse (potentially granting permission for the device) and you’re set. For Bluetooth, you need to open the settings menu, activate pairing mode on the mouse, search for the mouse and then click connect. There’s also a bit more latency when using Bluetooth versus a wireless mouse. It’s not something most people will notice doing workaday stuff, but if you plan on playing some Overwatch after hours and want to use the same mouse, you might want to go with the faster, 2.4Ghz route.

How we test ergonomic mice

After many hours of research and reading reviews, I gathered just over 20 mice with good claims to ergonomic design to test in my work setup. I mostly tried out mice geared towards a work-from-home or office setting, as opposed to gaming (we have a whole guide dedicated to that topic). I used each mouse for a few hours or a few days, noting how well they felt as well as how they performed. I mostly used a MacBook Pro M1 but verified Windows compatibility with an Asus ROG Strix laptop. For reference, my right hand measures 7.25 inches from the wrist crease to the tip of my middle finger, which is just under average for a man and large for a woman.

Other ergonomic mice we tried

Logitech MX Master 3S

Logitech mice have made many appearances in our guides over the years. In our guide to the best productivity mice, we name the Logitech MX Master 3S the best wireless mouse you can get. As I considered its merits as a mouse, it was indeed an impressive option — it connected flawlessly, has a useful sideways wheel as well as the traditional scroll feature and the thumb rest is a nice touch. But the ergonomics didn't quite do it for me as it holds your hand in the standard, palm-down, claw-grip position.

Logitech Lift Vertical

The Logi Lift Vertical is likely one of the more popular ergonomic mice out there. It’s fairly lightweight, has an attractive design with a nice feel to the exterior. The buttons are easy to click and nearly silent. It also connects quickly using either Bluetooth or a dongle. Unfortunately, it doesn’t glide across the mouse pad all that smoothly, and the pinch grip the design requires actually aggregated my wrist. The cursor movements are fairly precise, though I occasionally had trouble getting the cursor to land just where I wanted it. Also, it’s small; my hands are too large for the Lift. Logitech’s Logitech MX Vertical is essentially a larger version, but again, the skinnier shape was uncomfortable in my hands and it was tough to get the cursor to go where I wanted it to.

HP 920 ergonomic vertical

The HP 920 ergonomic vertical also has a flange for resting your palm, but it makes the mouse overly heavy to move around. Without it, however, it's an extremely comfortable mouse with a premium feel, rechargeable battery, and two programmable thumb buttons. Unfortunately, the cursor movement was frustratingly imprecise and didn’t go exactly where I pointed, forcing a number of corrections — and extraneous movement is what we’re trying to avoid in ergonomic setups.

Turtle Beach Pure Air

Apart from the rather loud clicks, I was impressed with the build and performance of the Turtle Beach Pure Air. It’s lightweight, moves smoothly, and has impressively accurate cursor movements. But despite being labeled an ergonomic mouse, it’s particularly light on the ergonomics. There’s a divot for your right thumb, so it can't be called ambidextrous, but beyond that it’s a pretty standard (albeit quite nice) gaming mouse.

Perixx Perimice 719

The PERIMICE-719 from Perixx is a solid mouse with an exterior that feels nice to the touch. It has a comfortable, semi-vertical design, accurate cursor moves and a satisfyingly ratcheted scroll wheel. Plus, it offers reliable connectivity with a wireless dongle and only costs $22. Unfortunately, it was too small for my hand. Only folks with smaller glove sizes (or don’t mind adopting more of a fingertip grip) will be able to get the most out of this one.

Anker 2.4G vertical

The Anker 2.4G mouse could make a decent budget pick for anyone who doesn't mind using more of a pinch grip on their peripheral. It's lightweight and has a precise scroll wheel along with back and forward browser buttons. It's battery operated, but doesn't come with batteries and only connects via the included USB radio dongle. I also found the buttons a little harder to press which ultimately eliminated it from the running.  

If you’ve ever missed an on-time departure thanks to a set of lost keys or misplaced wallet, you’ll benefit from a Bluetooth tracker. These small devices attach to your stuff and use your smartphone to keep tabs on where they are. AirTags are the best known in the category, tapping into a finding network created through anonymous iPhone pings in the area. Google now has a similar network using nearby Android phones, and Samsung has its own network that employs Galaxy phones. Some third-party trackers work with either Google or Apple’s network and offer additional features to boot. We tested trackers from Apple, Tile, Pebblebee, Samsung and Chipolo, comparing their finding capabilities, sound levels, reliability and design. We think the Chipolo Pop is the best Bluetooth tracker for most people, but a few other trackers have their merits as well.

What to look for in a Bluetooth tracking device

Bluetooth trackers are small discs or cards that rely on short-range, low-energy wireless signals to communicate with your smartphone. Attach one of these gadgets your stuff and, if it’s in range, your phone can “ring” the chip so you can find it. These tracking devices offer other features like separation alerts to tell you when you’ve left a tagged item behind, or where a lost item was last detected. Some can even tap into a larger network of smartphones to track down your device when you’re out of range. Depending on what you want the tracker to do, there are a few specs to look for when deciding which to get.

Device compatibility

Like most things from the folks in Cupertino, AirTags only work with products in the Apple ecosystem. Both Apple and Google have opened up access to the Find My and Find My Device networks to third-party manufacturers, including Chipolo and Pebblebee. Those two companies make device-agnostic models that will work with the larger tracking network from either brand, so iPhone and Android users can buy the same tag. Tile trackers work with either Android or Apple devices, but use Tile’s own Life 360 finding network. Samsung’s latest fob, the Galaxy SmartTag2, only works with Samsung phones and taps into a finding system that relies on other Samsung devices to locate lost tags.

Finding network

Crowd-sourced finding capabilities are what make headlines, with stories about recovering stolen equipment or tracking lost luggage across the globe. Using anonymous signals that ping other people’s devices, these Bluetooth tracking devices can potentially tell you where a tagged item is, even if your smartphone is out of Bluetooth range. 

