jeudi 6 octobre 2022

The best anti-Prime Early Access Sale tech deals happening at Target

The best anti-Prime Early Access Sale tech deals happening at Target
The Target logo over a repeating pink and white bullseye illustration
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

If you’re not an Amazon Prime member (or prefer not to shop at Amazon), Target’s competing with the upcoming Prime Early Access Sale with deals of its own — no membership needed. Through Saturday, October 8th, the retailer is holding the Target Deal Days event, offering discounts on a variety of tech products. These include gaming accessories, headphones, TVs, and a range of other items that are up to 50 percent off for a limited time. Plus, if you end up finding a cheaper price elsewhere, Target will match it within 14 days of purchase until December 24th. The retailer is also offering free, contactless pickup if you want to go that route.

We’ve sorted through the full offering of deals to compile a list of the best tech deals at Target. And if you do change your mind and decide you want to check out what Amazon’s selling, be sure to check out our guide to the best Prime Early Access deals on Amazon devices, too.

Target’s Deal Day sale deals

Sony’s excellent WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds are on sale.

Earbuds deals

TV and streaming stick deals

Smart display and speaker deals

Gaming deals

Image: Allison Johnson
Target is throwing in gift cards when you buy Google’s new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro phones from them.

Smartphone deals

Tablet and e-reader deals

Smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

Home security deals

  • Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Plus is on sale for $139.99 ($60 off). It features a 1080p camera and custom motion detection zones, though you’ll have to pay extra for some Ring features like stored video recording.
  • Ring’s hardwired Ring Video Doorbell is available for $39.99 ($25 off). This also features a 1080p HD video doorbell as well as night vision support and custom motion detection zones, though again, you’ll need to pay extra for some Ring features.
  • Target is discounting various Blink Outdoor cameras starting at $59.99 for just one instead of $99.99. These battery-powered cameras offer a 1080p resolution, work with Alexa, and come with motion detection alerts.

Robot vacuum deals

Miscellaneous deals

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mercredi 5 octobre 2022

Apple iPhone 14 Plus review: a big deal

Apple iPhone 14 Plus review: a big deal

Excellent battery life and a large display make the 14 Plus upgrade-worthy

This is the new iPhone that most people want. It’s not the iPhone with the neat new display features or a high-resolution camera. It’s the iPhone with a big display and a battery that goes for days.

That’s really all you need to know about it, honestly. If you’d rather have an iPhone with the best possible battery life than an iPhone with the very newest features, then the iPhone 14 Plus is the one for you.

The 14 Plus is the big-screen version of the standard iPhone 14. This year, rather than going iPhone Mini / iPhone Big, Apple went iPhone Big / iPhone Bigger. It shares nearly all the same features but offers a 6.7-inch screen compared to the standard 14’s 6.1-inch display. It also claims the best battery life of any iPhone — officially, Apple calls it “all-day battery life,” but in my experience, you can get much more than that.

Oh, and there’s one more distinct difference: the Plus starts at $899, while the regular 14 starts at $799. That makes it the least expensive 6.7-inch iPhone released yet, but it’s still far from cheap.

How we rate and review products

What the iPhone 14 Plus doesn’t include are the new display features on the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. That’s the shape-shifting notch called Dynamic Island that displays system status indicators and an always-on display that shows a dim version of your wallpaper even when the screen is locked. They’re handy features, but they’re more of a sign of what’s to come for the iPhone than must-haves. Instead, the 14 Plus provides the kind of quality-of-life upgrades that a lot of people want from a new phone right now.

The 14 Plus’ display features a slightly higher 2778 x 1284 resolution than the 14’s, so even though it’s much bigger, it maintains roughly the same pixels-per-inch (458ppi compared to 460ppi on the 14). That means images look just as sharp on this screen — they’re just, you know, bigger, and you can see more emails or parts of a webpage before you need to start scrolling.

iPhone 14 and 14 Plus side-by-side with screens on
There’s more to see on a bigger screen. iPhone 14 (left) and iPhone 14 Plus (right).

There’s no ProMotion, super-smooth scrolling 120Hz refresh rate here, which is a shame. Apple’s still reserving that for the Pro models, long after fast refresh rates have become the norm for Android phones at the same price. It’s not something you’ll miss if you’re coming from a phone with the same standard 60Hz refresh rate, but I did notice it when I switched from the 14 Pro — maybe even more so because the screen is so big. On the other hand, the lower refresh rate is less power-intensive and probably contributes to the 14 Plus’ excellent battery performance. I think that’s a tradeoff most people will happily live with.

