The best October Prime Day deals on Amazon devices

Amazon’s latest Echo Show 8 is one of many discounted Alexa smart home devices. | Photo by Alex Cranz / The Verge

Amazon’s fall Prime Day event is underway, for more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.

Aside from Black Friday, there is no better time to buy an Alexa-infused smart device than one of Amazon’s own Prime Day events. Amazon is more than happy to chuck tons of deals your way in an effort to convince you to adopt an Echo smart speaker or smart display and put one (or a dozen) in your home.

Yes, it’s kind of a small Trojan horse to ensure you’re hooked on Amazon’s smart home ecosystem, but many of these devices offer some handy utility when it comes to around-the-house helpfulness — like playing music in multiple rooms, getting weather and news alerts, making video calls, and controlling connected...

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Nissan’s ‘Hyper Adventure’ concept looks like an EV the Galactic Empire would use

No, that’s not a turret on top, but it might as well be. | Image: Nissan

If your idea of an electric vehicle for the eco-minded outdoor traveler looks like a low-poly spaceship on wheels, then Nissan’s latest concept might be for you. The automaker’s new “Hyper Adventure” is a futuristic SUV that accommodates “the outdoor person’s diverse needs,” including the ability to power campsite equipment and recharge electric Jet Skis using the vehicle’s large battery with vehicle-to-everything, “V2X,” technology.

Nissan didn’t bother to add a pretend battery size and driving range for the Hyper Adventure concept, but it does claim the EV is capable of “months-long” journeys to remote locations with “a good supply of energy.” The vehicle features plenty of interior room to accommodate tents, a kayak, and other gear....

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Google Pixel phones are getting a bunch of funky new ringtones

For a new Pixel, Google has some new ringtones. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google is adding a new section to its Pixel-only Sounds app, with a collection of new ringtones and alarm sounds that it calls “Gems.” As first spotted by 9to5Google, the Gems collection includes 26 new sounds in all, with names like “Prism,” “Ethereal Vibration,” and “Mineral Chimez.” They’ve been rolling out alongside the launch of Android 14 and the new Pixel phones hitting stores this week.

Like the new ringtones in iOS 17, Google’s new sounds are distinctly higher res than your average ringtone. These companies are leaning away from the simple, retro-sounding tones of old and into much richer, fuller sounds that might also be at home in a video game soundtrack or as a loop in Ableton.

There are lots of vibes to choose from here....

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Unity’s CEO is out, but that still may not be enough for developers

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

Unity’s CEO is out, but that may not matter for game developers frustrated with the company.

John Riccitiello has announced he is retiring from his role as the CEO of beleaguered game engine software company Unity. Riccitiello, who previously held the top job at Electronic Arts when it was voted the worst company in America and had some controversial ideas about game monetization, will retire as CEO effective immediately but remain as a Unity employee until April 2024.

Earlier last month, Unity announced it would change its pricing model, making developers pay for games on a per-install basis once certain revenue and download thresholds were met. When the initial price changes were announced, developers reacted angrily, condemning the...

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Adobe created a symbol to encourage tagging AI-generated content

Image: Adobe

Adobe and other companies have established a symbol that can be attached to content alongside metadata, establishing its provenance, including whether it was made with AI tools.

The symbol, which Adobe calls an “icon of transparency,” can be added via Adobe’s photo and video editing platforms like Photoshop or Premiere and eventually Microsoft’s Bing Image Generator. It will be added to the metadata of images, videos, and PDFs to announce who owns and created the data. When viewers look at a photo online, they can hover over the mark, and it will open a dropdown that includes information about its ownership, the AI tool used to make it, and other details about the media’s production.

Adobe developed the symbol with other companies as...

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Qualcomm’s next round of PC chips will fight Apple under the name Snapdragon X

Qualcomm names its ARM PC platform Snapdragon X. | Screenshot by Wes Davis / The Verge

Qualcomm says it has a new name for the next generation of its ARM PC platform: Snapdragon X. The platform is based on the Oryon CPU tech from its 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, a company founded by former Apple engineers who had previously worked on Apple’s A-series iPhone and iPad chips. Arm has filed a lawsuit against both companies over the deal that is set to go to trial in September 2024.

