While Apple’s new iPhone 16e may be the big tech news of the week, it’s one of Google’s Pixel phones that leads our latest weekly deal roundup. More specifically, the Pixel 9 Pro — our pick for the best Android handset — is down to $799 at several retailers, a $200 drop that represents the lowest price we’ve tracked for an unlocked model. If you don’t need a new phone, a few other gadgets we recommend are also on sale, including Crucial’s X9 Pro portable SSD, Apple’s AirTag trackers, ASUS’ ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop and Ultimate Ears’ Wonderboom 4 speaker. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still buy today.

Spotlight deal

The rest of the best tech deals this week

• Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 for $70 at Amazon ($30 off MSRP): We’ve previously recommended the adorably compact Wonderboom 3 in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. The Wonderboom 4 is more or less the same device, only it charges over USB-C instead of microUSB and adds a “Podcast Mode” that better tunes the sound profile for, well, podcasts. Otherwise, it still sounds punchy and spacious for a speaker that’s only four inches tall, and its IP67-rated design is both rugged and easy to control. The battery typically lasts more than 10 hours on a charge as well. Just don’t expect super-high volume or bass response. The speaker fell to $60 for a week back in December, but this discount ties its lowest price outside of that. Also at B&H and Best Buy.

• Crucial X9 Pro (1TB) for $70 at Amazon ($31 off): This deal has popped up a few times in recent months, but it matches the lowest price in a year for the 1TB version of our favorite portable SSD. While the drive itself isn’t the absolute fastest model out there, it’s quick enough for most needs at a more reasonable price, it stays cool with extended use, and its rugged design is shorter than a credit card. Also at B&H and Best Buy.

Jeff Dunn for Engadget

• JLab Go Air Sport for $13 at Amazon ($17 off): This is the lowest price we’ve tracked for the budget pick in our guide to the best running headphones. You should see the full discount at checkout. The catch is that the offer only applies to the neon yellow model, which, let’s say, won’t be for everyone. This pair’s boomy sound isn’t the best, either, and it’s light on features, with no active noise cancellation, multi-device pairing, wireless charging or automatic wear detection. Still, its sweat-resistant design stays secure during workouts, and its battery life is solid at roughly eight hours per charge. For $13, it’s hard to complain if you just want a cheap set of beater headphones for the gym.

• LG C3 OLED TV (65-inch) for $1,197 at Amazon ($303 off): The LG C3 was released in 2023, but it’s not a huge downgrade from last year’s LG C4, so it’s worth considering when it’s discounted to this extent. While it can’t quite match the brightness and color volume of a QD-OLED set like the Samsung S90D, it still gets you the usual benefits of a good OLED panel: excellent contrast, vibrant colors, wide viewing angles and minimal blurring from objects in motion. It’s also equipped with four HDMI 2.1 ports that support a fast 120Hz refresh rate, so it can make the most of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. This discount ties the lowest price we’ve seen for the 65-inch version outside of a handful of in-store-only and eBay coupon deals. LG will release a new “C5” TV in the coming months, but we doubt it’ll be available at this price anytime soon.

LG

• Alan Wake 2 (PC) for $25 at Epic Games Store ($25 off): This matches the lowest price to date for the surreal survival horror game Alan Wake 2, which we recommend in our guide to the best PC games. The PS5 version is also on sale for $30, which is an all-time low for that platform. You shouldn’t go into this one expecting tons of action, and the story definitely isn’t immune to navel-gazing, but it’s delightfully tense and voice-y in a way most high-production games are not nowadays. It’s graphically gorgeous, too.

• Baseus Blade Laptop Power Bank for $48 at Amazon ($52 off, Prime only): The Baseus Blade is the budget pick in our guide to the best laptop power banks. At 20,000 mAh, it doesn’t have enough juice to completely refill larger notebooks, but it can deliver a relatively speedy 100W charge from either of its two USB-C ports. There are two USB-A ports and a battery status display on top of that, and its tablet-like shape is fairly easy to tuck in a bag. This deal is only for Amazon Prime members, but it comes within a couple bucks of the lowest price we’ve seen. To see the full discount, click the 10 percent coupon on the product page and use the code BGAEY8HX at checkout.

Amy Skorheim for Engadget

• PlayStation Plus Premium (12-month) for $100 at PlayStation ($60 off, new and returning subscribers only): Through February 24, new and lapsed subscribers can get a year-long PlayStation Plus Premium subscription for $100. That’s $60 less than usual. As a refresher, this is the top-end tier of Sony’s online service. It gets you the core benefits of any PS Plus subscription — online play, cloud saves and a selection of free titles every month — plus access to a Game Pass-style catalog (including several retro PlayStation games), time-limited game trials and cloud streaming support. Most people will be fine without it, and Sony has only jacked up the service’s price over time, but any sort of discount should be welcome if you’re interested in the retro catalog and want to stream games remotely. Just remember to cancel before the subscription ends if you don’t want to be auto-renewed at the standard rate. 

