Earlier this year, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was consulting on a possible probe into Google and Apple's dominance in the mobile phone market. Now, the regulator has announced that it received "widespread support" for its proposals and has launched a market investigation into the two tech giant's "duopoly" in cloud gaming and mobile browsers.
"Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google," said the CMA's interim chief executive, Sarah Cardell in a statement. "We plan to investigate whether the concerns we have heard are justified and, if so, identify steps to improve competition and innovation in these sectors."
The CMA noted that Apple and Google have a "stranglehold" over mobile device operating systems, app stores and browsers. It said 97 percent of UK web browsing in 2021 happened on either Apple or Google's browser engines, "so any restrictions on these engines can have a major impact on users' experiences." It also noted that cloud gaming services count 800,000 UK users, "but restriction on their distribution could hamper growth in this sector."
Many responses to its earlier consultation came from browser vendors, web developers and cloud gaming services, the CMA said. Developers in particular complained about bugs and glitches in web pages, giving them "no choice but to create bespoke mobile apps when a website might be sufficient."
The UK authority has been a thorn in the side of technology companies of late. It recently forced Meta to sell Giphy after the former lost an appeal, is investigating Google separately over competition in ads, and is looking into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition. "Market investigations can result in changes to companies’ behavior and restrictions, which improve competition and lead to greater choice for consumers and better-quality products," it said with regard to its latest probe.
Developers at Mysk claim Apple's anonymous usage data for some of its in-house apps includes a Directory Services Identifier (DSID) uniquely linked to your Apple ID and iCloud data. Mysk notes that Apple's tool to prevent third-party app tracking debuted in iOS 14.5, so this shouldn't affect other software you use on your devices. For example, the developers noted your behavior when browsing apps in the iPhone’s App Store is sent to Apple with this ID. As Gizmodo also notes, Apple encrypts the usage data so isn't necessarily processing personal and general info together.
Apple continues to draw a lot of attention to its privacy policies, as it has used them to differentiate its hardware from rivals. You might remember the “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” ads that appeared in Las Vegas at CES one year. We’re still waiting to hear from Apple.
– Mat Smith
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Blue Verified won't be coming back until Twitter can stop impersonation.
Twitter won't be firing and laying off more people, Elon Musk apparently told remaining staff during an all-hands meeting. According to The Verge, which heard a partial recording of the event, the company is even actively looking for people to fill roles in engineering and sales.
Musk announced during the meeting that Twitter might not be relaunching paid verification for a while. It had to pause its $8-a-month Blue subscription with verification shortly after it was launched due to a steep rise in impersonation and fake accounts. The service won’t return until Twitter is confident it can stop impersonation.
Ubisoft will bring its games to Steam again nearly four years after it turned its attention to the Epic Games Store and its own games launcher. First up is one of the publisher's biggest games of the last few years, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which will be available on Steam on December 6th. City builder Anno 1800 and the free-to-play Roller Champions will hit Steam at a later date. It might be a good time to start Valhalla: Ubisoft will release the game's last content update on December 6th, concluding Eivor’s story.
Picking a gift for someone who loves gaming can be tough. New games appear all the time: Do they already have this game? Have they already played that game? To save you some trouble (and some refunds), these gifts are a bit different but should be appreciated all the same. You may also find something to pique your interest.
The Artemis 1 spacecraft was just 81 miles above the lunar surface.
NASA's Orion spacecraft has successfully completed one of the key maneuvers of its maiden journey: a flyby of the Moon during which it got as close as 81 miles to the lunar surface. The flyby burn was one of two necessary maneuvers for Orion to enter its retrograde orbit around the Moon. Next up is the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn, which is slated to take place this Friday. Orion will remain in this orbit to test various systems, including guidance, navigation, communication, power and thermal control.