Apple’s Find My network is the largest, with over a billion iPhones and iPads in service all running Apple’s Find My app by default. So unless an iPhone user opts out, their phone silently acts as a location detector for any nearby AirTags. Apple recently increased the AirTag’s finding power by enabling you to share the location of a lost tag with a third party, party, like an airline. Chipolo fobs that work on Apple’s network have the same ability. Google launched its Find My Device network in 2024 and it’s a close second for the largest in the US

Now that Google’s Find My Device network is up and running, it’s a close second for the largest in the US. Like Apple, Android users are automatically part of the network, but can opt-out by selecting the Google services option in their phone’s Settings app and toggling the option in the Find My Device menu. Samsung’s SmartTag 2 and related network also defaults to an opt-in status for finding tags and other devices.

Tile offers a large finding grid that includes Tile users, Amazon Sidewalk customers and people running the Life360 network. Life360 acquired Tile in 2021, and, according to the company, the Life360 network has more than 70 million monthly active users.

In our tests, AirTags and third-party tags using its network, like the Chipolo Pop and Pebblebee Clip Universal, were the fastest to track down lost items. They offered nearly real-time location data in moderately to heavily trafficked spots around Albuquerque, including a bar, bookstore and coffee shops in Nob Hill, along with various outdoor hangouts on UNM’s campus.

Samsung's SmartTags were able to locate our lost items most of the time, though not with the same precision finding accuracy as AirTags. When we tested Google’s Find My Device network right after launch, it was noticeably slower than Apple’s network when using the community finding feature. Testing it again in 2025, the time it took to locate a lost item was considerably improved, taking just a couple minutes for the community to track a fob. In our tests, Tile’s finding network wasn’t able to consistently locate its lost fobs.

Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Separation alerts

Here’s where a tracker’s day-to-day utility really shines. A separation alert lets you know when you’ve traveled too far from your tagged items, which is useful if you want to make sure your laptop bag, or jacket or umbrella always comes with you when you leave the house.

These notifications work when you’re out and about too. If you’ve got a Bluetooth tracking device in your wallet and walk out of a restaurant without it, the separation alert should kick in, resulting in fewer lost items. This feature also tells you where your tagged item and phone were last paired, allowing you to retrace your steps if you happen to miss the alert.

Each tracker handles left-behind items differently. AirTags and third-party fobs using its network (such as from Chipolo or Pebblebee) include the feature by default. Tile trackers require a yearly subscription to enable the alerts (currently $30 annually). Tags working with the Google Find My Device network don’t offer the feature at all, but Chipolo Pop tags can issue left-behind alerts using its own Android app. Both AirTags and Tiles allow you to turn off separation alerts at certain locations, meaning you can set your home as a “safe” place where items can be left behind, but alerts will still trigger elsewhere.

In our tests, AirTags and others using the Find My network alerted us between the 600- and 1,400-foot mark. Tiles sent a notification after about an average of 1,500 feet and were more consistent when using an Android phone than an iPhone. Chipolo Pop tags paired with an Android phone and using its own app sent an alert when we got around 450 feet away from our tagged item.

Connectivity, volume and design

The feature you may use most often is the key finder function, which makes the tracker ring when you hit a button in the app. With Apple's AirTags, you can say "Hey Siri, where are my keys?" and the assistant will ring the tag (assuming it doesn't mistakenly think you're asking for directions to the Floridian archipelago). Asking Alexa or the Google Assistant to find your keys will work with Chipolo, Tile and Pebblebee trackers linked to your Android device.  

If you have your tag but can’t find your phone, some trackers will let you ring them to find your handset. SmartTag2 fobs reliably rang our Galaxy phone when we double-pressed it. Tile trackers have the same feature. Chipolo Pop trackers can ring your phone, but uses the Chipolo app to do so, which can run concurrently with the Find My or Find My Device connection. AirTags and any third-party tags using only Apple or Google’s networks don’t offer this feature.

The volume of the Bluetooth tracking device may determine whether you can find an item buried in your couch cushions or in a noisy room. AirTags have a reputation for being on the quiet side, and that aligned with what we saw (measuring roughly 65 decibels). Chipolo’s Pop tags and Tile’s Pro model measure between 83 and 86 decibels on average. Pebblebee’s new Clip Universal was the loudest of any tag we’ve tested, clocking in at 91 ear-splitting decibels.

Design will determine what you can attach the tracker to. AirTags are small, smooth discs that can’t be secured to anything without accessories, which are numerous, but that is an additional cost to consider. Chipolo, Pebblebee and Tile offer trackers with holes that easily attach to your key ring, and all three companies also offer card-shaped versions designed to fit in your wallet. Pebblebee Clip Universal tags come with a handy carabiner-style key ring.

Batteries are replaceable for AirTag, Tile Pro, SmartTag2 and Chipolo Pop fobs and each should go for at least a year before needing to be swapped. Tile Mate and card-shaped trackers don’t have replaceable batteries, which means you’ll have to replace the entire unit whenever it dies. Pebblebee trackers are rechargeable in both the disc and wallet variety. They’re also the only tags equipped with onboard LEDs.

Stalking, theft and data privacy

AirTags have gotten a lot of attention and even prompted some lawsuits for Apple due to bad actors planting them on people in order to stalk them. While this fact may not influence your buying decision, any discussion of Bluetooth trackers should note what steps Apple, Google and Tile have taken to address the issue. Last year, all the major players in the Bluetooth tracker business teamed up to combat misuse and standardize how unauthorized tracking detection and alerts work for iOS and Android.

