The Morning After: The best deals we found on Amazon’s Prime Day 2024
Discounts on hardware from Apple, Samsung and more.
Didn’t we already have a Prime Day? Yes, but that was Amazon’s July Prime Day — this one is in October. While it typically doesn’t offer the same breadth of deals (or deep discounts) as the OG day, if you’ve been keeping your eye on a certain pair of AirPods, Kindle tablet or, randomly this year, a lot of Lego, then you might be in luck.
Some highlights include $154 off AirPods Max (both Lightning and the recent USB-C version), the recently launched Ring pan-and-tilt security camera for $50 and Anker’s travel-friendly MagGo 3-in-1 Charging Station that can charge an Apple Watch, AirPods and smartphone all at once down to $88. Sony’s best headphones, another perennial Prime Day attendee, are on sale too: The WH-1000XM5 are on sale for $298, that’s $101 off.
If you’re shopping for a phone, though, no iPhones are discounted. Boo. However, the Pixel 8a is $100 cheaper ($399) and the OnePlus 12 is down to $650. We’ll be pulling the best deals into a single place, right here.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Phoenix Springs review: A dazzling and disquieting sci-fi mystery
‘Halo’ developer 343 Industries rebrands itself to Halo Studios
Meta is working to fix Threads’ engagement bait problem
‘Not all comments or replies are good,’ Adam Mosseri said.
If you’re using Meta’s Threads, then you’ve probably encountered some engagement bait in your for you feed — if it’s not completely clogging it up. Now, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri says the company is “working to get it under control” after yet another spike in posts. Because the app defaults to the algorithmic for you feed, these engagement bait-style posts that attract a lot of replies often go viral on the app, even if it’s the type of content many don’t want to see. And are low quality. And dumb. And repetitive.
Addressing the issue could be tricky because engagement bait takes many forms. It could be rage-bait, AskReddit-style questions, Facebook copy-paste and more. Mosseri and Meta haven’t explained why it’s proved so easy to game Threads’ algorithm to go viral, either, but it seems the social network prioritizes replies.
Google ordered to open up the Play Store in Epic Games antitrust ruling
It stems from Epic’s 2020 lawsuit against the company.
US District Judge James Donato issued a permanent injunction forcing Google to open its storefront to competitors for three years and make Android apps available in alternate stores. The ruling stems from Google’s four-year antitrust battle with Epic Games. Billing changes will also emerge from the injunction. Google can’t require developers to use its own billing system, nor can it stop devs from notifying users about less expensive payment options. Google said it will appeal the injunction.