The Wirecutter’s best deals: Canon EOS 70D kit and more!

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

Refurbished Canon 70D EF-S DSLR + 18-55mm IS STM Lens

Street price: $1,100; MSRP: $1,100; deal price: $680

Canon’s refurbished sales tend to have a $50-$100 discount off of their already solid refurbished prices and this deal is just that, with $50 off of the usual pricing for this kit. We’ve seen previous 70D deals around $800 with the 18-135 lens, which is a little more useful for video, but this deal is significantly cheaper and may be a better value for someone that doesn’t need the longer part of that range. Canon refurbished deals come with a full warranty.

The Canon 70D is our runner-up and video pick for the best midrange SLR. Amadou Diallo said, “What really sets the 70D apart from most of the competition, however, are its benefits for video shooters. Powered by Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system (Amateur Photographer offers a good technical explanation), the 70D offers fast, precise autofocus in live view and video modes, traditional areas of weakness for DSLRs. Imaging Resource called this feature “a rare, groundbreaking innovation” when the 70D was launched in 2013, noting, “this technology finally puts true camcorder-like performance into an HD-DSLR. And when using live view for still shooting, the advanced autofocusing felt nearly as fast as traditional viewfinder shooting under most scenarios.”

JLab Epic Bluetooth Headphones

Street price: $100; MSRP: $100; deal price: $56

This new Office Depot sale drops these headphones a huge $30 under the best price we’ve seen to date. They tend to fluctuate between $90 and $100 on Amazon, with the occasional drop to $88, so this is a significant discount. They’re also offering free overnight shipping.

The JLab Epic Bluetooth Headphones are our pick for the best wireless exercise headphones. Lauren Dragan wrote, “The JLab Epic Bluetooth gets our overall recommendation thanks to a design that was very comfortable for nearly all of our reviewers, with a lightweight, effortless feel on your head whether out on a run or doing burpees and sound quality that everyone enjoyed. We recognize that most people don’t like or want a cord when they work out, so for many, Bluetooth is a must, which confirmed the Epic as our overall recommendation over less-expensive wired and sealed options.”

Jabra Revo Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

Street price: $140; MSRP: $200; deal price: $80 with code DNWSREVO80

This sale from DealNews is the first we’ve seen on the Jabra Revo headphones since December 2014 when they were still a top pick. They’ve been supplanted by the Jabra Move since then, but they’re still a good pair of headphones, and this is a price lower than any deal we’ve seen, even back then. Shipping is free, but don’t forget to add the code DNWSREVO80 in your shopping cart to knock the price down to $80. The only available color is Black.

These headphones are more of a step-up pick with a heavier bass in our guide on the best Bluetooth headphones. Lauren Dragan said these headphones “sound great as Bluetooth headphones, as well as with a cord. They fit everyone well, are light and comfortable, and have intuitive touch-based controls that were actually useful.”

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB Internal SSD

Street price: $300; MSRP: $500; deal price: $260

A new low on this fantastic SSD. We’ve been watching this drive drop from $300, $10 at a time, in a slow price war between Newegg and Adorama. Typically, they’d match each other for a few weeks but we only saw them post $270 deals twice before this drop to $260.

The Samsung 850 EVO is the top pick in our guide on the best SSDs. Nathan Edwards said, “It’s fast, cheap, and consistent, and it comes from a company that makes its own SSD controllers, firmware and NAND, which means it gets first dibs on the good stuff. (The company is able to design the entire SSD to work together from the start.) Samsung has made some of the best SSDs on the market for the past four hardware generations; this is no exception.”

Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

FCC expands Lifeline to help low-income Americans afford internet

Today the FCC voted 3-2 to approve expanding its Lifeline program that has subsidized phone and prepaid wireless access for low-income Americans since the 80s, so that now it covers internet access too. The $9.25 household subsidy is paid directly to service providers, and now it can be applied to standalone internet access, or bundled voice/data service. There are requirements for the services provided, like a minimum 150GB monthly usage cap, as well as minimums for mobile broadband usage and cellphone voice minutes.

The point here is to shrink the “digital divide” between households that can and cannot afford internet access, as necessary elements for education, job-hunting, health care and more increasingly move online. The vote was not without political drama however, as it was held up for several hours before eventually the commissioners voted along party lines.

Deliberative process did work. At 10:30 we had bipartisan agreement. Chairman Wheeler delayed meeting to work to blow it up!

