Here are the best Black Friday deals you can grab for under $30

Amazon’s latest Echo Dot is one of the better Echo speakers available — and it’s down to just $22.99. | Image: Amazon

Combing through the deluge of Black Friday deals can be a daunting task, but the most affordable end of the spectrum is always a good place to start. In fact, we’re already seeing plenty of discounts available on budget-friendly gadgets and goodies ahead of the holiday, much of which can be had for under $30. You’re not just getting junk, either.

If you know where to look, it’s not hard to find something useful for your arsenal. Right now, for example, you can get a great smart speaker in the fifth-gen Echo Dot, pick up a classic platformer like Super Mario Odyssey, or even level up your home security with cameras like the Blink Video Doorbell or Ring Indoor Cam. Many of the deals make for great stocking stuffers, too, or serve as an...

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All of our favorite robot vacuums are seeing steep discounts for Black Friday

Shark’s newest robot vacuum is $500 off for Black Friday and is worth buying just so you can call it Sharkira. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Robot vacuums are on sale all the time. But this Black Friday, there are some fairly significant price drops, including on rarely reduced flagship models like Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra and iRobot’s Combo 10 Max. If you’ve been holding out on trying the latest and greatest, now is a good time to dive in.

Deep discounts are also available on some of our favorite midrange and budget bots, and iRobot is slashing prices on its entire line. Read on for our rundown on the best deals on robotic floor cleaners this holiday shopping weekend.

Top-of-the-line robots with big discounts

• SharkNinja’s latest robot vacuum is down to an all-time low of $699.99 ($500 off) at Amazon and SharkNinja’s online storefront. The Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot...

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The best Black Friday smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

The Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale for Black Friday, too. | photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The holiday shopping season is here — which means it’s a great time to snag deals on smartwatches and fitness trackers.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, in particular, are excellent opportunities if you or a loved one have health or fitness-related goals for the year ahead. That said, it can get a little daunting sifting through the dozens of models out there. Not to worry — we’ve rounded up the best deals for smartwatches and fitness trackers out there.

The best Black Friday smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

• The 42mm GPS Apple Watch Series 10 is $70 off at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $329. The larger 46mm model is also $51 off at $359 at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
• The 42mm LTE Apple Watch Series 10 is 14 percent off at...

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The best Black Friday deals we’ve found (so far)

Image: Elen Winata for The Verge

From OLED TVs and iPads to streaming services, games, and e-readers, here’s the very best of what Black Friday has to offer.

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The 12 best TV deals you can grab ahead of Black Friday

4K TVs like the Sony A95L don’t come cheap, but they’re a bit easier to acquire right now. | Image: Sony

Black Friday wouldn’t be Black Friday without a deluge of TV deals. And while we wouldn’t exactly recommend the second-rate models lining the Sunday circulars, there are plenty of TVs already on offer for Black Friday that deliver a satisfying viewing experience and solid feature set — whether you plan on gaming, watching sports, or catching up on the latest TV shows and movies.

Several of the best OLED models are currently sitting at or near all-time low prices right now, including the excellent LG C4 and Sony A95L QD-OLED, the latter of which a panel of judges (including our own Nilay Patel) voted as the veritable “King of TV.” Below, we’re also highlighting briefcase TVs, solid midrange picks under $1,000 like the 65-inch TCL QM85...

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Philips Hue’s Festavia string lights are up to $100 off just in time for the holidays

Although they look fantastic on a Christmas tree, Philips Hue’s vibrant string lights work great year-round. | Image: Philips Hue

If you were planning on putting up the holiday lights this weekend, then you might want to take a look at the Philips Hue Festavia string lights. Normally $219.99, you can currently pick up a 65-foot string with 250 color-changing LEDs from Amazon and Philips Hue for $153.99. If you need a longer strand, the 130-foot string with 500 bulbs available from Amazon and Philips Hue for an all-time low of $251.99 ($108 off).

