Gadgets galore: Amazon has already kicked off its Black Friday deals
There may still be pretty much a full month to wait until Black Friday, but Amazon has decided to kick start the shopping discounts with its “countdown to Black Friday” sale, which has gone live today. It’s a little bizarre, I know.
As we covered earlier, the Moto X (2014) is in there for just $199.99, and there are plenty of other gadgets up for grabs. Including a digital infra-red thermometer, up to $200 off digital cameras, and 40 percent of 4K LG TVs. Here’s a list of some of the other deals on offer, according to Amazon.
- Motorolo Moto X (second generation) for $199.99
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain for $39.99
- 30% off Sony XBR55X900C 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD TV with a Blu-ray Player
- $170 off the Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens
- 47% off Jaybird X Sport Bluetooth Headphones
- Optima HD37 Full 3D 1080p 2600 Lumens DLP Home Cinema Projector for less than $800
- 40% off select toys from top construction brands including K’NEX, Tegu, and Magformer
- Up to 50% off select Home Automation products
- Up to 50% off hundreds of PetSafe items
If that isn’t enough for you, Amazon is also offering Prime members access to more than 30,000 “Lightening Deals” a full 30 minutes before everyone else. Which will give them an advantage on some of the sales that have more limited stock.
Amazon will be offering various discounts right until December 22nd, so there’s plenty of time to track down something that you like.
Grab an Amazon Countdown to BF deal
| The Countdown is On: Amazon.com Greets the Season with Launch of Black Friday Deals Store and Electronics Holiday Gift Guide |
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New this year, Prime members receive early access to more than 30,000 Lightning Deals With over 600 top electronics and a Gift Finder tool, the Electronics Holiday Gift Guide takes the guesswork out of gifting SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 2, 2015– (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Amazon.com today officially kicked off the countdown to Black Friday with the launch of the Black Friday Deals store and Electronics Holiday Gift Guide. This year, Prime members can access more than 30,000 Lightning Deals 30 minutes early and all customers will find tens of thousands of deals on more of the items they want. In addition, the curated Electronics Holiday Gift Guide and Gift Finder tool take the guesswork out of shopping and make it easy to discover all of the right gifts. “Shoppers come to Amazon to discover the best deals on the best gifts and this year, we’re pulling out all of the stops,” said Steve Shure, Vice President, Amazon Consumer Marketing. “We’re giving Prime members early access to more than 30,000 Lightning Deals and for all customers, tens of thousands of great deals in the Black Friday Deals store. With incredible deals, fast delivery options, curated lists like our Electronics Holiday Gift Guide, gift recommendations, customer reviews and more, we’re making it easier than ever for customers to save time and money on their holiday shopping.” Black Friday Deals: The Black Friday Deals store is the leading deals destination for customers this holiday season with tens of thousands of deals on top items including electronics, toys, clothing, jewelry, kitchen, and more, now through December 22. Prime members will get the first crack at more than 30,000 deals through Prime Early Access and all customers can find great deals throughout the season at www.amazon.com/blackfriday, including:
Electronics Holiday Gift Guide: With more than 600 of this year’s hottest items, organized by category and gift recipient, the Electronics Holiday Gift Guide and Gift Finder tool help customers discover the right gift for everyone on their list – from the Photographer who wants the latest gear from GoPro and Canon, to the Gadget Guru who is eyeing the latest innovations from the Amazon Launchpad program like the Electric Objects Digital Art Display and Bluesmart Smart Carry-On Luggage. Customers can explore exciting new features like never-before-seen 3D imagery of hot gifts, editor’s picks, exclusive product reviews, unboxing videos, and gift recommendations, with new content uploaded regularly from trusted sources including Gawker, Tom’s Guide, and The Wirecutter. Tech Gifts and Shopping Trends to Watch
Customers will find even more fast delivery options with Amazon Prime, making last-minute shopping a thing of the past. A growing list of Prime services is making it easy for customers to shop and save this holiday season including unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 20 million items, unlimited Free Same-Day Delivery on more than a million items in 16 metro areas, and early access to Lightning Deals all year long. In addition, Prime members in 20 metro areas receive one and two hour delivery on tens of thousands of everyday essentials with the dedicated Prime Now mobile app. About Amazon Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151101005041/en/ Source: Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com, Inc. |
Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Mi 4 headed to Africa
Xiaomi is to continue its overseas expansion into Africa as it seeks to offset its slowing home Chinese market where it faces increased competitions from companies such as Apple and Huawei, with the latter believed to have recently overtaken Xiaomi at the top of the Chinese market.
