Depending on what you buy and where you shop, many online purchases should arrive before December 25th, so if you're still working through your gift list, it might not be too late. Even if you're just looking for deals in general, there are plenty out there. Despite the fact that the official "shopping holidays" have ended, retailers and brands are still discounting many gadgets and devices at prices that meet their Black Friday lows. Right now, you can save on Sonos speakers, Tile trackers, Google phones and tablets, and Amazon's most popular Echo device. We also found discounts on Xbox gift cards, a Nintendo Switch bundle and noted that a PS5 bundle was still selling for it's Cyber Monday low. Here are the best tech deals from the week that you can still get today. 

Sonos Era 100

As part of a larger sale, the Sonos Era 100 smart speaker is back down to $199 from the manufacturer's store front. That's $50 of the list price and matches the price we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We named it the best midrange smart speaker in our guide and gave it an 88 in our review when it debuted earlier this year. It's an improvement over its predecessor, the Sonos One, which was in itself already pretty great. 

Upgrades include a new speaker array with two tweeters instead of one plus a woofer that’s 25 percent bigger. That lends the speaker impressive bass, a clear high-end and big volume. It connects via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and now also has a line-in USB-C port to directly connect a player (though you'll need an adapter to hook up a turntable). And the smart assistant duties come courtesy of Alexa or the music-focused Sonos assistant, unfortunately it doesn't support the Google Assistant.  

The Ray soundbar and the Sonos Move are also part of the Sonos sale with discounts of up to 25 percent off. 

Echo Show 5 + smart bulb

Amazon kicked of Black Friday early this year with discounts on their own devices. Many of the deals on Echo speaker and displays bundled with a free smart bulb didn't end with Cyber Week and are still live today. So you can save on an Echo Show 5 and smart bulb combo — and depending on where you're shipping, it should arrive by Christmas. The Echo Show 5 was refreshed in June and has a list price of $90. The Sengled light is $20 on its own. While both of them go on sale often, the bundle represents a 63 percent discount over buying them at full price. The set makes a nice smart home starter kit, as the Echo Show 5 gives you voice and touchscreen control over smart home devices like the Sengled bulb.  

Kobo Clara 2e

The best ereader, according to our guide is the Kobo Clara 2E. It's currently selling for $20 off the list price of $140, a discount it hit for Black Friday. It rarely goes on sale so this is a good chance to save on an ereader with a crisp 300 ppi screen with a waterproof build and warm LED front lights. Setting the device up is easy, even for those new to ereaders and the Kobo store is nearly as vast as Amazon's Kindle store, though without the Kindle Exclusive titles. You can also easily borrow books from your local library and read them on your Kobo for free. 

Tile Tracker Sale

Amazon is selling a two-pack of Tile Mate Bluetooth trackers for $33, which matches the record low the set hit for Prime Day in October. Or you can grab a four-pack of Tile Mates in grey directly from the manufacturer for 40 percent off. These handy fobs attach to your keys, backpack, or anything else you don't want to lose. The app works with both iPhone and Android and uses the community of other Tile users to locate items that you misplace out in the world. The smaller Tile Sticker is also on sale, currently 33 percent off, making it just $20. Or you can get our top pick for Androids in our Bluetooth tracker guide is the Tile Pro. It's down to $25, which is just $2 more than the record low it hit for Prime Day in July.  

Roku Ultra

The Roku Ultra is our recommendation for a set-top box in our guide to the best streaming devices. Right now it's down to $67 at Amazon and at Walmart. That's only about a dollar more than the lowest price it has sold for. It's been on sale for $70 for much of the past few weeks, so this is a chance to save a little more. While it's our favorite set-top streamer, it's not necessarily as good of a value as our top pick for a streamer, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K. That model is down to $39, which is a full $10 more than it went for during Black Friday but still $28 less than the Ultra.

Anker Soundcore Space A40 

The overall pick in our guide to the best budget earbuds is Anker's Soundcore Space A40 and right now they're on sale at Amazon for $54. That ties the all time low the buds hit for Black Friday. We like the light, evenly balanced design that's comfortable to wear for long sessions and the sound profile is warm and pleasant. We also think the active noise cancellation is great for the price. Just note that they don't auto pause when you remove a bud and the mic quality for calls could be better.

Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro

An unlocked Pixel 8 with 128GB of storage is back down to $549 at Amazon. That's a $150 discount and matches its Black Friday low. You can get the same deal from Amazon and at the Google Store. For a larger screen, you can get the Pixel 8 Pro, which is $200 off at Amazon, Best Buy and the Google Store, bringing the base configuration with 128GB down to $799. We named these phones the best Android handsets you can buy and gave them a 90 in our review, calling them "Google's most compelling phones in years."