Philips Hue’s Festavia are some of the best holiday string lights you can buy. They outshine their rivals with rich colors and magical preset scenes and effects, which allows your house to stand out (if you want it to). Of all the models we tested last year, they were also the only ones with a relatively robust IP54 rating...

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Palworld’s new island will be its ‘largest’ and ‘harshest’

Image: Pocketpair

Pocketpair isn’t letting a major lawsuit slow it down. The developer has announced that its Pokémon-like hit Palworld is getting a big update in December, which will add a new island to the game. It’s described as the “largest, harshest, and most mysterious” location in the game, measuring around six times the size of Sakurajima, an island that was added in a summer update.

Aside from the new location, there aren’t many other details about the forthcoming update. But the announcement comes amid a surge in news for the game, which became a viral sensation at the beginning of 2024. In 2025, Palworld will be getting some kind of crossover with the survival crafting game Terraria, and a mobile version is also in the works, helmed by PUBG...

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8BitDo added RGB backlights to the new Xbox version of its mechanical keyboard

The keyboard features eight RGB lighting modes that shine through the translucent keycaps. | Image: 8BitDo

8BitDo has announced a new version of its mechanical keyboard with a design inspired by the transparent green edition of Microsoft’s original Xbox console. The 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard - Xbox Edition features a transparent green shell and matching keycaps similar to the console. But unlike previous iterations of the keyboard, this is the first from 8BitDo to incorporate RGB backlighting.

The Xbox Edition mechanical keyboard is now available for preorder through Amazon for $119.99 with shipping expected to start on January 16th, 2025. 8BitDo also announced the matching 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse alongside the keyboard, which is also listed on Amazon, but not available for preorder yet.

Image: 8BitDo

The...

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Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades to help meet demand

Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Eastman Kodak has temporarily paused all film production. The news comes as part of a shutdown in November allowing the company to upgrade and modernize its Rochester, New York factory, according to a report by Kosmo Foto. The decision was announced by Kodak CEO Jim Continenza during the company’s Q3 2024 quarterly earnings call on November 13th. The improvements will help Kodak keep up with an increased demand for film.

“Our film sales have increased on motion picture and in still film and other films. So on film, we’re doing a shutdown in November, total shutdown,” Continenza said during the earnings call. “We’ve continued to invest in our manufacturing process, while we need to shut down completely to bring light into the dark, right?...

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The best Black Friday deals we’re seeing on Macbooks and other laptops

Apple’s new M4 MacBook Pro is a great computer for its usual $1,599. It’s even better if you nab it for $1,399. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

A laptop is one of the larger tech purchases for most people, so Black Friday is a good time to make that investment. Windows laptops, MacBooks, and even Chromebooks all have their regular cadence of discounts and sales promotions from retailers like Best Buy, but this time of year is often when you can save a few hundred bucks and get a quality machine that should easily last more than a few years.

Yes, the timing can feel slightly awkward because CES is right around the corner in January, and all the big Windows laptop makers debut new generations of products there. But those anticipated models can take another couple of months to actually hit store shelves — and even longer before they see any sizable sales. If you’re in need of a...

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Australia bans social media for under 16s

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Australia just voted into law a social media ban for children under the age of 16. The legislation was approved by Australian lawmakers on Thursday with the aim of protecting the mental health of children online, despite opposition from tech companies who claim the rules are unworkable.

The new law is scheduled to come into effect in 12 months, giving social media companies time to meet the requirements. These include taking “reasonable steps to prevent children who have not reached a minimum age from having accounts.” Children who violate these upcoming restrictions won’t face punishment, nor will their parents — the responsibility lies entirely with platform providers.

“We want Australian children to have a childhood, and we want...

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Apple’s entry-level iPad is on sale for its lowest price ever for Black Friday

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better tablet for $249.99 than the 10th-gen iPad. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple may have announced a new iPad Mini just over a month ago, but if all you want is a basic tablet for entertainment purposes, it’s probably not worth forking out $499 for Apple’s latest tablet. In fact, unless you’re clamoring for Apple Intelligence or a pint-sized form factor, the 10th-gen iPad will suffice. Thankfully, it’s on sale at Amazon with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage starting at $249.99 ($100 off) when you clip the on-page coupon, which drops the tablet to its best price to date.

