A new playable character with an aggressive mobility-based kit isn’t the only potentially game-changing tweak coming to Valorant with the shooter’s Episode Four update on January 11th. Once the patch is live, new players will need to reach account level 20 before they can queue for competitive games. Previously, you only had to win 10 unranked matches before you could take part in competitive matchmaking.
Many other multiplayer games, including Overwatch and Riot’s own League of Legends, employ similar restrictions. They help ensure new players have had at least some time to learn the game before they jump into a high-pressure match. They also deter a practice known as smurfing. That’s when more experienced players create new accounts to avoid long queues and play against less skilled opponents.
“We believe everyone should take time to learn the ins and outs of core gameplay, and have ample exposure to all the maps and agents Valorant will throw at you before competing in our ranked experience,” Riot said of the change. The tweak will only affect new accounts made from this point forward. So if you recently started playing Valorant and have at least one competitive match on your account, you won’t lose access.
Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ), an annual week-long celebration of speedrunning, is almost upon us. Between January 9th and 16th, you'll be able to watch one expert gamer after another race through their favorite titles to show off their skill and, hopefully, break some world records.
For the second year running, AGDQ will be held as a virtual event due to COVID-19 safety concerns. Unfortunately, runners won't have a raucous in-person crowd to cheer them on. Still, you can watch the entire event live on Twitch, via the Games Done Quick channel (or the embed below), starting at noon ET on Sunday. If you can't watch the action as it happens, you'll be able to catch up later on YouTube.
The schedule is packed with some fascinating-sounding runs. On Wednesday, two GeoGuessr players will shoot for a perfect score by finding the exact locations of random Google Street View images. Next Saturday, a runner named Mitchriz will try to beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a typically tough game by FromSoftware, as quickly as possible — and they'll be blindfolded. Recent games making their first appearance at AGDQ include Deathloop, Death's Door, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal and Psychonauts 2.
The Games Done Quick organization has raised millions for good causes over the last decade. AGDQ is one of the two main events the group runs each year, with Summer Games Done Quick typically taking place in June or July.
You all know what they say about the best-laid plans. Though Engadget intended to send a few editors to cover CES in person, we later decided amid surging covid cases that it would be best if our entire staff just stayed home and covered the show remotely. In the end, too, we also decided it would be easiest, under these very fluid circumstances, to do our own thing for our annual CES Awards, which since 2014 we have produced in partnership with the Consumer Technology Association, the trade group that organizes CES itself. Though we can’t hand out awards in person this year, we do still have opinions. And we're about to share them with you.
What follows are all of our favorites from CES 2022 which, despite some stormy press, turned out to be a surprisingly busy show (if not in foot traffic, then certainly in hard news). As in years past, we arrived at these picks by first asking the editors who cover these categories year-round to weigh in on a shortlist. Then our wider team voted using a ranked-choice system. Maybe one day we'll also tell you about the dark-horse favorites that almost, but didn't quite, make the cut. — Dana Wollman, Editor-in-Chief
Best Accessibility Product
OrCam MyEye Pro
OrCam
For people with low vision or difficulty reading, camera-based gadgets with object recognition can make life a little easier. OrCam’s MyEye Pro is a wearable camera module that can be attached to any pair of glasses. Like previous generations, the MyEye Pro can read text, identify objects and faces and tell the wearer what it sees via an onboard speaker or paired Bluetooth headphones. In addition to a touch-sensitive control panel, OrCam offers voice control via the company’s own assistant with the “Hey OrCam” hotword. The Pro also features a faster processor than older models, an additional microphone, stronger magnets and improved tactile cues. It has a new interactive “Smart Reading” feature that lets users ask their MyEye to quickly find specific information like phone numbers, the total on a bill, a particular word on a page and more.
