Casio’s instrument division has been around a long time, as anyone who got into music as a kid by making fart noises into an SK-1 knows. However, the company is mostly known for entry-level digital pianos that get the job done, but don’t offer much by way of modern conveniences. In recent years, Casio has been dipping its toes into the waters of high-end instruments like the Privia PX-S7000.

The latest Privia entry is a sizable leap over most starter pianos. This is a serious instrument for serious players, with that quad-speaker system, 88 hybrid hammer action keys that feel fantastic, plenty of high-tech bells and whistles and, most importantly, access to three realistic-sounding piano models, along with 400 other instruments. Oh, and it has a hefty $2,400 price tag to match.

All of that is well and good, but let’s talk about why I really decided to splurge on this thing over the myriad of other digital pianos out there — it’s absolutely gorgeous. It hits that sweet spot between a musical instrument and a piece of high-end furniture. I fell in love pretty much instantly when I saw it online. I wasn’t able to try it out ahead of time, as my options here in Minnesota are limited when it comes to testing synths and digital instruments, so I just went for it. My plan was to return the thing if it was a lemon but, as you can see, it’s still there. It’s not a lemon. Maybe it’s a strawberry? Those are pretty.

I had just moved into a mostly-bare new home and had an entire house to fill for the first time in my life. I wanted something that tied the living room together and I don’t really understand visual art, so I went with what I know: expensive musical instruments. It did the trick. It looks stunning sitting there and almost makes up for the lack of wall art.

The piano itself has elegant spruce sides, and it ships with a sleek and sturdy wooden beech stand. There’s also a nice-looking three-pedal unit that attaches near the bottom, providing yet another feature that makes this digital piano feel, well, not-so digital. It weighs just 60 pounds, so it was easy for me to try out different placements on the fly without destroying my back. Real pianos weigh hundreds and even thousands of pounds — I’ve ruined enough friendships in my life asking people to help me move them around, thank you very much.

I ended up with the black model, though it’s also available in white and “harmonious mustard.” Personally, I think the mustard is the most attractive option, but the eye-popping paint job adds another $200 to the price. I’m financially irresponsible, but even I have my limits. I still lust over that warm and luscious yellow, though.

Photo by Lawrence Bonk / Engadget

The Privia PX-S7000 is not just a conversation piece, it also sounds and feels eerily similar to playing the real thing. The three primary piano models are excellent, but digital recreations of classic instruments are nothing new. This instrument combines those excellent piano models with a realistic-sounding speaker system and a keybed that’s incredibly satisfying to play.

The keybed feels great, with a textured surface on each key that calls to mind, you guessed it, an actual piano. There’s a proprietary technology here, called Smart Hybrid Hammer Action, but I don’t really understand the specifics. All I know is that the keys spring back nicely and do their part to keep the illusion going that you’re playing an analog instrument. There’s a heaviness to the key presses and an oh-so-satisfying thunk as each press returns to the resting position. It’s just plain fun to play. (Though I’m not exactly Rachmaninoff. I’m more of a dime-store Paul McCartney.)

Another proprietary system, Casio’s Multi-Dimensional Morphing AiR Sound Source, helps increase the fun factor by adding a bit of damper, string and aliquot resonance with each press. This tech is based on the sound engine from the even more expensive Celviano line of digital pianos, so it’s nice to see it pop up in a cheaper model. There’s also some counterweight and damping voodoo going on underneath the hood. This is the closest I’ve ever felt to the “real thing” with a digital instrument, though I haven’t spent any time with ultra-high-end digital pianos as a comparison point. I have, though, spent hundreds and hundreds of hours playing real pianos, starting in my grandmother’s den as a wee tyke.

When I’m playing the Privia SX-7000, it sounds like the tones are coming from everywhere at once, thanks to the quad-speaker spatial sound system. They really put me in the center of the action and, believe it or not, this actually makes me play better, especially when compared to my caveman plunks on a MIDI controller.

The main draws here are the three piano models, but this is a digital instrument in the year 2023, so there’s some high-tech fun to be had. Casio has introduced a new feature that pairs analog piano sounds and electric tones with on-board effects to recreate the vibe of classic songs. For instance, you can tap away at a piano that sounds like John Lennon’s Imagine, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Stevie Wonder's Superstition and dozens more. There’s even a microphone input and 25 vocal effects options for sing-alongs. I’ve used both to great effect. Starting with a famous piano sound helps me drum up song ideas and plugging a mic in lets me hear my vocals at a decent volume without having to emote like Whitney Houston during the last key change of I Will Always Love You.