The A14 Bionic processor in the entry-level iPad isn’t as snappy as the Mini’s A17 Pro chip, but it offers more than enough power for streaming, browsing the web, and video chatting. The iPad can also last up to 10 hours or more when doing basic...

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The hardest part of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is making a choice

Image: BioWare

From romance to character classes, BioWare has made made almost all the game’s options compelling.

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The best deals on the baby gear I recommend to my friends

Image: Snoo

This time last year, I was pregnant with my first child and extremely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions to make. Should we buy a rocking chair or a glider? Which bassinet should we get? What how-to book, white noise machine, or magical schedule would make a newborn sleep? I spent a lot of time asking friends, searching Reddit, and reading blogs to try to figure out what things I would actually need — and then which specific products to buy.

I did not exhaustively test every product against the competition (having a baby is very all-consuming), but I can tell you what gear I frequently use and love with my son, who is now eight months old. A lot of these products get nice discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it’s a...

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Craft 3 is shockingly close to my ideal productivity app

The team behind the note-taking app Craft released a new version this week, after months of beta testing and more than a year in development. It includes lots of changes, but three big ones: new ways to style your documents; a new section called Collections that lets you compile and organize related stuff; and a bunch of new task-management tools.

Craft works on Apple devices, Windows, and the web, and the team says Android is coming eventually. I’ve been testing the beta for the last few months, and I absolutely love it. This new Craft is the best app I’ve tried for managing both big projects and day-to-day life. It’s still missing a few features, particularly on the to-do list front, but it is both beautifully designed and very...

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Casio turns back time with the G-Shock that started it all

Here you can see the original 1983 G-Shock (left) compared to the DW-5000R recreation (right). | Image: Casio

It’s been 41 years since Casio debuted the very first G-Shock digital watch, and its latest timepiece is the brand’s most faithful recreation to date. The new G-Shock DW-5000R is visually near-identical to the original DW-5000C launched in 1983 — right down to the length, and dimple positioning on the watch strap.

The rugged appeal of the original DW-5000C carries plenty of nostalgic charm, but it was a novel concept when it first launched. Its creator, Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe, was inspired to make a damage-resistant timepiece after his mechanical watch shattered on the ground when it fell off his wrist. The resulting G-Shock design was intended to have “triple 10” resistance — meaning a battery life of ten years, water resistance of 10...

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Mark Zuckerberg had dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Mark Zuckerberg. | The Verge | Photo by Tom Williams via Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met President-elect Donald Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.

“It’s an important time for the future of American Innovation,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement shared with The Verge. “Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming Administration.”

While it’s unclear what the two men discussed, the meeting suggests Trump may be softening his view of Zuckerberg. He has said the tech billionaire should be jailed for Facebook’s role in the 2020 presidential race and his personal donations to mail-in ballet initiatives.

Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has intentionally distanced himself from politics this...

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Microsoft says it’s built an Xbox game store on Android but can’t launch it

The Verge

A few weeks ago, Microsoft exec Sarah Bond said that in November, “players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android.” It’s almost December and the feature still isn’t live, but Bond says it’s not Microsoft’s fault.

The problem is that Microsoft would only be able to do it once a court order takes effect that forces sweeping changes for Google’s Play Store on Android, like opening it up to competition and ending the requirement for apps to use Google Play Billing.

3/4: Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned. Our team has the functionality built and ready to go live as soon as the court makes a final...

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The discontinued Steam Deck LCD is on sale

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Valve has dropped the price of the 512GB Steam Deck LCD to $336.75 (about $112 off) as part of its Steam Autumn Sale. The sale runs until December 4th at 1PM ET and includes plenty of game discounts too, but Valve discontinued the 512GB Steam Deck LCD, so it might not make it to the end. (It’s already sold through the 64GB model, which was also discounted.)