Last year, Tile launched a feature called Anti-Theft Mode, which enables you to render one of its trackers undetectable by others. That means if someone steals your tagged item, they won’t be able to use the anti-stalking features to find and disable the tracker. That sort of negates one of the major ways potential stalking victims can stay safe, so Tile hopes ID verification and a $1 million penalty will deter misuse. Separately, Tile was recently hit by a data breach, raising different privacy concerns. The company issued a statement about the event, which it shared with Engadget: 

Similar to many other companies, Life360 recently became the victim of a criminal extortion attempt. We received emails from an unknown actor claiming to possess Tile customer information. We promptly initiated an investigation into the potential incident and detected unauthorized access to a Tile customer support platform (but not our Tile service platform). The potentially impacted data consists of information such as names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and Tile device identification numbers. It does not include more sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, passwords or log-in credentials, location data, or government-issued identification numbers, because the Tile customer support platform did not contain these information types.

We believe this incident was limited to the specific Tile customer support data described above and is not more widespread. We take this event and the security of customer information seriously. We have taken and will continue to take steps designed to further protect our systems from bad actors, and we have reported this event and the extortion attempt to law enforcement. We remain committed to keeping families safe online and in the real world.

As a theft deterrent, a Bluetooth tracker may or may not be the best option. Anecdotal stories abound in which people have recovered stolen goods using a tracker — but other tales are more cautionary. Neither Apple nor Google promotes its trackers or finding networks as a way to deal with theft. GPS trackers, on the other hand, are typically marketed for just that purpose.

How we tested

Before deciding on which trackers to test, we researched the field, looking at user reviews on Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers, along with discussions on sites like Reddit. We also checked out what other publications had to say on the matter before narrowing down our options to Apple AirTag, Tile, and Chipolo trackers. When Samsung's SmartTag 2 came out in October of 2023, we added that to our testing, along with Pebblebee's rechargeable Clip tracker. After Google launched its Find My Device, both Chipolo and Pebblebee released trackers in 2025 that work with either network and we tested the Pop and Universal key fob models and updated our top picks accordingly. 

Here’s the full list of every tracker we tested:

• Apple AirTag

• Chipolo Card Spot

• Chipolo One Spot

• Chipolo One

• Chipolo Card

• Chipolo Pop

• Pebblebe Clip Universal

• Pebblebee Clip

• Samsung SmartTag 2

• Chipolo One Point

• Pebblebee Clip for Android

• Tile Pro (2024)

• Tile Mate (2024)

• Tile Mate (2022)

• Tile Pro (2022)

• Tile Slim (2022)

After acquiring the trackers, I tested each one over the course of a few weeks using both an iPhone 11 and a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I recreated likely user experiences, such as losing and leaving items behind at home and out in the city. I planted trackers at different spots near downtown Albuquerque, mostly concentrated in and around the University of New Mexico and the surrounding neighborhood of Nob Hill. Later, I conducted tests in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Each test was performed multiple times, both while walking and driving and I used the measure distance feature on Google Maps to track footage for alerts. I paid attention to how easy the app was to use, how reliable the phone-to-tracker connection was and any other perks and drawbacks that came up during regular use.

Other trackers we tested

Tile Pro and Tile Mate (2024)

Tile recently came out with a new suite of trackers, replacing the Tile Mate, Tile Pro, Tile Sticker and Tile Slim with updated models. In addition to fun new colors for the Mate and Slim, Tile added an SOS feature that can send a notification to your Life360 Circle when you triple press the button on the tracker. It’s a clever addition that turns your keys into a panic button, something offered by personal safety companies as standalone devices.

There are a few caveats: You and the people you want to notify in an emergency will need the Life360 app installed on your phones. If you want your Tile to also trigger a call to emergency services, you’ll need a $15-per-month Life360 subscription (that’s in addition to a Tile membership, which starts at $3/month or $30 annually). And enabling the SOS triple-press disables the ability to ring your phone with the fob.

I tested the SOS feature and it did indeed send a text message to my Circle, with the message that I had triggered an SOS and a link to a website that showed my current location. I thought it odd that the link didn’t open the Life360 app (which shows the location of users' phones), but I wasn’t as much concerned with Tile’s personal safety features as I was with the tracking capabilities, which turned out to be less than ideal.

For my tests, I planted Tile trackers in a densely populated area of Seattle (about 15,000 people per square mile). After setting the trackers to “lost” in the Tile app, I waited. After four hours, one of the trackers was not discovered by the finding community, so I went and retrieved it. Another fob I planted alerted me that the tracker had been found by the Tile community after three hours — but the location it gave me was off by a third of a mile. I then decided to plant a tracker in the most populated place I could think of — the dried fruit and nuts aisle of a Trader Joes on a Friday evening before a major holiday. It still took over a half an hour before another Tile user anonymously pinged my lost tracker.

In my tests with Samsung’s trackers and the fobs on Google’s Find My Device network, it took around ten minutes for them to be discovered. AirTags took half that time and all were tested in a far less populated city. Four hours with no ping and over a half hour before getting a hit in a crowded TJs were pretty long stretches.

Our top pick, the classic Chipolo, has virtually no finding network. But if you’re getting a tracker for that feature alone, you should go with AirTags if you have an iPhone or the Google-enabled Chipolo or Pebblebee trackers if you use an Android phone. We prefer the Chipolo because it works with either iOS or Android devices, it rings loud, it’s quick to tell you when you’ve left it behind and it connects nearly instantly when you’re searching for a misplaced tracker around the house.

Tile devices also work with both mobile operating systems and its latest models are indeed louder than they were before. But they aren’t as quick to connect and you need to pay for a membership to activate left-behind alerts. And when you do, those notifications don’t kick in as quickly as they do with competing trackers.

Bluetooth tracker FAQs

Which Bluetooth tracker has the longest range?