Snapdragon X is a direct salvo aimed at Apple’s M-series chips, which Apple debuted in its MacBook Air in 2020. And if Qualcomm’s platform offers anything close to the performance and battery life of those chips, it could mean a big shift for Windows users, particularly in the lightweight laptop space. Performance and battery life are a delicate...

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Belkin’s StandBy-ready charging puck is on sale for just $14 right now

Belkin’s MagSafe offering is one of the few charging pucks that lets you make use of Apple’s new StandBy feature. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Wireless charging is nearly ubiquitous, but obtaining true MagSafe speeds when charging your iPhone isn’t always cheap. Apple’s first-party MagSafe Charger clocks in at a hefty $39 when it’s not on sale, while MagSafe-certified 2-in-1 chargers can often cost as much as $100. Thankfully, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe is on sale for an all-time low of $14.27 (about $36 off) direct from Belkin when you use promo code PBF23 at checkout. If you prefer a different retailer, it’s also matching its previous low at Amazon, where you can snag it for $19.99 ($30 off) thanks to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event.

Belkin’s charging puck is better than Apple’s charger in just about every way, though it’s regularly more expensive. What makes...

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Priscilla is Sofia Coppola back to her old tricks

Image: A24

Priscilla is the work of a filmmaker playing to her strengths. While director Sofia Coppola might be called a “nepo baby” because her father is Francis Ford Coppola, the point of the insult is to call out unacknowledged privilege. Meanwhile, Coppola’s work is largely about growing up in the orbit of powerful men and what that does to one’s own wants and self-worth. Her take on Priscilla Presley, wife of one of the most famous musicians of his century, is Coppola playing a familiar tune — but one that’s getting a little old.

The film’s title character, Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) is, of course, the wife of Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi). But although Priscilla is in the orbit of planet Elvis, the strength of the film is what it...

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Google is already bringing back the software features it removed because of Sonos’ lawsuit

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Google is moving quickly to restore some of the features and functionality it previously removed from multiple products in response to Sonos’ patent infringement case. After its victory in federal court on Friday, the company plans to undo the restrictions it implemented on speaker groups.

“We recently made a change to speaker groups for Nest speakers, displays, and Chromecast where certain devices can only belong to one speaker group at a time in the Google Home app,” the company wrote on its Nest community blog. “In light of this legal decision we’re happy to share that we will be rolling back this change. Devices will be able to belong to multiple speaker groups and you will no longer run into an error when trying to add a device to...

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The Fall of the House of Usher is Mike Flanagan’s most ambitious horror story yet

Image: Netflix

Flanagan’s latest Netflix series returns to horror-tinged family drama, but with a larger scope.

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The slim PS5 is still huge

Image: Sony

Sony just announced a redesigned PS5 that’s smaller, lighter, slimmer, and available with a detachable disc drive. The original PS5 is a beast — the biggest game console in modern history — so I was curious just how much smaller the new model might be compared to the old one.

I won’t leave you in suspense. I dropped the measurements of the new and old PS5s into CompareSizes.com, and here’s how they compare:

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge, comparison from CompareSizes.com

From left: the original digital PS5, the original PS5, the new digital PS5, and the new disc drive PS5.

So, overall, the new PS5s are still big. But it appears they won’t take up quite as much space in your media center as the original...

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Hollywood’s actors are still on strike

Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images

Hollywood productions are in limbo, even with a new deal between writers and producers, as actors remain on strike over many of the same issues with AI and streaming.

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Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro have fallen to their best price ever

Apple products can be shockingly resistant to price drops — something that’s especially true of the company’s ever-popular AirPods lineup. Fortunately, that does not seem to be the case right now, given you can pick up the latest AirPods and the new AirPods Pro with USB-C on Amazon for $89 ($40 off) and $189 ($60 off), respectively. That’s the best price we’ve seen for the new AirPods Pro, making Amazon’s fall Prime Day event the ideal time to upgrade.

