Prime Day might offer just what you need if you're looking for a pair of Android-friendly wireless earbuds. Amazon is selling Google's Pixel Buds Pro at a new all-time low of $160, well below the usual $200 asking price. That's better than the previous best of $175, and conveniently comes as Amazon is offering a free gift card with Pixel 7 orders.
The Pixel Buds Pro are, simply speaking, Google's best earbuds to date. The active noise cancellation is the highlight, with good performance that helps you focus on tunes rather than construction or loud conversations. However, there's also much-improved bass — these may be a good fit if you regularly listen to dance music and rap. Add the seven-hour battery life and they should work well for workday listening, not to mention longer flights.
They aren't flawless. Call quality is merely acceptable, and the transparency mode doesn't offer the natural sound or volume sensitivity of the second-gen AirPods Pro. Features like volume EQ require Android, too, so this isn't necessarily the best pick if you're an iPhone user. At this price, though, the Pixel Buds Pro are a relative bargain if you want better-than-average sound but still have a tight budget.
If you need storage on the go for video editing and other data-hungry applications, SanDisk's rugged 2TB Extreme Portable SSDs are ideal. The 2TB 1,050MB/s model is currently on sale for $160, saving you a full 65 percent on the regular $460 price. If you need even more, the 4TB model is also discounted to just $300, for a savings of 57 percent ($400 off). And finally, if more speed is in order, SanDisk's 2,000MB/s Extreme Pro Portable SSDs also have heavy discounts, with the 2TB model at $220 (57 percent off) and the 4TB model a real steal at $360 (60 percent off).
SanDisk has you covered on the memory card side as well. For smartphone, drone, or GoPro storage, the 512TB Ultra microSDXS UHS-I cards are on just $44, or 56 percent off the regular price. And for more speed, grab the SanDisk Extreme 1TB card for $128, which is 49 percent off the normal $250 price. And SanDisk has big discounts on CFexpress Type B cards for the latest Fujifilm, Canon and Panasonic mirrorless cameras, with the 128GB model available for just $110, for a savings of 56 percent.
Finally, Western Digital has some solid options for PC and PS5 storage updates. You can grab the 1TB WD_BLACK SN770 model (read and write speeds 5,150MB/s and 4,900MB/s) for $80 and save 38 percent. And if you more speed and space, the WD_Black SN850 2TB model (read speed 7,000 MB/s and write speed 5,300 MB/s) is just $208, saving you 31 percent.
For our money, Sony's WH-1000XM5 is the best set of wireless headphones on the market right now. They're absolutely worth considering if you're in need of a new set of cans or simply want an upgrade from what you're already rocking. Now might be the right time to take the leap, as the WH-1000XM5 is on sale for Prime Day. The headphones are currently $348, which is $50 off the regular price.
The WH-1000XM5 offers almost across-the-board improvements over the WH-1000XM4, our previous favorite headphones. An overdue redesign makes this model more comfortable than its predecessors, thanks to improved weight distribution and synthetic leather ear cups.
These headphones have new 30mm carbon fiber drivers, which we felt deliver punchier bass than the M4. In fact, the all-round sound quality is more refined, save for occasional skips while connected to a MacBook Pro — which may be a Bluetooth issue. Bolstered by eight active noise cancellation microphones, double the number found in the M4, the M5's ANC is better at minimizing background noise too. Speaking of mics, we found that the M5 offers the best call quality yet from the 1000X series.
Sony claims you'll get up to 30 hours of listening time from a single charge, and that's with ANC enabled. Our only major gripe with the M5 headphones is that they're typically $50 more expensive than the M4's regular price of $348. At least during the Prime Day sale, that's no longer an issue.
Apple's second-gen AirPods Pro haven't even been available for a month and you can still already find a deal on them. The price has dropped a bit as part of Amazon's major Prime Day sale. You'll be able to pick up a pair of the new AirPods Pro for $235, which is $14 off the regular price. Sure, that's not the steepest discount ever, but it's the lowest price we've seen for the earbuds to date.
We gave the latest AirPods Pro a score of 88 in our review, an improvement over the 87 we gave to the first-gen set. While the design is ostensibly the same, Apple made some upgrades to the internals (including the introduction of an H2 chip), as well as one on the outside. Its latest higher-end earbuds have swipe controls. However, we found them somewhat finicky and had to steady the stem with a thumb in order to control the volume by swiping. The second-gen AirPods Pro also offer so-so battery life (six hours with active noise cancellation enabled and seven hours with it off) and we had mixed results with the Personalized Spatial Audio feature, with a sound profile that was too treble-focused.
