Month: November 2020

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Apple’s brand-new computers based on its own custom M1 chip have both been getting sterling reviews due to their great performance and better life. (Well, almost sterling reviews; The Verge’s Nilay Patel is not a fan of the Touch Bar that still adorns the MacBook Pro, and according to reviewer Chris Welch, the Mac mini has a truly awful speaker. But aside from that…)

Normally, brand-new Apple computers would not be on sale, even during Black Friday. But the M1-powered MacBook Pro 13 has already had a $50-off sale at Amazon, and today Adorama and B&H are discounting the Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro with M1 chips.

For the MacBook Air, both B&H and Adorama are taking $100 off of both the base configuration and the upgraded model…

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Black Friday is here. You know the deal: it’s the biggest shopping day of the year, followed closely by Cyber Monday, which is happening first thing next week. As you’re expecting, there are some great deals on tech, including TVs, laptops, gadgets, video games, and much more — we have it all below. Unlike most years, the ongoing pandemic saw retailers releasing some of their best Black Friday deals earlier than ever, giving shoppers more opportunities to snag gifts. With that, a few deals might look a little familiar, but we’ve aimed to put in just as many brand-new deals that are hitting for the first time.

We’ll be doing our best to keep this post updated during Black Friday, and through the weekend so that you can be certain that…

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Ikea has rolled out scene support in the latest Home Smart software update. Owners of Ikea Tradfri Gateways running the new 1.12.31 firmware can now configure scenes to control several Home Smart products at once, like Ikea smart lights, Sonos-compatible Symfonisk speakers, or Fyrtur blinds. The update also supports Ikea’s new Shortcut Buttons that can be dedicated to executing individual scenes, and should be available to buy shortly for less than $10 / €10.

Once updated, scenes will appear in a dedicated section at the top of the Ikea Home Smart app. One scene suggested by the app is “All off,” which can be configured to turn off every Ikea light in the home while silencing every Sonos-compatible speaker. In the future, such a scene…

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Xiaomi’s budget sub-brand Redmi has never released a smartwatch before, and its first entry turns out to be what you’d expect: a pretty uninspiring design at a pretty attractive price. The Redmi Watch just launched in China for 299 yuan, or about $45.

The watch has a 1.4-inch rectangular display with curved glass, and it comes in black, white, and blue color variants. The silicone strap is available in black, white, blue, green, and pink. There’s a single button on the side of the watch, with everything else being handled by the touchscreen or the Mi Fit app on a paired smartphone.

Other specs include NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, a heart rate monitor, and waterproofing up to 50m. Xiaomi claims that battery life will be good for up…

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Oculus is hosting a big sale on games and experiences for Black Friday, with more discounts coming on Cyber Monday. There are plenty of standalone deals, but Oculus has also curated several bundles, each one on a different theme. And you can gift titles to other people from the Oculus store, too. You’ll just need their e-mail address when checking out.

According to Oculus, all of the games in the bundles below will work with Quest standalone headsets. Be aware, though, that only some of them support cross-buy, meaning one purchase will work both as a standalone app on Quest and when wired to your PC via Oculus Link. All others are exclusive to either Rift or Quest. To avoid confusion, I’ve labeled which support cross-buy. Make sure you…

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Microsoft’s next Surface Pro 8 tablet and its upcoming Surface Laptop 4 have appeared in leaked images online. Twitter user cozyplanes discovered the images at what appears to be an FCC-like filing, noting that the Surface Pro 8 may ship with LTE support. Both devices will likely launch early next year, and don’t appear to feature any major updates to their design.

Windows Central reports that the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4 could launch as early as mid-January, with 11th Gen Intel processors and Intel’s Xe graphics support. The Surface Laptop 4 is also rumored to include AMD processor options, which will likely be a custom Microsoft chip based on AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series.

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Best Buy is offering a pair of great deals on Apple’s recently-released 10.2-inch iPad, with offers of up to $70 off. The retailer has knocked $50 off the price of the base 32GB model, which is now $280 compared to its usual asking price of $330. Meanwhile the 128GB model, which is the model we recommended most people should buy, is $70 less than its usual price of $430 at $360. It’s the lowest price we’ve seen the 128GB model sell for since its launch.

Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad sits at the bottom of its tablet lineup, but it’s still very good at doing the kinds of things iPads have always done well. This year’s model comes with a faster A12 Bionic processor that means the tablet still feels fast and sprightly to use, even if its outward…

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Luxury fashion company Balenciaga will debut its next clothing collection in a video game on December 6th, according to WWD. Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow is an “allegorical adventure” set in the year 2031, in which “a hero avatar advances throughout distinct zones, motivated by tasks and interactions.” As game descriptions go it’s not the most detailed — it could apply to every video game from Super Mario through to Wolfenstein — but obviously the focus here is the company’s fall 2021 collection. Input reports that the Afterworld will be playable through browsers.

Like many other industries, the world of fashion has had to reckon with how to drum up excitement in a year where big in-person launches are impossible. Approaches have…

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