Category: Technologies

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are this week, and that means that Amazon already has tons of active deals for shoppers to peruse (with more to be coming in the next few days ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday). If you’re looking to take advantage of Amazon’s deals and tackle as much of your holiday shopping as possible during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, you’re in luck. Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals will extend beyond Amazon’s website thanks to “Buy with Prime.”

“Buy with Prime” gives Prime members discounts on products from a long list of brands that are offering Amazon’s Black Friday Deals on their websites. If a retailer is participating in “Buy with Prime,” they will include a “Buy with Prime” banner that allows you to add the product you wish to buy into your cart.

Read on to learn the shopping process of “Buy with Prime,” and what Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are available on third-party sites right now.

What is Amazon Buy with Prime?

Amazon’s Buy with Prime program lets Amazon Prime members shop at non-Amazon online stores seamlessly by automatically including their email address, shipping address and payment method from their Amazon account.

Participating brands include a Buy with Prime purchase button on their product pages, most often with a coupon code that’s required at checkout. Although they’re linked to your Amazon account, purchases occur on the retailers’ sites, not Amazon’s. Since retailers aren’t required to offer the same selection and pricing on Amazon as on their own sites, Buy with Prime can get you some deals that aren’t available on Amazon.

When you visit a product at an online store participating in Buy with Prime, you’ll see a blue button marked “Buy with Prime,” with an expected delivery date above or below the button. If the product is on sale for Amazon Prime Day, all you’ll need to do is click the Buy with Prime button.

When you click that Buy with Prime button, you’ll initiate a login process with Amazon. If you’ve never logged in to an external site with your Amazon account before, you may need to verify your identity with a one-time password sent to your email address or phone number.

After you punch in that six-digit code, you’ll get a confirmation that you’re securely signed in to Amazon on the retailer’s site, along with a brief description of what info Amazon will share with the retailer. If you have logged in to an external site with Amazon before, the Buy with Prime button will take you directly to the confirmation page to continue.

Hitting the Continue as [your Amazon account name] button will take you to a checkout screen on the retailer’s website that is hosted by Amazon Buy with Prime, with your delivery address and payment method automatically entered along with an expected delivery date. Clicking the shipping address or payment method will let you change them via the same process as on Amazon’s own website.

Once you’ve completed your purchases with Buy with Prime, Amazon will handle the shipping and returns of the product.

How do I get Prime Day deals with Buy with Prime?

If you’re interested in taking advantage of Buy with Prime, you can see a long list of Buy with Prime deals on the Amazon website. Brands include Sena Cases, Targus and k18.

Once you’ve made it to the Buy with Prime checkout page, you’ll continue to check out as you normally would, and the Prime Day discount will automatically apply to the price of the item. All Buy with Prime orders will be covered by the Amazon Pay A-to-Z Guarantee.

For more on Amazon Prime Day, learn how to get Prime Day deals for free and check out the best early Prime Day deals that are available now.

Living in New York means sliding around in some pretty tight and crowded spaces, and a bulbous backpack can turn you into a subway villain fast. Eckster makes slick and ergonomic tech gear and travel accessories, and its new Grid backpack is perfect for carrying your tech and goods without inadvertently knocking into strangers whenever you turn or pivot.

I love this compact backpack, but it’s admittedly on the pricey side. Right now, the Grid is down to an all-time low of $156 — normally $195 — for Black Friday. That’s a heck of a good price for this quality bag with structure, smart design and all the right storage spots for essentials.

What’s so great about it? The Grid flaps open completely so you can pack and organize with maximum efficiency. There’s a quick-stash laptop compartment and another to protect a pair of fragile shades with an outdoor water bottle pocket. It’s made from recycled PET bottles and fully waterproof in case you get caught in a shower on your way to showing off your new backpack to friends. It’s also slimmer than your standard backpack, and it honestly just looks cooler than most.

The Eckster Black Friday sale spans far beyond the backpack. You can nab the brand’s excellent, spring-loaded card carriers, sleek wallets and power banks for as much as 50% off.

Shop the full sale here which ends when Black Friday does.

A good smartwatch solves a lot more problems than it creates. I needed a way to check my notifications hands free when my phone is out of reach, answer (or screen) my calls and control whatever music or audio book I’m currently obsessed with.

