My family keeps stealing my Dreo heater, so I’m buying another while it’s on sale for Black Friday

As I write this, my Dreo Whole-Room heater is swirling warm air around me in a hushed, mellow sweep. I personally paid the full $100 for the privilege but right now, you can currently snag yours for $15 less, thanks to Black Friday’s benevolence. Either way — this little guy is worth it. I bought mine a few weeks ago when the leaves started to turn and I knew winter was coming for my home office. I needed something to replace the aging plug-in radiator I used in years past and, after some research, this seemed like just the thing. 

There are no heating vents in my office, because it was once the front porch. Whoever built the addition did a solid job — including constructing the walls out of a material (brick? cinder block? titanium?) that no nail can penetrate, let alone duct work. The hand-me-down plug-in radiator I used last year wasn’t cutting it — only keeping me warm if I stood bestride it. If I’d had the budget for it, I’d have picked up my editor’s most recent heater find, but $100 felt like my limit. 

I can report that my purchase of Dreo’s heater has been worth it. It stands about a foot tall and just about as wide, but it really pumps out the heat. I originally mistook the displayed “H1” for “high,” so I thought the heat output was fine, but not great. Then I pushed the plus button and realized there’s an H2 and H3, which is where things really get spicy. 

It can oscillate left and right in a 90-degree arc, as well as nod up and down 60 degrees. It can even do both at the same time. I anthropomorphize everything, so when it swings both horizontally and vertically, I see a baby woodland owl inspecting its forest habitat in awe. 

Unlike that radiator heater, this heats up nigh-on instantaneously. Within seconds, I can feel the warmth, and within a minute my fingers defrost enough so I can type. But, since it is a ceramic heater, the heat largely disappears when you turn it off (at which point it goes through a 30 second cool-down to push the remaining heat out of the vents). The air in the room will stay as warm as your insulation allows, but I do use the remote to click it on and off throughout the day.  

The exterior is largely plastic, and I was worried it would have a strong off-gassing smell. Straight out of the box, the chemical tinge was noticeable, but after leaving it sitting out for a couple days, it calmed right down. I haven’t put the timer — or the tip-over safety function for that matter — to the test, but I’m happy to know that both are available. And, as advertised, it’s super quiet, emitting a pleasant hum that keeps me company as I work. 

It’s also quite portable. Which is why it constantly makes the rounds around my house. My kid likes to have it pointed at him when he eats breakfast before school. My husband grabs it to de-ice the bathroom during a shower. I honestly love that this little heater can help them stay comfortable without having to crank up the central heating to warm up the whole house, but I do wish I didn’t have to hunt it down at the start of a workday. I guess should just go ahead and grab another.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/my-family-keeps-stealing-my-dreo-heater-so-im-buying-another-while-its-on-sale-for-black-friday-160923723.html?src=rss 

Are Sydney Sweeney & Scooter Braun Still Together? Relationship Update

Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun made headlines again after being spotted on a trip before Thanksgiving. Get the latest update on their relationship.

Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun made headlines again after being spotted on a trip before Thanksgiving. Get the latest update on their relationship. 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Live is an enjoyable mess

The following contains mild spoilers for The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy.

Following its birth as a 1978 BBC Radio sitcom through its many and varied adaptations, Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy has become an enduring part of our culture. Despite the fact its satire centers on the anxieties of Britain at the tail end of the ‘70s, its unique wit and surrealism have brought it worldwide fame. It is a rite of passage for at least one subset of British teens and their anglophile cousins, as well as a tech culture shibboleth that has embedded itself in the broader culture. Now, it has been reborn as a live immersive theatre production at London’s Riverside Studios that preserves the series most singular quality: Its messiness. 

Given it started as a half-hour radio comedy, Hitchhikers’ plot is surreal, episodic and prone to (what appear to be) digressions. But the broad shape of each version of the story sees Arthur Dent waking up to discover bulldozers about to demolish his home to make way for a new highway. He is distracted from his protest by his friend Ford, who reveals he is not an out-of-work actor, but an alien researcher for a book called The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. Minutes later, the Earth itself is demolished to make way for a new interstellar highway, but Ford and Arthur hitchhike onto one of the ships demolishing the planet. 

The “book” itself is in fact a small tablet containing a Wikipedia-style trove of knowledge that acts as the series’ narrator. Still wearing his pajamas, Arthur is dragged across the universe in various adventures which culminate in meeting a group of multi-dimensional aliens looking to discover the ultimate meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Subsequent radio series and novels take the same characters forward, backward and sideways with diminishing returns. Adams’ love of the long shaggy dog joke means that the ultimate question and the ultimate answer is… “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?” “Forty-Two.” (God’s final message to his creation is a similar tale, revealed as “We apologise for the inconvenience.”) 

Image of the Vogon Cargo Hold, one of the immersive sets.

Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers’ Live

Each adaptation is twisted and turned to suit its new format, so there’s only a handful of essentials. Arthur, Ford, The Book, 42 and the Eagles’ Journey of the Sorcerer (the chorus of which is the theme) are the only mainstays. It should come as no surprise then that generous liberties have been taken here to compress the sprawling journey narrative into a format suitable for a live immersive theatre show. [If you’re unfamiliar, rather than sit and watch the action unfold on a stage, you’re instead walking around an environment with the story taking place in front of you. You can even engage with the actors directly at points, although only if you want to.] Here, you’ll be loitering in the bar of the Horse and Groom pub, the cargo hold of the Heart of Gold, the… cargo hold of the Vogon destructor ship and the factory floor at Magrathea. 

Fenchurch and Arthur lock eyes at the Horse and Groom.

Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers’ Live

To try and impose some degree of conventional narrative on the story, Hitchhiker’s Live takes the beats of the first story (in all its forms) and the romance from the fourth novel, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. We spend most of our time with Ford (Oliver Britten), while Arthur (Robert Thompson) flits in and out of the narrative as part of his universe-spanning quest to reunite with his beloved Fenchurch (Kat Johns-Burke). We get to spend a little time with Zaphod Beeblebrox (Lee V-G) and Slartibartfast (Richard Costello), while (one form of) Trisha McMillan (Lenora Crichlow) only appears as a recorded voice identified with a photo that looks a lot like a publicity shot from Avenue 5 rather than one taken fresh for this show. 

Slartibartfast (Richard Costello) holds court on the factory floor of Magrathea.

Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers’ Live

Hitchhikers’ digressive surrealism means it struggles against the limits imposed upon it by any and every medium it’s ever been made into. As someone who grew up with the novel version, I see that as definitive, but even the later works struggled to remain on the page. At times, the immersive theatre format works to the story’s detriment, meaning you’re likely to miss a beat or two if you’re not able to sprint to every corner of each scene. For instance, there were so many audience members gathering around the Jatravartids area that I thought I’d check out the emptier areas first. Which was a mistake, as Humma Kavula then engaged in a big song and dance number center stage that I’d missed the buildup for. Similarly, I didn’t even realize that the show featured Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Tom Bowen) until I read the cast list while writing this review.

The abbreviated nature of the storyline means you’re often missing not just the connective tissue but even a lot of the meat from the original. Some of the emotional weight of the set pieces feels unearned because the makers have elided a lot of the necessary everything. When you get to the big finish, it’s hard not to wish we’d seen some of the effort one character has made beyond their hair growing out to mark the passage of time. The more I watched the show, and its many musical numbers, the more I wished its creators had simply made a more traditional stage musical. It would have made for a smoother, more cohesive show, especially given the source material’s thematic and narrative complexity. 

Marvin the Paranoid Android (Andrew Evans) is feeling very depressed.

Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers’ Live

The immersive format does have its strengths, including the ability to pepper the set with little visual jokes. The Vogon Complaints Office is packed full of gags hidden in boxes and filing cabinets, as are the little references on the screens in the Horse and Groom set. But best of all is any and all time you get to spend with Marvin the Paranoid Android (Andrew Evans), a masterful mix of design, acting and puppetry. Rather than cram Evans into a suit, the actor has the beautiful Marvin puppet on a chest harness, giving it a fluidity of motion and expressiveness that previous versions could only dream of. It helps, too, that Marvin’s perpetual misery beautifully undercuts the more saccharine parts of the story.

I also need to heap praise upon the guide segments, both in their animation style and for Tamsin Grieg’s narration. I’d say Grieg (Black Books, Episodes)  is the true heir to original voice Peter Jones’ crown, bringing a perfect blend of voice-of-God exposition and dry undercutting. In fact, you’ll struggle to find a bad element in the whole production, especially in the well-choreographed set pieces where the cast acts against pre-recorded footage. It’s a technical marvel in several ways and it is obvious that every person involved in its creation is operating with a bottomless pit of love for the source material and Adams. It’s just that all of those elements don’t quite cohere enough to push the show from good and entertaining through to being a must-see. 

Consequently, I’d say if you’re local to London and are even vaguely familiar with Adams’ work, you should go and enjoy yourself. But I might warn Adams devotees from further afield they may find the production underwhelming if they’re making a big trip to go and see it. Like every other Hitchhikers’ adaptation, it’s a mess, but then the messiness has always been at least half the point.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-live-is-an-enjoyable-mess-140000853.html?src=rss 

Black Friday streaming deals drop one year of Starz down to just $12

The end of November is fast approaching, meaning the winter months almost upon us. In the cold, there are few things better than staying in and watching your favorite shows. Thankfully, there are lots of Black Friday streaming deals available this year.

One of the best comes courtesy of a $58 discount on an annual Starz subscription. Right now, you can pay just $1 a month for an entire year of watching Outlander — or one of the other great titles available. the only catch is that you have to pay the entire $12 upfront.  

If you’re not sure about Starz, you can test the waters by paying $3 monthly, down from $11. However, this 73 percent discount is only available for your first three months and then goes back up to full price. Basically, if you’re at all interested, it’s only an extra $3 for an extra nine months if you pay annually. 

If Starz isn’t for you, check out some of the other great streaming deals available for Black Friday. There’s discounts like six months of Apple TV for only $36 or $96 off one year of a Disney+ and Hulu bundle. We’ve also found amazing Black Friday tech deals from brands like Sony, LEGO and 1Password. 

Disney+ Hulu bundle — $60 for one year: The Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) bundle is on sale for $5 per month for one year (for a total of $60) through December 1. New and eligible returning subscribers can take advantage of this deal, and considering the bundle typically costs $13 per month, this deal represents more than a 50 percent discount on the standard monthly price.

Apple TV+ — 6 months for $36: Apple TV+ is offering six months of access for only $36 for Black Friday, which comes out to a discounted price of $6 per month for the six-month period. The deal is live now for new and eligible returning subscribers and runs through December 1, giving you a chance to stream shows like Silo, The Morning Show and For All Mankind for less. The biggest caveat to the deal is that you must subscribe directly through Apple and not through a third-party service.

HBO Max — one year for $36: HBO Max’s Black Friday deal gives subscribers one year streaming for $36 through December 1. This Black Friday streaming deal is on the ad-supported option, which normally goes for $11 per month. With this discount, you’re getting it for $3 per month for one year. You can sign up via HBO Max’s website or, if you’re a Prime Video subscriber already, via that service as an add-on.

Sling TV Orange — day pass for only $1: Sling TV launched Day Passes earlier this year, giving users one-day access to a variety of its packages. This deal cuts $4 off the normal price of a day pass for Sling Orange. With that, you get unlimited access for 24 hours to Orange’s more than 30 channels that includes ESPN, CNN, TBS and others.