MyEye Pro is one of a few assistive devices built specifically to help people with vision impairments or reading disabilities. Though smartphones can arguably perform similar tasks, the fact that the OrCam can be mounted on spectacles makes it easier for extended reading or all-day use. The company needs to address some usability issues, and like most assistive devices the MyEye is very expensive starting at $3,990. But with greater awareness of the existence of such products, perhaps more insurance providers will consider covering some of the cost. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy Editor / Reviews
Best Health and Fitness Product
Withings Body Scan
Withings
Withings has been doing all it can to push the boundaries of what a bathroom weighing scale can do for a long while now. This year at CES, the company unveiled the Withings Body Scan, which aims to bring a number of new health-monitoring technologies into your home. The Body Scan’s most obvious new feature is the pull-out handlebar that you’ll hold in front of your waist while you’re standing on the deck. This allows the device to run an ECG to check on your heart health, offer up sequential body composition data and, most intriguing, analyze your nerve activity.
It’s not just the breadth of data the Body Scan promises to analyze, but the claimed depth that impressed us. Withings says that its six-lead ECG will produce medical-grade results and that its output can easily be read by a cardiologist. Meanwhile, the nerve activity tracking will look for signs of nerve degeneration, which can be caused by obesity (and treated with appropriate remedial action). It’s a hell of a lot of tech to pack into one consumer device, and if Withings makes good on its promises, it may become the bathroom scale of choice for anyone who wants to keep tabs on their health. — Daniel Cooper, Senior Editor
Best Wearable
Razer Zephyr Pro
Razer
In a year where many CES attendees decided to stay home amid rising COVID cases, it feels fitting that our favorite wearable at the show was a smart mask. Tech companies had already started to put their spin on face coverings, with Razer’s original $100 Zephyr mask and LG’s PuriCare Mask. With a gamer steampunk-inspired design, the first–gen Zephyr combined N95 filters, dual-fan active air filtration system and (of course) RGB lighting all in one striking device.
Razer followed up this year with the Zephyr Pro and one new feature in particular is worth highlighting: the ability to amplify your voice by 60 decibels up to one meter away. It solves a problem most of us have experienced at some point over the past couple of years: You try to order a coffee and the barista behind the counter can't hear you over your mask, not to mention the protective plastic wall separating you both. In theory, if you're wearing the Zephyr Pro, you shouldn't have this problem. Whenever you don't want to use the feature (or maybe just want to conserve battery), you can turn off voice amplification.
We don't know exactly when the Zephyr Pro will come out, but Razer has said it will cost $150, or $200 for the starter pack with 100 days worth of filters. Is the Zephyr Pro a bit excessive? Yes. Will the RGB lighting make you look ridiculous? You bet. But even so, we have to hand it to Razer for making masked interactions just a little easier. — Valentina Palladino, Commerce Editor
Best Transportation Tech
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Chevrolet
2022 is already shaping up to be the year of the electric pickup, so it was no surprise that GM CEO Mary Barra took to the CES stage on Wednesday to officially unveil the American automaker’s second electrified truck, the Chevrolet Silverado EV. We shouldn’t need to explain why Chevy’s best-selling vehicle going electric is a big deal.
The new Silverado joins the Hummer EV in GM’s burgeoning electric truck lineup (soon to be accompanied by Blazer and Equinox EVs) and will arrive in two versions: the RST First Edition, a limited-run production with an MSRP just north of $100,000, followed by the far more affordable WT fleet edition and standard RST – both of which start at around $39,900.
Positioned to compete directly with Ford’s forthcoming F-150 Lightning, the Silverado EV RST will offer a GM-estimated 400 mile range, up to 664 horsepower and 811 ft-lb of torque with the ability to tow up to 10,000 pounds. The WT version will be slightly less powerful but still boasts 510 hp, 615 lb-ft of torque and 8,000 pounds of towing capacity. Both the RST and WT versions will enter production alongside the Hummer EV line at GM’s new Factory ZERO electric vehicle production facility in 2023. — Andrew Tarantola, Senior Editor
Best Home Theater Product
Samsung Eco Remote (2022)
Samsung
At CES last year, Samsung debuted an Eco Remote that uses indoor or outdoor light to recharge via a solar panel. This year, the company took things a step further. The 2022 model brings back the solar panel and adds the ability to recharge using radio frequency (RF) signals from your WiFi router. Since you don’t need to replace the battery, this eliminates the need to hunt for AAAs (which would eventually be destined for a landfill).
