Now that Luigi is part of Lego Super Mario, the toymaker is ready to show the other heroic plumber a little more respect. Lego has introduced a trio of Luigi's Mansion expansion sets that give its namesake star more to do in a game designed with him in mind.
The $30 Lab and Poltergust set helps you get started with Luigi's ghost vacuum, while a $40 Entryway set introduces you to the mansion proper as well as Polterpup and the game series' Boo ghosts. Splurge on the $80 Haunt-and-Seek kit and you can create a full-fledged level, complete with hidden gems and rotating hallways. As you'd expect, you can combine the sets or mix them with other Lego Super Mario packs.
The timing is off. Lego may be announcing the Luigi's Mansion sets on Halloween, but they won't be available until January 1st, 2022. It's a missed opportunity, then, but you might not mind if you or or your kids enjoy the existing Super Mario collections and want more variety. If nothing else, this will provide fond memories for anyone who remembers collecting ghosts in Luigi's games.
The latest Samsung early Black Friday sale brings The Frame smart TVs down to some of the lowest prices we've seen in a while. Both Amazon and Samsung's own website have the deals right now, which include the 55-inch The Frame 4K smart TV for just under $1,000 — that's $500 off its normal price and the lowest we've seen it. The most affordable of the bunch is the 32-inch set, which is down to $450, and you'll find the 75-inch TV for $2,200 on the high end of the spectrum.
If you aren't familiar, Samsung's The Frame TVs stand out because they aren't basic black voids when you're not watching something. Instead, they use Art Mode to display various pictures and pieces of art, allowing it to blend better into your living room. You can even send your own photos to the screen, turning it into a super-large version of those small, digital photo frames that are quite popular now. Built-in sensors optimize the picture to your environment, and they can tell when you're away, turning the screen off automatically. On top of all that, you're getting a 4K QLED set with 100 percent color volume, 4K AI upscaling and Alexa support.
While a bunch of other Samsung TVs are also on sale right now, the Premiere Projector with a 4.2.2 sound system is noteworthy because it's been discounted to just under $5,000. That's $500 cheaper than it was back in September when it was last on sale, and a total discount of $1,500. Yes, it's still an expensive piece of home theater equipment, but it's a much better buy at this price. It includes separate red, green and blue lasers so it can cover the full Rec.2020 color range, and it supports HDR10+ and up to 2,800 lumens of brightness. If you're willing to compromise a bit on sound, the model with a 2.2 channel system is down to a new low of $2,498 as well.
Those looking for a powerful laptop alternative need look no further than this year's iPad Pros. Outfitted with Apple's M1 chipset, they're the most powerful tablets the company has ever made. Now you can get an 11-inch iPad Pro for less at Amazon thanks to a $100 discount that's dropped the prices of most available models. The base 128GB version is sold out right now, but the 256GB WiFi model is down to $800, which is a record low. The sale also includes the 512GB, 1TB and 2TB iPad Pros, which are on sale for $1,000, $1,400 and $1,799, respectively.
These iPad Pros don't look very different from their predecessors because Apple focused most of the updates on the internals. Inside is the company's M1 processor, which makes the tablets run similarly to the MacBook Air M1 — which is to say, remarkably fast and smooth. When we reviewed the larger of the two Pros, we were impressed by its ability to play laborious games and piece together 4K video without breaking a sweat. The latest iPad Pros also support 5G connectivity, along with a USB-C port for charging and a new ultra-wide camera that enables Center Stage. When paired with the right accessories, these iPads are the closest things Apple has made to laptop replacements or 2-in-1 machines.
The biggest difference between the 11-inch and the 12.9-inch iPad Pros is in the screen. In addition to being larger, the 12.9-inch's display is a Liquid Retina XDR panel, which will make a difference when doing things like watching videos and editing photos. And that comes with a higher price tag — the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099, but it's been on sale for $999 on Amazon for a few months. You're still getting a lovely display on the 11-inch model, though — it's a 2,388 x 1668 resolution Liquid Retina display with ProMotion and True Tone technology, so don't think you're giving anything up by going with the slightly smaller tablet (and saving some money in the process).
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Boston Dynamics, the company most commonly associated with robot dogs, prohibits the weaponization of its Spot devices. That's not the case for all robot dog manufacturers, however. One of them, Ghost Robotics, showed off a version of its Q-UGV device that many will have been dreading. It's a robot dog with a gun attached to it.
