This week brought our first official early Black Friday sale, courtesy of Best Buy. While we expect to see even more of these events before we hit Black Friday proper, there are a bunch of gadgets at record-low prices right now that are worth considering. Both Amazon and Best Buy knocked $150 off the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone, and both retailers have some of our favorite Sony headphones and earbuds for less. Plus, the new Galaxy Watch 4 wearables are down to all-time-low prices thanks to a Samsung deals event on Amazon. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Sony WH-1000XM4

Engadget

Sony's excellent WH-1000XM4 headphones remain on sale for $248, which is a record low. These are our current favorite pair of ANC headphones and they earned a score of 94 from us for their solid sound quality, powerful ANC and multi-device connectivity.

12.9-inch iPad Pro

Chris Velazco/Engadget

The 256GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro is $200 off, bringing it down to $999. That's the same price as the 128GB version right now, so you're essentially getting double the storage at no extra cost. We gave the tablet a score of 87 for its gorgeous display, impressive performance and handy Center Stage camera.

Sony WF-1000XM3

Billy Steele/Engadget

The previous-gen Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds are down to $128, more than $70 off their normal price. We gave these buds a score of 89 for their excellent sound, great battery life and comprehensive companion app.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3

David Imel for Engadget

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 foldable smartphone is still on sale for $850, or $150 off. This is the most practical version of a Samsung foldable yet, and we gave it a score of 82 for its more durable design, attractive build and new water resistance.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

David Imel for Engadget

Both the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are down to record-low prices, $220 and $300, respectively. These remain the best smartwatches for Android users and we gave the Watch 4 a score of 85 for its comprehensive health tracking abilities, lovely screen and better support for third-party apps.

Roku Streambar

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

The Roku Streambar is on sale for $99 right now, or $30 off its normal price. We gave the compact soundbar a score of 86 for its good sound quality, Dolby Audio support, built-in 4K HDR streaming tech and its ability to work as a Bluetooth speaker. Also, the more advanced (and larger) Streambar Pro is down to a record low of $150.

Roku Ultra

Roku

Roku's most powerful streaming device, the Ultra, is on sale for only $69 at the moment. That's $30 off its normal price and a great deal if you want 4K HDR10+ and Dolby Vision content, along with speedy WiFi and the option to hardware the set-top box into your setup via its Ethernet port.

Jabra Elite 75t

Billy Steele / Engadget

Jabra's Elite 75t earbuds are cheaper than ever at $80, which is nearly half off their normal price. These are some of our favorite true wireless earbuds thanks to their compact, comfortable design, long battery life and new ANC capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2

Billy Steele/Engadget

The new Galaxy Buds 2 are down to $130 right now, or $20 off their normal price. It may be $5 more than their record low, but this is still a good deal to consider if you've been eyeing a pair of the company's true wireless earbuds. We gave the Buds 2 a score of 84 for their comfortable design, improved sound quality and adjustable ambient sound mode.

New tech deals

Apple TV 4K

The latest Apple TV 4K is on sale for $130 at Verizon right now. This is the best price we've seen it, and you'll get the model with the latest processor, support for Dolby Vision and Atmos and the much improved new Siri remote.

Crucial MX500 SSD (2TB)

The 2TB Crucial MX500 internal SSD is down to an all-time low of $170. This is a good option if you need extra storage in your desktop or laptop, and we like that it has AES 256-bit hardware based encryption and integrated power loss immunity.

Rubik's Connected

This Bluetooth-connected Rubik's cube is $10 off thanks to a coupon you can apply on the product page, bringing the toy down to roughly $50. Rather than going nuts trying to solve the puzzle on your own, this one has a companion app that actually teaches you how to do so. You can then complete challenges, better your skills and try to get atop the global leaderboard.

NordVPN

NordVPN, one of our favorite VPNs, is running a sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up and pay $99 for two years, plus you'll get an extra three months free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.

Tunnelbear

Another one of our top VPN services, Tunnelbear, is offering a two-year subscription for $100. You'll save 58 percent if you sign up with this deal, and we think Tunnelbear is one of the easiest VPNs to use, especially for those that don't want to go crazy configuring their connections.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

It took only a few hours for pranksters to find and deface a test version of former President Trump's yet-to-launch social media platform called TRUTH Social. According to The Washington Post, someone signed up for an account on the test website, took the username "donaldjtrump" and posted a photo of a defecating pig. 

