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      A very special Dealmaster: Last-minute deals you can still grab

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 23 December, 2022 - 13:00 · 1 minute

    A very special Dealmaster: Last-minute deals you can still grab

    Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

    We're entering the last week of the year and, as you might've guessed, there's still a fair amount of last-minute gifts to grab at some of the best prices you'll find all year. In this week's Dealmaster we have some of our favorite big-ticket items matching their all-time low prices, including the latest iPad , Google Pixel's ( 6 , 6a , and 7 ), Sony headphones and earphones , and the latest Apple AirPods Pro , to name a few.

    iPads are the best tablet devices for most people. At their full retail prices, the regular iPad is usually in an awkward position that makes the iPad Air a slightly better buy. With the current discount, the base iPad moves further away from that odd territory and more squarely into frame as a solid all-around buy for tablet seekers. The iPad Air is also on sale for just $100 more at $499 if having the M1 processor is important to you.

    Google's Pixel phone lineup has previously had a similar situation, but the main "issue" here is that the lowest-end Pixel, the Pixel 6a is just too darn good a bargain. That's still the case at its currently discounted $299 price, but we couldn't fault you for buy a $499 ($100 off) Pixel 7 to gain that more buttery 90 Hz refresh rate and, to some, slightly nicer styling.

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      Today’s best deals: Google devices, iPads, headphones, and more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 15 December, 2022 - 13:34 · 1 minute

    Today’s best deals: Google devices, iPads, headphones, and more

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    It's the last couple weeks of the year, and that means holiday deals on some of our favorite tech are still rolling. This week we're seeing Google's Black Friday sale back in effect, bringing the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 series down to prices that match their all-time lows. The same is true for Google's Nest Hub smart displays and Nest Audio smart speakers, as well.

    The Pixel 6a may represent one of the best deals you can get for any smartphone on the market, even at the typical $450 retail price. At $299 it's an even more tantalizing proposition, offering flagship-level speed and processing power and an impressive camera for less than half the cost of similarly spec'd phones. If having a screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate sounds enticing to you, the Pixel 7 is also on sale for $499 , and the 7 Pro is discounted to $749 with its 120 Hz refresh rate.

    Apple's latest iPad and iPad Air have also received discounts that match their record lows. A 64 GB, 10.9-inch iPad is currently going for $399 ( $447 ), while the iPad Air is on sale for $499 ( $550 ). In our review , we dubbed the iPad Air the best iPad for most people, thanks to its blazing-fast M1 processor and Goldilocks-zone price point. Especially at this record-low $499 price, it's hard to beat the value of the latest iPad Air.

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      The weekend’s best deals: A bunch of Apple devices, Surface, Xbox, Meta Quest, and more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 10 December, 2022 - 15:00 · 1 minute

    The weekend’s best deals: A bunch of Apple devices, Surface, Xbox, Meta Quest, and more

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    Black Friday and Cyber Week are technically done and dusted. But the season of deals and record-low pricing continues for a variety of electronics as we wind down the year.

    Among some of the best deals running are a few of Apple's iPads, MacBooks, and Apple TVs. Both the latest iPad and iPad Air are on sale right now for their lowest-ever prices. In our review , we dubbed the iPad Air the best iPad for most people, thanks to its blazing-fast M1 processor and goldilocks zone price point. Especially at this record-low $499 price, it's hard to beat the value of the latest iPad Air.

    If you're an iPhone user looking for a streaming box, the Apple TV is a no-brainer . It's available in HD and 4K models to save you money on things you don't need, has the most user-friendly, paired down interface, and the widest app support of any streaming box, plus it can mirror your Apple devices. It's also a great place to stream Apple Fitness+. The main strike against them is price, but these current discounts put them within striking distance of much simpler, less future-proof devices like Google's Chromecast with Google TV. The latest Apple TVs don't add anything substantial, just HDR 10+ support, if that's important to you. Otherwise, snagging an HD Apple TV for $63 or 4K version for $80 is sure to make most any Apple user happy for some time.

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      Please take the Ars Reader Survey, 2022 edition

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 7 December, 2022 - 19:23

    Cyber man in chrome armor writing answers on a survey while floating on a cyberspace grid, 3D Render, Detailed Render.

    Enlarge / Cyber man in chrome armor writing answers on a survey while floating on a cyberspace grid, 3D Render, Detailed Render. (credit: Aurich Lawson, DiffusionBee)

    Friends, Romans, denizens, lend me your… votes on this survey ! It’s been a few years, but the Ars Reader Survey is back to gauge your thoughts on the work we do and the ways we can do it better. This feedback is crucial to how we operate here at Ars; indeed, when thousands of you take the time to complete these surveys, we’d be fools not to take the results seriously.

