Category: Technologies

Get the party started anywhere you like with this bargain Sony SRS-XB13 Bluetooth speaker at a price that can’t be ignored. In fact, that price matches the previous Prime Day best — just $35 if you’re quick.

You don’t need to enter discount codes or clip coupons here, which is always appreciated. But do note that this special price is only available on select colors so remember to check before placing your order. Choose the right color and you’ll save 42% compared to the others, so it’s well worth keeping an eye on.

Sony’s wares are accepted to be among the best Bluetooth speakers on the market, and the SRS-XB13 is a popular option. It has all you could want from such a small package, including IP67 dust and water resistance for worry-free listening at the beach, around the pool and just about anywhere else. It even comes with a handy strap for easy carrying.

Music fans can expect to get around 16 hours from a full charge of the built-in battery, while a simple USB-C cable is all that’s needed to top things back up. You can also use this as a speakerphone for poolside calls should you want to.

Other features worth noting include its compact design as well as a deep and punchy sound that will surely please bass lovers.

The SRS-XB13 is a great little speaker, even at the original $60 price. So being able to pick one up for just $35 really is a win right now. Just make sure to place your order before that price goes back up.

Picking up a cheap Apple Watch has always meant going the Apple Watch SE route, which is no bad thing. It’s one of the best smartwatches at its price point. And it gets even better when you can pick one up for just $220.

If that price sounds low, it’s because it is. The Apple Watch SE in this 40mm configuration would normally retail at Amazon for around $250. But order today and you’ll pay 12% less. That’s a $30 saving, and all without the usual hoop-jumping that these kinds of deals can often require. Just order and make space on your wrist — your new Apple Watch could be with you by tomorrow!

This particular Apple Watch SE can be had in three different finishes while still getting the special $220 price. That means buyers can choose between a Midnight aluminum case with Midnight sport band, a silver aluminum case with white sport band, and a Starlight aluminum case with Starlight sport band. Which one you pick is of course up to you. It’s your money, after all.

All three are functionally identical, as you’d expect. You get a 2022 Apple Watch SE that’s around 20% faster than the model that came before it. You also get health and safety features like crash detection, fall detection, and emergency SOS — all features that have been shown to help save lives since their introduction.

The Apple Watch SE is swim-proof for use in the pool, and there are countless fitness apps that can be installed via the on-watch App Store as well. Everything ties into the Apple Health app if you want it to, and the whole thing is really rather good. And at this price, it’s hard to knock.

It’s never fun having to control your entire home theater system with multiple remotes. Here’s where a universal remote comes in handy, powering nearly every device with a single clicker so that you don’t have to look high and low for a missing controller between the cushions or get up out of your comfy seat on the couch. We’ve found the best universal remotes to control your tv.

After Logitech discontinued the Harmony remote line, it seemed that the category was done — especially after another one of our previous recommendations, Caavo, also became no longer available. But Sofabaton has breathed new life into universal remotes with its brand-new U2 universal remote. It offers simplicity of setup — with a straightforward app and a Bluetooth connection — and an even better ease of use. At half the price of the Harmony 650, the SofaBaton U2 is the best universal remote for most people.

So what’s left? Among remotes, we can recommend based on hands-on testing, not much. The outgoing Fire TV Cube is expensive and more of a hybrid Alexa speaker/streamer than a universal remote, although it will also control your devices. And the Roku and Fire TV clickers, while great for controlling those streaming devices respectively, as well as most brands of TV, don’t really qualify as “universal” remotes in the classic sense. A number of cheap replacement clickers are available too, but we can’t recommend them because we haven’t tested them yet.

Even with the emergence of SofaBaton, the universal remote category is still less popular than before. Many entertainment systems today don’t have as many separate devices as in the past, so you might not even need a universal remote. With a smart TV connected to a soundbar and a game console, for example, you can control streaming apps, audio and device switching from a single remote (the TV’s), eliminating the need for a universal remote. If you have an AV receiver and multiple sources, however, it gets more complicated.

With those caveats in mind, here are our current picks for the best universal remote.

Read more: Best Nest and Google Assistant Devices for 2023

Best universal remotes of 2023

When you think of a monitor in 2023 you probably think of a wide screen or even an ultrawide screen display. But this LG DualUp monitor is different and right now it also happens to be a bargain with $103 off.

The new $496.99 asking price is the lowest that Amazon has sold it for to date, saving you 17% off the original $600 price point that everyone else had to pay. This LG monitor is unlike anything that you’ll see on any list full of the best monitors you can buy, but if you have a need for it, it could absolutely change the way you work.

