Eliana Willis

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysThe Chipolo One Point and Card Point are available starting at $28. More

Adam Breeden/ZDNETLast week, Amazon confirmed that its popular Prime Day sale will return on October 8-9, but this time with a fall twist. Prime Big Deal Days is the sister sale to the retail giant’s July Prime Day event. The October sale is intended to usher in the beginning of the holiday shopping rush as one of the first major retailer sale events of the season. Also: October Prime Day is coming. Here are the best early dealsThe 48-hour Prime-exclusive event will kick off at 12:01 a.m. PDT on October 8, and Prime members can access early holiday savings on top brands, seasonal products, home essentials, popular toys, and more. Also: Get Prime Day deals, even if you don’t pay for Prime. Here’s howAmazon is also promising deals on everyday essentials, making it an ideal time to stock up on items like batteries, home storage, pet care, and Amazon Basics products. Prime members can expect new deals to drop as often as every five minutes during select periods during the two-day event, so customers can always shop new savings. I’ve covered the busiest sale events live, including July Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and more, so I know how to spot a good deal on coveted tech products. Plus, we’ve compiled the answers to the most popular questions about October Prime Day, so you can enjoy one-stop-shopping below on everything you need to know about the upcoming sale event. What is Amazon’s October Prime Day?  Per Amazon, Prime Big Deal Days (more commonly referred to as “October Prime Day”) is a “holiday kickoff event” designed to offer Prime members exclusive access to early holiday deals across popular categories and top brands. Amazon’s Prime Day sales occur twice yearly, once in July and once in October, with several smaller sale events, like Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, popping up on the calendar throughout the year. When is October Prime Day 2024? Amazon announced on September 17 that the 2024 dates for October Prime Day are October 8-9. Last year, the October Prime Big Deal Days sale occurred on October 10-11. When will October Prime Day deals end? October’s Prime Big Deal Days is a two-day sale event that mimics the format of July Prime Day. Customers should expect deals to expire as early as 11:59 p.m. PDT on the second day of the sale, though it’s normal for some deals to hang around for hours or often days after. Though there’s no way of knowing which discounts will stay or go when the clock hits midnight, we’ll continually update ZDNET.com with the best deals that are still live even after the sale ends, so be sure to check back. Where will Prime Big Deal Days take place?Prime Big Deal Days will occur in 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United States. This is a few countries less than the total number included in July Prime Day, which was 24 countries. What will be on sale during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days 2024? During this year’s July Prime Day event, we saw discounts on Amazon-owned products like Echo devices, Fire TVs and tablets, and more. We also saw some seriously good Apple deals, like the lowest-ever prices on the MacBook Air M2, MacBook Air M3, and the Watch Series 9. We also saw some lame deals, like on the Kindle lineup, which was offered at less than 20% off the regular price. We’re expecting similar deals on flagship Amazon products to make a return, as well as more discounts on tech like previous models of tablets, smartwatches, phones, laptops, and TVs, especially as this is one of the first significant sale events before the holiday season after a long summer of new releases on multiple products, from the latest iPhone 16, Google Pixel 9, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and more. You can also expect plenty of deals across other categories, like home and apparel. Amazon announced that customers can expect early holiday deals on top brands and everyday essentials, too. Do I need to be an Amazon Prime member to shop October Prime Day? As the name implies, only Prime members in participating countries can shop the October Prime Big Deal Days event. If you don’t have a membership, you’ll need to enroll prior to the shopping event’s kickoff to access exclusive deals and offers. How much is an Amazon Prime membership? Amazon Prime More

Jason Hiner/ZDNETI love my AirPods Max. They sound fantastic, are a joy to use, and are a staple in my daily routine. But after Apple’s recent refresh — if you can even call it that — I’m left scratching my head, wondering why Apple didn’t seize the moment to bring this product up to par with the innovation we expect. A few new colors and USB-C? That’s it?The weight and comfort issueFirst, the AirPods Max More

ShutterWorx/Getty Images Small banks and credit unions have plenty of advantages. Still, one of the biggest drawbacks of banking with a smaller institution is that you sometimes don’t get to take advantage of all the latest finance-related tech. Google Wallet is out to fix that. Also: Google Wallet will let you digitize your US passport – […] More

Jack Wallen/ZDNETJosh Miller, the cofounder and CEO of The Browser Company has made a name for himself as a pioneer on the web browser front. Arc browser re-invented browsing by creating a beautiful, efficient application that puts most browsers to shame.Especially Google Chrome.Also: 5 ways Arc browser makes browsing the web fun againIn an interview with The Verge, Miller gives some insight into his background, “I was a political appointee in the Obama White House and after the 2016 election, I was personally devastated by the result. I felt like technology and the technology industry had an impact on the things I didn’t like, and I was very motivated to try to do something about it,” Miller explained.His idea behind creating Arc developed from the original purpose of the web browser when the web was more than a publishing platform. That paradigm has obviously changed but most web browsers have not. Miller’s reasoning for that lack of evolution is money. Most users aren’t spending the majority of their time with content as much as they are working via their browser.If you look at the Chrome browser today, it’s not much different than it was in 2010 or 2020. Yes, there are new features and security enhancements, but the fundamental UI and workflows of Chrome have gone (mostly) unchanged.Also: Arc’s ‘Air Traffic Control’ is a great way to keep your browser organizedThat doesn’t mean Miller doesn’t credit Google for making inroads in the tech space. As he says in the interview, “I think if there’s one thing Chrome and the Chromium team specifically has done a fantastic job of is building an operating system or an application platform that developers love, generally speaking, and they make it more and more powerful.” Miller adds, “Figma would not exist if it weren’t for Google, Chrome, and Chromium making the web fantastic for application platforms.”However, what The Browser Company is doing differently is focusing on the individual and giving them tools that can do more than the de facto standard web browser. The company approaches this with the idea of “…what is broken, what is wrong with the way people use their browsers today, and can we invent a way to alleviate that problem?” To that end, The Browser Company created small features and ideas to help make working with the web browser more efficient. Also: Why Arc is my browser of choice for using AI toolsThe Browser Company has a very specific goal… to change the way people use the internet. But why would one take on such a feat? Sure, Arc has the most beautiful UI of any browser on the market, but is that enough? Well, according to Miller, Arc is much more than a pretty face. Arc is far more functional than the likes of Chrome. Miller states a clear example when he mentions how restrictive other browsers are. In Arc, you can hit the Command+T keyboard shortcut and then type “new Notion document.” Hit Enter and Arc creates that new document. With Chrome and Safari, Notion does not enjoy that level of functionality. Because of this, Miller likes to think of Arc as more of an operating system than just a browser. More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETIt’s been a big year for advancements in processor technology, and it’s only continuing to ramp up. Intel just announced its next generation of high-efficiency, AI-powered chips with the Core Ultra Series 2, and one of the first laptops it’s loaded on is the Asus Zenbook S 14 More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETWhether you’re looking up the storefront of a specific restaurant or exploring a continent virtually, Google Maps and Google Earth are great tools for viewing a part of the world from your device. Now both applications are getting updates to make what you see even better.  Also: 88% of US parents see AI as essential to their children’s educationOn Wednesday, Google announced three new updates for Google Earth and Maps to enrich the user viewing and exploring experience. The first update is the availability of historical imagery on Google Earth, which allows users to explore Google’s satellite and aerial imagery library from as far back as 80 years ago.  More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are available now for $179 They’re a reboot of the previous model with an even more comfortable, light fit, improved ANC, and booming, rich sound The app is a little clunky, the touch controls take some getting use to, and the voice commands can be finicky. more […] More