All modern digital pianos have a few hundred additional sounds for those times you want to hear an average-sounding bass, and the Privia’s no different. There are 400 sounds to choose from, ranging from good to barely OK. All of the usual bases are covered here, from synth-heavy pads to drum kits and woodwinds. None of these sounds are truly mind-blowing, but they can help generate ideas in a pinch. If I’m recording, however, I prefer a virtual instrument with more control options.

One modern convenience that I enjoy is the included Bluetooth adapter. This is only for incoming sounds, but it’s still pretty cool. I’ve spent many hours streaming music from my phone to the piano and playing along with it. It’s an efficient way to learn new songs.

The piano integrates with a Casio app that offers piano lessons and the like, which I haven’t tried because I like learning in my own way. The app also displays PDF scores on your phone or tablet that you can play along to, though I haven’t experimented much with this feature because I (ducks) can’t read music.

The added features are cool — it’s 2023 after all — but the true draw of the Privia SX-7000 is three-fold: it looks great, it sounds great and it feels like playing a real piano. It’s also really expensive, costing around $2,400, so this isn’t for casual hobbyists. I bought it fully expecting to regret my purchase, but that regret never came. Instead, I feel a spark of joy whenever I see it sitting there, inviting me to play Imagine until I’m blue in the face.

Bungie has officially delayed the forthcoming Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, until June 4 of next year, according to a video posted by game director Joel Blackburn. This delay has been rumored for a couple of months, ever since the company laid off an unknown amount of staffers working on the project. The expansion was originally supposed to come out in February and will act as an end to the game’s main storyline.

Bungie, however, says the expansion's delay is just because it “needs more time to become exactly what we want it to be,” going on to note that staffers are polishing the title “to deliver an even bigger and bolder vision.” To that end, the company’s rejiggering its release calendar a bit to ease the burden of the just-announced delay.

Season of the Wish, the final season in the game’s calendar before it moves onto an episodic model, starts tomorrow and will now include more content than previously anticipated to offset the delay. Starting in February, there will be weekly progression-based quests called Wishes that offer unique rewards. Bungie’s also moving the Guardian Games up to March with a renewed focus on class vs. class combat. Finally, in April players will get a two-month content update called Destiny 2: Into the Light that will act as something of a bridge to The Final Shape.

The forthcoming expansion wasn’t the only title slapped with the delay hammer after those layoffs. The studio has also pushed back the release date for the extraction shooter Marathon all the way until 2025. This is a rebooted IP for Bungie that first came to Macs all the way back in 1994.

As for The Final Shape, the expansion will include new dungeons, new maps, new character classes and much more. You’ll also get a final bow wrapped on the story, for those who play online shooters for the narrative arc.

It’s Cyber Monday and Dyson is celebrating with deep discounts on a wide variety of cordless vacuums and related products, with a sale that’s basically an extension of its Black Friday offerings. The highlight is $250 off the V15 Detect Absolute stick vacuum, which is now $500 instead of $750. This is actually a better deal than the company presented for Black Friday.

The V15 boasts an integrated laser light and a dust particle counter to show you just how much dirt and grime it has picked up from your floor, which is great from a cleanliness perspective but bad from an “out of sight, out of mind” perspective. We really enjoyed the vacuum when we tried it back in 2021, touting its superior cleaning abilities and calling it “reliable, powerful and habit-forming.”

The V15 Detect Absolute also includes a laser-powered optic cleaner head and a handy LCD on the handle that displays the level of dust particles rummaging around the floor, along with battery life and other important metrics. To that end, you get around an hour of use per charge, with an eco mode to conserve battery life and a boost mode to do the opposite. Of course, you can also convert this little bud into a stubby handheld for hard-to-reach areas.

If $500 is just a bit too spendy for a vacuum, Dyson is also holding a sale on the V8 Absolute, bringing it down to $280 from $520. The motor isn’t as powerful as the V15, but there are plenty of other bells and whistles. This is a lighter model than the V15 that ships with two cleaner heads, with a battery that gets 40 minutes of use per charge.

