Tag: news

Apple Prime Day deals on AirPods, Apple Watches, iPads, MacBooks and more that are still available today

Posted on by faz_business


We’re into day two of Amazon’s October Prime Day sale, and you can still grab a handful of steeper-than-usual discounts on AirPods, MacBooks, iPads and other Apple devices. If you’ve been waiting on a discount before making an upgrade, allow us to help: We’ve sidestepped the fake discounts and picked out the best Prime Day Apple deals we can find below.

It’s worth remembering that Black Friday is around the corner, so we’ll almost certainly see more price drops in the weeks ahead. Apple may also launch updated MacBooks Pros and a new iPad mini by the end of the month. For now, though, several of the company’s gadgets are at or near the lowest prices we’ve tracked. We’ll be updating this roundup until the sale ends at 3AM ET; just remember that you’ll need to be a Prime subscriber to view some of the offers.

AirPods Pro (2022) reviewAirPods Pro (2022) review

The AirPods Pro 2. (Billy Steele/Engadget)

MacBook Air 15-inch (2024)MacBook Air 15-inch (2024)

The 15-inch Apple MacBook Air with an M3 chip. (Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget)

  • Apple iPad (9th gen) for $199 ($130 off): This model has technically been discontinued, and we’ve seen this discount for much of the last couple of months, but it bears repeating that $199 is a great price for an iPad that’s still perfectly competent for casual media consumption. You’ll have to put up with thicker bezels, the antiquated Home button and a meager 64GB of storage, but you get (almost) the same clean software and expansive app library as any other Apple tablet.

  • Apple iPad mini (6th gen) for $350 ($149 off): To be clear, this is a bad time to buy the iPad mini, as Apple is expected to launch a long-overdue refresh before the end of the year. But if you don’t care about owning the latest and just want a small iPad for (relatively) cheap, this is about $30 less than the 8.3-inch slate’s typical street price over the last few months.

  • Apple Pencil Pro for $96 ($33 off): This is the biggest drop to date for Apple’s top-end stylus; just make sure you own (or plan on buying) one the latest iPad Airs or iPad Pros before taking the plunge.

  • Apple MagSafe Charger (25W) for $32 ($7 off): While not a huge discount, this is the lowest price we’ve seen for the company’s newest MagSafe charger, which now supports wireless charging speeds up to 25W with the iPhone 16 (and an appropriate power brick).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.



Texas is suing TikTok for allegedly violating its new child privacy law

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against TikTok claiming the company violated a new child privacy law in the state. It’s set to be the first test of Texas’ Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act since it went into effect just over a month ago.

Under the law, parts of which were struck down by a federal judge, social media platforms are required to verify the ages of younger users and offer parental control features, including the ability for parents to opt their children out of data collection.

Paxton alleges that TikTok’s existing parental control features are insufficient. “However, Defendants do not provide the parents or guardians of users known to be 13 to 17 years old with parental tools that allow them to control or limit most of a known minor’s privacy and account settings,” the lawsuit states. “For example, parents or guardians do not have the ability to control Defendants’ sharing, disclosing, and selling of a known minor’s personal identifying information, nor control Defendants’ ability to display targeted advertising to a known minor.”

The lawsuit also argues that the app’s “Family Pairing” tool isn’t “commercially reasonable” because it requires parents to make their own TikTok account and because teens are free to deny their parents’ requests to set up the monitoring tool. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The app already prohibits most targeted advertising to anyone younger than 18.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and, in fact, we offer robust safeguards for teens and parents, including family pairing, all of which are publicly available,” the company said in a statement shared on X. “We stand by the protections we provide families.”

The lawsuit adds to TikTok’s growing legal challenges in the United States. The company is currently fighting a law that could result in a total ban of the app in the United States. It’s also facing a separate Justice Department lawsuit related to child privacy.

Update, October 3, 2024, 8:05 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from TikTok.



Raspberry Pi built an AI camera with Sony

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AI enthusiasts who like the Raspberry Pi range of products can rejoice, as the company is now announcing its new Raspberry Pi . This product is the result of the company’s collaboration with (SSS), which began in 2023. The AI Camera is compatible with all of Raspberry Pi’s single-board computers.

The approximately 12.3-megapixel AI Camera is intended for vision-based AI projects, and it’s based on SSS’ IMX500 image sensor. The integrated RP2040 microcontroller manages the neural network firmware, allowing the camera to perform onboard AI image processing and freeing up the Raspberry Pi for other processes. Thus, users who want to integrate AI into their Raspberry Pi projects are no longer limited to the Raspberry Pi AI Kit.

The AI Camera isn’t a total replacement for Raspberry Pi’s , which is still available. For those interested in the new AI Camera, it’s available right now from Raspberry Pi’s approved resellers for $70.

OpenAI reportedly plans to increase ChatGPT’s price to $44 within five years

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OpenAI is reportedly telling investors that it plans on charging $22 a month to use ChatGPT by the end of the year. The company also plans to aggressively increase the monthly price over the next five years up to $44.

