With its transparent back, light-up details and low-fi ringtones, the Nothing Phone 1 is framed as a playful reinterpretation of the smartphone, a category that (beside foldables) has become staid.
It’s an anticipated addition to the world of smartphones, and Nothing would do well to carve out a place for itself against not only the dominant Apple and Samsung, but an array of Chinese manufacturers with a lot of industrial might — and funding.
I wanted to hate Nothing’s first phone, which has gone hard on detail drip feeding, glamor shots and an awful lot of hyperbole. But my early impressions (I’m in the midst of reviewing the Phone 1 right now) are that, behind all that noise, there’s a surprisingly decent smartphone here.
And it’s not prohibitively priced, either. Not competing with flagship cameras, screens and processors has led to prices starting at £399 (roughly $476). Sadly, there’s no plan for US availability, but the challenge for Nothing is proving a new smartphone company can even exist in 2022.
All the tech deals worth your money for the 2-day shopping event.
Oh god, it’s Prime Day. The Engadget team has been hard at work sorting through the deals worth your time. We’re pooling our best finds right here and updating our story throughout Amazon’s sale season. We’ve got deals on many of our favorite wireless earbuds, an array of Apple gear, including iPads and Watches and, of course, loads of Amazon hardware.
My shopping finger is currently hovering over the DJI Mini 2 drone kit.
Apple and Jony Ive are breaking up — and this time, according to The New York Times, it's for real. Ive left the tech giant in 2019 after over two decades and formed his own company called LoveFrom, with Apple as its first and primary client. The publication said both parties agreed not to extend their contract in the weeks leading up to its renewal. Ive reportedly wanted the freedom to take on new clients without needing to ask Apple’s permission.
NASA has unveiled the first batch of full-color images the James Webb Space Telescope sent back to Earth. The first image was of the Southern Ring nebula, which is around 2,500 light-years away, captured by JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). NASA says the telescope observed gas and dust from a dying star in "unprecedented detail." We’ve pulled a bunch of the most jaw-dropping images over on the site.
The game will remain free to play, and Spotify hopes to use it as a music discovery tool.
Heardle, a music trivia game that popped up following the massive success of Wordle, has a new owner. Spotify has announced it's buying the game but didn’t disclose the terms of the deal.
Heardle is simply a game of name that tune. Players get six attempts to guess a popular song and, like Wordle, there's only one game each day to guess.
It’ll switch to third-party manufacturing for fitness gear like Bike and Tread.
Peloton said in a statement that it's "exiting all owned-manufacturing operations" to simplify its supply chain and cut costs. It added: "We believe that this along with other initiatives will enable us to continue reducing the cash burden on the business and increase our flexibility."
The company is still trying to course correct. In January, then-CEO John Foley said the company was "resetting our production levels for sustainable growth" following reports it was putting all production on hold. The following month, Peloton brought in a new CEO and laid off around 2,800 corporate employees, equivalent to 20 percent of the total workforce.
With iOS 16, the iPhone will get a whole new lock screen, edit and send options in iMessage, improved dictation, a medication tracker, new sharing features and more. iOS 16 is shaping up to be a beefier update than years past, making the beta more tempting than ever. Our highlight so far is the redesigned, customizable lock screen. Read on for all our impressions and check out our iPad OS 16 beta preview.
Owlet is giving tired parents new tools they can use to (hopefully) get little bit more sleep than what they're getting with a baby in the house. The company has launched the Owlet Cam 2, which uses AI and machine learning to decipher sounds from the nursery and determine whether the baby is truly crying. It sends parents notification through the Owlet Dream App when it detects sounds, motion or crying from the baby's room. The camera can also send parents video clips of sound and movement that they can watch on their phone anytime.
The 1080p HD camera comes with the features its predecessor has, including 4x zoom, night vision, two-way talk and room temp reading. However, unlike the previous version that only comes in white, it's also available in Sleepy Sage, Dusty Rose and Bedtime Blue.
Owlet has also rolled out a new predictive sleep technology feature for its system that automatically tracks the baby's sleep and wake windows when used with the company's Dream Sock. As its name implies, it can predict when the baby might be ready for sleep and can let parents know through the Owlet app — it can even adjust the child's anticipated sleep window as they age. That way, parents can plan their own rest periods and other activities around the baby's sleep schedule.
Predictive sleep will be available to both new and existing Dream Sock users through a firmware update slated for release today. Those who don't have a Dream Sock can still take advantage of the feature, though, by manually adding sleep sessions through Owlet's app.
The company originally sold its monitoring device as the Smart Sock, but it had to pull it from US shelves after getting a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While the FDA did not identify any safety concerns, the agency argued that it should be classified as a medical device due to its heart rate and oxygen level monitoring features. Owlet stopped selling the sock in the US last year to pursue the authority to market those features as part of the device's offerings. But company made it available for purchase in the US again earlier this year under a new name: the Dream Sock.
The Owlet Dream Duo that bundles a set of socks with a second-gen cam is now available for $439, but those who already have socks can get the the second-gen cam alone for $159. In the US, buyers can purchase the devices from Owlet's website, as well as from retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart and Best Buy.
Back in February, TikTok said it was working on new ways to age-restrict certain types of content in an effort to ramp up its safety features for teens. Now, the company is sharing more about its rating system, called Content Levels, which it plans to roll out “in the coming weeks.”
The company has compared its approach to the ratings systems used by the movie and video game industry. It’s meant to filter out videos with more “mature” themes from the feeds of its teen users. It will apply to videos that wouldn’t otherwise break TikTok’s rules but may be inappropriate for younger users of the app.
