With each passing year, the phrase "Black Friday" becomes more of a misnomer. What was once a day of post-Thanksgiving special offers has become a month of sales promotions from retailers across the web. It's happening again in 2023: Target and Best Buy are already advertising their early Black Friday deals; Amazon is price matching many of those discounts and has its own "Holiday Deals" landing page; and Walmart says it'll kick off its first wave of Black Friday deals on November 8. Many other shops and manufacturers have (or will soon have) early deals as well.

This barrage of sales promos can be aggravating, but it also presents a good opportunity to get your holiday shopping done at something closer to your own pace. To help, we've rounded up the best early Black Friday deals we can find below. There's always a chance we get bigger discounts on November 24, but we're already seeing all-time lows on LG's A2 OLED TV, PS5 bundles, the 9th-gen iPad and other gadgets we like. We'll be updating our list regularly in the lead-up to Black Friday, so check back if there's anything else you've had your eye on. 

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd gen)

The latest version of Apple's AirPods Pro is back on sale for $200 at Amazon and Target. That's about $10 more than their record-low price and $50 off their usual going rate. The AirPods Pro are the "best for iOS" pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide thanks to their easy pairing and deep integration with Apple devices. Effective active noise cancellation (ANC), a superb transparency mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help as well, as does a new "adaptive audio" mode that can adjust the earphones' noise control settings based on your surroundings. That said, their battery life is just average at six-ish hours per charge, and you really have to use an iPhone to get anything out of them. We gave the Lightning-based version of the second-generation AirPods Pro a review score of 88 last year; this new iteration is almost identical, only it comes with a USB-C charging case and has a higher IP54 dust-resistance rating.

Apple iPad (9th-gen)

Apple's 9th-gen iPad is down to $249 at Amazon, Walmart and Target, which is a deal we've seen for much of the past month but still matches the tablet's lowest-ever price. This is the budget pick in our iPad buying guide, and it earned a review score of 86 in 2021. It's the last iPad to use Apple's old design language, so it has thick bezels, a Lightning port, a Home button and a non-laminated display. This variant also comes with a paltry 64GB of storage. At this price, though, it's still hard to do better if all you want is a large screen for streaming video, playing games and browsing the web. Its 10.2-inch display remains a step up from cheaper slates, its A13 Bionic chip is plenty fast for casual media consumption and its battery still lasts around 10 hours per charge. Most importantly, it's the cheapest route into Apple's huge app library, customer support and years of software updates.

If you want a more modern design, the iPad Air is the top pick in our guide, and it's now on sale for $500. Be warned, though: A recent Bloomberg report says that Apple plans to launch new tablets in the spring. If you don't need an iPad right away, it's probably worth waiting.

Apple AirPods (2nd gen)

Starting on November 8, Walmart has the second-gen AirPods for only $69 — a new record low and the cheapest we’ve ever seen. Walmart+ members get early access to Walmart’s Black Friday deals, with sales being open to everyone else a few hours later. These AirPods are a bit old at this point, but at this Black Friday price, they’re a great deal for anyone who just wants a pair of earbuds that will work seamlessly with their iPhone, iPad or MacBook.

Samsung T9 SSD

The latest Samsung T9 portable SSD is on sale for $130 right now for a 1TB drive, which is the best price it’s been since it came out last month. You can snag these Black Friday deals from Amazon or Samsung direct, and you’ll save $40 if you spring for the 2TB version or $100 on the 4TB model. The T9 is the newest iteration of Samsung’s popular portable drive that we’ve long been fans of, and it supports read and write speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s. It also has dynamic thermal guard to prevent overheating, plus it comes with a USB-C to C and USB-C to A cords so you can use it with a variety of devices.

PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller

Amazon has discounted a bunch of PlayStation DualSense controllers ahead of Black Friday, including many of the colorways that typically go for $75. You can pick up Cosmic Red, Starlight Blue, Nova Pink and other models for $50 each, which is just about a record-low price. These controllers work with the PS5 as well as PC, and they sport adaptive L2 and R2 triggers, haptic feedback and a built-in mic array.

PS5 + Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 bundle

If you or someone you love hasn’t gotten their hands on a PS5 yet and is itching to do so, this bundle with the console and the new Spider-Man 2 game is down to its cheapest price yet — $500. The PS5 remains one of the best gaming consoles you can get right now, and when we reviewed the new Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we found it to be even better than its predecessor. In it, you can swap between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and it includes expanded combat mechanics.