Both the Tile Pro and the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 claim a maximum range of around 400 feet, which is longer than the 300-foot claim for Chipolo’s Pop tags. The Pebblebee Clip Universal claims a 500-foot range, though other trackers with a shorter claimed range performed better in our tests. Apple doesn’t make range claims for AirTags. Any Bluetooth signal, of course, is dependent on a few factors. Obstacles like walls and people can block the signal, so a clear line of sight is the only way to achieve the maximum range. Other signals, like Wi-Fi, can also interfere with Bluetooth connections. Even high humidity can have an effect and lessen the distance at which your phone will connect to your tracker.

Remember, when considering the range of Bluetooth trackers, the size of the “finding network” also comes into play. This is the number of nearby phones that can be used to anonymously ping your tracker when your own phone is out of Bluetooth range. As of now, Apple AirTags have the largest network, followed by Google’s Find My Device, Samsung’s finding community and Tile’s Life360 members.

What is the best Bluetooth tracker for a car?

Bluetooth trackers are designed to track small, personal items like keys, jackets, backpacks and the like. All trackers have safeguards to prohibit the tag from being used to stalk people, so most will alert someone if a tracker that does not belong to them is detected following them. That means a car thief may get tipped off that there’s a tracker in the car they’re trying to steal. That said, you’ll see plenty of stories about people finding their car thanks to a Bluetooth tracker. Some police departments have even handed out trackers to combat high rates of carjacking. In most instances, the tracker of choice has been AirTags thanks to their wide finding network. If you’re looking for a tracker for your car, you may want to look into GPS trackers, some of which are designed for just that purpose.

How accurate are Bluetooth trackers?

Accuracy for Bluetooth trackers can be looked at in two ways: Finding items nearby and finding items misplaced outside your home. For nearby items, you’ll most often use the ring function on the device to hunt it down. Two tags, Apple’s AirTags and Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag2, also use ultra-wideband technology, which creates directional navigation on your phone to get you within a foot of the tracker.

Accurately finding lost items outside your home depends on the size of the finding network. Since this relies on the serendipity of a random phone passing within Bluetooth range of your tracker, the more phones on a given network, the better. And since Bluetooth ranges and distance estimates are only precise within about a meter or so, getting pings from more than one phone will help locating items. Here again, it’s worth noting that Apple’s Find My network is the largest, followed by Google, Samsung and Tile (both Chipolo and Pebblebee have fobs that work with the Apple and Google networks).

Food at the grocery store seems expensive — until you go out to eat. If you’ve decided to get more use out of your kitchen, we know of a few handy gadgets to make cooking at home easier, quicker and probably more fun. As food lovers and tech reviewers, the Engadget team has tried out pizza ovens, sous vide machines, air fryers, ice cream makers and more. This list gathers up the best of what we’ve tested and reviewed in our own kitchens and serves as a great place to start as you zhuzh up your cooking situation. We’ve also linked to our reviews and buying guides so you can dive deeper into our recommendations for the best kitchen gadgets around.

Best kitchen gadgets for 2025

Nicole Lee contributed to this report.

We still think getting a live TV streaming service is a better deal than paying for cable — but the gulf between the two options is narrowing. Now that many of the major providers go for more than $80 per month, it’s not the amazing deal it once was. Still, live TV streaming plans have no contract, offer relatively simpler pricing and need no special equipment beyond a smart TV and an internet connection. There are a handful of major players and, after testing them all, we found YouTube TV to be the most well-rounded. But other services have their advantages, too, and there are plenty of free services as well. Here are the best live TV streaming services we tested, along with our breakdowns of how to stream and what you get.

Table of contents

• Best live TV streaming services for 2025

• Best free live TV streaming services for 2025

• What to look for in a live TV streaming service

• How we tested

• Live TV Streaming FAQs

• Recent updates

Best live TV streaming services for 2025

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Best free live TV streaming services for 2025

There are plenty of ways to get free TV these days. To start, many standard streaming apps have added live components to their lineups. You’re paying for the service, so it’s not technically “free,” but you can get a dose of live TV without spending more than necessary. Peacock includes some regional NBC stations, and notably access to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Paramount+ subscribers can watch on-air CBS programming. The standard Hulu app has a live ABC news channel and Max now includes a live CNN outlet with its service, along with cable-like linear channels.

The smart TV operating system (OS) you use likely provides free live content too: Amazon’s Fire TV interface has a live tab and Roku’s built-in Roku Channel includes hundreds of live channels at no extra cost. The same goes for Samsung TV Plus, which added a trove of K-dramas to its free live and on-demand lineup in 2024. The PBS app offers local live streams of its channels — even NASA has a free streaming service with live coverage. 

But for a full suite of live TV networks, and don’t want to sign up for any paid service, there are a number of free ad-supported TV services that have live TV. Even cable company DirecTV has joined the crowd with MyFree, and Fubo Free lets customers with a lapsed subscription keep watching some content. Here's the best of the live TV streaming services we tried:

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What to look for in a live TV streaming service

How to stream live TV

Streaming live TV is a lot like using Netflix. You get access through apps on your phone, tablet, smart TV or streaming device and the signal arrives over the internet. A faster and more stable connection tends to give you a better experience. Most live TV apps require you to sign up and pay via a web browser. After that, you can activate the app on all of your devices.

Monthly Price

When I started testing these cord-cutting alternatives, I was struck by the price difference between live TV and a standard video streaming app. Where the latter cost between $5 and $20 per month, most live TV services hit the $80 mark and can go higher than $200 with additional perks, channel packages and premium extras. The higher starting price is mostly due to the cost of providing multiple networks — particularly sports and local stations. And, in the past year or so, every service except Sling has raised base plan prices.

Local channels

Only two of the services I tried don’t include full local channel coverage for subscribers and one of those makes no effort to carry sports at all. That would be Philo and, as you might guess, it’s the cheapest. The next most affordable option, Sling, only carries three local stations — and only in larger markets — but it still manages to include some of the top sports channels.

