Feb 25

Lenovo's Smart Clock Essential with Alexa drops to $50, plus the rest of the week's best tech deals

Posted in: Today's Chili

This week we saw a number of gadgets from Lenovo, Samsung and others go on sale. Lenovo’s new Smart Clock Essential with Alexa support is down to only $50 right now, while a number of Samsung Odyssey gaming monitors have great discounts. You can officially buy Samsung’s latest smartphones today, too, and you’ll get a credit if you go through Amazon. Plus, Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K+ is 30 percent off and down to $49. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential (Alexa)

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa
Lenovo

Lenovo’s new Smart Clock Essential with Alexa support is on sale for $50 right now, or 29 percent off its normal price. This version has a slightly different design than the original, featuring pogo docking pins on the bottom, and new fabric colors. Otherwise, it does all of the things the Google Assistant-version did, only with Alexa. It also doesn’t have a built-in camera, which will make it more appealing to those concerned about privacy.

Buy Smart Clock Essential (Alexa) at Amazon – $50

Apple Watch Series 7

Apple Watch Series 7
Engadget

Certain colors of the Apple Watch Series 7 are down to $349, or $50 off their normal price. Apple’s latest flagship smartwatch earned a score of 90 from us for its slightly larger display, faster charging and handy watchOS8 features.

Buy Apple Watch Series 7 at Amazon – $349

Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 gaming monitor

Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 mini-LED curved gaming monitor
Samsung

Samsung’s 49-inch Odyssey Neo G9 mini-LED curved gaming monitor is still $500 off and down to $2,000. Yes, it’s still a pricey display, but serious gamers who want a more immersive experience will find it worthwhile. It has a 5,120 x 1,440 resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate, along with high contrast ratios, bright HDR performance and support for NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. If you don’t want to drop so much on one monitor, a number of other Odyssey displays are on sale, too, including the 34-inch Odyssey G5 curved monitor for $430.

Buy 49-inch Odyssey Neo G9 monitor at Amazon – $2,000Buy 34-inch Odyssey G5 monitor at Amazon – $430Buy 32-inch Odyssey G3 monitor at Amazon – $230Buy 24-inch Odyssey G3 monitor at Amazon – $150

Samsung Galaxy S22 series

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Amazon’s offering a $100 credit to those that order any of the three smartphones in the new Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup. All you have to do is enter the promo code on the product page before you check out, and you’ll get an email after your handset ships with the details of the credit being added to your Amazon account. Those considering the Galaxy S22 have an extra incentive on top of that — $100 off in the form of an on-page coupon that you can clip, which will bring the price of the base model down to $700.

Buy Galaxy S22 Ultra at Amazon – $1,200Buy Galaxy S22+ at Amazon – $1,000Buy Galaxy S22 at Amazon – $700

Roku Streaming Stick 4K+

Roku
Roku

Roku’s new Streaming Stick 4K+ is down to $49, or 30 percent off its normal price. In addition to 4K streaming, it supports HDR10+, a faster processor and it comes bundled with the Roku Voice Remote Pro, which lets you use voice commands to search and issue verbal commands.

Buy Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ at Amazon – $49

Instant Pot Max

Instant Pot Max
Instant Pot

The six-quart Instant Pot Max is down to a record low of $75, or half off its normal price. This multicooker has a large touch screen for easy programming, 15psi of pressure so you can experiment with canning and a sous vide cooking option.

Buy Instant Pot Max at Amazon – $75

Samsung T7 SSD (1TB)

Samsung’s T7 portable SSD in 1TB is down to a record low of $110, or 35 percent off its usual rate. It’s one of our preferred drives if you need something compact, speedy and compatible with a bunch of devices. We also like its aluminum unibody and its Dynamic Thermal Guard that helps control heat levels.

Buy Samsung T7 (1TB) at Amazon – $110

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

Samsung’s cellular Galaxy Watch 4 models are on sale for record-low prices right now. The 40mm model is down to $220 while the 44mm version is down to $250. We consider the Galaxy Watch 4 to be the best Android smartwatch you can get and it earned a score of 85 for its bright screen, comprehensive health tracking and new Wear OS features, like downloading apps directly from the Play Store.

