Apple's flagship AirPods Max wireless headphones have much to offer like excellent audio quality, ANC and spatial audio support — but they're definitely not cheap at $549. Now, you can grab a pair in green, pink, silver and sky blue for just $429. That's 22 percent off and tied with the lowest price we've seen to date.

The AirPods Max scored a solid 84 in our Engadget review and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.

Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we've tried with bass that's accurate and not overpowering. Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what's going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices.

The AirPods Max are ideal if you're in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There's no question that they're very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon's latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you've been eyeing a pair.

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

Sony has joined forces with Tencent to purchase a 30.34 percent share of FromSoftware, the developer behind titles like Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. Tencent's Sixjoy Hong Kong division will own 16.25 percent of FromSoftware's shares, Sony will take a 14.09 percent interest and parent Kadokawa Group will remain the largest shareholder with a 69.66 percent stake. Tencent already has an investment in Kadokawa from last year.

FromSoftware might not be a developer that's on the tip of your tongue, but it has an impressive catalog. Elden Ring has been the top selling game of 2022 to date, with sales of 12 million copies in the first 18 days alone. Along with Bloodborne and the Dark Souls franchise, it has also produced the PSVR mystery adventure Déraciné and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. 

The company plans to use the funds raised (36.4 billion yen or $262 million) to strengthen its relationship with Sony, create new IP and expand its ability to publish globally. Elden Ring is the company's biggest hit to date, but it's published outside of Japan by Bandai Namco. Earlier this year, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco called Elden Ring the start of a "new franchise" and announced efforts to "expand the brand beyond the game itself and into everyone's daily life." 

While Microsoft has grabbed most of the headlines with its (still-pending) Activision Blizzard acquisition, Sony has been snapping up studios as well. It recently completed a $3.6 billion deal to buy Halo and Destiny developer Bungie Games, along with God of War co-development studio Valkyrie and Jade Raymond's Haven Studios. Considering the success of Elden Ring, its stake in FromSoftware seems like a relative bargain. 

Cruise ship giant Royal Caribbean has announced that it will equip its fleet with SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellite internet service. The dishes are designed to provide a "better onboard experience for guests and crews fleetwide," and will be installed on its Royal Caribbean International, Silversea Cruises and Celebrity Cruises ships. 

Earlier this year, SpaceX unveiled Starlink Maritime for boats at a cost of $5,000 per month, on top of a hardware investment of $10,000. In comparison, the standard residential Starlink setup's hardware costs only $599, while the service costs $110 a month for 50 to 250 Mbps speeds (Starlink also offers a premium service that costs $500 per month with up to 500Mbps speeds). The Maritime service will deliver up to 350 Mbps download speeds.

The company tested the service earlier this year, offering packages called "Voom Surf" and "Voom Surf & Stream," according to Royal Caribbean Blog. That indicates that the service will likely be a paid upgrade, something that's usually not cheap on cruise ships. The testers saw respectable upload and download speeds and said they were able to watch YouTube and Netflix videos "with no lag or buffering." 

Those speeds may change when the service is fully commercialized, though, depending on how popular it is and how many Starlink dishes Royal Caribbean uses on each ship. Depending on the line, the company's boats can carry anywhere from several hundred to nearly 7,000 passengers. 

The cruise industry has struggled post-pandemic due to staffing, inflation and other issues. Starlink will be a good marketing point for Royal Caribbean, however, as cruise ships have notoriously poor internet service. Starlink, meanwhile, is aggressively pursuing the travel industry, announcing partnerships with Hawaiian Airlines and JSC, while also recently launching a Starlink service for RVs and campers. 

Elon Musk has filed an updated notice to kill his $44 billion Twitter acquisition by citing whistleblower Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former head of security. In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk alleged that Twitter "has not complied with its contractual obligations" due to the "extreme, egregious deficiencies" alleged by Zatko.

Musk filed his initial bid to terminate the acquisition agreement on July 12th because of "false and misleading representations" made by Twitter, alleging that it "dramatically" understated the number of spam and fake accounts. Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to honor his agreement, saying that he "apparently believes that he... is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk way." Musk filed a countersuit later that month. 