Paramount+ — two months of Essential or Premium for $6: This Black Friday deal brings the monthly price of either Paramount+ tier down to just $6 for two months, or $3 per month. The obvious better deal is on the Premium plan, which typically costs $13 per month.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/black-friday-streaming-deals-drop-one-year-of-starz-down-to-just-12-143804639.html?src=rss 

There aren’t any Black Friday deals on RAM this year, and you can thank AI for that

I sat down to write this story hoping to point people to deals on RAM kits for their gaming PC builds, but after an extensive search, I’m sorry to say there aren’t any promotions worth even considering. Sure, if you visit Newegg or Amazon, you’ll find plenty of bundles listed as Black Friday specials, but following a quick visit to PCPartPicker or CamelCamelCamel, you’ll find many of those aren’t deals at all. 

Take this 32GB kit of 6,000MHz DDR5 RAM from G.Skill I found on Newegg. It’s one of the few “good” deals I found, but there’s a catch. It’s listed at $20 off its current $400 MSRP, with an additional $30 off if you use a promo code. To sweeten the deal, Newegg is even throwing in a NZXT all-in-one liquid cooler valued at $160. But here’s the thing, according to PCPartPicker, that same kit cost $155 a couple of months ago. Unless you can make use of the free cooler, you don’t need me to tell you $50 off a RAM kit that used to cost less than half of what it costs now is not a great buy. 

And it’s not just that one set of sticks from G.Skill — nearly every kit of DDR5 RAM I could find has increased in price in recent months. For instance, Amazon has listed this 32GB bundle from Crucial at $322. A little more than a month ago, you could get that same kit for $175. 

If it feels like the pandemic all over again, when it was impossible to buy a GPU at MSRP, you’re not far off the mark. Once again, there’s a component shortage, but this time around, it’s not cryptomining causing an insatiable demand for parts. Instead, it’s the booming AI industry buying up every RAM stick it can for their data center builds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s been hard to ignore the amount of money that’s been thrown around by NVIDIA, Microsoft and others.  recently. Much of it has been of a seemingly circular nature, but that hasn’t done anything to dent demand for both short and long-term memory. 

The problem is that many of the companies that produce consumer-grade memory, including heavyweights like SK Hynix and Samsung, also make memory for AI servers, and most of the RAM coming off those production lines is going straight to high-volume clients like OpenAI and Anthropic. In fact, demand for RAM has been so strong that even the price of some DDR4 memory kits has gone up — if you can even find the older format in stock.      

Price Changes Coming December 7th 2025, Due To Market Conditions 🔔‼️ pic.twitter.com/et0HADhc08

— CyberPowerPC (@CYBERPOWERPC) November 25, 2025

A statement CyberPowerPC posted earlier this week gives a sense of just how dire the situation is right now. “Recently, global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500 percent and SSD prices have risen by 100 percent,” the company said on X, adding it would be forced to increase the price of its pre-built PCs.

As a consumer, there’s little you can do at the moment. You can either buy now and pay extra, or wait in hopes the price of RAM will stabilize sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, with no signs of the AI boom cooling down in the immediate future, it’s hard to know when things might change. Save a bubble pop, the price of RAM is likely to remain high into early 2026, with the possibility of a trickle effect to SSD and GPU pricing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/there-arent-any-black-friday-deals-on-ram-this-year-and-you-can-thank-ai-for-that-130000335.html?src=rss 

The EU says Apple Maps may be big enough to be considered a DMA gatekeeper

Two more Apple products, specifically Maps and Ads, could be big enough to be designated as gatekeepers under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The EU has announced that it has received notifications from the company that those services meet DMA thresholds. It will now have 45 days to decide whether to designate Apple as a gatekeeper for either of them.

Under DMA rules, services that have 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly business users in the past three financial years can earn the “gatekeeper” designation. That means to say, they’re considered to have a significant impact on their markets. Apple already has several products with the designation, namely the Safari web browser, the iOS and iPadOS, as well as the App Store. As such, it has to adhere to a strict set of rules for those services and is prohibited from favoring its own products over rivals and from locking users into its ecosystem.

Apple has submitted an official rebuttal and will discuss with the EU why Maps and Ads shouldn’t be designated, according to Reuters. The company said Maps sees very limited usage in the EU compared to its competitors, such as Google Maps. It also denied the Apple Ads is a major player in the bloc’s online advertising industry and said that it has minimal share compared to ad services by Google, Meta, TikTok and even X. “We look forward to further explaining to the European Commission why Apple Maps and Apple Ads should not be designated,” Apple said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-eu-says-apple-maps-may-be-big-enough-to-be-considered-a-dma-gatekeeper-130000965.html?src=rss 

The Morning After: Our pick of the best Black Friday deals for 2025

Welcome back! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, we’re facing the annual torrent of Black Friday deals (and non-deals). I stand by $100 off the PS5 probably being the most intriguing discount this year, as it’s a rare one — and consoles have continued to get more expensive in the last few years.

There are other big discounts on more tech I personally bought (at full price, ugh), like Anker’s Laptop Power Bank, down from $135 to $88. I confess to giving a full show-and-tell performance when someone asks me about this giant battery pack, capable of charging laptops, Switch consoles and multiple phones. The best feature is the two built-in cables: one as a carrying strap, the other a retractable cable that is very satisfying to use. 25,000mAh is more than enough for multiple phone top-ups too.

Alongside small discounts on some Apple devices like the latest AirPods Pro, the iPad (A16) is down to $274. It’s the cheapest current-gen Apple tablet and more than enough for most. Sure, we wish the display were laminated and had some anti-glare coating, but a 21 percent discount? That mostly makes up for that.

Going on experience, most of the best deals have been announced by now, but a few surprises could pop up in the early hours of the morning. Keep an eye on our Black Friday 2025 deals page for the latest deals before they sell out.

— Mat Smith

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Dyson’s Black Friday deals include $600 off its robot vacuum

Stick vacuum discounts too.

