Category: Technology

Can you smell it? Black Friday is rapidly approaching, and some companies have already begun the onslaught of sales. Solo Stove, for instance, has just cut the ribbon on its annual Black Friday sale, offering discounts on numerous fire pits and related items and accessories. The biggest discount here is for the Ranger Backyard Bundle 2.0, which now costs $320 instead of $465. That’s a savings of $145. The Yukon 2.0 bundle goes even further, with a discount of $245. 

These bundles include a next-gen fire pit, a marked improvement over the original, along with plenty of accessories, like the new base plate and ash pan. You also get a stand, a lid, a weather-resistant enclosure and even a carrying case for those BBQ-driven beach trips.

We praised the removable base plate and ash pan with the 2.0 series, as these tools eliminated the messy cleanup process involved with previous releases. We also enjoyed the proprietary 360-degree airflow technology, allowing for an efficient burn for long periods of time. As a matter of the fact, the only significant downside here is the normal price, and this sale helps to alleviate those concerns.

The fire pit bundles are not the only discount available via Solo Stove’s Black Friday sale, though they are the most significant. You can grab the well-regarded Pi Prime pizza oven for $300, a savings of $50. If you are filled to the brim with fire pit accessories, you can also buy the Ranger 2.0 by itself for $200 instead of $230.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/solo-stoves-black-friday-deals-include-up-to-245-off-fire-pit-bundles-184011930.html?src=rss 

Not too long ago, Marvel Studios seemed indestructible. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe has faced some significant setbacks over the last few years. As laid out in a Variety report this week, Marvel has been contending with a number of issues such as box office disappointments, while Jonathan Majors (who portrays the MCU’s latest centerpiece villain) is awaiting trial for assault and harassment charges. Marvel also seemed to be stretching itself thin between its many movies and TV shows amid reports that visual effects staffers were overworked.

Perhaps with all of that in mind, Marvel is trying something a bit different with its next streaming series in a bid to get fans back on board. Echo will be the first Marvel show to arrive on Disney+ and Hulu simultaneously. On top of that, for the first time since its former Netflix shows, Marvel will return to TV-MA-rated fare and drop all five episodes of the series simultaneously on January 10. However, Echo will only be available on Hulu until April 9.

Echo will be the first superhero series to have both a deaf and a Native American character in the central role, as Variety notes. Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox) first appeared in Disney+ series Hawkeye in 2021, though she’s more of an anti-hero.

The show’s first trailer shows Echo squaring off against a returning Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Based on this evidence, the series looks to have a darker, more adult-oriented tone that’s more aligned with the likes of Daredevil (that show’s titular character appears briefly in this trailer) and Jessica Jones than Ms. Marvel or Loki.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/echo-will-be-the-first-marvel-show-to-hit-disney-and-hulu-simultaneously-172206411.html?src=rss 

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, first launched in 2021 to explore the Trojan asteroids trapped near Jupiter, has made an interesting discovery. The spacecraft found an asteroid, nicknamed Dinky, that actually has a smaller asteroid orbiting it, as originally reported by Scientific American. That’s right. It’s basically a moon with its own moon. It’s an ouroboros of cosmic curiosity.

The technical term here is a binary asteroid pair and Dinky, whose real name is Dinkinesh, was spotted by Lucy during a quick fly by. That’s when the spacecraft spotted the smaller “moon” orbiting it.

“A binary was certainly a possibility,” Jessica Sunshine, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland, told Scientific American. “But it was not expected, and it’s really cool.”

As a matter of fact, the fly by itself wasn’t supposed to find anything of note. It was simply a trial run for the team to hone its skills before investigating the aforementioned Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun ahead of and behind Jupiter. The team wanted to make sure Lucy’s probe would successfully latch onto a space rock, even when both objects were moving extremely fast. Guess what? It worked. Hal Levinson, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and principal investigator of the Lucy mission, said that the test was “amazingly successful.”

As for Dinky and its, uh, even dinkier satellite, NASA scientists still have a long way to go with its investigation, as only about one third of the relevant data has been beamed down to Earth. NASA has released a series of images showing Dinky and its pseudo-moon, but not any actual data as of yet.