Xbox and Nintendo gift cards

If you know someone who plays games on an Xbox or Switch, these two deals may make great gifts. Right now, Target is selling $50 Xbox or Nintendo eShop gift cards for $45. Both cards are delivered electronically to an email address and can be transferred to the user's balance as soon as they get the message. They can then use the funds to buy games and add-ons through their console. 

Switch gamers can also get a digital code for an individual annual Switch Online membership for $18, or a family membership for $31.50. Both are 10 percent off the going rate for a 12-month subscription. 

Google Pixel Tablet

Right now at Amazon, Target and directly from the Google Store, you can get the latest Google Pixel Tablet for $100 off the list price. That brings it to $399, which is a discount we've seen a few times previously and matches the low it went for during Black Friday sales. The standout feature for the slate is its ability to function as a smart display, as it comes complete with a stand that doubles (triples?) as a charging base and a much fuller speaker than any tablet can muster on its own. We gave the Pixel Tablet a review score of 85 when it debuted back in June and mention it as an alternative in our buyer's guide to tablets — noting that it's a good pick if you think you'll make use of the smart display option.  

MasterClass BOGO

MasterClass is offering two annual memberships — one for yourself and one to give away as a gift — for the price of one. If you're unfamiliar, MasterClass offers courses taught by famous people — like Spike Lee teaching directing, Aaron Sorkin teaching screenwriting and Alicia Keys teaching songwriting. Memberships start at $120 per year, which lets you watch on one device at a time and go up to $240 per year for download permissions and access on six devices simultaneously. The free membership will be at the same level you buy for yourself. The deal ends December 12th. 

Google Pixel Watch 2

Google's Pixel Watch 2 just came out in October but we're already seeing a substantial discount of $50 off, making the Wi-Fi model just $300 at Amazon and from the Google Store. The LTE model is also $50 off and down to $350. The Pixel Watch 2 is an improvement over the previous model, with a longer-lasting battery that goes for 24 hours between charges. The Fitbit integration is even deeper this time, with a focus on stress levels using a new body-response sensor. We did find some flaws, however, such as the Fitbit branding throughout that felt like a disconnect from the Pixel brand. There were also software quirks and confusing data presentation that prevented us from giving it a glowing review. 

Apple iPad (10th gen)

The tenth generation iPad is on sale for $349 at Amazon, which is $100 off the list price and the same price it hit for Black Friday. It often sells for $399, so this is and additional $50 off the going rate. In our review we didn't call it a wild improvement over the previous generation, but we did appreciate that it orients the camera to the landscape edge, which is much better for video calls. The USB-C charging is more modern than the Lightning connector on the 9th gen iPad, but for some reason this model still works with the first generation Apple Pencil (even though the slate came out after the second-gen stylus).

Sonos Roam

The Sonos Roam is 25 percent off and down to $134, which is price it went for during Black Friday and has remained there since. It happens to be our top pick for a portable smart speaker thanks to its versatility as an indoor or outdoor smart speaker you can plonk down anywhere. You can control it with Alexa or the Google Assistant it and works on Wi-Fi or via Bluetooth. The sound isn’t as big as from larger speakers, but it still packs a surprising amount of bass and distinct highs

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon's best selling speaker — and our top pick for a smart speaker under $50 — is the Echo Dot and it is still down to $23, the low price it hit for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The sound is surprisingly good for the size and price and it brings Alexa's weather-forecasting, timer-setting, joke-telling abilities into whatever room you set it in. I use it to control our smart plugs and my kid uses it to play "The Wellerman" for the 900th time. 

Google Pixel Buds

Last week, Wellbots sold the Google Pixel Buds Pro earbuds for $120 with a code. This week you can get the same $80 discount, no special letters and numbers required. That makes the buds just $3 more than their all-time low. We called these earbuds the company’s best effort to date in our official review, praising the deep and punchy bass, the useful touch controls, wireless charging options and more. They're currently our top pick for Android users in our guide to the best wireless earbuds.

PS5

This bundle has been on sale for a few weeks now. It pairs the $500 PS5 console with the new Spider-Man 2 game for no extra cost. We named the latest PlayStation one of the best gaming consoles you can get right now. We also liked the game, and called it better than its predecessor in our review. 

Meta Quest 2

The Meta Quest 2 bundled with a $50 store credit at the Meta Quest store is now $249 from Walmart. The headset by itself retails at $300 so this is essentially a $100 discount and matches similar discount-and-gift card combos we saw for Black Friday. Now that the improved Quest 3 is out in the world, this is harder sell. The new headset goes for $500 and isn't on sale at the moment, but if you can swing it, you'll get a better VR experience along with mixed reality improvements. That said, we're still impressed with the bargain the Quest 2 provides and named it our pick for those on a budget in our VR headset buying guide.