This is probably an obvious point, but the feeling of having more visual space while using this phone — especially compared to a 6.1-inch model — is real. More text fits onto its screen, and games and videos are a little more immersive. But it also very much handles like a big phone. It’s a real struggle to use it one-handed, even with the iOS 16’s “reachability” UI controls. Lots of people get along with a big phone just fine, but the 6.1-inch 14 and 14 Pro feel much more comfortable in my hand.

Genshin Impact on the iPhone 14 Plus’ screen
Gaming is more comfortable on a big 6.7-inch display.

It may be big, but the 14 Plus is lighter than I expected it to be. It weighs 7.16 ounces (203g), or just about an ounce (28g) more than the iPhone 14 — and a little less than the 6.1-inch 14 Pro. Its light weight was something I appreciated every time it came clattering out of the pocket of my joggers because this phone doesn’t truly fit in any pants pocket I own. In use, it makes the 14 Plus feel a little easier to handle than the Pro Max iPhones.

The screen is this phone’s big draw, but the extra real estate lends itself to the 14 Plus’ other killer feature: battery for days. MacRumors reports that there is indeed a much bigger cell in the 14 Plus than in the standard 14 — on par with the battery in the 14 Pro Max. But because the 14 Plus doesn’t have all of those fancy, new, power-hungry display features, it manages to eke out better battery performance.

Embargoed until 10/6/22 at 12:00AM ET
The 14 Plus’ battery can deliver multiple days of use on a single charge.

Apple’s claim of the “best battery life in an iPhone” isn’t an exaggeration. Typically, a day of moderate use with about two hours of screen-on time and plenty of time away from Wi-Fi only drained the battery by about 25 percent in my experience. I even managed to get three days of use on a single charge. Reader, I can’t remember the last time I used an iPhone that comfortably made it through multiple days of use.

Not everyone should expect multiday performance. With heavier use like extended periods of gaming or video streaming, two days feels more reasonable, and that might mean pushing into the single digits by the end of day two. My two hours of screen-on time isn’t a whole lot, but I didn’t take it easy on the 14 Plus by any means. Throughout each day, I used some navigation, connected to 5G rather than Wi-Fi as often as I could, and recorded some short video clips. And at the end of every day, I felt like I should have pushed the phone’s remaining battery percentage much lower than I had. Color me impressed.

In every other way, using the iPhone 14 Plus feels like using the iPhone 14, which feels like using the iPhone 13. Performance is snappy, and the A15 Bionic chipset recycled from last year’s 13 Pro keeps up with just about anything you can throw at it. There’s no physical SIM tray, as on the rest of the 14 series, so be prepared to get acquainted with eSIM.

There are a couple of new emergency features included on the 14 Plus (also available on other 14 and 14 Pro models): Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via Satellite. Crash Detection uses multiple phone sensors and inputs to automatically detect when you’ve been in a car accident and call emergency services. We haven’t tested it, but early reviews are mixed. On the one hand, it can sometimes work too well. On the other, it seems to rely on a lot of signals to indicate that you’re actually in a moving car, which might cause it to miss some crashes if, for example, you haven’t been driving for very long before an accident.

Satellite SOS is a feature that’s coming in November and helps relay a message to emergency services when you’re out of cellular range. It might cost extra down the line, but for the first two years, it’s included free with the iPhone 14 Plus. Even if you don’t end up needing it, you will likely be able to try it out to see how it works.

Embargoed until 10/6/22 at 12:00AM ET
The iPhone 14 (left) and iPhone 14 Plus (right) both include a capable A15 Bionic processor.

The 14 Plus includes the very same cameras as the 14, which means a 12-megapixel f/1.5 main camera with sensor-shift stabilization, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 12-megapixel selfie camera with autofocus. There’s no high-res, 48-megapixel sensor here (or the nice 2x crop for Portrait Mode that comes with it), but the 14 Plus does gain the benefits of Apple’s updated image processing called Photonic Engine.

What that boils down to is better low-light performance, especially from the ultrawide and selfie cam, even though the hardware isn’t exactly new or special. You can read a little more in-depth analysis in my iPhone 14 review, but the short version is that this is a very good camera system — not solely worth upgrading for, but it’ll be a pleasant update if you’re coming from an iPhone 11 or older.