    We would really love a broad cross-section of reader responses. Longtime readers—you know us best, and we love you! But readers without accounts, lurkers, casual visitors—we also want to hear from you.

    The survey isn’t long. I suspect most of you will knock it out in under five minutes. We’re asking about content formats, sections of the site, new features you might like to see, community initiatives, and more.

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      Here are all the best Black Friday deals live now

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 24 November, 2022 - 07:36 · 1 minute

    Here are all the best Black Friday deals live now

    Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

    Black Friday is only hours away, tons of deals are already available, and we're constantly updating our list of the best deals as they go live and out of stock. Black Friday and the ensuing days/weeks create a notoriously hectic and overloaded shopping event, but it's also the best time to find year-long low prices on some of our most highly recommended tech. Naturally, we've done days of research and hunting to deliver the best tech deals this event has to offer, and we'll continue to do so as things change shape through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Each brings its own cascade of new deals.

    The biggest retailers and manufacturers, like Apple , Microsoft , Amazon , Best Buy , Target , and Walmart , have all posted early Black Friday deals lists. There's already a lot to highlight for big-ticket items like 4K TVs , Apple iPads , MacBooks , and Surface devices . A range of 4K TVs made our list, from higher-end offerings from Samsung and LG to more reasonably priced options from Hisense and TCL , and much more. All of which received strong reviews from trusted sources like Rtings.com, among many others. If you're looking for smart home devices like smart speakers, video doorbells, and streaming sticks, Amazon and Google have large chunks of their lineups on sale, matching or beating record lows. Likewise with robot vacuums from Roomba. Nintendo's Switches are also on sale, including the Switch Lite , and a bundle for the base Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Switch Online.

    As for smaller items, Target's buy-two-get-one-free deals on books and video games are an excellent value, packed with a good mix of new releases and modern classics. Xbox and PlayStation have also launched video game sales in their respective stores, bringing down prices often by 50 percent on a number of in-demand titles. For stocking stuffers, we have deals on our favorite chargers from Anker, as well as microSD and SSD storage solutions from SanDisk , Western Digital , and Samsung .

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      The weekend’s best deals: Buy two get one free video games, Razer Blade, Apple, GoPro and more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 12 November, 2022 - 21:09 · 1 minute

    The weekend’s best deals: Buy two get one free video games, Razer Blade, Apple, GoPro and more

    Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

    It's the weekend, and that means it's time to round up the week's best deals. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are only two weekends away, which means there's a steady trickle of popular electronics going on sale for year-long low prices. Both Target and Amazon are currently running a "buy two, get one free" deal on over 500 video games and thousands of books . You can peruse the list or easily search it using the landing pages' dedicated search bars if you're looking for something specific. The list includes newer games like Resident Evil 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA '23, Madden '23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and older games like those from the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Mario games, and much more.

    Among the bigger ticket deals, we have a bunch of Apple devices, including iPads , M1- and M2 -powered MacBooks, AirPods Pro ( first and second-gen ), HomePod Mini , and $200 off Apple's 5K Studio display ( $1,799 $2,000 ). We reviewed Apple's 5K display in March, noting that it was one of the few 5K monitors on the market, which largely remains true. That aside, it portrays very pleasing images with great sound to match. It also has Apple's A13 chip within, meaning it can upgrade to include new features as new macOS versions deploy. The sale applies to the more expensive tilt- and height-adjustable version of the monitor.

    A few of our favorite fitness wearables are also on sale for record lows. Garmin's Fenix 7 ( $585 $700 ) is our top pick for the outdoor explorer in our forthcoming guide on the best fitness trackers. We chose the Fenix 7 for its robust hardware and similarly replete software. Garmin uses materials like titanium and sapphire to ensure this watch works just as well 100 meters underwater as it does soaking up solar power atop the highest mountains. The bevy of Garmin's proprietary training metrics, preloaded topographical maps, and wide-ranging activity tracking gives users the most data, and the most useful analysis of any fitness wearable right now.

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      The weekend’s best deals: A bunch of Apple devices, Sony headphones, 4K TVs, and more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 5 November, 2022 - 14:00 · 1 minute

    The weekend’s best deals: A bunch of Apple devices, Sony headphones, 4K TVs, and more

    Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

    It's the weekend, and that means it's time to round up the week's best deals. As we anticipate, each weekend (and every day, really) in November brings with it a new round of discounts on popular, big-ticket items, typically at their lowest prices of the year. Today that includes headphones from Sony, Beats, Jabra, and a deal on refurbished AirPods Max.