Code sleuths at Mysk are challenging Apple's vaunted focus on privacy. The developers claim Apple's anonymous usage data for some in-house apps includes a Directory Services Identifier (DSID) uniquely linked to your Apple ID and iCloud data. Apple could potentially use this DSID to pinpoint your App Store browsing habits, according to Mysk. This seemingly contradicts Apple's assertion that "none" of the data is personally identifying, and appears to extend to iOS 16.
The researchers previously shared findings that iOS 14.6 sends large volumes of first-party app activity to Apple, even if you completely disable device analytics or otherwise limit collection. This includes your iPhone model, keyboard languages and other details that could theoretically be used to fingerprint your device. Gizmodo notes that users filed a class action lawsuit against Apple after Mysk published its privacy data.
🚨 New Findings: 🧵 1/6 Apple’s analytics data include an ID called “dsId”. We were able to verify that “dsId” is the “Directory Services Identifier”, an ID that uniquely identifies an iCloud account. Meaning, Apple’s analytics can personally identify you 👇 pic.twitter.com/3DSUFwX3nV
We've asked Apple for comment, and will let you know if we hear back. Mysk pointed out that Apple's tool to prevent third-party app tracking debuted in iOS 14.5, so this shouldn't affect other software you use on your devices.
Just what Apple sees isn't clear. As Gizmodoexplains, Apple encrypts the usage data and isn't necessarily processing personal and general info together. The problem, as you might guess, is that Apple doesn't detail its analytics collection practices. There's a concern Apple might not be honoring its privacy promises, even if the data gathering is limited.
When you think of podcast recording, you probably picture someone sitting in a studio with a Neumann microphone that costs more than your rent. Spotify wants to change that, making podcast creation something you can do in noisy environments and without expensive gear. The company's one-button voice isolation feature, Podcast Audio Enhancement, debuts today in Spotify's Anchor app for podcast creators.
The feature requires a single button press in the Anchor app. Doing so drowns out background noise, bringing your voice to the forefront. So if you want to record your latest episode on a crowded convention floor or at home with barking dogs or crying babies, you theoretically can, though we can’t say how effective it is just yet. In addition, the Anchor app lets you toggle the feature on and off during playback to compare the results.
Spotify isn't the only Big Tech company to invest in voice isolation, as AI advances lead to better filtration without expensive dynamic microphones. For example, Zoom and Google Meet offer background noise reduction tech in virtual-meeting apps. But Spotify trying to improve audio to the point where it’s good enough to release as a podcast feels a bit tougher than just clearing things up on a video call.
After facing a Joe Rogan PR crisis earlier this year, Spotify continues its push to make itself a one-stop shop for podcast listening and creation. The push began in 2017 and accelerated in the following years as it became more evident how lucrative podcasts can be. The streaming service acquired publishing companies, struck a now-defunct deal with the Obamas and snatched up online production tools like Soundtrap. Spotify bought Anchor in 2019 for over $150 million and has since used it to make podcast creation as simple and effortless as possible.
You may be focused on getting gifts for others right now, but the Black Friday and the holiday shopping period is one of the best times of the year to pick up an upgrade for your living room. This year is no different, with a bunch of TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony and others already dropping in price, and we're also already seeing discounts on things like streaming devices, soundbars and more. While you pick up things like the Chromecast with Google TV or a Fire TV Stick for friends and family, consider investing in something new for your home entertainment system while you can do so without breaking the bank. Here are the best TV and home entertainment deals we found for Black Friday 2022.
Samsung TV deals
Samsung
Now's a great time to grab a Samsung TV for much less than usual. Whether you're interested in one of the more affordable Q60B or Q80B sets or a higher-end Neo QLED TV, there are a bunch of good discounts to consider. This 65-inch OLED model is 40 percent off and down to $1,800, while this massive 85-inch QLED set is on sale for only $1,600. There are even a few Frame TVs on sale as well, including this 55-inch 2022 model for less than $1,000.