One good way of not breaking the bank when buying tech is choosing a previous version of a current device — like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 (40mm), which is on major sale during Black Friday.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is currently 35% off on Amazon for $129 in the pink gold color option, down from its usual $200 price tag. It looks almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, which only added minor improvements to the Watch 4.

Sure, it’s not the latest model of the Samsung Watch — that would be the newly announced Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. But it still has all the main features I need, including ECG, blood pressure monitoring, sleep monitoring, Google integration for most things and Samsung Health.

I’m not a fitness fanatic, so I don’t need all the latest tracking features, or even the improved battery life and bigger screen size of the Watch 6 40mm, which retails for around $300. The Galaxy Watch 4 has the fitness tracking I need without being overly complex. (It has advanced workout tracking for six modes including running, rowing and swimming, if you like those auto-detected tracking features.)

One caveat: some people have complained that their battery is depleting quickly lately. Samsung has advice on how to run a diagnostic on your watch and remedy the issue.

The leaves are changing color, and sweater weather is upon us, which can mean only one thing: It’s the season of getting cozy on the couch to binge-watch your favorite movies and shows. If you’re still looking for the perfect holiday gift for your friends and loved ones, we highly suggest taking a look at one of the many cool streaming device on the market. While many smart TVs do come with a number of popular streaming services pre-installed, using a standalone streaming device like the Fire TV Stick or Roku can exponentially improve your viewing experience.

We put nearly every streaming device and smart TV system to the test to figure out the best options — including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast. What makes these add-on streaming devices worth your time is the variety of apps available, better search functionality, easy-to-use remotes and more frequent software updates available than what you usually get with a smart TV.

In our round up of the best streaming device gifts for the 2023 holiday season, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and the Roku Express 4K Plus are pretty much tied in the race for our top overall pick. The Roku Express 4K Plus is usually cheaper than the Streaming Stick 4K, so it’s normally our top Roku pick. But sales prices have fluctuated on both models, so we generally recommend the cheaper of the two.

That said, Roku faces stiff competition from Amazon, Apple and Google, which also have plenty of streaming stick and streaming box devices to offer.

Traveling to someone’s house for Thanksgiving? Not only do you need to keep an eye on traffic, but also the weather — specifically if you live on the east coast. A major storm could cause delays in air and on the road this evening. Aside from that, not knowing the best time to hit the road can cause even more stress and make the holidays less enjoyable. But there’s good news — you can learn when a better time to travel is, and what time frame to avoid, depending on the day you decide to head out.

Also, if you plan on shopping Black Friday deals in stores rather than online, there are a few hours during the day that you’ll want to stay home to avoid the busy crowd.

Google shared a prediction of what the traffic will be like this week, leading up to Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We’ll tell you the best times to make your travel plans, as well as shopping plans. For more, here are some Google Maps tips you should use for your holiday travel.

The best and worst time to travel for Thanksgiving

If you’re going out of town to have your Thanksgiving meal at a friend or family member’s house, you’ll probably want to travel when you’ll experience the fewest delays. According to Google, the best time to hit the road is the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving at around 8 p.m.

You should avoid traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday between the hours of 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. when Thanksgiving traffic is at its peak. Not to mention, that’s typically when the rush hour traffic happens from those leaving work.

If you can’t leave until Thanksgiving Day, you’ll want to make sure you leave before noon or after 4 p.m. Google says you should stay off the road between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Also, if you’re flying on a Saturday, add some extra time to your schedule if you need to be there around 11 a.m. — that’s typically when airports are busiest.

The best time to head home after Thanksgiving

If you’re staying a night or two at a friend or family member’s house while traveling, there’s a better time to leave to avoid getting stuck in traffic. If you’re leaving Saturday or Sunday, don’t even think about setting out between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. unless you don’t mind the congestion. Instead, try to leave at around 7 p.m. or later.

Here’s the worst time to shop Black Friday sales in store

If you’re shopping Black Friday deals, you can avoid the crowd altogether by shopping online. Many companies put some of their best sales online so you can shop from the comfort of your home. However, if it’s a tradition to go Black Friday shopping in stores, there’s a time frame you should steer clear of the roads. Peak traffic hits between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., so you may not make it in time to get those AirPods on sale if you head to the store around then.

Instead, Google says you should head to the stores before noon or after 7 p.m.

