Music creation and collaboration platform Splice is offering new users a discount for Black Friday. If you sign up for a year-long Sounds+, Creator or Creator+ plan between November 24th and 30th, you’ll save $20. During that time, a year of Sounds+ access will cost $80, the annual Creator plan will drop to $180 and a 12-month Creator+ subscription will be $280.

We recommended the Creator plan in our holiday gift guide. The entry-level Sounds+ plan might offer enough for hobbyists, with 100 credits for royalty-free samples each month. Creator subscribers get twice as many credits, along with access to Splice’s Astra soft synth, the Beatmaker drum machine and music production lessons and tutorials. The Creator+ plan is almost the same as Creator, but with 500 sample credits instead of 200.

Those aren’t enormous discounts, admittedly, and you do have to commit to a year-long subscription. Still, if you’ve been on the fence about leaping into Splice, this might be a good time.

Source: Engadget – Splice’s music creation plans are going on sale for Black Friday

You don’t have to settle for pre-made WhatsApp stickers (or use a third-party tool) if you’re sitting at your computer. The Vergereports WhatsApp has introduced a custom sticker creator for its web client and, within a week, desktop apps. Choose to attach a sticker and you can upload a custom image for editing. You can add emoji or text, crop pictures, cut out backgrounds and even slap existing WhatsApp stickers on top.

This tool won’t help much if you mostly chat on mobile, where apps already exist to produce WhatsApp stickers. It might help if you frequently message people from your desk, though, and it could be particularly useful if you’re either a digital artist (and likely have creative tools on your computer) or prefer to edit images with a mouse instead of your fingers.

Source: Engadget – WhatsApp on the web lets you create your own stickers

As the Chromebook market has matured, a bunch of higher-end models have come out. Samsung’s original Galaxy Chromebook was one of them, but the company realized that paying $1,000 for a Chrome OS machine was a hard sell for most. Enter the Galaxy Chromebook 2, Samsung’s correction and a much better laptop with an easier-to-stomach starting price of $449. But now you can get the Galaxy Chromebook 2 for $50 less, or $399, which is a record low. That’s for the base model with a Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but the Core i3 model is also on sale for $549 — $50 more than it’s lowest price, but still a decent deal.

Buy Galaxy Chromebook 2 at Amazon – $399Buy Galaxy Chromebook 2 at Samsung – $399

Samsung prioritized the right things when developing the Galaxy Chromebook 2. The design is much the same as the original, with a relatively light 2.2-pound frame, a premium build and a fiery red color. The company ditched the lovely yet taxing 4K display from the previous version and opted for a 1080p QLED touchscreen which remains nicer than panels on most other Chromebooks. While the 4K display did a number on the original laptop’s battery life, this QLED display isn’t as bad. We managed to get about 12 hours of use on a single charge, and while we wish the battery life was a tad longer, it should get you through a work day.

The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has a convertible design, too, so you can use it in tablet mode or prop it up so it acts as a small TV for video streaming. It doesn’t come with a stylus like some of Samsung’s other laptops, but any Universal Stylus Initiative pen will work with it. If you’re eyeing the Galaxy Chromebook 2 as a secondary or travel device, the base model with a Celeron processor may provide all the power you need. But hardcore Chrome OS fans who want to use this machine as their daily driver won’t regret shelling out a bit more money for the Core i3 version.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source: Engadget – Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 drops to 9 ahead of Black Friday

If you’re looking for budget wireless noise-cancelling earbuds in the Apple family, don’t forget about the Beats Studio Buds. They’re already a good deal at $150, but now you can pick them up during Black Friday at Amazon for just $100, the lowest price we’ve seen yet. 

Buy Beats Studio Buds at Amazon – $100

The Studio Buds scored a solid 84 score in our Engadget review and also made our list of best wireless earbuds for 2021. The small, comfortable design and IPX4 water resistance makes them great for workouts and, more importantly, they deliver good sound quality with Beats’ famous punchy base. Active noise cancellation is solid as well, and they can adjust the volume based on your environment via the active gain feature. 

Since the Studio Buds are Apple products, they use the company’s H1 chip. That means they support Apple’s Spatial Audio feature and let you easily switch between Apple devices — just as you can with a pair of AirPods. However, they’re also device agnostic, so you can use the Fast Pair option to quickly set them up with your Android device. They also work with Find My Device on Android, so you can see their last known location. 

The main drawbacks are a lack of wireless charging and onboard controls, but most budget wireless buds lack those features. With the deal right now, you won’t find many rivals that can match its features at that $100 price point. 

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Source: Engadget – Beats Studio Buds fall to a new low of 0 at Amazon