Even just from these images, however, you can tell a lot about these two celestial bodies. There’s a visible equatorial ridge on the main body of Dinky aka Dinkinesh and a secondary ridge-line branching off from it. The parent asteroid is covered in craters, likely the result of numerous hits by other asteroids. Levinson says that there are more images to come of the secondary satellite and that these pictures suggest that the junior asteroid has some “interesting” stuff going on. He goes on to say that the shape is “really bizarre.”

Binary asteroid pairs are not rare, as researchers have found that around 15 percent of near-Earth asteroids boast a cute lil orbital companion. NASA and affiliated researchers are still waiting for more data on the pair, including color images and spectroscopy that should shed some more light on the two asteroids. Levinson says “there’s a lot of cool stuff to come.”

In the meantime, Lucy will continue on its original mission, to investigate those mysterious Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. It’ll make contact with one in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-discovered-that-an-asteroid-named-dinky-actually-has-its-own-moon-173028204.html?src=rss 

YouTube’s crackdown on ad blockers is hurting the companies who make them. Multiple ad blocking companies say that thousands of people are uninstalling their products after YouTube started showing warnings to people trying to watch videos on its website with ad blockers enabled.

One of the companies, AdGuard, told Wired that more than 11,000 people have uninstalled its Chrome extension each day since October 9, compared to 6,000 uninstallations per day before YouTube implemented the change. On October 18, 52,000 people uninstalled AdGuard, the company’s CTO Andrey Meshkov told Wired. However, installations of AdGuard’s paid version, which YouTube’s crackdown doesn’t affect, went up.

Another ad blocking company, Ghostery, said that its usage was flat in October as it experienced three to five times the daily number of installs as well as uninstalls. Notably, the company said that more than 90 percent of its users who completed a survey about why they uninstalled the product said they did so because the tool no longer worked with YouTube.

Since YouTube’s crackdown only seems to affect people who access its website through Chrome on laptops and desktops, some users also tried to use other browsers as a workaround. Ghostery told Wired that its installations of Microsoft’s Edge browser went up by 30 percent in October compared to September.

YouTube ads are increasingly contributing more to Google’s overall revenue. The company sold more than $22 billion in ads on the platform from the beginning of this year through September. But the streaming platform is also trying to push more people to pay for YouTube Premium, which gets rid of ads, lets people download videos, stream videos in higher quality and access YouTube Music. Earlier this year, the company bumped up YouTube Premium’s pricing by $2 to $14 a month.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thousands-of-people-are-uninstalling-ad-blockers-after-youtubes-big-crackdown-174009041.html?src=rss 

We’ve been hearing rumblings about Elon Musk’s new AI venture, xAI, for months, and now it looks like it’s almost here. The Tesla CEO and noted social media guru just took to Twitter/X to proclaim that his AI venture will launch its first model tomorrow, November 4.

This is a beta phase, of a sort, as it’s being released only to a “select group”, though Musk didn’t specify as to what went into the selection process. Will it be a random drop or will the AI model be reserved for “VIPs” like, uh, Tucker Carlson, Chaya Raichik or the indefatigable Catturd? It’s anyone’s guess.

Musk is making lofty promises about his AI, announcing that “in some important respects, it is the best that currently exists.” It’ll be competing with big-time offerings by OpenAI, Google, Meta and numerous others, so we’ll see what “important respects” make it the best that currently exists.

The lofty promises started right from the get-go with xAI, as its intended purpose is quite literally “to understand the true nature of the universe.” That’s a far cry from asking a chatbot what hotel to stay at or what you can cook with two cucumbers and a bag of spinach. Musk has had an endless string of issues lately, including flagging Tesla sales and, you know, that whole Twitter thing, so we’ll see if he can successfully unravel the true nature of reality.

There’s a timing element at play here. OpenAI’s holding its first-ever DevDay on November 6, so Musk could be looking to take the winds out of the company’s sails. The two companies are not only rivals, but Musk was actually an initial board member at OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 before a falling out that led to a swift divestment.