Finally, Amazon is selling the Dyson Airwrap for $480, instead of the typical asking price of $600. This hair styler features a powerful motor that constantly moves air around, so there’s a reduced risk of accidental follicle damage when compared to rival products. This set comes with several accessories, including two different barrels, a smoothing brush, a round brush, a protective case and more.

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

Solo Stove’s gas-powered Pi Prime pizza oven is on sale for $300 for Cyber Monday, which is a discount of $50. The Pi Prime is the company’s second pizza oven and, unlike the original Pi, is completely self-contained with a built-in gas burner. This makes it a great option for those new to the world of pizza slinging, as there are fewer pieces to fiddle with. 

The temperature maxes out at 950 degrees Fahrenheit, but the front-facing control dial lets you quickly lower this temperature when needed. It’s a thin line, after all, between a pleasantly charred crust and something resembling the surface of Mercury.

The round shape recalls the company’s well-regarded fire pits and there’s plenty of room to maneuver and cook a 12-inch pizza, in addition to other items. Inside, there’s a two-piece cordierite pizza stone that can be easily removed for cleaning and transport. There’s also nothing stopping you from using the pizza stone in your home oven during the colder months (like now.)

Speaking of those colder months, the Pi Prime ships with a cover, so you don’t have to haul it inside at the first sign of snow. So what’s the downside? As previously mentioned, this is a gas-only stove, and propane costs money. This isn’t a huge deal if you only make pizzas once in a while, but could get frustrating if you’re working diligently to perfect recipes.

Elsewhere in Solo Stove's Cyber Monday deals, you can save on fire pit bundles and get free gifts with your purchase. Spend over $200 and you'll get a free Cinder, Titan or Torch with the codes FREECINDER, FREECAMPING and FREETORCH, respectively; spend over $400 and you can get a three-pack of Mesa torches with the code FREETORCH3; and if you really go all-out and spend more the $1,000, you can get the Pi Prime for free with the code FREEPRIME.

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

You can snag the well-regarded GoPro Hero 12 Black action camera bundle via Amazon for $350 instead of $450 as part of a larger Black Friday event, representing a savings of 22 percent. This deal includes the camera itself, a carrying case, an extra battery, a head strap and a handler stick.

This is the newest action camera by the company. We enjoyed the Hero 12 in our official review, calling attention to the improved battery life when compared to last-generation, allowing for 35 minutes of continuous use. Remember, this deal comes with two rechargeable batteries, so that adds up to around 70 minutes of near-continuous use. You’ll have to perform a quick swap, but you should be able to get right back into the action.

The Hero 12 also features Bluetooth audio streaming, so you can wear wireless earbuds while hosting a vlog or when creating a live commentary video. The latency here is basically imperceptible and this technology also allows you to control the camera from afar via voice commands. In other words, you won’t have to edit out those clumsy seconds when you walk toward the camera to turn it off.

The camera includes a larger image sensor when compared to the Hero 11, for slightly improved visual clarity. You can also experiment with different aspect ratios via the same footage and the camera offers a 8:7 mode across every setting. Otherwise, many of the advertised metrics remain static from the last-gen, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. This deal is also available straight from the manufacturer, if Amazon isn’t your bag.

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

Logitech is selling a number of PC and gaming accessories at a steep discount as part of a larger Amazon Black Friday sale. The impacted products include the well-regarded Signature M650 Wireless Mouse and the G230 Wired Gaming Mouse, among other items. All told, you’ll find discounts on mice, keyboards, lights, headphones and chargers.

The Signature M650 is the perfect mouse for most people, with a lightweight form factor and a number of ergonomic enhancements. There are both right or left-hand options, which change the placement of the customizable side buttons, and each mouse boasts the company’s proprietary SmartWheel scrolling technology. This gives you more precision as you scroll line by line.

It’s wireless via Bluetooth or a Logi Bolt receiver and the batteries last two years. There are reasons, after all, why this mouse made our list of the best stocking stuffers. About the only downside here is that the mouse requires AA batteries, but with the two-year battery life, that’s not the biggest deal in the world.

This is part of a larger Logitech PC accessory sale that offers discounts on all kinds of products, including the company’s POP wireless mechanical keyboards and the G Litra Beam Premium LED computer light, which is $85 instead of $100. There’s also a sitewide sale on Logitech G gaming accessories, like the G203 wired gaming mouse for just $20 instead of $40. Black Friday, you dastardly dog.