Surfshark VPN

Surfshark’s Black Friday deal knocks up to 86 percent off two-year plans, and you’ll get a few extra months of service for free depending on the plan you select. We consider Surfshark to be one of the best VPN services available right now, particularly if you want a solid VPN at an affordable price. We believe the mid-tier plan, Surfshark One, will be the best for most people and a two-year plan is down to $2.69 per month, with an additional four months of services thrown in for free.

Samsung M80C Smart Monitor

Samsung’s Smart Monitor M80C is $300 off and down to $400 right now. You’ll see a $200 discount on the product page, but a clippable coupon will take the extra $100 off at checkout. The selling point for this display, and really any Samsung Smart Monitor, is that it pulls triple duty as an external display, a smart TV and an IoT hub. In addition to connecting it to your computer, you can use it standalone as a TV thanks to the built-in TV operating system and included remote, and the embedded SmartThings hub lets you directly connect things like smart lights and other gear to the display.

Motorola razr+

The Moto razr+ is 30 percent off and down to a record low of $700. It earned a spot in our best foldable phones guides thanks to handy exterior display that’s actually easier to use than that on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and its ability to fold in half and get super compact and pocket-friendly. It’s cameras are not on par with those on Samsung’s foldables, but it’s a generally solid flip phone with a ton of personality.

Samsung 85-inch The Frame smart TV

The 85-inch Samsung The Frame smart TV is 23 percent off and down to a new record low of $3,300 at both Amazon and Samsung direct. The Frame has been super popular thanks to its design, which mimics framed artwork when not in use. It has a matte, anti-reflective display and an included slim wall mount so you can get the true “artwork” effect when you hang it on the wall. As an actual TV, it supports 4K content and Quantum Dot technology, plus it runs on Samsung’s Tizen TV operating system.

Logitech G203 gaming mouse

Amazon is having a big sale on Logitech gaming accessories and peripherals, including gaming headsets, mice, keyboards and more. Of note is the Logitech G203 Lightsync wired gaming mouse, which is half off and down to only $20. It’s one of our favorite gaming mice thanks in no small part to its affordable price, but it’s also fairly lightweight and sturdily built with an ambidextrous design that will work for right- and left-handed users. Also discounted is the Logitech G733 Lightspeed wireless gaming headset, which is 20 percent off and down to $120. It has an attractive design with subtle LED lighting and a stretch band, and it has a solid wireless connection with audio to match.

Solo Stove early Black Friday deal

Solo Stove’s Black Friday deals have knocked up to $245 off fire pit bundles, up to $100 off fire pits by themselves and even more. A standout is the Ranger Backyard Bundle 2, which is $145 off and down to $320. It includes the company’s most compact fire pit along with its accompanying shield, stand, lid and shelter. Everything you’d need for an easy setup right out of the box is included in this bundle, and the 2.0-version of the Ranger includes a removable base plate and ash pan, both of which make the fire pit much easier to clean.

ProtonVPN early Black Friday deal

Our favorite VPN service, ProtonVPN, is having a rare sale for Black Friday that brings a monthly subscription down to only $4 for a total of 30 months. That means you’ll pay $120 for two and a half years of access, which is a pretty good deal. ProtonVPN passed our tests with high marks, but what made it stand out among other VPN security services was its independently audited no-logs policy, and the fact that the company has proven they don't comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. If you want to jump in head-first with Proton services, the company has discounted Proton Unlimited, which includes access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, to just under $9 per month for the first year.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

Amazon's latest Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Stick 4K Max have received their first discounts since they arrived in September. The former is $20 off at $30, while the latter is $15 off at $45. Between the two, the Max has a slightly faster processor clocked at 2.0GHz (instead of 1.7GHz), 16GB of internal storage (instead of 8GB) and support for the Wi-Fi 6E (instead of just Wi-Fi 6). It also includes Amazon's "Ambient Experience" mode, which displays artwork and widgets when the streamer is idle. That said, both dongles should be quick to load content. Both support the requisite streaming apps, Dolby Atmos and all the major HDR formats as well.

The downsides are the familiar ones with Fire TV devices: The UI is saddled with ads and not shy about nudging you toward Amazon services like Prime Video and Freevee. But if you often use those apps (or Alexa) and just want a competent 4K streamer for cheap, that may not be an issue. 

On the higher end of the Fire TV lineup, the Fire TV Cube is also on sale for $110. That ties the all-time low for the streaming box/Alexa speaker hybrid. You can also pair the Fire TV Stick 4K Max with Blink's 1080p Video Doorbell for $65 total, though that offer is only available for Prime members and is only scheduled to run through November 3.