Engadget

Dyson’s Black Friday sale covers vacuums and related products, with a $600 discount on its 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum — the cheapest we’ve ever seen it. Stick vacs, what Dyson is best known for perhaps, are also discounted, with the Dyson V12 Detect Slim cordless vacuum down to $400 ($330 off) at Amazon and Dyson. (We loved the green laser beam feature for ensuring you’ve cleaned every inch of your floor.) The Dyson V9 Motorbar cordless vacuum is even cheaper at $270, more than half off.

Continue reading.

Sony teases the A7 V, its next flagship midrange camera

When you have as many cameras as Sony, you can call something a flagship midrange.

Tech news is a little light, as most companies push their sales and stock-clearance offers. However, Sony appears to be ready to announce another addition to its Alpha camera lineup. The company shared an image on the Sony Alpha Instagram account with the text “Chase your dream” and the date December 2 at 9AM EST. The giant “V” is likely an unsubtle reference to a Sony A7 V, a follow-up to the Sony Alpha 7 IV. Rumors suggest the A7 V could feature a new 33MP “partially stacked sensor” designed by Sony. It might be able to capture 30 fps video in electronic shutter mode and 4K 60 fps video without cropping the sensor. That could make it more potent than Sony’s cinema cameras, like the FX2.

Continue reading.

Plex starts paywalling remote streaming to TVs

You may need to pay to stream from a friend’s server.

Some bad news for anyone who’s been using Plex to stream stuff from a buddy’s personal media server. The service is starting to enforce a paywall for remote streaming from an individual server to TV apps. Plex is rolling out the change on its Roku app this week, followed by its other TV apps (on the likes of Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV) and third-party clients that use its remote streaming API in 2026.

The owner of a media server will need a Plex Pass subscription to grant other people remote access to it through the service. A Plex Pass now costs $7 per month, $70 per year or $250 for a lifetime membership. Yeah, it’s the opposite of a deal.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111554474.html?src=rss 

Black Friday speaker deals 2025: Save up to 50 percent on bluetooth speakers, smart speakers and soundbars

Black Friday and Cyber Monday feature some of the best audio equipment deals you’re likely to see all year. Whether you’ve been thinking about upgrading your home sound system, you’re planning a party or you just want something nice to listen to while you cook, we’ve found discounts on a speaker you’ll love. The deals on this list range across brands, with offerings from Ultimate Ears, Bose, Beats and more, plus Sonos and Amazon Echo smart speakers and soundbars from Sony and JBL. We’ll be curating this list all month, so check back daily for new audiophile-approved recommendations, organized by price.

Best Black Friday speaker deals under $50

Anker Soundcore 2 for $28 (38 percent off): This is the absolute cheapest you’ll probably see a full-size Bluetooth speaker go for in 2025 — the Soundcore 2, the latest effort by Anker to expand from charging components into portable audio. This model gets you 24 hours of battery and 12 watts of output, with bass ports designed to heavily boost the low ranges. It all works through a simple set of highly visible and tactile buttons on top of the speaker box.

Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen for $32 (36 percent off): The fifth-generation Echo Dot is cheaper than ever, and it was already the best smart speaker under $50. Its genius spherical design lets it pack a lot of audio into a compact space, and it can be controlled with both hands-free Alexa commands and on-device buttons. The latest release comes with early access to the Alexa+ AI upgrade.

JBL Go 4 for $40 (20 percent off): You might expect a speaker as small and portable as the Go 4 to sound tinny at the higher frequencies and weak at the lower ones, but JBL has worked its magic to make this model sound great at both ranges. Weighing less than half a pound, made partly from recycled materials and including a convenient carabiner hoop, this is one of our favorite speakers to take on treks.

Tribit StormBox Micro 2 for $50 (29 percent off): The StormBox Micro 2 gets you the two things you need out of a portable speaker — it’s light (weighing about a pound), and it’s loud. Tribit hasn’t changed the game on portable sound quality here, but with this on your bike or in your backyard, you’ll be having so much fun you won’t care. And the fact that you only spent 50 bucks will definitely help your mood.

Amazon Echo Spot for $50 (38 percent off): The Echo Spot looks like an Echo Dot sawed in half, which is a surprisingly effective design. It’s designed to work best as a bedside alarm clock, but you can customize the screen to show things other than time, including a weather forecast, smart home controls or the current song on your playlist. It’s Alexa-capable, and like the latest Echo Dot, will let you give Alexa+ AI a try.

Best Black Friday speaker deals for $50 to $100

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar for $85 (29 percent off): This is by far the least you’ll pay for a worthwhile soundbar this Black Friday season. Amazon’s soundbar supports Dolby surround sound, works straightforwardly through a single HDMI cable and can be upgraded with an optional Alexa voice assistant. It doesn’t only work with Amazon products, either, being compatible with all smart TVs.

Marshall Emberton II for $90 (50 percent off): We’re huge fans of the Emberton II, Marshall’s affordable new-age retro speaker. It looks great, but it’s much more than a visual throwback, featuring 360-degree sound, IP67 proofing and 30 hours of battery life. Since the deal cuts the price in half, you can even by two and chain them together for a surround sound setup.

Amazon Echo Dot Max for $90 (10 percent off): The Echo Dot Max just dropped this month, and our reaction was mixed, but there’s no denying the leaps forward in this brand-new addition. Not only does it feature better sound than the vanilla Echo Dot, but Alexa+ makes is a much more equal conversation partner. The Echo Dot Max features a similar spherical design to the Dot, but with forward-facing physical buttons on the surface of the sphere.

Bose SoundLink Micro for $99 (16 percent off): If the Home isn’t small or cheap enough for you, Bose has gone even smaller and cheaper with the SoundLink Micro, a tiny, portable speaker in the vein of the JBL Clip. It’s waterproof, dustproof and surprisingly good at taking hits, all while staying charged for around six hours. The sound quality isn’t intense, but it’s cleaner than it has any right to be.

Beats Pill for $100 (33 percent off): Beats jumping back into portable bluetooth was one of the happiest surprises of 2024. As we noted in our full review at the time, the Beats Pill isn’t content to coast on its brand name or luxurious design. Its re-engineering speaker improves volume while reducing distortion, it can survive dropping into three feet of water and it even works extremely well as a speakerphone. We found that mid-to-high range music showcases its potential best, though the bass also hits hard.