When I reviewed the iPhone 14, I couldn’t find a compelling reason to pick it over the iPhone 13. The 14 Pro, maybe, if you want the latest and greatest features. But the standard 14’s improvements over the 13 are so minor that most people would be better off living without them and saving a little money.

The iPhone 14 Plus, on the other hand, actually does make an argument for spending a little more. Its $899 price tag is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s lower than the iPhone 14 Pro’s starting price of $999 — and lower still than the $1,099 you’d need to pay for the 6.7-inch 14 Pro Max. For $899, you get a significant boost in battery life, no matter what iPhone you’re upgrading from. And a phone with good battery life now stands a better chance of providing healthy battery life a few years down the line when it inevitably degrades. Given that Apple will likely support the 14 Plus with at least five years of software updates, this device could really go the distance.

There’s the screen, too, and as we learned from the iPhone Mini Experiment, people don’t want small phones. Big screens let you see more and scroll less — the fact that the phone isn’t really pocketable or usable with one hand doesn’t seem to bother most people. This isn’t the best big phone screen Apple offers, but it’s still very good.

If it’s time for an upgrade and you’ve been eyeing the big iPhone, but you’d rather get the best battery life possible than the very latest features, then the iPhone 14 Plus is for you. It is an iPhone with a really big screen and great battery life for under $1,000. That’s a combination of features that a lot of people will find appealing, and the 14 Plus delivers on its promises.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

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Blizzard gives most Overwatch 1 players a pass on verifying phone numbers to play Overwatch 2

Blizzard gives most Overwatch 1 players a pass on verifying phone numbers to play Overwatch 2
Key Art graphic depicting three new heroes in Overwatch 2 from left to right: Sojourn, an African Canadian dark skinned woman; center is Junker Queen, a tanned and muscular Australian woman with a blue mohawk; rightmost is Kiriko, a Japanese teenage shrine maiden and street vigilante
Blizzard

Two days into the launch of Blizzard’s revamped and now free-to-play Overwatch 2 experience, a Wednesday night post on its support forum addressed problems players have had with connections, SMS Protect, and missing account items or account merge troubles.

In terms of the connection issues and long queues for entry that are keeping many of us stuck at the loading screen (Login queues, server crashes, and stability problems), a critical login server has been patched to help it hold up under the load. Blizzard says it’s also slowly scaling up the nodes in its player databases to help them handle the onrush of players diving in.

Beyond the ability to connect to the servers is issue number one for a game that takes place entirely online, but there are other major headaches for Overwatch fans, and Blizzard discussed those too. For the SMS Protect system, which required all Overwatch 2 player accounts to have a registered postpaid phone number (blocking some prepaid services like Cricket Wireless and VOIP setups like Google Voice in an attempt to cut off smurfs, trolls, and hackers), it’s relaxing that requirement for any people who’ve both played Overwatch 1 and have a connected Battle.net account.

If you ever played the first game on PC then that definitely includes you, while anyone who played the console editions since June 9th, 2021, is also definitely in that group. The change won’t take place immediately but is expected to roll out on Friday.

Hopefully, it should address players who found themselves cut off from the game, as well as accounts they’d poured time and money into when Overwatch 2 launched on Tuesday. It’s unlikely to fix everything for everyone, however, and restricting the game to only people who have approved postpaid phone service is still going to be an issue for many people in the US and around the world who either share a phone number, don’t have one at all, or simply use a provider Blizzard doesn’t approve of.

Last but not least, for those of us who have overcome all of those hurdles and logged in only to find our accounts missing many items, play history, and other associated data, Blizzard says there are a few problems it’s working to fix, with about half of the reports concerning accounts that haven’t been merged, and the other half are accounts that have merged, but the data hasn’t populated within Overwatch 2 yet.

According to the post, “In all cases, no player data has been wiped or lost. We have a client-side fix for this that cannot be deployed until next week, so we are exploring server-side fixes and will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

It’s also already rolled out one UI fix to help console players get their prompt to merge accounts if necessary, but the basic details on cross-progression and account mergers are listed here. If you’re still not getting the prompt, Blizzard said there are more fixes on the way. It’s also resolved a bug that stopped many people with properly merged accounts from logging in at all. For people who are missing characters that should be unlocked, logging back in should fix it, and if it doesn’t, then they’re encouraged to open a ticket with support.