Ghost Robotics has made robot dogs for the military, and it displayed this deadly model at the Association of the United States Army’s 2021 annual conference in Washington DC this week. A company called Sword International built the "special purpose unmanned rifle" (or SPUR) module. According to The Verge, it has a thermal camera for nighttime operation, an effective range of 1.2km (just under three quarters of a mile) and a 30x optical zoom.
"Due to its highly capable sensors the SPUR can operate in a magnitude of conditions, both day and night," a blurb on Sword's website reads. "The Sword Defense Systems SPUR is the future of unmanned weapon systems, and that future is now."
It's unclear how autonomous a SPUR-equipped Q-UGV will be in the field, as Popular Science notes. It remains to be seen whether a human operator will guide the robot to an otherwise hard-to-reach position and manually aim and take shots (which seems more likely), or if the robot will handle entirely things by itself. Either way, it's an unsettling prospect, and that's before we get to the possibility of enemy hackers taking control of these machines.
As if a robot dog with a gun attached wasn't dystopian enough, Ghost Robotics tweeted about a Q-UGV with a different kind of payload: a Lockheed Martin drone and a Digital Force Technologies recon sensor. Sniper robot dogs. Flying robot spy dogs. The future's looking just peachy, isn't it?
Output first made a name for itself with meticulously sampled software instruments like Analog Brass & Winds and Exhale, that made use of Native Instruments' Kontakt Player. The company even got into the furniture game with what is possibly the sexiest studio desk for under $1,000. But its undeniable flagship is Arcade, a subscription-based sample mangler that’s constantly serving up new sounds to mess with. Today the company is launching version 2.0 that includes a number of upgrades, but the biggest is the addition of “Note Kits” — which are simply playable chromatic instruments.
In the original version of Arcade you had what are now called Sampler Kits. Here you get 15 samples laid out across a keyboard on the white keys, while the black keys resequence, stretch, reverse or stutter the sounds. But Note Kits are just like any other soft synth, and the keyboard is just a keyboard so you can use Arcade to play melodies and chords more traditionally.
In the main UI you’ll now find recommended Note Kits as well as Sampler Kits, and each line of sound packs is neatly divided into two, with sections for each. The main interface for the Note Kits isn’t much different than the Sampler Kits. There’s a keyboard at the bottom of the screen and four macro controls in the middle for modifying a sound and adding effects (though, they often use vague terms like space and breath).
The core conceit of Arcades — to be as approachable as possible — hasn’t changed either. Those four macros offer a good amount of control for shaping of your sound. But, if you really want to get detailed you can click the “tweak” button at the top. Here is where you’ll find the heart of Arcade’s synth engine. Similar to Kontakt Arcade is sample based. You can combine up to three different sounds then choose start, end and loop points. There are also separate amp, pitch and filter envelopes for each sample; a multimode filter with two different high- and low-pass options as well as drive; a modulation section with an ADSR envelope, an LFO and two 32-step sequencers; plus a number of built in effects like reverb, delay and chorus.
Despite the fairly comprehensive set of sound design tools, Arcade is incredibly simple to use. While the interface pushes you to simply download a preset and start making music, it’s very easy to start creating unique instruments of your own. The one issue is that, while you can start from scratch to build your own note kit, it’s not prominently featured in the UI. And, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to import your own sounds to a Note Kit, only a Sampler.
The custom kit creator for samples has gotten a serious upgrade for version 2.0, though. The Kit Generator takes any sound from your own personal collection — whether you recorded it yourself or downloaded it from Splice — and then using AI spits out multiple variations, and pairs it with effects for further manipulation.
The app has gotten a mild facelift too, with better visual feedback and simplified navigation. Though, a single view for all the Kits you've downloaded would be handy.
The combination of instant results and decently deep sound design tools makes Arcade incredibly fun to use. It doesn’t necessarily make sounds that other instruments or even your DAW’s stock plugins aren’t capable of. But it’s less tedious.
You can try Arcade 2.0 for free for 30 days, after which it’s $10 a month.
Amazon has opened a 4-star store in Bluewater, a mall located just southeast of central London. And it's not just the first 4-star store outside the US, it's also the company's first shop in the UK that sells non-food and non-perishable items. Similar to Amazon's 4-star stores in New York and other parts of the US, the shop in Bluewater will sell products rated 4 stars and above, are top sellers or are trending on the e-commerce giant's UK website.