— Matthew Berry (@matthewberryfcc) March 31, 2016

A proposed compromise to get a unanimous vote including Republican commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Reilly would’ve put a hard $2 billion per year cap on spending (funding for the program comes from a fee placed on consumer’s phone bills). That did not come to fruition, as Pai’s chief of staff Matthew Berry told reporters that the chairman Tom Wheeler pressured fellow commissioner Mignon Clyburn to back off of the compromise deal — which both Wheeler and Clyburn denied. The plan adopted has a soft cap of $2.25 billion per year, which could be adjusted as necessary. According to the LA Times, the program spent $1.5 billion last year, after peaking at $2.2 billion in 2012.

Source: FCC

Microsoft Office for Mac now supports add-in extensions

Microsoft Office didn’t get a ton of stage time at Build this year, but the company announced a handful of improvements for both users and developers. Probably the most notable was the news that “add-ins” for Office (which work similar to browser extensions) would be coming to Office for Mac for the first time. It’s a smart move to get those add-ins out to the Mac, because they’re already available on Windows, the iPad and the online Office interface. Making them work with Office on the Mac goes helps unify the platform, something Microsoft has made a major focus in recent years.
Microsoft also launched new tools to help build more advanced Excel add-ins, deploy Office add-ins (if you’re a system administrator) and find add-ins for Outlook. But arguably the most life-changing addition to Office has to be the new Starbucks add-in the company showed off during the Build day two keynote this morning. The Outlook add-in lets you send gift cards to your contacts directly through the email app and also lets you schedule coffee meetings that include links to let you place your orders ahead of time. Caffeine and productivity lovers, rejoice!

Now there’s a $700 smart cold-pressed juice maker

The world needs a “magical” $700, subscription-based juicer apparently. At least that’s what the folks behind Juicero seem to think. The 31.5-pound countertop device ticks a few buzzword boxes (farm to table, smart, organic, has a companion app) while catering to our inherent laziness. The apparent draw, according to Business Insider, is that there’s no mess or work involved: put an IV-bag-sized pouch in the machine and it spits out a cup of cold-pressed juice while telling you its nutritional content.

After that, it can order you another $4 to $10 pouch if you liked one of the three currently available flavors. Because the company is so focused on freshness and delivering the packets within days of harvest, though, the Juicero is only available in California at the moment. Everyone else itching to drop seven Benjamins — plus tax — will have to sign up for the company’s mailing list and wait.

Via: Business Insider

Source: Juicero

Google is depreciating the Wallet card at the end of April

Google announced on Thursday that it will no longer support the physical debit cards tied to users’ Wallet accounts beginning July 1. Instead, Google plans to press forward with development on its mobile app.

The cards are officially retiring at the end of April, meaning that users will not be able to load any additional money on them but they’ll still work for purchases. The cards will deactivate completely at the end of June. Any remaining balance on the card at that point will remain in your Wallet account and be accessible through the mobile app. And if you’re looking for a replacement debit card, Google is recommending similar services from American Express and Simple.

Source: Google Wallet

Orbital survival simulator ‘Adr1ft’ floats to Vive in May

Folks who (digitally) lined up to buy the HTC Vive have another game to add to their wishlist: Adr1ft. Publisher 505 Games announced today that the game inspired by its creator’s Twitter freakout will hit HTC and Valve’s room-scale VR platform this May for $20. It’s already available for Oculus Rift and has been confirmed for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, albeit in non-VR form.

When I spoke with creator Adam Orth at E3 last year he said that making the game was a form of therapy for him, following his exit as creative director for Microsoft’s gaming division.

“The destroyed space station is a metaphor for my life at the time,” he said. “This isolation is that I felt entirely alone. Instead of talking about it, I just made a game about it.”

Some Sprint Users Unable to Connect to LTE After iOS 9.3 Update, Fix in the Works

Since the launch of iOS 9.3 last week, some Sprint users have been unable to connect to LTE networks, according to reports on Twitter and reddit. After updating, affected users say their iPhones will only connect 3G, and there appears to be no clear fix with resets and reinstalls not solving the problem for most people.

According to one reddit user in California, he’s having issues when his iPhone attempts to connect to a specific LTE band. Affected users are frustrated with the connectivity problems, with some reporting an inability to receive any messages or updates when not on Wi-Fi. Most users seeing problems appear to be using Apple’s latest devices.