If none of these things happen to cover your problem — Blizzard can’t help you hit more headshots, I’ve asked — then there’s still a longer list of known issues you can check out.

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Former Uber security chief found guilty of concealing data breach

Former Uber security chief found guilty of concealing data breach

Joe Sullivan failed to report a cybersecurity incident to authorities in 2016

A San Francisco jury has found Uber’s former chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, guilty of criminal obstruction for failing to report a 2016 cybersecurity incident to authorities.

Sullivan, who was fired from Uber in 2017, was found guilty on counts of obstruction of justice and deliberate concealment of felony, a spokesperson from the US justice department confirmed on Wednesday.

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Elon Musk Offered to Buy Twitter at a Lower Price in Recent Talks

Elon Musk Offered to Buy Twitter at a Lower Price in Recent Talks Before Mr. Musk renewed his $44 billion proposal, he and the company haggled in discussions that ultimately did not advance.
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Know the price-matching policies for Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others

Know the price-matching policies for Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others
Opening day at the Amazon 4-Star brick and mortar store located in Soho in New York City.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Nothing is more frustrating than buying a new pair of headphones, an OLED, or a backpack just to find out that you could have gotten it for a lot cheaper somewhere else. In order to keep customers happy — and prevent them from going elsewhere — many retailers offer price-matching policies where they promise to match a lower price that you’ve found elsewhere. That’s information that could come in handy, especially given Black Friday is right around the corner and Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale kicks off on October 12th.

What follows are the price-matching policies for a variety of major retailers. There are a few things to make note of here. First, all price-matching policies have a number of rules attached to them. We’ve summarized some of the rules here, but you’d be advised to go to the links that we’ve provided and read the policy carefully. Second, and logically enough, retailers that serve as marketplaces for other sellers, such as Amazon or Costco, don’t have price-matching policies.

Finally, some retailers that do have price-matching policies suspend them for special occasions, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. But at other times of the year, these price matches can save you a nice amount of cash. So keep them in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind: there are exceptions to most rules. So if you’re looking for a deal on a product and you know of a lower price elsewhere (or one that was offered previously at the same retailer), it never hurts to call (and in some cases, live chat from your PC or phone) and ask if they’ll match the price. After all, what do you have to lose?

Price-matching policies for retailers and companies

If Best Buy offers a better discount than Target on the new Kindle Paperwhite, Target will refund you the difference.

Amazon

Amazon doesn’t offer price matching.

Target

Target will match the price of an item that you find for less either at Target or at a select list of competitors if you ask for it at the time of or within 14 days of your purchase. You can either bring your proof into the store or call for online purchases at 1-800-591-3869.

If you buy a product in-store or online starting October 6th, Target will match it until December 24th. However, this price-matching policy does not apply to doorbusters and competitors’ lightning sales, like those Amazon offers.

Best Buy

Best Buy’s Price Match Guarantee states that a product could be eligible for a price reduction if it’s new, identical to the competitor’s product, immediately available at a qualifying competitor’s store or on its site, and not shown on Best Buy’s exclusion list (which includes “items for sale the Friday before Thanksgiving Day through the Monday after Thanksgiving”).

You have to either communicate with Best Buy via its on-site chat, making sure you’re able to show the ad or website with a lower price, to get the difference. Alternatively, you can call 1-888-237-8289 or visit any Best Buy or Pacific Sales store.

Best Buy will also, upon request, match its previous in-store or online price as long as it’s done during the return and exchange period.

Walmart

Walmart’s online store offers price-matching on items purchased from Walmart stores if the item is in stock at Walmart.com, however, the policy doesn’t apply to those who live in Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico.

Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge
Apple doesn’t offer a price-matching policy, though you can price match on devices like the iPhone 14 Pro elsewhere.

Apple

While we’ve seen some claims that Apple will price-match up to 10 percent for products bought at certain major retailers, there is no official policy on the company’s website.

Apple does say that if it reduces its price on an Apple-branded product within 14 days from when you received your item, you can visit an Apple Store or contact the Apple Contact Center at 1-800-676-2775 to request a refund or get credit for the price difference. However, that doesn’t apply to special sales like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

B&H Photo

B&H says that it might be able to honor a current lower price or match the price of a competitor, but it does so on a case-by-case basis. You have to contact its Customer Service team using the on-site chat, email, or by calling (800) 606-6969 / (212) 444-6615.