It’s a shame to see the 512GB LCD model going away, even if its picture doesn’t pop the same way the Steam Deck OLED does. At its normal $449 price, it’s a more affordable alternative to the OLED model with the same storage, which costs $100 more but plays the same games. Especially if you’re getting it to play AAA bangers like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring — those will fill up your...

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FTC changes its telemarketing rules to cover growing ‘tech support scam’ calls

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), making it easier to protect consumers who are tricked into paying scam tech support companies. The FTC could already go after these fraudster companies if they initiated calls to people — now, they can do the same thing if people call the scammers too.

Fake tech support fraud has been on the rise for many years. The “company” tricks people into thinking they have a virus or other problem by sending scam emails, popups, and other messages. This encourages them to call to a help desk, which then convinces them to pay up.

The FTC has long attempted to wrangle money back from these scammers. But as it explains in a published proposal, a 2021...

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Microsoft is being investigated by the FTC over antitrust concerns

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

Microsoft is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission in a wide-ranging antitrust probe, making it the fifth Big Tech company to fall under such scrutiny in several years.

The agency is looking into Microsoft’s cloud and software licensing business, cybersecurity services, and AI offerings. Bloomberg first reported the news and The Verge confirmed the investigation with a person familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak to a confidential probe.

The demand for information that spans hundreds of pages and culminates over a year of informal discussions with Microsoft competitors and partners. One focus is on how Microsoft bundles productivity and security software with its Azure cloud, per the source. The FTC’s...

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Google Chat’s new huddles make it even more like Teams and Slack

Illustration: The Verge

Google Chat is launching huddles, a Google Meet-powered addition that lets you start a quick call with your coworkers. Google said it would add huddles to Google Chat in customer preview over a year ago, but we haven’t heard about it since then. The company says the feature has started rolling out and should reach all Workspace users by January 6th.

As we noted last year, this is the same feature as Slack’s Huddles, using the same exact name. There aren’t a lot of differences between the various office suites these days, but this is really going the extra mile.

GIF: Google

To get one going, simply click a dropdown menu at the top of a chat and select “Start a huddle.” That’ll pop open an audio call invite that you can...

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Baldur’s Gate 3 has yet another big patch on the way

Image: Larian Studios

Larian Studios isn’t done with big updates for Baldur’s Gate 3 just yet. The studio is planning yet another quality-of-life update for the game with Patch 8.

“Arriving next year, this update will introduce some of the most eagerly awaited features to BG3: cross-play, and photo mode, along with 12 new subclasses,” Larian wrote on its Steam Community page.

Cross play will introduce multiplayer capabilities between any of the game’s platforms including Steam, PC, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation. Cross platform multiplayer progression will also be added.

Another big community ask that Patch 8 will satisfy is the addition of photo mode. The feature will come with a robust suite of options including poses for party members, picture frames, photo...

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The best Black Friday phone deals I’d actually recommend to real people

Big phones, big discounts. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Black Friday, you may have noticed, is no longer a specific date on the calendar. This year especially, with a late Thanksgiving in the US, it’s a vibe. The deals started arriving well before Friday and they’ll last all weekend, just like turkey leftovers. If the new vibes-based Black Friday means shopping for discounted phones and accessories online any day you please rather than standing in line at the mall, well, that’s a vibe I can relate to.

The best Black Friday phone accessory deals

• Moft is offering between $10 and $60 off your order of phone accessories like its combination phone stand/wallet, which is a favorite of this phone-case-hater.
• AirTags, which are always a good stocking stuff, are on sale in a four-pack for $24.99...

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Kobo’s color e-reader is a far better deal than Amazon’s new Kindle Colorsoft

The Kobo Libra Colour is $80 cheaper than the Kindle Colorsoft and comes with stylus support. | Image: Rakuten Kobo

The Kindle Colorsoft offers an impressive color screen, but it’s not for everybody. Luckily, if you don’t want to lock yourself into Amazon’s ecosystem, the Kobo Libra Colour is an excellent alternative that’s on sale for an all-time low of $199.99 ($20 off) at Amazon and Target for Black Friday. You can also buy it for the same price from Rakuten Kobo, and if you purchase it with a $50 gift card, the retailer is throwing in a $10 credit that’s good toward books, styli, and audiobooks.