Overall, though, we felt that the second-gen AirPods Pro are a solid upgrade over the first-edition earbuds. Apple has improved the sound quality (including for SharePlay audio) and it offers the best transparency mode in any earbuds. The new AirPods Pro deliver solid ANC performance as well. On top of that, the ability to seamlessly switch from one Apple device to another is handy for those who are entrenched in the company's ecosystem.
As for the charging case, that now has a speaker, which should make it easier for people to pinpoint its location if they've misplaced it (having a U1 chip to locate it with Find My helps too). The case is IPX4 rated, like the earbuds, and it has a lanyard loop — though you'll need to buy a lanyard separately.
Amazon Prime Day is the best time of the year to pick up a gadget made by Amazon. We saw record-low prices at the first Prime Day back in July, and many of those discounts have returned for the new fall sales event. Most of Amazon's most popular devices are on sale again, including Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers. and Fire TV gadgets, plus you'll find. great discounts on Amazon-owned gadgets like Eero routers and Blink security cameras. Here are the best deals on Amazon devices that you can get during the Prime Fall Deal Event.
The Echo Show 5 is on sale for $35, or a whopping 59 percent off its usual price. If you want a smart alarm clock, this is the smart display to get. We like its sharp 5-inch display, ambient light sensor, smart home controls and tap-to-snooze feature.
The Echo Show 8 smart display has dropped to a record low of $70. It earned a score of 87 from us for its attractive design, stellar audio quality and improved camera for video calls.
Amazon's Echo smart speaker is on sale for $60, or $40 off its usual price. We gave it a score of 89 for its solid audio quality, attractive design and its inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack.
Amazon's swiveling Echo Show 10 has been discounted to $170, or $80 off its usual rate. We gave it a score of 83 for its automatic panning and zooming during video calls, excellent audio quality and its ability to double as a security camera.
The Echo Show 15 has dropped to $170 in this sale, which is $10 less than its previous record-low price. Instead of propping this display up on a table or countertop, it can go on your wall and act as an interactive information board, providing access to things like calendar events, shopping lists and more.
The 2022 Fire 7 tablet is on sale for $45, or 25 percent off its usual price. If you're looking for a cheap tablet to bring with you everywhere or to give your kid without worry, this is a good option. While it doesn't have the Google Play Store, you can still use it to check email, watch videos, play music and more.
The Fire HD 8 tablet is half off and down to $45. We gave it a score of 81 for its decent performance, good battery life, wireless charging capabilities and USB-C port.
The Fire HD 10 has dropped to only $75 for this October Prime Day. It's the Fire tablet to get if you want the best performance possible and we like its 1080p display, 12-hour battery life and its Show Mode feature that basically lets you use the tablet like an Amazon smart display.
Amazon's Echo Buds are down to $70 right now, or you can opt for the model with a wireless charging case and get it for only $90. Amazon massively improved these wireless earbuds from the original versions and we gave them a score of 80 for their better sound quality, good ANC and smaller design.
The Echo Frames are on sale for $130 right now. We gave them a score of 76 for their lightweight design, hands-free Alexa capabilities and compatibility with prescription lenses.
The 8-inch version of Amazon's kids tablet is on sale for $70. This also comes with a protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
The Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is also on sale for $120 right now. You're getting the same thing in this bundle — a protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ — along with a larger tablet.
Amazon's previous-generation Fire TV Cube is on sale for $60, or half off its regular price. It supports 4K streaming, Dolby Vision and Atmos, plus hands-free Alexa controls.
The standard Fire TV Stick is on sale for $20. It supports 1080p streaming with Dolby Atmos and it comes with an Alexa Voice Remote that has power and volume buttons on it.
The Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for $25 for October Prime Day, which is half off its normal price. This one supports 4K streaming with Dolby Vision along with Dolby Atmos audio and Amazon's Fire TV OS.
The higher-end Fire TV Stick 4K Max has dropped to $35, which is $20 less than usual and a record low. On top of all of the features in the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, the Max version also supports WiFi 6 and live picture-in-picture viewing.
