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As a shopping writer for Lifehacker, I’ve learned many tricks over the years that have helped me become a savvy Amazon shopper. You do not need to be a Prime member for most of these, but becoming one will make your Amazon experience better. And yes, it’s worth it—we’ve done the math.

If your shipping is delayed, call Amazon to get free money

If your Amazon delivery is late, you can contact customer service and may be eligible for a refund or credit, often proportional to the product’s value—especially if the order had a guaranteed delivery date. The status of an order on Amazon changes during different stages of the shipment. If Amazon said a delivery was going to arrive at a specific date and later sent a message that it’s delayed, get a hold of someone from customer service (this is the quickest way to get someone from Amazon on the phone). Tell them your order is late and you want to be compensated because you needed the delivery on time for whatever reason you can come up with. Customer service is very likely to offer you an Amazon credit. I’ve personally received a $20 credit when a laptop was arriving late.

Use price tracking tools to get the best prices on Amazon

Knowing an item’s price history tells you if you’re better off waiting a bit; it also ensures you’re getting the best price. There are many tracking tools, but if I were to recommend one for Amazon, it’s Keepa. Keepa automatically displays the price history under the image of the product. It also lets you track specific products and sends you notifications when they go below a specific price that you set. You can download the extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge, and Safari.

Get the most accurate product reviews from Amazon

Amazon sometimes combines reviews from multiple versions of a particular product. For example, take the review section of this Apple Watch Series 11 GPS. At the time of this writing, it says there are 1,049 customer reviews. But (and here’s the hack): If you click on the “All Variants” dropdown and check the specific variant you’re looking at, you’ll see there are only 194 matching customer reviews (at the time of writing) for this particular model and version. The rest of the reviews are for other sizes, colors, storage size, cellular vs GPS versions, etc.

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

Ask Rufus, Amazon’s AI, questions about products

Last year, Amazon released Rufus AI, which scraped the internet, each Amazon product page, and even product manuals to gather information on each product, no matter how specific the question. It’s much faster and sometime more accurate than looking for the answer by reading the manual or the product page. You can find this search bar right on top of the review section or anywhere you see the “Ask Rufus” banner.

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

Get credits from Amazon when you don’t need rushed delivery

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

While having two-day delivery is great, it’s not always necessary. Sometimes, Amazon will offer you “digital rewards” (essentially free money you can use on Amazon purchases, among other things) to have the shipping not be “Prime” or two days. While the rewards might be small—usually under $2—they quickly add up. Before you know it, you can have a $20 Amazon credit waiting for you on your next checkout payment.

You can game Amazon’s “subscribe & save” system

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

Amazon offers a “subscribe & save” program, which incentivizes you to buy the same product periodically by giving you discounts going up to 15%. It’s a neat tool if you, say, buy your protein powder through Amazon and you know you’ll need it at least every six months. It’s less obvious, though, that you can get that $80 protein powder with the 15% subscribe discount and then cancel the subscription right away, saving you 15% pain-free.

Take advantage of Amazon’s free payment plans

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

Your money makes more interest sitting in a savings account (ideally a high-yield one) than giving it away to Amazon. So when they offer you a free payment plan with 0% APR and no strings attached, it’s a no-brainer. Not all products will have this option, but most big ticket items being shipped directly from Amazon do. Be careful with this, however: It’s all too easy to spend more than you should. Which is why our shopping motto is “Don’t buy anything you weren’t going to buy anyway.“

If you’re a young adult or a student, you can get Prime benefits for less

If you’re between the ages of 18 and 24 or are currently a student, you get all of the Prime benefits at half the price. This is huge for anyone who is at least one of those two categories.

Use Amazon Family instead of having two separate accounts

I still know many people who share their Amazon accounts, like family, spouses, or roommates. This makes it very hard to keep Secret Santa exciting. People who live in the same household can have a single Prime membership payment, though, while keeping their own accounts private by using Amazon Family. This means your cart won’t be full of other people’s orders, notifications will only be for your orders, your order history will be showing only your products, etc.

Get free e-books on your Kindle every month

It’s not easy to fill a Kindle, but I’m well on my way, thanks to the many free e-books I’ve gotten through Amazon. If you’re a Prime Member, you get two to three free e-books every month through a program called Amazon’s First Reads, a curated list of new books handpicked by editors.

OpenAI’s recently announced plans to shutter its Sora video-generating app have also scuttled the company’s planned $1 billion licensing partnership with Disney, according to multiple press reports.

“As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” Disney said in a statement provided to media outlets. “We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.”