• 16-inch macbook pro (m3 pro, 18gb ram, 512gb ssd) for $2,249 —> ties BF price iirc

Nintendo Switch OLED + Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

If you're willing to transport your actual human body to a GameStop and walk in the door like it's 2009, you can save $25 on the Switch OLED bundled with a download code for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. Place your order online then select in-store pickup to get the deal. The bundle is going for $349 at most outlets across the internet, but if you bought the (pretty excellent) game at full price along with the console and subscription, you'd pay $68 more. Combined with the $25 it's a good way to get the console if you somehow don't have it already. Keep in mind that an updated Switch is likely on the horizon, but as for now, the Switch is our favorite console for gaming whilst traveling. 

Samsung Evo Select 256GB Micro SD card

Samsung's Evo Select MicroSD is $15 which is a 25 percent discount and matches its Black Friday pricing. This is the value pick in our buyer's guide to MicroSD cards, partly because it's often on sale. It doesn't match the sequential write speeds of our top picks, so you may not want to use it for your camera, but if you just need more space for your Switch games, this will work well.  

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The Game Awards is over and done with, leaving an empty theater in Los Angeles and plenty of happy game developers placing pointy statuettes on their mantels. To that end, Larian Studios and its massively successful RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 was the big winner of the night, taking home the prize for game of the year, player’s choice, best multiplayer game and more.

Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 was also on fire, winning best game direction, best narrative and best art direction, among others. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom paraglided away with the statue for best action/adventure and the RPG Sea of Stars won for best indie game, with Cocoon being awarded best debut indie game.

Okay. Now that the actual awards are out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. The main reason people watch The Game Awards is for reveals and trailers, and this year didn’t disappoint. There were over a dozen announcements, and here are the best and brightest of the bunch.

Light No Fire

Boy oh boy, a new title from Hello Games, the makers of a little-known space sim called No Man’s Sky. The studio has finally announced a follow up, which has been in development for five years. Light No Fire, another three-word monosyllabic game name, is being billed as the “the first real open world” title, a lofty promise that Hello may be able to pull off. The world is allegedly the same size as Earth, with secrets and mysteries around every corner. It’s also multiplayer, which is neat. Who knows when this one will come out, but it looks gorgeous.

Jurassic Park: Survival

It’s been a couple of years since a new Jurassic Park game, and more than that for a proper adventure title. Jurassic Park: Survival actually takes place one day after the events of the first film, and looks to feature plenty of stealthy action as you hide from hungry dinos. There’s no release date, but it’s launching on Xbox X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

OD

Did you think Hideo Kojima would be spending all of his time on Death Stranding 2? Heck no. The legendary developer has also been busy preparing the cinematic horror game OD, previously called Overdose. It’s described as something “no one has ever experienced or seen before,” which is entirely possible, given Kojima’s pedigree. Filmmaker Jordan Peele is also on board, as are actors Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier. Details are scant, as it’s a Kojima joint, but the game will release for Xbox X/S and PC at some point.

Marvel’s Blade

That’s right. Everyone’s favorite vampire hunter is getting his own video game. Even better? It’s being developed by Arkane Lyon, the talented team behind Deathloop and Dishonored 2. Sure, the dev also made Redfall, but maybe Arkane can take some of the best parts of that vampire shooter and translate it to Marvel’s hero. There’s no release date and no announced platforms for this one.

Exodus

This is the first game from Archetype Entertainment, a studio staffed by former developers from Bioware, Naughty Dog and other AAA developers. Exodus is a sci-fi RPG that deals with the effects of time dilation, the notion that time passes more slowly to those experiencing high-velocity space travel. It looks cinematic and gorgeous, with a major emphasis on player choice. Exodus has no release date, but it's in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Capcom is busy working on a new Monster Hunter entry. Monster Hunter Wilds is a direct followup to Monster Hunter World and it looks to feature all of the big, bad beasties you can shake a sharpened stick at. It’s on the way to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, with more information coming this summer.

Windblown

Motion Twin, the developer of Dead Cells, is back with another roguelike. Windblown looks to be a fast-paced release that promises “a whole new level of speed to the action rogue-like genre.” It’s also not a sidescroller, which is a definitive break from the Dead Cells formula. Windblown launches in 2024 for PC, though consoles are likely to follow.

Big Walk

Looking to relax? House House, the developer behind Untitled Goose Game, has got you covered. Big Walk is, well, a multiplayer walking sim with plenty of secrets to uncover. Cooperation is a major part of the game as you and your friends work to explore the wilderness. Big Walk is slated to arrive on Steam and the Epic Game Store in 2025.