The Kindle Paperwhite is on sale for $100, which is close to its record-low price. The updated model has 17 front lights, a sleeker design, an adjustable warm light, weeks of battery life and Audible support.
The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition has dropped to $135 for for this sale event. This is the best e-reader Amazon makes right now and we gave it a score of 97 for its larger screen, USB-C charging, automatic brightness adjustment and wireless charging support.
The Kindle Oasis is on sale for $180 right now, or $70 off its usual price. We gave this device a score of 89 for its thin and light design and improved backlighting system.
The Kindle Paperwhite Kids edition has been discounted to $110. This is essentially a regular Kindle Paperwhite with a few extra perks including a protective case and one year of Amazon Kids+.
Amazon's Ring Video Doorbell is 30 percent off and down to $70. It records 1080p video and lets you see what's going on outside your front door. It also has two-way audio so you can speak to visitors, and a rechargeable battery.
The Eero 6 dual-band mesh WiFi system has dropped to $75, or 16 percent off its usual rate. One node can cover up to 1,500 square feet and it supports WiFi 6 and has a built-in Zigbee home hub inside.
The three pack of the Eero Pro 6 tri-band system starts at a discounted price of $389 for this October Prime Day. This system can cover up to 2,000 square feet with just one router and it supports WiFi 6 and has a built-in Zigbee home hub inside.
You can pick up the new Eero Pro 6E WiFi system for as low as $179 during this sale. Amazon recently launched this system and its the most capable WiFi 6 setup in the Eero family. It covers up to 6,000 square feed and supports speeds up to 2.3Gbps.
The Eero 6+ system is down to $90 right now. This is Amazon's most budget-friendly WiFi 6 router set and the dual-band system supports speeds up to 1Gbps and a coverage area of up to 4,500 square feet.
Amazon's smart plug is 48 percent off and down to only $13. You can plug almost any "dumb" appliance into this accessory to make it a smart one that can be controlled via a companion app and with Alexa voice commands.
Amazon's smart thermostat is on sale for $42 right now. This affordable IoT gadget lets you control your home's temperature from anywhere and it can be adjusted via Alexa commands.
Blink's Outdoor camera is $40 off and on sale for $60 during this sale. It has all of the features of the Indoor model along with a weather-resistant design, so you can use it to monitor the outside of your home.
You can get two Blink Mini wired security cameras for only $30 for this October Prime Day. This camera needs to be plugged in, but we like its compact design, 1080p recording, motion alerts and two-way audio.
The cafeteria workers at Waymo's offices are forming a union, according to NBC News. As the news organization notes, that makes them the latest group of people to organize at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent companies. Waymo's food service personnel are also following in the footsteps of the 4,000 Google cafeteria workers who quietly unionized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The autonomous driving tech company used to be an experimental unit under Google before it became an Alphabet subsidiary.
Like Google's other food service workers, Waymo's are employed by contracting firm Sodexo. Workers cited the high cost of living in the Bay Area where Alphabet's offices are located as the reason why they want to unionize. They said their $24-per-hour pay isn't enough to live adequately in the city, where rents are astronomical, and that their health plan is prohibitively expensive. The workers are also asking for better treatment and benefits, since they don't enjoy the same perks as full-time Alphabet employees.
Organizers for the unionization efforts at Waymo told NBC News that they've already gathered signatures from majority of the workers. Sodexo said that it "respects the rights of [its] employees to unionize or not to unionize" but didn't say whether it will voluntarily recognize the union. If it does, the workers will have to file for an NLRB election to be able to join the other Alphabet cafeteria workers at Unite Here.
Hackers believed to be based in Russia temporarily forced around 14 public-facing websites for US airports offline on Monday. The LaGuardia, O’Hare and LAX websites were among those targeted, and most are back online. A senior US government official said that air traffic control, internal airport communications and other critical operations were not affected, but travelers looking for security wait times or other information may have been inconvenienced, according to ABC News. An LAX spokesperson affirmed that "no internal airport systems were compromised and there were no operational disruptions."
"On Monday October 10th, 2022 at approx. 0300 hours there was a denial of service incident lasting 15 minutes that resulted in intermittent delays accessing the LaGuardia airport website," a Port Authority spokesperson told ABC News. "The Port Authority's cybersecurity defense system did its job by detecting the incident quickly, addressing the problem in 15 minutes, and enabling us to alert others by notifying federal authorities immediately. There was no operational impact to any Port Authority facilities."