For more tips, check out this Thanksgiving cheat sheet for home and kitchen hacks. Also, here’s how to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I love my PS5. Like a lot of tech nerds/colleagues at CNET I also own an Xbox Series X, but when I have a choice I prefer play on the PlayStation. Yes, I also love Xbox Game Pass and some awesome games like Starfield will probably never come to PlayStation, but this year I’ve played hundreds of hours of God of War: Ragnarok, Burning Shores and now Baldur’s Gate 3 all on PS5.

Next on my list is Spider-Man 2, an absolute must-have game exclusive to PlayStation. My OG diskless PS5 is still going strong but if I needed a new one I’d get the new PS5 Slim bundled with that game. At $500, it’s the best PS5 deal I have seen this year. The slim costs $500 normally, so I’d basically be getting Spider-Man 2, normally $70, for free.

The main reason I prefer gaming on a PS5 is the controller. The DualSense controller is simply the nicest I have ever used, and compared to the controllers that came with my Xbox Series X, it’s no contest. The PS5 controllers are smoother, feel more solid on my hands and the haptic feedback, especially the triggers, are lightyears better. And yes I am tempted to get another in red because they’re also on sale for Black Friday.

I appreciate that the new PS5 Slim is a bit more compact than the original, which if nothing else would make it easier to tote around the house to connect to different TVs (something I do regularly). The original PS5 is also on sale with the same bundle at the same price, but I’d go with the newer, more compact Slim myself.

Tello Mobile popped up on the cellular service scene back in 2016 and it’s made a solid name for itself over the years — and it just got even more affordable with a new Black Friday deal. Right now, Tello Mobile is offering a 1GB data plan for just $6 for the first month and a 2GB plan for $2 more. After the first month, the price ratchets up a bit: $10 per month for the 1GB plan, and $14 for the 2GB. This deal ends on December 14th, which means you should probably act quickly.

With a Tello Mobile plan, you’ll get free hotspot service and Wi-Fi calling. There is free international calling to over 60 countries, budget-friendly family plans and no additional fees — ever. You also have the option to use an eSIM with your plan, which is super convenient if you want to add a second SIM to your current phone. Another great thing about Tello is that it uses the T-Mobile network to provide talk, text and data to its customers.

This offer is only valid for new customers and new lines. If you’re looking for other options then consider Boost Mobile’s Black Friday deals too.

You can never have too many different ways to charge your phone, tablet and computer and Anker makes some of the best charging accessories around right now. And as part of the Black Friday fun you can now pick up one of a whole range of discounted charging accessories at Amazon.

These deals offer savings of up to 60% off without any of those annoying discount codes or coupons, but the Black Friday nature means that they won’t stick around for long. If you see a deal that suits you we’d suggest that placing an order now might be the way to go — once these deals are gone, they’re gone.

With so many different deals available we can’t go through them all, and we’d definitely suggest that you peruse the full collection of discounts before you place any orders. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some notable deals to be had, though. The biggest percentage discount comes to the Anker USB-C to HDMI adapter, perfect for connecting a monitor to something like the MacBook Pro, for example. That’s now just $20 thanks to a full 60% discount.

Another big saving comes to the Anker Magnetic Power Bank, a 10,000mAh battery pack that attaches to the iPhone 12 or newer and can wirelessly charge it once it’s there. You can now make sure your iPhone battery doesn’t run dry before the end of even the busiest days for just $31, down 30% from the usual $45 asking price.

There are tons more deals beyond charging accessories so be sure to check out our growing collection of the best Amazon Black Friday deals before buying elsewhere.

Insta360 is best known for its 360-degree cameras and its innovative AI features that let you create some unique video edits, even if you don’t know a thing about editing. But Insta360 never stays in one place for too long, and now it’s adding GoPro-style action cameras to its lineup: the Insta360 Ace series. And it’s anything but a carbon copy of the competition.

There are two cameras, the $450 Ace Pro ( 430, AU$729) and the more budget-friendly $380 Ace ( 360, AU$609). The main differences between the two are sensor size, lens quality and charging speed. The Ace Pro uses a 1/1.3-inch image sensor, while the Ace has a smaller 1/2-inch one; both models have wide-angle lenses, but the Ace Pro’s was co-engineered with Leica to give it an edge in image quality; and the Ace Pro can fully charge in 46 minutes with a 30-watt charger, while the Ace takes 70 minutes.