When you sign up with any provider that handles local TV, you’ll enter your zip code, ensuring you get your area’s broadcast affiliates for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Of course, you can also get those stations for free. Nearly all modern television sets support a radio frequency (RF) connection, also known as the coaxial port, which means if you buy an HD antenna, you’ll receive locally broadcast stations like ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX and NBC. And since the signal is digital, reception is much improved over the staticky rabbit-ears era.

Live sports coverage

One reality that spun my head was the sheer number and iterations of sports networks in existence. Trying to figure out which network will carry the match-up you want to see can be tricky. I found that Google makes it a little easier for sports fans by listing out upcoming games (just swap in NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and so on in the search bar). When you click an event, the “TV & streaming” button will tell you which network is covering it.

That just leaves figuring out if your chosen service carries the RSNs (regional sports networks) you want. Unfortunately, even with add-ons and extra packages, some providers simply don’t have certain channels in their lineups. It would take a lawyer to understand the ins and outs of streaming rights negotiations, and networks leave and return to live TV carriers all the time. That said, most major sporting events in the US are covered by ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, USA and local affiliates.

I should also point out that traditional streaming services have started adding live sports to their lineups. Peacock carries live Premier League matches, Sunday Night Football games and aired the 2024 Olympic Games from Paris. Thursday Night Football as well as NBA and WNBA games are on Amazon Prime and Christmas Day Football aired on Netflix. Max (formerly HBO Max) now airs select, regular season games from the NHL, MLB, NCAA and NBA with a $10-per-month add-on. You can watch MLS games with an add-on through the Apple TV app, and Apple TV+ includes some MLB games. Roku users can watch the just-added free sports channel and those who subscribe to Paramount Plus can see many of the matches aired on CBS Sports, including live NFL games. This year, even the Super Bowl was live-streamed for free on Tubi. While all of these alternatives may not cover as much ground as live TV streamers, they could end up being cheaper avenues to the sports you want.

And if sports is all you’re after, there are sports-only plans that are a touch cheaper too. While the promised sports streaming service from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. called Venu was cancelled early this year, shortly after, DirecTV announced a $70-per-month, sports-only streaming package called MySports and Comcast now has a sports and news bundle for the same price (as long as you're an Xfinity customer with auto-pay, otherwise it's more expensive).

Traditional cable networks

Dozens of linear programming networks were once only available with cable TV, like Bravo, BET, Food Network, HGTV, CNN, Lifetime, SYFY and MTV. If you only subscribe to, say, Netflix or Apple TV+, you won’t have access to those. But as with sports, standard streamers are starting to incorporate this content into their offerings. After the Warner Bros. merger, Max incorporated some content from HGTV, Discovery and TLC. Peacock has Bravo and Hallmark shows, and Paramount+ has material from Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.

Other channels like AMC+ have stand-alone apps. The Discovery+ app gives you 15 channels ad-free for $9 per month (or with ads for $5 monthly). And a service called Frndly TV starts at a mere $7 per month and streams A&E, Lifetime, Game Show Network, Outdoor Channel and about 35 others. Of course, most live TV streaming options will deliver more sizable lists of cable networks, but just note that you may already be paying for some of them — and if all you need is a certain channel, you could get it cheaper by subscribing directly.

On-demand streaming

Most live TV subscriptions include access to a selection of video-on-demand (VOD) content, like you would get with a traditional streaming service. Much of this content is made up of the movies and TV series that have recently aired on your subscribed networks. This typically doesn’t cover live events and news programming, but I was able to watch specific episodes of ongoing shows like Top Chef or BET’s Diarra from Detroit. Just search the on-demand library for the program, pick an episode and hit play.

Partnerships, like Hulu’s relationship with Disney, and add-ons, such as bundling Max with your YouTube TV subscription or Starz with your Sling plan, will let you watch even larger libraries of on-demand content. But again, if VOD is all you’re after, paying for those networks directly instead of through a live TV plan will be far cheaper.

Digital video recordings (DVR) limits

Every option I tried offers some cloud DVR storage without needing a separate physical device. You’ll either get unlimited storage for recordings that expires after nine months or a year, or you’ll get a set number of hours (between 50 and 1,000) that you can keep indefinitely. Typically, all you need to do is designate what ongoing TV series you want to record and the DVR component will do all the hard work of saving subsequent episodes for you to watch later. You can do the same thing with sports events.

Aside from being able to watch whenever it’s most convenient, you can also fast-forward through commercials in recorded content. In contrast, you can’t skip them on live TV or VOD.

Simultaneous streams and profiles per account

Each plan gives you a certain number of simultaneous streams, aka how many screens can play content at the same time. And while most providers will let you travel with your subscription, there are usually location restrictions that require you to sign in from your home IP address periodically. Stream allowances range from one at a time to unlimited screens (or as many as your ISP’s bandwidth can handle). Some plans require add-ons to get more screens.

Most services also let you set up a few profiles so I was able to give different people in my family the ability to build their own watch histories and libraries, set their favorite channels and get individual recommendations.

Picture-in-picture mode and multiview

Picture-in-picture (PiP) usually refers to shrinking a video window on a mobile device or computer browser so you can watch it while using other apps. Sling, YouTube TV, FuboTV, Philo, DirecTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV all have PiP modes on computers and mobile devices. Another feature, multiview, lets you view multiple live sports games at once on your TV screen. YouTube TV and FuboTV are the only live TV streamers that let you do this. With YouTube TV, you can select up to four views from a few preset selection of streams. FuboTV offers the same feature, but only if you're using an Apple TV or Roku streaming device.

4K live streams

Right now, just FuboTV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream offer 4K live streams — but with caveats. YouTube TV requires a $20-per-month add-on, after which you’ll only be able to watch certain live content in 4K. DirecTV Stream has three channels that show live 4K content — one with shows and original series, and two with occasional sporting events. You don’t have to pay extra for these but you do need to have either DirecTV’s Gemini receiver, or a device from Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku. You’ll need those same streaming devices to watch the select 4K programming on Sling as well. FuboTV shows certain live events in 4K but access is limited to the Elite and Premier packages, not the base-level Pro plan.