The documents obtained by shows that OpenAI took in $300 million in revenue this August, and expects to make $3.7 billion in sales by the end of the year. Various expenses such as salaries, rent and operational costs will cause the company to lose $5 billion this year.

OpenAI is reportedly circulating the documents the NYT reported on as part of a drive to find new investors to prevent or lessen its financial shortfall. Fortunately, OpenAI is raising money on a $150 billion valuation, and a new round of investments could bring in as much as $7 billion.

OpenAI is also reportedly in the midst of switching from . The business model allows for the removal of any caps on investor returns so they’ll have more room to negotiate for new investors at possibly higher rates.

Blocked users will be able to see your posts

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The days of the “@[insert username] blocked you” page appear to be over. X owner Elon Musk announced a new change to allowing blocked users to see posts of the accounts that blocked them.

Blocked accounts still won’t be able to interact with those accounts but they’ll be able to see their posts. A source from X told the new blocked access feature is being implemented because users can already see and interact with accounts that have blocked them by switching to a non-blocked account.

Musk has wanted to disable the block feature on X for awhile now. More than a year ago, he first expressed (or technically, Twitter) except for direct messages. He wrote that blocking would become “deleted as a ‘feature’” as well as saying “It makes no sense.”

Last May, announced it would implement the blocked viewer change to the platform without including a solid implementation or rollout date. The post said the change would be implemented to give users with blocked accounts the ability to “identify and report any potential bad content that you previously could not view.”

Trump jumps into cryptocurrency, appears to know nothing about it

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Donald Trump, who previously called Bitcoin a scam, has launched a new cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial. “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” he said in an interview on X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” The news comes just a day after a likely assassination attempt against Trump at his Florida golf course.

Trump is entering the venture with his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, along with two crypto entrepreneurs: Chase Herro (who once called stablecoins “borderline a Ponzi scheme”) and Zachary Folkman, who founded a company called Date Hotter Girls. Trump’s 18-year-old son Barron Trump, who has no known crypto expertise, is also listed as “chief DeFi [decentralized finance] visionary.”

The tokens themself are supposedly based on US dollar stablecoins. Some involved in the venture have touted it internally as a borrowing and lending platform, according to The New York Times.

Cryptocurrency is generally supposed to be decentralized, but a large chunk of the governance tokens for World Liberty Financial could be held by insiders, according to a draft white paper for the project seen by CoinDesk. The remaining 30 percent would be distributed “via public sale” with some of the money raised from that also going to project insiders.

When asked questions about the venture in an X Spaces interview (above), Trump appeared to know next to nothing about it. “It’s so important. It’s crypto. It’s AI. It’s so many other things. AI needs tremendous electricity capabilities beyond anything I ever heard,” he said. He deferred to Barron’s expertise, saying he has “four wallets” and equated it to learning a language like Chinese.

Some comments in the Spaces interview weren’t kind. “Let’s be honest Trump doesn’t even know what crypto is or why he’s being asked to shill it,” said one. Others noted that launching such a venture just ahead of an election was inappropriate.

“I think it genuinely damages trump’s electoral prospects, especially if it gets hacked (it’ll be the juiciest DeFi target ever and it’s forked from a protocol that itself was hacked),” said crypto industry notable and self-proclaimed Trump supporter Nic Carter in a post on X.

The best early deals we found ahead of the Big Deal Days sale

Posted on by faz_business


Since 2022, Amazon has held a second Prime Day of sorts in October and that sale event is coming back this year, too. Prime Big Deal Days returns on October 8 and 9, but we’re already starting to see some decent deals pop up across Amazon’s site. As per usual, most of the deals we expected to see on October Prime Day will be exclusively for Prime members — and some of the early Prime Day deals we’re seeing now have followed suit.

If you don’t have a Prime membership, don’t fret too much — there are always a few discounts available for all shoppers. However, if you pay the $139 annual fee for Prime, now’s the time to put it to even better use. These are the best October Prime day tech deals we’ve found ahead of Prime Big Deal Days. We’ll be updating this post regularly in the lead-up to October Prime Day, so check back for the latest deals.

Photos of Apple’s 13-inch iPad Air, released in 2024Photos of Apple’s 13-inch iPad Air, released in 2024

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

While it’d be wishful thinking to see discounts on the new AirPods or Apple Watch Series 10, there are still some decent Apple deals you can snag right now on iPads and accessories, plus some Beats gear.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K MaxAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

We expect to see more Amazon gear go on sale as we get closer to October Prime Day, but for now, these discounts present a good opportunity to save on a few of our favorites.

Anker Prime Power Bank 200WAnker Prime Power Bank 200W

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

It’s always a good idea to wait until shopping events like October Prime Day to stock up on charging gear from Anker, or any other company. It’s a safe bet that many more Anker devices will go on sale during the days of fall Prime Day, but those in need of an extra power bank or charger immediately can snag a few for less right now.

Logitech Brio 500Logitech Brio 500

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Early Prime Day deals on tech include discounts on robot vacuums, webcams, smart plugs and more. There are also gaming accessories that you can grab for cheap, along with storage gear in all shapes and sizes.