Trump and his team recently announced that they're launching TRUTH Social in early 2022 and that beta tests will begin in November. In its announcement, the team said that the platform is part of its efforts to fight against "the Big Tech companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America."

The test website has already been pulled down, but not before one of the publication's reporters was able to sign up under the name "mikepence" without encountering any safeguards that would prevent them from doing so. Based on the mock photos on its App Store listing, TRUTH Social looks like a Twitter clone, where users can post "Truths"similar to tweets and repost "Re-Truths," which are basically retweets. It has a news feed called the Truth Feed and a notification system, as well.

The website's code shows that it runs on a mostly unmodified version of open source software Mastodon, The Post says. Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko told Vice that the platform might be violating its licensing rules, since it requires developers to share any modification with the public and to give credit by linking to the original source code. The test website didn't just reveal TRUTH Social's code, though, but also its terms of service. A sub-section in the ToS shows that the website hopes to be protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Part of the ToS reads: "[W]e are not responsible for any Third-Party Websites accessed through the Site or any Third-Party Content posted on, available through, or installed from the Site, including the content, accuracy, offensiveness, opinions, reliability, privacy practices, or other policies of or contained in the Third-Party Websites or the Third-Party Content."

Trump has been a very vocal critic of Section 230. In 2020, he signed an executive order meant to limit its scope shortly after Twitter fact-checked a false tweet he made. The order was never meaningfully imposed, but President Biden revoked it completely back in May.

Techtober continues with a deep dive into Apple’s latest MacBook Pros, powered by the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. Cherlynn and Devindra also chat about what’s new with the Pixel 6, and Mr. Mobile himself (Michael Fisher) joins to break down the Surface Duo 2. It turns out Microsoft needed more than a year to fix all of the problems with its dual-screen phone.

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

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Topics

• Apple’s new MacBooks with M1 Pro and M1 Pro Max – 1:37

• Google finally details Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro’s specs – 23:22

• Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 is inconsistent and buggy – 38:41

• Facebook may be changing its name – 1:04:05

• Facebook Portal Go Review – 1:05:05

• Finally, you can post to Instagram from desktop – 1:06:02

• Samsung had yet another Unpacked event – 1:06:23

• Also in events: Razer, DJI – 1:07:35

• We have a trailer for the Uncharted movie – 1:07:56

• Mel Brooks is doing History of the World: Part II for Hulu – 1:09:19

• Fisher Price made a version of its toy phone that actually makes calls – 1:10:14

• Working on – 1:11:25

• Pop culture picks – 1:12:26

Video livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guests: Michael Fisher
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos,Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

Lyft has finally published its first safety report (PDF), which sheds light on the rate of sexual assault and abuse cases on the service in the US over the course of three years. From 2017 until 2019, Lyft received a total of 4,158 sexual assault reports. The company's safety team divided all sexual assault and misconduct incidents into 21 categories, but the cases included in this report only include five of the most serious categories of sexual assault.

Those categories are non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual/sexual body part, non-consensual touching of a sexual body part, attempted non-consensual sexual penetration and non-consensual sexual penetration. There are lesser categories of sexual assault that weren't included in the total number of cases.

Among the five, the most commonly reported incidents fall under the non-consensual touching of a sexual body part category. The team recorded 360 incidents of rape within that period. Lyft said that it included any incident reported over the three-year period regardless of when it actually happened, because sexual assault is chronically underreported. Further, it intentionally used broad definitions for the sub-categories.In addition to sexual assault cases, Lyft has also reported 105 motor vehicle fatalities and 10 fatal physical assaults. 

The company explained that it doesn't proactively report safety incidents to law enforcement, knowing that it's a deeply personal decision, especially for survivors of sexual assault. "This policy gives survivors as much agency as possible when deciding whether and how to report an incident," it wrote. 

Lyft has been promising to release a safety report since 2018, and when CNN asked about it earlier this year, the company cited an issue with the California Public Utilities Commission for the delay. According to the news organization, at least 72 individuals are suing the ride-hailing service over alleged sexual assault incidents. Some of those cases accuse Lyft of knowing that its drivers were raping passengers and failing to take steps to protect its customers.

Uber, on the other hand, published its first safety report in 2019. The company revealed nearly 6,000 reports of sexual abuse over 2017 and 2018, as well as 19 fatal physical assaults.

