Amazon Prime Day is upon us and that always means some steep discounts, including on headphones, so if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your audio, now’s a good time to buy. Beats is running a sale on the high-end option from its line of wireless headphones. While the Beats Studio Pro normally retails for $250, it’s going for just $170 during Prime Day. That’s a hefty savings of $80, and close to a record-low price for the Beats Studio Pro, making this an attractive offer for the audiophiles.

Apple-owned Beats refreshed these headphones in 2023. That update introduced some serious upgrades that listeners have come to expect for pro-tier headsets. The Beats Studio Pro improved active noise cancellation and added the very useful transparency mode. It also introduced spatial audio with dynamic head tracking for even more immersion when you’re This model also supports USB-C wired audio and 3.5mm wired audio in addition to its wireless capabilities.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-beats-studio-pro-are-on-sale-for-170-this-prime-day-113043590.html?src=rss

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

Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

Apple’s AirTags have changed the way I travel. I no longer worry about losing my belongings because one AirTag always stays in my backpack and one lives in my luggage. The moment I leave my backpack behind anywhere, I get a notification that reminds me to retrieve it; when I land, I do a quick check to confirm that my luggage has also arrived. If you’re in the market for a great Bluetooth tracker to use with your iPhone, the AirTags are hard to beat—and the four-pack is almost 35% off during the October Prime Day sale. That matches its lowest ever price with a $40 discount over the list price. 

Apple AirTags (4-pack)

$64.99
at Amazon

$99.00
Save $34.01

$64.99
at Amazon

$99.00
Save $34.01

If you do need four AirTags (or can split the purchase with a friend), this discount brings the cost down to nearly $16 per unit—that’s $4 less than the current deal price of $20 for a single AirTag (which is a dollar above its all-time low price).

Once you buy an AirTag, check out all their hidden features to get the most out of it. Even though it may sound tempting, you should avoid using AirTags to track your kids—it won’t give you real-time updates on a person’s location, so it’s best used in cases where you don’t need that feature.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

If you’re a Prime member — or have a friend or family member who takes the hit for everyone else’s benefit — it’s time to grab a deal. Several of our most highly recommended products are now on sale for Prime Day and while most of these deals are exclusively for Prime members, there are always a few that anyone with an Amazon account can get.

There are the usual suspects, of course: Roku TV sticks, AirTags and pretty much anything Amazon makes all have some heavy discounts. We’ve highlighted the most notable discounts, but there are also significant savings on favorites, such as the Dyson V15 Detect stick vacuum (which I love), a random Lego Star Wars advent calendar — a term that didn’t exist 10 years ago — and Apple’s AirPods 4.

Based on previous Prime Days, more deals are likely to be announced during the morning, so keep your eyes on our main hub right here.

Something that’s tempting me? A $159 DJI drone.

— Mat Smith

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Why do AI data centers use so many resources?

The AI boom introduced several kinds of wastefulness.

AI data centers are causing massive strains on local resources, driving up water shortages and power demands. Why is that? The reliance on powerful, energy-hungry GPUs (graphics processing units) generates significantly more heat than traditional CPUs. It’s less the processing and more the cooling that requires intensive water-guzzling evaporative systems. This has led to US data centers using more than double the amount of energy since 2018, with AI water consumption projected to hit 124 billion liters by 2028. There are some solutions, but the AI industry’s energy demands continue to grow. Daniel Cooper examines what can be done.

Continue reading.

Nissan Leaf 2026 review

Still the budget EV to beat.

Engadget

The third-gen Leaf is a pretty great upgrade, with the bigger miracle being how it’s stuck to the same $30,000 starting price as its predecessors. In his test drive, Devindra Hardawar loved the expansive infotainment screens as well as the solid driving performance and long range. It also has a more futuristic redesign.

Continue reading.

Don’t buy an Echo Show (you can have mine)

A billboard in your kitchen!

Engadget

Not everything from Amazon’s new hardware showcase or current sale bonanza is worth the investment. Take the Echo Show (the old one, not the two new devices teased last week). Amy Skorheim explains how her Show is now interrupting photo carousels with jarring advertising with increasing frequency. And there’s no way to turn it off.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-the-best-amazon-prime-day-deals-so-far-111603431.html?src=rss

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

Amazon Big Deal Days is coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

The iPad mini is Apple’s smallest iPad in the lineup, but not its cheapest. If you’re someone who likes compact devices, that aren’t compromised in performance and hardware, you’ll like the latest iPad mini. For Amazon’s October Prime Day sale, the iPad mini is discounted by $120. The base 128GB model can be yours for just $379, instead of the regular $499 sticker price. This is the lowest price we’ve seen yet for the iPad mini, matching the Amazon Prime Day sale back in July.

2024 Apple iPad mini A17 Pro chip, Built for Apple Intelligence, Wi-Fi 128GB – Blue

$631.68
at Amazon

$631.68
at Amazon

The latest iPad mini (2024) is a lot more powerful than the outgoing model, boasting Apple’s A17 Pro chip, the same found in the iPhone 15 Pro. It can handle multitasking and gaming with ease, and it also supports Apple Intelligence. Perhaps more surprisingly, it supports iPadOS 26’s new windowing mode where you can open multiple floating windows on the small 8.3-inch screen. The latest model also features more storage, now starting at 128GB. This means more room for your apps and games.