No Rest for the Wicked

No Rest for the Wicked is the new project from Moon Studios, the team behind Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel. It’s a top-down action RPG, departing from Ori’s metroidvania roots, set during the middle ages. The graphics are stunning, which is no surprise considering the developer. It's due to hit early access on Steam in the first quarter of 2024, and will eventually launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Pony Island 2: Panda Circus

Indie developer Daniel Mullins made a name for himself with Inscryption and the original Pony Island. Now he’s back with Pony Island 2: Panda Circus, a game that’s not actually about ponies. The trailer is weird and creepy, as one would expect, with sudden shifts from a 3D adventure to a 2D point-and-click and back again. Voice actor SungWon "ProZD" Cho is also on board. The game may not be released until 2026, so put on your waiting cap.

Sega Embraces its Roots

Sega dropped a trailer for not just one game, but a whole bunch of games based on classic IPs. You can look forward to forthcoming reboots of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and Shinobi. Wait, that’s not all. There’s also Space Channel 5 and Panzer Dragoon. Everything old is new again. But, where’s Seaman?

Final Fantasy XVI and God of War Ragnarok Get DLC

The DLC faeries were good to us this year. There’s a God of War Ragnarok update launching next week, bringing a new roguelite game mode to Sony’s hit adventure. We also got a surprise drop for the first Final Fantasy XVI DLC. Echoes of the Fallen, set before the base game’s final battle, is available now, with a second DLC planned for next year. To that end, Square Enix dropped a trailer for next year’s installment, The Rising Tide.

Everything Else

Those were the biggest announcements, but not all of them. The Game Awards also saw a title reveal and trailer for Supermassive’s Dead by Daylight spinoff, The Casting of Frank Stone. There was an announcement trailer for a remake of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and one for the music-tinged VR title Thrasher, by the makers of Thumper. Finally, we got an actual release date for Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones, February 16, and a surprise launch for Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox systems.

Hideo Kojima said his documentary, Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds, will be distributed exclusively by Disney+. The legendary game designer posted Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) that the film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer, will launch globally in the spring of 2024.

Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds tracks the pioneering auteur during the development of Death Stranding while providing a rare glimpse into his creative process as he launched his studio, Kojima Productions. The film also includes “shots from the early days of our independent studio, memories from my childhood and my creative journey,” as the designer said. The film strives to capture the artistic side of gaming, which Kojima embodies as well as anyone.

Kojima Productions

The documentary announcement follows the official reveal of Kojima’s next game, OD. Although we don’t know much about it yet, its trailer blends a cinematic art style with horror, aligning with previous leaks. Director and comedian Jordan Peele is even involved. Xbox Game Studios is publishing the title, which Kojima has said will lean heavily on Microsoft’s cloud technology.

“Video gaming is an art,” director Guillermo del Toro summarizes in the documentary trailer (below) about the Metal Gear creator. “But the only person in charge of the orchestra is the auteur.”

If you've been thinking of grabbing or gifting a new Echo device for the holidays, here's a quick PSA: A number of Amazon's smart speakers and displays are currently on sale for the lowest prices we've tracked, and many of them can be bundled with a Sengled smart light bulb for no extra cost. An Echo Show 5 bundle is down to $40, for instance, while one for the Echo Dot is available for $23. Beyond that, the latest Echo Show 8 is available for a low of $105, albeit without any extras. A bundle with the full-size Echo is also $40 off at $60, though that's a few bucks higher than its all-time low. Most of these deals have been lingering since around Black Friday, but each still represents a good chance to save. 

We recommend the Echo and Echo Dot in our guide to the best smart speakers, while the 8-inch Echo Show 8 and 5.5-inch Echo Show 5 are picks in our guide to the best smart displays. If you can afford the higher-end model of each pairing, they should be worth it: The Echo sounds decidedly fuller than the Echo Dot, while the Echo Show 8 has a better display, richer speakers and a much sharper camera than the Echo Show 5. But the Dot still performs well for its size and remains a good value for those looking to see if they'd get any use out of an Alexa speaker in the first place, while the Echo Show 5 can be useful on a bedside table as a sort of smart alarm clock. 

Amazon's Alexa assistant still has plenty of deficiencies — and all Alexa-based devices carry inherent security and privacy concerns — but for simpler requests and controlling other compatible smart home gear hands-free, each of these devices generally work well. The Sengled bulb, meanwhile, is a fairly simple color model that's compatible with the new Matter standard and normally costs around $20 on its own.

If you want the absolute cheapest Echo speaker, the Echo Pop is also on sale for $17 with the same smart bulb, but most people should get the superior-sounding Echo Dot when it's only a few dollars higher. The Echo Dot with Clock, which includes an LED display for showing the time and other basic info, is worth a longer look at $40, though that's $10 more than the lowest price we've tracked. On the smart display side, the Echo Show 10 is $80 off and down to $170, but we found that auto-rotating display to offer little extra value over the Echo Show 8 in our review.