• Apple Music (6-month) for $3 at Apple ($52 off, new subscribers and select devices only): Apple is running a promo that gives six months of Apple Music for $3 total. Normally, a solo subscription costs $11 per month after a 30-day free trial (or a three-month trial if you recently bought an Apple device). This offer comes with a few caveats, though: You must be new to Apple Music, not eligible for the aforementioned three-month trial and able to redeem the offer through an iPhone, iPad or Mac. If you meet all of that, however, this is a nice way to get a half-year of music streaming for cheap. We praise Apple Music in our guide to the best music services for its lossless streaming quality, ease of use with Apple devices and emphasis on letting actual people introduce you to new music. This deal runs through February 27, but remember your subscription will be set to auto-renew until you cancel.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

• ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) for $450 at Best Buy ($200 off): The original ROG Ally isn’t as powerful, ergonomic or long-lasting as the newer ROG Ally X, and all Windows gaming handhelds are stuck with clunkier software than Valve’s Steam Deck, which remains the top pick in our buying guide. But when it’s discounted to this extent, the older Ally is worth considering if you really want a handheld PC that can play games from any client, be it Steam, the Epic Games Store or the Xbox app. It’s still a touch more powerful than the Deck, too, and its 120Hz VRR display does wonders to keep games looking smooth. And for as sloppy as Windows can be, ASUS has made its Armoury Crate app at least a little easier to navigate over time. Just don’t expect more than a couple hours of battery life, and don’t bother using the microSD slot. This deal ties the all-time low for the model with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip.

• ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) for $1,074 at Best Buy ($525 off): Here’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this configuration of the ROG Zephyrus G14, which includes a Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Be aware that this is last year’s model; ASUS has already announced an upgraded version for 2025 that should arrive in the coming weeks. That said, the current G14 is the top pick in our gaming laptop buying guide, and it remains a decent buy at this price if you want a gaming machine that’s premium-feeling and long-lasting enough to delight as an everyday laptop. The main downsides are that the memory isn’t upgradeable and the design can get toasty under load. You’ll also have to turn down graphics settings to get some games to run well at the display’s native resolution. Still, that OLED screen is gorgeous, and there’s enough power to play many titles just fine. We gave the ROG Zephyrus G14 a score of 91 in our review last year. 

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

• Chipolo One (4-pack) for $68 at Chipolo ($32 off): The Chipolo One tops our guide to the best Bluetooth trackers. While it doesn’t have the enormous crowd-sourcing network of Apple’s AirTags, we’ve found it send separation alerts faster when you’ve left an item behind and ring louder when you’re back in the vicinity. It also has a hole for attaching to key rings, unlike Apple’s tracker. It may not be the safest choice if you’re worried about losing your luggage on a long-distance trip, but as a security blanket for keys, wallets or handbags, it’s convenient. This discount on a four-pack isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen, but it’s still a bit lower than its usual street price. Use the code ENGADGET10 at checkout to get the full deal. If you do want a set of AirTags, meanwhile, a four-pack of those is also on sale for $70 at Amazon and other retailers. 

• ThermoWorks Thermapen One for $79 at ThermoWorks ($30 off): The Thermapen One is a buttonless instant-read meat thermometer that we highlight in our guide to the best grilling gear. It reads temperatures quickly and accurately, its backlit display is easy to read and the whole thing sleeps and wakes automatically. It’s definitely not the cheapest option, but its faster readings may be worth the extra cost for frequent grillers. While not an all-time low, this Engadget-exclusive deal marks the lowest price we could find in the last couple of months.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/googles-pixel-9-pro-is-200-off-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-180041864.html?src=rss

Elon Musk’s chainsaw has been swinging through the federal government over the last few weeks, with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chopping down budgets and excising staff at a number of agencies. Among those affected is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is said to be losing about 10 percent of its relatively small headcount through buyouts and firings.

According to The Washington Post, between 70 and 80 people are departing the agency, which is responsible for road safety in the US. Those ex-employees are said to have worked in a number of areas, such as safety grant funding and crash test dummies.

The DOGE cull also impacted three people from a very small team that was working on the safety of autonomous vehicles, such as those from Alphabet’s Waymo, Amazon’s Zoox and — hey, look at that! — Elon Musk’s Tesla. It’s probably just a coincidence that an organization headed by the same person who is CEO of a prominent company that’s working on self-driving cars has cut federal employees that are evaluating the safety of such technology. Probably.

“If the question is, will this affect the federal government’s ability to understand the safety case behind Tesla’s vehicles, then yes, it will,” one of the fired engineers told The Post. “The amount of people in the federal government who are able to understand this adequately is very small. Now it’s almost nonexistent.”