With the change, when teens between the ages of 13 and 17 encounter a video that contains “mature or complex themes,” they’ll instead see a notice that the video is age restricted. “When we detect that a video contains mature or complex themes, for example, fictional scenes that may be too frightening or intense for younger audiences, a maturity score will be allocated to the video to help prevent those under 18 from viewing it across the TikTok experience,” TikTok explains in a blog post.
The company didn’t share how it would determine these maturity scores, or what criteria it would use to classify its videos. TikTok noted that the feature is still an “early version” and that they plan to add additional capabilities in the future. Company executives have previously said they also want TikTok users to be able to choose what type of content they are comfortable with.
TikTok
In the meantime, the app is also adding a new way to filter out unwanted topics from their “For You” page. The update, also expected in the coming weeks, will enable users to mute certain words or hashtags they no longer wish to see videos about.
TikTok also offered an update on its work to avoid potentially problematic “repetitive patterns” in its For You recommendations. The company previously said it was testing ways to avoid overloading people with a lot of content about topics that can be potentially troubling, like mental health or eating disorders. Now, TikTok says those early tests have been successful, and that users in the United States are less likely to see many videos about these topics at once. TikTok is now working on making the feature available in more countries and languages.
Magic Leap 2 finally has a concrete date for its commercial availability. The business-focused headset first made its way to a limited number of users last year as part of the company's early adopter program. Starting on September 30th, though, anybody who wants to get the headset in the US can buy one. Magic Leap 2 will be available in three editions, the cheapest of which is the Base headset meant for professionals and developers who just want access to the augmented reality platform. The edition can be used for full commercial deployments and production environments and will cost $3,299 with a one-year warranty.
Developers working on AR apps and need the headset for internal testing will probably have to purchase the Magic Leap 2 Developer Pro edition. It comes with "access to developer tools, sample projects, enterprise-grade features, and monthly early releases for development and test purposes." That said, the company will not give its buyers permission to use them for full commercial deployments and in production environments. The Developer Pro's prices start at $4,099.
Finally, Magic Leap 2 Enterprise is for customers looking for a headset with robust enterprise features and who intend to use them for large-scale deployments. This option will cost buyers at least $4,999 and will come with a two-year access to enterprise features, as well as quarterly software releases. Unlike the other two options, the Enterprise edition is bundled with two years of warranty.
Due to the fact that the headsets are meant for enterprise use and have prices that go beyond double the first Magic Leap's retail price, the company is likely not expecting massive sales numbers. Especially since Magic Leap reportedly only sold 6,000 units of the first model within the first six months that it became available. The Information reported back then that company founder Rony Abovitz told investors he was expecting to sell 1 million units in the first year, before deciding that 100,000 was a more realistic number. Because of the Magic Leap One Creator Edition's poor sales and the pandemic, the company ended up laying off half its workforce in 2020.
Magic Leap 2 will also be available in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on September 30th, with Japan and Singapore to follow before the year ends. In the US, the devices will be sold through the company's retail partner, Insight.
The iOS 16 public beta is here, which means you can get a taste of Apple’s upcoming mobile software before its stable release. As we saw at WWDC in June, the iPhone is slated to get a whole new lock screen, edit and send options in iMessage, improved dictation, a Medication tracker, new sharing features and more. iOS 16 is shaping up to be a beefier update than years past, and you might (understandably) be itching to test it out.
As always, I have to remind you that installing any beta software comes with risks. Some of your favorite apps might stop working, or worse, your phone might be completely bricked. If you’re still set on running the beta, please make sure to back up your data. You can access the preview by enrolling on Apple’s website, which will push a download option to your phone’s Software Update section.
Just as with the iOS 15 public beta last year, basically all the features announced at WWDC are ready for testing. The only things missing would require developers to make some changes, like integrating an API for the new live activity update box on the lock screen. And the redesigned CarPlay, won’t be available until next year. I can’t get into every single change, and will save my more complete evaluations for our full review when iOS 16 is officially released.
Screenshots
New lock screens are a visual refresh
Once my phone restarted after installing the beta, the change was obvious. Instead of the clock and list of notifications my eyes had grown tired of, there was a box at the bottom of the page telling me the software had updated. The clock font was a thicker, blockier style, which I immediately wanted to change. I long-pressed the wallpaper, but that brought up the page for me to enter my passcode.
I found a bug where I couldn’t access the editor or switch pages until I set up Face ID. Basically, you can’t tweak or change lock screens without logging into your phone, but when you enter your passcode, the system takes you straight to your home page, bypassing the lock screen altogether. Face ID allows your iPhone to stay on the page after having unlocked your phone.
Once I got into the Lock Screen creator, I could choose from eight styles and two colors for the clock, as well as add up to five widgets across two boxes at the top of the page. I picked the weather, air quality and UV index widgets, and then added two more profiles with different wallpapers featuring my favorite photos (you can also choose your preferred emoji, people or color). There’s also options based on the weather or “Astronomy,” which uses your position to show where you are on a globe. It can also display the moon or solar system.
Each page can be linked to a Focus mode, though there must always be a default lock screen that isn’t tied to anything. Speaking of, Apple also added Focus filters to let you have finer control over what you want to interact with in certain modes. You can choose which tab groups appear in Safari with your Work profile and pick a different calendar to see when set to Play. iOS 16 also offers Allow and Silence lists when you’re setting up your Focus modes, and will provide suggestions around Lock Screen content that would be relevant to each profile.
Screenshots
The revamped Lock Screen also features a new “live activity box” at the bottom. The idea is that when you’re following a sporting match or recording an interview for example, you can stay updated without having to leave the app open. Developers need to integrate the new API for this to work. Right now, it works with Spotify and Apple’s timer app, making it easy to pause or skip ahead in my music and cancel my countdowns.