Buy Galaxy Watch 4 (40mm) at Amazon – $220Buy Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm) at Amazon – $250

Samsung 980 Pro SSD (2TB)

Samsung’s 980 Pro internal drive in 2TB is 35 percent off and down to $280 — a great price for a powerful SSD that works with the PS5 (provided you have a heatsink). It has read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, advanced thermal controls and works with Samsung’s Magician Software, which lets you check its health and optimize settings as you’d like.

Buy Samsung 980 Pro (2TB) at Amazon – $280

Nintendo Switch

Prime members can get $20 off the Nintendo Switch at Woot right now. While the discount isn’t on the OLED model, it’s a good sale on a console that rarely sees sales like this. Just make sure to check out Woot’s return policy before buying.

Buy Nintendo Switch at Woot – $280

New tech deals

Eufy Security baby monitor

Eufy’s baby monitor is on sale for $119, which is close to its all-time-low price. This model comes with one camera and a separate monitor display with a 5-inch 720p screen. The camera lens can pan and tilt to see most of your baby’s nursery, and it can send alerts when your baby starts crying. The monitor supports two way audio and, since it’s not a WiFi-connected device, the feed is secure and private.

Buy Eufy baby monitor at Amazon – $119

Apple MagSafe battery pack

Apple’s magnetic battery pack for iPhones is down to $88, which is 11 percent off its normal price. We have seen it cheaper in the past, but this is the best price we’ve seen since December. The accessory attaches magnetically to the back of the latest iPhones and provides up to 15W of wireless charging.

Buy MagSafe battery pack at Amazon – $88

Alo Moves

The on-demand fitness service Alo Moves has an offer few new members that knocks 50 percent off the price of a one-year membership, bringing it down to $99. The platform has dozens of yoga, pilates, barre and strength training classes, along with guided meditations and series that help you master specific skills over the course of longer periods of time.

Subscribe to Alo Moves – $99

NordVPN

NordVPN’s latest sale knocks the price of a two-year subscription down to just under $96, plus you’ll get a free gift on top of it. The prize isn’t anything physical, but rather additional subscription time on top of the two-year plan you paid for. Prizes are chosen at random, but after you make your purchase, you’ll get either an extra month, and extra year or an extra two years added on to your subscription.

Subscribe to NordVPN (2 years) – $96

UK deals

AirPods (2nd gen)

Apple’s second-generation AirPods are down to £99 at Amazon. These don’t have some of the bells and whistles that the new third-gen models do, but they remain a decent option for Apple users on a budget. We gave them a score of 84 when they first came out for their improved wireless performance and solid battery life.

Buy AirPods at Amazon – £99

Sony WF-1000XM3

Sony’s WF-1000XM3 earbuds are on sale for £76, or 31 percent off their normal price. These buds earned a score of 89 for their excellent sound quality, great battery life and full-featured companion app.

Buy Sony WF-1000XM3 at Amazon – £76

Fitbit Sense

Fitbit’s most advanced smartwatch, the Sense, is down to £189 right now. That’s not a record low, but it’s still 37 percent off its usual rate. We gave it a score of 82 for its comprehensive health tracking features and big, bold display.

Buy Fitbit Sense at Amazon – £189

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

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Feb 25

‘The Dropout’ offers a timely reminder of the Theranos madness

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article contains a reference to suicide.

Right now, we’re living in a golden (micro) age of prestige TV adaptations depicting notable startup failures. In the first half of 2022 alone, we’re getting shows about the rise and fall of Uber, Theranos and WeWork all fronted by A-list talent. It’s a sign of how far the public’s tastes have changed that the travails of a tech, well, “tech” company is now mainstream entertainment.

Yesterday, I binge-watched seven of the eight episodes of Hulu / Star’s The Dropout, Disney’s adaptation of the ABC podcast series of the same name. It stars Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the fraudulent blood-testing startup Theranos. Holmes is currently awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of committing fraud, while Seyfried can probably expect to pick up a number of plaudits for her performance come awards season.