After a long run of teasing the RGB-lit Zephyr mask, Razer is finally ready to sell it to die-hard fans — or possibly cosplayers. The Zephyr costs $100 or there’s a $150 Starter Pack with three replacement filter kits. Alas, the Starter Pack is already listed as "out of stock," and the mask by itself is still "coming soon."

Yes, you can customize the lighting through a companion app, but the highlight is a dual-fan active air filtration system with N95 filters — something I’d never thought I’d be writing about a Razer device.

— Mat Smith

Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review

Its second dual-screen hybrid is another letdown.

Engadget

Microsoft’s dual-screen ambitions continue to struggle. Upgraded hardware and a new Glance Bar don’t mean much when the Duo 2 is still plagued with inconsistent, finicky software. The new triple-camera array is held back by an atrocious camera app, and thermal issues cause the device to hang. All of this will cost you $1,500.

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‘Uncharted’ movie trailer plays Nathan Drake's greatest hits

That cargo plane sequence looks mighty familiar.

Sony Pictures

Yes, Sony is finally releasing an Uncharted movie after trying to make one for over a decade. Sony Pictures included a handy reminder at the end of the trailer about a remastered bundle of Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy that's coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in early 2022.

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Do you want a Razer gaming chair?

Well, it’s pretty good.

Razer

Gaming chairs have proliferated over the past few years, and until now, they’ve tended to be overpriced and visually unappealing. Think: lurid colors, Bond villain lair aesthetics and giant drink holders. As Buyer's Guide Editor Kris Naudus puts it, Razer’s new Enki chair is still a bit over the top, but at least it’s a more affordable kind of over the top.

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NVIDIA's new GeForce Now RTX 3080 service streams games at 1440p and 120 fps

It costs $100 for six months, double the current premium tier price.

NVIDIA has unveiled its next-generation cloud gaming platform called GeForce Now RTX 3080 with "desktop-class latency" and 1440p gaming at up to 120 fps on PC or Mac. The service is powered by a new gaming supercomputer called the GeForce Now SuperPod and, at $200 for a year, costs double the price of the existing Priority tier, which recently doubled to $100.

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Sony's A7 IV camera has a 33-megapixel sensor and 4K 60p video

It promises 'flagship-class' image quality and AI-powered AF.

Sony

Sony has finally revealed its mainstream $2,500 Alpha A7 IV full-frame mirrorless camera, and it looks to have been worth the wait. Borrowing technology from the recent A1 and A7S III models, it has some substantial improvements over the A7 III introduced well over three years ago. There’s an all-new 33-megapixel sensor, 4K 10-bit 60 fps video, new AI autofocus tricks and a lot more, including some new live streaming and sharing features, though they're not quite up to the level we've seen on other recent cameras. You can do video and audio streaming over USB-C at up to 1080p 60 or 4K 15p if resolution is a priority over smooth video.

The A7 IV is clearly a massive leap forward for Sony's "basic" full-frame mirrorless camera series, putting it on par — or ahead of — most rivals. The only deterrent is the $2,500 price tag ($2,699 with a kit lens), which is $500 more than the A7 III cost at launch.

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How to buy a monitor in 2021

We help you narrow down the multitude of choices available.

With the pandemic still upon us and Work From Home directives continuing, a monitor is one of the most important computer buying decisions you can make. Luckily, there’s never been more choice, and we’ve seen vast improvements in color accuracy, size and resolution since our last update. Steve Dent is here to help with your buying decision. Do you need HDR, and if so, how bright should your monitor be? What size do you need? Let’s dive in.

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The biggest news stories you might have missed

iFixit's Apple Watch Series 7 teardown shows the same display tech as iPhone 13

We can make the steel of tomorrow without the fossil fuels of yesteryear

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro offers a speed-enhancing High Power Mode

Apple will require unvaccinated employees to test for COVID-19 daily

Trump plans to launch his own social media platform in early 2022

Raspberry Pi announces first-ever price increase due to component shortages

Microsoft and AMD will give away a 'Halo Infinite' Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU

Seagate now offers a 2TB expansion card for your Xbox Series X/S

'Among Us' will hit Xbox and PlayStation on December 14th

Amazon's deal of the day is all about Samsung today, with products on sale ranging from laptops to Galaxy S smartphones to storage. That includes a 30 percent discount on Samsung's thin and pretty 13.3-inch Galaxy Book Pro laptop with an OLED display (on sale for $840), the Galaxy S21 Plus smartphone at $750 ($250 off), and the Galaxy Watch 4 priced at $220 — $90 off the regular $310 price.