Since the shop can't carry all the highly rated products Amazon sells online, the selection in-store will be curated, though they will include goods across top categories like consumer electronics, toys, games, books, kitchen and home. It will sell products from small businesses across the UK, as well as the company's own devices, including Kindle e-Readers, Fire tablets and Echo speakers.
The shop will have sections that correspond to specific sections of the website, as well, such as Most Wished For, which will feature products from Wish Lists. "Trending in Bluewater" will showcase items local customers have been buying, while "Most Gifted" will feature the top items ordered as gifts. Amazon says it will switch out products regularly based on customer feedback and to keep up with the latest trends.
Products in the store will be marked with digital tags containing the item's price, average star rating and the number of customer reviews. In addition, customers don't have to be Prime members to be able to shop there. That said, the store won't feature Amazon's Just Walk Out technology like the company's Fresh grocery store in London. Just Walk Out allows shoppers to grab what they need from the shelves and, well, walk out without having to pay at a manned or a self-checkout counter. They can make their purchase from Amazon's UK website, however, and simply pick up their order from the store the next day.
⭐ ⭐ EXCITING NEWS!⭐ ⭐ We're SO excited for Amazon 4-star to be opening here at Bluewater today - the first store of its kind in the UK! Visit the brand new store to discover thousands of top-rated products including Amazon devices, smart home accessories, books and more. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/jaXFndilyQ
Facebook recently introduced its first wearable: Ray-Ban Stories, smart sunglasses with cameras, microphones and speakers built in.If that sounds familiar, it might be because the glasses are pretty similar to what Snapchat has been doing for the last five years with Spectacles. Even the name, Ray-Ban Stories, feels like a big subtweet at Snap. But despite its head start, Spectacles have yet to be a big hit for the company. And, with a $300 price tag and Facebook’s name on the box, Ray-Ban Stories may also prove to be a difficult sell.
Both Spectacles and Ray-Ban Stories represent something much bigger to the social media companies that made them. Snapchat and Facebook are hoping to define the future of augmented reality, and are betting that camera-enabled sunglasses will help them get there.
But look closely, and the companies have taken very different approaches. While Ray-Ban Stories look pretty close to regular Wayfarers, Spectacles have never looked like a typical pair of sunglasses. Snapchat has also been more ambitious about integrating its augmented reality effects into the glasses. And the company recently began experimenting with a new set of Specs that are capable of real AR, though they aren’t for sale.
Non-AR “smart glasses” are still a niche product, but Ray-Ban Stories might be one of the best iterations yet. The frames make it easy to capture first-person photos and videos, and the built-in speakers sound surprisingly good. Most importantly, they look more like designer sunglasses than a piece of tech. But Facebook’s reputation is hard to ignore, especially when you’re wearing a camera it designed on your actual face.
But if you’re excited about the future of augmented reality, and what one day might be possible, both Ray-Ban Stories and Spectacles offer an intriguing look at how two of the biggest social media platforms are thinking about getting there.
Although most tech deals this week were limited-time sales, there remain a few good ones to consider as we head into the weekend. Apple's Mac Mini M1 is down to $600, or $100 off its normal price, and Best Buy has the original Google Nest Hub for only $40. Solo Stove is having a sale on its Bonfire fire pit and some of our favorite Sennheiser wireless earbuds are still $100 off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Mac Mini M1
Apple
Apple's Mac Mini M1 is down to its all-time-low price of $600 thanks to a sale and an automatically applied coupon. You're getting all of the performance boosts provided by the M1 chipset in a compact desktop package. This is a good machine to get if you have an older desktop that needs replacing, but you don't want to spend a ton of money.
Google's original Nest Hub is down to $40 at Best Buy, or $50 off its normal price. While it doesn't have the motion sensor and the improved audio of the latest Nest Hub, we still like it for its lovely 7-inch display, minimalist design and solid performance.
Amazon and Sennheiser have the excellent Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds for $200, or $100 off their normal price. We gave these buds a score of 85 for their stellar audio quality, good ANC, smaller size and handy companion app.
Solo Stove's Bonfire is $100 off right now, bringing it down to $250. This is one of the company's best-selling fire pits and it's made it into some of our outdoor-focused gift guides in the past. It's a good device to get if you like gathering around a fire pit in the backyard but you don't like the smoke or cleanup that typically comes with it.
Through October 6, GOG.com has more than 120 games on sale, with some up to 90 percent off. Included this time around are Blood Omen, Elvira, Baldur's Gate, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, Cuphead and more.
Fitbit's Luxe tracker is down to $100 on QVC, or $50 off its normal price. We gave this slim band a score of 82 for its delicate design, solid activity tracking and good battery life.