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

Solo Stove’s gas-powered Pi Prime pizza oven is on sale for $300 for Black Friday, which is a discount of $50. You also get a free stainless steel pizza peel with this deal, for those times when you don’t want your bare hands anywhere near a contained flame that reaches 950 degrees Fahrenheit. That should be all of the times. 

The Pi Prime is the company’s second pizza oven and, unlike the original Pi, is completely self-contained, with a built-in gas burner. This makes it a great option for those new to the world of pizza slinging, as there are fewer pieces to fiddle with. As mentioned above, the temperature maxes out at 950 degrees Fahrenheit, but the front-facing control dial lets you quickly lower this temperature when needed. It’s a thin line, after all, between a pleasantly charred crust and something resembling the surface of Mercury.

The round shape recalls the company’s well-regarded fire pits and there’s plenty of room to maneuver and cook a 12-inch pizza, in addition to other items. Inside, there’s a two-piece cordierite pizza stone that can be easily removed for cleaning and transport. There’s also nothing stopping you from using the pizza stone in your home oven during the colder months (like now.)

Speaking of those colder months, the Pi Prime ships with a cover, so you don’t have to haul it inside at the first sign of snow. So what’s the downside? As previously mentioned, this is a gas-only stove, and propane costs money. This isn’t a huge deal if you only make pizzas once in a while, but could get frustrating if you’re working diligently to perfect recipes.

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

Amazon and Black Friday go together like peanut butter and heavily discounted jelly. The web retail giant unveiled a spate of deals for the day, including an extremely attractive offer on its Fire HD 10 tablet. You can snag one for 43 percent off, dropping the price down to $80. This is a record-low for Amazon’s mid-level device.

You aren’t even getting an older tablet here, as the deal’s for the company’s latest and greatest 2023 model. To that end, you get a 10.1-inch full HD screen, an octa-core 2 GHz processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. Not bad for $80, right? This isn’t the fanciest tablet on the block, but it gets the job done for browsing the web, checking social media and, of course, watching streaming apps. It even comes with a dashboard for controlling smart home devices with taps instead of voice commands.

This deal is for the Fire HD 10 with “lockscreen ads”, so you’ll be shown personalized ads on the screensaver in sleep mode. I’ve found this ad delivery method to be relatively unobtrusive, all things considered. There is one serious caveat, however, that impacts most Amazon tablets. You won’t have access to the Google Play Store, so the app selection is limited. However, all the big ones are still available.

There are other Amazon-branded tablets available with steep discounts as part of this larger Black Friday event. You can get the company’s top-of-the-line Fire 11 Max tablet for $150 instead of $230. This tablet boasts 64GB of storage with an SD slot for more, 4GB of RAM, an octa-core processor and a durable aluminum design. The diminutive Fire HD 8 is also on sale for $60 instead of $100.

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

Black Friday is a time of mystery, and a time to empty your bank account. To that end, the internet’s chock full of deals on Google Nest products today, available via Amazon and Target. If you’ve been on the fence regarding some of these devices, like the well-regarded Google Nest Hub smart home controller/display, now could be your time to shine.

These deals extend beyond the smart display. You can also snag the Google Nest Learning Thermostat or the company’s mesh router system, among several other items. Here are all of the various Google Nest gadgets on sale today, so you can avoid the big box retail stores and any chance of being trampled by excited shoppers.

Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen)

Target’s selling the Google Nest Hub smart display for just $50, which is half off the MSRP and one heck of a deal. We admired this device in our review, calling out the louder audio when compared to its predecessor and the simple, pleasant visual aesthetic. We also enjoyed the snappy Google Assistant integration and the embedded motion sensor that not only helps with sleep tracking, but allows you to move your hands in the air to dismiss an alarm.

We even thought this was a good deal at its original price, so it’s an extra-good deal now. There’s a reason, after all, this made our list of the best smart displays. About the only downside for this product is one that accompanies just about every rival device. The sleep tracking is accurate, to a degree, but the data isn’t very insightful. Still, it’s a fantastic option as a smart home controller.