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Google’s NotebookLM, a note-taking app that’s infused with a large language model, is now available to everyone in the US. The company built NotebookLM to only pull information from a custom dataset. So you might use it, for instance, to help write a paper based on a specific set of PDFs and only rely on details from those documents.

The idea is that, by sticking to a custom dataset, the information NotebookLM handles will always be relevant to your specific needs as opposed to a more general chatbot that might draw from the entirety of the public internet. Google debuted NotebookLM as Project Tailwind at I/O this year before rebranding it and it says the tech is based on its Gemini Pro model. 

Google also notes that personal data isn't used to train NotebookLM, so any sensitive or private details in your sources will remain hidden. That is, unless you share the sources with collaborators.

Along with making NotebookLM more broadly available (Google has been granting access based on a waitlist over the last five months), Google has announced a string of new features for the software. It plans to roll these out over the next few weeks with the aim of easing the transition between reading, taking notes and writing.

Among other things, the chatbot can format your notes into a newsletter, script outline or a marketing plan draft and export everything to Google Docs with one click. You'll be able to pin notes to a Noteboard space above the chat box, save and pin responses from the chatbot as notes and hide the source material if you want to focus on jotting down your thoughts with fewer distractions. You'll soon be able to ask the AI to focus on certain sources (of which you'll be able to have up to 100 in total) or jump to a citation from a chat response or saved note.

NotebookLM will also suggest some actions based on selected text or notes. At the outset, you'll be able to combine notes, summarize several of them or create an outline or study guide.

Genetic testing company 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent customers from filing class action lawsuits or participating in a jury trial days after reports revealing that attackers accessed personal information of nearly 7 million people — half of the company’s user base — in an October hack.

In an email sent to customers earlier this week viewed by Engadget, the company announced that it had made updates to the “Dispute Resolution and Arbitration section” of its terms “to include procedures that will encourage a prompt resolution of any disputes and to streamline arbitration proceedings where multiple similar claims are filed.” Clicking through leads customers to the newest version of the company’s terms of service that essentially disallow customers from filing class action lawsuits, something that more people are likely to do now that the scale of the hack is clearer.

“To the fullest extent allowed by applicable law, you and we agree that each party may bring disputes against the other party only in an individual capacity and not as a class action or collective action or class arbitration,” the updated terms say. Notably, 23andMe will automatically opt customers into the new terms unless they specifically inform the company that they disagree by sending an email within 30 days of receiving the firm’s notice. Unless they do that, they “will be deemed to have agreed to the new terms,” the company’s email tells customers.

23andMe did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.

In October, the San Francisco-based genetic testing company headed by Anne Wojcicki announced that hackers had accessed sensitive user information including photos, full names, geographical location, information related to ancestry trees, and even names of related family members. The company said that no genetic material or DNA records were exposed. Days after that attack, the hackers put up profiles of hundreds of thousands of Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people for sale on the internet. But until last week, it wasn’t clear how many people were impacted.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 23andMe said that “multiple class action claims” have already been against the company in both federal and state court in California and state court in Illinois, as well as in Canadian courts.

Forbidding people from filing class action lawsuit, as Axios notes, hides information about the proceedings from the public since affected parties typically attempt to resolve disputes with arbitrators in private. Experts, such as Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Nancy Kim, an online contractor expert, told Axios that changing its terms wouldn’t be enough to protect 23andMe in court.

The company’s new terms are sparking outrage online. “Wow they first screw up and then they try to screw their users by being shady,” a user who goes by Daniel Arroyo posted on X. “Seems like they’re really trying to cover their asses,” wrote another user called Paul Duke, “and head off lawsuits after announcing hackers got personal data about customers.”

We’ve covered Framework’s modular, easy-to-repair laptops plenty here at Engadget and with good reason. Its mission is to end the need for users to toss out an otherwise perfect machine when just one component goes dead. But, as the company matures, it also has to tackle the issue of what happens when people choose to upgrade for performance reasons. An early buyer might choose to swap their 11th-gen Intel mainboard for any of its successors, or leap across the aisle to get the newly-released AMD edition. That leaves them with an otherwise perfectly functional mainboard they either have to sell on, turn into a hobby project or, more likely, leave on a shelf gathering dust as a just-in-case option. That’s why the company hooked up with Cooler Master to give you a far better alternative.

The Framework x Cooler Master Mainboard Case is a $39 barebones chassis into which you can put your existing Framework mainboard. For that, you get a cool-looking plastic frame and a kickstand, with four VESA mount screws buried inside and, uh, not much else. That’s the point, since you can either cannibalize other components from your laptop, use any compatible spares that are lying around, or pick up fresh ones from Framework on the cheap. I’d say this is aimed not at Framework’s dedicated and talented hobbyist community, which has made a raft of great 3D-printed cases on their own. Instead, it’s pointed at people like me, who break into a sweat whenever a DIY Perks video mentions soldering. (If you’re reading this, doubtless you’ve seen that video about preserving broken laptops but I also bet you’ve never tried to actually do it.)