Through December 8, you can enter to win four-day passes to San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Along with the passes, you'll get access to a special preview night, reserved seating in Hall H, a personal concierge, a private tour of the Comic-Con Museum, dinner in Balboa Park and tickets to the "Night at the Comic-Con Museum" event. It's free to enter, but funds from this sweepstakes will go to the San Diego Comic Convention.
Woot is having a big sale on 2019 and 2020 iPad Pros, knocking some 12.9-inch models down to $769. Apple's most powerful iPad hasn't changed much in look over the past few years, but the 2021 models got a big upgrade in performance with the M1 processor. If you're comfortable skipping that and a number of other, smaller updates, you could save a bunch and still get a powerful iPad. Just make sure to review Woot's return policy before you buy.
75-inch Hisense U6G Series Quantum Dot 4K Android TV
This massive Hisense 4K smart TV is $255 off, bringing it down to $995. It has local dimming zones for better brightness, Quantum Dot technology for rich colors and it supports Dolby Vision and Atmos. It also has auto low latency mode for better gaming, and Android TV gives you access to a plethora of streaming services including Netflix and Prime Video.
Through October 7, Satechi has knocked 20 percent off of its 100W USB-C PD wall charger, bringing it down to $56, when you use the code GAN100 at checkout. This brick uses gallium nitride technology to prevent overheating and provide a faster, more efficient charge. Not only can it power up smartphones and tablets, but it can juice up a 16-inch MacBook Pro at full speed as well.
NordVPN, one of our favorite VPNs, is running a sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up and pay $99 for two years, plus you'll get an extra three months free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
Labor Day weekend may be over, but some of the sales that came with it are still ongoing. A number of Apple products have been discounted ahead of the company's event next week, including the iPad Air and the MacBook Air M1. Amazon has a bunch of deals onFire tablets, knocking the Fire HD 10 tablet down to $100 and the Fire HD 8 down to $60. Plus, you can still save a ton on things like Samsung portable drives, eero 6 WiFi systems, Pixel smartphones and more. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
iPad Air
Dana Wollman/Engadget
Apple's iPad Air is $100 off right now, bringing it down to $500. All five colors are on sale at Amazon. thanks to automatically applied coupons, although with various shipping times. We gave the Air a score of 90 for its speedy performance and WiFi, healthy battery life and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil.
The Apple Watch SE is on sale for $240 right now on Amazon thanks to a few automatically applied coupons for certain color options. We gave the Watch SE a score of 88 for its comfortable, familiar design, solid performance and comprehensive feature set for the price.
Apple's MacBook Air M1 is back down to an all-time low of $850 thanks to an automatically applied coupon. It earned a score of 94 from us for its stellar performance, attractive, fanless design and its comfortable keyboard and trackpad.
Apple's Mac Mini M1 returned to its all-time-low price of $600 thanks to a sale and an automatically applied coupon. You're getting all of the performance boosts provided by the M1 chipset in a compact desktop package. This is a good machine to get if you have an older desktop that needs replacing, but you don't want to spend a ton of money.
Eufy's SpaceView baby monitor with one camera is down to $125 thanks to a clippable coupon and the code eufybbm20 that you can use at checkout. The camera can pan 330 degrees and tilt 110 degrees to give you a full view of your baby's room, and you can expand the field of view up to 110 degrees thanks to the included extra lens. It also uses a FHSS connection instead of WiFi, which lets you check out your kids' activities in real time in a more secure way.
Amazon's Labor Day sale on eero 6 systems is still ongoing so you can pick up a pack with one router and two extenders for $195, or $84 off its normal price. A pack of three routers is also down to $244. These gadgets support a peak bandwidth of 900Mbps and they include a built-in Zigbee smart home hub, so you can connect things like smart lights directly to it.
A number of Fire tablets are still on sale after the Labor Day holiday. The top-tier Fire HD 10 is $50 off, bringing it down to $100, while you can grab the Fire HD 8 for $60 or the Fire 7 for only $40. These devices make good starter tablets for kids as well as good couch devices for email-checking, web-surfing, online shopping and more.
Both the first- and second-generation Echo Show 5s are on sale right now — the original is down to $45 while the updated version is only $10 more. These stand out as excellent smart alarm clocks thanks to their compact size, sunrise alarm feature and tap-to-snooze function. The main difference between the two is the improved, 2MP camera on the second-gen version, which will make for slightly better video calls.