Messages gets better
One of the most useful changes coming with iOS 16 is the ability to edit and unsend chats in iMessage. For now, this works best with people who are also using the public beta — anyone on iOS 15 will see a second message that says “Edited to” followed by your new words. Just like what people on Android used to see when iPhone users used emoji reactions on texts.
You’ll have 15 minutes after sending a message to access the options for “Undo Send” or “Edit.” When you rescind a message, by the way, your friend will see an alert saying “[friend’s name] unsent a message.” Texts that had been updated have the word “Edited” next to the read receipt below the bubble.
Screenshots
Apple also updated the dictation experience. Now, when you tap the microphone on the iPhone’s keyboard, the QWERTY setup stays in place instead of being taken over by a waveform animation. A small tab with a microphone icon appears over the input field when you’re not speaking, so you know dictation is still enabled.
You can tap mistakes in the box and continue dictating to fix them, which is similar to what Google did with its updated voice engine on the Pixel 6. Unlike on Android, though, iOS 16 doesn’t allow you to speak commands like “Send” or “Delete all”. This dictation interface didn’t appear when I was typing in the App Store’s search bar, though, so despite this being a systemwide feature, it still appears to be missing in places.
Visual Lookup is the most fun
Of all the updates the iOS 16 beta brings, my favorite has to be in visual lookup. Or, as I prefer to call it, the quicker-sticker-maker. Basically, you can long-press a subject in any picture in the Photos app and copy it without the background and paste it somewhere else.
I was impressed with how accurately the system picked out subjects, whether it was a coworker smizing against a blue sky, or a model in a flowing dress in front of a building. Sadly, it doesn’t work on things in the background — I couldn’t get it to highlight a dog behind its owner.
Screenshots
When you paste your selection into a Message field, it’s automatically sent as a cutout with a transparent background — i.e. a sticker. But often, the system would think I was trying to send a picture and add a black background, which took away from the effect. This is a known bug, though, so it shouldn’t be happening by the time iOS 16 is ready for its stable release.
Apple also added video support for Live Text, which scans images for text and picks them out so you can interact with them. This will work in the Photos app, as well as anything that uses the iOS player, which includes fullscreen videos from articles on the web. Third-party services with custom controls won’t automatically support this, but developers can integrate the ability if they wish.
Medications and health features still need work
I was looking forward to seeing the new Medications feature in the Health app and, satisfyingly, it’s straightforward and intuitive. I easily found my daily pill, and Apple offers US users the option to scan their packaging label. The database is still somewhat sparse, and I couldn’t find the specific brand and dosage of Vitamin B12 that I take every day, but I imagine as more people use this and plug their own pills in, there will be more entries soon.
While it’s helpful that you can choose frequency intervals like daily, alternate days, specific days of the week and more, I wish there were a way to choose an end date. You can set a specific day to start your meds, but for short-term situations like a course of antibiotics, for example, you’ll have to manually delete the entry after you’re done.
Screenshots
The most intriguing aspect of Medications is that if you enter substances that have risky interactions, the system should flag it for you. This isn’t limited to drugs — Apple also prompts you to add whether you consume alcohol, marijuana or tobacco. Through this, I found out that my birth control might increase the effects of marijuana, and the Health app labeled this as a Moderate drug interaction.
I’m allergic to a few different drugs, including some major antibiotics, and I’ve listed this information in my medical ID in the Health app in case of an emergency. When I added one of the antibiotics in Medications, I wasn’t alerted about it. Granted, the information in the medical ID is simply a list of words as opposed to a piece of data Apple can use to match against other information. And I probably wouldn’t encounter a situation where I’m dispensed medication that contains something I’m deathly allergic to. But it would be nice to see Apple think about how to approach situations like this.
Concerns about medical privacy are at an all-time high and I almost didn’t want to list my birth control in Medications, though I do feel that Apple’s privacy policy is one of the better ones around. Still, if there was a way for this information to be hidden behind a passcode, I would feel a bit better.
Sharing, accessibility and a long list of other updates
I’ve barely covered the list of changes iOS 16 will bring, but we’ve covered what will have the biggest impact on your daily experience. If you frequently collaborate with others, the new Safari group tabs can be helpful. I created a group and shared it with fellow deputy editor Nate Ingraham as we tested the new software. I had the Engadget home page and Apple’s iOS summary open, and the next day he had added some other reference pages, but he also noticed I had been looking up the cast of Ms. Marvel.
Sharing photos with your friends and family is also easier if they’re using iOS. You can create a shared photo album and images added will be synced with all members. Family Sharing has also been updated to make child accounts easier to set up, and your kids can send you Screen Time requests through Messages (and you can approve or decline from the chat, too).
Screenshots
I didn’t have time to check out some of the other new features like the assistive Door Detection tool or Sound Recognition. But I did try Live Captions, which provides subtitles for audio playing through all apps on your phone. Though Apple’s version is occasionally inaccurate and slightly slow compared to Android, I appreciate that I can tap the box on iOS and choose to pause Live Captions or tap the microphone icon to switch to transcribing sounds in my surroundings. I can also minimize the Live Captions box on iOS, leaving only a floating circle on the screen that stays out of the way till I need subtitles again.
Apple also added a new Safety Check tool that “allows you to disconnect from people, apps and devices you no longer want to be connected to.” You can review the people and apps that have access to your location, photos, calendar or contacts and revoke permissions, or choose nuclear options like “Emergency Reset” or “Select All and Stop Sharing.” Changing these options requires you to sign in, either with a passcode or by Face ID. There’s also a new Lockdown Mode that the company announced earlier this month, which is “an extreme, optional protection” for those who “believe you may be personally targeted by a highly sophisticated cyberattack.”
I’ve been enjoying the iOS 16 public beta, and though I still hesitate to recommend installing beta software, most people who aren’t risk-averse will enjoy the updates. If you’re worried about stability and losing your data, you can always wait till the final release (typically in the fall) to get the new features.