It’s obvious that this LG DualUp monitor isn’t for everyone. But if you’re someone who uses their computer for some specific workflows it could change how you do things for the better. Workflows that require multiple visual aspects to be on-screen at once can obviously benefit, as can apps that work best on taller displays. Wide and ultrawide displays are great, but they can be very short in terms of the distance from the top and bottom of their viewable areas. This monitor fixes that.

It does it in style, too. The monitor has a 2560 x 2880 resolution and is adjustable for tilt and height. It can also be swiveled for those times when you need to show a client what you’ve been working on, for example. A built-in KVM that lets you control several computers with a single keyboard and mouse means you can use your work and home PC without swapping things around.

Hooking up a laptop? LG has given this monitor a 90W USB-C PD passthrough for charging, and there are HDMI and DisplayPort options for video as well.

Streaming service price hikes are happening all around, but there’s good news for students. Entertainment-seeking pupils may be able to take advantage of deals that keep the cost of streaming low.

Services like Peacock and Amazon Music Unlimited provide discounts for students who qualify, and students may be eligible for bundles of multiple services, such as the combo Spotify and Hulu or Apple Music and Apple TV Plus. While offers for eligible high schoolers are out there, post-high school students appear to have the most opportunities to score.

If you plan to stream during the school year, see if you qualify for one of these deals.

Demand for IT experts is only growing, particularly in cybersecurity. If you’ve been considering taking the leap into cybersecurity, now is a great time to start. You can get lifetime access to the The 2023 Ultimate Advanced CyberSecurity Professional Certification Bundle for just $79 right now, saving you hundreds off what it would cost you to take each course individually. But if you’re interested, act soon, because this offer isn’t going to stick around for long.

You’ll get access to a ton of content and courses including some on cybersecurity and risk management frameworks as well as courses from CompTIA and others. A total of almost 176 hours of content is now available for one payment across five different courses including:

• NIST Cybersecurity & Risk Management Frameworks
• (ISC) CISSP – 2021
• ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
• CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-004)
• CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-003)

Read more: Best Identity Theft Protection and Monitoring Services for 2022

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has gotten rid of free access to its productivity-minded TweetDeck platform. Now renamed to XPro, the platform is only available as a perk in the X Premium subscription service.

A support account for the company known as X posted on July 3 that the change was coming and that in 30 days, users must be Verified — aka, must pay $8 a month on desktop or $11 on Android or iOS for X Premium — to access “a new, improved version” of what is now called XPro.

Several of XPro’s listed features have already existed in TweetDeck, while new perks include advanced search, continuing to watch a post’s video while scrolling through XPro and choosing whether to view top posts or latest posts in columns.

The X Support post noted that Teams functionality would be unavailable and “restored in the coming weeks,” but it’s unclear if that has happened. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the latest in a series of changes to Twitter, now X, after Elon Musk acquired it in October 2022. Under his leadership, the company introduced a new subscription program and verification system before getting rid of Twitter branding and, most recently, changing X’s app icon to look dirty and smudged for some reason.

The company formerly known as Twitter paid $40 million in 2011 to acquire TweetDeck, then a third-party desktop client popular with power users of the social media platform. But it may not have been all Musk’s idea to restrict TweetDeck to only paid users — a month before Musk made his initial bid for the social media platform, a March 2022 code leak suggested Twitter was looking into adding TweetDeck to its Twitter Blue subscription perks.

For now, visiting TweetDeck’s old URL (tweetdeck.twitter.com) redirects users to X’s homepage with a popup prompting them to subscribe to X Premium. Visiting Xpro.com leads to a completely different company.

Summer is almost over, but you still have time to finish your back-to-school shopping. And we’re not just talking about notebooks, pens, pencils and the usual school supplies. We’re talking about the essential tech gadgets that’ll help make the school year a lot easier. We’re here to help by providing a list of some of the best gear for limited budgets — and these gadgets are all punching above their price tag. These are the back-to-school essentials under $100 that we heartily recommend.

More back-to-school recommendations

• 8 Back-to-School College Essentials to Keep in Your Backpack
• Great Back-to-School Gifts for Your Teacher
• Best Lunch Boxes and Backpacks to Take Back to School
• 15 Dorm Room Essentials You Need From Amazon Now
• Free Apps You Need to Download Before Starting College

If you’re an avid shopper at large retail stores like Walmart, Target and Amazon, listen up, because you could be saving (and earning) money each time you shop. These stores have rewards programs that pay you to shop, as well as members-only deals you can cash in on.