Google Nest Hub

If you're partial to the Google Assistant, Google's Nest Hub is also on sale for $60 at Target, B&H, Best Buy, Google's online store and others. That's $20 higher than its all-time low but still $40 off Google's list price. The Nest Hub is the top overall pick in our smart display buying guide, and we gave it a review score of 89 back in 2021. It has a 7-inch screen, so it's a bit bigger than the Echo Show 5 but should still be compact enough to fit neatly in a bedroom or small office. While it lacks a built-in camera, that may be a selling point for those who especially sensitive to their privacy (though no smart display is truly privacy-conscious). 

Ultimately, whether it's worth getting a Nest Hub or Echo Show depends on what services you use: If you own a bunch of Nest devices and depend on apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Photos, Google's display will make sense. If you want a larger model with a webcam and stronger speakers, the 10-inch Nest Hub Max is also on sale for $129. That's a $100 discount. 

LG A2 OLED TV

We expect to see many more TV deals as we get closer to Black Friday, but for now one standout is LG's 48-inch A2 OLED TV on sale for a new low of $550 at Best Buy. This is an entry-level model from 2022, so it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, lacks HDMI 2.1 ports and doesn't support other gaming-friendly features like VRR. That said, it's still an OLED TV, so it delivers deep contrast, bold colors, wide viewing angles and low input lag. At this price, it should be a nice step-up option for smaller or secondary rooms. Just note that it can't get as bright as higher-end OLED sets, so it's best situated away from direct sunlight. 

Apple MacBook Air (15-inch)

A configuration of Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage is down to $1,449 at Best Buy. That's $250 less than Apple's MSRP. If you can live with less memory, a version with 8GB of RAM is on sale for $1,250 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. Either way, the MacBook Air is the top pick in our laptop buying guide, as it has just about everything we want from a mainstream notebook: A premium design, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, a lovely display, long battery life, great speakers and solid performance. Compared to the 13-inch Air, this model has more powerful speakers alongside its larger screen. We gave it a score of 96 in our review this past June.

The MacBook Air's main downsides are that it only has two Thunderbolt ports and, as always, it's virtually impossible to upgrade after the fact. Plus, with the recent introduction of the new M3 chip, the countdown is on for a refresh. A recent Bloomberg report says that Apple plans to launch an M3-powered MacBook Air at some point in 2024, though that shouldn't make this current model obsolete if you need a new laptop right away. 

FAQs

When is Black Friday 2023?

Black Friday 2023 lands on November 24 this year, with Cyber Monday 2023 following up a few days later on November 27. However, the early deals have already begun. The entire month of November might as well be renamed Holiday Shopping Month as that’s when companies really start to get serious with their discounts.

What day is Black Friday 2023 at Walmart?

Walmart Black Friday deals will begin early this year on November 8. Walmart+ members will get a few hours of early access to Black Friday deals if they shop online on November 8, with access for everyone else starting later that day. Walmart will match its online Black Friday deals in stores starting November 10.

Will Amazon have a Black Friday sale in 2023?

Amazon will likely have a Black Friday sale in 2023. While the online retailer hasn’t made its deals known yet like Walmart has, Amazon will almost certainly have deals across all of the types of products it sells, including electronics. We anticipate seeing record-low prices on Amazon devices in particular, like Echo speakers, Fire TVs, Kindles and more. In years past, Amazon Black Friday deals have brought some of the best prices of the year on our favorite gadgets and gear, including headphones, tablets, smartwatches, robot vacuums and more.

What other retailers have Black Friday sales in 2023?

Most retailers have Black Friday sales, so you can expect to see Target, Best Buy, and others join Walmart and Amazon in discounting inventory to capitalize on holiday shopping interest. In the consumer electronics space, we expect most companies to have some sort of Black Friday promotion, so that means you will likely be able to get big-ticket items from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Sony, LG, Sonos and others for much cheaper prices.

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.

We may get official details about Grand Theft Auto VI very, very soon. Following a Bloomberg that said Rockstar Games would announce the next entry in the GTA franchise as early as this week, Rockstar confirmed it would release a trailer for the forthcoming game in early December, as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. It's one of the most anticipated games for the current crop of consoles, especially since the fifth main installment in the series — the second-best selling video game of all time, as Bloomberg notes — came out way back in 2013. 

While Rockstar has yet to launch the title, some fans may have already gotten a glimpse of early-days gameplay footage due to a leak that a hacker uploaded online in 2022. It contained 90 seconds of gameplay from a GTA VI test build, showing one of the two playable protagonists, a female character named Lucia, robbing a store. Another clip showed the other playable character riding the "Vice City Metro," indicating that its story takes place in Rockstar's fictionalized version of Miami. The developer later confirmed the contents of the leak and said that the game's creation would continue "as planned."