Sony has discounted a number of its higher-end 4K TVs and a few OLED sets as well for Black Friday. One of the best values overall is this 65-inch Sony X80K 4K smart TV for just under $700. It's a 2022 TV that has the company's 4K HDR Processor X1 that produces smooth, clear video, and it has support for Dolby Vision and Atmos, too. On the OLED side, you can pick up this 2022 65-inch A95K Bravia XR OLED set for $1,000 less than usual.
Both 2021 and 2022 LG TVs have been discounted for Black Friday. If you have your heart set on an OLED, this 65-inch LG G2 Gallery Edition OLED TV is just over $800 off and down to $2,200. While that's still expensive for a TV, the Gallery Edition sets are some of the best that LG makes. On the more affordable side of things, this 55-inch QNED80 Mini-LED smart TV is $150 off and down to just under $650.
Most of Hisense's TVs are on sale for the holiday shopping season. If you're looking to spend as little as possible on a still-decent TV, then you can't get much better than Hisense's 43-inch R6-Series Roku TV for $200. It supports 4K content and Dolby Vision, plus it runs on Roku's smart TV operating system. If you're willing to spend a bit more, you can get the 75-inch A6-Series 4K Google TV, with support for Dolby Vision HDR, DTS Virtual X and built-in Chromecast, for only $500.
Both the 4K and HD Chromecasts with Google TV are on sale for Black Friday, coming in at $40 and $18, respectively. These two streamers are essentially the same, expect for the resolution that each support: the higher-end model with stream 4K content, while the other tops out at 1080p. They share a compact design and both come with a handy remote that makes navigating the Google TV interface much easier. Plus, you can speak to the Google Assistant through these dongles, calling about it to search for things to watch, answer questions and more.
The Roku Streambar has been discounted to $80 for Black Friday, which is $50 less than usual and a record low. It's one of the easiest ways to up your TV's audio game, and get 4K streaming technology as well. The compact Streambar offers much better sound quality than most TV's built-in speakers can provide, plus it'll turn your set into a Roku smart TV as well. And if you want to use it as a Bluetooth speaker, you have that option as well.
Roku's 2022 Ultra set-top box has dropped to a new low of $70 for Black Friday. The actually box itself hasn't changed much since the previous version: it still supports 4K HDR10+ content, Dolby Vision and Atmos, plus AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. Most of the upgrades are in the Voice Remote Pro that comes bundled with the streamer. The new remote has a 3.5mm headphone jack for private listening, two programmable shortcut buttons and a mic-disable button.
Roku's Streaming Stick 4K is on sale for $25 right now, or half off its usual price. This small dongle connects directly to your TV's HDMI port and streams content in 4K, supports Dolby Vision and offers voice command capabilities via its remote. This updated model also has fast, long-range WiFi and a private-listening feature that lets you listen to your TV's audio video the Roku mobile app.
Roku's Express has dropped to only $18 for Black Friday, which is one of the best prices we've seen. If you just want an inexpensive streaming device with basic features, the Express is a solid option. It comes with a high-speed HDMI cable to connect it to your TV, and it supports HD content plus private listening via Roku's mobile app.
Amazon's most affordable streaming stick is on sale for only $15 right now, which is half off its usual price. This is a good option if you want to upgrade an old, "dumb" TV in your home into a smart one. The Fire TV Stick Lite provides access to Amazon's Fire TV OS, through which you can access services like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+ and others. The TV Stick Lite supports FHD content, and you can use the included Voice Remote Lite to ask Alexa to show you the content you want to watch. If you want to upgrade a bit to Dolby Atmos, you can get the standard Fire TV Stick for only $5 more.
Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K has dropped to $25, which is 50 percent off its normal price. This dongle provides 4K streaming support with Dolby Vision and HDR10+, plus Dolby Atmos audio capabilities. Also, if you have Alexa-compatible home security cameras set up, you can use the streaming stick's live picture-in-picture feature to check out those camera feeds directly from your TV.
Amazon's most capable streaming stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, is down to only $35 for Black Friday. It has all of the features of the standard Fire TV Stick 4K: UHD streaming capabilities, Dolby Vision and Atmos support, and the live picture-in-picture feature. But on top of that, it has WiFi 6 support and a bit more RAM than all other Fire streaming sticks, improving its overall performance.