When Apple put its M1 processor in the 2021 iPad Pro and iPad Air, I couldn’t help but wonder what all that power was for. The A-series chips that Apple had used in earlier models ran iPadOS extremely well, so seeing the same processor found in computers like the MacBook Air and Mac Mini was a surprise.
With iPadOS 16, which I’ve been testing in beta for the last few weeks, it’s now obvious why Apple put the M1 in its latest iPads. It enables some significant new features around multitasking that make the iPad a lot more flexible, and it enables some entirely new workflows: things that iPad power users have been requesting for years. Apple calls this new multitasking scheme Stage Manager.
And even though Stage Manager will only work on the three M1-powered iPad models, it’s easily the most significant change to iPadOS in years, as well as the most notable feature that’s currently available in the iPadOS 16 beta. As usual, a host of features that Apple announced at WWDC last month aren’t yet fully enabled in the beta software.
Resizable, overlapping app windows is the most immediately obvious benefit that Stage Manager offers, but Vivek Bhardwaj from Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple told Engadget in an interview that the company looks at Stage Manager as far more than, in his words, “a little iteration on multitasking.” The broader goal was to figure out how to make apps more capable on the iPad. “When we took a step back, we realized that there’s an opportunity for us to have apps running not just on iPad but on an external display, to be able to multitask with multiple apps, and have arrangements and flexibility like users have never had before,” Bhardwaj said.
Despite the bugs that I’ve encountered running iPadOS 16 on a 2021 iPad Pro (more on that later), Bhardwaj’s assessment feels accurate. Stage Manager makes the iPad feel much closer to a Mac than it ever has before while still retaining the simplicity that the iPad is known for. That shows up in some limitations — you can have at most four apps “on stage” at once, so you can’t stack as many windows and apps as you want. But it’s a reasonable limitation: Even on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, having more than three apps running on a single stage can feel cramped. But because iPadOS keeps four more recent stages on the left (each of which can also hold up to four apps), it’s easier than ever to jump between a host of different apps.
For example, I’m writing this story in a Pages document, with a Notes instance running next to it. I have Slack and Messages running in a communication-focused stage, a few Safari windows, and my email readily accessible via the left-side recent apps view. I can also get to any app in my dock with one tap or use Spotlight to search for any app on my iPad if I need something that isn’t readily available. There’s definitely a learning curve here, but it’s undoubtedly a more powerful and flexible way to use an iPad than we’ve ever had before. It’s significant that Apple is giving iPad users complexity and customization at the expense of simplicity, something the company usually avoids.
This is doubly true when you hook up an iPad to an external display. Before, you’d just get a mirror image of what is on your iPad’s screen, but now the external display is an entirely separate workspace. With Stage Manager, you can have a distinct set of apps running on that monitor, something that makes using an iPad with another display significantly more useful than it ever was before — and another example of why Stage Manager requires an M1-powered iPad.
That said, in its unfinished form, Stage Manager is a bit rough around the edges. When I was using my iPad with an external display, the system crashed and threw me back to the home screen not infrequently, which obviously kills productivity gains. There are also quirks with apps behaving unpredictably when resizing their windows. I’d expect these things to be improved by the time iPadOS 16 is officially released this fall, but just be aware that the beta still feels very much like a beta.
Stage Manager, which is also coming to macOS Ventura, provides a clear example of how Apple differentiates its platforms even when they share features. “On the iPad, we looked at how do we optimize [Stage Manager] for multitouch?” Bhardwaj said. “Because we know people are going to want to interact with it, we had to make adjusting windows and overlapping windows not feel overwhelming, not feel like you have to have fine cursor control and pixel-perfect arrangement.” That led to a lot of automation in terms of how windows interact with each other and where they’re placed when you add apps to a stage or resize them.
On the Mac, though, the behavior is different because of the user’s expectations for the platform and the tools you use to interact with it — specifically, a mouse rather than your fingers. “People actually need fine-grained control because that’s the behavior and usage of Mac,” Bhardwaj said.
Before Apple showed off Stage Manager at WWDC, the rest of the iPadOS 16 preview was dominated by new collaboration features. In a world that’s been remade by the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is more common than ever, and Apple is clearly trying to make the iPad even more of a productivity tool than before. And it’s doing so by using its incredibly popular Messages app as an entry point.
Apple’s new collaboration API means that you can share things like a Pages, Numbers or Keynote document with a group via Messages, and the recipients will be able to all work on the document in real time. Previously, this would just send a copy of the document, but now everyone in your group will be able to make changes, with updates tracked in the Messages thread. You can also jump directly from a document into a FaceTime call with your group. “Communication often is the first place where we start ideation,” Bhardwaj said. “When you look at Messages or FaceTime, our customers have been using them for a long time; it’s such an integral part of the way our sets speak to family, friends, teammates, colleagues.”
Google and Microsoft have had real-time collaboration for years, and it’s not new to Apple’s iWork suite either. What is new is the deep integration with Messages and FaceTime. That likely won’t be enough to draw in users who are already committed to using Google Docs or Microsoft Office, but Apple’s new collaboration features aren’t limited to just those apps. For example, you can share a group of tabs from Safari, or share content from Notes and Reminders. And Apple is also extending SharePlay, which it introduced last year as a way to watch videos or listen to music with friends, to Messages as well. Additionally, you can now use SharePlay with games, so you compete with a friend over FaceTime.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Apple is making a Collaboration API available to third-party developers. Offering a more seamless way to collaborate using Messages, one of the most crucial apps Apple offers, could be an important new tool. “For developers, they want to meet the user where they’re at, where the conversation is happening,” said Bhardwaj. “For many people, that’s in apps like Messages and FaceTime. So this is exciting for a developer because a conversation that was organically already happening can now be a great jumping-off point into their app.” We won’t know if this happens until after iPadOS 16 is out, of course, but the ubiquity of Messages on Apple’s hardware make it a logical tool for developers to support.