Although the AirPods deal isn’t for the fancier third-gen model, the second-gen earbuds are still plenty compelling despite having launched in 2019. Not only do they get 24 hours of battery life with the included case, but they’re powered by Apple’s H1 chip, which allows for hands-free...

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The best laptop deals for October Prime Day

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon’s fall Prime Day event is underway, for more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.

For this fall Prime Day event, laptops of all shapes and sizes are on sale. If you’re looking for a good bargain but aren’t sure where to start, we’ve filtered out all of the best options for you to consider. Most of the best deals are at Amazon itself today, but there are a few gems at other retailers and we’ve included them here too.

If you want to learn more about our top picks, check out our guide to the best laptops you can buy.

Apple MacBook deals

• The recently released MacBook Air 15is down to $1,049 from its standard price of $1,299. This is one of the best 15-inch laptops you can buy, sporting a...

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Adobe is upgrading Photoshop’s generative AI model — and releasing more for Illustrator and Express

Adobe announces new Firefly Image 2, Firefly Vector, and Firefly Design models at MAX 2023. | Image: Adobe

Adobe is going all in on AI, announcing three new generative AI models today that add powerful features to Illustrator and Adobe Express and vastly improve Photoshop’s text-to-image capabilities. During the company’s Adobe Max event on Tuesday, Adobe unveiled its Firefly Image 2 model — the latest version of the original Firefly AI image generator that powers popular features like Photoshop’s Generative Fill — alongside two new Firefly models for generating vector images and design templates.

Adobe says its new Firefly Image 2 model generates significantly higher-quality images compared to its predecessor, particularly regarding high-frequency details like foliage, skin texture, hair, hands, and facial features when rendering...

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Sony’s new PS5 with a removable disc drive launches in November

The new PS5 models. | Image: Sony

Sony officially announced a new PS5 model with a detachable disc drive and 1TB of internal storage. Often referred to as the PS5 “Slim,” this new model is slightly slimmer and shorter than the existing one but will crucially replace both the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. In the US, the new model will cost $499.99 with the drive included, while the PS5 Digital Edition is $449.99.

The new PS5 has a significant overall reduction in volume by more than 30 percent and an up to 24 percent reduction in weight (depending on which model you pick). Sony now has a bulge at the side of the PS5 for the disc drive, which can be removed and replaced with a side panel.

“There are four separate cover panels, with the top portion in a glossy look, while...

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TikTok introduces a way to post directly from Twitch and CapCut

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok will let creators post videos directly from third-party platforms via a new content posting API, the company announced today.

The new feature, called Direct Post, integrates with platforms like Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Express, Twitch, and CapCut, TikTok’s own editing app, among others. Users will need to link their TikTok account to third-party platforms and be vetted before gaining access to posting.

Once accounts are linked, creators will be able to specify post settings within the third-party app, like who can view the video and whether captions are on, instead of doing it separately within TikTok. If they use any social media management tools, they’ll have the option to schedule future longform videos as well. The...

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Cloudflare, Google, and Amazon explain what’s behind the largest DDoS attacks ever

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Cloudflare, Google, and Amazon all say they successfully mitigated what two of the companies called the biggest DDoS layer 7 attacks they’ve recorded in August and September, though none said who the attacks were directed against. The companies say the attacks were possible because of a zero-day vulnerability in the HTTP/2 protocol they’ve named “HTTP/2 Rapid Reset.”

HTTP/2 speeds up page loading by allowing for multiple simultaneous requests to a website over a single connection. Cloudflare writes that these attacks apparently involved an automated cycle of sending and immediately canceling “hundreds of thousands” of requests to websites that use HTTP/2, overwhelming servers and taking them offline.

Google recorded the heaviest...