Disney and OpenAI announced the blockbuster three-year licensing deal in December, saying that over 200 Disney-owned characters would be available for use in Sora-generated videos. At the same time, Disney said it would be making a $1 billion equity investment in the AI company.

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Some laptops are performance powerhouses, but work better as a desktop and can be bulky to travel or commute with. If you’re looking for an ultraportable laptop that still offers robust performance but isn’t a headache (or a shoulder ache) to lug around, the MacBook Air remains one of the best lightweight laptops available, with a sleek and modern design to boot. Right now, as part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (2025, M4) is 21% off at $1,099 (originally $1,399), marking its lowest price ever. 

Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2025, M4)

$1,099.00
at Amazon

$1,399.00
Save $300.00

$1,099.00
at Amazon

$1,399.00
Save $300.00

The 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch model earned an Editor’s Choice Award from PCMag, which lauded it for its faster M4 processing chip, boosted RAM (even in the base model), quieter, fanless build, and Improved Center Stage camera, as well as Apple Intelligence features. The 15-inch model’s starting price is also lower than the previous-generation 15-inch Air, and it comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage and weighs just 2.7 lbs. Apple claims the battery lasts up to 18 hours, and in real-world testing, it actually exceeded that expectation by nearly two hours. 

That said, some ultraportable Windows laptops outpace it, and the battery life, while impressive, is still about 90 minutes short compared to the 2024 model. Still, it surpasses the MacBook Pro in many areas, according to our reviewer. Much of this is due to the upgraded M4 chip, making it a potent combination of power and affordability. In our tester’s findings on CPU performance, the Pro only performed 5% better, making the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (2025, M4) a versatile option for a range of users, now priced better than ever at $300 off.

If you’re looking for the 13-inch model instead, that’s also on sale right now for $250 off during the Amazon Big Spring Sale.

Earlier this month Honda decided to cancel a trio of electric vehicles it was planning to build in the US. And those cancellations are having a ripple effect. Today Sony Honda Mobility—the automaker’s joint venture with the electronics and entertainment company—announced that it won’t bring its EVs to market either.

Although Honda was an early adopter of hybrid technology, it has been left badly lagging when it comes to developing battery-electric cars. The diminutive Honda e might look like the most adorable city car you’ve ever seen, but it struggled to find more than 12,000 buyers in four years across Europe and Japan.

Here in North America, the Prologue has done much better: Honda sold 33,000 in 2024, and another 39,000 last year. But the rebadged GM, which shares a platform with the Chevrolet Blazer, has seen sales implode since the end of the federal clean vehicle tax credit last fall, and it, too, leaves production at the end of the year. An earlier plan to use GM’s battery platform for lower-cost EVs, meant to arrive in 2027, died in late 2023.

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Ring has today announced a spec bump to its battery-powered video doorbells for all those folks who can’t wire their units to power. The flagship Battery Doorbell Pro (2nd gen) gets 4K video, with 10x zoom and the promise of far longer time between recharges than the previous model. At the same time, it’s bringing 2K imaging to its lower-end battery doorbells, the Battery Doorbell Plus and Battery Doorbell (2nd gen). The former, as fitting its higher price, gets a quick-release battery pack, while both models get 2K video and 6x zoom. Naturally, these features are already available on Ring’s wired products, the bulk of which were announced back in September 2025.

The company is also aware that swapping out batteries isn’t ideal if you really need a doorbell to work all of the time. That’s why it’s also launching a new Solar Charger which integrates into the mount, keeping your doorbell running for longer between trips to the wall outlet. There’s also a bigger Solar Panel, which pumps out more juice than its smaller sibling, and can be mounted in a wider variety of places. All of the above are available to pre-order from today, and are priced as follows: Pro ($250), Plus ($180), Battery Doorbell ($100), Solar Charger ($50), Solar Panel ($60).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/ring-adds-4k-to-its-battery-powered-video-doorbells-130021181.html?src=rss

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The 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (2025, M4, 512GB) is down to $949 for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, a $250 drop from its usual $1,199 and its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. This is Apple’s most accessible laptop, and an easy-to-recommend choice as a long-term machine for everyday use. Reviews back that up, with PCMag giving it an “outstanding” rating and naming it the best ultraportable laptop of 2025. Over at Lifehacker, senior tech editor Jake Peterson has also pointed out in his coverage that this Air is a better value for most buyers than stepping up to a MacBook Pro, especially at a discount like this.