In any event, we have mere hours before we understand the true nature of the universe. I’ll make the popcorn, if popcorn even exists after tomorrow. Exciting times!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musks-new-ai-company-xai-soft-launches-this-weekend-160505811.html?src=rss 

Vampire Survivors is one of the biggest surprise hits of the last few years and while its developer could have easily kicked back and taken things easy, Poncle has been beavering away on a bunch of updates. The next one is a fresh game mode that’ll give players even more to do.

The new Adventures are “self-contained miniature story modes” that will take the Vampire Survivors characters on some “wacky sidequests,” according to Poncle. Each mission has its own progression path that’s separate from the main game. You’ll have a limited set of characters, weapons and power ups at your disposal as you take on custom challenges such as staying alive for a specific length of time or killing a certain number of enemies. Adventures will also have some “lore text” to tie the story together.

The first few missions will soon arrive on all platforms where the game is available (PC, Xbox, Switch and mobile). They should each take an hour or two to finish the first time around, though you’ll be able to tweak some modifiers for subsequent runs. In addition, all of the missions are playable in co-op.

You won’t need to fork over more cash for these Adventures, though some will be added to existing paid expansions. At the outset, Poncle will bring two missions to the base game and a third to the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC. Adventures will only unlock once you’ve reached certain parts of the base game and the expansions.

It seems like Poncle is experimenting a bit with these missions. One that it’s adding to the base game will “explore how we’re reworking classic content, with a slightly serious storyline and a chance to earn unlocks earlier than normal.” Not to worry if you prefer Vampire Survivors’ usual absurdity, though. The other two missions will have the game’s usual offbeat tone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/vampire-survivors-will-soon-feature-miniature-story-modes-161749229.html?src=rss 

With each passing year, the phrase “Black Friday” becomes more of a misnomer. What was once a day of post-Thanksgiving special offers has become a month of sales promotions from retailers across the web. It’s happening again in 2023: Target and Best Buy are already advertising their early Black Friday deals; Amazon is price matching many of those discounts and has its own “Holiday Deals” landing page; and Walmart says it’ll kick off its first wave of Black Friday deals on November 8. Many other shops and manufacturers have (or will soon have) early deals as well.

This barrage of sales promos can be aggravating, but it also presents a good opportunity to get your holiday shopping done at something closer to your own pace. To help, we’ve rounded up the best early Black Friday deals we can find below. There’s always a chance we get bigger discounts on November 24, but we’re already seeing all-time lows on Apple’s AirPods Pro, Google’s Pixel 7a, Amazon’s Echo Show 5, LG’s A2 OLED TV and other gadgets we like. We’ll be updating our list regularly in the lead-up to Black Friday, so check back if there’s anything else you’ve had your eye on. 

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd gen)

The latest version of Apple’s AirPods Pro is back on sale for $190 at Amazon and Target. That’s only a dollar more than the lowest price we’ve tracked and $59 less than buying from Apple directly. 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.

Beats headphone sale

A handful of wireless headphones from Apple subsidiary Beats are also discounted this week. The Beats Fit Pro, for one, is back down to $160. That’s $15 more than its all-time low but about $20 less than its average street price. The Fit Pro is the top pick for workouts in our wireless earbuds guide, as it offers a fun sound and many of the Apple-friendly perks of the AirPods Pro in a more stable and sporty design. Its ANC isn’t as strong, however, and it lacks support for wireless charging and multi-device pairing. We gave the Fit Pro a review score of 87 in 2021. 