Best Black Friday speaker deals for $100 to $200

Bose SoundLink Flex for $119 (20 percent off): Of all the Bose on this list, the SoundLink Flex may be the most balanced, much cheaper than the Home and a lot more powerful than the Micro. Other speakers may be louder, but few have such good range; we’ve yet to find a track that sounds muddy or tinny coming through the Flex’s speakers. The design is also outdoor-friendly, with a light-but-tough exterior and 30-foot bluetooth range.

JBL Charge 6 for $130 (35 percent off): It’s a little more expensive than the Flip line, but the extra cost of the Charge 6 pays off — it boasts almost twice the battery life of the Flip 7, with the same convenient design, built-in USB-C charger and wide sound range. If you’re looking for a speaker that balances sturdiness with portability and will last you a while, the Charge 6 is a very good investment.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 4 for $150 (25 percent off): The UE Megaboom line is venerable at this point, dropping first in 2015, but its fourth iteration still tops our audiophile lists. It puts out 360-degree sound with an emphasis on bass, can work up to 147 feet away from the music source, and literally floats in water (though you probably shouldn’t leave it in the pool all night). It can even pair with any other UE speaker through PartyUp — combining it with a couple of Wonderbooms pays off in spades.

Sonos Era 100 for $169 (15 percent off): Two years after launch, the Era 100 is still a smart speaker more than worth your time. It’s sleek and simply designed, making it clear Sonos’s engineers put their work into sound quality and features rather than just looking the part. Touch controls have never worked better, and setup takes five minutes, though you will have to use the Sonos app. Once you start playing music, the Era 100 can get as loud as you like, while never sacrificing audio quality.

Bose SoundLink Home for $179 (18 percent off): The SoundLink Home is small for a high-quality speaker, but it packs everything it needs into two pounds and about 10 square inches. Nothing about the sound is diminished thanks to two passive radiators. Though we haven’t gotten to test it directly, given Bose’s record with other compact speakers like the Flex, we’re confident it’ll be loud enough to satisfy anyone.

Bose TV Speaker soundbar for $199 (29 percent off): Bose’s entry into the world of soundbars does not disappoint. For a price lower than some Bluetooth speakers, you’ll get a compact two-foot speaker bar that amplifies dialogue while conjuring a balanced, realistic soundscape from any movie or show. It’s suitable for audio neophytes, too, with no complex adjustments necessary — just plug in the HDMI and start watching.

Ultimate Ears Everboom for $200 (25 percent off): We gave the Everboom a full review when it first dropped last year, and found it stuck to the general Ultimate Ears plan — nothing earth-shattering in the audio quality, but rugged reliability and fantastic extra features. Everboom users can connect it to the UE Boom app, which lets you control the volume remotely, use the speaker as a megaphone to make announcements, import your playlists and pair Everbooms through the PartyUp chaining feature.

Best Black Friday speaker deals over $200

JBL Xtreme 4 for $280 (26 percent off): Xtreme is the largest and highest-end that JBL goes, and the Xtreme 4 is a luminary of the line. At 4.6 pounds, it’s on the outside edge of portability, but that weight means it puts out appropriately heavy bass, along with clear treble. It’s fully weatherproof and — unless it’s in a completely open space — can get loud enough that all your party guests will enjoy the full effect.

Bose SoundLink Max for $299 (25 percent off): The SoundLink Max, Bose’s biggest speaker that isn’t a soundbar, is more affordable for Black Friday than we’ve seen for a while. Frankly, it’s worth more than this, with two radiators and three transducers that make it sound larger than it is. Indoors or outdoors, it’s great for anyone who wants to be able to pick out individual elements of their favorite music.

Sonos Era 300 for $378 (21 percent off): The Era 300 is Sonos’s big (and largely successful) swing at a truly space-filling smart speaker, combining spatial audio with support for both Alexa and its own assistant. The Trueplay feature detects the environment around the speaker and adjusts its setup to reach every corner. Spatial audio can be hit-or-miss on older tracks, but it’s transcendent with modern ones.

Sonos Move 2 for $399 (20 percent off): Move is Sonos’s high-end portable smart speaker, with more heft, power and features than the smaller Roam line. With the Move 2, Sonos improved the Move’s sound quality, boosted its battery life to well over 24 hours, jacked up the volume and redesigned the outer hardware for greater durability. It also works with both Alexa and the Sonos assistant, but it’s more portable than the Era 300.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 for $798 (20 percent off): In our review of the Bravia 6 this year, we called out its full sound and special talent for enhancing dialogue, but were frustrated that it didn’t support AirPlay or Spotify Connect. The Bravia 8 works with both services, making it a clear choice for your next premium soundbar. It’s got a tight, low-footprint design that fits any aesthetic, and hits a maximum output power of 495 watts.

Sonos Arc Ultra for $879 (20 percent off): The Sonos Arc Ultra is the best premium soundbar, bar none (pun intended). As we cover in our full review, it delivers full-throated bass without needing an extra sub, and has added more mid-range drivers and tweeters to make dialogue pop. Its software features are also solid, with Trueplay sound tuning, Speech Enhancement and a new Night Sound mode to tone down the boom for your roommates’ sake.

JBL Bar 1300XMK2 for $1200 (29 percent off): If you’re going to drop $1200 on a soundbar, you need to know it’s going to deliver — and the 1300XMK2 does. Its key design element is two detachable speakers that recharge when plugged into the main unit, but can spend up to 10 hours unplugged. The audioscape does an excellent job of separating and clarifying details, which really enhances the sense of a theatrical experience.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/black-friday-speaker-deals-2025-save-up-to-50-percent-on-bluetooth-speakers-smart-speakers-and-soundbars-091904603.html?src=rss 

The best Black Friday gaming deals for 2025: Save on PS5 consoles, Nintendo Switch games, handhelds and more

Black Friday has long been a good time to restock on video games and gaming gear on the cheap, and this year is no exception. If you’ve been looking to grab a PlayStation 5, pad out your Nintendo Switch backlog or refresh your PC setup with new accessories, we’ve rounded up the best Black Friday gaming deals we could find. So far, the highlights include PS5 consoles for $100 off, all-time lows for tons of well-reviewed games and solid price drops for various mice, keyboards, headsets and other peripherals we like. We’ll update this post as new deals worth your time pop up.