Costco

Costco does not price-match with competitors. However, according to the website, it will issue a credit for the difference between the price you paid and a promotional price if you bought the item online at Costco and requested the credit up to 30 days before the change in price. If you bought the product from a Costco warehouse location, visit the membership counter at the store where you made the purchase.

Dell

Before you make a purchase, Dell will price-match a new computer that shares the same key features and specs as the one you bought (such as memory, hard drive capacity, processor, etc.) from Dell, HP, Apple, or Lenovo. You can call 1-888-969-4503 or chat online to run a price check, but you’ll need to provide a link to the competitor’s product.

You can also contact the company about a price difference within 30 days of purchase. However, there is a long list of restrictions, and none of this is available between Thanksgiving Day and the Monday following Thanksgiving (or on Green Monday).

Image: Sean Hollister / The Verge
If DJI reduces the price of the new DJI Avata within seven days after you buy it, you could receive some store credit.

DJI

We could not find any evidence of a price-matching policy at DJI. However, if DJI reduces the price on a product within seven days from when you received it, you can contact the company within that time at http://www.dji.com/contact to request a refund or credits for the difference between the price you have been charged and the current selling price. This doesn’t include special sales events, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

eBay

If you find a lower price from a qualifying competitor on an eBay Deal item that you bought within 48 hours — or on another product with the “Best Price Guarantee” symbol attached to it — you’ll get “110 percent” of the difference. That means eBay will give you an eBay coupon for the difference in price between what you bought the item for and what the competitor is selling it for, plus an additional 10 percent of that price difference. Note, however, these coupons will expire within 30 days of being issued.

The products must be new and unopened and identical to the competitor’s item. You have to contact eBay Customer Service, and if they verify your claims are legitimate, you will receive the coupon and be able to use it toward your next eBay purchase.

GameStop

GameStop does not mention an official price-matching policy on its website. In August, however, GameStop tweeted that the store will price-match items sold and shipped by Amazon as long as they’re available online or in-store. Although GameStop only mentioned Amazon in the tweet, others have reported that the store will price-match items purchased from Target and elsewhere.

Image: Monica Chin / The Verge
You could potentially buy HP’s Spectre x360 14 at a lower price thanks to HP’s price matching policy.

HP

According to HP’s website, the company will match the current pre-tax price for new comparable PCs and identical HP printer, display, and accessory model numbers from nationally recognized online retailers, such as Dell, Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy. The specs have to be the same; however, the product model number does not need to be identical for computers. You have to ask for the match at the time of purchase by calling 1-800-888-0229. You can’t request a price match via email or chat, though, and the policy does not extend to items bought during promotional periods.

If you find a comparable product at a lower price during the return period, you can email HP at myhpsales@hp.com. This only applies to branded HP products and doesn’t apply to products purchased during certain sales events, like the week of Thanksgiving and the week afterward.

Google

According to Google, the company doesn’t currently offer a price-match guarantee.

Lenovo

Historically, Lenovo has offered a price-matching policy, but right now its website doesn’t mention one. That said, we will update this article if anything changes.

Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
If Microsoft lowers the price of its new Surface Laptop Go 2, Microsoft could refund you the difference.

Microsoft

Microsoft will refund you the difference if you discover a lower price on a product purchased at the Microsoft Store until January 2nd.

At other times, Microsoft will refund you the difference if it lowers the price of a product within 30 days of purchase, though this doesn’t apply to special sales events like Black Friday.

You can contact Microsoft’s Sales and Support team at 1-877-696-7786 to get a refund.

Newegg

Newegg offers price-matching on select items; these products are identified by the label “Price Match Guarantee” that appears in the price box on the right of the product page. This applies whether you find that lower price on Newegg or at what Newegg judges to be a major retailer. You need to notify Newegg of the lower price within 14 days of purchase.

The price-match guarantee is not valid during major holiday sales events, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Green Monday.

Sam’s Club

You can request a price match against other Sam’s Club stores, but not competitors. Note that this doesn’t apply to items on markdown or clearance.

Sonos

We didn’t find anything on Sonos’ website regarding the company’s price-matching policy.

