Apple's latest iPad mini has been on sale for a little under a year, but we've seen numerous price reductions on the (almost) pocketable slate. Having hovered around the $459 price point in recent times, Amazon has now discounted the 64GB iPad Mini further, bringing it down to a new all-time low of $400. That's $99 off the original price or a savings of 20 percent.
If you're looking for a bit more storage, Amazon has also reduced the 256GB model, which now costs $540. That means you'll save $109 or 17 percent compared to the retailer's list price.
The 2021 iPad mini received a score of 89 in our review, gaining marks for its "all-screen" design without the home button its predecessors have. It has a Liquid Retina 326ppi panel with a 2,266 x 1,488 resolution. The tablet's edges are flat, and also sports a TouchID-capable power button, dropping the Lightning port for USB-C charging.
The slate features a new 12-megapixel ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage support, which like Facebook's Portal devices will automatically pan and zoom to keep you at the center of the screen during video calls.
Thanks to the A15 Bionic chip powering the tablet, it was also able to handle we threw at it. It typically lasts up to 12 hours between charges and it also supports the second-gen Apple Pencil so you can use it for doodling or note-taking while on the go.
If you missed the chance to buy Apple’s second-generation AirPods when they were $100 a few weeks ago, Amazon has once again discounted them to that price. While we think most people are better off purchasing the third-generation AirPods or AirPods Pro due to their more comfortable fit, Apple’s older Bluetooth earbuds still have a lot to offer to iPhone owners. Like their more expensive siblings, the second-generation AirPods come with Apple’s H1 wireless chipset, meaning they include features like hands-free Siri and seamless pairing with the company’s other devices.
Amazon has also discounted the Beats Studio Buds. At the moment, they’re $50 off, making them $99.95. If you don’t mind the design of Beats products, they’re a better purchase than the second-generation AirPods. The Studio Buds come with active noise cancellation and IPX4-certified protection against sweat and moisture, two features you won’t find on Apple’s most affordable AirPods. They also feature a customizable fit with interchangeable silicone ear tips. The only thing you won’t find on the Studio Buds is Apple’s H1 chip, but they still come with one-touch pairing and hands-free Siri support.
Lastly, we’ll note Amazon is still selling the AirPods Pro for $175. While they’re a few years old now, the AirPods Pro remain among the best Bluetooth earbuds you can pair with an iPhone. We like them because they feature a customizable fit, IPX4 protection against sweat and active noise cancellation.
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Microsoft has consistently tried to get more people to use Edge. Some of the ways it has pursued that goal have been less well-received than others, but its latest effort to do so could make for a useful addition to the software. In a support page spotted by The Verge, the company revealed it’s adding a free built-in VPN service dubbed Edge Secure Network to its web browser.
The company says the tool will encrypt your internet connection. You can use that functionality to protect your data from your internet service provider. As with most VPNs, you can also use Edge Secure Network to mask your location, making it possible to access services that might otherwise be blocked in the country where you live or are visiting.
If you find yourself frequently traveling, chances are Edge Secure Network won’t replace a paid VPN. The feature limits you to 1GB of data usage per month. It’s also worth noting you’ll need a Microsoft account to use the service. Microsoft has yet to begin testing the VPN. But once the feature is available, you’ll be able to enable it through Edge's three-dots icon. A new option titled “Secure Network” will turn the VPN on. Once you're done browsing, it will automatically turn off again.
Cat aficionados will have to wait a bit longer to get their paws on Stray. Developer BlueTweleve Studio’s feline simulator won’t release in early 2022 as previously announced. It’s now slated to come out sometime this summer. Sony shared news of the delay in a tweet spotted by The Verge. “Releasing summer 2022,” says the video accompanying the message.
The clip includes footage from the gameplay walkthrough publisher Annapurna Interactive shared last summer. And if you’re curious what Stray is all about, that video provides a few clues. In it, we see the game’s feline protagonist explore a neon-soaked city populated by robots of all shapes and sizes. Gameplay involves using his abilities as a cat to solve environmental puzzles. Partway through your journey, you’ll meet B-12, a drone that will allow you to converse with the city’s inhabitants. Naturally, as the cat, you can also do things like scratch furniture and rub up against the legs of robots you meet.
Apple recently sent notices to some indie developers, warning them that their app will be pulled from the App Store if it's not updated within 30 days. The tech giant has had a policy in place against outdated and abandoned applications since 2016, but the move suggests that it's now more rigorously enforcing that rule. Some of the letters' recipients criticized the policy for being a barrier to indie developers, what with how tough it is to keep up with platform changes and how much work it takes to roll out even a minor update. Now, Apple has published a post clarifying why some old apps are in danger of being removed, along with the announcement that it's giving developers more time to update their applications.