The incident, said to be the result of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, have been pinned on pro-Russia hacker group Killnet. The hackers are not believed to be government actors, however. There's no evidence that the Russian government was involved in this incident, a cybersecurity analyst said.
Both the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Transportation Security Administration are monitoring the situation, CNN reports. CISA noted it didn't have any worries about airport operational disruptions.
The Lemondrop and Fireball Nanobox grooveboxes pack a lot of punch for their size, and 1010music is expanding the lineup with the Razzmatazz drum machine. The pocket-sized device packs in a 64-step sequencer and eight drum voices. Each of the voices has two FM oscillators and a WAV sample layer, which should enable you to blend organic, acoustic and digital elements to create unique drum sounds.
Filters, resonators, bit-crushers, delay, reverb and four types of distortion can help you produce distinct sounds too. But if you'd rather not go through all that trouble, you can opt to use the Razzmatazz's 120 preset kits and sequences instead.
You'll be able to put together tracks with the help of eight drum and percussion pads, which you can control via the two-inch touchscreen or a MIDI device. Using the Super Stepper visual sequencer, 1010music says beatmakers can tap or swipe to create rhythms and simultaneously see all eight pads across 16 steps. You'll be able to create lengthy drum sequences of up to 64 steps, each of which can last as long as eight bars. Along with the touchscreen, the groovebox has two knobs and four buttons.
The Razzmatazz is a proper sampler, since there's a line-in jack through which you can record audio. Alternatively, you can load WAV files onto the device using a microSD card. There's also a mode that enables you to play back loops or sample slices. However, there's unfortunately no option to slice up samples on the device, which is powered through a USB-C connector.
Best of all, the Razzmatazz fits in with the candy-colored Nanobox aesthetic. It comes in an eye-catching hot pink. You can pick up the groovebox from the 1010music website and other retailers for $399.
This might be your best chance to save money on a 2021 iPad Pro. Ahead of its Prime Early Access Sale, Amazon has discounted the 256GB 12.9-inch model by 25 percent to $899. The more affordable 11-inch iPad Pro is also on sale. However, it appears Amazon only has stock of the 512GB variant. After a 23 percent discount, the 11-inch model is $849, down from $1,099. The promotion applies to both Silver and Space Gray colorways across both 11-inch and 12.9-inch models.
The iPad Pro is one of the most powerful tablets you can buy at the moment. Engadget awarded the 2021 model a score of 87, praising the device for its speedy M1 processor and mini-LED screen that makes watching HDR content an absolute joy. At the time, it felt like iPadOS wasn’t a perfect match for the iPad Pro's powerful hardware, but with iPadOS 16 on the way and new multitasking features like Stage Manager part of the release, the tablet is about to become more capable.
One thing to keep in mind is that Apple may refresh the iPad Pro later this month. Persistent rumors suggest the company plans to introduce a model that features an M2 processor, MagSafe charging and a handful of other upgrades. For that reason, you may want to wait if you want to buy the most powerful iPad possible. However, if you’re mainly interested in getting the most value for your money, then it’s hard to go wrong with the current M1 model.
Just under a year ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company he founded as a Harvard undergrad would change its name to Meta. "From now on, we're going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first," he said during a virtual keynote at the company’s Connect event.
Zuckerberg has spent the year since hyping all things metaverse. He’s shown off dystopian VR offices, looked at pictures of space in VR with Neil deGrasse Tyson and persuaded morethan one professional athlete to play VR games with him. He went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to extol the virtues of mixed martial arts and virtual reality. Rogan even got an early demo of Meta’s new high-end VR headset, which is expected to launch during Connect.
But the metaverse has also proved to be a massive money pit. In the last year alone, the company has lost billions of dollars on its metaverse ambitions, and the trend is unlikely to reverse any time soon. The company, which last year announced plans to hire 10,000 workers in Europe solely to build its metaverse, is now cutting staff and reorganizing teams.
So at this year’s Connect, which kicks off at 10 AM PT tomorrow with a keynote from Zuckerberg, the stakes feel even higher. And we still have a lot of questions about what it really means to be a “metaverse company.”
Can Zuckerberg explain what the metaverse even is (again)?