Be aware that for some of these stores, you’ll need to have a paid subscription to gain access to freebies and benefits. For instance, Walmart Cash is only available to those who have a Walmart Plus account. But reward programs from other stores, such as Target, don’t have any paid requirements.

We’ll tell you all about the rewards you can get from Walmart, Amazon, Target and Best Buy. For more, here’s how to get shipping costs cut at major retailers.

Target Circle rewards

If you’re not a Target Circle member and you regularly shop at Target, it’s time to sign up today (it’s free). Being a member gets you perks like 1% cash back on purchases, digital coupons and personalized bonus offers. I shop regularly at my local store, and Target has the best rewards program, in my opinion.

You can use the cash back you receive on future purchases, whether you’re shopping in-store or online. The coupons typically give you anywhere from 5% off to 30% off, depending on the product. You can also earn cash rewards by making qualifying purchases.

Also, as a Target Circle member, you get extended trial subscriptions through Target partners like Apple and TripAdvisor.

Walmart Cash

If you’ve got a Walmart Plus membership, you can earn Walmart Cash on purchases. With this new loyalty program, you can earn Walmart Cash through manufacturer offers on select items and the Walmart Plus Travel promotions.

Walmart Cash can be redeemed on purchases in stores or online and never expires. Even if you cancel your Walmart Plus subscription, you can keep the cash you’ve accumulated.

You can also cash out in the store if you have a minimum of $25 in Walmart Cash. The maximum amount you can redeem for cash is $100 a day, $700 a week and $2,000 a month. If you’re redeeming it on a purchase in store or online, you can use up to $2,000 in Walmart Cash per day.

Amazon Prime

While Amazon doesn’t offer rewards for just anyone, it does have its Prime membership that includes a slew of perks to paying subscribers. For instance, free same-, one- or two-day delivery on most items and Amazon Fresh discounts. You also get access to Prime Video, as well as free games and a Twitch channel subscription.

But what about rewards? As a subscriber, you receive Prime member-only prices on products and exclusive deals. You also get special access to Prime Day deals. And if you have an Amazon Visa credit card, you’ll earn rewards when you shop, which convert to points you can use when you spend money in future. You don’t even have to be a Prime member to use the credit card and points.

My Best Buy rewards

Best Buy has a rewards program, My Best Buy, with three tiers. The first one is free and comes with free standard shipping on any purchase. My Best Buy Plus ($50 a year) offers free two-day shipping, along with exclusive member prices, sales and events and a 60-day return policy. My Best Buy Total ($180 a year) offers all of the above, plus protection plans, tech support around the clock, VIP member support and 20% off repairs.

Depending on how regularly you shop at Best Buy, you may choose to go with one of the paid tiers for extra perks. But in any case, it never hurts to sign up for a free membership to get free shipping with any purchase.

In addition, if you’ve got a My Best Buy credit card, you can receive 5% off your purchases.

For more, check out these restaurants that offer free rewards on your birthday. Headed back to school? These are the best deals you can find on Amazon.

If you’re in the market for a stunning OLED TV, it doesn’t get much better than LG’s C Series. We we’re impressed by last year’s C2 model — which we named the best high-end TV overall — and right now you’ve got a chance to snag a next-gen model at a serious discount. Amazon currently has the new 65-inch LG C3 OLED 4K TV on sale for $1,947, which saves you over $650 and is the absolute lowest price we’ve seen since this TV first hit shelves in the spring. Though there’s no set expiration for this deal, so you may want to get your order in sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

According to CNET’s resident TV expert David Katzmaier, the LG OLED C3 Series “sets the standard for high-end TV picture quality.” It features a stunning self-lit OLED 4K display, as well as Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG support for vibrant colors, sharp contrast and dazzling brightness. And its new sixth-gen A9 processor uses AI to automatically upscale the look and sound of your shows and movies for a better experience. It also supports Dolby Atmos for immersive, room-filling sound, and has a dedicated filmmaker mode, which makes it a great choice for serious cinephiles. It’s a great pick for gamers thanks to its fluid 120Hz refresh rate and impressive 0.1ms response time. And with an ultra-thin bezel, it has a sleek look that won’t clash with your home’s decor.

If you’re in the market for a different size or model, you can check out our full roundup of all the best TV deals for even more great bargains.