Freeform, a new app that unfortunately isn’t available in the iPadOS 16 beta, is perhaps the best example of how Apple sees communication and collaboration intersecting. From a FaceTime call, you can create a new Freeform board, which is a space that everyone you invite can contribute to, whether that’s adding text, web links, documents or notes and drawings made with an Apple Pencil. Each contributor is highlighted as they add things to the space, and you can tap on someone’s name from the share menu to see exactly what they’re up to. Adding more material is simply a matter of zooming out and picking a free space.
Apple
The easy comparison is that it’s a virtual marker board — not at all something meant for formal presentation, but a good place to brainstorm. While Freeform will also be available on iPhones and Macs, it feels uniquely suited to the iPad. It looks like it’ll be most easily navigated via a large touch screen, and Apple Pencil users will likely find it a good place to use their stylus.
Naturally, there’s a host of new features in iPadOS 16 that are shared with macOS Ventura and iOS 16. The Mail app now supports scheduling emails, undoing send and a much-improved search interface, while the Messages app lets you edit and undo sending as well. The Photos app now includes a shared photo library, with new pictures and edits automatically syncing between family members. And there’s an official Weather app, some 12 years after Apple shipped its first iPad! (Joking aside, the Weather app is really nice, with tappable modules that show lots of detail on various conditions.)
In a lot of ways, it’s a typical iPadOS update: There are a host of new features, most of which are nice to have but won’t fundamentally change the way you use an iPad. But, the combination of features like Stage Manager, Freeform and the new collaboration tools point to how Apple intends to make the iPad more suited to productivity than it has been before. We’ll have to wait until iPadOS 16 is finalized and released this fall to judge how successful this update is. But after feeling like iPad hardware was outpacing what its software could do, we’re glad to see Apple making some big changes to iPadOS this year.
You're not wrong to look for big-ticket gadgets to go on sale during Amazon Prime Day. Plenty of popular devices are down to record-low prices, and you should grab them before their prices go back up after Prime Day ends. But maybe you're on the hunt for even more affordable things, or useful accessories that won't cost you an arm and a leg even when discounted. Those things do exist, so, to help you avoid endless sifting through cheap deals, we collected the best Prime Day tech deals under $50 here.
Echo Dot
The Echo Dot is on sale for $20 while the Echo Dot with Clock is down to $33. We like these tiny smart speakers for their good audio quality, compact design and tap-to-snooze feature.
The Echo Show 5 has dropped to $35, or $50 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.
Amazon's standard Kindle has dropped to $45, which is half off its normal price. We gave this e-reader a score of 91 for its improved contrast display, extra front lights and sleeker design.
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.
You can pick up Amazon's most affordable streamer, the Fire TV Stick Lite, for only $12 right now. It supports 1080p streaming and gives you access to some of the most popular services like Netlfix and Disney+.
The standard Fire TV Stick is on sale for $17. 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 Prime Day. 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. 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 Chromecast with Google TV is down to $40 right now. We gave it a score of 86 for its handy remote control, good Google Assistant integration and 4K streaming chops with Dolby Vision and Atmos support.
Roku's Express streaming dongle has dropped to $18. Like Amazon's own budget streaming devices, the Express doesn't have a ton of fancy features, but it does support HD content and it comes with a high-speed HDMI cable. The Express 4K+ streamer is also on sale for $25.
The latest Roku Streaming Stick 4K is on sale for $30. It builds upon the technology in the Streaming Stick+, supporting 4K HDR10+ content, Dolby Vision, long-range WiFi, voice search and TV controls with the included remote.
You can grab an AirTag for $27.50 right now at Amazon, or you can head over to Woot and get one for $25 or a pack of four for $85. These tiny trackers sync with the Find My app on iOS to help you keep track of your keys, bags and other belongings. Just make sure you pick up a holder so you can actually attach the gadget to your stuff.
Tile trackers are up to 30 percent off for Prime Day and you have a few different designs to choose from. The standard Tile Mate is down to $180, the Tile Slim is on sale for $24 and the Tile Sticker is down to $21. These Bluetooth chips help you keep track of your things digitally and they can lead you to your lost items by emitting a chime.
You can pick up a Galaxy SmartTag+ for only $30 right now, or $10 off its usual price. This is Samsung's answer to Apple's AirTags, and it lets you keep track of items via your smartphone. If you're close enough to your lost stuff, you can even follow directions on your smartphone that will lead you back to it.
Samsung's Pro Plus microSD card in 128GB is half off and down to only $18 for Prime Day. It also comes with an adapter, so you can use it with more types of devices. You'll get read/write speeds of up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s, respectively, and a card that's temperature, magnet- and drop-resistant.
SanDisk's Dual Drive Go is on sale for $50 right now, or 32 percent less than usual. It's a more modern version of a thumb drive featuring a swivel design with a USB-A connector on one end and a USB-C dongle on the other. We like its sleek, portable design, its 150MB/s read speeds and the fact that you'll be able to use it with almost any device.
Jabra's excellent Elite 3 earbuds have dropped to $50, or $30 off their normal rate. These already affordable buds earned a score of 88 from us for their impressive sound quality, good battery life, reliable touch controls and comfortable fit.
Jabra's Elite 45h headphones are half off and down to $50. We like these cans for their solid sound quality, voice assistant access, compact design and 50-hour battery life.
Sony's compact SRS-XB13 Bluetooth speaker is down to just $48, which is nearly half off its regular price. Not only does it come in a bunch of fun colors, but this tiny speaker also has a waterproof IP67 rated design, punchy bass and a 16-hour battery life.
