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Amazon Prime Day is usually met with competing sales from other retailers, and this year is no different. Walmart’s summer sale is back this year, competing with Prime Day and running for an extra two days. You can shop the sale at Walmart from July 8 through July 13, snagging discounts on all sorts of things including tech.

While Engadget covers all of the best Prime Day deals we can find, we also recognize that not everyone has a Prime membership — and many simply do not want to shop at Amazon. If you fall into either of those camps, you will be able to find some of the best Prime Day deals matched at Walmart. Most of these deals are available to everyone, too — no Walmart Plus membership required as of July 8. Here, we’ve collected the best Walmart Deals savings we could find, and we’ll continue to update this post throughout the event as we discover new discounts.

Also, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the Nintendo Switch 2. Not because it’s discounted at Walmart (that’s too good to be true, unfortunately), but Walmart+ members get exclusive access to a new drop of Switch 2 consoles for purchase at 7pm ET on July 7.

Best Walmart Deals 2025 discounts

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1) for $599 ($50 off): The M1 Air has been long gone from Apple’s own site, but it’s still a more than capable laptop for anyone looking for a solid, all-purpose machine. We still recommend springing for an M3 or M4 machine instead, but if you’re on a budget, this deal will be hard to beat.

Roku Express HD streaming device for $17 ($12 off): If you’re simply looking for an affordable streamer to upgrade an aging TV, the Roku Express HD could fit the bill. It plays HD-quality content and gives you access to every major streaming platform including HBO Max, Disney+, Prime Video and others. It’ll tuck away behind your set nicely and it supports headphone mode, which lets you connect headphones to the Roku mobile app for private listening and viewing from your TV.

Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones for $298 ($101 off): While the XM6 headphones are the latest and greatest, they only make small changes to the already stellar XM5. These were our top pick for the best wireless headphones for a long time before the XM6 launched earlier this year, and we still like them for their excellent sound quality, strong ANC, multi-device connectivity and good battery life.

Google TV Streamer 4K for $84 ($16 off): Our top favorite streaming device, the Google TV Streamer 4K is basically a souped-up Chromecast with 4K content support, an easy to use interface and a great remote control.

Hisense 75-inch U6H ULED 4K smart TV for $448 (36 percent off): This Quantum Dot TV can reach 600 nits at peak brightness across its 48 local dimming zones. It supports Dolby Vision and Atmos, HDMI 2.1 inputs for a better gaming experience and it has the Google Assistant built in for voice control.

Samsung 32-inch Smart Monitor M5 for $199 ($100 off): Not only will this be a good monitor for your home office setup, but it also acts as a full smart TV, too. Its interface gives you access to platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and others, and it also comes with a SmartThings IoT hub built in so you can connect and control things like smart lights directly from the monitor.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 for $129 (47 percent off): While it’s an older model, we generally like Samsung Galaxy Watches and they’re arguably the best smartwatches for Samsung phone users. The Galaxy Watch 6 has good all-day activity tracking and sleep monitoring, plus heart rate tracking, personalized health insights and more.

Razer Kraken Hello Kitty & Friends Bluetooth headset for $47 (47 percent off): Razer makes excellent gaming accessories and this Hello Kitty & Friends version of the popular Kraken headset might be just what you were looking for to add more personality into your Twitch stream outfits. Aside from the cute design, it supports Bluetooth 5.0, comes with 40mm drivers and sports a beamforming microphone.

MSI Thin A15 gaming laptop (15.6-inch, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) for $649 (37 percent off): Along with a Ryzen processor, this MSI gaming laptop sports a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU and a 144Hz screen, and it comes in at just about 4 pounds in weight.

PlayStation 5 Slim Astro Bot bundle for $453 ($106 off): This version of the console has a disc drive and comes with 1TB of storage, plus the ever-popular Astro Bot game.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/walmart-deals-2025-are-live-with-a-bunch-of-anti-prime-day-sales-to-shop-now-230146548.html?src=rss 

Epic Games has dropped its suit against Samsung. “We’re dismissing our court case against Samsung following the parties’ discussions,” Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney posted on X. “We are grateful that Samsung will address Epic’s concerns.” The company filed the action in September.

The lawsuit centered on the company’s Auto Blocker feature, which only allows apps to be installed from the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. Epic claimed this made it difficult for potential customers to use its own Epic Games Store and was a united effort by Google and Samsung to block that platform. Sweeney did not elaborate on what actions Samsung would take as a result of the negotiations.

Epic Games has been quick to take its rivals to court. This suit followed a successful one it filed against Google on claims that the tech giant’s operation of the Google Play Store violated US antitrust laws. The gaming company wasn’t as fortunate when it pursued similar charges against Apple, but after several appeals Epic did force Apple to reverse course on transaction fees and it got Fortnite back in the App Store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-games-ends-its-antitrust-lawsuit-against-samsung-215806962.html?src=rss 

It appeared that Romero Games might have shuttered as a consequence of the sweeping job cuts at Microsoft last week, but the studio is still alive and kicking. In to a post on Bluesky, the company clarified that its latest project is currently canceled after its funding was pulled. The post doesn’t name the publisher due to confidentiality agreements, but it sure seems like Microsoft was the purse behind the new game. Losing the money hasn’t also meant that Romero Games is closing its doors, but the next steps will be difficult ones for the team.