Using energy that otherwise goes to waste, the new Eco Remote’s low power requirements make it a good choice for harvesting RF waves. The device, available with either a black or white finish, is also equipped with dedicated buttons for streaming services to give you one-touch access. Sure, you’ll need a Samsung TV to use it, but the greener power sources certainly help the device live up to its name. And hopefully, Samsung’s clever use of RF waves can serve as inspiration for other TV manufacturers. — Billy Steele, Senior News Editor
Best Smart Home Product
TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni
TP-Link
It wouldn’t be CES if we didn’t see some crazy routers, and TP-Link delivered this year. The TP-Link AXE200 Omni router has the over-the-top design that the company typically saves for its most expensive and powerful devices, but this model has a trick we’ve never seen before. It packs four mechanical antennas that can rotate automatically based on the placement and location of devices using your WiFi connection.
Sure, this feature looks cool in action (almost anthropomorphic, even), but TP-Link’s history-making top-flight routers means this likely isn’t a gimmick. And the rest of its specs are top of the line, too. It has tri-band WiFi 6E, capable of delivering speeds of up to 11 Gbps. There are also 10 Gigabit ethernet ports for wired connections. Given how many devices most households have these days, having a powerful, reliable router is crucial to keeping everything online. TP-Link’s latest should be able to do that no matter how many gadgets you need to connect. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor / News
Best Phone or Tablet
Asus ZenBook 17 Fold
Asus
There was no shortage of mobile devices at CES this year, ranging from OnePlus’ new flagship to Samsung’s latest value-for-money phone. If the award should go to the most memorable, though, there was one clear pick. We’ve chosen ASUS’ ZenBook 17 Fold for attempting to redefine tablets, foldables and laptops in one fell swoop.
The foldable tablet category isn’t exactly novel, given past entries like Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold. ASUS’ offering is decidedly bolder, though, with a 17.3-inch OLED screen that offers a huge canvas and various usage possibilities (think: a book-like reader or a desktop PC). You’ll even have a usable laptop thanks to an included Bluetooth keyboard that allows the folded tablet to function as a 12.5-inch Windows laptop. All told, this is one of the most versatile tablets we’ve seen, and it could replace more than just your notebook depending on how you use it. — Jon Fingas, Weekend Editor
Best TV Tech
Samsung QD-Display
Samsung Display
We've praised LG's OLED TVs for years, mainly because they represent a huge upgrade over LCDs in almost every way. Their one big weakness is brightness: LCDs rely on backlights that can reach far beyond a single OLED, which can't burn too hot or they risk failure. OLEDs also lose a bit of color accuracy the brighter they get. Now Samsung believes it has a solution: QD-Display, an updated OLED technology that relies on quantum dots to supercharge colors and deliver more brightness. On paper, it seems like the biggest advancement in TV technology we’ve seen in years.
While Samsung isn't showing off its own QD-Display TVs yet, Sony leapt at the chance to adopt the technology for its new A95K premium TV. That proves it’s more than just an expensive tech demo for the super rich, like Samsung's MicroLED-equipped "The Wall." It's certainly ironic that Samsung is heralding OLED now, after downplaying the technology in TVs for years and pushing QLED sets instead. But no matter: It's better for consumers, and the industry overall, if there's more than one company producing OLED TVs. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor
Best Gaming Product
Sony PlayStation VR2
Sony
Among the souped-up graphics cards, laptop chips, desktop concepts and console accessories on display at CES 2022, the most exciting gaming announcement involved no actual product at all. Sony revealed the name, logo and specs for its next virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR2, and even though the device didn’t make an appearance, the details were enough to get us excited about the upcoming headset.