In the post, the company said that it will only send removal notices to developers whose apps haven't been updated in three years, as well as to devs whose apps have not "been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period." Apple said that dropping outdated apps makes newer ones more discoverable and also ensures users can enjoy games and tools that have been optimized for its latest OS and devices.
As a lot of people know, there are older apps don't work as well on the latest generation of phones, tablets and laptops anymore, delivering a subpar user experience. Still, 30 days might not be nowhere near enough time for smaller developers to conjure up an update. The good news is that Apple has extended its grace period and is now giving them up to 90 days to update their applications. Users will get to keep apps that are already installed on their devices even if they end up getting deleted, and developers can continue earning from them through microtransactions.
Mother's Day is right around the corner, and if you want to pick up a new piece of tech for mom, you can do so for less before the holiday. A number of Apple devices are on sale, including the latest iPad Air and the AirPods Pro, while a bunch of earbuds have been discounted, too, like the newest models from Beats and Jabra. The Fitbit Charge 5 remains on sale for $130, while a few of iRobot's latest robot vacuums are hundreds of dollars off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
AirPods Pro
Apple's AirPods Pro are back on sale for $175, which is 30 percent off their normal price. We gave them a score of 87 for their improved fit, good audio quality and solid ANC.
Apple's latest 16-inch MacBook Pro is $250 off and down to $2,249. While that's still a hefty price tag, it's the lowest we've seen since the laptop came out last year. We gave the notebook a score of 92 for its super fast performance, stunning Liquid Retina XDR display, fantastic keyboard and array of ports.
Many color options of the 41mm Apple Watch Series 7 are down to $330, or $70 off their normal price. We gave the wearable a score of 90 for its bigger screen, faster charging and handy watchOS 8 features.
The latest iPad Air is $40 off and down to $559. We gave it a score of 90 for its much improved performance thanks to the M1 chip, Center Stage-capable cameras, good battery life and solid build quality.
The entire Galaxy S22 lineup is on sale right now, with the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the S22+ both seeing $200 discounts. The standard S22 is $100 off and down to $700 as well. If you want the best that Samsung has to offer right now, we recommend going for the S22 Ultra, which earned a score of 89 from us for its bright, colorful display, built-in S Pen and solid cameras.
Both the 40mm and the 44mm Galaxy Watch 4 models are $50 off and down to $200 and $230, respectively. While not record lows, these sale prices are some of the best we've seen since last Black Friday. We gave the Galaxy Watch 4 a score of 85 for its bright, crisp display, comprehensive head tracking and improved third-party app support.
The new Beats Fit Pro earbuds are $20 off and down to $180. That's one of the best prices we've seen all year, and they earned a score of 87 from us for their comfortable fit, punchy bass, solid ANC and loads of handy features.
The Beats Studio Buds are back down to a record low of $100. We gave them a score of 84 for their tiny, comfortable design, balanced sound and quick-pairing on both Android and iOS.
Solo Stove's spring sale knocks hundreds off its fire pits, so you can grab one for as low as $200. The Ranger, which is the smallest model, comes in at that price, while the mid-sized Bonfire is $160 off and down to $240 and the big Yukon is a whopping $325 off and down to $425. We've recommended these gadgets in may outdoor guides because they're fairly portable and create fires that won't smoke you out.
Amazon's Echo Dot is still on sale for $28, and you can get the tiny smart speaker bundled with a smart plug for only $5 more. We gave the Echo Dot a score of 88 for its attractive design, decent audio quality and tap-to-snooze alarm feature.
The second-gen Echo Show 5 is down to $45 right now, which is half off its normal price. We gave it a score of 85 for its great sound quality, compact size and tap-to-snooze feature. And if you want to up your smart home game, you can get a two-pack of the Blink Mini indoor security camera for only $35. They'll work with the Echo Show 5, allowing you to see camera feeds from the smart clock's display.
You can still save $5 when you buy a Nintendo $50 eShop gift card from Amazon, so you'll get the full $50 for only $45. You can then use those funds to get new titles like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or stock up on a bunch of more affordable games.
Jabra's new Elite 4 Active earbuds are $20 off and down to $100, which is a new record low. The budget-friendly Elite 3 are also on sale and down to only $60. We gave the Elite 4 Active a score of 84 for their comfort fit, solid sound quality and customizable ANC, while the Elite 3 came in at 88 thanks to their good battery life, reliable onboard controls and comfortable fit.
iRobot's affordable Roomba 694 is still on sale for $180 right now, which is a record low. This is one of our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuums thanks to its easy to use mobile app, good cleaning power and sleek design.