Personally, I am a big fan of the Kobo Libra Colour. The waterproof e-reader features the same color E Ink technology used in the Kindle Colorsoft, along with the same crisp 300ppi resolution, which is halved in color mode. There are some subtle...

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Belkin recalls its BoostCharge Pro power bank due to fire risk

Belkin is recalling its BoostCharge Pro due to a manufacturing defect that can cause overheating and the risk of fire. | Image: Belkin

Belkin is recalling all of its BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K and asking owners to stop using them immediately. The company says a manufacturing defect can cause the charger’s “lithium cell component to overheat” in some circumstances, potentially causing a risk of fire.

The recalled charger can be identified by looking for its model number, BPD005, printed in white text on the back of the charger, behind its Apple Watch charging pad. There have been no injuries reported as a result of the issue, but Belkin says that consumers should immediately stop using the charger, disconnect it from power sources and other devices, and place the BoostCharge Pro in a “safe, dry location away from anything...

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The DJI Mini 3 is $100 off and matching its record low for Black Friday

The Mini 3 won’t cost a fortune to replace if you break it.

I’ve been itching to get my hands on an easy-to-use hobbyist drone that I won’t hate myself for eventually breaking. The DJI Mini 3 has been at the top of my list: it hits the mark as a compact drone that you can pilot without having to attend aviation school, and I’ll probably go ahead and bite the bullet now that it’s back down to its record-low price — especially considering I may eventually lose my chance to get one at all. You can get the smallish aircraft right now for $329 ($90 off) at DJI’s online store for Black Friday.

The package featured here includes a battery (extras cost $65 each) and DJI’s RC-N1 remote. The latter doesn’t have an integrated display, but you can add one that does for another $100. If you’re just looking...

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xAI could soon have its own app

The Verge

Elon Musk’s xAI could soon make its next move to compete with OpenAI: launching a standalone app for its Grok chatbot.

Musk created xAI as an alternative to OpenAI, the company he helped found but later distanced himself from over ideological differences. Now, The Wall Street Journal reports, xAI is planning to launch an app as soon as December that could go head-to-head with OpenAI’s ChatGPT as it races to scale up.

Currently, users can access Grok through X, but only if they subscribe to the service. Citing unnamed sources, the Journal reports that xAI is also behind customer support features for Starlink, part of Musk’s other company, SpaceX. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT,...

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Brutalist architecture inspired this blocky wireless speaker

Transparent’s new wireless speaker was inspired by brutalist architecture. | Image: Transparent

The design of Transparent’s latest wireless speaker looks like the complete opposite of the glass-enclosed see-through speakers that helped originally launch the brand. The $4,000 Brutalist speaker is made from aluminum, and although it stands around 23-inches tall in person, without context it could be easily mistaken for a minimalist office tower designed by an architect still inspired by Britain’s post-war architectural style.

Transparent’s speaker features a pair of three-inch tweeters positioned at 90-degree angles that work alongside a 6.5-inch subwoofer positioned on the opposite side of them. The company suggests its design is most effective at filling a room with sound when the speaker is positioned in a corner so sound can...

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Can AI help connect more solar and wind farms to the power grid?

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

The US Department of Energy (DOE) thinks AI can speed up the process of connecting new energy projects to the power grid.

It announced $30 million in funding now available through its Artificial Intelligence for Interconnection (AI4IX) program. The DOE is interested in fostering partnerships between grid operators and software and energy project developers to get new sources of electricity online faster.

The plan is to use AI to streamline the interconnection application process that’s currently painfully slow. The delay is holding up efforts to get new solar and wind farms up and running. Pressure is building to clear that backlog with electricity demand on the rise — ironically in no small part because of the artificial intelligence...

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