    Sony has two great offers on its latest- and last-generation noise-canceling headphones. The frustratingly-named but high-quality WH-1000XM5 ( $348 , $400 ) and WH-1000XM4 ( $228 , $348 ) are discounted to match the lowest prices we've tracked for either. Since Sony released the latest WH-1000XM5, it continues to sell the previous generation WH-1000XM4 alongside it. When we tested the 5 versus the 4, we found it to improve slightly on just about every aspect of the previous gen headphones. They're better for phone calls, a bit lighter, and can charge more quickly. They also cant fold up for storage like the 4. These aren't what we'd call paradigm-shifting leaps, but rather moderate improvements, for the most part. Selling for over $100 less at its current price, the WH-1000XM4 remains a very well-reviewed , capable set of noise-canceling headphones that we couldn't fault you for picking up instead of the newer WH-1000XM5.

    Apple's AirPods Max are our favorite noise-canceling headphones, though. And if you're comfortable buying refurbished, they're currently on discount for $355 ( $475 ) from Woot, shaving off a couple of hundred dollars from the MSRP. Woot's website states that these headphones have no visual scratches or blemishes and come with a 90-day warranty from Woot.

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      Today’s best deals: Black Friday month begins with 4K TVs, iPads, and much more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 2 November, 2022 - 20:17 · 1 minute

    Today’s best deals: Black Friday month begins with 4K TVs, iPads, and much more

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    This week's Dealmaster reflects the rising tide of early Black Friday deals building to the eventual tsunami at the end of November. We're seeing discounts in many of the product categories we expect from Black Friday and the holiday season, including a range of Apple devices, Roomba robot vacuums, Google and Amazon smart home devices, and a handful of 4K TVs, among others. Most of these meet or exceed the lowest prices we've tracked on these devices, and many are labeled "Black Friday deals" from Target and Best Buy. Together, that means these are some of the lowest prices we expect to see all year. Of course, there will be many more discounts on a ton of devices, but you can already grab some solid deals now.

    Well-reviewed 4K TVs from Samsung, Sony, and LG are on sale, matching some of their lowest-tracked prices, and a bunch of iPads from the two latest generations are seeing steep discounts as well. The 2022 M1-powered iPad Air ( $520 , $560) and 2021 iPad Mini $400 , $460 ) are both at their lowest prices we've seen, but you can also snag a 2020 iPad Air ( $349 , $560 ) for a hefty discount, too.

    Amazon's Fire tablets and Echo devices have been discounted to match and, in some instances, exceed the best deals we saw during Prime Day, bringing them right in line with what we expect for Black Friday and the holiday season. We're also seeing discounts on our favorite streaming sticks like the Google Chromecast 4K with Google TV ( $40 , $50 ) and Roku Streaming Stick 4K ( $25 , $40 ). We generally recommend Google's Chromecast over just about any streaming device for its accessible price and streamlined, intuitive functionality that makes it exceedingly easy and genuinely fun to browse media and actually find things you're likely to enjoy. Roku's streaming stick can still offer all the same content (and at a slightly cheaper price), but it's a much simpler system, more akin to a smart TV's interface than a streaming device.

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      Today’s best deals: Google Pixel 6a, Apple MacBooks, 4K TVs, and more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 27 October, 2022 - 12:37 · 1 minute

    Today’s best deals: Google Pixel 6a, Apple MacBooks, 4K TVs, and more

    Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

    Another week, another roundup of today's best tech deals. Today's Dealmaster features a new all-time low ( $998 , $1,500 ) on Samsung's art-inspired "The Frame" 4K TV. This TV has a unique party trick where it can display famous paintings on the screen when not in use, lending itself to a classier decor than just a regular black square. It's also a decent 4K TV and competitively priced with this discount and 55-inch size.

    Reviews from some of our most trusted publications portray The Frame as an upper-mid-level offering in terms of performance, so if the art feature is attractive to you then it shouldn't disappoint in any other areas. However, if you're looking for one of the best in its class (a very similar class to The Frame, as well), then LG's C2 is also on sale ( $1,597, $1,797 ) and receives higher marks than The Frame.

    Speaking of best in class, the Pixel 6a is also seeing a record-low price cut to $299 ( $380 ), making one of the most (if not the most) value-stuffed phones an even better bang for your smartphone buck. We recently reviewed the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, and while we found them to still be the best Android phones available, they didn't improve significantly on the Pixel 6 lineup. The Pixel 7a is yet to be announced but will likely come in mid-2023 and offer similarly incremental improvements over the 6a. For that reason, we'd still feel plenty comfortable picking up a Pixel 6a for $299 and knowing we'll have "a mid-range juggernaut," as our own Ron Amadeo put it in his review .

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