The PS VR2 has a display resolution of 2,000 x 2,040 for each eye, a 110-degree field of view, 4K HDR capabilities and frame rates of 90Hz or 120Hz. The new device has upgraded eye-tracking software and it also supports foveated rendering, a gaze-based feature common in high-end PC headsets. The addition of inside-out tracking means it doesn’t require an external camera – a nice step up from the original PS VR. The most surprising detail about the PS VR2 is the fact that it includes an internal motor that can make the headset vibrate, providing a new level of haptic feedback (or maybe just a headache).
In addition to all those details, Sony confirmed an original game in the Horizon universe is heading exclusively to the headset, and developer Guerrilla gave us a quick tease of first-person robot-dino hunting. Console gaming news at CES is a rarity, which makes Sony’s showing this year stand out, even without any actual hardware. — Jessica Conditt, Senior Editor
Best Laptop
Lenovo ThinkPad Z Series
Lenovo
Come for the lid; stay for the sustainability. Or maybe it’s the other way around. When we first saw the ThinkPad Z series at a private demo ahead of CES, we were immediately charmed by its lid, which is designed to be openable with just one hand. But as we learned more about these sleek laptops, available with 13- and 16-inch screens, we were impressed with their focus on sustainability, including materials like recycled aluminum and vegan leather, and a charger made of 90 percent recyclable material. Even the packaging is 100 percent recyclable, thanks to compostable materials like bamboo and sugarcane.
We haven’t even talked about the potentially solid performance. The Z13 and Z16 are the result of a collaboration with AMD. In fact, these are among the first machines with AMD’s high-performance Ryzen PRO 6000 Series laptop processors. On the outside, the Z13 boasts a 2.8K OLED display while the 16 has a 4K screen, also OLED. Both machines support Dolby Vision, along with Dolby Atmos and Dolby AI noise cancellation. We look forward to reviewing them closer to when they go on sale in May. — Dana Wollman, Editor-in-chief
Best Sustainable Product
Goodyear 70% Sustainable-Material Tire
Goodyear
Whether it’s powered by an internal combustion engine or an electric battery, a vehicle’s tires remain one of its least eco-friendly components. Traditional tires are resource intensive to produce and difficult to dispose of, with only a small fraction of them ending up actually being recycled. As such, Goodyear two years ago set an ambitious goal for itself: develop a 100-percent sustainable tire by 2030. Two years into this project, the company is already well on its way toward meeting that goal.
Earlier this week, the company unveiled its 70-percent sustainable concept tire, which features 13 ingredients across nine different tire components that were formerly made with petroleum and other non-renewable resources. For example, carbon black and other petrol-based rubbers are typically used as filler materials to enhance a tire’s durability and usable lifespan. Goodyear has substituted these with more eco-friendly methane, carbon dioxide and plant-based oil, all of which are produced in ways that generate fewer greenhouse gasses than carbon black. Additionally, Goodyear employs silica, which increases a tire’s grip on the road, that has been derived from rice husk ash, a common by-product of the rice milling process.
Whether Goodyear releases a tire utilizing all of its sustainable technologies by 2030, or simply works individual materials into upcoming models, the environment still stands to benefit. — Andrew Tarantola, Senior Editor
Best Wildcard
BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink
BMW
When it comes to CES, there are so many left-field products on display that it can sometimes be hard to define a “wildcard.” Is it a futuristic concept, a bizarre novelty, or simply something you had no idea would be good until it was presented to you? This year, BMW’s iX Flow featuring E Ink ticked the “well, we didn’t expect that” box the hardest, and it’s certainly a striking concept. Essentially, BMW coated the skin of its iX car with the same electrophoretic coating you’ll find in most e-readers. The pitch being that, at the touch of a button, you can change the color of your vehicle to reflect your current mood. You know, as one does.