The previous-generation Fire TV Cube has been discounted to $60 for Black Friday, which is 50 percent off its usual price and a new record low. This set-top box supports 4K, HDR content with Dolby Vision and Atmos, plus hands-free Alexa commands. There is a newer version available now, which adds things like WiFi 6E capabilities, a speedier processor and additional HDMI and USB ports, but it'll cost you $140.
Our favorite budget-friendly soundbar is on sale for only $120 right now, which is 25 percent off its usual price and a near record low. You're getting a 2.1-channel setup with this accessory, plus a 4.5-inch wireless sub along with it. It may not have WiFi connectivity, but that's the main tradeoff you'll have to make. Otherwise, it supports HDMI ARC/eARC, DTS Virtual:X and Bluetooth, and it has a 3.5mm aux jack as well.
Vizio's Elevate soundbar is $300 off and down to $500 for Black Friday. This is a great pick for movie lovers or anyone who wants a cinematic audio experience in their home. The soundbar system has adaptive height speakers that automatically rotate upward or forward when playing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. Plus, it has a redesigned wireless subwoofer and integrated tweeters and woofers, as well.
The holiday shopping period is a great time to stock up on what might be some less-than-exciting gadgets like storage drives to keep your machines running smoothly. We typically see some of the best storage deals of the year around this time, and the brand Crucial has kicked off Black Friday early this year by discounting a number of its internal and external drives. A long-time favorite, the MX500, is on sale for only $68 for the 1TB version. That's 32 percent off and the lowest price we've seen, by far.
If you have an aging computer that could benefit from extra storage, the MX500 is a good option. It has a 2.5-inch design that should fit most laptops and desktops, and it supports read speeds up to 560MB/s and write speeds up to 510MB/s. Along with AES 256-bit hardware encryption, it also has integrated power loss immunity, which should save your work if your power gets cut unexpectedly. We also appreciate that the MX500 comes in a number of capacity options. The 1TB is arguably best for most people, but you can get it as low as 250GB or as high as 4TB — and all configurations are discounted right now.
Also included in this sale are Crucial P3 and P5 Plus internal drives. The latter earned a spot on our list of favorite drives for the PS5 as a solid budget option. It's on sale for $94, which is a new record low, but just keep in mind that you'll need to provide your own heatsink if you intend to use it with Sony's console.
As for portable drives, but the X6 and the X8 have been discounted to $122 and $140, respectively, for their 1TB models. Their designs are slightly different, with the X6 being more square-shaped and the X8 leaning rectangular, but the bigger difference comes in their max speeds. The X6 can hit up to 800MB/s in read speeds, while you'll get up to 1,050MB/s on the X8. Both of them are designed to work across a bunch of different platforms, including Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad, Android and others, and they both have decent durability with drop, shock and vibration protection.
Following its stretchy LCD panels, LG Display's latest gadget is a super-thin speaker designed to be installed in car interiors while remaining "invisible." The Thin Actuator Sound Solution was developed with a "global audio company" (LG didn't say which), as a replacement for traditional speakers in automobiles.
The system eschews the usual voice coils, cones and magnets found in most speakers, instead employing so-called film-like exciter technology. That can vibrate off display panels and various materials inside the car body to enable a "rich, 3D immersive sound experience," according to the company.
With the panels' small dimensions (5.9 x 3.5 inches and just a tenth of an inch thick) and 1.4 ounce weight, they can be hidden inside car interior parts like the dashboard, headliner, pillar, and headrests. That frees up spaces normally occupied by speakers "without compromising sound quality," according to LG.
The concept isn't entirely new, as we've seen similar vibrating panels used in OLED TVs from Sony and LG itself. However, car interiors are a new application with appreciable benefits, if LG Display's claims about sound quality are accurate. We may find out for ourselves soon, as LG is due to show the technology off at CES 2023 (yep, it's right around the corner). LG said the speakers will be commercialized in the first half of 2023.