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Space OS is trying to bring back the personal computer — this time in the cloud

What if this was your computer’s desktop? Space OS thinks it should be. | Image: Deta / David Pierce

Here’s how your computer should work, according to Mustafa Abdelhai, the co-founder and CEO of a startup called Deta. Instead of a big empty screen full of icons, your desktop should be an infinite canvas on which you can take notes or watch movies or run full apps just by drawing a rectangle on the screen. Instead of logging in to a bunch of cloud services over which you ultimately have no control, you should be able to download software like PC users did 20 years ago, and the stuff you download should be completely yours. All your apps should talk to each other, so you can move data between them or even use multiple apps’ features simultaneously. You should be able to use AI to accomplish almost anything.

And it should all happen in a...

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Google takes a victory lap after Sonos decision, calls for patent reform

Illustration: The Verge

After a federal judge tossed out a $32.5 million verdict against the company, Google is today celebrating a win in its long-running legal battle with Sonos. In a blog post, Google accuses Sonos of “running a years-long, misleading campaign against helpful features in our Google Home devices and smart speaker devices on spurious patent grounds.”

“This decision is good news for our users who will once again be able to seamlessly group and integrate Google smart speakers, and for continued innovation of new features across the industry,” Google’s Halimah DeLaine Prado wrote. Google has had to strip out some casting and multi-room grouping capabilities due to earlier decisions in the patent dispute. I’ve asked the company how quickly it...

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Sony announces new gaming earbuds — not to be confused with the PlayStation earbuds

Image: Sony

Sony Electronics has just announced the $199.99 InZone Buds, its first gaming-focused pair of wireless earbuds. The company says the earbuds are designed to optimize battery life (with up to 12 hours of continuous use) and deliver audio at the lowest latency possible.

The InZone Buds support a variety of devices including the PS5, PCs, and mobile gadgets. In most of those cases, you’ll connect using the included USB-C dongle, which cuts latency to below 30 milliseconds. But the InZone Buds also support Bluetooth LE Audio, which could be a meaningful inclusion if you’ve got a recent high-end Android phone.

Image: Sony

The earbuds come with a USB-C dongle.

Sony is very much touting the 360 spatial audio...

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The best October Prime Day deals under $100

The Amazfit Band 7 is an inexpensive fitness tracker with an OLED display and a killer feature set for the price. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon’s second Prime Day event of the year, Prime Big Deal Days, is well underway, offering you yet another chance to save on everything from headphones to robovacs in the run-up to Black Friday. And while many of this year’s best deals are reserved for 4K TVs, laptops, and other big-ticket items, there are still a number of great bargains available for anyone who’s looking to spend under a hundred bucks.

Per usual, this year’s sub-$100 Prime Day deals cover the entire spectrum of tech. Obviously, Amazon is discounting its own devices — including its colorful Echo Pop and latest Echo Show 5 — but it’s also dropping the price of 2-in-1 chargers, Xbox controllers, and wireless earbuds throughout the two-day sales event.

Below, we’ve...

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Some of our favorite devices are on sale for Amazon Prime Day.

Photo: Epicka

Every month or so, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff — whether it’s pet toys, travel aids, kitchen gadgets, or straightforward tech. And the results are usually very different, very interesting, and a lot of fun.

Since Amazon is currently pushing a lot of deals through its current Prime Day sales, we looked through some of our recent “favorites” articles and found deals on a lot of the tech, kitchen tools, travel aids, and pet toys we like. So we thought we’d list a few in case you have read about them in the past and thought, well, that sort of sounds good, but it’s a bit pricey. (Or — that’s pretty cheap, but maybe I’ll wait until the price goes down some more...)

So here are some of our staff’s most-liked gear and...

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Waymo’s robotaxi service is now available to tens of thousands of people in San Francisco

Photo by AFP / AFP TV / AFP via Getty Images

Waymo is opening up its robotaxi service in San Francisco to tens of thousands of people across 47 square miles of the city — a significant expansion of the company’s driverless ridehail operations.

Last August, Waymo and its driverless rivals won approval from California regulators to operate their commercial service 24/7. The vote was a significant win for the tech industry, which has been battling criticism that its robot cars occasionally obstruct emergency vehicles and cause traffic jams.

Growing the number of people who want to pay Waymo for trips is incredibly important for the company, which spent at least $1.1 billion on autonomous vehicles between 2009 and 2015 — a figure that has assuredly grown exponentially in the...