Rockstar may reveal GTA VI's release period alongside the trailer next month, but its parent company Take-Two previously hinted that it's coming out sometime in 2024. 

Update, November 8, 2023, 8:15AM ET: This story has been updated to note that Rockstar has confirmed it'll release a trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto game in December.

We may get official details about Grand Theft Auto VI very, very soon, if Bloomberg's report turns out to be true. Rockstar Games plans to announce the next entry in the GTA franchise as early as this week, according to the news organization. Plus, Rockstar is reportedly publishing a trailer for the game next month as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. It's one of the most anticipated games for the current crop of consoles, especially since the fifth main installment in the series — the second-best selling video game of all time, as Bloomberg notes — came out way back in 2013. 

While Rockstar has yet to launch the title, some fans may have already gotten a glimpse of early-days gameplay footage due to a leak that a hacker uploaded online in 2022. It contained 90 seconds of gameplay from a GTA VI test build, showing one of the two playable protagonists, a female character named Lucia, robbing a store. Another clip showed the other playable character riding the "Vice City Metro," indicating that its story takes place in Rockstar's fictionalized version of Miami. The developer later confirmed the contents of the leak and said that the game's creation would continue "as planned."

Rockstar will likely reveal GTA VI's release period when it announces the game, but its parent company Take-Two previously hinted that it's coming out sometime in 2024. 

Sony has just unveiled its latest pro-oriented mirrorless camera, and we now know why it took them four years to develop it The Alpha A9 III is the first full-frame camera on the market with a global stacked sensor, a sort of holy grail in the photographic world. It allows for some wild specs, like 120fps shooting speeds with no blackout, up to a 1/80,000th of a second shutter speed and zero rolling shutter — albeit with a 24.6 megapixel resolution that may disappoint some.

The new tech opens up a lot of new possibilities for photographers. Without the constraints of a physical shutter (no, there isn't one), it can shoot full-resolution, blackout-free 14-bit RAW bursts at up to 120fps with a 1.6 second buffer (around 180 shots). Sony also installed the latest Bionz XR image processor and "high-density focal plane phase detection AF" that allows for real-time autofocus (AF) tracking. 

Sony

"A designated AI processing unit uses real-time recognition AF to recognize a wide variety of subjects with high precision," Sony explains in the press release. "By combining high-speed performance of up to 120 fps with highly accurate subject recognition performance, it is possible to easily photograph scenes and moments that cannot be seen with the naked eye." 

Sony

The global shutter also allows for shutter speeds of 1/80,000th of a second (1/16,000th during continuous shooting), ten times faster than most cameras. It also means that compatible flashes can be synced all the way up to the maximum shutter speed, rather than being limited to much lower speeds in electronic shutter mode — normally around 1/250th to 1/500th of a second. It also allows the shutter speed to be finely adjusted to eliminate flicker in video. And Sony is offering a 1-second pre-burst feature that can capture scenes before the shutter button is pressed, reducing the possibility of a missed shot. 

Sony

The stacked global shutter provides large benefits for video, as well. It's Sony's first camera to support 4K 120p video with no cropping and does so with no rolling shutter distortion (skewing), along with 4K 60p with 6K oversampling. It also offers 10-bit recording with S-Log3 capture in all video modes (including 4K 120p), along with S-Cinetone borrowed from the company's high-end Venice lineup that "makes human skin tones and subjects stand out beautifully," Sony said. It should be one of Sony's best-focusing cameras for video, as all the photo subject tracking features work in that mode, too.

It's got a long list of other features you'd expect on a high-end Sony camera, most notably in-body stabilization with up to 8 stops of shake reduction. The electronic viewfinder is Sony's best with 9.44 million dots, and It resolves the rear display tilt vs. flip debate by doing both of those things. And to help clear the buffer as quickly as possible, it supports fast CFexpress Type A cards on top of SD UHS II, much like the Alpha A1.

Sony

Other specs show an ISO range of 250-25600 (expandable to ISO 125–51200) with a minimum ISO that's a bit on the high side. That shouldn't bother photographers on sunny days, given the extremely fast shutter speeds, but video shooters will need ND filters to block some light. 

What will be a key for this camera is the image quality and low-light sensitivity, given that this is an all-new sensor and there's not a lot of data on global shutters. Sony didn't release any sample photos yet from what I've seen, so upcoming reviews of this model will be key. The Alpha A9 III goes on pre-order tomorrow for $6,000, with a vertical grip available for $400 — but won't arrive until next spring. 