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Here are the best iPad deals right now
The 2020 iPad Air and new iPad Mini have the same design and shape as the iPad Pro
Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While some of the best iPad deals typically occur around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere you may be interested in. Plus, with Amazon’s Prime Early Access sale about to drop on us, it should hopefully present some nice discounts.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, including the latest ones equipped with Apple’s powerful M1 chip.

The best iPad (2021) deals

Announced over one year ago during Apple’s iPhone 13 event, the 2021 iPad is Apple’s latest entry-level tablet that replaced the eighth-gen model from 2020. The ninth-generation iPad starts at $329, just like its predecessor, though the entry-level model now has 64GB of storage instead of 32GB. This base configuration with Wi-Fi is currently available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $299, which is a fairly common sale price we see. The next bump up in storage, to 256GB, normally costs $479, but Walmart has that configuration with Wi-Fi for $399. This is an impeccable deal, especially as it normally only drops to $429. If you prefer your iPad to include cellular connectivity, the 64GB LTE-equipped configuration runs $459, and the 256GB variant is $609. The 64GB version is currently $30 off at Best Buy and the 256GB model is $50 off.

The updates for the 2021 model include a faster A13 Bionic processor and a 12MP wide-angle camera with Center Stage, a feature designed for keeping you framed up and centered while on video calls. Many other features carry over from its predecessor; the new entry-level model has the same 10.2-inch display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, and a Smart Connector for connecting a Smart Keyboard. It’s also the last holdout with a 3.5mm headphone jack (at least for now).

The best iPad Mini (2021) deals

The sixth-generation iPad Mini has a larger screen than its predecessor, along with a top-of-the-line processor, support for USB-C, and options for 5G. It has forfeited its 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated home button in the process, but overall, it’s a solid device that brings a fully refreshed design to Apple’s small tablet form factor.

The changes and refinements to the new iPad Mini come at a heftier price, however, and the new 64GB Wi-Fi model now starts at $499. Electing for 256GB of storage brings the price up to $649, while the 5G cellular models are $649 for 64GB and $799 for 256GB. These are some big numbers for a small iPad, and the larger iPad Air might be worth considering if you prefer your dollar to go further with more screen real estate. But if you want the latest and greatest from Apple in a smaller format, this is where the action is.

There have been some sizable discounts on the sixth-gen Mini recently, where we saw it drop by up to $100. Right now, however, the best price to be had on the 64GB base model is a more modest discount of around $40 at Amazon, where it’s $459.98 for any of its four colors. If you’re in need of additional storage, Walmart also has the 256GB Wi-Fi model for $599 in the starlight color — a slightly better discount of $50. As for the 5G-equipped variant, which usually sells for $649 and starts with 64GB of storage, it’s available on Amazon in starlight for $599 ($50 off).

If the prior-generation iPad Mini has given any indication, sizable deals on the 2021 iPad Mini can be light and infrequent, partly because it has such minimal competition in its product segment.

The best iPad Air (2022) deals

The latest iPad Air usually costs $599 but is currently available at a (slightly) discounted price. Walmart and Amazon have both knocked $40 off the 64GB Wi-Fi-equipped configuration, bringing the 10.9-inch tablet down to $559 in various colors. It’s not a massive markdown by any stretch, but it’s the lowest price you can find right now for the tablet that came out earlier in March.

For those who crave more storage on the new iPad Air, the 256GB configuration is available for $679 in space gray from Amazon or select colors from Walmart. That reflects a $70 discount off the usual price of $749, which is the lowest we’ve seen for this configuration.

The 2022 iteration of Apple’s lightweight tablet is similar in terms of its capabilities when measured against the previous-gen model but still offers a handful of iterative upgrades. The most pronounced improvement is the M1 processor, which offers better performance, and the front-facing 12MP camera comes equipped with Apple’s Center Stage feature that helps to keep a moving subject centered when recording video or during video calls.

The best iPad Pro (2021) deals

The 2021 iPad Pro stands at the top of Apple’s tablet line. It now shares the same processor as the cheaper iPad Air but still features standout reasons to opt for a Pro — such as Face ID unlocking and more base storage. Also, if display quality is the most important factor in your purchasing decision, the 12.9-inch 2021 iPad Pro is the way to go. The larger variant of the fifth-gen model makes use of a Mini LED display, which is engineered to produce deeper blacks and better contrast, much like OLED technology. Additionally, both the 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pros tout Apple’s blazing-fast M1 chip as well as features like Center Stage. They’re still the most impressive and expensive iPads to date, with the 11- and 12.9-inch configurations typically starting at $799 and $1,099, respectively.