The iPad mini looks like any other iPad in the lineup, but it’s small, measuring in at 7.69 by 5.30 by 0.25 inches (HWD) and weighing 0.65 pounds. The iPad mini features the Touch ID sensor at the top, like the iPad air, and it also supports Apple Pencil, as well as the new Apple Pencil Pro with new features like squeeze to select, barrel roll for rotating pen tips, haptic feedback, and more. There’s a USB-C port that can be used for charging and data transfer. There’s a single 12MP camera on the back that’s good enough for casual use and for scanning documents.

PCMag gave the iPad mini a rating of four stars in this review, noting that it “remains a well-built and highly portable tablet.”

If you’re looking for a larger model, Apple has also discounted the regular 11-inch iPad down to $279, and the iPad Air to $449 ($150 off, and the lowest price we’ve seen yet).

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

Amazon Prime Day is officially here and there are deals running on everything from electronics to kitchen appliances. The latter includes a sale on Ninja’s DZ302 10-quart Air Fryer with Dual Baskets, dropping its price from $230 to $160. The 30 percent discount brings the air fryer’s price to just $10 more than its all-time low. 

The 10-quart Ninja DZ302 Air Fryer is a great investment for a lot of reasons, starting with its six settings. You can use it to air fry, air broil, bake, dehydrate, keep things warm and roast your food. Even better? It has two five-quart baskets that allow you to cook two different foods at two different settings. Also, despite it’s capabilities, at under 15 inches, it doesn’t take up too much counter top real estate (though it’s probably too large for the smallest kitchens). 

The air fryer also comes with Ninja’s Smart Finish feature, which ensures your two foods finish cooking at the same time. Plus, there’s the Match Cook option which sets both baskets to the same instructions for when you’re cooking one thing across both.

Those two features are the main difference between the Ninja DZ302 and the 10-quart Ninja DZ401 Foodi — our pick for best dual-zone air fryer. But, otherwise, the latter will give you a very similar device for $130.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-ninja-dual-zone-air-fryer-is-30-percent-off-for-prime-day-110026266.html?src=rss

The well-regarded Sonos Era 100 speaker is on sale for $179 as part of the Amazon Prime Day festivities. This is a discount of around $40, as the typical price is $219. The deal is available for both the black and white colorways.

We reviewed the Era 100 and came away impressed, saying that it provides “affordable multi-room audio that actually sounds good.” This model replaced the Sonos One speaker and it’s an improvement on that design in every major way. The sound quality is great and it gets plenty loud for get-togethers and the like.

The design is simple and attractive and there’s both Bluetooth and line-in support. It includes built-in mics for Trueplay tuning and works with just about every music streaming service. It’s a good little speaker.

While it’s easy to recommend this unit, there are a couple of little caveats. It doesn’t offer voice support for Google Assistant, though it does integrate with Alexa and the company’s proprietary voice assistant. Also, this is a single speaker so there’s no real stereo separation.

The company is also discounting the Beam 2 soundbar from $463 all the way down to $370. That’s a savings of nearly $100.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-sonos-era-100-speaker-is-down-to-179-for-prime-day-103041817.html?src=rss

It’s not as flashy as the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but Samsung Galaxy S25 still gets you a great smartphone experience, just in a more traditional package. If you want to see for yourself, during Prime Day, you can get a Samsung Galaxy S25 for $660, $200 off its normal price and close to the phone’s lowest price to date.

The Galaxy S25 is a mix of old and new. The phone largely looks like the Galaxy S24, but comes in new colors and a slightly thinner frame. It uses the same bright 6.2-inch, 120Hz AMOLED screen, but is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. You’re stuck with the same 50-megapixel wide, 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP 3x telephoto, but the phone (sort of) supports Qi2, if you’re willing to add on a case. The list goes on, but what matters, based on Engadget’s review of the smartphone, is that battery life is long and Samsung seems to be delivering on the promise of smartphone AI features.

In terms of battery life, the Galaxy S24 already started out strong at around 24 hours, but the Galaxy S25 goes a good bit past that with an additional four hours. That gives you more time for calls or watching videos — one of the tangible benefits of a power-efficient 3nm Qualcomm chip. That performance also shines when it comes with AI. Samsung offers its own collection of Galaxy AI features, like the less-than-useful Now Brief and AI photo editing, but it’s also just a good vehicle for Gemini. Google debuted the ability for Gemini to take action across on-device apps and services on the Galaxy S25, and it works well.

At $800, a Galaxy S25 that largely carries over the features and components of the S24 isn’t necessarily appealing. But for $200 off for Prime Day, and a guaranteed 256GB of base storage, purchasing Samsung’s cheapest Galaxy S25 starts to make a lot more sense.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-200-off-the-samsung-galaxy-s25-for-prime-day-100037363.html?src=rss

Microsoft is eliminating all known workarounds that let users install Windows 11 without an internet connection or Microsoft account, forcing everyone through the online setup process. The Verge reports: “We are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE),” says Amanda Langowski, the lead for the Windows Insider Program. “While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use.”

The changes mean Windows 11 users will need to complete the OOBE screens with an internet connection and Microsoft account in future versions of the OS. Microsoft already removed the “bypassnro” workaround earlier this year, and today’s changes also disable the “start ms-cxh:localonly” command that Windows 11 users discovered after Microsoft’s previous changes. Using this command now resets the OOBE process and it fails to bypass the Microsoft account requirement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.