Some of the best deals are on Samsung's laptops. The Galaxy Book Pro stands out not just because it's pretty, thin and light but because of that gorgeous AMOLED display. The 13.3-inch model in "Mystic Blue" is the standout deal, priced at just $840 for a savings of $360 (30 percent). It weighs in at just 1.92 pounds, offering an Intel 11th-gen Core-i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and 21 hours of battery life.  

Another great option that's far more on the budget side is Samsung's 11.6-inch Galaxy Chromebook 4, available for $179 or 28 percent off. It comes with 64GB of storage, 4GB RAM, Gigabit WiFi, Chrome OS and an HD Intel Celeron Processor N4000.  

Engadget

As for smartphones, the deals are focusing on Samsung's high-end Galaxy S21 models. First up is the Galaxy S21 Plus that comes with a big 6.7-inch Full HD+ display and variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. It's just as capable under the hood, with a Snapdragon 888 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, 8K video and 5G capability. The regular price for that model is a cool $1,000, but you can get one today in Phantom Violet or Phantom Silver for $750, a 25 percent savings. 

If you want the very best Galaxy device, that would be the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The camera in particular is more capable, with a 108-megapixel sensor and Samsung's 100X "Space Zoom," along with 8K video and other features. It's got a larger, higher-resolution 3,200 x 1,440 display, a bigger battery, and more RAM and storage (12GB and 256GB, respectively). Normally priced at $1,200, that model is available at $950 in Phantom Black or Phantom Silver, 21 percent off the normal price. 

Engadget

Next up is watches and wireless earphones. We found Samsung's latest Galaxy Watch 4 model to be the best Android watch you can get, in part because it's using a new version of Wear OS built in collaboration with Google. It looks nice, offers comprehensive health tracking, has a bright and crisp screen, supports more third-party features and offers Samsung's touch-sensitive rotating bezel. Amazon's $220 sale price is not only the cheapest we've seen, but you get a free wireless charger, to boot. 

In our Engadget review, we said that Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro were its best earbuds yet, thanks to the comfy fit, good sound quality and wireless charging capability, with the main drawbacks being mediocre battery life and the lack of an iOS app. Amazon's selling them today for $140, which isn't quite the lowest price we've seen, but still a good 30 percent off. If you're willing to risk it, you could hold out for possibly a better Black Friday deal in about a month. 

Finally, if you're looking for storage, Samsung has you covered there, too. Samsung's T7 portable SSDs are popular for their relative portability and incredible USB 3.2 Gen2 write/read speeds of around 1,000 MB/s/1,050 MB/s — ideal for video editing and fast storage transfers. The T7 portable 1TB model is a particularly good deal, priced at $130 instead of $170 for a savings of 24 percent.

And if you need a smartphone storage bump without compromising performance, Samsung's EVO Select microSDXC UHS-I cards deliver 100MB/s, allowing fast photo transfers and video capture. The Samsung 512GB EVO Select model is now on sale for $55, for a savings of 21 percent. 

Tesla's closely-guarded driving data has been decrypted for the first time, according to a Dutch government-run forensic lab. The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) said it discovered a wealth of information about Tesla's Autopilot, along with data around speed, accelerator pedal positions, steering wheel angle and more. The findings will allow the government to "request more targeted data" to help determine the cause of accidents, the investigators said. 

The researchers already knew that Tesla vehicles encrypt and store accident related data, but not which data and how much. As such, they reverse-engineered the system and succeeded in "obtaining data from the models S, Y, X and 3," which they described in a paper presented at an accident analysis conference.

These data contain a wealth of information for forensic investigators and traffic accident analysts and can help with a criminal investigation after a fatal traffic accident or an accident with injury. 

With knowledge of how to decrypt the storage, the NFI carried out tests with a Tesla Model S so it could compare the logs with real-world data. It found that the vehicle logs were "very accurate," with deviations less than 1 km/h (about 0.6 MPH).