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

If you’re starting from a clean slate, you can probably pick up a better-specced mini PC for less cash. But if you’re already inside Framework’s ecosystem, and you have one of those boards to hand, as well as some other spare components, then this makes perfect sense. After all, that first generation model I tested was packing a Core i7-1165G7; more than enough power for everyday tasks like browsing, productivity work or for use as a media center. The case is flexible enough to let you pick and choose what accessories you need or use, including pre-drilled holes for you to add SMA antennas rather than reusing a laptop WiFi module. Oh, and you’ll need to buy a 100W charger since the mainboard was designed to be used with a battery.

The byword is flexibility both in letting you choose how you want to craft your system, but also a comment on the build quality. $39 doesn’t buy you a lot, and the two halves of the plastic case are a lot flimsier than I would like. It doesn’t help that you don’t so much mount the components onto the backboard as place them in, and then they’re held in place when you screw the lid in. It’s easy enough to drop all of the parts in – although a lack of cable routing for the WiFi was an issue when it came to seal this all up. Not to mention, the first time I screwed it all in, the USB-C ports for the expansion cards didn’t sit properly over the holes for them to pass through.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

The only other roadblock to my initial setup was that I couldn’t get the unit to push video to the TV. You need to set the mainboard into Standalone mode, but the iFixit-style guides don’t make it massively clear about how you go about doing that. Especially if you spend half an hour in the BIOS looking for the setting to no avail before and after installing a batch of updates. In the end I just dumped the board back in the case to see if anything had changed and, to my surprise, it booted straight to the screen. It’s worth hoping Framework remembers its user base might have a broader range of abilities than it expects and that no instruction should be made off-hand.

Once I’d dealt with those teething woes and poked the WiFi cables back into place by shoving a screwdriver through the VESA mount hole, I was ready to go. Since this is a Framework laptop just outside its usual chassis, you get the same pick of USB-C expansion cards as usual. With a HDMI-out and a couple of USB-A ports for peripherals, I was streaming 4K video without issue just as soon as I’d signed into Plex. Fundamentally, for those of us too timid to even think about rolling their own hobby project, it’s tools like this that make these projects accessible.

In 2022, Traeger began a major overhaul of its Wi-Fi-connected smart grill lineup. Only the most affordable Pro Series models have been left untouched as the redesign process that began with the Timberline made its way to the Ironwood this year. The company has debuted a host of changes along the way, all aimed at more efficient cooking, easier cleanup, customization and expanded smart features. A lot of what Traeger added to the Timberline trickled down to the Ironwood ($1,800), but this model is now significantly more expensive as a result and the best additions are still reserved for the most premium model.

A major redesign

When Traeger revealed its overhauled Timberline grills last year, one of the biggest updates was a new touchscreen display. The company has brought that to the new Ironwood grills too, replacing the single-knob navigation with a larger dial and a touchscreen. There are dedicated buttons for the full menu, timers, Keep Warm and Super Smoke to the left of the touchscreen, above the two wired food probe ports. While how you use the display to control the grill has changed, and the larger full-color panel is easier to see, I’m not convinced these grills needed a touchscreen. It doesn’t add a ton to the overall experience and a simpler update of just a larger, color display would’ve been more than enough and might kept prices down.

Another item Traeger borrowed from the Timberline is its so-called Pop-And-Lock (PAL) accessory rail. This is one new addition that I can get behind. It allows you to customize the grill based on your needs or what you’re cooking. PAL add-ons include a folding front shelf, storage bin, butcher paper/paper towel roll, tool hooks and a cup holder. These all snap onto a rail that goes almost the entire way around the grill and can be easily moved or removed as needed.

Inside, Traeger replaced the solid steel drip plate that directed grease to the catch can and the smaller fire pot shield. Now there are two larger pieces of metal that span the width of the grill. First, a diffuser spreads heat over the cooking surface and directs ash to the catch keg. A second piece above it still serves as a drip tray to channel grease to the same bin as the ash debris, but it now has holes around the outside to guide smoke and heat around the cooking surface. A dual-wall construction of the chamber itself provides better insulation, so temps remain consistent even in the colder months. Lastly, the auger was raised above the fire pot, so pellets drop down to burn. This should help with jams and lower the risk of auger and hopper fires. Once again, these changes debuted on the Timberline, but it’s nice to see them carry over to the mid-range Ironwood.

