The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully conducted a full-scale rehearsal of its new Ariane 6 rocket at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, marking a significant step towards the launch vehicle’s first flight.
Source: Gizmodo – Europe’s Next-Gen Rocket Performs Successful Full-Scale Rehearsal Ahead of Inaugural Flight
Russia has added the spokesman of U.S. technology company Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to a wanted list, according to an online database maintained by the country’s interior ministry. From a report: Russian state agency Tass and independent news outlet Mediazona first reported that Meta communications director Andy Stone was included on the list Sunday, weeks after Russian authorities in October classified Meta as a “terrorist and extremist” organization, opening the way for possible criminal proceedings against Russian residents using its platforms.
The interior ministry’s database doesn’t give details of the case against Stone, stating only that he is wanted on criminal charges. According to Mediazona, an independent news website that covers Russia’s opposition and prison system, Stone was put on the wanted list in February 2022, but authorities made no related statements at the time and no news media reported on the matter until this week. In March this year, Russia’s federal Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into Meta.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Russia Puts Spokesman For Facebook-owner Meta on a Wanted List
Enlarge / Alfa Romeo has a new crossover called the Tonale. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
I don’t believe that Jeremy Clarkson was right when he said that you could only be a true petrolhead once you’d owned an Alfa Romeo, but the oafish TV presenter wasn’t entirely off-base. I’ve just spent a week with Alfa’s latest creation, the unfortunately named Tonale, and it has left me scratching my head. Beset by gremlins and not exactly cheap, it nonetheless charmed me in a way that I really don’t think would have happened if I’d been driving, say, a Dodge.
Once upon a time, Alfa Romeo was Ferrari before there really was a Ferrari, building Grand Prix-winning race cars and drop-dead gorgeous road cars. That feels like a very long time ago now. A planned resurgence, set in motion while the brand was under the control of the late Sergio Marchionne, has fallen far short of its original ambitious sales targets—100,000 Guilias a year, we were told at the time.
But the brand lives on, and it has an all-new model out. The Tonale is a smaller crossover than the Stelvio, and here in the US it is only available with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. It pairs a 180 hp (135 kW), 1.3 L four-cylinder gasoline engine that drives the front wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission with a 121 hp (90 kW) electric motor that drives the rear wheels, fed by a 15.5 kWh lithium-ion battery.
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Source: Ars Technica – The 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale is a confoundingly charming plug-in hybrid
Samsung will likely reveal the Galaxy S24 family in early 2024, and we already know it plans to integrate AI features with the phones. However, a new report illustrates just how much Samsung will embrace AI. According to some new trademark filings, Samsung will market the S24 as an “AI Phone.” Hopefully, this works out better for Samsung than
Source: Hot Hardware – Samsung Filings Hint At Galaxy S24 Being An AI Phone
Peloton’s Bike and Bike+ are on sale on their website and on Amazon for Cyber Monday at prices the same as Black Friday and even better than Prime Day back in July. The original Bike is nearly 25% off, and the upgraded Bike+ is 20% off. You can even get a refurbished Bike for (just) under $1,000. I’ve been tracking Peloton prices for a long time, and I can say with confidence that these are ridiculously good deals on new bikes.
Of the two models, Peloton’s Bike is the classic, and it’s $350 cheaper than list price today. While I can’t predict the future, I have a strong feeling this is the lowest price the Bike is going to reach this year. Today’s $1,095 price tag is cheaper than this past July’s Prime Day price, and cheaper than it was during last year’s Black Friday sale. It’s currently below the $1,145 list price for a refurbished bikes (though the refurbished ones are on sale for even less, at $995).
The Bike is a solidly built spin bike with a big touchscreen on which you can play classes led by the platform’s instructors/motivational speakers or experience the “other” rides: scenic routes, a video game that you play by adjusting your resistance knob, and the still-in-beta Entertainment feature that may allow you to watch Netflix while you exercise.
You’ll need a $44/month “All Access” membership to use the Bike’s features, so keep that in mind when budgeting. Amazon offers free “inside entryway” delivery when you order a Peloton Bike or Bike+.
Peloton Bike, $1,095 ($350 off, or 24%)
The Bike+ is also on a steep discount—it’s not often you see the price of this model with a 1 as the first digit. This model is a full $500 off its regular price, or about 20% off.
The Bike+ has everything the Bike has, plus resistance that automatically adjusts when you’re following along with a class. The touchscreen is also on a swivel, allowing you to do yoga and strength classes on the floor next to your Bike+.
As with the Bike, you’ll need that $44/month All Access membership, and Amazon offers free “inside entryway” delivery when you order from them.
Peloton Bike+, $1,995 ($500 off, or 20%)
If you’re going to get a spin bike, you really should get shoes and cleats to go with it. Any Delta LOOK-compatible shoes will do, but both models of Peloton’s own branded shoes are on sale today:
Peloton cycling shoes ($87.50, was $125)
Altos cycling shoes ($101.50, was $145)
(Note: the sale price may not show up on the product page until you select a size.)
Aside from the shoes, a bunch of other Peloton accessories are on sale, including dumbbells, yoga mats, and yoga blocks (yes, you can get a lot of these accessories for less without the “Peloton” brand name). The strength training tracker they call the Guide is also on sale for over 50% off, at just $95.
You can check out all of Amazon’s Peloton offers here.
Source: LifeHacker – Peloton’s Deep Discounts Are Still On for Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is halfway over, but there remain plenty of tech deals to be had across the internet. As to be expected, most Black Friday deals have bled into Cyber Monday this year, although there are a couple of Cyber Monday-exclusives that have popped up since the start of the day. Nevertheless, we’re still seeing record-low prices on some of our favorite tech, including AirPods, Echo speakers, robot vacuums, and much more. Here are the best Cyber Monday deals you can get for 2023.
A four-pack of Apple’s AirTags have dropped to $80, which is just about $5 more than the pack’s record-low price. If you’re unfamiliar, AirTags are small Bluetooth trackers that you can keep in your bag or luggage or attach to items like your keys so you can keep track of their location. The only catch is that these only work with Apple devices as their host device, so Android users will have to pick a tracker from another brand to get similar benefits. AirTags connect to Apple’s Find My network, so you can see where your stuff is in that app and even force the gadgets to ring so you can more easily find your belongings (if you’re within close proximity).
If you purchase an Apple gift card totaling $100 or more from the retailer, you can get $15 in Amazon store credit for no extra cost. Just use the code APPLET5USA at checkout to see the offer. The deal applies to the digital version of the card; as of this writing, you can get the credit with a physical Apple gift card as well by using the code APPLET5USAP, though you may not want to clip the coupon on those cards’ product page, as Amazon’s listing says that will only give you a $10 credit. As a reminder, you can use an Apple gift card for App Store credit, subscription services like Apple Music or iCloud, and/or purchases made at a physical Apple store.
The latest version of Apple’s AirPods Pro is back on sale for $190 at Amazon and Target. That matches an all-time low and comes in $60 below the pair’s usual going rate. The AirPods Pro are the “best for iOS” pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide thanks to their easy pairing and deep integration with Apple devices. Effective active noise cancellation (ANC), a superb transparency mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help as well, as does a new “adaptive audio” mode that can adjust the earphones’ noise control settings based on your surroundings. That said, their battery life is just average at six-ish hours per charge, and you really have to use an iPhone to get anything out of them.
We gave the Lightning-based version of the second-generation AirPods Pro a review score of 88 last year; this new iteration is almost identical, only it comes with a USB-C charging case and has a higher IP54 dust-resistance rating. If you don’t care about the updated charging port, note that the older Lightning version is on sale for $169 at Walmart.
The third-gen Apple AirPods are back down to $140 at Amazon and Best Buy, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. Typically, the wireless earbuds have retailed between $10 and $20 higher over the past few months. We gave these AirPods a review score of 88 back in 2021: You can get better-sounding and more featured earbuds for much less, but if you’re an iPhone owner who hates the feeling of traditional in-ear headphones, it might suit you well. It has a mostly balanced sound despite its unsealed design, and it gets the usual AirPods conveniences like hands-free Siri, Find My device tracking and quick pairing with other Apple gadgets. Just don’t expect much in the way of deep bass or noise cancellation, as is the case with all earbuds with an “open” design.
The new Apple Watch Series 9 has dropped to $329 at Amazon, Walmart and Target in a Cyber Monday deal. That’s $70 off its usual price and the lowest we’ve seen since it debuted in September. That’s the price you’ll pay for the 41mm model, but the 45mm models are now down to $359 with the same $70 discount. The Series 9 took the crown of the best smartwatch you can get right now in our guide thanks to its new S9 SiP that brings slightly speedier performance and on-device Siri processing, the new Double Tap feature and other improvements.
The Apple Watch SE has dropped to $179 for Cyber Monday, which is $70 off its usual price. It may not have all of the advanced health tracking features of the Series 9, but the SE has all of the basics you’d want in a smartwatch, including smart notifications, all-day activity tracking and perks like Fall and Crash Detection and Emergency SOS. If you’re looking for a good entry-point into the Apple Watch space, or a gift for someone who has never worn a smartwatch before, the Apple Watch SE is a great option.
Apple’s 9th gen iPad is down to a new low of $230 at Amazon and Target. This is the budget pick in our iPad buying guide, and it earned a review score of 86 in 2021. It’s the last iPad to use Apple’s old design language, so it has thick bezels, a Lightning port, a Home button and a non-laminated display. This variant also comes with a paltry 64GB of storage. At this price, though, it’s hard to do better if all you want is a large screen for streaming video, playing games and browsing the web. If you need more storage space, the 256GB model is also down to a low of $380.
The iPad Air M1 is back down to a record low of $500 right now ahead of Cyber Monday. All color options are discounted. The Air is still the best iPad for most people at the moment, although we expect to see a fresh lineup with the latest M-series processor debut early next year. However, if you want a new iPad immediately, the Air offers speedy performance, good battery life, a slim design and Apple Pencil 2 support.
The 10th-generation iPad is down to its lowest price ever at Amazon and Target. The 64GB model is just $349 for Cyber Monday in all four colors. That’s $100 off and $30 less than the previous low. We gave the revamped standard iPad an 85 in our review. Compared to the 9th-gen model, the new version ditches the Home button and comes with a larger, 10.9-inch display. The front-facing camera is now on the landscape edge, which is much more convenient for video calls, though the tablet (for some reason) still only works with the first generation Apple Pencil.
Apple now makes three different Apple Pencils. The first generation stylus recharges via Lightning. The second generation recharges wirelessly and the new USB-C looks a lot like the first generation, but charges via USB-C instead of lighting. Each one has different iPad compatibility with iPads, so you may want to check on that before you decide which to get. We’re fans of the Pencil overall, and named it one of the best accessories for your iPad.
The smart plug we recommend for most homes is TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Plug mini. A four-pack is on sale for $35 which is about $3 more than it sold for during Amazon’s October Prime day sale, but still a decent $15 savings. Plugs like these are a simple way to add some smart capabilities to any home, letting you turn on lights with just your voice, set automated schedules and routines that are triggered by other activities. These would make a great stocking stuffer for anyone you know who’s curious about smart home connectivity but hasn’t yet taken the plunge.
The coveted Dyson Airwrap is down to the cheapest price we’ve ever seen, just $480. This hair tool uses the Coanda effect to keep air flowing around its barrel, helping you style your hair more easily. It also maintains a safe temperature for hair, resulting in less damage overall. You’re getting a number of accessories with this Airwrap bundle as well, including two differently sized barrels, separate brushes for soft or firm smoothing, a Coanda smoothing dryer and more.
Google’s Nest Thermostat is on sale for $90 right now, which is $40 off and close to a record low. It’s a pared-down version of the Nest Learning Thermostat, but it has plenty of smart features and should help you save on energy costs over time. This model is Energy Star-certified and will automatically turn temperatures down in your home when you leave the house, and you can adjust heating and cooling schedules from your phone.
TP-Link’s Deco EX75 mesh router system with two beacons is $100 off and down to a record low of $200. This is our top pick for a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router system, and the two-pack should cover up to 5,500 square feet with stable connectivity. When we tested the three-pack, we were impressed by how well the system balances power with user friendliness. Its network is reliable and fast, and its companion app is easy to use and clearly shows you things like all of the devices connected to your network, current speeds and more.
Sonos’s Cyber Monday sale has brought a range of discounts on smart speakers and home theater gear. New for Cyber Monday is $110 off the Sonos Five speaker, bringing it down to $439. This is an exclusive Cyber Monday deal that will disappear once the day is up. Also included in the sale are Sonos Era 100 for $199 and the Sonos Roam for $134. For soundbar deals, you have the flagship Sonos Arc down to $719, plus the mid-range Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the more basic Sonos Ray on sale for $399 and $223, respectively.
In other home theater deals, the Sonos Sub (Gen 3) subwoofer is $160 off at $639, while the more compact Sonos Sub Mini is $86 off at $343. For those looking to add Sonos functionality to existing audio gear, the Sonos Amp is now $599, a $100 discount, while the Sonos Port is now $399, a $50 discount.
You can read our reviews of the Arc, Beam, Ray, Roam and Era 100 for more details on what to expect from those devices. We like Sonos speakers for delivering relatively clean and balanced sound and a straightforward app that lets you connect to numerous music services. Their main appeal, however, is their ability to link up with the company’s other devices in one connected audio system. Deals on any Sonos gear are fairly uncommon, so this is a good chance to save if you’re looking to build out your own system.
The Echo Show 5 is Amazon’s smallest smart display and was completely refreshed back in May of this year. The processor and audio quality were improved, but the device is largely the same, acting as a screen-enabled bedside alarm clock or a handy kitchen display for recipe videos and the like. It’s currently down to $40 which is $50 off and a discount it has hit twice in the past couple months.
The Ring Video Doorbell and an Echo Show 5 make a great smart home starter kit The bundle is now $65, instead of the $190 you’d pay at full price. Currently, both devices are on sale on their own — buying the bundle saves you an extra $10 off their sale prices. The Ring Video Doorbell can run either on your existing doorbell wires or on battery. It shoots motion-triggered 1080p video, and sends it to the Ring app on your phone or directly to your Echo Show 5.
The Echo Show 15 is almost like four devices in one: It’s a smart display, TV, widget-driven bulletin board and Alexa assistant. This is why it’s one of our recommended gifts for tech folk. The 15-inch screen can be wall-mounted in portrait or landscape and can be operated with the remote, via touchscreen or with your voice. Right now, it’s down to $185, which is a 34 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve seen on the device yet.
If you’re partial to the Google Assistant, Google’s Nest Hub is also on sale for $50 at Target and Walmart. That’s $10 higher than its all-time low but still $50 off Google’s list price. The Nest Hub is the top overall pick in our smart display buying guide, and we gave it a review score of 89 back in 2021. It has a 7-inch screen, so it’s a bit bigger than the Echo Show 5 but should still be compact enough to fit neatly in a bedroom or small office. While it lacks a built-in camera, that may be a selling point for those who especially sensitive to their privacy (though no smart display is truly privacy-conscious). If you want a larger model with a webcam and stronger speakers, the 10-inch Nest Hub Max is also on sale for $129.
The Vitamix E310 is on sale for $289 at Amazon, Target and directly from Vitamix, and while that’s not an all-time low, it’s still a $60 discount on a particularly powerful blender. It’s our favorite blender from our guide to kitchen tech because it goes beyond smoothie duty to create salsas, sauces, dips and even soups (which the blender can heat to steaming in the container due to shear friction). Anyone coming from a standard blender will be impressed with the way it renders even the hardest, chunkiest ingredients silky smooth.
Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is 29 percent off and down to $320 for Cyber Monday. That’s the best price we’ve seen since the start of this year on one of our favorite air fryers. This Breville machine is much more than an air fryer, though — it has 13 cooking functions and a capacity that can handle a full turkey, so it’s more like a mini convection oven that sits on your countertop. It’s best for people who love to cook and have big families, or those who maybe don’t have a traditional oven and want a versatile (and relatively small) appliance for their kitchen.
Ooni Cyber Monday deals include some of the lowest prices we’ve seen on the company’s pizza ovens and accessories. The 12-inch Fyra is on sale for $244 right now, which is more than $100 off its normal price. It earned a spot on our best pizza oven list thanks to its compact profile and the fact that it runs on wood pellets instead of chunks, making it easier to refill and you’ll spend less time tending to its fire overall. Ooni’s handy pizza steel is also on sale for $70 in this sale.
Solo Stove’s Cyber Monday deals have knocked up to $245 off fire pit bundles, up to $100 off fire pits by themselves and even more. A standout is the Ranger Backyard Bundle 2, which is $145 off and down to $320. It includes the company’s most compact fire pit along with its accompanying shield, stand, lid and shelter. Everything you’d need for an easy setup right out of the box is included in this bundle, and the 2.0-version of the Ranger includes a removable base plate and ash pan, both of which make the fire pit much easier to clean.
If you need a spare gamepad for your Xbox, official Xbox Series X/S Wireless Controllers are as low as $40 at Microsoft. As with the DualSense deal above, this discount applies to various colors. Typically, we see the gamepad retail between $50 and $60 depending on the colorway. The Series X/S controller doesn’t have the DualSense’s advanced haptics and requires AA batteries for power by default — we recommend grabbing a rechargeable set — but some will always find its shape and asymmetrical joysticks more comfortable. It’s also simpler to set up and use on PC.
The Xbox Series X bundled with Diablo IV is down to $439 from Walmart. The console itself has a list price of $500 and the game is typically listed between $40 and $70, so this is like getting a $60 discount on the console plus a free copy of the huge action-RPG. If you’re a frequent Target shopper, note that the retailer is selling this same bundle with a $75 store gift card for $450.
Peacock has discounted its monthly and annual subscription plans for Cyber Monday. You can access the services starting at $2 per month for the first year, instead of the usual $6 monthly price, with the code BIGDEAL. If you’d rather pay upfront for one year of access, you’ll spend only $20 with the code YEARLONG. The sale runs from November 22-27, and the offer excludes current Peacock Premium and Premium Plus subscribers. In addition to classic movies and new reality TV shows, Peacock has a smattering of live sports offerings that include Sunday Night Football, Big Ten Football and Premier League.
A Cyber Monday deal on Amazon’s audiobook subscription service brings a Premium Plus membership down to just $6 per month for the first four months — that’s more than half off the typical $15-per-month cost of access. Plus, new subscribers can get a $20 Audible credit when they get this deal, and that can be used towards audiobook purchases in the future. Audible’s Premium Plus subscription comes with one credit every month to purchase a new or best-selling title. It’s a great digital gift to get friends or family if you’re not going to see them in person this holiday season.
Hulu’s Cyber Monday deal is a great one for anyone who has not subscribed to the ad-supported tier yet. You’ll get one year of the service for only $12, which comes out to just $1 per month. That’s 85 percent off the standard monthly price and a great deal if you’ve been wanting to see what all the hype is about for shows like The Bear and Only Murders in the Building. The deal is available to new subscribers, and returning subscribers who have not been paying for Hulu for at least one month.
Max, formerly known as HBO Max, is one of our favorite streaming services with must-watch fare like The Last of Us and Succession. For Cyber Monday, you can get six months of the ad-supported tier for 70 percent off. The Max with Ads plan drops the the price from $10 per month (or $100 per year) to $3 per month. At the end of the six-month promotion, you can either cancel or revert to paying full price. Both new and returning customers can access the deal, which is live now and runs through November 27 (aka Cyber Monday).
Our favorite VPN service, ProtonVPN, is having a rare sale for Cyber Monday that brings a monthly subscription down to only $4 for a total of 30 months. That means you’ll pay $120 for two and a half years of access, which is a pretty good deal. ProtonVPN passed our tests with high marks, but what made it stand out among other VPN security services was its independently audited no-logs policy, and the fact that the company has proven they don’t comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. If you want to jump in head-first with Proton services, the company has discounted Proton Unlimited, which includes access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, to just under $9 per month for the first year.
A slew of Anker chargers, cables, power adapters and other accessories are on sale for Cyber Monday at Amazon, with discounts ranging up to 37 percent. The deals extend to our favorite premium power bank, Anker’s Prime 20,000 mAH battery with charging base, which is $130 for the set and its lowest price ever.
Anker’s Prime 100W fast charger is great for when you need to charge multiple devices at once. It has two USB-C ports and a USB-A port, with a maximum output of 100W when using two ports at once. That means your devices will charge up pretty quickly. It’s compatible with most popular smartphones, including the flagships from Apple, Samsung and Google, and is strong enough to charge your iPad and MacBook.
You can never have too many cables, especially since they always seem to go missing. Anker is running a deal on a three-pack of 100W USB-C cables, meaning they support fast charging. The pack comes with three sizes — 3.3-foot, 6-foot, and 10-foot — and they should work with most popular smartphones, laptops and tablets. They’re wrapped in braided nylon, so they should be pretty durable, too.
Anker’s Nano Power Bank is both adorable and convenient. The 5,000mAh portable charger has a built-in USB-C connector that folds away when you’re not using it, so it’s easy to toss in a bag. It maxes out at 22.5W, so while it may not be the fastest charging option out there, it’ll still juice your devices up pretty quickly. Anker says it will get an iPhone 15 to 43 percent charge in 30 minutes. It comes in five colors, but the Cyber Monday deal is for the Shell White version.
The entire Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone lineup is on sale for Cyber Monday: you can grab the S23+ for $800 or the S23 for $700. These are some of the best Android phones you can get right now. It has a big, bold 6.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a total of three cameras. It also has an impressive battery life thanks to its 4,700 mAh cell.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is down to $800 at Best Buy, and the retailer is throwing in a $100 digital gift card with the purchase as well as a free one-month membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The Flip 5 is one of the best foldable phones you can get thanks to its speedy performance, slim design, handy 3.4-inch exterior display and updated software that makes using that exterior display even easier that before (and more fun).
Google’s latest flagship smartphones are up to $200 off for Cyber Monday, including the Pixel 8 Pro, which you can snag for $799. The standard Pixel 8 is as low as $549 depending on the storage capacity you choose as well. These are the best Android phones available right now thanks to some substantial upgrades Google brought to each handset this time around. They both have upgraded Tensor G3 processors, vivid OLED displays with 120Hz refresh rates, excellent cameras and solid battery lives.
Fitbit’s newest fitness tracker, the Charge 6, is $60 off right now and down to a record low of $100. It’s the follow-up to one of our favorite fitness trackers, the Fitbit Charge 5, and it brings back the physical side button that previous generations had and integrates even more with Google services. It has an AMOLED touchscreen that displays all of your activity stats and smart notifications, a built-in GPS for mapping outdoor workouts, a week-long battery life and the ability to display turn-by-turn directions on its screen from Google Maps.
The Sony WH-1000XM5 is down to $328 at Amazon, B&H and others. Though this isn’t an all-time low, it’s about $70 off Sony’s list price and $20 lower than the headphones’ usual recurring sale price. The XM5 is the top recommendation in our guide to the best wireless headphones, as it offers a comfortable design, powerful ANC, crisp call quality and 30 or so hours of battery life. It also comes with a number of useful bonus features such as “Speak to Chat,” which automatically pauses your music when you start talking to somebody else. By default, its bass-heavy sound plays well with hip-hop and EDM, though you can easily customize the EQ curve through Sony’s app. We gave the XM5 a score of 95 in our review last year.
Sony’s WF-1000XM5, meanwhile, is the top choice in our guide to the best wireless earbuds, and it’s now down to a new low of $248 at Amazon, B&H and other retailers. Several other retailers have it for $2 more. Normally, these noise-canceling earphones go for $300. Like the over-ear XM5, this in-ear model delivers excellent ANC (with strong passive isolation), loads of helpful features and a warm sound that’s fun out of the box but can be customized if needed. Battery life is decent at seven or eight hours per charge and, notably, the design is lighter, smaller and altogether more comfortable than past Sony earbuds. The WF-1000XM5 earned a score of 87 in our review this past July.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro are on sale for $115 at Wellbots. That’s the best price we’ve ever seen on what we consider to be the best wireless earbuds for Android users. Google learned from its previous generations of earbuds and made the best model yet with the Pros; they have improved sound quality, a comfortable design with reliable touch controls and good noise cancellation and battery life.
The Anker Soundcore Space A40 is down to $54 for Cyber Monday, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. This is the top pick in our guide to the best budget wireless earbuds: It’s comfortable, it supports wireless charging and multi-device pairing, it can last up to 10 hours a charge and its ANC is remarkably effective for a sub-$100 pair. Its bassy sound should please most by default, but it can also be customized through a clean companion app. The only big negatives are its middling call quality and lack of wear detection.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra
The latest flagship noise-cancelling headphones from Bose, the QuietComfort Ultra is seeing a $50 discount at Amazon, Walmart and Bose direct, among others. These headphones debuted last month and retail for $429 at full price. One of our concerns in our review was that higher MSRP, so this deal takes some of the sting out of the purchase. We found this pair to offer exceptional ANC, a comfortable fit and sound quality that has more bass plus “increased clarity and enhanced warmth” compared to previous generations of the QC cans.
Dyson Cyber Monday deals include a $250 discount on the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute, bringing the cordless vacuum down to $500. It’s hard to tell if this is a record-low price, but considering the standard V15 Detect is going for between $650 and $750 across the internet, we consider this to be a good deal. In addition to its strong cleaning power, the V15 Detect has a laser-powered optic cleaner head that illuminates the floor before you as you’re cleaning so you can see dust and grime more clearly. It also has a piezo sensor, which sizes and counts dust particles as you clean and shows you that information on its LCD display.
The Roomba 694 is on sale for $159 in this Cyber Monday deal. It’s our current favorite budget robot vacuum thanks to its strong suction power, easy to use mobile app and handy spot-clean function. It doesn’t come with a clean base, but it has Wi-Fi connectivity and voice control with Alexa.
This Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum is on sale for $298 for Cyber Monday, or half off its regular price. Shark makes some of our favorite robovacs, and this one has strong suction power, a self-cleaning brush roll and support for home mapping and voice control with Alexa and the Google Assistant. Shark’s machines also stand out because their self-emptying bases, like the one included here, are bagless, so you don’t have to constantly buy proprietary garbage bags to use with them.
Amazon, Walmart, PlayStation Direct and several other retailers have discounted a bunch of PlayStation DualSense controllers for Cyber Monday, including many of the colorways that typically go for $75. You can pick up Cosmic Red, Starlight Blue, Nova Pink and other models for $50 each, which is just about a record-low price. These controllers work with the PS5 as well as PC, and they sport adaptive L2 and R2 triggers, haptic feedback and a built-in mic array.
If you’re after a new Xbox gamepad, official Xbox Series X/S controllers are on sale for $40 at Microsoft, Target and Best Buy. Other stores like Amazon, Walmart and GameStop have them for $5 more. Again, the discounts apply to several different finishes. We typically see the gamepad retail between $50 and $60 depending on the color. The big caveat with the Xbox controller is that it requires a pair of AA batteries for power; we recommend grabbing a rechargeable set like the Panasonic Eneloops to mitigate that annoyance. That said, if you want a new controller for gaming on the PC, the Xbox pad is generally easier to set up and use with most Windows clients than the DualSense.
If you or someone you love hasn’t gotten their hands on a PS5 yet, a Cyber Monday bundle pairs the $500 console with the new (and critically acclaimed) Spider-Man 2 game for no extra cost. The PS5 remains one of the best gaming consoles you can get right now, and we found the open-world game to be even better than its predecessor in our review. In it, you can swap between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and it includes expanded combat mechanics.
The main Nintendo Switch deal for Cyber Monday bundles the $350 Nintendo Switch OLED with a digital copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and a three-month individual subscription to Nintendo Switch Online for no extra cost. This offer is available at Walmart, Target, GameStop, Best Buy and Nintendo’s own online store. Smash Bros. Ultimate was released way back in 2018, so it’s hard to call this an amazing deal, but the game remains one of the console’s best and still typically retails between $50 and $60 on its own. The Switch Online sub, meanwhile, goes for $8. If you’re late to the Switch bandwagon, you could do much worse for a free pack-in game — but keep in mind that Nintendo is expected to unveil its next console at some point in 2024.
If you’re all set on the hardware front, a truckload of PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch games have dropped in price for Cyber Monday too. Both Sony and Microsoft have rolled out holiday sales on their respective digital storefronts, while a number of physical games are down to new lows at Amazon, Best Buy and others.
There are frankly too many deals for us to list them all here, but some highlights for PlayStation and Xbox owners include Assassin’s Creed Mirage for $40, God of War Ragnarök and the dramatic action-RPG Final Fantasy XV for $35 each, the rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush for $22, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West for $20 each and Halo: The Master Chief Collection for $10. Many of those make our lists of the best PS5 games and best Xbox games.
On the Switch side, the turn-based strategy game Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is on sale for $15, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Luigi’s Mansion 3 are each down to $40 and the excellent 2D platformer Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is down to a new low of $30. There are plenty more games on sale beyond those, and we expect to see more PC game deals over the course of the week.
The Razer Basilisk V3 is the top overall recommendation in our guide to the best gaming mice, and it’s dropped to $40 for Cyber Monday at Amazon, Walmart, Target and Best Buy. That’s an all-time low and $10 off the device’s usual street price. The Basilisk V3 isn’t the lightest mouse around at 100 grams, but its sturdy shape should be comfortable for users of each grip type and all but the smallest of hands. It has no major issues with latency or tracking accuracy, either, plus it comes with 11 customizable buttons, including a “sensitivity clutch” for moments where more precise aiming is required. Beyond that, its scroll wheel supports both left-right tilt and a faster free-spin mode — both helpful for navigating large documents — though it is on the noisy side.
The Logitech G535 is another honorable mention in our gaming headsets guide, one that should specifically appeal to those who want a wireless option for less than $100. If that’s you, good news: It’s available for just under $80 at Amazon, B&H and Best Buy, which is about $25 off its usual street price. The G535’s noticeably light frame, relatively balanced sound and Bluetooth support all impress for the price; just note that it doesn’t work with Xbox, and that its mic sounds a bit thinner than the wired headsets highlighted above. Its battery life clocks in at 30 to 35 hours per charge, which is decent but not great.
The 55-inch Samsung The Frame smart TV is 35 percent off and down to a new record low of $978 at Amazon. Samsung itself has it for a couple bucks more. Other size options are also discounted. The Frame has been super popular thanks to its design, which mimics framed artwork when not in use. It has a matte, anti-reflective display and an included slim wall mount so you can get the true “artwork” effect when you hang it on the wall. As an actual TV, it supports 4K content and Quantum Dot technology, plus it runs on Samsung’s Tizen TV operating system.
The 55-inch Hisense U8K is available for $698, which is an all-time low and $50 less than its typical street price in recent months. Best Buy has it for $2 more. The 65-inch model is also at an all-time low of $897. Several reviews have praised the U8K as one of the year’s best values among midrange TVs, one that gets impressively bright and delivers strong contrast for an LED display. It comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports that play 4K video up to 144Hz, it supports all the major HDR formats and its Google TV platform is easier to use than most smart TV UIs. Its motion and color performance will still trail a good OLED TV, though, and reviews say it’ll wash out much more heavily when viewed from an angle. But if you want to stay under $1,000, it should be a good value.
The Meta Quest 2 VR headset is $50 off and down to $249 at several retailers. That matches the best price we’ve seen. At Target and Amazon, you can get the device with a $50 gift card or credit as well. Despite the launch of the impressive Quest 3, we still consider the Quest 2 to be one of the best VR headsets available right now — precisely because of its more affordable price. It’s still the best way to jump into VR without spending a ton of money, and the Quest 2 has the perks of being completely cordless and comfortable to wear for long sessions. The hardware includes fast-switching LCDs with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and it comes with Meta’s sold motion controllers.
Our top recommendation in our streaming devices guide is the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, which is 40 percent off and down to $30 at Target and directly from Roku. That’s about $5 more than it was last Cyber Monday, but still a decent savings on a dongle that will turn any screen into a smart TV, complete with Roku’s intuitive interface and its simple universal search function. The Roku Express 4K is on sale for $25. It has a shorter Wi-Fi range, lacks support for Dolby Vision and has a different format (a small set-top box instead of a stick that hides behind your TV) but is otherwise pretty similar for $5 less.
Google’s 4K Chromecast is down to a new low of $38 for Cyber Monday, while the standard HD model is only $20 for the shopping event. Key to both of these devices are the remotes that come with them that make navigating the revamped UI of Android TV much easier than in years past. The home screen will personalize recommendations for you based on your watch history, and its algorithm-based recommendations come in handy as well — plus, they’re pulling from services you’re already subscribed to, so you won’t be tempted by movies or shows that you don’t have access to. The 4K model is one of our favorite streaming devices thanks to all of those perks in addition to its support for Dolby Vision.
The latest generation of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max was just announced in September during Amazon’s Devices and Services event and it’s now down to its lowest price yet, which is $40 and a 33 percent discount off the $60 list price. In addition to handling 4K video, it also supports Wi-Fi 6E and has a faster processor and bigger storage capacity compared to the previous generation. It’ll also support Amazon’s latest Fire TV feature, the Ambient Experience which displays art and shows widgets for weather, calendars, reminders and more when the TV is in standby. Amazon’s most affordable Fire TV Stick is also down to $16 for Cyber Monday, which is only $1 more than its record-low price.
We found Amazon’s Fire TV Stick Lite to be the best budget streaming device you can buy — which goes double now that it has dropped to $16. The deal represents a 46 percent discount off the $30 list price (though it often sells for $20). It’s also just a dollar more than its all-time low. The Fire TV Stick Lite doesn’t stream content in 4K and can’t control a TV’s volume or on/off functions, but lets you use all the streaming platforms you subscribe to, presenting them in an interface that’s easy enough to navigate, but we do wish that it didn’t favor and promote Amazon content quite as much as it does.
The 13.6-inch Apple MacBook Air is down to $929 at B&H for an entry-level configuration with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and Apple’s M2 chip. If you need more RAM and storage space, a model with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD is $200 off at $1,299. The M2 MacBook Air is the top pick in our guide to the best laptops, and this 13-inch model earned a score of 96 in our review last year. It’s worth noting that a refresh with Apple’s new M3 chip is reportedly planned for the first half of 2024, and the SSD in the entry-level config is technically slower than the storage in higher-capacity models. But if you need a new notebook right away, the M2 Air still ticks all the requisite design and performance boxes for everyday use.
The older 13-inch MacBook Air that was released in 2020 and uses Apple’s M1 chip is also on sale, with an entry-level config available for $750. We’ve seen this deal a handful of times over the last few months, but it matches the lowest price we’ve seen. It’s really worth stepping up to the M2 Air if you can: It’ll get you a more modern design, a faster chip, a sharper webcam and improved speakers. The 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD in this config is only suitable for casual use, and this model will almost certainly be discontinued when we get the inevitable M3 refresh. But if you’re on a stricter budget and really want a MacBook, the M1 Air is still well-built, long-lasting and fast enough for the essentials. We currently highlight it in our guide to the best budget laptops.
Apple only released its latest MacBook Pros last month, but the new notebooks are already discounted for Cyber Monday. The 14.2-inch MacBook Pro, for one, is down to $1,749 at B&H for a model with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. That’s $250 off Apple’s list price. A 1TB model is $200 off at $2,199, while a variant with the more powerful M3 Max chip is $200 off at $2,999.
Meanwhile, a model of the 16.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $2,299 at Amazon, B&H and Best Buy. That’s $200 off. A variant with 36GB of RAM is $2,649 (or $250 off), while another with an M3 Max chip and a 1TB SSD is $3,299 (or $200 off).
As the name suggests, the MacBook Pro is really meant for coders, multimedia editors and other professional types who’re willing to trade some portability for additional horsepower and a brighter and faster Liquid Retina XDR display. If you fall into that bracket, though, the new Pros are suitably fast, efficient and elegantly designed. We gave both MacBook Pros a score of 90 in our review earlier this month.
A configuration of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9 with an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and Microsoft’s Surface Pro Keyboard is on sale for $1,000 at Best Buy. That’s $540 off Microsoft’s list price. If you don’t need the keyboard, a variant with a faster Core i7-1255U chip is down to a new low of $1,097 at Amazon, Microsoft, B&H and other retailers. That’s roughly $200 off the config’s usual street price. Another Core i7 model with 512GB of storage is on sale for $300 more.
In any event, the Surface Pro 9 tops our guide to the best 2-in-1 tablets. While its 12th-gen chip is about to be two generations old, this is still the device to get if you want the functionality of a laptop in the slim, touch-enabled design of a tablet. We’re past the point of the year when Microsoft would normally announce a refresh, but the current model should still be useful if you’re coming from an older Surface Pro that’s in desperate need of an upgrade.
Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is on sale for $379 at Best Buy, which is $120 off its list price. This is the most recent version of the top pick in our Chromebook buying guide: Its 14-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 IPS touchscreen is good for the money, it’s plenty fast for the kind of web browsing and light work you’d do with Chrome OS and both its keyboard and trackpad are comfortable. This model comes with a Core i3-1315U processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of eMMC storage, one USB-A port, two USB-C 3.2 ports and a microSD card slot. It also has a decent 1080p webcam. The chassis isn’t especially light at 3.6 pounds, and we found the battery to last roughly seven hours in testing, which is just OK. But for less than $400, this is a strong value for those who just want an affordable notebook for the basics.
The 18-inch Alienware m18 is down to $2,390 at Amazon for a model with a Ryzen 9 7845HX processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 480Hz display with a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. Nobody would call this affordable, but it’s still 20 percent off Dell’s list price and the lowest price we’ve seen outside of special offers. The m18 is another pick from our gaming laptops guide: It’s too huge to be truly portable and weighs nearly nine pounds, but the giant screen is nice for taking in games, it’s sturdily built and it can consistently run demanding titles at high frame rates. It’s also upgradeable, plus it has a wide array of ports. You’ll want to keep it near a charger, though, and it’s far from the quietest notebook we’ve used.
Amazon calls the Fire Max 11 their best tablet yet and in our hands-on we were impressed by how much Amazon is offering for the money. It has an 11-inch LCD display, an aluminum frame, an octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. Like all Fire tablets, you’re limited to the apps within the Fire Tablet App store, so it’s not going to become a laptop-replacing workhorse. But now that it’s on sale for $150, matching its all-time low, it’s a good buy for a casual use tablet.
The latest Samsung T9 portable SSD is on sale for $110 right now for a 1TB drive, which is the best price it’s been since it came out last month. You can snag this Cyber Monday deal from Amazon or Samsung directly. The T9 is the newest iteration of Samsung’s popular portable drive that we’ve long been fans of, and it supports read and write speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s. It also has dynamic thermal guard to prevent overheating, plus it comes with a USB-C to C and USB-C to A cords so you can use it with a variety of devices.
If you need a new microSD card for your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck or GoPro, a trio of Samsung microSD cards we recommend are also down their lowest prices to date. The 128GB version of the Samsung Pro Plus is down to $11 at Amazon, B&H and others, while the 256GB and 512GB models are down to $18 and $32, respectively. Beyond that, the 256GB Samsung Evo Select is on sale for a new low of $15 and the 256GB Samsung Pro Ultimate is available for $25.
The Pro Plus is the top overall pick in our microSD card buying guide, as it consistently ranked among the fastest cards we tested despite its relatively affordable price tag. The Pro Ultimate offers faster read speeds, so it could be worth the step up if you often move files between your card and a computer. The Evo Select is our “best value” pick: It’s slower than the other two, but it’s cheaper, and its losses won’t be hugely noticeable in devices that can’t take advantage of the extra performance such as the Switch. Each card comes with a 10-year warranty.
Amazon’s standard Kindle has dropped to $80 for Cyber Monday, which is $20 off its normal price and close to a record low. It’s only been cheaper this year during July Prime Day, when it dropped to $65. Even at its normal price, it’s the best budget ereader available right now, so this Cyber Monday deal makes it even more compelling. It has a 300ppi display with an adjustable front light, 16GB of storage for holding thousands of titles and a USB-C charging port. But as with most ereaders, you likely won’t have to charge this one often as it as a weeks-long battery life.
A number of Amazon’s Kindles are on sale for Cyber Monday, including a new all-time low on the read/write Kindle Scribe. The model with 16GB of storage and the “Basic Pen” stylus is down to $240. That’s $100 off its $340 list price and its lowest price we’ve seen. We reviewed it when it came out last year and named it the best ereader/E Ink tablet combo in our guide. The Scribe lets you draw, make to-do lists, create sticky notes and scribble in the margins of a limited selection of Kindle titles (mostly puzzle and journaling books).
You can pick up the GoPro Hero 12 Black action cam with a bunch of accessories for only $350, which is $100 off the regular price of the bundle. The included accessories are a carrying case, a strap, an extra battery, a mount and other add-ons, so you’re getting most of the things you’d need to really use this action cam to the fullest. The Hero 12 Black is GoPro’s latest and greatest in this space, and it has an improved battery life when compared to its predecessor, and it now supports Bluetooth audio streaming.
As part of a larger sale on DJI cameras and accessories, the DJI Osmo Action 3 is seeing a discount as part of a bundle that includes two batteries, a 32GB microSD card and a case. Separately and not on sale, the set would run you $379, but is now down to $319. This isn’t the newest version of DJI’s GoPro Alternative camera, that one, the Osmo Action 4 isn’t on sale. The newer version has a larger sensor and improved dynamic range, but at a higher price. But if you don’t plan on shooting a lot of low-light footage, you may be happy with the performance of the Action 3. We put it through its paces in our review and liked the excellent video quality, and found it to be on par with GoPro’s Hero 10. The the magnetic clip mount and long-lasting, fast-charging battery are also reasons to buy.
Your Cyber Monday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Cyber Monday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Cyber Monday tech deals. Learn about Cyber Monday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Cyber Monday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Cyber Monday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-cyber-monday-deals-2023-save-on-tech-at-amazon-target-walmart-and-others-170006758.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – The best Cyber Monday deals 2023: Save on tech at Amazon, Target, Walmart and others
One of my favorite Black Friday traditions is scrolling through GameStop on my phone and getting a bunch of cool games for cheap. Usually it works out just fine. Last weekend it was a nightmare. It’s hard to convey just how terrible navigating the experience of trying to buy something from GameStop has become in 2023,…
Source: Kotaku – It Happened To Me: The GameStop Black Friday Deal From Hell
A treadmill can be a big investment, but one that seriously pays off when you need to run through the winter or get your cardio in without having to arrange for child care. Black Friday 2023 brought excellent deals on treadmills, and many of them are still live today for Cyber Monday. Walking pads are in the mix, too, if you’d like to get your steps in while you work. Here are some of the best deals I’ve spotted.
The Bowflex T10 treadmill features a 10-inch touchscreen that can supply you with personalized workouts or streaming entertainment. (You’ll need a JRNY membership to enjoy the trainer-led workouts, but the basic treadmill functions don’t require it. Your first two months are free.) The settings will take you up to 12 miles per hour and a 15% incline. This treadmill was $1,499 on Black Friday, but is still going for a significant discount today.
Bowflex T10 treadmill, $1,699.99 on Amazon (was $2,799)
This commercial-grade treadmill has top-notch specs: a 32-inch touchscreen, built-in fans to cool you off while you run, and incline settings that range from -6% (yep, downhill) to a whopping 40%. With an iFit membership, you can get trainer-led workouts as well, with the incline and resistance automatically adjusting.
Today’s deal is actually better than the $3,999 price from Black Friday—$1,000 off instead of $500.
NordicTrack Commercial X32i, $3,499 at NordicTrack (was $4,499)
Echelon’s Stride-S has an auto-folding feature for storage, but unlike some of the folding walking pads we’ll discuss in a minute, the Stride-S is a real treadmill, capable of an incline of up to 10% and a speed of 12 miles per hour (that’s a 5:00 mile). This is the same deal as Black Friday’s.
Echelon Stride-S, $1,299 at Echelon (was $2,179.50)
Walking pads are like mini treadmills, and this one is a classic of the genre. It only operates at walking speeds (0.6 to 3.8 miles per hour) and has no handrail—perfect if you want something to put under your desk to get some steps in while you work. This is the same deal as Black Friday’s.
Sperax Walking Pad, $199.97 at Amazon (was $299.99)
Maybe you’d prefer the original WalkingPad? The specs on the C1 are similar to the Sperax budget model above, only operating at a walking speed. But this walking pad folds in half—the better to hide away—and includes foot control (walk more on the front of the pad to speed it up, on the back to slow it down). This is the same deal as Black Friday’s.
WalkingPad C1 Foldable Treadmill, $319 at Amazon (was $399)
A hybrid of a walking pad and a treadmill, this SuperFit can go up to 7.5 miles per hour, which is about an eight-minute-per-mile pace. You can use it at a desk in walking mode, or fold the handrail up into position to use it for jogging. This is the same deal as Black Friday.
Superfit 2 in 1 Treadmill, $259.99 at Walmart (was $529)
Source: LifeHacker – These Are the Best Cyber Monday Deals on Treadmills
A malware campaign originally targeting Microsoft Windows that began in July of this year is now taking aim at Apple’s macOS. Cybersecurity Researcher Ankit Anubhav shared on the Infosec Exchange instance on Mastodon that it got an update that will now push a DMG file payload when it detects an Apple user browsing with Safari.
This malware
Source: Hot Hardware – Atomic Stealer Malware Is Using A Devious Ploy To Infect Mac Systems
Storage devices have gotten really fast lately, with the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs getting over 14GB/s in reads and writes, but that’s nothing compared to a Ryzen CPU with 3D V-Cache. Tested by hardware enthusiast and engineer Nemez all the way back in February, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D was able to hit 183GB/s and 175GB/s in reads and writes respectively,
Source: Hot Hardware – AMD 3D V-Cache Turned Into A RAM Disk Destroys PCIe 5.0 SSDs In Speed Test
With companies making it easier to send back clothes that don’t fit, you can shop for your wardrobe constantly from the comfort of your bed—and on Cyber Monday, the online shopping holiday, you can do it on the cheap. Here are some great Cyber Monday deals on all the basic clothes you need. (These are basically the same as the Black Friday deals from last week, but if you missed those, you still have time.)
Basics—your undershirts, leggings, and plain tees—are staples, but it never feels like you have enough. Here are some solid basics to keep your wardrobe stocked.
Old Navy has 50% off everything for Cyber Monday, meaning you can scoop up cardigans, sweatpants, and leggings for major steals. A women’s rib-knit turtleneck is $11.49 and a men’s long-sleeved t-shirt is $9.99, for starters.
A men’s Under Armour Tech 2.0 short-sleeved shirt is just $9.20 on Amazon for the holiday.
Everlane’s seamless tee is discounted 50% down to $20, so get on that one ASAP.
Quality jeans are expensive, which often leaves us with lower-quality ones that are uncomfortable and poorly made.
Levi’s is running Cyber Monday sales on all kinds of jeans, from trendy straight leg ones ($58.80) to classic boot cuts ($64.80).
Target also has solid sales on jeans, like these Universal Thread high-rise wide legs for $25.20.
Men’s jeans are majorly on sale at Macy’s, where Calvin Klein straight-fit stretch jeans are between $53.70 and $59.99 and Polo Ralph Lauren men’s Hampton Relaxed Straight Jeans are $85.99.
You envision yourself wearing sportswear to the gym (and good for you if you do!), but it’s also very comfy for sitting on the couch, which is where it’s employed more often than we want to admit. It’s cheaper today, whatever you want to do with it.
Lululemon is having a Cyber Monday sale. The Align legging is going for $39 to $79, which is really all you need to know to realize what a major sale this is.
Alo, fast becoming the trendiest name in gymwear, is running 30% off sitewide and some styles are up to 70% off. The men’s Co-Op Pant is $96 and the Airlife Line Up Bra is just $54.
You can get up to 40% off at Adidas, too, which means hoodies for $39.
The most basic staple of all is the humble underpants, and they’re on sale, too:
Skims is having its bi-annual sale (which just so happens to coincide with Black Friday and Cyber Monday), so a cotton jersey t-shirt bra is just $18.
Victoria’s Secret has major sales up to 40% off everything, so enjoy some $2.99 thongs.
Calvin Klein, king of underwear, has boxer briefs for $16.80 and trunks for $18.
Source: LifeHacker – These Are the Best Cyber Monday Deals on Clothing Essentials
Enlarge / “That’s not my arm”: Male serotine bats have such large penises, they can use them as an arm while mating. (credit: Alona Shulenko)
Little is known about the mating habits of the serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus), but the males of the species boast unusually large penises—much larger than the vaginas of the females. The purpose of such an enormous organ has long baffled scientists. But a recent paper published in the journal Current Biology revealed that the males of this bat species use their gigantic members not for penetrating females while mating, but as an arm to push the female’s tail sheath aside, thereby improving the odds of successful insemination.
Eurasian serotine bats can be recognized by their long smoky-brown fur (with pale yellow-brown underbelly), large triangular ears, and distinctive flight pattern: bouts of flapping interspersed with brief glides. They typically roost in older buildings like churches that have high gables and cavity walls, or abandoned mines. The male bats are largely solitary until fall mating season arrives, when they seek out females. Females set up maternity colonies around late May in Europe and remain there throughout the breeding season, usually giving birth to a single offspring (pup) in late summer.