Elsewhere, the more basic Beats Studio Buds + are back at a low of $130, while the over-ear Beats Studio Pro is on sale for $200. Neither of those are top picks in our guides, but they may be worthwhile if you’re an Apple fan and dig the Beats aesthetic. We gave the Studio Buds + a review score of 84 in May and the Studio Pro a review score of 81 in July.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Stick 4K Max have received their first discounts since they arrived in September. The former is $20 off at $30, while the latter is $15 off at $45. Between the two, the Max has a slightly faster processor clocked at 2.0GHz (instead of 1.7GHz), 16GB of internal storage (instead of 8GB) and support for the Wi-Fi 6E (instead of just Wi-Fi 6). It also includes Amazon’s “Ambient Experience” mode, which displays artwork and widgets when the streamer is idle. That said, both dongles should be quick to load content. Both support the requisite streaming apps, Dolby Atmos and all the major HDR formats as well.

The downsides are the familiar ones with Fire TV devices: The UI is saddled with ads and not shy about nudging you toward Amazon services like Prime Video and Freevee. But if you often use those apps (or Alexa) and just want a competent 4K streamer for cheap, that may not be an issue. 

On the higher end of the Fire TV lineup, the Fire TV Cube is also on sale for $110. That ties the all-time low for the streaming box/Alexa speaker hybrid. You can also pair the Fire TV Stick 4K Max with Blink’s 1080p Video Doorbell for $65 total, though that offer is only available for Prime members and is only scheduled to run through November 3.

Google Chromecast with Google TV

In other streaming deals, the Google Chromecast is on sale for $39 at Amazon. This is a deal we’ve seen several times before, and it’s about $10 higher than the 4K streamer’s all-time low, but it’s still $11 off Google’s list price. Walmart, Target and others have the device on sale for a dollar more. The Chromecast is the runner up in our guide to the best streaming devices: It was released way back in 2020 and doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6, but it streams fast enough and works with the major streaming apps. Its biggest selling point is its Google TV interface, which does well to proactively suggest shows you might like based on your viewing history and offers genuinely convenient voice search. If you’re shopping for an older TV, the 1080p version of the Chromecast is also on sale for $20.

The top pick in our media streamer guide is the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, which pairs solid performance and wide app support with a more straightforward interface centered on apps. That dongle isn’t discounted as of this writing, but we should see a sale at some point in the coming weeks.

Amazon Echo Show 5

Amazon’s Echo Show 5 is back down to $40, which ties the lowest price we’ve tracked. That’s $50 off the 5.5-inch smart display’s list price, though the device has been on sale for much of the past month. We highlight the Echo Show 5 in our smart display buying guide: The 8-inch Echo Show 8 has a better screen, richer speakers and a much sharper camera for video calls, but the Echo Show 5 offers much of the same functionality in a more compact design. If you prefer Alexa to the Google Assistant and want a smarter kind of alarm clock for your nightstand, it should work well. The Echo Show 8 isn’t discounted, though that may change by Black Friday.

Google Nest Hub

If you’re partial to the Google Assistant, Google’s Nest Hub is also on sale for $60 at Target, B&H, Best Buy, Google’s online store and others. That’s $20 higher than its all-time low but still $40 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). 

Ultimately, whether it’s worth getting a Nest Hub or Echo Show depends on what services you use: If you own a bunch of Nest devices and depend on apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Photos, Google’s display will make sense. If you want a larger model with a webcam and stronger speakers, the 10-inch Nest Hub Max is also on sale for $129. That’s a $100 discount. Google says these offers will last through November 5.

Sony WH-1000XM5

The Sony WH-1000XM5 is down to $328 at Amazon and B&H. 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 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. B&H’s product listing says that this particular deal will end on November 5.

Sony WF-1000XM5

Sony’s WF-1000XM5, meanwhile, is the top overall pick in our guide to the best wireless earbuds, and it’s now down to a new low of $248 at Amazon and B&H. 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. This deal also runs through November 5.

iRobot Roomba 694

The Roomba 694 is down to $159 at Amazon, iRobot’s online store and other retailers, which is another all-time low and roughly $60 below the robot vacuum’s average street price. This is the top pick in our guide to the best budget robovacs. It’s a relatively basic model, so it navigates around rooms semi-randomly instead of intelligently mapping set paths. That means it’ll bonk into your furniture every now and then. But it’s sturdily put together and an effective cleaner across carpet and hard floors. iRobot’s companion app makes it easy to remotely turn the vacuum on and off, set cleaning schedules and check battery status as well. Battery life is rated at up to 90 minutes, though that’ll vary depending on what surfaces you need to clean. Other Roombas we like are also on sale, including the vac-and-mop Roomba Combo j7+ for a low of $699.