Of course, while the BMW iX itself is a road-ready car, the E Ink coating isn’t something you can expect to buy in the near future. But even being able to switch from black to white makes plenty of sense in these more energy-conscious times. In warm weather, you can paint the car white and help reflect some of the sun’s heat, reducing the drain on your AC. And when it gets cold, you can reverse the process, helping to store up more warmth to keep you, and your battery, nice and cozy. Even better, if the company gets a color E Ink version working, then we never need to worry about being stuck with someone else’s idea of a good paint job. — Daniel Cooper, Senior Editor
Best of the Best
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Chevrolet
CES 2022 brought us a bevy of innovative announcements from the automotive industry, from chameleon-skinned BMWs to a sun-soaked 600-mile electric Mercedes. But as ranked-choice systems are wont to do, there can be only one overall winner. This year, the king of the CES hill is Chevrolet’s Silverado EV, an electrified pickup that is sure to give both global warming and rival EV, the Ford F-150 Lightning, a run for their money.
The Silverado is already one of America’s most popular pickup models, having sold more than half a million US units in 2021 alone. Pickups and SUVs in general are far and away the best selling vehicle types in the US but those same buyers have historically been reticent to adopt more eco-friendly alternatives to conventional internal combustion cars and trucks — heck, just a few years ago many diesel owners were giddily “rolling coal” for the social media clout. But as fuel prices and sea surface temperatures continue to rise, the prospect of driving up to 400 miles (or more!) using nothing but a battery has become a compelling feature for drivers and automakers alike.
GM has already pledged to sell “30 new global electric vehicles by 2025” starting with the Hummer EV, which is already being delivered to early buyers. The Chevy Silverado, Blazer, Equinox and GMC Sierra all poised for production runs of their own starting in 2023. And once these EVs roll off their respective assembly lines, they’ll be faced with stiff competition from Ford, Tesla, Rivian, Toyota and other car makers eager to cash in on America’s newfound love affair with electrified pickups. — Andrew Tarantola, Senior Editor
Without much fanfare, IKEA and Sonos have released a second-generation version of their Symfonisk bookshelf speaker. First spotted by Dutch publication Tweakers (via The Verge), the new model features a faster processor, more memory and draws less power when it’s on standby. It also comes with a longer power cable.
However, looking at the new model next to its first-generation counterpart, the most visible change is an updated button layout that sees the volume controls next to one another instead of being separated by the play/pause button as was previously the case.
Sonos updates its speakers in this way from time to time to make them more future-proof. In 2019, for instance, it refreshed the Sonos One to add Bluetooth LE, a newer processor and more memory. More recently, it tweaked the Sonos One SL to add a more efficient wireless radio. If you live in the Netherlands, you can pick up the second-generation Symfonisk bookshelf for €99. We’ve reached out to IKEA to find out when the retailer to plans to release the speaker in the US.
Meta has announced a new Privacy Center that provides users with information about data collection, sharing, security, data use and ads. The hub includes details on the approach to privacy across apps like Facebook and Instagram, the Data Policy and how to use the multitude of privacy and security settings.
Users can find out how to set up two-factor authentication, get clarity on who's able to see their posts, what types of data Meta collects, how it uses that information and much more.
At the outset, the Privacy Center is only available to a small number of Facebook users in the US on desktop. It plans to roll it out to more apps and people in the coming months. If you have access, you can find the Privacy Center in the Settings and Privacy section. Meta will offer other ways to access it in the future. It plans to update the Privacy Center with more sections and controls.
Meta has added a number of safety and/or privacy-focused updates across its apps over the last year or so. It can be hard to keep track of everything, so establishing a single hub to detail all of those features should be useful. For instance, Instagram started requiring folks to share their birthday as part of an effort to shield younger users from "sensitive" content. In September, WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption for chat backups.
Some Honda cars owners have recently found themselves in something of a time loop. Since the start of the year, the automaker’s forums have been flooded with reports of people complaining that the clocks and calendars in their vehicles are stuck in the year 2002.
The issue appears to be widespread. It’s affecting Honda and Acura models with GPS navigation systems manufactured between 2004 and 2012, and there have been reports of people encountering the problem in the US, Canada and UK. What’s more, there doesn’t appear to a fix at the moment. Each time someone starts their car, the clock resets – even if they went to manually set it beforehand.
“Honda is aware of a potential concern related to the clock display on certain older Acura and Honda models equipped with navigation systems,” a spokesperson for the automaker told Jalopnik. “We are currently investigating this issue to determine possible countermeasures and have no additional details to share at this time.”