Razer's Anzu smart glasses have returned to an all-time-low price of $50 for Prime Day. We gave them a score of 74 for their blue-light filtering lenses, decent battery life and convenient hands-free audio.
A four-pack of Kasa smart plugs is 24 percent off and down to only $23 for Prime Day. You can plug in any "dumb" appliance to these attachments to make them a bit smarter, enabling you to control them from your phone, set usage schedules and more.
Along with a bunch of other Amazon smart home gadgets, the company's smart plug is $12 off and down to $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.
The Blink Mini has been discounted to only $30 for Prime Day, and you can get two of them for the price of one as well. This camera needs to be plugged in, but we like its compact design, 1080p recording, motion alerts and two-way audio.
Upgrading your home with the latest tech can be expensive, but Amazon Prime Day is an opportunity to do so for a lot less. Be it robot vacuums or smart bulbs, there’s a whole lot of IoT and kitchen devices that are on sale today. Even some of our favorites from iRobot, Shark and Google have been discounted. Not all of the sales are actually worth your money, so we’ve done the hard work of narrowing that list down to the best deals available.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat
Ecobee Smart Thermostat
Ecobee
One of our favorite smart thermostats is this one from Ecobee, so we’re glad that it’s on sale today for $178 ($71 off its retail price of $249). It has built-in Alexa support, which means you can control the temperature simply by using your voice. Features include natural language processing, speech detection and a smart “Home & Away” function that can detect your presence and adjust the temperature automatically. If you would rather have something a little simpler, the Ecobee3 Lite, which doesn’t have voice control, is also on sale for $128 (original price is $179).
If you want to elevate your Ecobee ecosystem even further, consider getting these smart sensors. They’re on sale for $63, which is 21 percent off its $80 retail price. Simply attach them to your doors or windows, and you’ll get an alert any time they’re open. They’ll work in concert with your Ecobee smart thermostat to automatically pause heating or cooling if they’re left open. It works as a security system as well, as it has a 120-degree motion sensor that will alert you of any movement up to 16 feet away.
Nest has quite a number of products on sale today. One of them is Nest’s Learning Thermostat, which has dropped to $190 for Prime Day. That’s $60 less than its original retail price. It’s available in a variety of finishes – Brass, Copper, Mirror Black, Polished Steel, Stainless Steel and White. It’s currently the top-of-the-line smart thermostat from Google, with the ability to “learn” your preferences over time and adjust the temperature of your home accordingly. It also works with optional sensors that you can place around the home so you can assign specific temps for different rooms.
A more affordable option is the standard Nest Thermostat, which is also on sale today for $90 ($40 less than the original $130). It doesn’t work with the temperature sensors and lacks the learning capabilities of the higher-end model, but you can still use it to remotely control your home’s temperature.
Nest’s Doorbell Battery is only $120 today, which is $60 less than its usual $180 price point. This video doorbell runs on rechargeable batteries so it doesn’t need to be hard-wired into the house, which is good news for renters. It doesn’t offer 24/7 video recording like the Nest Hello does, but it does keep up to 3 hours of event history for free, or up to 60 days if you have a Nest Aware subscription. Plus, if the WiFi goes down, it’ll store up to an hour of recorded events so you can see what you’ve missed. Alternatively, if you just want a security camera for indoors or outdoors without the doorbell functionality, the Nest Cam Battery is on sale today as well for just $120 each ($60 less than its original retail price). It also runs on rechargeable batteries and even features a magnetic mount.
If you would rather have an Amazon-powered video doorbell instead, Ring’s Video Doorbells are discounted for Prime Day too. The 2020 version is down to $75, which is 25 percent off, while the upgraded Ring Video Doorbell 3 is now $160 ($40 off). The most recent of them all, the Video Doorbell 4, is down to just $170 ($50 off). All three let you interact with people at your front door, and you’ll get an alert when there’s a visitor or a package as well. You have the option of using either the built-in batteries or hard-wiring them to your house. The Video Doorbell 3 has a removable battery pack and interchangeable face plates, while the Doorbell 4 has color video previews and a new Quick Replies feature.
One of our favorite smart locks, August’s 4th-gen WiFi Smart Lock, is on sale today for just $150, which is $80 off its retail price. There’s also a bundle with the lock and a keypad for $189, which is 30 percent off the combined cost. We really liked the August WiFi Smart Lock back when we reviewed it in 2020 due to its slim design and WiFi connectivity. It forces you to set up two-factor authentication that adds an extra layer of security, which is always welcome with smart locks. Like most smart locks, the August lets you remotely lock and unlock the door, which is handy for letting friends and family members in when you’re absent. It also works with regular keys too, just in case the WiFi goes down.
There’s often several discounts on Roombas for Prime Day and this year is no exception. iRobot’s Roomba i7+ is now on sale for just $500, which is 50 percent off its original $1,000. That’s the lowest we’ve seen yet, and it’s certainly worth considering if you’re in the market for a robot vacuum. Not only does it automatically clean your room for you, it’ll actually charge itself and empty its own dustbin too. It has 10 times the suction power of regular Roombas, which makes it fantastic for those with pets and it automatically maps your home for a more targeted clean.
If you want a more affordable option, iRobot’s Roomba 692 is discounted today as well. It’s now priced at $180, which is $120 off the $300 retail price. Though it won’t clean itself like the i7+, the 692 is still capable enough, with excellent cleaning capabilities and adaptive navigation. It also works with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can command it with your voice.