The 11-inch, 128GB iPad Pro with Wi-Fi starts at $799. While we’ve previously seen the price of this model drop to as low as $650, right now, it’s only discounted to $749 ( $50 off) at Amazon and Walmart. The cellular-connected version of the 11-inch, 128GB iPad Pro is on the same discount right now, selling for $949.99 ($50 off) at Amazon.

If you prefer the larger 12.9-inch model with its striking Mini LED screen, Walmart and Amazon have the base configuration with 128GB of storage for $999 ($100 off). If you don’t mind a bit more storage, the 256GB variant is also on sale at Walmart and Amazon for $1,099 instead of $1,199 — another $100 discount. Lastly, if you want to go for broke and get much more storage on this big iPad Pro, Amazon has the 1TB space gray variant for $1,729 instead of the typical $1,799 price. That’s a hefty price for an iPad (considering that you may still want to buy accessories), but it’s $80 less than Apple’s normal asking price.

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mardi 4 octobre 2022

How Twitter employees are reacting to today’s Elon Musk news

How Twitter employees are reacting to today’s Elon Musk news
A black Twitter logo over a red and white background
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Elon Musk is back, and now he wants to own Twitter again! Delightful.

Today let’s talk about the backdrop against which he made this decision, whether it’s somehow an incredibly elaborate effort to get out of the deal, and what Twitter’s beleaguered employees are saying about it internally.

I.

Did the news come as a surprise? Sure, I suppose. The billionaire Tesla CEO has for months now remained uncharacteristically on message, holding fast to his assertion that the amount of bots and spam on the platform ought to be reason enough for him to abandon his deal. His legal team seemed buoyed by the late-breaking appearance of a whistleblower willing to assert that present-day Twitter poses a threat to national security, and amended its lawsuit against the company in its third and possibly final attempt to terminate the $44 billion acquisition.

But this relative consistency is, on balance, an anomaly in the multiverse of madness that is Elon Musk’s feelings about Twitter, Inc.

This is the man, after all, who joined Twitter’s board only to quit it less than a week later; who offered to buy it and then began denigrating executives in tweets within days; who suggested he could add tens of millions of paid subscribers to Twitter’s subscription services and then announced a deal he had already signed was somehow “on hold.”

In those early days of the story, I would sometimes write here that with regard to Musk, one should expect the unexpected. Since then I have adjusted my posture to expect nothing from Musk at all. I am done making predictions. His has a whim-based style of leadership, and his whims follow no pattern that I can discern. The man signed a deal, spent months trashing it, did everything he could think of to get out of it, and then one Monday night notified Twitter’s lawyers that he wanted to sign it after all. Anyone who tells you they can draw a straight line through those events is writing fan fiction.

But if I cannot pretend to draw a straight line here, I can at least offer a scatter plot.

Observation one: the past week has been a tumultuous period online, even for Musk. On Monday he tweeted a characteristically half-baked idea to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, which involved Ukraine unilaterally surrendering some of its territories, along with a yes-or-no poll. “No” won with 59.1 percent of the vote, which Musk blamed on bots; more embarrassingly, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany told him to “fuck off.”

Days earlier, Musk had also found himself embarrassed by the disclosure of various texts sent to him by millionaires and billionaires offering advice, money, and other support as he sought to acquire Twitter. I will always remember a handful of these texts — starting with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff messaging Musk to say “Twitter conversational OS- the townsquare for your digital life” (???) — but the salient point is that discovery in the lawsuit had begun to blow back on him and his friends.

On its face these events might not be enough to get a man to spend $44 billion to take back control of the product and the narrative. But I wouldn’t bet my life on it.

Observation two: Musk’s legal case wasn’t going well. If you’re looking for the Occam’s razor explanation for today’s events, this is the one. Twitter’s lawyers had written a very good merger agreement, and Musk signed it without doing any due diligence. Like most US tech companies, Twitter is headquartered in Delaware, which prides itself on adherence to the rule of law and the tidy disposal of merger disputes.

And as Jef Feeley, Ed Hammond, and Kurt Wagner note at Bloomberg, in various pre-trial motions the Chancery Court judge kept siding with Twitter:

Musk’s legal team was getting the sense that the case was not going well, as Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick sided repeatedly with Twitter in pretrial rulings, according to one person familiar. Even with the late emergence of a Twitter whistleblower who alleged executives weren’t forthcoming on security and bot issues, there were concerns Musk’s side would not be able to prove a material adverse effect, the legal standard required to exit the contract.