Xiaomi in video:
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A large part of Xiaomi’s success is down to the company’s online-based direct-to-consumer sales channels, which cuts out distributor and retail partners costs and ensures devices are available at the lowest price as possible. However, in Africa, the company will be passing a range of functions over to a distributor, which suggests that Xiaomi is struggling to replicate its sales model in overseas markets.
The company said today that it has entered a distribution partnership with Mobile in Africa Group to sell the Redmi 2 and Mi 4 smartphones in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, beginning later this month. Whereas it relies on the online model at home, Xiaomi will pass on the importation, logistics, marketing and support for Xiaomi devices to MIA Group and the handsets are expected to be sold through operator partners, websites and retailers throughout the three countries.
Google’s self-driving cars have the ability to detect children in costumes
Google today in a post on Google+ said that its self-driving cars this Halloween had a chance to learn to become more cautious around children. Kids, as we all know, are unpredictable compared to adults, and so, Google’s self-driving cars are programmed to detect and be more cautious around kids. You might think children wearing costumes, particularly on Halloween, might confuse Google’s vehicles’ recognition system, but that wasn’t the case.
The search giant ended up having a bunch of children in costumes come hang out around the self-driving cars so that their sensors and software could get some additional practice at recognizing children in costumes. Here’s the official statement from Google:
“This week, lots of little ghouls, superheroes and even robots were running around Google with their families, so we asked them to hang out around our parked cars. This gives our sensors and software extra practice at recognizing children in all their unique shapes and sizes, even when they’re in odd costumes.”
Once a sensor detects a child, dressed in costume or not, the software responds accordingly by being much more cautious, whether that means moving down to slower speeds, ready to come to a complete stop on a dime, and so on.
Certainly the most interesting thing about Google’s self-driving car project is the vehicles’ abilities to learn and adapt to real-world situations. While there’s still a lot of skepticism surrounding driverless cars, Google’s project is shaping up nicely, and it’s only getting better. The search giant even has a dedicated team to come up with odd and unpredictable situations so that the self-driving vehicles will know what to do in almost any situation they come across.
Google recently announced that not only was it expanding its self-driving car project to the streets of Austin, Texas, but that it was also beginning to increase production of its autonomous vehicles.
source: Google (Google+)
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Here is how to get rid of Droid Turbo 2’s Verizon logo
There is no doubt that the shatterproof display of Motorola’s Droid Turbo 2 has been creating a lot of buzz lately. At its official launch in New York, the device was dropped several times and still managed to remain unscathed. The invincible screen however comes with one minor flaw. Since it is a Verizon-exclusive device, it bears the company’s branding at the bottom of the screen. Here is how you can get rid of it.
As we had informed you earlier, Motorola’s Shatter Shield technique consists of two lens elements atop the flexible touch screen. None of them is glass, but a clear polycarbonate and acrylic polymer, which cannot be shattered. While the top later is prone to scratches, it is user replaceable. Now, that is a good news because this is the layer that bears Verizon’s checkmark logo.
The international version of the device, the Moto X Force, is likely to come with a blank space exterior. So, if you find the Droid Turbo 2’s logo bothersome, you can simply replace its exterior lens with the one that would available for the Moto X Force.
As the last resort, you can completely go without the exterior lens, which wouldn’t come without consequences. One, it may damage the internal lens of the device. Two, you may lose Motorola’s lucrative four years’ guarantee to get the screen fixed.
Source: Pocketnow
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Asus announces the US launch of the ZenFone 2 Laser
ASUS today announced the ZenFone 2 Laser’s arrival in the US after seeing some very successful sales in India. ASUS’ ZenFone line of smartphones has been met with much popularity, announcing back in early September that it received over 30,000 pre-orders. The ZenFone 2 Laser was the most popular of its lineup, receiving a whopping 10,000 pre-orders alone.