Google's Pixel 4 smartphone is down to a new low of $379 at B&H Photo. We believe the launch of the Pixel 6 to be right around the corner, so you may want to wait if you want the latest phone from Google. However, the Pixel 4 remains a solid handset — we liked its speedy performance, lovely display and stellar camera experience.
Samsung's T7 Touch portable SSD in 1TB is down to $170, or $10 off its normal price. It has dropped to $160 in the past, but this is the best price we've seen in a number of months. In addition to read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds up to 1,000 MB/s, this tiny SSD has a shock-resistant body and a built-in fingerprint reader for an extra layer of security.
Google's Nest WiFi pack with one router and one access point is down to $199 right now at Best Buy. That's $70 off its normal price and a great deal on one of our favorite mesh systems. We gave it a score of 84 for its minimalist design, simple installation and built-in smart speaker.
Samsung's Premiere Projector is $1,000 cheaper both at Amazon and Samsung's own site. The 4.2.2 sound channel model is down to $5,498, which is still quite expensive, but much better than its normal $6,500 price. We included this in our best projectors guide for its separate red, green and blue lasers that cover the full Rec.2020 color range, maximum 2,800 lumens of brightness and 4K resolution.
Through September 18, Omaze is giving away another $20,000 to build your ultimate gaming PC. This sweepstakes is free to enter, but funds donated with purchased entries will benefit Schools on Wheels, an organization that provides free tutoring and mentoring services to children experiencing homelessness across Southern California.
Through December 8, you can enter to win four-day passes to San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Along with the passes, you'll get access to a special preview night, reserved seating in Hall H, a personal concierge, a private tour of the Comic-Con Museum, dinner in Balboa Park and tickets to the "Night at the Comic-Con Museum" event. It's free to enter, but funds from this sweepstakes will go to the San Diego Comic Convention.
A few Dyson cordless vacuums are still on sale even after the Labor Day holiday. Of note are the Dyson Outsize for $700, or $100 off its normal price, and the Dyson V8 Animal for $350, which is $50 off. Although both models are a few years old at this point, they remains solid cordless vacuums made even better by these sale prices.
Weber knocked hundreds off its high-end SmokeFire grills — both the EX6 and EX4 are $200 off, bringing them down to $999 and $799, respectively. These WiFi-connected grills are some of our favorites because they're relatively easy for even grilling novices to use and their companion mobile app gives you a number of convenient features like remote temperature adjustment and SmokeBoost activation.
The new Galaxy Buds 2 are on sale for $125 at Woot, which is $25 off their normal price. These buds earned a score of 84 from us for their improved sound quality, small and comfortable design and wireless charging capabilities. A note: Woot's return policy is not the same as Amazon's, despite being owned by the retail giant, so check it out before you make a purchase.
Woot also has a one-day sale on the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2, knocking it down to $270. This is a great deal considering this Chromebook is usually prices between $375 and $500. You're getting a lightweight 2-in-1 design here with an Intel Celeron 3965Y processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a 12.2-inch FHD display and a built-in stylus. A note: Woot's return policy is not the same as Amazon's, despite being owned by the retail giant, so check it out before you make a purchase.
Wellbots is having a sale on a bunch of Garmin smartwatches — you can get $100 off the Fenix 6 series using the code GARMIN100 at checkout, $75 off the Garmin Venu with the code GARMIN75 at checkout and $50 off the Garmin Lily with the code GARMIN50. These are some of Garmin's latest wearables and they serve most types of people — the Fenix 6 will be best for the most outdoorsy among us, while the Venu and the Lily are good options for those that want an alternative to an Apple Watch or a Wear OS device.
One of our recommended VPNs is running a decent sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up for NordVPN for $99 for the first two years, which comes out to $49.50 per year, and get three additional months of access for free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, Google plans to surface the shipping and return policies of stores that list items on its platforms to help consumers quickly find out if they can get free delivery and returns on their purchases. You’ll see the labels appear across both free and paid listings. “Free delivery by Friday, December 24th,” says one of the example annotations the company shared. Merchants will need to meet a list of requirements before they can add the labels to their listings, so you won’t see them on every product.
Shipping and return annotations won’t dramatically change your shopping experience, but they make you decide to jump on a product you would have otherwise glossed over. Google has spent much of the last year adding these types of features to its shopping hubs. At I/O 2021, for example, it showed off a feature inside of Chrome that displayed shopping carts you abandoned before completing a purchase in a new tab.