Shark also has a couple of robot vacuums on sale this Prime Day. The AV2501AE is just $380, which is $270 off its $650 retail price. Like the i7+, the Shark can empty itself into a base. This particular model can actually hold 60 days worth of dirt and debris, which is a godsend if you’re looking to reduce your chores around the house. It also has excellent cleaning performance with powerful suction and an on-demand deep cleaning mode that targets specific rooms and zones. It’s great for homes with pets and it has hands-free voice control with Alexa or Google Assistant support. A slightly cheaper option is the Shark AV2501S, priced at $300 (down from $550), which is similar to the AV2501AE except it has a 30-day capacity base instead.
Though you might associate the Instant Pot brand with multi-cookers, the company also makes excellent air fryers, and a few of them are on sale this Prime Day. Our favorite of the lot is the Instant Pot Vortex Plus, which is just $100 today ($60 off its $160 retail price). Not only does it crisp foods efficiently, it has a clear see-thru window which lets us check our food. Plus, it has odor-erasing filters that produce less smoke compared to other air fryers. If you want a smaller, more affordable option, the Instant Pot Vortex is also on sale today for $90 ($44 off $134). It doesn’t have a clear window or odor-erasing filters but it’s an option if you want to save a little more counter space.
For those who just need to air fry more than one thing at once, Ninja’s Foodi Dual-Zone XL is worth considering. It’s on sale today for $160, which is $70 off its regular price. We dubbed it the best dual-zone option in our air fryer guide and for good reason. You can either cook two different things at a time, or you can double the quantity of something and use the Match Cook function to cook all of it with the same settings. Best of all, it can adjust the cooking times so that foods from both areas can be done at the same time.
We recommended the Vitamix as the creme de la creme of blender brands in our kitchen guide, and fortunately, the company has several different models on sale for Prime Day. Our favorite is the 5200, which is on sale for $300 ($106 off the retail price of $406). It’s the choice of restaurants and professional chefs (you’ll frequently see it on shows like Iron Chef) as it’s such a kitchen workhorse. It’s powerful enough to handle tough ingredients like nuts and frozen fruit while also producing silky smooth results.
A slightly more elegant version, the Professional 750 Series, is also on sale for $400 (retail price is $630). It can do many of the same tasks as the 5200 but has five pre-programmed settings for frequently made items like smoothies and soups. It also has a lower profile so it can fit underneath your upper cabinets. Last but not least, the Vitamix One is now just $175, which is $75 off the original $250. It still has plenty of the power of the other Vitamix blenders, but housed in a more petite package for those who have less counter space.
As you might expect, Amazon’s entire product line is on sale today for Prime Day. We already have a post outlining them all, but we’ll highlight a few of the smart home options here. The Echo Show 8 is our favorite Alexa-powered smart display thanks to its small footprint, sharp display and video-chatting capabilities. We also really like the Show 5, which makes for an excellent smart alarm clock due to its size. Last but not least, there’s the Show 10, which has a swiveling display and a camera that automatically pans and zooms during video calls.
Eero’s entire line of mesh WiFi routers is on sale for Prime Day. The Eero 6 is a dual-band model that covers up to 1,500 square feet and is now $71, while the Pro 6 is a tri-band system that covers up to 2,000 square feet and starts at $148. If you’re willing to pay more, you can upgrade to the Eero Pro 6E, which covers up to 6,000 square feet and supports speeds of up to 2.3 Gbps. The Eero 6+, on the other hand, is an affordable gigabit router that is down to just $90, and supports up to 1Gbps speeds plus up to 4,500 square feet of coverage.
Several of Amazon’s Blink cameras are on sale for Prime Day. The Indoor is now just $55 ($20 off), the Outdoor is $60 ($40 off) and the Mini is just $30 ($5 off). Both the Indoor and Outdoor models are completely wireless, though the Outdoor version has a more weather-resistant design. The Mini needs to be plugged in, but otherwise has similar features to the other two. All of them support 1080p recording, motion alerts, and two-way audio.
Historically, Amazon Prime Day has been a boon for storage deals. For the past few years, we've seen the online retailer knock hundreds off of flash drives, microSD cards, internal and portable SSDs and more for its members-only shopping event. It's no different this year, with devices from Crucial, SanDisk, Samsung and others being heavily discounted for Prime members. Now's a good time to pick up a portable drive for the upcoming school year, an extra SD card for your DSLR or a pricey internal drive for your PS5 while they're much cheaper than usual. Here are the best storage deals we found for Prime Day 2022.
Samsung Pro Plus microSD card
Samsung
Samsung's Pro Plus microSD card in 128GB is half off and down to only $18 for Prime Day. It also comes with an adapter, so you can use it with more types of devices. You'll get read/write speeds of up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s, respectively, and a card that's temperature, magnet- and drop-resistant.
Crucial's MX500 in 1TB is on sale for $85, or 15 percent off its usual price. It’s a good option if you need a standard 2.5-inch drive that works with both laptops and desktops. It also has AES-256 bit hardware encryption and integrated power loss immunity to protect your data.
Samsung's 980 Pro is one of the best internal SSDs you can get right now and it's 43 percent off and down to $120 right now. That's a great price for the 1TB model, and if you need more space, you can pick up the 2TB version for only $230. It has sequential read speeds up to 7,000MB/s and it'll work with the PS5 as long as you have a heatsink attached.
SanDisk's Extreme Pro SSD in 1TB is down to $160 right now. We like its compact, durable design that's IP55 water- and dust-resistant, plus its support for up to 2,000 MB/s read and write speeds.
Samsung's new T7 Shield portable SSDs have been discounted for Prime Day. You can pick up the 1TB model for $100 or the 2TB model for $200 — both new all-time-low prices. Samsung just came out with these drives back in April, and they're designed to be more durable versions of the standard T7 series with extra drop protection and an IP65-rated design.
Samsung's T7 Touch is on sale for $150, but you can clip an on-page coupon to get an additional $22 off the 1TB model.. This portable SSD has a sleek, palm-sized design, optional password protection, read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and a built-in fingerprint reader for extra security.