Black Friday game console deals

Sony PlayStation 5 Digital Edition for $399 at Walmart ($101 off): The disc-less version of the PS5 actually launched for $399 five years ago, but in 2025, that price now counts as a deal. A Fortnite bundle is available for the same price. Also at Best Buy and others.

Sony PlayStation 5 Pro for $650 at Amazon ($100 off): Most people don’t need the PS5 Pro, but this discount still ties the lowest price we’ve seen for Sony’s most powerful console. Also at Best Buy, Walmart and others.

Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World for $499 at Amazon: Yes, we know this isn’t an actual deal, but we note it just to say that we aren’t seeing any discounts on Nintendo’s latest hybrid console as of this writing. This SKU with the newest Mario Kart remains the best “value” if you’re looking to grab the device for the holidays, as you’d have to pay an extra $30 if you bought the console and game separately.

Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom for $30 at Target ($20 off): Echoes of Wisdom makes a few bold changes to the series’ usual formula, mixing the freeform spirit of Tears of the Kingdom (which isn’t on sale) with the top-down view of earlier 2D Zelda games. This deal is a new low. Also for $40 at Amazon, Best Buy and others.

Super Mario Odyssey for $30 at Walmart ($30 off): It’s pushing a decade old, but Odyssey remains a joyous 3D platformer with pitch-perfect controls and a relentless stream of inventive ideas. This deal comes within a dollar of the game’s all-time low. Also at Best Buy and others.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for $30 at Best Buy ($30 off): Here’s a new low for the Switch remake of this beloved GameCube RPG. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar called it an “absolute treasure” in his review last year. Also at Target and GameStop.

Several other first-party Switch exclusives are down to $30 as well, including Princess Peach: Showtime!, Splatoon 3, Nintendo Switch Sports and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Luigi’s Mansion 3, meanwhile, is on sale for $40 as of this writing.

Samsung P9 Express (512GB) microSD Express card for $75 at Amazon ($25 off): If you want more space for a Switch 2, this is a new low for the 512GB version of Samsung’s newest microSD Express card. Full disclosure: Samsung launched this model a couple of weeks ago, and we only just got it in for testing. But given the trend of similar Switch 2 performance we’ve seen with other Express cards thus far, and the fact that this is easily the cheapest 512GB model we can find in stock as of this writing, we figure it’s worth noting. Also at Samsung and B&H.

Lexar Play Pro (1TB) microSD Express card for $186 at Amazon ($34 off): If you need more space for a Switch 2, this is the second-best price for Lexar’s most spacious microSD Express card since July and the cheapest 1TB model we can find right now.

Best Black Friday PS5 deals

Sony DualSense controller for $55 at Amazon ($20 off): Here’s a nice chance to save if you’ve been meaning to stock up on new gamepads for your PS5 (or PC). Several colorways are on sale, though some cost $5 to $10 extra. Also at Best Buy, Walmart, PlayStation Direct and others.

Sony DualSense Edge controller for $169 at Amazon ($31 off): This ties the best price to date for Sony’s “pro” PS5 controller, which adds customizable back buttons, swappable thumbstick modules, trigger stops and the ability to set custom button mappings and sensitivities. We found it to have worse battery life than the standard DualSense, though, typically lasting just five to six hours. Also at Best Buy, Walmart and others.

PlayStation Plus Premium (12-month) for $107 at PlayStation ($53 off): Sony’s online service has only gotten pricier over the years, but this is still a rare chance to save on annual subscriptions. A Premium membership gets you cloud streaming support and an on-demand library of retro games on top of the perks included with the lower PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Essential tiers. A 12-month Extra subscription is also on sale for $101, though at that price you might as well go all the way. Just remember that your subscription will be set to auto-renew by default. The offers apply to new and select existing customers; for the latter, the exact discount will depend on how much time you have left on your current membership. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any deal for the standard Essential tier.

PlayStation 5 Access Controller for $70 at Amazon ($20 off): The Access Controller is a circular, customizable PS5 pad that’s designed for players with accessibility needs. This isn’t the device’s best discount ever — it went as low as $49 over the summer — but it’s still a nice drop from its usual street price. Also at Best Buy and PlayStation.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach for $50 at Amazon ($20 off): The latest adventure from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding 2 is both a fascinating delivery sim fixated on how we physically interact with the world and an indulgent melodrama you’ll either find endearing or unbearable. Either way, there really isn’t another game like it. This discount matches the lowest price we’ve seen. Also at Best Buy and PlayStation.

Helldivers 2 for $30 at Amazon ($10 off): This ties the best price we’ve tracked for the PS5 copy of the raucous co-op shooter Helldivers 2, which straddles the line between Starship Troopers-esque satire and engaging strategic action. Also at Best Buy and Target. If you’d rather play on PC, Steam is selling the game for $2 extra.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $30 at Amazon ($20 off): Engadget’s Mat Smith gave this grandiose action-RPG a favorable review last year. You need to play its predecessor — and ideally, the original PS1 game — to get the most out of it, but it’s stuffed with things to do, and its combat system is still a tactical rush at its best. This is its all-time low. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

God of War Ragnarök for $34 at Amazon ($36 off): Rangarök is another PlayStation “prestige” sequel that’s more about upping the scope than truly reinventing itself, but its Norse world is beautifully detailed and smashing baddies with a magic axe always feels great. This matches the all-time low for the PS5 version. Also at Best Buy and PlayStation.