It’s perhaps the most obvious issue, but in the nearly a year since Zuckerberg first attempted to articulate what a metaverse is, it’s still not very clear. Last year, Zuckerberg described it as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” The company’s website currently says the metaverse is “the next evolution in social connection and the successor to the mobile internet.”
But what those words mean to most people is fuzzy at best. “Outside of early adopters and tech-savvy people, there's still confusion as to what is the metaverse and what we're going to be doing with it,” says Carolina Milanesi, a consumer analyst with Creative Strategies.
That means Zuckerberg will not only need to offer an understandable definition, but an idea of what it will mean for the billions of people already on his platform. Which brings us to…
Can it ever look cool?
Meta
This may not seem like the most important problem facing Zuckerberg’s vision for a mobile internet-replacing metaverse, but it’s one that could go a long way toward building the hype he so desperately craves. Because, right now, Meta’s metaverse looks… kind of crappy.
This was never more apparent than when Zuckerberg very earnestly shared a capture from Horizon Worlds of his avatar in front of a VR Eiffel Tower and Sagrada Familia that could generously be described as flat and amateurish. He quickly followed up with a new avatar, and promised better graphics for Horizon Worlds would be coming at Connect.
But Meta will need to show more than just graphics that look like they were created this millennium. Ideally, it would show a metaverse experience that actually looks cool. Or at least one that could appeal to people already spending time in Roblox or Fortnite or other metaverse-adjacent spaces.
Milanesi adds that it would help to show off metaverse experiences that go beyond just having meetings or hanging out with strangers in VR. “I think there are other use cases either on the education side or on the entertainment side, that might be a bit more interesting,” she says.
However, early signs suggest we shouldn’t expect drastic improvements to Horizon Worlds. According to a recent report from The Verge, the app is so buggy that the company is struggling to get its own employees to use it consistently.
How will it get creators and third-parties on board?
But that brings up another issue: for all of Zuckerberg’s talk about interoperability and making the metaverse an open ecosystem, Meta has so far shown little progress when it comes to bringing outside developers or other companies into its vision in a meaningful way.
They’ve also already alienated many creators and would-be early adopters with a 48-percent commission on sales of virtual items in Horizon Worlds. For a company that has made Apple’s “App Store Tax” a central talking point, and has made investing in creators one of its top priorities, it’s no surprise that a high take feels like a slap in the face to creators.
Meta
How will it handle harassment, misinformation and other harms?
Considering Meta’s track record on unintended harms, the company has said surprisingly little about how it plans to address these issues in the metaverse. The company has given cursory nods to trust and safety in the Metaverse — Meta policy chief Nick Clegg has talked about defining standards for the metaverse — but so far the company seems to be borrowing from the same playbook it’s always used.
Already, this is more than a theoretical problem. Meta added a “Personal Boundary” feature in February, billing it as a way for people to protect their personal space while in VR. But that update only came after reports of groping in the metaverse had already gone viral. While that update may address one form of harassment, others have noted it could also encourage other disturbing behaviors, like encircling users in an effort to virtually “gang up” on them.
It also shows that Meta is still largely reactive when it comes to safety issues: spinning up new features and quick fixes in response to a bad news cycle rather than launching with them already in place.
What about AR and non-headset enabled experiences?
We’re expecting Zuckerberg to talk a lot about virtual reality — the company is launching its newest headseat at Connect — but it’s a lot less clear how augmented reality fits into the company’s current plans. Meta has teased AR glasses, but those are likely at least two years away.
And without glasses, much of Meta’s work on AR is limited to in-app effects for Instagram and Facebook, which are popular but definitely not part of any kind of metaverse. And it’s still not at all clear that Meta has a plan for integrating its existing social platforms into the metaverse. In a recent interview with Protocol, Zuckerberg suggested the company was thinking about it, but stopped short of giving any kind of idea as to how this may work.
“For Horizon, making it so that you can create a world and share it on Facebook or Instagram, and people can just jump into it from there — that's going to be pretty valuable,” he said. But, he added, “we need to be careful about not making it primarily a mobile experience.” The reason, he said, is because he wants the metaverse to be about new platforms and technologies, not simply an extension of the mobile products that already exist. But the fact is the market for VR headsets is still tiny compared with the number of people who use Facebook and Instagram.
And if he wants more of them onboard, they should be able to experience the metaverse in some form with the devices they already own.