Autonomous vacuum maker iRobot is a lot like Tesla, not necessarily by reinventing an existing concept — vacuums, robots and electric cars all existed before these two companies came on the scene — but by imbuing their products with that intangible quirk that makes people sit up and take notice. Just as Tesla ignited the public's imagination as to what an electric car could be and do, iRobot has expanded our perception of how domestic robots can fit into our homes and lives.
More than two dozen leading experts from across the technology sector have come together in ‘You Are Not Expected to Understand This’: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the Worldto discuss how seemingly innocuous lines of code have fundamentally shaped and hemmed the modern world. In the excerpt below, Upshot Deputy Editor Lowen Liu, explores the development of iRobot's Roomba vacuum and its unlikely feline brand ambassadors.
According to Colin Angle, the CEO and cofounder of iRobot, the Roomba faced some early difficulties before it was rescued by two events. The disc-shaped robot vacuum had gotten off to a hot start in late 2002, with good press and a sales partner in the novelty chain store Brookstone. Then sales started to slow, just as the company had spent heavily to stock up on inventory. The company found itself on the other side of Black Friday in 2003 with thousands upon thousands of Roombas sitting unsold in warehouses.
Then around this time, Pepsi aired a commercial starring comedian Dave Chappelle. In the ad, Chappelle teases a circular robot vacuum with his soft drink while waiting for a date. The vacuum ends up eating the comedian’s pants—schlupp. Angle remembers that at a team meeting soon after, the head of e-commerce said something like: “Hey, why did sales triple yesterday?” The second transformative moment for the company was the rapid proliferation of cat videos on a new video-sharing platform that launched at the end of 2005. A very specific kind of cat video: felines pawing suspiciously at Roombas, leaping nervously out of Roombas’ paths, and, of course, riding on them. So many cats, riding on so many Roombas. It was the best kind of advertising a company could ask for: it not only popularized the company’s product but made it charming. The Roomba was a bona fide hit.
By the end of 2020, iRobot had sold 35 million vacuums, leading the charge in a booming robot vacuum market.
The Pepsi ad and the cat videos appear to be tales of early days serendipity, lessons on the power of good luck and free advertising. They also appear at first to be hardware stories— stories of cool new objects entering the consumer culture. But the role of the Roomba’s software can’t be underestimated. It’s the programming that elevates the round little suckers from being mere appliances to something more. Those pioneering vacuums not only moved, they decided in some mysterious way where to go. In the Pepsi commercial, the vacuum is given just enough personality to become a date-sabotaging sidekick. In the cat videos the Roomba isn’t just a pet conveyer, but a diligent worker, fulfilling its duties even while carrying a capricious passenger on its back. For the first truly successful household robot, the Roomba couldn’t just do its job well; it had to win over customers who had never seen anything like it.
Like many inventions, the Roomba was bred of good fortune but also a kind of inevitability. It was the brainchild of iRobot’s first hire, former MIT roboticist Joe Jones, who began trying to make an autonomous vacuum in the late 1980s. He joined iRobot in 1992, and over the next decade, as it worked on other projects, the company developed crucial expertise in areas of robotics that had nothing to do with suction: it developed a small, efficient multithreaded operating system; it learned to miniaturize mechanics while building toys for Hasbro; it garnered cleaning know-how while building large floor sweepers for SC Johnson; it honed a spiral-based navigation system while creating mine-hunting robots for the US government. It was a little like learning to paint a fence and wax a car and only later realizing you’ve become a Karate Kid.
The first Roombas needed to be cheap—both to make and (relatively) to sell—to have any chance of success reaching a large number of American households. There was a seemingly endless list of constraints: a vacuum that required hardly any battery power, and navigation that couldn’t afford to use fancy lasers—only a single camera. The machine wasn’t going to have the ability to know where it was in a room or remember where it had been. Its methods had to be heuristic, a set of behaviors that combined trial and error with canned responses to various inputs. If the Roomba were “alive,” as the Pepsi commercial playfully suggested, then its existence would more accurately have been interpreted as a progression of instants—did I just run into something? Am I coming up to a ledge? And if so, what should I do next? All conditions prepared for in its programming. An insect, essentially, reacting rather than planning.