Sony has discounted a ton of other first-party PS5 games for Black Friday beyond this. Highlights include the open-world adventures Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Horizon Forbidden West for $20 each, while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Gran Turismo 7, The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut and Demon’s Souls are all $30 apiece.

Black Friday Xbox deals

Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox (2TB) for $200 at Amazon ($30 off): Annoying as it is, the only way to fully add storage to a new Xbox is to use a proprietary expansion card. Only a couple of those exist, and they’re all pricey, but this deal for Seagate’s 2TB card is about $20 off the device’s recent street price. The 4TB variant is also on sale for $380, which matches its all-time low. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

Black Friday video game deals

Battlefield 6 for $35 at GameStop ($35 off): This latest entry is generally seen as a return to form for the long-running military FPS series — at least when it comes to its chaotic multiplayer suite. If you’ve been meaning to step outside of the Call of Duty bubble, this is a new all-time low.

Split Fiction for $30 at Walmart ($20 off): A pick from our guide to the best couch co-op games, Split Fiction overcomes some hacky writing with brisk action, a lighthearted tone and a Nintendo-like committing to presenting new level ideas. This is the best price we’ve seen for the PS5 copy. Also at Best Buy, PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox for $40.

Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater for $35 at GameStop ($35 off): Metal Gear Solid 3 is on the shortlist of the PS2’s greatest games. Delta is full-scale remake that preserves the original’s core while drastically overhauling its visuals and modernizing its controls. We saw it fall as low as $30 at Amazon and Walmart earlier this week, but this is still a nice drop. Also available for $49 at PlayStation and Xbox if you can only get a digital copy.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for $30 at GameStop ($30 off): Another one of the year’s highest-rated games, this systems-heavy action-RPG is something of an acquired taste, but it takes the “role-playing” bit more seriously than most of its peers. This is an all-time low for the PS5 version and $5 off the Xbox copy’s best price. Also at Humble for $36 if you want to play on PC and at Best Buy for $40.

Silent Hill f for $50 at Amazon ($20 off): It takes a bit to get going, but this newest installment in the long-running psychological horror series is surprisingly layered on top of being good for some unnerving scares. This is a new low. Also at Best Buy and PlayStation.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds + $10 digital credit for $40 at Amazon ($40 off): Mario Kart World may be the year’s most famous kart racer, but CrossWorlds is a fine alternative with a greater sense of speed, more customization options and less overall restraint. This deal is $10 more than the all-time low we saw earlier this week, but it includes a $10 digital Amazon credit when you redeem the code SONIC10 on the product page or at checkout.

Elden Ring for $15 at Walmart ($35 off): The action-RPG Elden Ring is both challenging and darkly funny, with a world that runs incredibly deep and feels lived-in (died-in) in a way few games have. This is a new low, but as of this writing it only applies to the Xbox version. Also at Amazon. The PS5 copy is down to $20, which is still a decent savings.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for $39 at Steam ($44 off): The moody Cyberpunk 2077 started as a technical disaster but now stands as a perfectly solid action-RPG, one bolstered by its pointed narrative and striking techno-future art style. This ties the best price we’ve seen for the PC version of the Ultimate Edition, which includes the game’s well-regarded Phantom Liberty DLC. Also at Xbox for $40 and PlayStation for $43.

Returnal for $23 at Steam ($37 off): This third-person shooter roguelike is at once a technical showcase, a stiff test and an achingly beautiful reflection on the nature of grief. It’s also worth checking out if you’re eager to play developer Housemarque’s next game, Saros, which looks to borrow many elements introduced here. This deal is for the PC version; the PS5 copy is also on sale for $30 at Amazon, Best Buy and others.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection for $10 at Steam ($30 off): We’ve seen this deal a bunch of times over the years, but it matches the lowest-ever price for The Master Chief Collection, which gathers six of the venerable FPS series’ games in one package. Also at Xbox.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! for $12 at PlayStation ($8 off): Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a delightfully clever and exceedingly British comedy game about a little yellow man who does everything requested of him to an increasingly surreal extent. It’s three hours long and, as Engadget’s Mat Smith wrote in his review, all Actually Funny. The ending alone is worth this price, which ties the game’s all-time low. Also at Steam.

Pentiment for $10 at Xbox ($10 off): One of the Xbox’s true gems, Pentiment is an unusually soulful 2D adventure/visual novel that does nothing less than scrutinize the nature of truth. It’s also very pretty. This deal ties the game’s all-time low. Also at Steam.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon for $20 at Amazon ($10 off): Armored Core VI is a loud action game about building a mech and using it to blow up everything in sight. It’s as awesome as that sounds, and it feels great, but its formidable bosses and deep customization options keeps it from being mindless. This discount ties the best price we’ve seen for the PS5 and Xbox editions.

Grand Theft Auto IV for $7 at Xbox ($13 off): Perhaps the most underrated GTA game, the 17-year-old GTA IV is still worth revisiting today thanks to its grimy depiction of city living and empathetic (if vulgar) story about the cracks in the American dream. Maybe just ignore the incessant calls to go bowling. This deal matches the game’s all-time low.

Black Friday gaming handheld deals

Lenovo Legion Go S (SteamOS, Ryzen Z1 Extreme) for $650 at Best Buy ($250 off): A top pick from our guide to the best gaming handhelds, the Legion Go S is sort like a “Steam Deck 1.5” with a larger screen, faster chipset, higher refresh rate and the same SteamOS software. It’s also much more expensive, but this discount helps lessen that. It’s a new low for the version with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip. Also at Lenovo.

Retroid Pocket Flip 2 for $209 at Retroid ($20 off): Another recommendation from our gaming handhelds guide, the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 is an Android device designed to emulate retro games. Getting those emulators set up takes some serious legwork, but this model can run games up to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube era without major issues, while its clamshell design and OLED display impress for a handheld in the $200 range. Use the code BFCM$15 to see this discount at checkout, but keep in mind that the price doesn’t include any extra shipping fees.