Google Pixel 7a

Google’s Pixel 7a is down to $374 at Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Google’s online store. That’s a new all-time low and $125 off Google’s list price. The Pixel 7a is the top midrange pick for Android fans in our smartphone buying guide, and we gave it a score of 90 in our review this past May. While it’s a clear step behind the best flagship phones, its steady performance, detailed photo quality, robust battery life and wireless charging support help it punch above its price range. A lovely 6.1-inch 1080p OLED display, IP67-rated water resistance and the promise of OS updates into 2026 (with security updates into 2028) only further the value. The design is mostly plastic, and the display maxes at a 90Hz refresh rate instead of 120Hz, but those are hardly complaints for less than $400. Again, Google says this deal will run through November 5.

Apple iPad (9th gen)

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad is down to $249 at Amazon, Walmart and Target, which is a deal we’ve seen for much of the past month but still matches the tablet’s lowest-ever price. 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 still hard to do better if all you want is a large screen for streaming video, playing games and browsing the web. Its 10.2-inch display remains a step up from cheaper slates, its A13 Bionic chip is plenty fast for casual media consumption and its battery still lasts around 10 hours per charge. Most importantly, it’s the cheapest route into Apple’s huge app library, customer support and years of software updates. 

If you want a more modern design, the iPad Air is the top pick in our guide, and it’s now on sale for $500. Be warned, though: A recent Bloomberg report says that Apple plans to launch new tablets in the spring. If you don’t need an iPad right away, it’s probably worth waiting.

Google Pixel Tablet

The Google Pixel Tablet is on sale for all-time low of $399 at Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Google’s own online store. That’s $100 off the 11-inch slate’s list price and $10 less than the deal we saw during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale last month. We gave the Pixel Tablet a review score of 85 earlier this year: Its crisp LCD display, clean software and solid Tensor G2 chip make it a solid Android tablet in its own right, but its biggest selling point is the charging speaker dock that comes with it. Plop the Pixel Tablet onto that and it becomes a Nest Hub Max-style smart display and smart home hub. This deal applies to the base model with 128GB of storage, but the 256GB version is also $100 off at $499. As with the other Google deals above, Google says this offer will run through November 5. 

Amazon Fire Max 11

Amazon’s Fire Max 11 tablet is back down to $150, which matches the lowest price we’ve seen and comes in $80 below its typical going rate. This is the largest and fastest slate Amazon makes, and its aluminum frame gives it a more substantial feel than the cheaper plastic models in the Fire lineup. The 11-inch display has a relatively sharp 2,000 x 1,200 resolution as well. The usual limitations of all Fire tablets are still here — a weak app store with no Google apps and an ad-heavy interface that heavily pushes you toward Amazon services chief among them. But at this price, the Fire Max 11 could make sense if you regularly use apps like Prime Video or Kindle and don’t want to pay for an entry-level iPad.

LG A2 OLED TV

We expect to see many more TV deals as we get closer to Black Friday, but for now one standout is LG’s 48-inch A2 OLED TV on sale for a new low of $550 at Best Buy. This is an entry-level model from 2022, so it’s limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, lacks HDMI 2.1 ports and doesn’t support other gaming-friendly features like VRR. That said, it’s still an OLED TV, so it delivers deep contrast, bold colors, wide viewing angles and low input lag. At this price, it should be a nice step-up option for smaller or secondary rooms. Just note that it can’t get as bright as higher-end OLED sets, so it’s best situated away from direct sunlight. 

Apple MacBook Air (15-inch)

A configuration of Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage is down to $1,499 at Best Buy. That’s $200 less than Apple’s MSRP. If you can live with less memory, a version with 8GB of RAM is on sale for $1,250 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. Either way, the MacBook Air is the top pick in our laptop buying guide, as it has just about everything we want from a mainstream notebook: A premium design, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, a lovely display, long battery life, great speakers and solid performance. Compared to the 13-inch Air, this model has more powerful speakers alongside its larger screen. We gave it a score of 96 in our review this past June.