I’m having data issues as well on my 6s Plus in the LA/OC market. Over the past three days I’ve been troubleshooting on my 80 mile round trip commute via Field Test and Speedtest. I’ve figured out that data transfer is broken when connected to Clear B41. No problems on Sprint B41, B25 or EVDO. I’ve created a ticket with Sprint Care, and supposedly they have notified their network team. I’m awaiting a response.

I’ve talked to Apple as well, they did a diagnostic test that came up normal…of course it did, because I was not connected to Clear B41 at the time. At this point, the only course of action is to either disable LTE or revert back to 9.2.1 before Apple stops signing it. I’m not sure if this has to do with the WiMAX shutdown in my market, but I have noticed that the TAC went from 9xxx to 3xxxx after the shutdown. I’ve restored three times via iTunes to no avail.

As of this afternoon, Sprint has begun sending out text messages to its subscriber base, acknowledging the data connection problem. Sprint says that it is aware of the issue and “working quickly” on a fix.

Apple this morning released an iOS 9.3.1 update with a fix for an unrelated web linking bug, and while it’s not clear if the new update fixes the Sprint issue, it’s unlikely as Sprint’s text messages were sent out after the update was released.

(Thanks, Kyle!)

Tags: Sprint, iOS 9.3
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Juicero Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Juicero

Commoditized coffee in single-serve pods is nothing new, but fresh-squeezed fruit juice is about to get the Keurig treatment too. Startup company Juicero has just officially brought its high-tech juice press to market. Priced at $699, the countertop kitchen appliance will cold-press proprietary packs of fruit and vegetables to create individual servings of organic drinks on command. (While it’s US-centric for now, at a price that converts to £472 or AU$911, the shipping charges would probably be a bit exorbitant.)

According to Juicero, the press is also Internet-connected and mobile-app controlled in order to track the freshness and inventory of your packs in real time.

The true cost of this juice system

Of course there’s a big difference between buying into the Juicero system and springing for a more traditional cold-press juicer. Fancy juicing machines which claim to use the cold-press method, supposedly better for preserving natural nutrients, cost anywhere between $180 to $500. Current examples are the $180 Breville Juice Fountain Cold and Omega Twin Gear Juicer. While this is a lot of cash to spend, the $699 Juicero press has an even more exorbitant price tag.

On top of that price tag is the cost of your weekly pack subscription. Juicero says in order to use the press, customers must agree to subscribe to a minimum of five packs (called a bundle) per week. With packs priced between $7 and $10, the least you can expect to shell out (in addition to $699 for the press) is about $35 to $50 per week. That adds up to between $140 and $200 a month, or theoretically an eyebrow-raising $1,680 to $2,400 a year.

Juicero

And if you plan on drinking more than five glasses of juice a week, the ultimate bottom line will balloon with each additional bundle you add to your subscription plan. I suppose that’s why investors are so bullish on Juicero’s future, financially backing the startup to the tune of 70 million in Series B funding.

Limited availability for now

If you aren’t phased by the Juicero daunting financial commitment, you can order one today, but, per the company’s current policy, only if you live in California.

More details about Juicero

• Five flavors of Juicero packs
  • Sweet greens, greens, spicy greens, carrot beet and sweet roots
• Ingredients claimed as farm-fresh and organic
• Stays fresh in fridge for 6 days
• No need to add water
• Each pack has a QR code the press scans to ensure “freshness”
• Press connects to 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi home networks

Kevin Hart will anchor Lionsgate’s new streaming comedy channel

Lionsgate has just announced it is launching a new streaming service focused on comedy, and comedian Kevin Hart will be the big draw and main talent for starters. Laugh Out Loud will feature a number of original series from Hart, the first of which is a hidden camera situation with the comedian working as an undercover Lyft driver. Beyond starring in his own shows, Hart will also “curate” other content, and the service will feature more shows from various comedians and social media stars.

That tie-in to social media extends beyond courting creators like Logan Paul (who Lionsgate says is the “most-viewed” creator on both Facebook and Vine) — Lionsgate and Hart are partnering with developer Fifth Journey to build a “social adventure” game for phones. In the game, you’ll play the role of an up-and-coming comic going on adventures with Hart as your guide; activities include going on comedy tours, starring in movies, hosting awards shows and the like. It sounds not entirely dissimilar to a Kim Kardashian: Hollywood situation, though we’re hoping Hart manages to build something with more humor and substance (and less in-app purchases) than Kim’s game.