The key differences between the Ironwood and its pricier Timberline sibling are the vertical space inside the grill, the cart/leg design and the lack of an induction burner on the left side. Where the Timberline has two adjustable racks above the main cooking surface, the Ironwood only has one, and its maximum height is lower than that of the Timberline. Cooking grates on the Ironwood are also porcelain where they’re stainless steel on the more expensive model.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Traeger nixed the four-legged design on the new Timberline in favor of a storage cart look that’s similar to Weber’s gas grills. The enclosed space is a nice addition that didn’t make it to the Ironwood, but the company did add an open shelf underneath that bolts to the legs. You can easily put a pellet bin and unused grates here when you’re not using them.

Lastly, the Ironwood doesn’t have the induction burner that the Timberline offers. It does have a larger side shelf than the previous iteration of the Ironwood, with a removable panel and an additional outlet on the back that suggests support for a burner add-on, but Traeger doesn’t currently sell one. I asked the company if it plans to do so in the future, but it declined to comment on unreleased products.

Upgraded smart grilling

Following its acquisition of Meater in 2021, Traeger made the company’s wireless meat probes standard equipment on the 2022 Timberline grills. Those devices get cumbersome cables out of the way, while sending internal food temperatures to the Traeger app for remote monitoring. The new Ironwood grill also supports the specially-designed Meater probes, but they don’t come in the box. Instead, you’ll have to make an additional $230 purchase to get a two-pack — which is more than if you bought two Meater Plus probes.

The problem is this two-pack only works with Traeger’s touchscreen grills and doesn’t sync with Meater’s app. This means you don’t get ambient temperature readings or estimated completion times — two valuable pieces of information. The Ironwood does come with two wired probes and the info from those is viewable inside of the Traeger app just like it has been on previous WiFIRE-equipped grills.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

The company debuted a smart pellet sensor in 2019 and, while it would later ship grills with it included, it was a separate bolt-on component that needed to be installed. With the Timberline and Ironwood, this is now a fully-integrated piece of tech. Like before, the sensor monitors your pellet level and the app will alert you so you don’t have to keep watch. It’s not perfect — it can be tricked by tunneling when pellets are pulled in by the auger — but it’s good enough to keep tabs on the hopper while you’re relaxing.

Traeger has made the initial seasoning process almost entirely automatic. On previous grills, you had to manually set the temperature and a timer to burn off any residue from the manufacturing process, but now the WiFIRE controller handles all of that for you. You simply press a button and the grill keeps you posted on how much time is left. When you shut it down after cooking, either on the display or via the app, you get another countdown so you know the status of this 15-to-25-minute process that burns off excess pellets in the fire pot (time varies depending on your cooking temperature).

Cooking with the Ironwood

Changes aside, cooking with the Ironwood is as simple and straightforward as ever. Once you select your cooking temperature with the dial or send a recipe to the grill from the Traeger app, all you have to do is press the touchscreen to ignite it. The Ironwood reaches temperature in about 12 minutes, whether you're smoking at 225 degrees Fahrenheit or searing at 500. You’ll get a notification when the grill is preheated so you know it’s time to start cooking.

The Traeger app continues to be a wealth of information for cooks of all skill levels. The software houses over 1,000 recipes with adjustable ingredient lists based on how many people you plan to cook for. Step-by-step guidance is there, along with the ability to monitor grill and food temperatures remotely, and activate Super Smoke or Keep Warm modes as needed. The app still allows you to adjust grill temp, although there were a few times during my test I had to make that request twice. 99 percent of the time it works on the first attempt, but every once in a while the app needs a second prodding before sending the info to the Ironwood.

Over the course of a few months with the Ironwood, I cooked a range of foods at a variety of temperatures. Those include low-and-slow barbecue pork shoulders and turkey breasts, with hotter baking, roasting and searing thrown in too. I also cooked a few recipes where the temperature had to be adjusted during the cook, like the Over The Top Chili method that’s popular online these days. The Ironwood consistently produced great results, with Traeger’s trademark wood-fired flavors.

Traeger touts easier cleanup on the Ironwood thanks to the combination grease and ash keg underneath the grill. Part of that is also the heat diffuser that the company says directs ash to that bin. While it is an improvement that most of the waste goes into one container, you have to help some of the ash get there, and a significant amount of it makes its way on top of the diffuser. Some even ventures up onto the drip tray. You still need a shop vac to do a thorough cleaning every few cooking cycles and you’ll need an all-natural grill cleaner to get the grime off the drip pan, grates, sides and lid.

The competition

The pellet grill industry is increasingly crowded. Most hardware stores now carry a variety of them, most of which at least cover the basics and are available at a range of prices. Recteq’s Patio Legend 410 is under $600, for example. While it’s equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity, it’s more compact with only 410 square inches of grilling space. Pit Boss’ most premium models, the Navigator Series, are available for $999. The smaller Navigator 850 comes with wireless features but the larger Navigator 1150 requires an $150 upgrade for Wi-Fi. I’ve never tested a Pit Boss grill, so I can’t vouch for them, but they’re extremely popular and readily available at a host of big box stores in the US.