Moreover, Twitter had just been granted the right to search Musk’s messages to see whether the Twitter whistleblower, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, had contacted Musk before he tried to back out of the deal, which may have raised some unpleasant new questions for both of them.

In any case, Twitter is suing to force Musk to close the deal; faced with likely defeat — and much embarrassment along the way — he may have decided to capitulate.

But here, too, there is reason to be confused. Had Musk lost, he faced two potential consequences. One is that the judge would have sided with Twitter and forced him to buy the company for $44 billion; the other, though, is that she would have sided with Twitter and forced Musk to pay only the $1 billion breakup fee stipulated in the merger agreement.

The latter option might not have been terribly likely; as Matt Levine explained in July, it would be bad for the business world and the legal system that underpins it: “Letting the world’s richest person get out of a deal for a nominal fee because he got bored with it undermines the rule of law and the predictability of Delaware merger agreements.”

But if you’re Elon Musk, and you have spent months criticizing Twitter’s executives, policies, bots, security, and so on; and you have lost a substantial portion of your personal wealth due to a downturn in the markets; and said downturn in the markets made the $44 billion you had offered for Twitter in April seem ridiculously high — well, wouldn’t you roll the dice? Wouldn’t the chance at saving yourself $43 billion justify a rough couple weeks in Delaware?

It would for me! And so maybe that’s why I read the letter Musk’s legal team sent Twitter with skepticism: the way it asks the court to stay or adjourn the trial before a settlement is reached; the way it declines to waive its ability to sue if “Twitter fails or refuses to comply with its obligations under the … merger agreement.” (Musk’s team has been whining endlessly that Twitter is refusing to comply with the agreement from the start as a way to delay the closing of the deal.)

Perhaps that’s all just standard legal boilerplate. But it seems to me that if Musk was truly prepared to close the deal, he would have worked with Twitter to put out a joint statement indicating as much.

How will Twitter respond? “We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC,” the company told me today. “The intention of the company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”

It was always Twitter’s intention to close at $54.20, of course; if they are to reach a new settlement with Musk after all this, they will surely seek some new assurances from their owner-to-be. And how Musk responds to that request, I think, will tell us a lot about how real today’s move really is.

II.

As usual, the latest twist in the Musk saga landed hardest on Twitter’s employees. Many of them were 45 minutes into a three-hour 2023 planning session, I’m told, when news of Musk’s latest antics hit the timeline. Meeting adjourned, I guess!

In the company’s #stonks Slack channel, one employee was similarly suspicious of Musk’s letter, according to screenshots shared with Platformer. “I don’t understand why Elon would need to propose the deal again,” they wrote. “The original one still stands. Just write the check, bro.”

Another employee summarized the mood by saying that employees generally have a low opinion of Musk, and whatever is going to happen next they would rather he and Twitter get on with it already.

On Blind, an app where employees discuss their workplaces under pseudonyms, a poll asked “what will you miss the most post-privatized Twitter?”

“I saw the post, thought ‘haha my job’ then saw it was a poll option, so selected it, but now realizing I won’t miss the job I currently have,” one employee wrote, according to screenshots. “I will and do miss my 2019/2020/2021 job, but I will not miss my 2022 job.”

“So true,” another employee responded. “As bad as [former Twitter CEO] Jack [Dorsey] was at his job (maybe because of it?) Twitter had one of the best cultures / [work-life balance] / benefits in the industry under him. Learnt a lot, met some awesome folks, enjoyed the ride, now time to exit the theme park and let the new owner raze it to the ground and build what he wants (metaphorically).”

Worth noting: Twitter saw attrition of more than 700 employees in recent months.

Employees also offered some praise for Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who has been mostly silent since the legal battle against Musk began, but appears to have the upper hand for the moment. (He’s set to receive $42 million assuming Musk fires him after taking over.)

“You just completed the game,” the employee wrote, in a post headlined “Congratulations, Parag.” “You outmaneuvered Musk, came out unscathed and millions of dollars richer. You’re under 40, have FU money, and your reputation is largely intact. You just won at life. Have to respect that. And to anyone else: Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.”

— Zoe Schiffer contributed reporting to this column.

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