The Roomba j7+ robo-vac and the Roomba s9+ are both $200 off right now and down to $599 and $799, respectively. These are both advanced machines from iRobot, with the j7+ sporting a pet poop detection feature, while the s9+ has the strongest suction power of all of the company's robot vacuums. Both also come with clean bases, so you won't have to empty their dustbins manually after each cleaning job.
The Fitbit Charge 5 tracker is down to $130, which is only $10 more than its record-low price. We gave the device a score of 82 for its accurate onboard GPS, slim design, standard Fitbit Pay and long battery life.
Ninja's 10-in-1 multicooker is $70 off and down to $130, which is close to its all-time-low price. This is a solid alternative to an Instant Pot as it has a bunch of cooking modes including pressure cook, slow cook, steam, yogurt and even air fry.
Both Google's standard Nest Thermostat and the more advanced Learning model remain discounted right now. You can pick up the regular version for $100, while the Learning Thermostat is still on sale for $200. They share most of the same features, but you'll get a slicker design, a higher-res display and the ability to connect with Nest Temperature Sensors with the Learning model.
A handful of Google smart home devices are on sale right now, including the Nest Video Doorbell Battery, which is $30 off and down to $150. This gadget will let you keep an eye on what's going on outside your door from your phone, and there are no wires to fuss with when you install it. You can also pick up the Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor for less, coming in at $80 and $150, respectively.
This midrange Bluetooth speaker is $80 off and down to $300, which is the cheapest we've seen it. It earned a spot in our portable Bluetooth speaker guide for its dynamic yet balanced sound quality, IP67-rated design and relatively compact size.
Withings' ScanWatch is $50 off and down to $230 right now. It's a hybrid timepiece, so if you like the look of analog watches, this might be the wearable for you. In addition to all-day activity and sleep tracking, the ScanWatch also takes electrocardigrams and tracks heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory wellness and more.
For a limited time, you can pick up the ThermoPop instant-read thermometer for $14 less than usual, bringing it down to $21. This is the smaller sibling to the Thermapen One and we like its splash-proof design, backlit display and cute design.
The Arcade Stick from 8BitDo is on sale for a limited time only for just under $76. That's 16 percent off its normal price and the cheapest we've seen it. We liked its distinct, retro design, its solid joysticks and primary buttons and its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, PC and Raspberry Pi.
I spent about an hour hand-picking songs for my first Amazon AMP radio show. The social-audio-but-with-music app offers the chance to play radio DJ with just a phone and your imagination. I tried to pick a catchy name for my debut broadcast – “The best House Classics” or something like that. Like all music bores, I was confident I was about to blow some minds with my impeccable taste and hand-picked floor fillers. All that was left to do was click the “Go Live” button. Once you tap it, the app counts you down 5…4…3… . I cleared my throat and then… silence.
AMP was initially reported as something of a Clubhouse competitor, but that’s not really the best way to describe it. Yes, you can sorta-kinda use it as a live chat platform, but music is really the selling point here. When you create a “show” you can add songs from Amazon Music’s library and then stream them to your audience. In between hosts are doing anything from chatting about sports, to comedy skits, having guests call in or just letting the music play. On paper, it’s the app teenage me, with his dual cassette deck and microphone, had been waiting for all his life. It’s just a shame that, right now in its beta form, no one’s really listening.
I’ve spent the last week or two exploring the app and hosting shows and I barely peaked at four simultaneous listeners. Briefly. Usually I was lucky to get one or two people tuning in, but more often than not I was alone. And I definitely didn’t do a whole hour-long show talking to myself in between ‘90s drum & bass tracks. Definitely not a thing that happened. Twice.
Engadget
It’s hard to tell if this is a true reflection of the interest in AMP, given it’s in beta. It's not difficult to get in, as long as you have access to the US App Store / have an iPhone. Technically you also need an invite code, but given that the official AMP Twitter account has one right up top, the app is basically open to everyone who meets the first two criteria.
I speculated I am at a disadvantage being located in Europe, so my shows tend to fall in the middle of the American work day. But I checked the app regularly and even at typical US commute and evening times other people’s shows rarely had more than 10 listeners, usually half that. But again, this is a beta so not an indication of too much. I bring it up now though for the following reason: without a listener, you cannot play songs and that presents a problem. Hence the silence at the start of my big debut show.
In fact, there are a few more restrictions. Not only must you have at least one listener to play music, you can only play two songs from the same album or three songs from the same artist within a three hour period. These rules make some sense to prevent the free app being abused. But also that presents a big problem during the beta stage. If I have no listeners, I can’t play a song… so I can only talk. But what is the point of talking if no one is listening?