Apple MacBook Air (2025)

$949.00
at Amazon

$1,199.00
Save $250.00

$949.00
at Amazon

$1,199.00
Save $250.00

The M4 chip keeps things feeling quick in everyday use. You can move between a bunch of tabs, documents, and light edits without things getting stuck or slowing down. Apple has also made 16GB of RAM the standard this time, which helps the laptop hold up better over time. It’s the kind of change you notice after a few months, when everything still runs the way it did on day one, even if you’re someone who leaves apps open in the background. The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is also easy to like. Text looks crisp, colors feel natural, and it’s bright enough to use comfortably in most lighting. Using it day to day feels straightforward—the keyboard is comfortable enough that you don’t think about it much, and Touch ID makes small things like unlocking or approving downloads faster.

You also get Wi-Fi 6E and MagSafe charging, so you can free up the two Thunderbolt 4 ports for accessories. Those ports can also drive up to two external 6K displays, which is more flexibility than older Air models offered. That said, the port selection is limited to two USB-C connections, so using multiple peripherals often means adding a hub. Storage is fixed at 512GB unless you pay more upfront, and upgrades get expensive quickly within Apple’s ecosystem. This also is not built for heavy, sustained workloads like advanced video editing or 3D rendering, where a MacBook Pro is still the better fit. But for everyday use, this covers a wide range of tasks without feeling restrictive, and the combination of performance, display quality, and battery efficiency makes it the best MacBook for most people.

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The DJI Osmo 360 Essential Combo is down to $389.35 for Amazon’s Spring Sale (March 25 through March 31), a sizable drop from its usual $599. This bundle gives you more than just the camera. You get the Osmo 360 itself, an invisible selfie stick, a protective pouch, a rubber lens guard, a charging cable, and an extra battery pack. DJI is also discounting other versions like the Skiing, Cycling, and Vortex combos, but the Essential kit covers most general use cases without locking you into one activity.

DJI Osmo 360 Essential Combo

360 camera with native 8K 360° video and extra batteries

$389.35
at Amazon

$599.00
Save $209.65

$389.35
at Amazon

$599.00
Save $209.65

At this price, it sits closer to midrange action cameras while offering something those cameras don’t: full 360-degree capture. The Osmo 360’s main draw is its ability to record native 8K 360 footage at 30fps. That gives you enough resolution to crop and reframe clips later without losing too much detail. In practice, it means you can shoot first and decide your angles after. Battery life is decent for a compact camera, with DJI estimating it at around 100 minutes when shooting 8K, and up to 190 minutes if you drop to 6K at 24fps. The included extra battery in the Essential Combo helps stretch that further.

The invisible selfie stick does exactly what it promises by removing itself from footage automatically, so you get that floating third-person perspective without editing. There’s also a SuperNight mode for low-light scenes, slow-motion recording up to 100 fps, and a selfie mode for wide-angle clips. You also get 105GB of built-in storage (though you can expand it when needed), which is a practical addition, especially if you forget a microSD card. The OLED touchscreen is bright enough for outdoor use, and at around 0.4 pounds, the camera stays easy to carry for long shoots.

That said, 8K 360º footage sounds great, but it demands more storage and editing time, and while DJI’s app is fairly approachable, working with 360-degree video adds extra steps compared to standard video. Also, low-light performance improves with SuperNight mode, but it does not fully match traditional action cameras with larger sensors. Still, at $389.35, the overall package feels more accessible, and it’s a good entry point into 360º video if you’re willing to spend a bit more time editing.

Hearing aid company Sonova has put its Sennheiser consumer audio division on the auction block less than five years after acquiring it, the company announced on Reddit. “Today Sonova announced they intend to divest the business and will focus on Hearing Care,” Sonova wrote, adding it intends to find “the right new owner.”

Sennheiser’s consumer audio division mainly manufactures high-end headphones like the HD 400, HD 500, HD 600 and HD 800 series and recently launched the HDB 630, $500 wireless headphones aimed at audiophiles. The company’s most (in)famous lineup is the HE series, which includes the $55,000 HE 90 and €89,990 HE 1.

Sonova originally purchased Sennheiser with the intent of expanding its demographic to younger customers. At the time, it said “even if [young people] don’t have hearing loss, most of them will gradually get hearing loss with age, and devices like Sennheiser’s allow us to have earlier consumer access to such people.” For its part, Sennheiser said it wanted to relinquish its consumer business in order to focus on its pro audio, business and Neumann (high-end microphone) divisions that it still owns.

Things apparently didn’t go to plan, though. Sonova’s Sennheiser division’s sales in the last half-year declined significantly year-over-year and the company was hit with a €6 million fine over its retail pricing practices (that occurred prior to the acquisition). However, the company’s recent products have been praised by the audiophile community as a return to previous form, with Engadget’s audio reviewer Billy Steele calling the HDB 630 “a sonic marvel.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/sennheisers-owners-want-to-sell-its-consumer-headphone-business-121830441.html?src=rss