With the updated filing, Musk's lawyers said that Zatko has revealed "additional and distinct bases to terminate the merger agreement," and that Twitter was in "material noncompliance" with its FTC obligations. Specifically, they said that Twitter is "uniquely vulnerable to systemic disruption resulting from data center failures or malicious actors," something the company "ignored and sought to obfuscate." 

Yesterday, Musk subpoenaed Zatko for a deposition on September 9th, requesting materials related to how Zatko’s tenure at Twitter ended and what stock, if any, he owns in the company. It also requested documents that may indicate any illegal activity by Twitter. Twitter and its CEO Parago Agrawal have disputed Zatko's assertions, laid out in a lengthy whistleblower complaint against the company. 

A court case between Musk and Twitter is set to go to trial in October. On top of that, US Senate and Congressional committee leaders announced that were investigating Zatko's claims, saying they "raise serious concerns" about the company's security and other issues. 

Sony has started to sell a new PlayStation 5 model that may not necessarily improve performance, but will be lighter and possibly easier to produce, Press Start has reported. The CFI-1200A/B digital/disc models have started to appear in Australia with a significant loss in weight. 

According to packaging information, the digital version is 200 grams lighter and the disc version weighs 300 grams less than last year's models, so the latter is roughly the same weight as the digital model was at launch. Whether that loss is coming from changes in the case design or internal components is not yet known, though — we'll have to wait for a teardown to confirm that. However, last year's CFI-1102 mode was lighter mostly due to a smaller heatsink.

The weight reduction could allow Sony to reduce production costs and possibly build consoles more quickly. Last week, Sony announced that it was raising PlayStation 5 pricing around the world but not in the US (€50 more than the original launch prices in Europe), due to "challenging economic conditions." It said last year that it's no longer selling the PS5 at a loss and was actually making money on the disc-based version. 

Earlier this month, Logitech announced that it was working on a handheld gaming device with Tencent that would "support multiple cloud gaming services" including NVIDIA's GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Now, it looks like we're getting our first look at the device thanks to prolific leaker Evan Blass. We also know that it should be called the G Gaming Handheld as Logitech has listed that name on a recently published landing page. 

It looks just like many other gaming handhelds, with left and right joysticks, a direction pad, ABXY buttons, a home button and shoulder pads, along with a custom "G" button. Another image also shows what looks like the home screen, with icons for Google's Play Store, Xbox, GeForce Now, Steam, Chrome and YouTube. We also see icons for user profile, messages, settings and power.  

You could compare the G Gaming Handheld to a Steam Deck or even Nintendo's Switch Lite in terms of the basic design. The cloud gaming aspect means it's likely to have similar capabilities to a smartphone, albeit with a more convenient form factor and gaming-centric UI. As such, it'll compete not just with other handhelds but numerous controllers designed for smartphones like Razer's Kishi V2, the 8bitDo Pro 2 and SteelSeries Stratus+ — so it's level of success will depend strongly on the price. 

There's no word yet on when it'll arrive, but as mentioned, Logitech now has a landing page in place, so you can submit your email address to get more details. 

Google's Pixel 6a has hit a new low price after going on sale just a week ago. You can now pick one up for $370 in "charcoal" or "sage" colors for a savings of $79 off the regular price (19 percent off) — $20 cheaper than the previous deal. That's a great price on an already affordable, nearly new handset that offers a lot of bang for the buck. 

The Pixel 6a is a top mid-range smartphone pick, offering the same Tensor chip as the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, while giving you the purest Android experience possible. It offers excellent camera quality for the price, with the two 12-megapixel rear cameras and 8-MP front sensor delivering bright, colorful pictures and video. It also comes with a very distinctive design, along with a sharp 6.1-inch screen, long-lasting battery and more. 

You don't get everything available in the flagships, of course. The 60Hz refresh rate isn't as smooth as the higher-end Pixels or Samsung's A53. Storage is limited to 128GB, there's no wireless charging and Google dropped the headphone jack we loved on the Pixel 5a — so you'll need a dongle for wired audio. Still, there aren't many other phones that can match it in this price range, particularly considering the discount.