There’s no word on when this all rolls out, but Laugh Out Loud isn’t Lionsgate’s first foray into running an online video service. The Tribeca Shortlist channel movie service launched last year, and a Comic-Con channel is set to launch this summer.

Via: Mashable

Source: Lionsgate

An improved camera is just one of the features on your HTC 10 wishlist

You let us know which features you want to see on the HTC 10.

The announcement of the HTC 10 is almost here, and on April 12th, we’ll get to see HTC’s newest device. As usual, folks are pouring over what has been released while talking regularly about what might be new, or changed. Phil asked what you want to see and you sure as sugar let us know.

We spent some time pouring over your comments on here, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and our Youtube channel. We have the 5 features that you guys most wanted to see, from an improved camera to having access to expandable storage.

Camera

An overwhelming majority of you told us that an improved camera was an absolute must. This isn’t a surprise either. From selfies that you post to Facebook, to a carefully curated Instagram, being able to capture the moments that matter most to you is a big deal. Many people don’t even bother picking up an individual camera anymore, because their phone gets the job done.

We’ve seen phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 that deliver absolutely gorgeous photos, so asking for an improvement shouldn’t surprise much of anybody. Especially when you consider what a let down the camera quality on the M8 and M9. It’s also a smart choice to continue improving their camera, since it has become a deal breaker for many people. After all, who wants to grab a new phone if the camera doesn’t at least match with what you are currently using.

Bigger Battery

The second feature that you absolutely wanted to see was a larger battery. Our phones have become an extension of ourselves, and our lives. Being able to access your phone, no matter where you are, is a priority for plenty of people. Having a phone with a battery that lasts as long as you do has become less of a pipe dream and more of a reality over time. After the disappointment of the HTC A9’s battery life, an improvement is almost mandatory.

Many of you are hoping for a battery with over 3000mAh, which is a possibility. Unlike in days of yore, having a bigger battery doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll be dealing with a bigger, bulkier phone. The new Samsung Galaxy S7 manages to pack a 3000mAh battery in it’s slim frame. Whether HTC will follow in trend is still to be seen, but it’s definitely a feature we may get to see.

Expandable Storage

If your entire life lives on your phone, then you had better hope you’ve got room to accomodate everything. From all the photos that matter, to the apps you use to access your information, to text messages from friends and loves ones. The third feature that you want to see on the HTC 10 is expandable storage, allowing you to ensure that you have room for everything that is important to you.

Including an SD slot, and the option for expandable storage is certainly something we might be seeing from HTC. Adoptable storage is baked into Android 6.0 Marshmallow. When you’re holding onto your phone for several years at a time, the base of 32G of storage just doesn’t cut it. Adoptable storage was available on the A9 and was a fantastic feature. While it’s impossible to say for sure, it’s a fair bet that they’ll continue with this trend.

Better Audio

Plenty of people use their phones as their immediate point of access to the internet. It’s where they get their music, their news, and where they find those awesome cat videos that distract us all. Having a phone that can project excellent audio has become important to more and more people as the way we use our phones has evolved. That’s probably why the fourth feature on our list today, is better audio.

Paying attention to audio quality hasn’t always been a strong point with phone manufacturers. Often we’ve seen phones with audio that sounds tinny, or doesn’t get loud enough for sharing videos In the past HTC has opted for front facing speakers which generally give a better sound, but they were absent last year, so whether they’ll be making a comeback is debatable. We will probably be seeing the return of BoomSound to optimize the sound that you’re getting from the HTC 10.

Bigger Display

For some people, size really does matter. Especially when it comes to the pocket computers that we all carry around with us. Last on our feature list for the HTC 10, is a larger display. While a smaller display doesn’t require as much power, it also just isn’t quite as versatile as a larger phone can be. Enjoying movies, or sharing videos is just easier with a larger screen.

Last year we saw the HTC One A9 and HTC One M9 both rock a 5-inch display, but you guys want to see more. While there were plenty of suggestions, you’re hoping to see at least a 5.2-inch display, if a 5.5-inch display. With HTC’s propensity for smaller phones, this might just be a pipe dream for now. Everyone will just have to hope, and wait a few more days to see how it turns out.

These were the top 5 features that you, the AndroidCentral reader, told us you wanted to see on the HTC 10. Did the feature you need in your life make the list? Are you waiting anxiously for the announcement on April 12th? Let us know about it in the comments below!