Samsung's Smart Monitor M80C is one of the more unique monitors on the market, as it blends a 4K display for your computer with the features of a small smart TV and smart home hub. We've seen this latest model in the Smart Monitor series go on sale a few times since it arrived in June, but right now the 32-inch M80C is down to $400 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. We could always see a better deal on Black Friday, but for now this is the lowest price we've seen and roughly $200 below the display's average street price in recent months. Other stores like Best Buy, B&H and Samsung.com have the monitor for $100 more (though you can also get it for $400 at Best Buy if you subscribe to the retailer's My Best Buy Plus service). This deal applies to the white colorway. 

You'd buy a Samsung Smart Monitor for its versatility first and foremost. The display comes with a remote and runs on Samsung's Tizen OS, the same as you'd find on the company's smart TVs, so you can access streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and others without having to turn on your computer. You can also stream cloud games using the Xbox app and Nvidia GeForce Now or beam content directly from an iPhone via AirPlay. The Bixby and Alexa voice assistants are both built in and, since the monitor also works as a SmartThings hub, you can use it to control compatible smart home devices. There's a detachable webcam and two built-in speakers as well; neither are great, but they should work in a pinch. The whole thing is a relatively minor upgrade over last year's M80B monitor, though it now has a full-size HDMI port instead of micro-HDMI, plus two USB-A ports and a 65W USB-C port. 

That said, this is still a "jack of all trades, master of none" situation. The 4K resolution keeps it sharp, but it's limited to a basic 60Hz refresh rate and lacks local dimming. It's also a VA panel, which gives the monitor decent contrast but means the image will wash out when viewed from an angle. Other reviews suggest that the M80C can get decently bright, though you shouldn't expect an especially vibrant picture with HDR content. And while the monitor itself looks sharp and supports basic adjustments, this discounted model isn't VESA-mountable. 

All of this means the M80C is a bit of a niche device. If you don't care about the M80C's bonus features, you can find better values in our guides to the best monitors and gaming monitors. You can replicate many of those extra perks directly from a PC, after all. But if you want a monitor that doubles as a small TV for your home office, it should be a decent value at this price.

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 stream of new video games seemingly never ends but, for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you don’t feel like hunting through eBay and local game shops for old cartridges to add to your loved one’s collection, we’ve got some other gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life — from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork.

Oregon Trail Card Game

Analogue Pocket

Miyoo Mini+

8BitDo Retro Receiver for PS

RetroTink 5X-Pro

The 100 Greatest Retro Videogames

SEGA Genesis Mini 2

Nintendo Switch Online

8Bitdo Nintendo mechanical keyboard

Grid Studio artwork

Launchbox Premium

FAQs

Why do people buy retro games?

Because they’re fun! Or because video game companies have generally had a spotty record of preserving their own history — and (legally) saving art, even in a minuscule way, is important. Or because, deep down, collectors just want to stave off the ceaseless march of time and hang onto any way to relive their youth before it dissipates for good. Or because they’re jaded with modern game design and crave shorter, more distinct or altogether different experiences that aren’t being served by today’s market. Or because they want to flip the games they collect for a quick buck on eBay. Or because… well, you get the idea. — J.D.

Why is retro gaming so expensive?

To put it simply: supply and demand. Companies aren’t making old games and consoles any more, yet a growing number of gaming enthusiasts want them. And as retro game collecting has grown more popular, sellers have become more acutely aware of how high they can price their goods. Not every retro game costs an arm and a leg, however: Popular games from relatively recent consoles are usually more affordable than lesser-selling titles for older hardware, and you can still find a good bargain every now and then by digging through local yard sales, individual eBay sellers and the like. — J.D.

Are retro games a good investment?

It depends on how you define “good.” Is it a good idea to buy a bunch of old games in the hopes that their value will skyrocket and make you a tidy profit? No, there’s little rhyme or reason to determining exactly which games will shoot up in value and by how much. There are much safer ways to invest if all you care about are financial returns. Is it a good idea to drop a bunch of cash on 40-year-old video games if you have pressing financial responsibilities? Probably not! But hey, it’s your life. If collecting retro games makes you happy, and you can budget for them within reason, that’s a good thing. Have fun. — J.D.

What qualifies as a retro game?

There’s no set definition for when a video game becomes “retro.” Personally, I think of it as any game that’s at least 10 years old and was originally released on a console that’s two or more generations old (or, for PC games, during that generation). But many others would stretch the timeline back farther, and the growing advent of “live service” games has complicated things. For instance, Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013, while World of Warcraft arrived in 2004 — are those “retro games” when millions of people still play them today? Maybe not. With games from the ‘90s or earlier, though, the distinction is clearer. — J.D.