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

Sony is making a push into mobile gaming with the launch of "PlayStation Studios Mobile" and acquisition of Savage Game Studios, it announced. Sony said the new studio will be "providing more ways for more people to engage with our content, and striving to reach new audiences unfamiliar with PlayStation and our games."

Savage Game Studio doesn't appear to have produced any games yet, but its co-founders had a hand in mobile franchises like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds. It will join PlayStation Studios Mobile, which will operate separately from its console division and create "new experiences" based on PlayStation IP and franchises. Savage is also currently working on a "new unannounced triple-A mobile live service action game," though it didn't offer any more details. 

As a console maker first and foremost, Sony has a delicate balancing act with mobile, much as it did when it jumped into PC gaming with titles like Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. To that end, it was sure to note that any efforts beyond console "in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community." 

At the same time, Sony no doubt felt pressure to enter the very lucrative mobile space. Michail Katkoff, CEO and Co-founder of Savage Game Studios, said that Sony's PlayStation Studios "respects our vision for how we can best operate and succeed," and will let them "tap into PlayStation’s amazing catalog of IP." In that sense, Sony might take the same course Nintendo did when it brought Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem and other franchises to mobile. 

Apple may again be looking to nail down "Reality" trademarks ahead of the launch of its much-anticipated AR/VR headset, Bloomberg has reported. Applications were filed for the names "Reality One," "Reality Pro" and "Reality Processor" in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. While Apple didn't directly request the trademarks, they were filed by law firms that it has previously used to claim brand names. 

Clues emerged in February that Apple may be using "Reality" branding for its headsets, when the term was spotted in GitHub open source code and App Store upload logs. Then in May, trademark applications were spotted for "realityOS" at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Those were filed by a company called Realityo Systems, but evidence suggests that's a shell company created by Apple to cover its tracks.

With realityOS as a potential name for the operating system, Reality One and Reality Pro could be naming options for the actual headsets. "Reality Processor” could be an M2-based chip designed for the headset that reportedly includes 16 gigabytes of memory, along with graphics technology designed for high-resolution VR and AR images.

There are similar clues with the new filings. The three "Reality" trademarks were filed by a shell company called Immersive Health Solutions LLC incorporate in February, according to Bloomberg. That was registered by another shell corporation (Corporation Trust Co.) often used for filings by firms who want to avoid publicity. Trademarks filed in other countries like New Zealand, meanwhile, were made by law firms that Apple has used in the past. 

Apple's development of AR/VR headsets has been rumored for years, after it purchased VR company VRvana in 2017. The most recent rumor from Bloomberg suggests that the headset will be delayed until 2023 . It may include VR versions of apps like Maps and FaceTime along with collaboration features that will help it compete with Meta. It may also let users watch movies and other content, while offering health-related functions. 

If you're in the market for an Echo Show 8 but missed Amazon's Prime Day sales, don't despair. Right now, you can grab the latest second-generation model for $85, a substantial 35 percent discount ($45 off) and just $10 than the record low price. At the same time, the Echo Show 5 is still on sale for $40, for a savings of 53 percent 

The second-generation Show 8 earned an Engadget score of 87, thanks to its 8-inch 1,280 x 800 touchscreen, minimalist design and stellar sound quality. It differs from the first-generation device in several ways, particularly with the updated 13-megapixel camera that digitally pans and zooms to keep you in frame when you're doing video chats on apps like Zoom. It's a particularly nice feature if you frequently use your smart display as a stationary video-chatting device. It also works great as a photo frame, and Amazon's updated home screen lets you see multiple items at once like the weather and sports.

If you need something smaller to put on a bedside table, for instance, the Show 5 might be a better option. It includes a sunrise alarm feature, allowing the display to slowly brighten as a way to wake you gently during dark winter mornings. It also comes with all the usual features found on Amazon Echo devices, including Alexa voice control and Ring integration. Best off, it's available for just $40, a substantial $45 off the usual $85 price. 

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