Retroid Pocket 5 for $184 at Retroid ($15 off): You can use the same code above to get this deal for the Retroid Pocket 5, which is essentially the Flip 2 in a Sony PSP-style shape. It’s currently the top retro handheld pick in our guide and remains excellent for emulating up to the PS2 and GameCube, but it’s worth noting that Retroid recently released a new Pocket G2 model that puts a stronger chip in the same design. We haven’t tested that one yet, but it should be better if you want to emulate select PC or Switch 1 games. That one is now on sale for $204. Looming over both devices, however, is the Retroid Pocket 6, which will ship in January and looks to be a slightly more substantial upgrade.

Black Friday VR headset deals

PlayStation VR2 + Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle for $299 at Amazon ($100 off): It’s hard to broadly recommend the PSVR2: The actual hardware is superb, but there aren’t a ton of standout exclusives to play. Thankfully, you can now use the device with a gaming PC through a separate adapter, though it’s all wired-only. Still, if you have cash to burn and want to dive into games like Gran Turismo 7, the Resident Evil 4 remake or the Horizon adventure bundled here, this is a new low. If this offer runs out of stock, the standalone headset is on sale for the same price. Also at Best Buy, Walmart and others.

Black Friday gaming keyboard deals

ASUS ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless for $130 at Amazon ($80 off): If the Lemokey P1 HE runs out of stock, or if you want something closer to a full-size layout, the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless is another wireless mechanical keyboard we like. It makes typing feel and sound lovely, though it can’t do any of the Hall effect customizations of the top picks in our guide. This deal ties an all-time low. Also at Best Buy and ASUS.

Sony Inzone KBD-H75 for $278 at Amazon ($22 off): As we note in our gaming keyboard guide, the Inzone KBD-H75 ticks just about all of the boxes: a high-quality frame, versatile magnetic switches that feel and sound even nicer than our top pick, crisp PBT keycaps, decent software, even a volume knob. Its only real issue is that it’s way too expensive for a wired keyboard. It still is after this discount, but if you’ve got cash to burn, this matches the lowest price we’ve tracked. Also at Best Buy and Sony.

NuPhy Air75 V2 for $84 at NuPhy ($36 off): If you’re looking for a slimmer low-profile keyboard that still uses satisfying mechanical switches, the NuPhy Air75 V2 is an older but still great option we’ve recommended in the past. This is the lowest price we’ve seen, though certain switch options are available for a few bucks more. The newer Air75 V3 is also on sale for $128; we haven’t fully reviewed that one yet, but it should offer a more bouncy typing experience with superior sound dampening.

Black Friday gaming mouse deals

Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed for $70 at Amazon ($30 off): The DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed is a midrange option we recommend in our guide if you prefer a more ergonomic shape. Its contoured design is ideal for small- to medium-sized hands, it tracks reliably and at 55 grams it’s easy to flick around in fast-paced games. This deal marks a new low. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

Razer Basilisk V3 for $29 at Amazon ($17 off): If you don’t mind using a cable, the Basilisk V3 is another ergonomic model we highlight in our buying guide. It’s relatively heavy and bulky but very much comfortable for larger hands, with an impressively versatile scroll wheel that can tilt side-to-side and switch between notched and free-spin modes. This is the lowest price we’ve tracked. The wireless Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed is also on sale for $38, though that one has a more limited scroll wheel and trades the wired version’s optical clicks for less durable mechanical switches. Also at Target for $30.

Pulsar X2 CrazyLight for $91 at Amazon ($39 off): The aptly-named X2 CrazyLight is an honorable mention in our buying guide for those who mainly play twitchy shooter games and use a claw or fingertip grip, as its compact design weighs a mere 37 grams. This is the lowest price we’ve seen, and the discount applies to several colorways.

Pulsar Xlite V4 for $50 at Amazon ($50 off): The Xlite V4 is another honorable mention in our guide if you’re after a light, comfortable and responsive mouse with an ergonomic shape. The downside is it has cutouts on the bottom, which leaves the interior exposed to dust and debris. We actually tested the older Xlite V3, but the V4 is a very minor refresh that’s currently available for the same price, so it’s worth grabbing instead. This is another all-time low. You need to be a Prime member to access this deal at Amazon, but the mini and large versions are available directly from Pulsar for the same price.

Black Friday gaming headset deals

HyperX Cloud Stinger 2 for $30 at Amazon ($20 off): The wired Cloud Stinger 2 is the budget pick in our gaming headset buying guide. It’s comfy, with a solid mic and full-bodied bass. Just don’t expect the most accurate sound or highest-quality materials at this price. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

Astro A50 X for $320 at Amazon ($80 off): The A50 X is a higher-end wireless headset we recommend in our guide for those who game across PS5, Xbox and PC. Its included charging station doubles as an HDMI switcher, allowing you to swap between different three different sources with the press of a button. An excellent mic and mostly balanced sound profile help as well. This deal isn’t an all-time low but still takes a good chunk off the headset’s normal going rate. Also at Best Buy and Logitech.

Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed for $210 at Amazon ($70 off): We call the G Pro X 2 Lightspeed a quality alternative to the Audeze Maxwell — our favorite closed-back wireless headset — in our buying guide when it’s on sale for significantly less. That’s the case right now, as this discount drops the headset to its best price since July. Also at Best Buy and Logitech.

Sony PlayStation Pulse Elite for $129 at Amazon ($21 off): It’s not a top pick in our guide, but the Pulse Elite is a decent wireless option for PS5 owners since it lets you adjust the EQ curve and access other settings directly from the console’s UI. It can also pair to a second device simultaneously over Bluetooth. The flimsy space-age design and poor noise isolation aren’t ideal, however. This deal comes within a dollar of the headset’s all-time low. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-black-friday-gaming-deals-for-2025-save-on-ps5-consoles-nintendo-switch-games-handhelds-and-more-093044783.html?src=rss 

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