“We now have to reassess the entire staffing of our studio,” the post reads.

The canceled project was billed on Romero Games’ website as a first-person shooter with a brand new, original intellectual property. It may eventually find new life with a new backer. “We’ve been contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line, and we’re currently evaluating those opportunities,” the company said.

Romero Games was founded in 2014 by storied game designers John and Brenda Romero. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/romero-games-says-reports-of-its-death-are-greatly-exaggerated-210905833.html?src=rss 

Apple is making another attempt to appeal the trade ban that forced it to remove the blood oxygen sensor from its smartwatches, Reuters reports. The company was forced to remove the feature in 2024, following a decision from the International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2023 that banned sales of the Apple Watch for violating health tech startup Masimo’s patents.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard new arguments from Apple and Masimo’s lawyers on Monday over the legality of the original ITC ban. Apple’s argument is that the fact Masimo was developing its own smartwatch when Apple released the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020 — the first of the company’s wearables with a blood oxygen sensor — shouldn’t be enough to justify the ban. Masimo disagrees.

The appeals court has heard the company’s arguments before, and even briefly paused the trade ban in December 2023 while the ITC considered Apple’s request for a longer pause. Ultimately, the ITC ruled in Masimo’s favor and denied Apple’s request. Apple removed the blood oxygen sensor in 2024 so it could restart sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the US.

The companies’ fight goes beyond just the blood oxygen sensor — Masimo’s smartwatches were, ironically, found to infringe on Apple patents — but clearly Apple is hung up on the feature. The company’s blood oxygen sensor was never as accurate as the pulse oximeters used in a doctor’s office, but it was part of a fairly comprehensive suite of heart health features on the smartwatch. It’s entirely possible Apple wants to reintroduce it in its watches as part of an even more ambitious health feature down the road.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-is-still-trying-to-overturn-the-ban-on-the-apple-watch-blood-oxygen-sensor-200135856.html?src=rss 

Jack Dorsey just released a decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app that functions entirely over Bluetooth networks, as reported by CNBC. It’s called Bitchat and doesn’t need the internet to work, as there are no central servers.

The Twitter co-founder calls it an experiment in “Bluetooth mesh networks, relays and store and forward models, message encryption models and a few other things.” It works by enabling encrypted communication between nearby gadgets. Basically, it sends messages directly from one device to another, but each device is also a node that widens the network a little bit.

Due to the tech at play here, Bitchat also doesn’t require Wi-Fi or cellular service. It’s designed to keep working even when the internet is actively being blocked. Messages are stored only on the device and they disappear by default without ever connecting to centralized infrastructure. This kind of technology was used during Hong Kong’s 2019 protests to keep communication lines open, though similar apps have been floating around for years.

The app allows for group chats that can be named with hashtags and protected with passwords. It can also forward messages to users who are temporarily offline. A future version of the app will support Wi-Fi Direct to increase the speed and size of the network.

Dorsey has long been a proponent of decentralized communication platforms, as Bluesky was built with an open-source framework that emphasizes user control. Bitchat is available as a beta right now via TestFlight, though it’s currently filled up.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/jack-dorsey-just-released-a-bluetooth-messaging-app-that-doesnt-need-the-internet-191023870.html?src=rss 

Arkane Studios founder Raphael Colantonio had some harsh words for Game Pass in a thread on X, calling it an “unstainable model” that’s “damaging the industry.” He also said that Microsoft’s ability to throw “infinite money” at the platform will eventually wane because “reality has to hit.”

Colantonio continued by saying Microsoft will “kill everyone else, or give up” and that gamers only like the service because “the offer is too good to be true.” He also wrote that these same players will turn on the platform when “they realize the effects on the games,” alluding that the Netflix-style approach allows for underwhelming titles.

His remarks follow last week’s major layoffs, in which Microsoft let go of over 9,000 people. Many of the impacted employees were involved with the company’s gaming divisions and first-party developers. Halo Studios lost people, as did the Candy Crush maker King. Some studios were shuttered and a bunch of games were cancelled. It sucked.

However, the general consensus is that Microsoft’s continued investment in AI played a role in these layoffs, and not the existence of Game Pass. Colantonio says that AI’s involvement “might be a BS excuse.”

While there’s no evidence that the subscription-based catalog service contributed to the job cuts, there is some data that suggests Game Pass hurts the sales numbers of titles under its umbrella. This makes a certain amount of sense. AAA games are $70 and Game Pass is $10 to $20 per month. Anecdotally, I picked up a subscription to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle instead of buying the game directly from Bethesda.

Arkane Studios is the firm behind games like Deathloop, Dishonored and Prey. The company’s currently working on a game based on Marvel’s resident vampire hunter Blade.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/arkane-founder-calls-game-pass-an-unsustainable-model-thats-wrecking-the-industry-175819929.html?src=rss