Xbox has teamed up with a startup called Inworld AI to create a generative AI toolset that developers can use to create games. It's a multi-year collaboration, which the Microsoft-owned brand says can "assist and empower creators in dialogue, story and quest design." Specifically, the partners are looking to develop an "AI design copilot" that can turn prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and other game elements in the same way people can type ideas into generative AI chatbots and get detailed scripts in return. They're also going to work on an "AI character runtime engine" that developers can plug into their actual games, allowing players to generate new stories, quests and dialogues as they go. 

On Inworld's website, it says its technology can "craft characters with distinct personalities and contextual awareness that stay in-world." Apparently, it can provide developers with a "fully integrated character engine for AI NPCs that goes beyond large language models (LLMs)." The image above was from the Droid Maker tool it developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm's storytelling studio ILM Immersive when it was accepted into the Disney Accelerator program. As Kotaku notes, though, the company's tech has yet to ship with a major game release, and it has mostly been used for mods. 

Developers are understandably wary about these upcoming tools. There are growing concerns among creatives about companies using their work to train generative AI without permission — a group of authors, including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin, even sued OpenAI, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright. And then, of course, there's the ever-present worry that developers could decide to lay off writers and designers to cut costs. 

Xbox believes, however, that these tools can "help make it easier for developers to realize their visions, try new things, push the boundaries of gaming today and experiment to improve gameplay, player connection and more." In the brand's announcement, Haiyan Zhang, General Manager of Gaming AI, said: "We will collaborate and innovate with game creators inside Xbox studios as well as third-party studios as we develop the tools that meet their needs and inspire new possibilities for future games."

Lucid's electric vehicles will be able to plug into over 15,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America starting in 2025. The automaker is the latest entry in the growing list of companies pledging to support the North American Charging Standard (NACS), also known as the Tesla charging standard. Lucid will give customers access to a NACS adapter for its current vehicles, which are equipped with the Combined Charging System (CCS), in 2025. The company intends to start building NACS ports into its EVs within the same year, as well, so that newer models no longer need to use adapters.

Ford was the first automaker to announce this year that it was going to give its customers access to Superchargers after the White House convinced Tesla to share its charging network with vehicles from other companies. In the months after that, Mercedes, Volvo, Polestar, Honda, Toyota (and Lexus), BMW, Hyundai and Subaru revealed that they will also give their customers access to NACS adapters and will ultimately incorporate the standard into their vehicles over the next two years. 

As TechCrunch notes, Lucid vehicles use a 900-volt charging architecture, which became the basis of a Lucid Air promotion that called it the "fastest charging electric vehicle ever." At the moment, most Superchargers are rated at around 500 volts, and that means charging times won't be as fast as the company promises. That said, Tesla has started deploying V4 Superchargers that offer higher voltage charging in the US, and supporting NACS could convince potential customers in the region to purchase Lucid EVs. As company CEO Peter Rawlinson said, "[a]dopting NACS is an important next step to providing [its] customers with expanded access to reliable and convenient charging solutions for their Lucid vehicles."

Mozilla recently reported that of the car brands it reviewed, all 25 failed its privacy tests. While all, in Mozilla's estimation, overreached in their policies around data collection and use, some even included caveats about obtaining highly invasive types of information, like your sexual history and genetic information. As it turns out, this isn’t just hypothetical: The technology in today’s cars has the ability to collect these kinds of personal information, and the fine print of user agreements describes how manufacturers get you to consent every time you put the keys in the ignition.

“These privacy policies are written in a way to ensure that whatever is happening in the car, if there's an inference that can be made, they are still ensuring that there is protection, and that they are compliant with different state laws,” Adonne Washington, policy council at the Future of Privacy Forum, said. The policies also account for technological advances that could happen while you own the car. Tools to do one thing could eventually do more, so manufacturers have to be mindful of that, according to Washington.

So, it makes sense that a car manufacturer would include every type of data imaginable in its privacy policy to cover the company legally if it stumbled into certain data collection territory. Nissan’s privacy policy, for example, covers broad and frankly irrelevant classes of user information, such as “sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information” under types of personal data collected. 