Of course, watching any 4K content also requires equipment that can handle it: a 4K smart TV or 4K streaming device paired with a cord and screen that can handle 4K resolution.

Tiers, packages and add-ons

Comparing price-to-offering ratios is a task for a spreadsheet. I… made three. The base plans range from $28 to $85 per month. From there, you can add packages, which are usually groups of live TV channels bundled by themes like news, sports, entertainment or international content. Premium VOD extras like Max, AMC+ and Starz are also available. Add-ons cost an extra $5 to $20 each per month and simply show up in the guide where you find the rest of your live TV. This is where streaming can quickly get expensive, pushing an $80 subscription to $200 monthly, depending on what you choose.

How to stream live TV for free

I also downloaded and tried out a few apps that offer free ad-supported TV (FAST) including Freevee, Tubi, PlutoTV and Sling Freestream. These let you drop in and watch a more limited selection of live networks at zero cost. Most don’t even require an email address, let alone a credit card. And if you have a Roku device, an Amazon Fire TV or Stick, a Samsung TV, a Chromecast device or a Google TV, you already have access to hundreds of live channels via the Roku Channel, the live tab in Fire TV, through the Samsung TV Plus app or through Google TV.

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How we tested

When I begin testing for a guide, I research the most popular and well-reviewed players in the category and narrow down which are worth trying. For the paid plans, just six services dominate so I tried them all. There are considerably more free live TV contenders so I tested the four most popular. After getting accounts set up using my laptop, I downloaded the apps on a Samsung smart TV running the latest version of Tizen OS. I counted the local stations and regional sports coverage, and noted how many of the top cable networks were available. I then weighed the prices, base packages and available add-ons.

I then looked at how the programming was organized in each app’s UI and judged how easy everything was to navigate, from the top navigation to the settings. To test the search function, I searched for the same few TV shows on BET, Food Network, HGTV and Comedy Central, since all six providers carry those channels. I noted how helpful the searches were and how quickly they got me to season 6, episode 13 of Home Town.

I used DVR to record entire series and single movies and watched VOD shows, making sure to test the pause and scan functions. On each service with sports, I searched for the same four upcoming NHL, NBA, MLS and NCAA basketball matches and used the record option to save the games and play them back a day or two later. Finally, I noted any extra perks or irritating quirks.

All live TV streaming services we’ve tested:

• Philo

• Sling

• YouTube TV

• Hulu + Live TV

• DirecTV Stream

• FuboTV

• Freevee

• Tubi

• PlutoTV

• Sling Freestream

• Plex

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Live TV Streaming FAQs

What is live streaming?

Streaming simply refers to video content that is delivered to your screen over the internet. Live streaming can be split into two categories: linear programming and simultaneous transmission. That first one is similar to what you get with cable or broadcast TV, with channels that play a constant flow of movies and shows (sort of what TV looked like before Netflix). Simultaneous streaming lets you watch live events (like a basketball game) or a program (like the evening news) as they happen.

What is the difference between streaming and live streaming?

Standard streaming, the most popular example being Netflix, lets you pick what you want to watch from a menu of choices. It’s also referred to as “video on demand.” Live streaming refers to sports and news events that you can stream as they happen in real time. It also refers to channels that show a continuous, linear flow of programming.

What streaming service is best for live TV?

FuboTV does the best job of letting you organize live channels to help you find just what you want to watch. The interface is uncluttered and when you search for something, the UI clearly tells you whether something is live now or on-demand. YouTube TV also does a good job making that info clear. Both have just over 100 live channels on offer.

What is the most cost effective TV streaming service?

Free TV streaming services like PlutoTV, Plex, Tubi and FreeVee show plenty of ad-supported TV shows and movies without charging you anything. Of course, they won’t have the same channels or content that more premium subscriptions have. Ultimately it depends on what you want to watch and finding the service that can supply that to you in the most streamlined form so you’re not paying for stuff you don’t need.

Is it cheaper to have cable or streaming?

A basic cable package used to be more expensive than the base-level live TV streaming service. But now that nearly all major providers have raised their prices to over $75 per month, that’s no longer the case. And with add-ons and other premiums, you can easily pay over $200 a month for either cable or a live TV streaming service.

What streaming service has all the TV channels?

No service that we tested had every available channel. Hulu + Live TV and DirecTV Stream carry the the highest number of the top rated channels, according to Neilsen. Hulu’s service also gets you Disney+ fare, which you can’t get elsewhere. FuboTV has the most sports channels and YouTube TV gives you the widest selection of add-ons.

What is the most popular live TV streaming platform?

YouTube TV has the most paying customers. According to 2024's letter from the CEO, the service has over eight million subscribers. Disney’s 2024 third quarter earnings put the Hulu + Live TV viewer count at 4.6 million. Sling’s customer count dipped from two million to about 1.9 million in 2024 and FuboTV grew its subscriber list to 1.6 million.

How safe are free streaming services and websites?

You may have heard certain sites that provide free content can be dangerous, leading to stolen info and/or exposing you to malware. That’s likely in reference to certain peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and file-sharing sites that let people download free movies and series — which can come bundled with malicious code.

But if you’re talking about the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services listed here, from providers like PlutoTV, Tubi and Freevee, they are just as safe as any other streaming service. Since you sometimes don’t even have to provide your email address or credit card info, they can even be more anonymous than apps that require login credentials.

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Recent updates

January 31, 2025: Added information about which streaming service would live-stream the Super Bowl, including Tubi’s free option. Updated Fubo’s pricing. Added details about DirectTV Stream’s sports-only package and Comcast’s sports and news bundle.