It certainly made for some intimate moments. I joined someone’s show when they currently had no listeners. I could practically hear the host excitedly rushing to play a song now that they could. I then enjoyed a 1-on-1 human-curated show of hip-hop. Likewise for my own shows, there were definitely some weird moments when I realized it’s just me playing songs for someone else. I ended up using a second account on a spare phone so I wouldn’t have to wait for someone to join (hence the DnB party for one) to fully test the service for this story. This should be less of a problem in the future, but it was frustrating at the start, waiting up to 30 minutes sometimes for a listener to join so you could kick a song off.
Amazon also imposes other curious rules that seem a little ornery if not hard to enforce. For example, you may not make a show consisting mostly of listener requests, you may not announce playlists ahead of time and you may not announce a song until just before it is being played. The difference between can and may I’ll leave up to you.
Setting up a show is straightforward. Tap the button top left, add a title, choose some topics (tags), type a description and then either add songs to a playlist or just throw caution to the wind and go live, adding songs later. I’d recommend having a playlist fleshed out because navigating the song menu screen isn’t very slick right now. You can only enter global search terms – there’s no filter by artist or song title or genre etc. – so finding what you want can sometimes be hit and miss.
More importantly, the library doesn’t seem to be fully fleshed out right now. AMP’s official help pages claim there are “tens of millions of songs” but I sometimes couldn’t find what I was looking for. To be fair, this was usually down to my weird taste in niche ‘90s dance music but I did find songs on decent-size labels that were absent.
For example, “Gold Dust” by DJ Fresh is on Amazon Music for sure, but it wasn’t available in AMP. This is a real crime as anyone who knows that track will attest. I did check again over a week later and saw that a remix had since been added, so it seems the library is growing in real time. More surprisingly, another time I looked for a track by Hot Chip and noticed only half of their albums were listed.
A related issue is that you can’t preview tracks before adding them to your playlist. In my case, that meant a few occasions where I had found a version of the song I wanted, but golly was it not the one I was expecting when I played it, making for a slightly awkward record scratch moment. If you have better taste in music than I, you’re probably fine, but if you were hoping to spin niche cuts or even some fairly well known synthpop you might want to revise that plan for now.
I know AMP is designed to be a mobile-first experience, but I do wish there were at least some tools to prep your show on desktop first. I often resorted to finding tunes on my PC and then just looking up tracks on the phone while setting up the show. I also learned the hard way that if you schedule a show for the future and then sleep through the time it was set for, the show and all the tracks you added to it disappears (I’d at least have liked the option to reschedule it!).
Relatedly, you can’t add tracks to some sort of “record box” or bookmark them for later shows. I found myself thinking of great tunes for other shows but had to just keep a notepad going for later reference. Likewise, once you finish a show, that’s it, poof… gone. There’s no way for people to go back and listen again or scroll through your feed to see what you tend to play etc.
Engadget
In its current state, the app also doesn’t offer any way to fade out a song or speak over it while it’s playing. This seems minor, but it does mean you either have to wait until the bitter end of a song before you talk (and then with no music “bed”) or cut a track off prematurely. I heard people doing both but it would be nice to have a more gentle way to transition tracks.
Once your show is over, AMP will give you a little slide show of stats. As you can imagine, this was a bit painful for me as it gleefully told me I peaked at two listeners and had one like, but this would definitely be cool once you have an audience.
Amazon has enlisted some popular creators to showcase the platform and give it some gravitas. These are instantly identifiable as they will be the only shows with a bunch of people listening. AMP promotes these accounts and they are featured on the website, but I do wonder where all these listeners go the rest of the time. The fact you can’t currently click on the show's listener count to see who’s tuning in means you can’t size up potential listeners for your own show.
I'm live @OnAmp_ but there's no way to share the link etc so have fun with that!
In fact, the “social media” element of the app is possibly the most limited part right now. For starters there’s no way to share a link to your show. I know the app is in beta, but given how open that is, I would have thought sharing links is a basic enough thing to enable. AMP offers links to recommended shows in its newsletters which you can adulterate to link to your own but you need the app installed for them to work so that’s still less than ideal.
Discovery is also not fully fleshed out at this point. When you open the app you’ll be presented with shows currently on air as you swipe through one by one. Then once you reach the end you’ll see what’s scheduled for the future, but right now there’s no real way to drill down by genre or topic. You can search, but a host needs to have scheduled shows for them to turn up in results.