Google Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd Gen)

The biggest draw with this thermostat is right in the name. It features algorithms that learn based on user inputs. Once you make your own schedules a couple of times, the system will begin to automate the task. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time spent standing in front of a small circle attached to the wall or fiddling with an app. It’s now available for $180 instead of $250 via Amazon, a savings of nearly 30 percent.

As for the features, this is a full-fledged Nest thermostat. It’ll turn the system off when you leave the home, boasts both Google Assistant and Alexa integration for voice controls and promises significant energy savings over time. To that end, it’s Energy Star certified. This has to be wired into your system, however, which is worth considering.

Google Nest Thermostat (2020 release)

If learning algorithms aren’t your thing, you can save even more money by choosing the standard Google Nest Thermostat. This is the latest release from 2020 and Amazon has it on sale for $90 instead of $130, which is a savings of over 30 percent. This device won’t automatically change the temperature, but is Energy Star certified.

It’s also feature-rich, with Wi-Fi connectivity so it doesn’t have to get wired into the system. However, some homes will require a C wire connection to control every aspect of the HVAC unit. Once connected, you can control it via a smartphone app, Google Assistant or even Alexa. There’s also a handy HVAC monitoring system that alerts you to any issues.

Google Nest WiFi Pro Mesh Router (3-pack)

If you want to fill up your home with sweet, sweet internet, a mesh router system is the way to do it. For Black Friday, you can get a Google Nest WiFi Pro 3-pack for $280 instead of $400, a savings of 30 percent. All told, you get nearly 7,000 square feet of coverage with this setup, so even that dank corner of the basement should allow for a robust connection.

We enjoyed this system in our official review, calling out the simple user interface, which is perfect for newbies, and the low price when compared to rival mesh systems. That last point just got a lot better with this deal. It lacks some power, however, when compared to some of the pricier mesh routers out there, but does offer smart home integration.

Google Indoor Nest Security Cam (2nd Gen)

Looking for a simple, yet effective, indoor security camera? This is a good option that has been made even more attractive due to a nice Black Friday discount. It costs $70 instead of $100, which is a savings of 30 percent. This is the latest model of Nest’s entry-level security camera. It’s wired, which could be a dealbreaker to some, and records video at 1080p.

However, it has built-in algorithms that recognize people when compared to animals and vehicles, sending the appropriate alerts through the Google Home app when necessary. The camera boasts night vision technology and the ability to store up to one hour of recorded events should the WiFi go out. You can also watch a live feed via the web, which is always nice.

Google Nest Doorbell Camera (2nd Gen)

This is likely the most popular product in the company’s lineup. Amazon’s selling the latest Google Nest Doorbell Camera for $130 instead of $180, which is a savings of, surprise, nearly 30 percent. This is the wired version, which makes for a more intensive installation process but a more reliable end result. Just like the indoor security camera, this model boasts the same algorithms that differentiate people from animals, packages and vehicles, and there’s no subscription required to use the device.

As for features, the wired Nest Doorbell boasts a 140-degree field of view with a 3:4 aspect ratio, Google Assistant and Alexa integration and the ability to use household speakers as a doorbell chime for quicker alert times.

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

The latest and greatest Apple Watch Series 9 is on sale for $329 as part of a larger Black Friday event over at Amazon. This is a record-low for the smartwatch, which isn’t surprising as it just launched back in September. The deal’s for the 41mm model and is available with multiple band and watch colors.

We loved Apple’s newest smartwatch in our official review, calling out the gesture-based control system that lets you perform many tasks without ever having to swipe on the screen. To that end, the Series 9 has on-board Siri functionality, so requests don’t have to head to your phone before being processed. This drastically improves the speed when using the voice assistant.

Of course, this is an Apple watch so iPhone integration is best-in-class, thanks to the app and the inclusion of a second-generation ultra-wideband (UWB) chipset. You can, for instance, easily use the watch to locate your phone when it has scuttled behind the couch. The iPhone and Apple Watch are meant to go together, like really expensive peanut butter and jelly.

The health and fitness tracking and related sensors are also excellent, which is a primary reason why many people pick up one of these watches. However, the Series 9 lacks blood oxygen and temperature sensors, which may be a dealbreaker for some. There’s also the battery life, which depletes after around 18 hours. This is great for a full day of use, except for those who want to indulge in the watch’s sleep tracking features. In other words, you’ll have to charge it before you go to sleep. Despite those nitpicks, this is the best Apple watch you can buy in 2023.

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