January 16, 2025: Included higher prices for Sling’s Orange and Blue plans. Noted the demise of the never-launched Venu sports streaming service and mentioned the inclusion of DirecTV’s new sports package.

December 31, 2024: Noted increased pricing for YouTube TV, Hulu+ Live TV and DirecTV. Updated information for 4K streaming capabilities and requirements for multiple services. Reported on the upcoming shut down of Amazon’s Freevee service and the addition of DirecTV’s free service.

August 6, 2024: Updated with the addition of Plex as a free live TV streaming recommendation and mentioned the additional free channels Philo is now including with the free version of its service. Added pricing information for ESPN's new sports-only streaming service, Venu. 

June 12, 2024: Updated with more information about 4K live streaming, picture-in-picture and multiview modes, as well as video on-demand options. We expanded our recommendations around free live TV streaming services and added a FAQ query about the safety of free streaming services and clarified the difference between standard and live streaming. More traditional streaming services have added live and sports components, so we revised that section accordingly.

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A new app for the Apple Watch will help you get a better overall view of your health and fitness levels. The new Vitals app synthesizes details from your Health and Fitness data. During the keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday, Apple announced new features coming to watchOS 11. 

In addition to the new Vitals app, the Activity app is getting new abilities like Training Load that measures the intensity of your workout and rates your workouts. A unique algorithm will gauge your effort rating from one (easy) to ten (all out) so you can see how much you're deviating from your norm. You can also now set rest days and hang on to your streaks. 

If you like the Photos watch face, there's good news here too. Machine learning models will now help you find the best photos to feature and will automatically crop and frame it for you. 

This story is developing, please refresh for more updates.

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple's WWDC 2024.

We're still a ways out from Amazon's upcoming Prime Day sale and most Memorial Day promotions have ended, but this week, we still found a decent amount of discounts on gadgets we've reviewed and recommend. Searches turned up a surprising number of deals on Apple stuff. Does that have anything to do with the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week? I have no idea. What matters is you can now get a new iPad Air, the latest Apple Watch, the second-gen Apple Pencil and a pair of AirPod Max headphones for less than you'd pay otherwise. If you could care less about Apple, there are plenty of other deals to check out, including discounts on Samsung Bluetooth trackers, the Google Pixel 8 Pro and some great earbuds for running. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.    

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

For some dads, the stereotypical lawn chair and beer is not their happy place. They prefer movement to comfort, crushing goals over taking it easy. If the dad in your life doesn’t stop moving, gift him some gadgets to propel his training forward. This is workout gear we’ve tested and approve of, with smartwatches for tracking workouts, earbuds that stay put during serious training, helpful cycling add-ons and tools to help with recovery.

Kobo isn’t the first on the color-ereader scene; Boox and Pocketbook have had color ereaders and tablets for years. Both of those companies make beautiful, premium devices that are highly capable and customizable — but they don’t offer the plug-and-play ereader experience of a Kindle or Kobo. Of all the ereaders I’ve tried over the past year, I’ve found Kobos do the best job of combining a user-friendly interface with quality hardware. And now that hardware has a new trick with a color screen on the Clara Colour.

It’s noteworthy that Kobo beat Kindle to the punch in getting a color ereader out the door. To be fair, Amazon is busy doing, well, everything, but it’s safe to bet that a color Kindle will be coming soon. For now, though, Kobo’s Clara Colour is the consumer-friendly color ereader to beat. A beefier processor makes it zippier than its already-fast predecessor, and the addition of color looks lovely, without detracting from the crisp and easy-to-read text. I’ll admit, I’m not an ereader diehard; I often return to my first love, print. But a few weeks with Kobo’s latest has me more excited than ever about reading on this cozy, effortless machine. 

Design and display

Most e-paper devices rely on a display made by E Ink. The Clara Colour uses the company’s new Kaleido 3 panel, which adds a printed Color Filter Array (CFA) layer on top of the existing black-and-white microcapsule layer. The color layer can display around 4,000 colors, with a resolution of 150 dpi. To be clear, a full color page on the Clara Colour looks nothing like what you’d get from the most basic LED screen. E-paper colors are muted and saturated, reminiscent of ‘70s comic book covers. But, also unlike LED, E Ink color panels actually look better under bright light.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

The monochrome microcapsule layer creates sharp, 300 dpi text, same as the previous generation. But set side-by-side with the Clara 2E, the Clara Colour’s page does look less sharp. Get close to the screen and you’ll notice noise in the white parts of the page. The warm front light is more amber, too. That’s the nature of the color filter array: since it’s always there, any text you read is filtered through that layer. I have to stress that it’s only something I noticed because I’m writing this review and digging deep into the performance as compared to the previous generation. When it comes to actually reading, I found I preferred the softer, warmer effect of the Colour. It reminds me of the pulpy mass-market Stephen King and Anne Rice paperbacks I grew up reading.

Kobo’s customization options aren’t overly involved, but they grant enough control so you can change things like the typeface, font size, line spacing and margin width, as well as brightness and light warmth. On the outside, the Kobo Clara 2E and the Clara Colour look nearly identical. The screen is slightly more recessed on the Colour model and the soft-touch plastic is more textured, which is actually a benefit because it shows fewer fingerprints. The centimeter-wide bezels are just big enough for your thumb, which, along with the textured back, makes the reader easy to hold from different positions. It’s small enough I can grip it around the back, but I have larger hands, so that might not work for everyone.

With an IPX8 rating, the Clara Colour can handle full submersion in water. I haven’t gone that far with this review unit, but I did survive when I accidentally splashed water on it when washing my hands in the bathroom. Why was it in the bathroom? Because I stash my book near the toilet so I don’t sit there and stare at my phone. It’s the tactic that got me reading again after I had a kid and was temporarily convinced I’d never finish another book. I heartily recommend it, particularly with a reading device like this one that can handle the watery environment of a restroom. 