And all this knowledge, limited as it was, had to be stuffed inside a tiny chip within a small plastic frame that also had to be able to suck up dirt. Vacuums, even handheld versions, were historically bulky and clumsy things, commensurate with the violence and noise of what they were designed to do. The first Roomba had to eschew a lot of the more complicated machinery, relying instead on suction that accelerated through a narrow opening created by two rubber strips, like a reverse whistle.
But the lasting magic of those early Roombas remains the way they moved. Jones has said that the navigation of the original Roomba appears random but isn’t—every so often the robot should follow a wall rather than bounce away from it. In the words of the original patent filed by Jones and Roomba cocreator Mark Chiappetta, the system combines a deterministic component with random motion. That small bit of unpredictability was pretty good at covering the floor—and also made the thing mesmerizing to watch. As prototypes were developed, the code had to account for an increasing number of situations as the company uncovered new ways for the robot to get stuck, or new edge cases where the robot encountered two obstacles at once. All that added up until, just before launch, the robot’s software no longer fit on its allotted memory. Angle called up his cofounder, Rodney Brooks, who was about to board a transpacific flight. Brooks spent the flight rewriting the code compiler, packing the Roomba’s software into 30 percent less space. The Roomba was born.
In 2006 Joe Jones moved on from iRobot, and in 2015 he founded a company that makes robots to weed your garden. The weeding robots have not, as yet, taken the gardening world by storm. And this brings us to perhaps the most interesting part of the Roomba’s legacy: how lonely it is.
You’d be in good company if you once assumed that the arrival of the Roomba would open the door to an explosion of home robotics. Angle told me that if someone went back in time and let him know that iRobot would build a successful vacuum, he would have replied, “That’s nice, but what else did we really accomplish?” A simple glance around the home is evidence enough that a future filled with robots around the home has so far failed to come true. Why? Well for one, robotics, as any roboticist will tell you, is hard. The Roomba benefited from a set of very limited variables: a flat floor, a known range of obstacles, dirt that is more or less the same everywhere you go. And even that required dozens of programmed behaviors.
As Angle describes it, what makes the Roomba’s success so hard to replicate is how well it satisfied the three biggest criteria for adoption: it performed a task that was unpleasant; it performed a task that had to be done relatively frequently; and it was affordable. Cleaning toilets is a pain but not done super frequently. Folding laundry is both, but mechanically arduous. Vacuuming a floor, though—well, now you’re talking.
Yet for all the forces that led to the creation of the Roomba, its invention alone wasn’t a guarantee of success. What is it that made those cat videos so much fun? It’s a question that lies close to the heart of the Roomba’s original navigation system: part determinism, part randomness. My theory is that it wasn’t just the Roomba’s navigation that endeared it to fans—it was how halting and unpredictable that movement could be. The cats weren’t just along for an uneventful ride; they had to catch themselves as the robot turned unexpectedly or hit an object. (One YouTuber affectionately described the vacuum as “a drunk coming home from the bar.”) According to this theory, it’s the imperfection that is anthropomorphic. We are still more likely to welcome into our homes robots that are better at slapstick than superhuman feats. It’s worth noting that the top-of-the-line Roomba today will map your rooms and store that map on an app, so that it can choose the most efficient lawnmower-like cleaning path. In these high-end models, the old spiral navigation system is no longer needed. Neither is bumping into walls.
Watching one of these Roombas clean a room is a lot less fun than it used to be. And it makes me wonder what the fate of the Roomba may have been had the first ever robot vacuum launched after the age of smartphones, already armed with the capacity to roll through rooms with precise confidence, rather than stumble along. It’s not always easy, after all, to trust someone who seems to know exactly where they are going.
