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The holiday season is coming up quick and that means shopping is picking up. If you started gift shopping early during Amazon Prime Day last week, or if you usually buy gifts on Black Friday, you’ll likely need to know the return policy just in case the items don’t work out.

See below for the return windows and policies for major retail stores Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s. For more shopping tips, here’s how to get $30 ahead of October Prime Day. Also, here’s how to get shipping costs cut at these chain retailers.

Amazon returns

When you make a purchase on Amazon — even Amazon Warehouse — you’ve got 30 days to return the items. That’s not a lot of time if you’re buying gifts that you intend to give during the holidays. My suggestion? Open the item to check that it has all the parts and pieces, and to make sure it’s what you’re after. If not, box it back up and ship it back as soon as possible.

If you do keep the item that you plan to gift past 30 days and the recipient finds that it doesn’t work for them, they can still get a refund for up to 80% of the total price on an Amazon gift card. They can also choose to exchange the item — for instance, if it’s the wrong size or color.

Note that some Amazon sellers may have different return policies.

Walmart returns

If you buy something from Walmart (online or in-store), you typically have a 90-day window to return it. However, Walmart does offer extended holiday returns for items purchased between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 that give you until Jan. 31, 2024, to return the item. So if you buy something as a gift during one of its sales, you or the person receiving it will have time to return or exchange the item.

Target returns

If you buy something at Target and decide you’d like to return it, you have 90 days to do so. And if you have Target’s credit card, RedCard, you have 120 days to make the return. If you’re returning a Target brand item or something from your registry, Target gives you a full year.

Similar to Walmart, Target also has an extended holiday return policy. Here’s how it works:

• For all electronics and entertainment items (excluding Apple products) purchased between Oct. 1 and Dec. 24, the 30-day refund period will start on Dec. 26 and must be returned by Jan. 24, 2024.
• For Apple products (excluding iPhones) purchased between Oct. 1 and Dec. 24, the 15-day refund period will start on Dec. 26 and must be returned by Jan. 9, 2024.
• For mobile phones purchased in-store or online as a pickup order between Oct. 1 and Dec. 24, the 14-day refund window starts on Dec. 26 and must be returned by Jan. 8, 2024.

Best Buy returns

Best Buy gives you 15 days to return items you’ve purchased, and 14 days if it’s an activatable device like a phone or tablet. However, if you’re a My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total member, you have 60 days to return anything you’ve purchased, excluding activatable devices.

If you’re returning a gift you received, you’ll get store credit for the purchase price if you return it in a store. If you return the gift by mail, the gift buyer will get the credit.

If Best Buy follows last year’s holiday return policy, items purchased between Oct. 24 and Dec. 31 have until Jan. 14 to be returned.

Macy’s returns

Any item purchased from Macy’s must be returned within 30 days. If it’s an item from a gift registry, you have 90 days from the event date to return it.

If Macy’s follows last year’s holiday return policy, items purchased Oct. 3 and later have a 90-day return window. This policy would end Jan. 31, 2024.

For more, here’s how to save on your next Target shopping trip. And here are nine Amazon Prime tips you shouldn’t forget.

If you’re in the market for a new television and want the best without paying sky-high prices, you can’t go wrong buying reconditioned. Right now, there are plenty of deals to be had across a whole range of Samsung TVs, with prices starting at just $390.

These TVs range from the relatively small to the absolutely gargantuan, with plenty in between, and some have more or better features than others. They’re all factory-reconditioned, so should be practically as good as new, and are covered by a 90-day Samsung warranty (PDF). With so many options to choose from, we’re sure that everyone can find a TV to suit their needs and budget. You just have to pick one and pick one soon — these Woot reconditioned units are limited in number, and the whole deal ends at 11:59 p.m. CST (9:59 p.m. PT, 12:59 a.m. ET) on Oct. 20.

There are multiple models and screen sizes to choose from, with one of the biggest and best being the Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV in the 77-inch configuration. You can pick up one of those for $3,400 right now which might sound like a lot — but this really is a lot of TV for your money. You’ll get a whole range of features, including some built especially for gamers.

Looking to shop at the other end of the price range? The 32-inch Samsung Q60C is just $390 and there are other display sizes on offer there, too.

None of these deals require that you do any more than place your order before the time (or stock) expires. That means there are no discount codes and no on-screen coupons, but you do need to be quick. Just measure up and make sure your new 77-inch TV will fit where you want to put it first.

If you’ve ever walked into a hotel room and found that your charger won’t quite reach from the wall to where you need it, you aren’t alone. But this power strip fixes all of that and right now you can pick one up for just $10 if you’re quick.

That price is extremely low, thanks to the huge 62% discount. You’d normally have to pay as much as $26 for this particular power strip, and you don’t need to jump through any hoops to get this deal either. No on-screen coupons, no discount codes, no fuss.