The NSI also analyzed several accidents using the raw data it acquired. In one case, a Tesla on Autopilot collided with a car ahead that suddenly braked. Normally, if the Autopilot doesn't brake in time, the driver is supposed to take over.  

"In this case, the investigation showed that the driver did indeed intervene and also within the expected response time," said researcher Aart Spek. "The fact that it turned out to be a collision was because the following distance [chosen by Autopilot] was too tight in the busy traffic situation. That makes it interesting, because who is responsible for the following distance: the car or the driver?" 

It used to be possible to extract Autopilot data from Tesla EVs, but it's now encrypted in recent models, the investigators said. Tesla encrypts data for good reason, they acknowledged, including protecting its own IP from other manufacturers and guarding a driver's privacy. It also noted that the company does provide specific data to authorities and investigators if requested.

However, the team said that the extra data they extracted would allow for more detailed accident investigations, "especially into the role of driver assistance systems." It added that it would be ideal to know if other manufacturers stored the same level of detail over long periods of time. "If we would know better which data car manufacturers all store, we can also make more targeted claims through the courts or the Public Prosecution Service," said NFI investigator Frances Hoogendijk. "And ultimately that serves the interest of finding the truth after an accident."

SpaceX has taken a major step towards sending the Starship to orbit. On Thursday night, the private space corporation has conducted the SN20 Starship prototype's first static fire test as part of its preparation for the spacecraft's launch. According to Space, the SN20 is currently outfitted with two Raptor engines: A standard "sea-level" Raptor and a vacuum version designed to operate in space. At 8:16PM Eastern time on Thursday, the company fired the latter. SpaceX then revealed on Twitter that it was the first ever firing of a Raptor vacuum engine integrated onto a Starship.

Around an hour after that, the SN20 lit up yet again in a second static fire test that may have involved both Raptor engines. The SN20 will eventually have six Raptors — three standard and three vacuum — and will be the first prototype to attempt an orbital launch. A Starship launch system is comprised of the Starship spacecraft itself and a massive first-stage booster called the Super Heavy. Both are designed to be reusable and to carry large payloads for trips to low and higher Earth orbits. It can also eventually be used for longer trips to the Moon and to Mars. 

SpaceX doesn't have a date for the SN20 test flight yet, but the plan is to launch the vehicle with the Super Heavy known as Booster 4 from the company's Boca Chica site. The booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the SN20 will continue its journey towards orbit. 

iFixit has taken apart the Apple Watch Series 7 and showed that despite having minimal changes on the outside, it does feature some big upgrades underneath. As we mentioned in our review, the main difference between this device and the Series 6 is its slightly bigger display, Now, iFixit's teardown shows that its display uses touch-integrated OLED panel or "on-cell touch," which debuted with the iPhone 13. 

The website says the move is unusual for Apple, since it typically introduces new display tech — such as OLED, always-on and variable refresh rate — on the lower-volume Apple Watch first instead of the other way around. According to the former Apple engineers iFixit worked with for this teardown, this new display may have caused production delays and made the company release the device later than it would've liked.

When the tech giant first announced the Series 7 in September, it didn't have a concrete release date. The former Apple engineers said that usually signals delays, and the most likely culprit was the manufacturing hiccups caused by the Watch's display. "[S]creens have some of the most complex supply chains and assembly processes in the industry," the website explained. In addition to using new technology, Apple also made the display bigger and gave it a refractive edge to make the sides look like they're slightly curved. 

iFixit also found that the model's battery is larger than its predecessors. That doesn't translate to longer battery life, though, since the device's larger screen likely uses more power. There are a few other more minor changes compared to previous versions of the Watch. You can see the whole teardown on iFixit's website, along with more photos of what's inside the Series 7.

Back at the start of the year, Google gave Meet hosts the ability to mute everyone in a call all at once. Now, the company has a solution for situations that require more nuance and control. It’s introducing an audio and video lock feature that allows hosts to turn off the microphones and cameras of select participants, in which case they can’t turn them back on until they’re allowed to do so again. 

Anyone using a version of Meet on Android or iOS that does not support audio and video locks will be removed from the call if the host enables the feature. If they try to join one such call, they’ll also be prompted to update their app. Google has begun rolling out the tool to rapid release domains today. Scheduled release domains will start getting access to it beginning on November 1st. The locks should be particularly useful for corraling rowdy participants, but some hosts may also find it helpful for encouraging specific individuals to participate more often.