Amazon has knocked 45 percent off SanDisk's 1TB Ultra microSD card, bringing it down to $110. This model supports 120MB/s read speeds and will work in a variety of devices, including the Nintendo Switch.
SanDisk's Dual Drive Go is on sale for $50 right now, or 32 percent less than usual. It's a more modern version of a thumb drive featuring a swivel design with a USB-A connector on one end and a USB-C dongle on the other. We like its sleek, portable design, its 150MB/s read speeds and the fact that you'll be able to use it with almost any device.
The Patriot Viper VP4300 SSD in 1TB is on sale for $105. It's our current top pick on our list of best drives for your PS5 thanks to its speedy 7,400 MB/s sequential read speeds and its pre-installed heatsink.
Crucial's P5 Plus SSD in 2TB has dropped to $190, or 41 percent off its usual rate. It's one of our favorite drives for the PS5 thanks to its 6,600 MB/s sequential read speeds, plus its relatively budget-friendly starting price.
Another one of our favorite PS5 SSDs, the PNY XLR8 CS3040, has dropped to $105. It's an already affordable drive made even better by this sale, and we like its 5,600 MB/s read speeds and its five-year warranty.
The 500GB Crucial P2 SSD is down to $43 right now, or 23 percent cheaper than usual. This model has read speeds up to 2,400 MB/s and comes with SSD management software that will help you optimize performance and install firmware updates.
Crucial's compact X6 portable drive in 1TB has been discounted to $80. It supports 800 MB/s read speeds, plus it works with all kinds of machines include Windows, Mac, Android and iPad devices, and even game consoles if you have the right connecting cable.
The 1TB LaCie Rugged Mini hard drive is down to $55 right now, or 35 percent less than usual. This drive works with Windows and Mac devices, although you'll need to reformat it to use it with the latter, plus it has built-in password protection and shock- and drop-resistant design.
Let's face it: creating your dream gaming setup can be difficult and expensive. But Amazon Prime Day and sales like it present great opportunities to grab a couple of things on your wish list for less. Unsurprisingly, the online retailer has discounted a plethora of gaming laptops, monitors, peripherals and accessories for its members-only shopping event. Brands including Razer, Logitech, SteelSeries and others have dropped most of their devices down to record-low prices, so you can get everything from mice to keyboards to gaming chairs for much less than usual. Here are the best gaming deals we found for Prime Day 2022.
Razer Blade 14
This powerful version of the Razer Blade 14 is 18 percent off and down to $2,285. It runs on an 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It earned a score of 84 from us for its sturdy yet premium design, powerful CPU and GPU, bright display and its multitude of ports.
Elgato's Stream Deck is down to $100 for Prime Day, or $40 off its normal price. This is a handy accessory to have for game streamer because you can customize its 15 LCD keys to do things like open apps, switch scenes, adjust audio and more.
The Elgato Facecam is 18 percent off and down to $140. Running on a Sony sensor, this webcam supports 1080p recording, an 82-degree field of view and a USB-C port for connectivity.
HyperX's QuadCast S microphone is 29 percent off and down to $113. We like this accessory for its light-up core with customizable RGB lighting, internal pop filter, anti-vibration shock mount and four polar patterns.
The HyperX Cloud Alpha headset is down to a record low of $60. It works with most game consoles, including the PS5 and the Nintendo Switch, plus it has a study aluminum frame, a detachable braided cable and a removable noise cancellation microphone.
Logitech's Blue Yeti mic is on sale for $90 right now — not an all-time low, but close to it. It's a solid choice for game streamers, aspiring podcasters or anyone who just wants to sound better on video conference calls. It supports four pickup patterns, onboard controls and a plug-and-play design.
Logitech's G502 Lightspeed gaming mouse is down to a new low of $90, which is 40 percent off its normal price. We like this wireless mouse for its 25K sensor, 11 customizable buttons, hyper-fast scrolling and adjustable weight system.
A bunch of Corsair peripherals are on sale for Prime Day, including the K65 RGB Mini mechanical keyboard for $80. That's 27 percent off and the best price we've seen it. It earned an honorable mention in our 60 percent keyboard guide; while there are better options out there, the K65 could work for some people, especially at this sale price.
Razer's Anzu smart glasses have returned to an all-time-low price of $50 for Prime Day. We gave them a score of 74 for their blue-light filtering lenses, decent battery life and convenient hands-free audio.
Razer's cute Kraken Kitty Bluetooth headphones are down to $70, which is 30 percent off their normal price. These can help you set the mood in your next streaming session with their cat ears and Chroma RGB lighting. We also like that the headset supports a low latency connection, up to 50 hours of battery life and a built-in microphone.
Razer's Kiyo Pro webcam is just about half off right now and down to $102. This webcam records at 1080p 60fps and has an adaptive light sensor that allows it to automatically adjust your image depending on the lighting conditions.
The Viper Ultimate Hyperspeed wireless mouse from Razer is down to a near record-low of $80. It has a 20K DPI optical sensor, Razer's own switches with light beam-based actuation and an ambidextrous design.
The Razer Iskur chair is on sale for $350, or $150 off its usual price. This model is a bit more high-end than the Enki because it has an adjustable lumbar curve, spill-resistant fabric, denser cushions and angled seat edges.
Razer's BlackWidow V3 Pro mechanical keyboard is close to its all-time-low price and down to $140. We like that it can connect to up to three devices, has Chroma RGB lighting and comes with four media keys plus a multi-function digital dial.
SteelSeries' Artic Pro headset is down to $125 right now, or 31 percent off its normal price. These headphones support DTS X v2.0 surround sound and they have a USB chat mix dial that lets you adjust the volume of your game and chat audio.