This power strip can be used at home or in the office just fine, but it’s when traveling that it really comes into its own. The thin, flat cord means that it won’t get caught under doors if needed and the long 5-foot cable ensures that you’ll be able to charge with plenty of cable to spare. Even the plug itself is super thin to ensure you can squeeze it in should space be restricted behind furniture.

You’ll be able to power several devices at once since this power strip turns a single AC outlet into four. There’s more, too, thanks to the three USB-A ports and a single USB-C port for charging up phones, tablets and whatever else you’re lugging around.

Amazon’s product page doesn’t say anything about when this deal will end, so keep that in mind when you’re planning your order. Note as well that the deal is only available on the white version, though we’re not sure that it really matters what color your power strip is anyway. If you need a longer cord, 10- and 15-foot versions are available, though not with quite as big a discount.

If you’re an Xbox gamer looking to bag a few more wins, you may want to upgrade to the Elite Series 2 Core wireless controller. You can customize it to fit your play style, and right now you can pick it up at an all-time low price. The basic white variant is currently $41 off at Microsoft directly, which drops it down to just $89. Or you can grab the red variant for $114, which saves you $26. The blue variant is also on sale at Microsoft, but you’ll find a better price at Walmart, where you can pick it up for $123, saving you $17. Just note that there’s no set expiration for these deals, so we’d recommend getting your order in sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

The Elite Series 2 Core controller, unveiled in September 2022, is essentially a more affordable, trimmed-down version of its namesake Elite Series 2. As you’d expect, the two offerings share a bunch of features, like adjustable-tension thumbsticks, shorter hair trigger locks, wrap-around rubberized grips and 40 hours of rechargeable battery life — all things that can help serious players up their performance and stay in the game for longer.

The Core version, however, comes without the swappable paddles, thumbsticks and D-pad or the charging dock and protective case. If you decide you want all of those customization options down the line, they can be purchased separately in the Complete Component Pack, meaning you can get in the door for less with the Core model and spend the extra as and when you need to.

And if you’re looking for more ways to expand your Xbox gaming setup on a budget, you can check out our full roundup of all the best Xbox deals for more bargains on headsets, storage drives and more.

While external hard drives are great for expanding storage, they often don’t have the read and write speeds to handle more intense activity. That can be anything from gaming on a PC to running an application from it, and if you want to do any of that, you’ll have to go with a higher-end portable SSD like the Samsung T9.

With a capacity for higher speeds and a more robust design, the 2TB Samsung T9 usually goes for $240 but is currently discounted down to $200. This is the first discount we’ve seen on the new T9 SSD and it’s a solid 17% saving.

What sets the Samsung T9 apart from other external hard drives is its ability to hit an impressive 2,000MBps read and write speeds, which is close to the 2,600MBps speeds that an internal NVME SSD can manage. That means you’re getting performance speeds that can almost match an internal drive, which gives you much more room to run intense applications like games or editing software. Even better, it can sustain those speeds for quite a while, so you won’t experience slowdowns or have issues with running apps of the Samsung T9.

Of course, running extended read/write activity can make any external hard drive heat up, but the T9 helps mitigate that with its thermal guard. It also has 9.5-foot drop protection, which is great for those needing a more portable solution without worrying about handling their external hard drives super carefully. Add to that the five-year limited warranty, and you’re getting an overall excellent deal for $200.

Analogue, creator of the well-reviewed Analogue Pocket, a high-quality handheld gaming system that can play Game Boy, Sega Game Gear and a handful of other systems at 10 times the resolution, is now putting a 4K twist on the Nintendo 64 with the Analogue 3D, the company said Monday.

Details regarding the Analogue 3D are slim, with Analogue withholding the console’s looks, price and specific release date. What is known is that it’ll come in 2024 and have 100% compatibility with the Nintendo 64 library across all regions, along with a 4K resolution output. The Analogue 3D will also allow players to recreate the look of old CRT televisions, which is common in these types of modern-retro systems. Analogue also says the 3D will be able to recreate the look of PVMs, or production video monitors, which are high-quality CRT televisions that were used in television and film production.

Analogue is able to achieve 100% compatibility by using a hardware chip called FPGA, which is short for field-programmable gate array. As opposed to software emulation, FPGA allows Analogue to replicate the hardware of older systems at the transistor level.

As to potentially not run afoul of Nintendo or any other copyright holders, the Analogue 3D won’t support openFPGA, a standard that allows third-party developers to make their own programs. Analogue also went out of its way to say the 3D doesn’t infringe on any copyright or trademarks.

This past week, I took Apple’s new iPhone 15 Pro Max on an epic adventure to California’s Yosemite National Park.

As a professional photographer, I take tens of thousands of photos every year. Much of my work is done inside my San Francisco photo studio, but I also spend a considerable amount of time shooting on location. I still use a DSLR, but my iPhone 13 Pro is never far from me.