The series covers the broad strokes of Holmes’ life in roughly chronological order, albeit with the odd timely flashback where necessary. We meet Holmes as a WASP-y teen with dreams of Stanford, backed by her Enron-executive dad and Washington insider mom. From there, Holmes travels to China to study abroad, where she meets Sunny Balwani, her future business and life partner. When she gets to Stanford, she’s frustrated at senior academics who tell her that her biotechnology idea is unworkable, and drops out to start her own company.

Given Theranos’ penchant for secrecy, it amused me that Disney asked critics not to reveal any “surprising plot points or spoilers.” I’ll keep details to a minimum here, but obviously it’s hard to imagine a large number of people not already knowing the bones of this particular saga. In fact, since Theranos closed in 2018, it’s already been the subject of a major podcast, a book, an Alex Gibney documentary and a long-gestating Adam McKay movie in development at Apple.

Going in, I was concerned that The Dropout would suffer the same problem as The Founder, 2016’s biopic of Ray Kroc. It’s a fine film, but one that doesn’t know if Kroc is its hero or its villain, despite the stock rags-to-riches tropes it wheels out. In some scenes, he is portrayed as a try-hard who saw an opportunity and built an empire, in others, a ruthless conman who stole the business out from under the McDonald brothers. The tonal whiplash made the film offer two competing arguments, neither of which were very well-explained.

There’s no such problem here with The Dropout, with series creator Elizabeth Merriweather always being clear-eyed about Holmes’ problems. It’s almost a minor-key parody of those rags-to-riches stories, aided by the fact that Holmes’ went from riches to, uh, more riches. Moments that, in any other story, should be triumphant are undercut with dissonant music and there’s always a sense that there’s something not quite right about all of this.

The Dropout -- Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. Hulu’s limited series “The Dropout,” the story of Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) and Theranos is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye? Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews) and Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried), shown. (Photo by: Beth Dubber/Hulu)
Beth Dubber / Hulu

None of that would work without Amanda Seyfried’s performance which manages to sell Holmes as both a well-meaning neophyte and a cold, calculating monster. In the series’ most shocking moment, Seyfried somehow makes you feel abject pity and outrage at the same time. And the show works hard to keep reminding you that this isn’t just about some elderly Republicans who got fleeced backing a boondoggle but, in a phrase repeated throughout the show; “real people.”

It helps that the show has assembled a murderer’s row of talent to appear alongside Seyfried in the series. As well as Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani, there’s (deep breath) William H. Macy, Elizabeth Marvel, LisaGay Hamilton, Michael Gill, Laurie Metcalf, Kurtwood Smith, Kate Burton, Michael Ironside, Nicky Endres and Anne Archer. Deserving extra praise is Stephen Fry, however, who offers some fantastic work as Dr. Ian Gibbons, the chemist who worked with Holmes at the start of her career and died by suicide during a patent dispute. Fry, towering over the rest of the cast and looking every inch the crusty academic in a world of waxen silicon valley models, acts as the warm and inviting voice of conscience when things start to hit the slide.

Disney is marketing The Dropout as a drama, but the sort of drama where the satire is razor wire sharp and the jokes are beyond morbid. Succession fans will find much to love about the series dark humor, especially the all-out fourth episode, which borrows Alan Ruck to guest as Walgreens’ executive Dr. Jay Rosan. In other places, however, the satire of both Silicon Valley and investment culture in general is far more subtle. Only in this series can two characters declare their love for each other while creating a pact for mutually-assured blackmail at the same time.

There is, rather obviously, a gendered element to the endless speculation and hand-wringing about Holmes’ motives and actions. The press never seems to need to psychoanalyze why Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are dick-wagging with their competing space projects. Merriweather chooses to highlight this disparity, mostly through the voice of Laurie Metcalf’s Dr. Phyllis Gardner – the Stanford professor who initially told Holmes that her ideas couldn’t work. She pops up several times in the show to offer meta-commentary on what we’re watching.

One of the things the show serves to highlight is how much of an easy ride Theranos got from investors and the press. Despite refusing to justify any element of its technology, it took far too long for regulators and officials to really interrogate what was going on here. I mean, in 2015, Holmes was appointed to the board of fellows at Harvard Medical School! The scale of the fraud, the scale of the lie, became so great that most people just felt that they had to believe it.