For more direct alternatives to the new Timberline, I’d consider the Recteq Backyard Beast 1000 or the Weber SmokeFire grills. The Backyard Beast ($1,099) is the largest “traditional” pellet grill in Recteq’s redesigned 2023 lineup introduced in late October. It offers slightly more cooking space at 1,014 square inches and includes new legs, improved wheels and a revamped controller. Weber’s SmokeFire smart grill debuted in 2020, and while the company has made some tweaks since, the same basic design remains. The main benefit is Weber Connect, the company’s grilling app that provides step-by-step guidance, including videos, and estimated completion times. The larger EX6 model has just over 1,000 square inches of grilling capacity and it’s currently available for $999.

When shopping for a pellet grill, remember that they all offer the same basic functionality. You’ll pay more for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to monitor things from your phone, but every model is capable of both low-and-slow smoking, high-heat searing and everything in between. There’s some variation in the max temperature, but the low end of that range is typically 500 degrees Farenheit. That’s plenty of heat for finishing off a steak. Where companies vary most is design and how common features are presented, so you’ll want to pay attention to things like how the metal components on the inside are arranged, how the grates fit in the cooking chamber and the grill controller.

Wrap-up

The 2023 Ironwood starts at $1,800 and the XL model that I tested is $2,000. That’s $500 more than the previous versions, the Ironwood 650 and Ironwood 885. In fact, it’s also more expensive than both of the first-generation Timberline grills, which were top-of-the-line options at the time. I appreciate a lot of the changes that Traeger made, and many of them are improvements, but they’re now significantly more expensive than the most high-end models from the competition. The 2019 Ironwood is a workhorse that still works well and I’d argue it’s a better grill for most people. Ironwood used to be a solid mid-range option in the company’s lineup, but now it’s just another pricey alternative.

The Sonos Era 100 wireless bookshelf speaker is back down to $199, matching prices found during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That’s a discount of around $50, as the MSRP for this speaker is $250. If you squint, it’s almost like the holiday spending season never ended. (That’s because it mostly didn’t.)

This sale is for the both the black and white colorways, suiting those with diverging aesthetic preferences. The Sonos Era 100 boasts touch controls and voice controls, like many modern speakers. It’s wireless via Bluetooth or WiFi, which is handy, but also features a line in for connecting record players, home stereo systems and other audio devices that require an analog input.

We admired the Sonos Era 100 in our official review, calling out the excellent sound quality for the price, the simple yet attractive form factor and the built-in mics that allow for easy TruePlay tuning. For the uninitiated, TruePlay measures how sound reflects off of your walls and furniture to fine tune the speakers for optimal playback.

It has Alexa built-in, but recently lost support for Google Assistant, which is a bummer. You can, however, also access proprietary voice controls. The stereo separation is minimal, but that comes with the territory of trying to use a single speaker to complete the work of a matched stereo pair.

Sonos is also selling other speakers at Black Friday/Cyber Monday prices. The wireless soundbar Beam is down to $400 instead of $500 and the portable Roam speaker now costs $134 instead of $180. All of these speakers make for great stocking stuffers, except for the fact that they likely won’t actually fit in stockings.

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We made it to 200 episodes folks! This week, Cherlynn, Devindra, Producer Ben Ellman and Senior Writer Sam Rutherford dive into some of the biggest tech developments since we rebooted the podcast in 2019. Remember, that was a pre-pandemic, pre-generative AI world! We also highlight a few guest interviews worth revisiting, like our chats with Bill Nye and Ann Druyan.

As for recent news, we quickly recap the OpenAI drama around Sam Altman’s ouster, discuss Google’s new Gemini AI platform, and chat about the revelation that governments are spying on our push notifications. Cherlynn also details her experience with Apple’s Personal Voice feature for iPhones and gives us a demo of her AI-generated digital voice.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

Topics

• It’s our 200th episode! We look back on what’s changed in tech since the show relaunched – 1:02

• Sam Altman sacked and reinstated, a recap of the OpenAI drama – 44:29

• Google announces Gemini AI, its answer to GPT-4 – 50:04

• Microsoft upgrades Copilot with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo and DALL-E 3 – 54:23

• Governments are spying on push notifications, Google and Apple can’t do anything about it – 55:41

• Mark Gurman reports Apple is working on revamped iPad Pros and an M3 MacBook Air – 58:02

• Cherlynn’s experience with the new iOS accessibility feature Personal Voice – 58:58

• Pop culture picks – 1:05:01

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Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien