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If you’ve been waiting for a chance to grab a MacBook without wrecking your budget, this refurbished 2020 M1 Apple MacBook Air deal is worth your time. It’s currently on sale for $499.99 on StackSocial, which is a huge drop from its original $1,499.99 price. Since it’s a Grade “A” refurbished unit, it should arrive looking almost brand new, with little to no visible wear. You’re getting the 13.3-inch model in the Gold finish, with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD—pretty much the combo most people need for everyday work, casual creative projects, and lighter multitasking.

The M1 chip is really what keeps this 2020 model relevant. Even though it’s not the latest, it still handles tasks like browsing, document editing, and basic video or photo editing without breaking a sweat. Its battery life also holds up well, with about 15 to 18 hours on a single charge, depending on your usage. The fanless design means it’s whisper-quiet even when you have a dozen tabs open or you’re running a marathon Zoom call. However, storage might feel a little tight if you’re into heavy media projects or like to hoard large files, and the 8GB RAM could start to show its limits if you run dozens of apps at once.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that the port situation is basic—just two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports and a headphone jack. You’ll probably need a dongle or hub if you regularly plug in USB-A accessories or an SD card. But in return, you get that lightweight, durable aluminum body, a crisp Retina display, and the Magic Keyboard. If you’re not chasing after the latest M3 or M4 upgrades and just want a solid MacBook for everyday tasks, this refurbished MacBook Air is hard to beat at this price. And for those who care about looks, the Gold finish definitely stands out without being too flashy.

Jurassic World Rebirth is coming to theaters for the Fourth of July weekend, and Universal Pictures has released one final trailer to whet audience appetites for the film.

As previously reported, this is the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series and seventh film overall in the franchise spawned by 1993’s Jurassic Park. This time around, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali step into the leading roles since the film is meant to be a fresh start for the franchise—although it does feature a return to the original research facility. Gareth Edwards—who directed 2014’s Godzilla—signed on to direct a script penned by David Koepp, who wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World (1997).

Per the official premise:

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Amazon is updating Amazon Music with a a new “AI-powered search experience” that should make it easier to discover music based on the albums and artists you’re already looking for. The company says the new beta feature “includes results for many of your favorite artists today,” which is to say, not everyone, but it’ll continue to expand to include more over time.

A traditional search uses a search term — an artist’s name, a song or an album title — and tries to pull up results that are as close to whatever you entered as possible. You’ll still be able to make those kinds of searches in Amazon Music, but now under a new “Explore” tab in the iOS Amazon Music app, you’ll also be able to see new AI-powered recommendations. These include “curated music collections,” an easy jumping-off-point for creating an AI-generated playlists and more. 

Amazon

Amazon suggests these results will vary depending on what you search you do. Looking up Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” will show the album, but also “influential artists who influenced his sound” and other musicians he’s collaborated with, the company says. A search for BLACKPINK, meanwhile, would highlight the K-pop group’s early hits before surfacing solo work from members like Lisa or Jennie. It all sounds like a more flexible and expansive version of the X-Ray feature Amazon includes in Prime Video, which provides things like actors’ names, trivia and related movies and TV shows with a button press.

This new search experience was built using Amazon Bedrock, Amazon’s cloud service for hosting AI models. It’s one of several ways the company is trying to incorporate more AI features into its products. Earlier this year, Amazon started rolling out Alexa+, a version of the popular voice assistant rebuilt around generative AI, to select Echo devices.

AI search in Amazon Music is available today on iOS for a select number of Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the US. If you’re not included in this beta, you could be included in future tests.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/amazon-music-gets-ai-powered-search-results-in-new-beta-140055428.html?src=rss

When a company enters a new product category, it might as well swing for the fences. That’s exactly what Marshall is doing with its first soundbar. The Heston 120 is a $1,000 Dolby Atmos and DTS-X living room speaker, equipped with 11 drivers to power that spatial audio. Like the company’s headphones and speakers, there’s plenty of the iconic guitar amplifier aesthetic to go around. 

Inside, two subwoofers, two mid-range units, two tweeters and five full-range drivers produce the Heston 120’s sound. There are also 11 Class D amplifiers (two 50W and nine 30W) inside and the soundbar has a total power output of 150 watts. Bluetooth (5.3) and Wi-Fi are also onboard, which means AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect are all available. For wired connectivity, there are two HDMI 2.1 ports (1 eARC) for your TV and other home theater gear, plus an RCA input allows you to hook up a turntable or other audio devices. 

Marshall

The Heston 120 takes design cues from Marshall’s line of guitar amps. This has been the case for the company’s headphones, earbuds and speakers, and it will continue with soundbars. To that end, there’s a mix of leather and metal, complete with the trademark gold script logo. There are also tactile controls you typically don’t see on a soundbar, like the gold knobs and preset buttons akin to those that adorn an amplifier. 

This soundbar doesn’t come with a subwoofer, but Marshall says a standalone option is on the way. What’s more, that Heston Sub 200 and a smaller Heston 60 are both due to arrive “at a later date.” Lots of companies are bundling at least a sub with their high-end soundbars, so it’s disappointing that Marshall didn’t do the same. I look forward to getting a review unit to see if the company’s promise of “bass rumbling from below like never before” from the soundbar itself hold true. 

The Heston 120 will be available for purchase from Marshall’s website on June 3.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/the-first-marshall-soundbar-is-the-1000-heston-120-with-dolby-atmos-140041873.html?src=rss

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If your current version of Office is starting to feel a little old, this might be the right time to upgrade without committing to a subscription. Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows is down to $49.97 on StackSocial—marked down from its regular $219.99 price. It’s a one-time purchase with a lifetime license for one Windows PC. That means no monthly fees, no renewals, and no cloud dependency to use the core apps. You’ll get instant delivery of your license key after checkout, and setup is straightforward. Just note that the license ties to your device, not your Microsoft account, and must be redeemed within seven days.

This version covers all the core apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams (free), OneNote, Publisher, and Access. If you use your PC for work, school, or anything remotely admin-related, that lineup covers most bases. Word and Excel are as capable as ever, and PowerPoint continues to be a reliable go-to for clean, no-fuss presentations. Access and Publisher may not be for everyone, but if your job calls for database management or simple layout design, they’re nice to have without paying extra. Everything runs locally, so you can keep working even if your wifi cuts out. And the system requirements are light—Windows 10 or 11, with at least 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of disk space.

The interface sticks to the familiar ribbon layout, so there’s not much of a learning curve if you’ve used Office before. You can still edit fonts, styles, margins, and layouts in a few clicks, and the apps load fast on modern machines. While it lacks some of the collaboration features baked into Microsoft 365, this is more of a traditional, standalone package for those who want full control over their software without recurring costs. At this price, and with instant access included, it’s one of the more affordable ways to lock in a full-featured, up-to-date Office suite—especially if you just need it on a single Windows machine.

Survey response rates have collapsed from 30-50% in the 1970s to as low as 5% today, while AI agents now account for an estimated 20% of survey responses, according to a new analysis.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics has seen response rates drop from 40% to 13%, with some labor market questions receiving only five human responses. The U.S. Current Population Survey hit a record low 12.7% response rate, down from 50% historically.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We think the iPad Air is the best blend of price, features and performance in Apple‘s tablet lineup, and the 13-inch version in particular is a fine buy if you want a roomier display for multitasking or streaming video without paying the iPad Pro‘s extravagant prices. If you’ve been waiting for a sale on the jumbo-sized slate, good news: The device is $100 off Apple’s list price and back down to $699 at Amazon and B&H. That’s a deal we’ve seen for much of the last few weeks, but it still matches the lowest price we’ve tracked for the most recent model, which was released in March and runs on Apple’s M3 chip.

This offer applies to the base model with 128GB of storage. If you need more space, the 256GB and 512GB variants are also $100 off at $799 and $999, respectively. The former is another all-time low, while the latter only fell about $25 lower during a brief dip at the start of the month. The one catch is that these discounts only apply to the Space Gray colorway. 

We gave the newest 13-inch iPad Air a score of 89 in our review. This year’s model is a straightforward spec bump, with the only major upgrade being the faster chip. So if you’re coming from a prior M2 or M1 model and are still happy with its performance, there’s no real need to upgrade. The M2 version in particular is still worth buying if you see it on sale — right now Target has the 256GB version of that slate down to $699, so feel free to grab that instead if you don’t mind buying something slightly less futureproof. 

Either way, the Air remains a fairly definitive upgrade over the entry-level iPad (A16). It’s certainly more expensive, but its laminated display doesn’t look as cheap, holds up better against glare and can pump out slightly bolder colors. Its speakers sound less compressed, and it works with superior Apple accessories like the Pencil Pro stylus and latest Magic Keyboard. The M3 chip is noticeably faster for more involved tasks like exporting high-res videos or playing new games as well. More importantly, it sets the Air up better going forward, as features like Apple Intelligence and the Stage Manager aren’t available on the lower-cost model at all. Plus, the base model is only available with an 11-inch display; if you want that bigger screen, this is the most affordable way to get it. 

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-13-inch-ipad-air-m3-is-100-off-for-memorial-day-133034317.html?src=rss

App notifications need careful balancing across Android, iOS, Windows, and of course macOS. Too many of them and you’re in a state of constant distraction; too few of them, and you risk missing out on something important that one of your programs is trying to tell you.

macOS has you covered when it comes to finding the right balance for you, providing a full suite of controls for managing interruptions and staying up to date with your notifications. It doesn’t take long to set up these notification options, and then once they’re configured, you can use Focus modes for specific scenarios (like working or watching movies).

Note that some individual apps come with their own notification settings, in addition to the options macOS offers you (and the tricks you can do with third-party tools). Discord, for example, gives you a bunch of options for choosing what you get notified about.

App notification settings

Every macOS app should ask for permission to show notifications when you first install it. However you respond to this first request, you can configure notifications for all your installed programs at any time by opening the Apple menu from the macOS menu bar (top left), then choosing System Settings and Notifications.

First, you get the chance to set the notification settings for the operating system as a whole: You can choose whether or not pop-ups appear when your Mac is locked, and when the display is asleep, and when you’re mirroring or sharing the screen. You’re able to control whether previews are shown with notifications by default, and you can also give Apple Intelligence permission to summarize your notifications.

Setting individual app notifications.
Credit: Lifehacker

Next, you can control notifications for individual apps. As with iOS, you get a bit of nuance here: As well as turning notifications on or off completely for each of your apps, you can also change the type of alert that gets shown (temporary banner or permanent pop-up), and set an app’s notification to come with a sound, or not. There’s also a toggle switch for showing this app’s alerts in the macOS Notification Center, which appears when you click the time and date (top right).

There are also settings for notification previews and notification grouping for each individual app. The idea is that you can give your most important programs plenty of prominence, while keeping alerts from more minor apps hidden away in the background (or turned off altogether). If you set notifications as Alerts, they’ll stay in the top right corner of the display until you dismiss them.

Focus modes

When you’ve got your individual app notification settings configured the way you want them, you can use Focus modes to override these settings. When it comes to macOS, this is most likely going to involve the traditional Do Not Disturb mode, which will block out any alerts for a set period of time.

Switch from Notifications to Focus in System Settings on macOS to see the modes available: You can make use of these preset ones, or click Add Focus to create your own. There’s also a Share across devices toggle switch just underneath the Focus modes list, which you can turn off if you don’t want all your iPhone modes showing up on macOS as well (and vice versa).

Choosing a Focus mode on a Mac.
Credit: Lifehacker

The settings screen for each mode comes with specific settings for which notifications are allowed to show up. Click Allowed People to pick contacts who can trigger notifications when the mode is enabled, and Allowed Apps to do the same for programs. There’s also an Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing toggle switch you can enable to give macOS permission to show notifications it thinks are important.

Easy access to your modes is provided via the Control Center on the menu bar, in the top-right corner of the screen (the icon that looks like two toggle switches), as well as from the System Settings panel. Click this icon, then Focus, and you can pick from your list of modes or head to the Focus Settings screen again.

Syncing with iPhones and iPads

Thanks to Apple’s suite of Continuity features, you can sync call and message notifications across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, if they’re all signed into the same Apple account. This is handy if you want to be able to pick up iPhone calls on your laptop, but not so helpful if you’re trying to get some work done on macOS without interruption.

You’ve got a few options for extricating yourself from this—including just turning off Messages and FaceTime notifications on macOS. On your iPhone, open Settings then choose Cellular, and you get a Calls on Other Devices menu, where you can turn the toggle switches off for any Macs you’ve got connected. There’s a similar setting for text messages, which you can find from iOS Settings by tapping Apps > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

Turning off Mac access to iPhone calls.
Credit: Lifehacker

That will stop cellular phone calls, and SMS/RCS messages from showing up on your Mac—though because of the way Apple Continuity works, you’re still going to see FaceTime calls and iMessage updates on macOS. To change this, you need to head into FaceTime > Settings and Messages > Settings on your Mac.

In both cases, you get the option to disable connections via your cell number, or to sign out of your Apple account completely, for these specific apps. You can pick and choose the options you want, depending on how much connectivity you want on your Mac (including the ability to send messages and initiate calls from the desktop).