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The environmental impact of the AI revolution is starting to come into focus

Security fencing around the Google Cloud data center ahead of its ceremonial opening in Hanau, Germany, on Friday, October 6th, 2023. | Photo by Alex Kraus / Bloomberg via Getty Images

If every search on Google used AI similar to ChatGPT, it might burn through as much electricity annually as the country of Ireland. Why? Adding generative AI to Google Search increases its energy use more than tenfold, according to a new analysis.

The paper published today in the journal Joule starts to paint a picture of what AI’s environmental impact might be as it starts to permeate into seemingly every nook and cranny of pop culture and work life. Generative AI requires powerful servers, and the worry is that all that computing power could make data centers’ energy consumption and carbon footprint balloon.

The new analysis was written by Alex de Vries, a researcher who has called attention to pollution stemming from crypto mining...

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The best phone deals of Prime Big Deal Days

You gotta know when to fold ’em on Prime Big Deal Days. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

It feels like we just had Prime Day, but here we are again. For whatever reason, there aren’t a ton of great smartphone deals going into Prime Big Deal Days. Maybe it’s that the timing is off — the iPhone 15 series just came out last month, and the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro were just announced last week and haven’t even shipped yet. But there are still good deals to find on the Pixel 7A, both of this year’s major flip phones, the Samsung Z Fold 5, and more.

Or maybe we’ve passed peak prime day and we’re all going to wake up soon, as if from a bad dream. No? Alright. There are some decent deals over on our main October Prime Day deals post.

The best Android phone deals of Prime Big Deal Days

The best flippin’ deals (and the best folding...

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Motorola’s other Razr foldable is here for $699.99

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Hot foldable summer isn’t quite over. Motorola revealed two new flip phones earlier this year, but until now, only the higher-end Razr Plus has actually reached the market. Now, the standard Motorola Razr is debuting with a smaller 1.5-inch outer screen.

It’s priced at $699.99, making it the least expensive mainstream flip phone in the US by a significant margin — the Razr Plus and Samsung’s Z Flip 5 start at $999.

Motorola is marketing the Razr Plus as the kind of phone that helps you manage your screen time. The smaller screen is, by necessity, really only useful for checking information and messages rather than taking action. There’s also a new feature called Moto Unplugged — you pick which apps and notifications you’ll allow and...

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The best anti-Prime Big Deal Day deals

Sony’s WF-1000XM5, our favorite pair of wireless earbuds, are on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Despite what the name might suggest, Amazon’s fall Prime Day event isn’t just a day filled with deals for Prime members. Thanks to competing sales from retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, everybody can take advantage of steep discounts without needing to pay a monthly premium to join in on the fun.

In some cases, retailers are matching Amazon’s pricing, meaning you can score the same discounts available to Prime members on items like the Kindle Paperwhite and Echo Pop. There are also terrific deals available on other gadgets, including noise-canceling headphones, tablets, and smartwatches. To make the deal hunting easier for you, we’ve rounded up all the discounted all of the worthwhile anti-Prime Day deals below.

The best...

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The best iPad to buy

The Verge

There are more iPads than ever, and it can be tough to sort out which one is the best for you. Fortunately, we’re here to guide you through your next iPad purchase.

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The best October Prime Day deals under $50

A few of Amazon’s newest gadgets, like the third-gen Echo Show 5, are under $50. | Image: Amazon

So far, we’ve seen some pretty good deals during Amazon’s fall Prime Day event, from noise-canceling headphones to laptops. Many of these gadgets are not particularly cheap, however, so unless you have a few hundred lying around, a lot of these deals might feel out of reach.

Don’t feel too disheartened, though, because Amazon is offering plenty of budget-friendlydeals if you know where to look. In fact, we’ve found a bunch of discounted gadgets, from magnetic chargers and PlayStation 5 games to inexpensive fitness trackers and fun smart speakers, many of which could make for great holiday gifts. Best of all, we guarantee none of them suck because we can vouch for each and every one of them.

To help you better sift through Amazon’s...

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