The problem appears to stem from a coding oversight. When a GPS satellite broadcasts the date, it does so using a binary 10 digit number that includes a reference to the week. A single GPS epoch includes 1023 weeks, with the system rolling over on week 1,024. After the first GPS systems started counting time in 1980, they rolled over in 1999, and then again in 2019. If a system isn’t properly coded to account for those rollovers, what can happen is exactly what we’re seeing here with Honda’s vehicles: they go back to when the calendar started.
Humorously, this isn’t the first time Honda car owners have run into this problem. Back in 2017, Honda and Acura models from 1999 to 2004 with navigation systems had their clocks reset to 1998. The same issue cropped up more recently in 2021. In both instances, the clocks went back exactly 1,024 weeks. Time knows how to make a mockery of everyone, but it would seem it has a special place for Honda’s software developers.
Valorant is a game of methodical movement. Your weapon is at its most accurate when you’re standing still, and pinpoint accuracy is essential if you want to live. That’s what makes Neon, the game’s latest playable character, so interesting. She’s a hyper-aggressive duelist whose kit is all about increasing the tempo of matches.
Following a teaser trailer released earlier in the week, Riot has detailed all of Neon’s abilities. Her innate skill “High Gear” allows Neon to sprint and slide into combat, something no Valorant agent before her has been able to do. “Speed, everything about Neon came back to that feeling of running forward and moving fast,” said character producer John Goscicki.
Neon’s two other primary abilities, “Relay Bolt” and “Fast Lane,” allow her to throw an electric molly and create two parallel walls of vision-obscuring static. Meanwhile, her ultimate, “Overdrive,” lets Neon shoot out deadly lighting beams, with each kill she obtains resetting the duration of the skill. Her kit is most reminiscent of that of Phoenix who can create a wall of flame to cover his entry assaults. However, the fact Neon can sprint and slide should make weapons like the Stinger, Judge and Frenzy especially deadly in her hands since they tend to dominate in close quarters.
Neon will join Valorant’s roster on January 11th, the same day Riot plans to release Episode Four, Act One. You can get the associated Battlepass for 1,000 Valorant Points, or the equivalent of $10.
Although Apple's AirTags can be useful for helping find lost belongings, ever since the tracker went on sale last spring, critics have raised concerns that bad actors could use it to stalk people. Brooks Nader, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, claims someone secretly placed an AirTag in her coat and tracked her movements for several hours.
Earlier this week, Nader was waiting alone for someone at a crowded bar in Tribeca with her coat on the chair behind her. She then visited a couple of other bars with friends.
Nader, who shared her experience on Instagram Stories, said that while she was walking home alone, her phone alerted her to the fact that "someone's tracking you and has been for a while." She then found the AirTag. Nader, who wasn't aware of AirTags beforehand, called the incident "the scariest moment ever and I just want everyone to be aware that this exists."
It's not the first time that AirTags have been used to track other people's movements. Reports have emerged about thieves using them to follow and steal high-end cars. However, the Nader incident is a high-profile one that should draw more attention to the issue.
"We take customer safety very seriously and are committed to AirTag’s privacy and security. AirTag is designed with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking — a first in the industry — that both inform users if an unknown AirTag might be with them, and deter bad actors from using an AirTag for nefarious purposes," an Apple spokesperson told Engadget. "If users ever feel their safety is at risk, they are encouraged to contact local law enforcement who can work with Apple to provide any available information about the unknown AirTag.”
Soon after Apple launched the AirTag, it rolled out the iPhone notification Nader mentioned to inform users that someone may be tracking them. In December, the company released an Android app called Tracker Detect, which alerts users to nearby AirTags that are away from their owner and could be on their person. However, since Find My isn't part of Android, you'd need to know about the app and have it installed to detect a hidden AirTag.