Paramount+Paramount+

Paramount+

While these discounts aren’t technically October Prime day tech deals, we’d be remiss not to mention them. While sales on streaming services are becoming more common, there isn’t as much rhyme or reason to them as there is to, say, Amazon’s Prime Day sale cycle. That said, if you see a discount on a service you’ve been meaning to try, it’s worthwhile to jump on it.

October Prime Day will be held on October 8 and 9 this year.

October Prime Day is a members-only sale event run by Amazon in which the online retailer has thousands of sales on its site that are exclusively available to those with an active Prime members.

October Prime Day will last two full days.

Most October Prime Day deals will not be revealed until the days of the event. However, in years past, we’ve seen everything from clothing to household essentials to outdoor gear go on sale during this event. Engadget cares most about tech deals, and in past fall Prime Days, we’ve seen things like phones, tablets, headphones, earbuds, robot vacuums, smart home gear and more receive deep discounts.

Yes, because most deals will be Prime exclusives. However, there are always a few decent deals available to all Amazon shoppers, so it’s worth checking out Amazon’s site during October Prime Day to see where you can save even if you don’t pay for Prime.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.



Utah judge blocks law preventing youth from accessing social media freely

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On Tuesday, Chief US District Judge Robert Shelby granted a preliminary injunction to from limiting the social media usage of minors. Republican Governor Spencer Cox had signed the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act earlier in March. It was supposed to take effect on October 1, but the court’s decision to block the law is a victory for young social media users in Utah.

This isn’t the first time Utah’s governor has attempted to use among the youths in the state. Last year, he signed two bills that required parents to grant permission for teens to create social media accounts, and these accounts had limitations like curfews and age verification. He in March due to lawsuits challenging their legality.

Under the law, social media companies would have been forced to verify the age of all users. If a minor registers for an account, they are subject to various limitations. The content they share would be seen only by connected accounts. Additionally, minor accounts could not be searched for or messaged by non-followers or friends, effectively nonexistent to strangers.

The primary reason for the is due to NetChoice’s claim that the law constitutes a violation of the First Amendment. NetChoice is a trade association formed by tech giants such as X (formerly Twitter), Snap, Meta and Google. The association has managed to win in court battles and block similar laws entirely or in part in states like , and .

Sony looks set to announce the PS5 Pro today in a strangely short livestream

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We likely won’t have to wait much longer to get all the official details on the PlayStation 5 Pro. Sony has announced a PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation that it will stream at 11AM ET on September 10 on the PlayStation YouTube channel.

All indications point toward this being the official unveiling of the PS5 Pro. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5, will host the stream, which will focus on the “PS5 and innovations in gaming technology.” This comes just a few days after Sony teased a redesigned PS5 in an image that lines up with various PS5 Pro leaks. It was also expected that the company would unveil the PS5 Pro in mid-September ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Add all that up, plus a tagline that reads “The Journey Continues” in a teaser video, and it’s pretty clear what’s in store. For what it’s worth, Cerny detailed the PS5’s specs from behind a lectern in a 2020 livestream (Sony had to pivot from a planned Game Developers Conference talk after COVID-19 took hold).

The PS5 Pro rumor mill suggests that the mid-cycle refresh will deliver improved and consistent frame rates at 4K resolution as well as an 8K performance mode in supported games. Game rendering is said to be 45 percent faster than on the standard PS5, while the Pro’s ray-tracing capabilities are reportedly two to three times faster.

Update, September 10 2024, 9:05AM ET: This story has been updated with a link to the PlayStation livestream.

An Apple Store in Oklahoma City is close to approving an union agreement for its workers

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Talks between Apple and the union for the Apple Store in Oklahoma City have produced a tentative agreement that includes new benefits and protections for its staff. The Penn Square Mall Apple Store in Oklahoma City announced they’ve reached a “tentative labor agreement” with Apple and the Communication Workers of America (CWA), according to a released statement.

Terms are still being negotiated between both parties but the benefits for the store’s employees would be significant. The three-year agreement reached between the CWA and Apple would give employees a wage increase of up to 11.5 percent. An Apple spokesperson said by email that if the contract is ratified, employees would receive a 4 percent raise in the first year of employment and 3 percent in the second and third year each “based on employee performance.”

The agreement would also offer employees guaranteed paid time off and health and other benefits, allow employees to have a say in scheduling and the establishment of a “safer and more democratic workplace” through a grievance submission process with committees overseeing safety, health and working relations. An Apple spokesperson also noted the scheduling options “were provided to all other US stores in 2022.”

The Oklahoma City Apple Store had been working to form a union becoming the second Apple Store in the US to unionize. Employees passed a strike authorization vote in August that passed with unanimous support and started a picket in front of the store ahead of bargaining sessions in early September. Workers will vote to ratify the tentative agreement on September 22.

CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase called the agreement achievement “a historic day for our members who have now secured a contract at the world’s most profitable company.”

The Apple Store in the Towson Town Center in became the first location to unionize. Members approved the union in 2022 with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). A store in the Cumberland Mall in tried to form a union in 2022 with the CWA but workers called it off accusing Apple of committing “repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act.”