Like most people nowadays, I don’t upgrade my phone every year or even two. Phones have reached a point where they are good at performing daily tasks for three or four years. And most phone cameras are sufficient for capturing everyday special moments to post on social media or share with friends.

But maybe, like me, you’re in the mood for something shiny and new like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I wanted to find out how my 2-year-old iPhone 13 Pro and its 3x optical zoom would do against the 15 Pro Max and its new 5x optical zoom. And what better place to take them than on an epic adventure to Yosemite, one of the crown jewels of America’s National Park System and an iconic destination for outdoor lovers.

Yosemite is absolutely, massively impressive.

The main camera is still the best camera

The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s main camera with its wide angle lens is the most important camera on the phone. It has a new larger 48-megapixel sensor that had no problem being my daily workhorse for a week.

The larger sensor means the camera can now capture more light and render colors more accurately. And the improvements are visible. Not only do photos look richer in bright light but also in low-light scenarios.

In the images below, taken at sunrise at Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park, notice how the 15 Pro Max’s photo has better fidelity, color and contrast in the foreground leaves. Compare that against the pronounced edge sharpening of the mountaintops in the 13 Pro image.

The 15 Pro Max’s camera captures excellent detail in bright light, including more texture, like in rocky landscapes, more detail in the trees and more fine-grained color.

A new 15 Pro Max feature aimed at satisfying a camera nerd’s creative itch uses the larger main sensor combined with the A17 Pro chip to turn the 24mm equivalent wide angle lens into essentially four lenses. You can switch the main camera between 1x, 1.2x, 1.5x and 2x, the equivalent of 24mm, 28mm, 35mm and 50mm prime lens – four of the most popular prime lens lengths. In reality, the 15 Pro Max takes crops of the sensor and using some clever processing to correct lens distortion.

In use, it’s nice to have these crop options, but for most people they will likely be of little interest.

I find the 15 Pro Max’s native 1x view a little wide and enjoy being able to change it to default to 1.5x magnification. I went into Settings, tapped on Camera, then on Main Camera and changed the default lens to a 35mm look. Now, every time I open the camera, it’s at 1.5x and I can just focus on framing and taking the photo instead of zooming in.

Another nifty change that I highly recommend is to customize the Action button so that it opens the camera when you long press it. The Action button replaces the switch to mute/silence your phone that has been on every iPhone since the original. You can program the Action button to trigger a handful of features or shortcuts by going into the Settings app and tapping Action button. Once you open the camera, the Action button can double as a physical camera shutter button.

The dynamic range and detail are noticeably better in photos I took with the 15 Pro Max main camera in just about every lighting condition.

There are fewer blown out highlights and nicer, blacker blacks with less noise. In particular, there is more tonal range and detail in the whites. I noticed this particularly when it came to how the 15 Pro Max captured direct sunlight on climbers or in the shadow detail in the rock formations.

Read more: iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: Smartphone Shootout

Overall, the 15 Pro Max’s main camera is simply far better and consistent at exposures than on the 13 Pro.

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Take a Look

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The iPhone 15 Pro Max 5x telephoto camera

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 5x telephoto camera with an f/2.8 aperture and an equivalent focal length of 120mm.

The 13 Pro’s 3x camera, introduced in 2021, was a huge step up from previous models and still gives zoomed-in images a cinematic feel from the lens’ depth compression. The 15 Pro Max’s longer telephoto lens, combined with a larger sensor, accentuates those cinematic qualities even further, resulting in images with a rich array of color and a wider tonal range.

All this translates to a huge improvement in light capture and a noticeable step up in image quality for the iPhone’s zoom lens.

I found that the 15 Pro Max’s telephoto camera yields better photos of subjects farther away like mountains, wildlife and the stage at a live concert.

A combination of optical stabilization and 3D sensor-shift make the 15 Pro Max’s tele upgrade experience easier to use by steadying the image capture. A longer lens typically means there’s a greater chance of blurred images due to your hand shaking. Using such a long focal length magnifies every little movement of the camera.

I found that the 3D sensor-shift optical image stabilization system does wonders for shooting distant subjects and minimizing that camera shake.

The image below was shot with the 5x zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max looking up the Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. It is an incredibly crisp telephoto image.

For reference, the image below was shot on the 15 Pro Max from the same location using the ultra Wide lens. I am about five miles away from that V-shaped dip at the end of the valley.

The iPhone still suffers from lens flare

Lens flares, along with the green dot that seems to be in all iPhone images taken into direct sunlight, continue to be an issue on the iPhone 15 Pro Max despite the new lens coatings.

Apple says the main camera lens has been treated for anti-glare, but I didn’t notice any improvements. In some cases, images have even greater lens flares than photos from previous iPhone models.