Sonos has rolled out its Black Friday sale for the year, taking 20 percent off a range of its wireless soundbars, speakers, and subwoofers. It's still Sonos, so some of the discounted devices are still on the expensive side. But deals of any kind on Sonos speakers are uncommon, making this a good opportunity to save if you've been looking to expand an existing Sonos system or try out the company's connected audio gear for the first time.
All of these devices deliver a relatively clean and balanced sound profile, but the main appeal of any Sonos speaker remains the ability to easily link it to other Sonos devices in one connected audio system. We gave the Arc a review score of 85 back in 2020: It's the company's largest soundbar and its most expansive, particularly with Dolby Atmos content. The Beam also supports Atmos, but since it's smaller and lacks the Arc's upward-firing drivers, it can't deliver quite as much detail or bass power. Like the Arc, it's also limited to one HDMI eARC port. It's easier to fit alongside a smaller TV, though. We gave it a score of 88 last year. Not included in the sale is the entry-level Ray soundbar; that one is more compact and a step down sonically, but it's priced at $279.
The Sub, meanwhile, is a powerful wireless subwoofer that greatly improves any Sonos soundbar's bass performance, though it comes at a high cost, even at this deal price. Again, Sonos sells a more compact and affordable option in the $429 Sonos Sub Mini, but that model isn't included in the sale.
We gave the Sonos One a score of 90 when it launched back in 2017; it remains a solid audio-focused alternative to smart speakers from Amazon and Google, albeit a bit less adept at voice control. Both the One and the One SL can be used as surrounds when paired with a Sonos soundbar, too. The Roam/Roam SL and Move, meanwhile, are the only truly wireless speakers Sonos makes, as well as the only Sonos devices to support Bluetooth audio. The Move sounds better, but the Roam is significantly more compact. We gave the Move a review score of 80 in 2019 and the Roam a score of 87 last year.
There are plenty other soundbars, portable speakers, and smart speakers that cost less or perform just as well without locking you into one ecosystem, and it's worth remembering that Sonos hiked the prices of some of these devices last year. Still, this sale makes the company's lineup a little more approachable.
Microsoft’s Black Friday deals are in full swing, meaning you can save a ton on Surface devices, Xbox accessories and more right now. Surface fans will want to check out the bundles on sale for the holiday shopping season. Microsoft is one of your best bets if you want to get most things you’ll need to make a Surface device your own all in one shot, while retailers like Amazon tend to have good deals on devices only.
One of our favorite bundles is on the Surface Laptop Go 2, which made our list of best cheap Windows laptops. Depending on the configuration you choose, you can save more than $200 on a bundle that includes the notebook, a Surface Mobile Mouse and a three-year protection plan. The most affordable config will run you just over $655, and that gets you the Go 2 with a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. But we recommend springing for the next model up — that one has 8GB of RAM, along with the rest of the same specs, and the bundle will cost you just over $735. You’ll appreciate those extra 4GB of RAM when you’re doing any kind of multitasking, including having a plethora of Edge tabs open while running a couple of other apps at the same time.
While most discounts are on slightly older Surface device bundles, there are a couple available for the new Surface Pro 9 and the Surface Laptop 5. For the Pro 9, you can save at minimum $80 on a bundle that includes the two-in-one, a Surface Pro Signature Keyboard, a Microsoft 365 subscription and a two-year protection plan. Arguably most importantly, you can choose from either the Intel- or ARM-powered Pro 9s for this Essential Bundle, and we recommend going with the former to get the best performance possible. As for the Essential Bundle for the Laptop 5, you’re getting the same things as in the Pro 9 bundles, albeit without the keyboard attachment.
If you already have your computer of choice, Microsoft also has a number of good Xbox deals to consider. Not only can you get $50 off the Xbox Series S and get a headset along with it, but the company is also matching a lot of the Xbox controller deals we first spotted at Amazon. That's all on top Microsoft knocking up to 67 percent off certain Xbox titles, too.