It’s also clear that, right from the start, Amazon is trying to encourage diverse voices to join and host. The company was explicit about that in the run up to its launch, and it seems to be working. The types of show and the people behind them have all been refreshingly varied and this I feel is important to AMP finding its way to stand out. The music aspect alone makes it different from rivals like Clubhouse, Greenroom and even Twitter Spaces. But the voices it amplifies will be the secret sauce.
This for me was really the most rewarding part. I thought hosting my own shows would be fun, and it was, but it was the exposure to other music that was the most rewarding. I often joined shows with no listeners to allow them to kick off some tunes and then found myself staying. Other times I figured I’d dip into a show with a genre I don’t normally listen to and was more often than not surprised to find things I liked. Being a DJ is cool, but hearing new, hand-picked music is even cooler.
Rough edges aside, there’s a lot of promise here. It’s understandable that no one wants to listen to my favorite Happy Hardcore songs (the ones I could find on the app at least) at 2pm on a Wednesday. But if, like me, you kinda prefer the human touch over an algorithmic recommendation and the chance to stumble into new worlds of music then AMP makes a lot of sense. And of course, as with all such creator-based services as more people join, the culture and flavor of the platform starts to change organically (remember when TikTok was about people dancing to songs?). Once AMP is open to the public proper, it’ll be interesting to see where it goes. For now, if you want to hear rando dance music, I’ll be here… waiting.
Apple announced back in February that it's introducing changes that would make AirTags easier to find after several stories of bad actors using the tracker to stalk people came out. One of the upcoming changes it promised is adjusting the sound AirTags emit to be as loud as possible to make them "more easily findable." Now, as MacRumors reports, the tech giant has started rolling out that capability with the device's latest firmware update.
While Apple has published release notes to reveal what the update adds to the tracker, it didn't mention that the company is gradually making the feature available on a staggered basis. According to the publication, only one percent of users received the update when it went out on Tuesday, but it will be delivered to 10 percent of users by May 3rd and to 25 percent by May 9th. Apple expects to complete the rollout by May 13th.
Earlier this April, Motherboard had obtained police data that included 50 cases of women receiving notifications or hearing alert sounds revealing that someone was tracking them with an AirTag. While that's not a particularly large number, it suggests a growing number of cases wherein the trackers are being used for stalking purposes. In an effort to prevent the device from a creepy character's tool of choice, Apple promised a handful of anti-stalking features that include showing people a warning that it's a crime to use the device to track people. The company will also update newer iPhones' precision finding technology to make them capable of displaying the direction and distance to an unknown AirTag.
Watching TV with hearing aids is about to get a little easier for Amazon Fire TV Cube owners. The second generation of the Fire TV Cube will now support Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) for compatible Bluetooth-enabled Starkey hearing aids. While the ability to stream TV audio to hearing aids has been around for a while, it normally requires an additional third-party device. Not all smart TVs support Bluetooth, so many hard-of-hearing users are forced to connect their hearing aids to their smartphone or a special adapter. But Fire TV will now allow users to directly pair their hearing aids with the streaming box.
ASHA (which is a Google-led initiative) has been available for Bluetooth devices since 2020. Fire TV Cube will be the first streaming device in the US to support ASHA, but it’s a safe bet to say more platforms will be on board in the future.
In order to pair their hearing aids to their Fire TV Cube, users should select “Settings” from Fire TV’s home screen. Users should then select “Accessibility”, followed by “Hearing Aids” and follow the on-screen instructions to pair them.
One drawback to relying on Bluetooth is viewers must remain within a 10-feet distance to still pick up Fire TV’s signal. Amazon recommends that viewers connect over their hearing aids over a 5Ghz wifi network, within 10 feet and in line of sight to Fire TV Cubes. Viewers with 2.4GHz wifi can still connect to Fire TV, but should keep in mind that the strength of their signal will vary depending on spectrum congestion.
The GeForce Now macOS app should run more smoothly for many Mac users after the addition of native support for Apple's M1 chips. NVIDIA initially rolled out M1 support last year, albeit through Rosetta, a translation process that allows apps based on x86–64 architecture to run on Apple's chips.
NVIDIA says the app will now consume less power, have faster startup times and offer an all-round improved experience on M1-based MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis. In addition, the latest version of the cloud gaming app includes a revamped overlay that displays server-side rendering framerates.
GeForce Now support for another batch of games was also announced (which is something NVIDIA typically does every Thursday). One of this week's additions is Amazon's hit free-to-play RPG Lost Ark. Given that the game doesn't have native macOS support, Mac users who are interested in checking it out now have a way to do so. Other new titles that GeForce Now users can stream include Dune: Spice Wars, Sol Cresta and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt.