The MacBook Air’s main downsides are that it only has two Thunderbolt ports and, as always, it’s virtually impossible to upgrade after the fact. Plus, with the recent introduction of the new M3 chip, the countdown is on for a refresh. A recent Bloomberg report says that Apple plans to launch an M3-powered MacBook Air at some point in 2024, though that shouldn’t make this current model obsolete if you need a new laptop right away. 

Blink security camera sale

A range of Blink security cameras and video doorbells are on sale ahead of Black Friday. The notables include a two-pack of the latest Blink Outdoor cameras for half off at $100, a three-pack of Blink Mini indoor cameras for $60 off at $40 and a bundle that pairs the Blink Video Doorbell with an Outdoor 4 camera for $90. All of those match the lowest prices we’ve seen. Blink cameras generally sit on the budget end of the security camera market — each of the devices noted above max out at 1080p — but they’re relatively simple to set up, and the outdoor models here can last up to two years on a pair of AA batteries. The Outdoor 4 in particular is the top wireless security camera pick in our guide to the best smart home gadgets. 

Be aware that Blink is an Amazon subsidiary, though, so these devices only work with Alexa. If you want a camera that works with the Google Assistant, a number of Google Nest devices are also on sale. Those include the wired Nest Cam for $70, the wired Nest Doorbell for $150, and the battery-powered versions of those devices for $120 apiece. 

FAQs

When is Black Friday 2023?

Black Friday 2023 lands on November 24 this year, with Cyber Monday 2023 following up a few days later on November 27. However, the early deals have already begun. The entire month of November might as well be renamed Holiday Shopping Month as that’s when companies really start to get serious with their discounts.

What day is Black Friday 2023 at Walmart?

Walmart Black Friday deals will begin early this year on November 8. Walmart+ members will get a few hours of early access to Black Friday deals if they shop online on November 8, with access for everyone else starting later that day. Walmart will match its online Black Friday deals in stores starting November 10.

Will Amazon have a Black Friday sale in 2023?

Amazon will likely have a Black Friday sale in 2023. While the online retailer hasn’t made its deals known yet like Walmart has, Amazon will almost certainly have deals across all of the types of products it sells, including electronics. We anticipate seeing record-low prices on Amazon devices in particular, like Echo speakers, Fire TVs, Kindles and more. In years past, Amazon Black Friday deals have brought some of the best prices of the year on our favorite gadgets and gear, including headphones, tablets, smartwatches, robot vacuums and more.

What other retailers have Black Friday sales in 2023?

Most retailers have Black Friday sales, so you can expect to see Target, Best Buy, and others join Walmart and Amazon in discounting inventory to capitalize on holiday shopping interest. In the consumer electronics space, we expect most companies to have some sort of Black Friday promotion, so that means you will likely be able to get big-ticket items from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Sony, LG, Sonos and others for much cheaper prices.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/black-friday-2023-the-best-early-deals-from-amazon-target-best-buy-and-more-163054419.html?src=rss 

Even though its latest microcomputer bears its own chip designs, Raspberry Pi has been using Arm CPUs since its inception in 2008. The two companies have now formed tighter bonds as Arm has picked up a minority stake in Raspberry Pi. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. However, the companies say it’s a “strategic investment” on Arm’s part.

It seems that Arm wants to gain more of a foothold in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. “With the rapid growth of edge and endpoint AI applications, platforms like those from Raspberry Pi, built on Arm, are critical to driving the adoption of high-performance IoT devices globally by enabling developers to innovate faster and more easily,” Paul Williamson, senior vice-president and general manager of Arm’s IoT division, said in a statement.