The NHTSA expanded from around 600 workers to 800 or so during the Biden administration. The autonomous vehicle oversight team was formed as part of that growth. Since several of its seven or so members were new to the federal government, their employment status was at risk due to a DOGE initiative to cull probationary employees from the federal workforce, as The Post notes. Other agencies that have been impacted include the Federal Aviation Administration, which last week cut around 400 probationary employees.

Musk and President Donald Trump pledged in an interview this week that the former, who has been designated as a “special government employee,” wouldn’t be involved in decisions that would mark a conflict of interest with his businesses.

The NHTSA has issued numerous recalls for Tesla vehicles over the years (including a recall of more than 2 million vehicles to fix Autopilot safety controls). In April 2024, the agency released the results of an investigation into 14 deaths linked to driver misuse of the company’s Autopilot feature. Last month, Musk said that Tesla will roll out a paid autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin this June.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/elon-musks-doge-reportedly-cuts-staff-at-agency-that-regulates-elon-musks-tesla-173618858.html?src=rss

Apple users in the UK can no longer access one of the company’s most powerful data protection tools, as first reported by Bloomberg. The feature, Advanced Data Protection (ADP), allows iPhone users to add optional end-to-end encryption to a variety of iCloud data. The move comes amid an ongoing dispute between Apple and the UK over a government order that would require the company to build a backdoor to allow British security officials to access the encrypted data of users globally. 

“ADP protects iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, which means the data can only be decrypted by the user who owns it, and only on their trusted devices,” Apple told Engadget. “We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.” 

Mathew Smith / Engadget

“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users,” a notification explains when users go to enable the feature on their iPhone, iPad or Mac following Apple’s decision. If you live in the UK and have ADP enabled, you will need to manually disable the encryption to keep your iCloud account. Apple told Engadget it will provide customers with a grace period to comply, though the company has yet to say how much time it will give. The company added it would share additional guidance in the future. Due to the nature of end-to-end encryption, Apple cannot automatically disable ADP on behalf of its users.   

Apple’s decision to disable ADP in the UK does not mean the company is removing end-to-end encryption for many of the other services it offers in the country. When it comes to iMessage, passwords, health data and more, those are still protected by end-to-end encryption by default.   

“Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before,” Apple said. “Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

News of the UK’s backdoor request broke last week when The Washington Post reported that government officials issued a “technical capability notice” to the company under the country’s Investigatory Powers Act. Last year, the UK government made changes to the law to “ensure the intelligence services and law enforcement have the powers they need to keep pace with a range of evolving threats from terrorists, hostile state actors, child abusers and criminal gangs.” The order reportedly demands Apple give security officials the capability to view all of a user’s fully encrypted material whenever the government wants and wherever the target is located.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-disables-iclouds-advanced-data-protection-feature-in-the-uk-173016447.html?src=rss

Coinbase says that the SEC has agreed to end an enforcement case that accused it of illegally running an unregistered securities exchange. This could signal a major change in how the US government will enforce the crypto market now that Trump is in office. The lawsuit, which was filed during the Biden administration, has long-been considered an attempt to bring the crypto industry under the same investor-protection rules that govern stocks and other securities.

Coinbase had been fighting the lawsuit on the grounds that it didn’t run a securities company, likening the commodities it sells to baseball cards. That appeal will soon be moot, assuming the SEC officially votes to dismiss the suit. This should happen next week.

“It’s a great day for Coinbase and for crypto,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, told The Wall Street Journal. “We were committed to defending it to the gates of hell, for as long as it took and for as much money as it took.”

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong went on CNBC’s Squawk Box and said that the company will not be paying a fine of any kind. He also said the agreement to end the case marks a “huge day” for Coinbase and that it will cause a “domino effect for the rest of the industry.” He also blamed the original suit on a “small group of activists in this prior administration.”

This move doesn’t come as a huge surprise, given President Trump’s recent embrace of crypto. He even has his own digital coin. To that end, the SEC has already started to break up the special enforcement unit that was devoted to investigating crypto organizations. Coinbase and its rivals spent millions of dollars throughout the last election cycle to help elect crypto-friendly lawmakers. It looks like that investment is paying off.

Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda recently said that the organization would now “deploy enforcement resources judiciously” when investigating crypto companies. He also said that a new task force would be moving away from the commission’s previous approach toward the crypto market.

Republican House and Senate lawmakers are working on legislation that would reclassify cryptocurrencies as commodities, according to The Wall Street Journal. This change would likely hand oversight of crypto assets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is a much smaller agency than the SEC. The CFTC is actually smaller than ever right now, given that the Trump administration laid off a bunch of employees earlier this week.

The crypto market is certainly responding favorably to all of this news. Coinbase’s stock price is up, and the same goes for Robinhood. Rival market Binance even restored fiat deposits and withdrawals this week, which were suspended in 2023 after the SEC sued the company for violations of securities laws.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/coinbase-says-trumps-sec-has-ended-its-enforcement-case-against-the-crypto-company-171331785.html?src=rss