Companies claim ownership in advance, so that you can’t sue if they accidentally record you having sex in the backseat, for example. Nissan claimed in a statement that this is more or less why its privacy policy remains so broad. The company says it "does not knowingly collect or disclose customer information on sexual activity or sexual orientation," but its policy retains those clauses because "some U.S. state laws require us to account for inadvertent data we have or could infer but do not request or use." Some companies Engadget reached out to — like Ford, Stellantis and GM — affirmed their commitment, broadly, to consumer data privacy; Toyota, Kia and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond covering all imaginable legal bases, there simply isn't any way to know why these companies would want deeply personal information on their drivers, or what they'd do with it. And even if it's not what you would consider a “smart” car, any vehicle equipped with USB, Bluetooth or recording capabilities can capture a lot of data about the driver. And in much the same way a "dumb" tv is considerably harder to find these days, most consumers would be hard pressed to find a new vehicle option that doesn't include some level of onboard tech with the capacity to record their data. A study commissioned by Senator Ed Markey nearly a decade ago found all modern cars had some form of wireless technology included. Even the ranks of internet listicles claiming to contain low-tech cars for "technophobes" are riddled with dashboard touchscreens and infotainment systems.

“How it works in practice we don’t have as much insight into, as car companies, data companies, and advertising companies tend to hold those secrets more close to the vest,” Jen Caltrider, a researcher behind Mozilla’s car study, said. “We did our research by combing through privacy policies and public documentation where car companies talked about what they *can* do. It is much harder to tell what they are actually doing as they aren’t required to be as public about that.”

The unavailability of disconnected cars combined with the lack of transparency around driver data use means consumers have essentially no choice to trust their information is being used responsibly, or that at least some of the classes of data — like Nissan's decision to include "genetic information" — listed in these worrying privacy policies are purely related to hypothetical liability. The options are essentially: read every one of these policies and find the least draconian, buy a very old, likely fuel-inefficient car with no smart features whatsoever or simply do without a car, period. To that last point, only about eight percent of American households are carless, often not because they live in a walkable city with robust public transit, but because they cannot afford one.

This gets even more complicated when you think about how cars are shared. Rental cars change drivers all the time, or a minor in your household might borrow your car to learn how to drive. Unlike a cell phone, which is typically a single user device, cars don’t work like and vehicle manufacturers struggle to address that in their policies. And cars have the ability to collect information not just on drivers but their passengers.

If simply trusting manufacturers after they ask for the right to collect your genetic characteristics tests credulity, the burden of anyone other than a contract lawyer reading back a software license agreement to the folks in the backseat is beyond absurd. Ford’s privacy policy explicitly states that the owners of its vehicles “must inform others who drive the vehicle, and passengers who connect their mobile devices to the vehicle, about the information in this Notice.” That’s about 60 pages of information to relay, if you’re printing it directly from Ford’s website — just for the company and not even the specific car.

And these contracts tend to compound on one another. If that 60-page privacy policy seems insurmountable, well, there's also a terms of service and a separate policy regarding the use of Sirius XM (on a website with its own 'accept cookies' popover, with its own agreement.) In fairness to Ford, its privacy notice does allow drivers to opt out of certain data sharing and connected services, but that would require drivers to actually comb through the documentation. Mozilla found many other manufacturers offered no such means to avoid being tracked, and a complete opt-out is something which the Alliance for Automotive Innovation — a trade group representing nearly all car and truck makers in the US, including Ford — has actively resisted. To top things off, academics, legal scholars and even one cheeky anti-spyware company have repeatedly shown consumers almost universally do not read these kinds of contracts anyway. 

The burden of these agreements doesn't end with their presumptive data collection, or the onus to relay them to every person riding in or borrowing your car. The data held in-vehicle and manufacturer's servers becomes yet another hurdle for drivers should they opt to sell the thing down the line. According to Privacy4Cars founder Andrea Amico, be sure to get it in writing from the dealer how they plan to delete your data from the vehicle before reselling it. “There's a lot of things that consumers can do to actually start to protect themselves, and it's not going to be perfect, but it's going to make a meaningful difference in their lives,” Amico said.

Consumers are effectively hamstrung by the state of legal contract interpretation, and manufacturers are incentivized to mitigate risk by continuing to bloat these (often unread) agreements with increasingly invasive classes of data. Many researchers will tell you the only real solution here is federal regulation. There have been some cases of state privacy law being leveraged for consumers' benefit, as in California and Massachusetts, but on the main it's something drivers aren't even aware they should be outraged about, and even if they are, they have no choice but to own a car anyway.

Probe meat thermometers are insanely helpful whether you’re cooking indoors or out. They help ensure you don’t serve your family and friends undercooked chicken or an overcooked steak. While most of them use wired probes attached to some type of display or hub, Meater’s probes are completely wireless. This means you don’t have to dodge a cable when flipping or moving things around the grill. They’re also easier to use when wrapping large cuts like pork shoulders or brisket.