Many IoT developers have long been using Raspberry Pi’s low-cost, capable computers for a wide range of purposes. The Register reports that, since 2020, more than half of all Raspberry Pi devices are being used for industrial and commercial purposes. However, Raspberry Pi is said to have prioritized those partners, perhaps making it more difficult for students and enthusiasts to get their hands on its computers at retail price.

There’s another reason why Arm and Raspberry Pi might want to be closer bedfellows. RISC-V is an open-source processor design that could make it easier for companies to build their own chips or lower manufacturing costs. Qualcomm and Google are working on a RISC-V platform to power Wear OS devices, for instance. In addition, several companies are also using RISC-V CPUs in would-be Raspberry Pi competitors.

As The Register notes, Arm has pointed out the potential threat of RISC-V to its business. The company mentioned in a pre-IPO filing that if market support for RISC-V rises, “our customers may choose to utilize this free, open source architecture instead of our products.” To that end, the investment could help to bolster Raspberry Pi’s position in the single-board computer market and perhaps ward off competition.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arm-picks-up-a-minority-stake-in-raspberry-pi-144946332.html?src=rss 

Apple just revealed some new hardware at a streaming event earlier this week, including Macbook Pro laptops equipped with the proprietary M3 chip. These laptops are still on preorder, as they don’t officially release until next week. Despite that, you can already get a pretty sweet discount of $200 for one of these ultra-powerful computers.

Retailer Adorama is offering the deal on pre-orders of nearly any configuration of the M3-enabled laptop. For instance, the basic Apple 14″ M3 MacBook Pro costs $1,600 to pre-order anywhere else, but Adorama’s deal brings the price down to $1,400. The same discount applies if you beef up the storage capacity, add more RAM, swap the screen size or increase the number of available cores.

There is a slight hoop you have to jump through to get this deal. You must be an Adorama VIP member. Luckily, signing up for this program is fairly effortless and, more importantly, absolutely free. Once you sign up, log into the rewards page and the discount will show up as an option.

These new Macbooks look to be the most powerful laptops the company has ever made, thanks to the just-built M3 chip. They are available in multiple colors, including the new Space Black option. The Macbooks ship in 14- and 16-inch versions and some feature M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, in addition to the standad M3. Though the prices start at $1,600 (or $1,400 with this sale), they can balloon to thousands of dollars once you start making upgrades.

As for other specs, the screen’s a bit brighter, with a peak of 600 nits. The new chips should also drastically improve performance and speed. Beyond that, many features remain the same as last year’s models. You get the same 1080p FaceTime cameras and the six-speaker sound system. The computers aren’t out in the wild yet, so we don’t have information regarding battery life and other real-world metrics.

This is an early Black Friday deal and it’s for pre-orders only. In other words, once the laptops officially release on November 7, the sale will likely end.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-m3-macbook-pro-is-already-200-off-in-an-early-black-friday-deal-150707609.html?src=rss 

ProtonVPN is running a Black Friday Sale on its VPN services, including a 30-month plan for 60 percent off, or $120 total. That works out to $4 per month for two and a half years of access, saving you $180 over paying full price. Proton VPN is our favorite VPN service and, unlike most VPN services that continually run promotions, Proton rarely hosts sales. Their email and other services are seeing discounts, too. 

In our tests, ProtonVPN passed with high marks — but so did most of the other services. What sets ProtonVPN apart is its overall security and privacy safeguards. The Swiss-based company employs an independently audited no-logs policy and has proven they don’t comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. It’s also based on an open-source code and discloses potential vulnerabilities through an official peer-review program. Plus, we found it easy to use. 

While there is a free version, the Plus plan that’s on sale grants access to more servers, with locations in more than 65 countries and lets you run the service on 10 devices at a time. Compare that to the free version which only has servers in three countries and protects just one device at a time. 

It’s worth noting that Proton’s Black Friday sale extends to all of its services, including Proton Mail, which we’ve recommended in our guides, and Proton Unlimited, which gives you access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, the company’s password manager. The everything plan is down to $105 for the year, which works out to just under $9 per month.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/protonvpn-plans-are-up-to-60-percent-off-in-a-black-friday-deal-153355317.html?src=rss