Notice the repeated halo effect surrounding the sun on the images below shot at Lower Yosemite Falls.

The 15 Pro Max and Smart HDR 5

The 15 Pro Max’s new A17 Pro chip brings with it greater computational power (Apple calls it Smart HDR 5), which delivers more natural looking images compared with the 13 Pro, especially in very bright and very dark scenes. There is a noticeably better, more subtle handling of color with a less heavy-handed approach that balances between brightening the shadows and darkening highlights.

You can see clearly the warmer, more natural looking light in 15 Pro Max photo below, pushing back against the typical blue light rendering that is common in over-processed HDR images. At the same time, Apple’s implementation hasn’t swayed too far in the opposite direction and refrains from over saturating orange colors that frequently troubles digital corrections on phones.

Coming from an iPhone 13 Pro Max, I noticed the background corrections during computational processing on the 15 Pro Max tend to result in more discrete and balanced images. Apple appears to have dialed back its bombastic pursuit of pushing computational photography right in our faces like with the 13 Pro and fine tuned the 15 Pro Max’s image pipeline to lean toward a more realistic reflection of your subject.

It’s a welcome change.

The 15 Pro Max shines in night mode

Night mode shots from the 15 Pro Max look similar to the ones from my 13 Pro Max, but there are minor improvements in the exposure that result in images with a better tonal range. The 15 Pro Max’s larger main camera sensor captures photos with less noise in the blacks and a better overall exposure compared to the 13 Pro Max.

Colors in 15 Pro Max night mode images appear more accurate, realistic, and have a wider dynamic range. Notice the detail in the photo below of El Capitan and The Dawn Wall. The 15 Pro Max even captures detail in the car lights snaking through the valley floor road.

Overall, night mode images continue to look soft and over-processed. Night mode gives snaps a dream-like vibe and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. These photos are brighter and have less image noise than those shot on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

15 Pro Max vs. 13 Pro Max: the bottom line

By this point, it should be no surprise that the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s cameras are a significant improvement over the ones on the 13 Pro Max. If photography is a priority for you, I recommend upgrading to it from the 13 Pro Max or earlier.

If you’re coming from an iPhone 14 Pro, the improvements seem less dramatic, and it’s likely not a worth the upgrade. I’m incredibly excited to continue carrying the iPhone 15 Pro Max in my pocket to Yosemite or just around my home.

The Los Angeles Chargers should be well rested for the Dallas Cowboys. Coming off their bye week, the Chargers expect to have Austin Ekeler back in the lineup after being out since injuring his ankle in week 1. The Cowboys looked dominate over the first two weeks of the season but have dropped two of their last three games. It will be a fun matchup with the explosive Chargers offense led by QB Justin Herbert going up against All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons and the tough Dallas defense.

The Cowboys-Chargers game kicks off tonight at 8:15 p.m. ET (5:15 p.m. PT) on ABC and ESPN. Looking for the Manning brothers? Peyton and Eli have the night off. The ManningCast will return in next week.

Keep reading to see your viewing options for Monday Night Football. And with YouTube and YouTube TV now the exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket, along with games also streaming on Paramount Plus, Peacock and ESPN Plus, there’s lots for NFL fans to keep track of this season. Check out our picks for the best live TV streaming services for NFL fans in 2023.

How to watch MNF without cable

If you don’t have a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can watch Monday Night Football with a live TV service. The good news for football fans is that ABC and ESPN are available on each of the five major streaming services.

All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials, allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

You might not know that much about smart monitors since they aren’t that common. In essence, they’re the same as a smart TV, but they also offer some basic computer functions and can act as a light workstation. A great example is Samsung’s Smart Monitor M7, which is currently going for the discounted price of $350 at Woot. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen it hit since last year and undercuts Amazon’s current discount by $30.

At 43 inches, the Samsung M7 might be a bit big for a monitor, but that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, especially if you don’t sit directly in front of the screen, prefer your display a bit bigger or want something that can do double duty as a TV screen.

In addition to entertainment and streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube, the M7 can also run Microsoft Office 365 programs so you can edit documents, type up spreadsheets and much more — all without the help of a PC. And if you do have another computer, you can connect it via USB-C or HDMI cable for a dual-monitor setup or even remotely access it.

Of course, given that this is a monitor that is a little bit more productivity-focused, it’s not the best for gaming, even though it has a few gaming features. For example, it has Samsung’s Gaming Hub, which lets you stream games to your monitor without needing a gaming PC or console. On the other hand, the base refresh rate of the monitor is only 60Hz which is on the lower end for most modern gaming expectations. Also, the gray-to-gray response time, that’s how fast the monitor changes the picture, is about 4 milliseconds, which won’t really affect most people who aren’t heavy gamers, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are.

If Samsung’s hybrid monitor and productivity device isn’t for you, it’s worth checking out these monitor deals for alternatives.