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You may not be looking to spend big on tech this October Prime Day, but it’s still a good idea to look for tech essentials during the shopping event while you can get some at good discounts. Anker makes some of our favorite charging gear and I always end up picking up an accessory or two during Prime Day to ensure I have what I need when I need it most, and I feel better knowing I didn’t spend full price on it.

For example, in sales past, I picked up a couple of extra USB-C charging cables so I could keep one in my carry-on luggage so I always have one when I travel. My partner will likely be upgrading to an iPhone 17 this year, so we’ll have to get a few more USB-C cables now that Lightning is officially banished from our home. Also, every year it seems I need yet another surge protector, so even though I picked one up the year before — but one can never have too many. Here, we’ve collected all of the best October Prime Day deals on Anker devices and other charging gear we could find, and we’ll update this post as the event goes on with the latest offerings.

Anker Prime Day deals: Power banks

Power banks are not as straightforward as you might think. They come in all shapes, sizes and capacities and can have extra features like magnetic alignment, built-in kickstands, extra ports and more.

It’s worth considering how you’ll use a power bank before you decide on the right one to buy. Smartphones don’t need huge-capacity bricks to power up a couple of times over; a 5K or 10K portable charger should be plenty if that’s all you’re looking to support. If you want a more versatile accessory that can charge a tablet, laptop or gaming handheld, consider a brick with a higher capacity — and more ports so you can charge multiple devices simultaneously.

Anker Prime Day deals: Wireless chargers

A good wireless charger can lighten your cable load. While wired charging remains faster and more efficient, wireless chargers can clean up your space by eliminating a few of those cables that constantly trip you up.

We recommend thinking about where you’ll use a wireless charger before buying one. Those outfitting a home office with new tech may want a wireless charging stand that puts their phone in an upright position that’s easier to see while it’s powering up, while those who want a wireless charger for their nightstand might prefer a lay-flat design or a power station that can charge a smartphone, smartwatch and pair of earbuds all at once.

Anker Prime Day deals: Charging gear

Plenty of other charging gear is on sale for Prime Day. It’s never a bad idea to pick up a few 30W USB-C adapters so you always have what you need to reliably power up your phone. Same goes for extra USB-C (or USB-A) cables that can live in your car, in your office at work or by the couch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-october-prime-day-deals-on-anker-charging-gear-and-other-accessories-164536998.html?src=rss 

Amazon may have just unveiled a ton of new products across its Ring, Blink, Echo and Kindle categories, but it still had one more piece of hardware to show. Though it didn’t get mentioned during the company’s Devices and Services event earlier today, there is a new Smart Remote under the Amazon Basics brand that will be available for pre-order for $19.99 and will ship in October. According to the product listing page, it will be released on October 30.

At first glance, the Smart Remote looks like a regular switch that you mount on your wall to control your lights or other appliances. Its full name on Amazon’s current pre-order page even says it’s a “Smart Dimmer Switch and Remote.” It basically has four buttons that you can configure via the Alexa app or ask Alexa+ to map routines to. During a demo at the event space, an Amazon representative told an Echo Show “Alexa, when I press the top button I want you to activate the party time scene and play “Alive” by Pearl Jam.

The assistant acknowledged the request and within 10 seconds said it had completed the task. The rep pressed a button and lights in the demo room came on, while the song started playing on the Echo Show.

You can also use the Routines section of Amazon’s app to customize what you want the device to do. In the same demo, the company also showed how the assistant can suggest routines based on your habits. It can also remind you to, say, take out the trash if you’ve connected a Ring camera and it’s noticed patterns in which day of the week your garbage is removed from the street.

The battery-powered remote can be mounted on a wall or surface and can be magnetically attached for maximum convenience. Though a simple remote might not be the most exciting thing, especially at an event where Amazon’s voice assistant and AI were so widely talked about, it’s still something people might find useful. Particularly if you want to just press a button to trigger a series of actions instead of finding the exact words to say in the precise pronunciation that is required to be understood by your smart speaker. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/amazon-has-a-new-smart-remote-thats-completely-programmable-by-alexa-170021739.html?src=rss 

The survival climbing game Cairn has been delayed until the first quarter of 2026. Development studio The Game Bakers had previously announced a release date for November 5 of this year.

The delay is so the team can spend more time on “optimization, debug and polish.” Creative director Emeric Thoa said that “after 5 years of work, it makes no sense to rush it” as “we want to be proud of the game we launch.” Delays are never fun, but they are a whole lot better than buying a broken game at launch.

We don’t have an actual release date yet, but the game’s still coming to both PC and PS5. There is a demo available, which has racked up 600,000 players on both platforms. The Game Bakers are beefing up that demo on October 13, adding ghost recordings of speedrunners and staffers. The company says these ghosts can be followed to “check new techniques or discover new routes and hidden areas.” Mario Kart and other racing games have been doing something similar for years.

For the uninitiated, Cairn is a tough-as-nails rock-climbing game with a free solo mode for added difficulty. There’s no UI feedback, so players have to pay attention to the avatar’s breathing and body language. It feels like a more intense cousin of the peaceful Jusant, which is another rock-climbing sim.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/survival-climbing-game-cairn-has-been-delayed-until-2026-171512591.html?src=rss 

Well, that was fast. One day after Wired reported that OpenAI was preparing to release a new AI social video app, the company has revealed it to the wider world. It’s called the Sora app, and it’s powered by OpenAI’s new Sora 2 video generation model. As expected, it’s possible to add your likeness to a video you generate using a feature OpenAI calls “Cameo.” 

Right now, Sora is only available on iOS — with no word yet on when it might arrive on Android — and you’ll need an invite from the company. However, once you receive access, you’ll be able to invite four friends to download the software.  

Developing…

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-sora-app-is-real-but-youll-need-an-invite-to-try-it-171849671.html?src=rss 

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek will be transitioning to the role of executive chairman on January 1 of next year. The current Co-President and Chief Product and Technology Officer Gustav Söderström and Co-President and Chief Business Officer Alex Norström will take his place as co-CEOs.

“Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav — who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase. This change simply matches titles to how we already operate. In my role as Executive Chairman, I will focus on the long arc of the company and keep the Board and our co-CEOs deeply connected through my engagement,” Ek said in a statement.

In a letter to Spotify employees, Ek also shared that he wants to help create more technology-driven “supercompanies” that “tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.”

As a recent example of Ek’s other interests, this summer he led a $700 million investment round into the defense tech firm Helsing. The company sells AI-powered software that analyzes weapons and sensor data in battlefields to help with military decision-making. Last year Helsing started manufacturing a line of military drones. Ek has received pushback on this investment in the form of a number of smaller artists, as well as Massive Attack pulling their music catalogs from Spotify.

Daniel Ek founded Spotify in 2006 alongside Martin Lorentzon and oversaw the company’s growth to almost 700 million monthly active listeners. It’s been a busy year for the music streaming giant, which finally started offering lossless streaming after a multi-year wait.

The company also finds itself at a crossroads as more AI-generated music is making its way to the platform. The company recently made some policy changes to address AI, though this was only aimed at fraudulent and deceptive uses of the technology. Fully AI-generated songs and albums are still permitted.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/daniel-ek-is-stepping-down-as-spotify-ceo-161519791.html?src=rss