The Ace Pro’s image sensor is the same size as DJI’s Osmo Action 4 camera and larger than GoPro’s Hero 12 Black, which is a 1/1.9-inch image sensor. In general, a larger sensor is one way to get better image quality. Although the DJI Action 4 has the same size sensor, its video resolution tops out at 4K, and the Hero 12 Black stops at 5.3K, while the Ace Pro goes up to 8K (7,680×3,272 pixels) at 24 frames per second. But, like the Insta360’s other cameras, the Ace Pro’s extreme resolution is used for much more than just straight video capture.

For example, the camera’s Clarity Zoom allows you to digitally zoom in on a subject with just a double-tap on the rear touchscreen. You can also take frame grabs from your videos at resolutions higher than what you’re shooting resolution. There’s also the option to shoot 48-megapixel photos in JPEG or DNG raw.

But the most important use of its big sensor for most people is PureVideo mode. Using a 5-nanometer AI chip for denoising, the Ace Pro can shoot cleaner, clearer low-light video with improved brightness and dynamic range. Other action cams simply don’t do well in dim or dark scenes and typically have to shoot without digital image stabilization, something that’s not an issue for the Ace Pro.

Other features include:

• 2.4-inch flip-up touchscreen: Although the Ace and AcePro have small front displays to display settings and other statuses, they aren’t selfie screens like other action cams. Instead, the whole 2.4-inch touchscreen on the back flips up so you can shoot selfies. It also makes it much easier to shoot with the camera above and below your sight line, like when it’s mounted on handlebars.
• Active HDR video: HDR video reveals more details in high-contrast scenes, so you can see things normally lost in bright highlights and dark shadows. Capturing HDR video to demanding to begin with, but if you shoot at a resolution of 4K30 or lower with the Ace Pro, it can automatically turn on HDR and can be used with image stabilization.
• Cancel recording: Ever mess up your first take when recording yourself? You can immediately cancel the recording so they don’t clutter up your microSD card and skip the whole playback-and-delete experience.
• Pause and resume recordings: This basically lets you edit while you’re recording by letting you pause and resume, so you can eliminate uneventful moments in your videos without creating a bunch of clips.
• Apple Watch and Garmin integration: Insta360 says the Ace Pro is the first action cam with dedicated integration with a Garmin device or Apple Watch to attach GPS, speed and other data that can be added to videos.

The Ace and Ace Pro have all the other features that are standard on most of the company’s other cameras. Those include a waterproof body (down to 33 feet, or 10 meters), FlowState image stabilization for shake-free video and AI editing assistance in its mobile app.

One last thing worth mentioning is the quick-release mount. It uses the same clip-on design as the mounts for its other cameras, like the smaller Insta360 Go, that just hooks into the bottom of the body and doesn’t let go. This lets you move it from one mount to another with zero effort. You will need a special mount, though, if you want to quickly switch from shooting horizontally to vertically.

My family has music playing pretty much all the time when we’re at home. From Taylor Swift to classic rock to novelty fart music (I have an 8-year-old boy, don’t judge), we’ve always got something on.

We’ve had two portable Bluetooth speakers over the last 15 years or so, and our current one, the Bose SoundLink Flex, is on sale for Black Friday for $119, $30 less than its regular list price. It’s among the best Bluetooth speakers of 2023 and a CNET Editors’ Choice winner.

Why do we love this speaker? For starters, the sound quality is top-notch. It sounds way better than it has any business being capable of for how small it is.

Our previous Bose speaker (a predecessor of the SoundLink Flex) lasted about 15 years before finally showing its age with some annoying connectivity issues. Assuming this one holds up nearly as well, we’re talking about two speakers keeping the tunes going over multiple decades. Maybe I’ll send this one with one of my kids to college.

A few other things that stand out about this speaker compared to its predecessor:

• It’s water-resistant and floats (though I haven’t tested this yet).
• You can take and make phone calls through it — this one surprised me when I got an incoming phone call shortly after getting it.
• It has technology to optimize the sound whether you use it upright, on its back or even hanging from a tree with the built-in carrying loop.
• It’s apparently drop- and impact-resistant too, though I’ve yet to confirm this myself.
• The battery life is good, and has lasted at least a few days per charge for my family.

If you need more good portable music in your life, this is a fantastic option. Or if you’re more of a soundbar family, we’ve also got a roundup of the best Black Friday soundbar deals.