Female bats have unusually long cervixes, the better to store sperm. The males have penises that are seven times longer than the females’ vaginas, with a heart-shaped head seven times wider than the vaginal opening. “By chance, we had observed that these bats have disproportionately long penises, and we were always wondering, ‘How does that work?’” said co-author Nicolas Fasel of the University of Lausanne. “We thought maybe it’s like in the dog where the penis engorges after penetration so that they are locked together, or alternatively maybe they just couldn’t put it inside, but that type of copulation hasn’t been reported in mammals until now.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Study: The serotine bat uses its super-large penis as an arm when mating
Award ceremonies aren’t important, and if we all stopped looking at them, they’d stop existing. Anyway, The Game Awards are coming up next week, December 7, and we’re hearing news about some planned changes for this year’s outing. Will they let women on stage? Ha ha, no one’s mentioned that. But we have heard they’ll…
Source: Kotaku – The Game Awards Is Beefing Up Security Following Stage Invasions
Rooting out manipulation should not depend on dedicated amateurs who take personal legal risks for the greater good. From a story on Financial Times: As the Oxford university psychologist Dorothy Bishop has written, we only know about the ones who get caught. In her view, our “relaxed attitude” to the scientific fraud epidemic is a “disaster-in-waiting.” The microbiologist Elisabeth Bik, a data sleuth who specialises in spotting suspect images, might argue the disaster is already here: her Patreon-funded work has resulted in over a thousand retractions and almost as many corrections. That work has been mostly done in Bik’s spare time, amid hostility and threats of lawsuits. Instead of this ad hoc vigilantism, Bishop argues, there should be a proper police force, with an army of scientists specifically trained, perhaps through a masters degree, to protect research integrity.
It is a fine idea, if publishers and institutions can be persuaded to employ them (Spandidos, a biomedical publisher, has an in-house anti-fraud team). It could help to scupper the rise of the “paper mill,” an estimated $1bn industry in which unscrupulous researchers can buy authorship on fake papers destined for peer-reviewed journals. China plays an outsize role in this nefarious practice, set up to feed a globally competitive “publish or perish” culture that rates academics according to how often they are published and cited. Peer reviewers, mostly unpaid, don’t always spot the scam. And as the sheer volume of science piles up — an estimated 3.7mn papers from China alone in 2021 — the chances of being rumbled dwindle. Some researchers have been caught on social media asking to opportunistically add their names to existing papers, presumably in return for cash.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – ‘There is a Scientific Fraud Epidemic’
The laptop gaming market may be niche, but it certainly has a fervent and loyal following. The latest generation products initially aimed solely at maximizing performance, such as ones using NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs. As the product stack evolves with a more complex array of choices, Tuxedo Computers has added a few more possibilities.
Niching
Source: Hot Hardware – Tuxedo Dresses Up A Linux Gaming Laptop With AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS And Radeon RX 7600M XT
Even if you felt prepared for the holidays, somehow they snuck up again. Whether you need an electronic sous chef to help ease the burden of party prep, or a solid gift for your cousin, a do-it-all blender is the move this year. Luckily, Amazon has launched their Cyber Monday sales so you can feel prepared for the holidays without blowing your budget. Here are some of the best deals on blenders, food processors, and combination systems.
Vitamix Propel Series 510 Blender, $279.95 (list price $479.95)
From the way people talk about these blenders, I’m pretty sure you can make a smoothie out of rocks with a Vitamix. Vitamix blenders have a reputation for being one of the best, and it might finally be your time to buy. This model is the low-profile version in the Propel series with a 48-ounce container. That’s still the same Vitamix quality with plenty of room to blend soups, drinks, or salsas and keep extra savings in your pocket.
Vitamix Propel Series 750 Blender in black, $399.95 (list price 629.95)
Speaking of that extra savings money, what’s a hundred dollars between blends? The 750 model features a more capable 64-ounce container that might fit your scaled-up needs. Make silky puréed soups, smooth frozen desserts, or chunky dips with the customizable texture control dial.
Breville Sous Chef BFP820BAL Food Processor, $399.95 (list price $549.95)
The Breville Sous Chef is a processor for the kitchen whiz looking to upgrade their basic model. The large capacity container allows you to complete large jobs like family holiday feasts, and with its 1200-watt motor, you can take down some seriously fibrous material. The Breville comes with multiple blades to help you chop, mix, slice, and dice with ease.
Breville Sous Chef BFP800XL Food Processor, $329.95 (list price $449.95)
For home chefs with smaller kitchens or minimal counter space, Breville has a scaled-down version of their powerful food processor. Complete with the same capacity container, numerous blade options, and helpful timer feature, this smaller (and cheaper) version is their most popular on Amazon.
Vitamix A3500 Gourmet SmartPrep Kitchen System, $799.95 (list price $899.95)
If you’re looking to replace a blender, food processor, mandoline, box grater, and soup pot, consider this machine. This full kitchen system setup comes with a blender container and food processor container. The blade kit is complete with typical blender blades, along with a kneading blade and multiple disc blades to help you cut every shape, from thick and thin slices, to chunky shreds. The heating function really made me turn my head. You can blend soup and heat it in this Vitamix, without even touching your stove.
Vitamix Ascent Series A3300 SmartPrep Kitchen System, $649.95 (list price $729.95)
If Vitamix’s Gourmet SmartPrep A3500 is just out of reach, consider springing for this model. The blender container is the same size, and the machine has the same size footprint overall as the A3500. The biggest difference is that this model has fewer blades, but the ones included are the most general use of the options.
Hamilton Beach Blender and Food Processor, $54.99 (list price 74.99)
This Hamilton Beach system balances quality and an affordable price. This model comes with multiple containers to fit your needs. This package comes with a blender cup for smoothies or small portions of ingredients that need to be puréed, a large blender container, and a food processor bowl.
Source: LifeHacker – These Are the Best Cyber Monday Sales on Vitamix and Breville Blenders and Food Processors
Last week OpenZFS 2.2.1 was released with a reported fix for a data corruption issue that was initially blamed as being a block cloning bug for a new feature introduced in the v2.2 release. Well, it turns out that the block cloning feature isn’t the root cause and that v2.2.1 is still prone to data corruption and pre-v2.2 releases are also vulnerable to this file-system data corruption issue…
Source: Phoronix – OpenZFS Is Still Battling A Data Corruption Issue
The Document Foundation announced today the general availability of LibreOffice 7.6.3 as the third point release to the latest LibreOffice 7.6 open-source and free office suite series.
Source: LXer – LibreOffice 7.6.3 Office Suite Is Out Now with More Than 110 Bug Fixes
Enlarge (credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/M. Zamani)
What is hundreds of billions of times more powerful than the Sun, flashes on repeat with intense bursts of light, and verges on defying the laws of physics? No, it’s not your neighbors’ holiday lights glitching again. It’s an LFBOT in the depths of space.
LFBOTs (Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients) are already quite bizarre. They erupt with blue light, radio, X-ray, and optical emissions, making them some of the brightest explosions ever seen in space, as luminous as supernovae. It is no exaggeration that they give off more energy than hundreds of billions of stars like our own. They also tend to live fast, blazing for only minutes before they burn themselves out and fade into darkness.
LFBOTs are quite rare, and in many cases their sources are unidentified. But we’ve never seen anything with the intensity of an LFBOT named AT2022tsd—aka the “Tasmanian Devil.” Its strange behavior was caught by 15 telescopes and observatories, including the W.M. Keck Observatory and NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope. Like other phenomena of its kind, it initially emitted incredible amounts of energy and then dimmed. Unlike any other LFBOT observed before, however, this one seemed to come back from the dead. It flared again—and again and again.
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Source: Ars Technica – “Tasmanian Devil” event has the power of hundreds of billions of Suns
About one month on from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2‘s launch, we’re learning some new details about Insomniac Games’ open-world robber-stopper RPG. According to a report by YouTuber Evan Filarca, the game had a ton of content cut before releasing on October 20, particularly relating to the big-bad Venom.
Source: Kotaku – Spider-Man 2 Reportedly Cut A Ton Of Venom Content