Much of the ZenFone 2 Laser’s popularity is because of its attractive price point while still sporting fairly decent specifications. As a quick rundown, the ZenFone 2 Laser sports a 5.5-inch IPS Full HD 1920 x 1080 display, a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 Octa-core processor, an Adreno 405 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of storage options, microSD support up to 128GB, a. 13-megapixel rear camera, a removable 3,000mAh battery, and Android 5.0.
Those interested will be able to purchase it from Newegg or via ASUS’ own online store for $199 (16GB) or $249 (32GB). The handset is only compatible with GSM carriers, such as AT&T and T-Mobile, meaning that those on CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint are out of luck, unfortunately.
Starting at $199 off-contract, the ZenFone 2 Laser is a hard one to pass up. Anyone plan on picking one up?
source: ASUS
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Google thinks it can make translated apps fail less
While often hilarious, mistranslations can be embarrassing or even dangerous. Google, which is no doubt responsible for a large number of those, has come up with a way to help developers ensure their apps make sense in other languages. The problem is that machines don’t understand context — as an example, Google cites the word “auto,” which can be translated to French either as automatic or automobile, depending on how it’s used. That prompted the search giant to develop the Language Quality Survey (LQS), consisting of 10 questions that developers can pose to foreign users.
Source: Google
DJI drones to help Devon, Cornwall and Dorset police fight crime
Drones have been used for all sorts of devious deeds, but now they’re being used to save lives too. Police in two English counties, Devon and Cornwall, have recruited a pair of DJI Inspire 1 drones to help with crime scene photography and missing people searches. The two new quadcopters are based in Exeter and Plymouth, and so far three officers have obtained the CAA qualification necessary to fly them. Police in Dorset are now preparing for a similar trial, and hope to have access to their own drone starting on November 26th.
Source: Devon and Cornwall Police
Amazon tries to one-up Black Friday (again) with a 7-week sale
Remember how Amazon trumped Black Friday with its Prime Day sale? No? We can’t blame you — the offerings were so modest that you had a better chance finding bargains at a garage sale. That isn’t stopping Amazon from giving it another shot, however. It’s launching a Black Friday Deals page that will offer discounts from now until December 22nd. Yes, that’s an attempt to spread one day of frenetic shopping across 7 weeks. Prime subscribers will get first crack, naturally.
Source: Amazon (1), (2)
Wileyfox’s Storm is as chic as £199 smartphones come
New smartphone brand Wileyfox arrived on the scene brandishing the Swift, a midish-range device with an agreeable £129 price tag. Last week, it followed up with the Storm, its second contract-free handset you could call Wileyfox’s flagship. A flagship of sorts, anyhow, since at £199 it’s only a fraction of the price of true top-tier handsets. Now, the Swift is a perfectly charming device, but it doesn’t feel like it’s punching above its weight to any extent. The orange accents and quirky circular earpiece give it some character, but the physical buttons are plastic, the back panel removable. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but its compact size and general build quality are more or less what you’d expect from an affordable device. The newer Storm, on the other hand, is only £70 more expensive, and yet it feels like it’s batting in a completely different league.Slideshow-338116
T-Mobile Launches New 4G LTE CellSpot, Free for Simple Choice Customers
T-Mobile has announced a new 4G LTE CellSpot that broadcasts a low-power 4G LTE signal, providing an average 3,000 square feet of full-bars LTE coverage. The 4G LTE mini-tower works in areas where a broadband internet connection and T-Mobile wireless spectrum are available, for personal and business use.
The 4G LTE CellSpot connects to a broadband internet connection to deliver a “strong, reliable wireless 4G LTE signal for customers with or without an indoor cellular signal on compatible 3G, 4G and LTE handsets for up to 16 callers at one time.” T-Mobile says the handheld device even works in some areas without cellular signal.
Introducing the 4G LTE CellSpot!!
https://t.co/ZY17gRjrsp
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) November 2, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe new 4G LTE CellSpot launches November 4 and is free for Simple Choice postpaid customers, as long as they remain T-Mobile subscribers, with a refundable $25 deposit and non-return fee. The device provides access to all of T-Mobile’s network features, including VoLTE, HD voice, advanced messaging and video calling.
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