Following Ubisoft and Square Enix, GameStop is apparently the latest player in the video game industry that sees NFTs as a way to boost its profitability. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company has hired nearly two dozen people as part of a newly formed cryptocurrency division. The unit is reportedly building an online marketplace for buying, selling and trading NFTs of in-game items like cosmetics. The hub could launch as soon as later this year. Additionally, the division is reportedly close to partnering with two companies to co-invest in games that make use of blockchain and NFT technologies. GameStop is said ot plan to partner with a dozen companies in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
News of the development sent the value of GameStop’s stock surging to $159.77, up from $131.01, in aftermarket trading. According to The Journal, GameStop executives see NFTs as a way for the company to return to profitability, but it’s not clear if the nascent technology has a place in video games.
Many of the recent attempts by some developers and publishers to include digital tokens in their titles have been greeted by outright hostility. Ubisoft, for example, became a magnet for criticism when it announced its Quartz NFT platform. It also seems the negative attention was not worth it for Ubisoft, with a recent Eurogamer report claiming the company had only sold 18 NFTs as of December 21st. But for all the backlash, Ubisoft and others appear unfazed. In an employee Q&A, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reportedly linked the initial backlash to NFTs to earlier outrage over trends like microtransactions and loot boxes. It seems the implication here was that people would eventually come to accept the technology.
Despite the holidays being behind us, there are still some good tech deals floating around on the internet. While we likely won't see the deep discounts we saw in November and December for some time, the deals that are currently available are noteworthy for this time of year. A number of Google smart devices are on sale, including the second-generation Nest Hub for $60 and the Nest Audio for $75. Apple's Mac Mini M1 is as low as $600 for the base model, while the iPad Air is $60 off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Mac Mini M1
Engadget
The base Mac Mini M1 is $100 off thanks to a sale and an additional coupon, bringing it down to $600. This model runs on the M1 chipset along with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This is Apple's most affordable M1 machine, making it a good option if you're in need of an upgraded desktop. If you'd rather invest in a more powerful version, Adorama has the Mac Mini M1 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $750, or $150 less than usual.
The 2020 iPad Air is on sale for $539 right now, or $60 off its normal price. We gave the tablet a score of 90 for its fast performance and WiFi speeds, healthy battery life and attractive, updated design.
The 45mm, GPS + Cellular Series 7 smartwatch is $120 off, bringing it down to a record low fo $629. You're getting the latest and great from Apple in the Series 7, and we gave the Watch a score of 90 for its larger display, speedier charging and usefulness of watchOS 8.
Apple's latest iPad with 256GB of storage and cellular connectivity is on sale for $579, or $30 off its normal rate. This model earned a score of 86 from us for its improved front camera, better performance and excellent battery life.
The silver 24-inch iMac M1 is $50 cheaper than usual at Amazon, so you can get it for $1,249. We gave the thin-and-light desktop a score of 89 for its speedy performance, stunning display and easy to move body.
The Nest Audio smart speaker is down to $75, which is $25 off its regular price. While not as good as its Black Friday price, it's still a good discount on one of our favorite smart speakers. It earned a score of 87 from us for its excellent audio quality, stereo mode and minimalist design. You can also pick up the Nest Mini for only $25.
The second-generation Nest Hub has been discounted to $60, or $40 off its normal price. That's also only $10 more than it was during the holiday shopping season. We gave it a score of 89 for its nice 7-inch display, improved performance and audio quality plus its new sleep tracking feature.
Walmart has the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 for $140, or $40 off its normal price. This is only $5 more than its Black Friday price, too, making it a good opportunity to grab a new controller at one of the best prices we've seen. This accessory has a number of premium features including six adjustable-tension thumbsticks, four paddles, two D-pads and support for up to three custom profiles.
The Charge 5 fitness tracker is down to $130 at HSN, which is a return to its Black Friday pricing. We gave the wearable a score of 82 for its accurate GPS, improved design and multi-day battery life.
Logitech's streaming-focused webcam, the Streamcam, is on sale for $150. While not a record low, it's still $20 off its normal price and a decent deal. It made it into our best webcams guide thanks to its excellent 1080p/60fps video quality, solid built-in mics and the ability to record in landscape or portrait orientation.