With two models under its belt, the Traeger-owned company is debuting its latest version today: the Meater 2 Plus. While the device may look awfully similar to Meater’s previous cooking gadgets and it still uses the charger as a Bluetooth range booster, there are some significant upgrades here. The company has installed additional sensors for more precise temperature readings, while also increasing heat resistance and overall durability. It has managed to do this without drastically increasing the price, too.

The biggest change for the Meater 2 Plus is on the inside. The company has added four more internal temperature sensors for a total of five. There’s also still the ambient temperature sensor on the opposite end to keep tabs on grill temps while you’re cooking. Meater says the five internal sensors offer “the real core temperature of the meat,” which it says can help reduce any subpar results due to an error in probe placement (the app helps with that, too). All five can measure temps down to a tenth of a degree with an accuracy that’s within half a degree.

The Meater app displays the lowest temperature of the five sensors in the main view of the app and goes by that for any targets you may have set. Additionally, you can see the real-time temps of all five sensors by tapping on the one being displayed. As it did before, the company’s mobile app offers guidance on target temperatures based on the doneness level you desire. There are lots of options for different types and cuts of meat, but you can also go full manual mode if you’re doing something like reheating leftovers or know exactly what you want. Either way, the app calculates estimated finishing time based on internal and ambient temperatures. It also warns you when there’s five minutes left, when you hit the target and when the required rest time (if any) is over.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Meater also added a new Master Class feature to its app that will offer over 50 video courses that teach cooking techniques like two-zone BBQ, reverse searing and more. Step-by-step demos will include ingredient and tool checklists for easy shopping. There will also be detailed written instructions so you’re not constantly swiping back through videos. Meater says this is just the initial batch and it plans to release new classes on a weekly basis.

The other big physical updates are improved heat resistance and durability. First, the Meater 2 Plus can withstand open flames at temperatures up to 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 Celsius). This allows you to keep the probe in place while you sear. What’s more, the Meater app will warn you when the device is getting too hot.

That’s over 400 degrees hotter than the max temperature rating of the Meater Plus (527 degrees Fahrenheit). Plus, much of the competition, like ThermoPro’s TempSpike, can only handle just under 600 degrees. The Meater 2 Plus also has nine degrees more when it comes to the hottest internal temperature, now topping out at 221 degrees. The Meater 2 Plus is fully waterproof, so you can use it to deep fry or sous vide, as well. And when you’re done, you can just pop it in the dishwasher. I’ve done it several times and it’s still working just fine.

The temperature and waterproof upgrades are made possible by a new full-metal, stainless steel probe design. The Meater 2 Plus is 30 percent slimmer than the Meater Plus and a new Zirconia ceramic band allows the Bluetooth signal to radiate from the device. Thanks to a “high-performance antenna” and “optimized RF design” specifically tuned for high heat, the Meater 2 Plus offers an expanded range of up to 250 feet. That’s up from 165 feet on the previous model. The company says the new version can technically achieve 2,500 feet, but that requires a direct line of sight and no RF interference.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Most of our backyards won’t accommodate that, and you’re going to walk into the house to grab a beer at some point. In my tests, I was able to venture from my deck all the way to the mailbox on the street without losing connection. Like other Meater products, the 2 Plus works with Meater Link for Wi-Fi and Meater Cloud, providing unlimited range, though you’ll need to connect the Meater 2 Plus to another phone, tablet or laptop for these features.

Meater also improved battery life and charging efficiency. The Meater 2 Plus can be recharged for up to two years with one AAA battery, doubling the longevity of the previous model which the company rated at 100 charges. A fully charged probe will still last over 24 hours before you’ll need to dock it, unchanged from the Meater Plus. However, the Meater 2 Plus charges to 50 percent in only 15 minutes, enough for a 12-hour low-and-slow barbeque session. And as the company points out, you’ll never have to worry about charging if you keep the probe docked when it’s not in use.

I’ve tested the Meater 2 Plus for three cooks so far and I’ve been impressed with the performance for all of them. It’s completely wild to me to be able to throw this thing in the dishwasher instead of spending several minutes scrubbing the probe like I typically have to for all of my wired accessories. Of course, the highlight is the increased precision, which gives you a more detailed look at what’s going on during your cook. It was especially handy while smoking a turkey breast, allowing me to make sure the center was safe to eat while monitoring the rest to make sure it didn’t get too far past the coveted 165-degree mark. I also had no issues with high-heat use, though most of my testing was sub-350 degrees and primarily low-and-slow smoking. Besides turkey, I also used it for Over the Top Chili, smoked meatloaf and reheating leftovers.

The Meater 2 Plus is available now on the company’s website for $119.95. That’s $10-$20 more than the Meater Plus, depending on your wood preference for the charger on that previous model.