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Reading experience

The Clara Colour’s new chip makes loading menus, performing searches and flipping pages a touch faster than with the previous generation. The speed increase doesn’t amount to a drastically different experience, but quicker page turns keep the action going. Like if Murderbot is protecting its humans from HostileSecUnit1 and suddenly there’s another SecUnit at the bottom of the page, you need to know as fast as technologically possible what goes down next. Browsing for a new book and checking out previews is speedier, too, something I appreciate when everything on my dutifully curated TBR list looks like broccoli and I want ice cream.

The UX is the same as all Kobos that don’t support stylus input, with just four options along a bottom menu bar: Home, My Books, Discover and More. Discover takes you to the Kobo store, where you can look for ebooks, audiobooks and titles from KoboPlus, the company’s monthly subscription for unlimited access to a selection of books (aka Kobo’s answer to Amazon Unlimited).

Discover’s recommendation section has a running list of titles called Just for You and, under Related Reads, suggests books you might like based on works you’ve finished. The connective threads between the titles isn’t anything surprising, but they offer a good place to start if you’re noodling on what to read next.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Kobo’s deep integration with OverDrive lets you borrow any title your local library has available with just a few seconds of setup and a library card. Clicking the three dots near the Buy button on any book brings up the option to borrow (or place a hold on) the ebook from your library. I admire how deeply Kobo supports the feature, placing something free and public on par with paid books and subscriptions.

Other features are nice to have, like gathering your Pocket articles from the web so you can read them later in the more focused environment of your Kobo. There’s also a beta web browser that I used to look up the Wikipedia entry on the Mason-Dixon line when I read Percival Everett’s James and the one for rook (the bird) when reading Tana French’s The Hunter. The browser’s not equipped for heavy surfing, but that’s a good thing. The extra effort it takes to browse keeps me on target with my reading. At the same time, I’m happy to dig up a little background info without picking up my phone, where the distractions are plentiful and compulsive.

The competition (aka Kindle vs Kobo)

There’s no escaping the fact that a Kobo ereader is not a Kindle. But the advantages Kindle has over Kobo are mostly in the availability of titles, not in hardware. The Kobo Clara Colour is most directly comparable to the standard Kindle. They have the same basic shape, the same size screen with 300 dpi text and 16GB of storage. But the Kindle is $50 cheaper.

However! Amazon’s device will serve you ads on the lockscreen and it costs $20 extra to remove them. It’s also not waterproof and has no warm light. No Kindle has a color display yet, but there are plenty of rumors suggesting that move is (pretty obviously) on the horizon. For now, though, color is another point in Kobo’s favor.

That said, if you’ve spent the past decade amassing a small library on Amazon, you won’t be able to access it on a Kobo without some major, quasi-unlawful finagling. I only have a few Kindle titles from my past, so starting over with Kobo didn’t feel like a loss.

Amazon’s ebook store is larger than Kobo’s, boosted by Kindle Direct Publishing exclusives and self-published books. Kobo has its own self-publishing program, but it’s far smaller. That said, every in-print book from a major publisher will show up in both the Kindle and the Kobo store. Every title I’ve searched for in the Kobo store was readily available.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Amazon’s subscription program, Kindle Unlimited, is bigger too, with four million combined audio- and ebook titles available. Comparatively, Kobo Plus currently claims 1.5 million ebooks and 150,000 audiobooks. Kobo’s plan is a tad cheaper at $10 per month to both read and listen, or $8 for ebooks only. Kindle Unlimited is $12 monthly and gives you access to both formats. Neither subscription includes bestselling titles from major authors, but there’s still plenty to choose from.

However, Kobo’s ebook access does outmatch Kindle's in two ways: the ability to shop third-party outlets and an easier OverDrive experience. Amazon uses its own digital rights management (DRM) technology, whereas most everyone else relies on Adobe’s DRM. That means if you buy a book from most major publishers on a third-party site (like ebooks.com or Google Books), you won’t be able to read the ePub file on your Kindle. There are a few extra steps for reading those titles on a Kobo, but it's easy enough. As for OverDrive, reading public library books on a Kindle isn’t hard, but you have to first go to OverDrive’s or your library’s site, find your book and select “read on Kindle” as the delivery option. With a Kobo, you click the three dots next to Buy, select Borrow and start reading seconds later on the same device.

Wrap-up

The big question is whether the addition of color makes the Kobo Clara Colour better and worth the $10 over the previous generation. The faster processor alone makes up for the price hike and the waterproof build, warm front lights and lack of ads makes for a more premium ereader that justifies the $50 price disparity between the Clara Colour and the basic Kindle.

As for the color screen, it doesn’t make much difference when you’re reading a typical ebook. And the extra layer does add some noise to the whitespace and gives everything a warmer glow. But I didn’t mind the minute drop in clarity and actually preferred the softer, cozier appearance of the page. Colors look lovely on the book covers in my collection and recommended titles draw me to them with their muted blues and washed out reds.

You’ve probably heard of that trick where you switch your phone’s screen to grayscale to reduce its appeal. It seems to actually work, so I have to imagine the opposite is true, too. Anything that makes reading material more attractive — and better able to compete with the technicolor onslaught of digital distraction — is a win in my book.

Apple and Google recently held events to showcase new products and services. From a deals perspective, that means some older iPads are hitting new low prices — we even spotted a few modest $30 and $50 discounts on brand new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. Google's latest smartphone, the Pixel 8a, shipped this past Tuesday, but a few retailers are still offering pre-order deals of a free $100 gift card with purchase. There were plenty of deals on other tech too, like a return to an all-time low on the Kindle Scribe, a sale on one of our favorite outdoor pizza ovens and discounts on a couple of Anker portable chargers that'll keep your phone topped off as you do what you do. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. 

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