It’s funny, I’m reminded of a story I wrote for Engadget back in 2016 which just summed up John Carreyou’s Wall Street Journal reporting. But despite just citing and quoting Carreyou’s work, I was on the receiving end of a 21-email nastygram from Theranos’ then-PR representatives. The company’s image management team jumped hard on any and all criticism. When Holmes and Balwani were charged by the SEC, I emailed that same PR person to ask if they had any comment on their previous statements. It was the most delicious “no comment” I have ever received.

A common complaint of Peak TV is that most shows could be done and dusted in a third of the time actually allowed. Despite watching almost all of The Dropout over a single day, I actually felt like the show could have been longer. There’s plenty that, by necessity, has had to be cut, glossed and generally trimmed to get things down to a tight eight hours. I could easily have watched another couple hours with more context and detail, but then I’ll admit, I am a nerd. You won’t be able to, however, since Hulu is releasing the first three episodes on March 3rd and then the rest on subsequent Fridays through the start of April. That’s a smart decision, since the first three are more or less designed as a cohesive whole, while subsequent episodes can be enjoyed individually.

Fundamentally, The Dropout is well worth your time, and Amanda Seyfried offers some truly stellar work bringing the duality of Holmes to life.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 (US), 686868 (Canada), or 85258 (UK). Wikipedia maintains a list of crisis lines for people outside of those countries.

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Feb 25

Russian Tennis Star Andrey Rublev Writes ‘No War Please’ After Win

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The 7th-ranked player made his statement moments after advancing to the final at the Dubai Championships on Friday.

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Feb 25

The CDC Will Once Again Stop Asking People to Mask Up: Report

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reportedly gearing up to lift recommendations for mask-wearing. The exact revisions to the guidance are still unclear, but the Associated Press reports that most Americans will no longer be asked to wear masks indoors. The changes are the latest sign that the U.S. and…

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Feb 25

Bitcoin Is Dirtier Than Ever

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Bitcoin proponents have long argued that miners moving to the U.S. can help lower the network’s carbon emissions. But a new paper out Friday finds that global shifts in the location of bitcoin miners driven by a crackdown in China last year have actually made bitcoin even dirtier. Thanks in part to fossil-fueled…

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Feb 25

Somehow, Paramount Will Turn Beyblade Into a Live-Action Movie

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Another beloved toy line has been tapped for a film adaptation, and this time nobody quite knows how to feel about it. The live action rights to Beyblade, the dueling spinning tops toys from Japan that became a smash hit in the early 2000s, has been purchased by Paramount pictures, and Jerry Bruckheimer is expected to…

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Feb 25

'Elden Ring' is having game save issues on PS5

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The long wait is over: Elden Ring has finally arrived. FromSoftware’s latest opus has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, but there are some notable issues with the RPG. For one thing, there’s a problem with game save data on PlayStation 5 that’s worth keeping in mind.

Publisher Bandai Namco said that if your console switches off unexpectedly while you’re playing Elden Ring or you put the PS5 in rest mode, “saved data may not be saved correctly.” It’s working on a fix for the issue, but for now it’s best for PS5 players to save their progress manually “by exiting the game regularly.” Bandai Namco said your data will be saved properly when you open the menu with the Option button and select Quit Game.

For the time being, it’s probably best for PS5 players to exit and restart the game after completing a major event (the bosses already seem tough enough without having to beat them twice) or visiting a site of Lost Grace checkpoint. It’s an annoyance that will likely break the level of immersion, but until FromSoftware and Bandai Namco release a patch to fix the issue, exiting the game every so often is still better than losing a big chunk of progress.

The bug is especially grievous given that Elden Ring doesn’t have a pause option. PS5 players might have been tempted to put their console into rest mode when they take a break, but it doesn’t seem like a great idea to do that for now.

Bandai Namco also says it’s working to resolve performance issues, particularly on PC. Those include framerate drops, stuttering, Easy Anti-Cheat not launching for some Steam accounts and the mouse sensitivity being too high. The publisher didn’t offer a timeline for rolling out the fixes.

Elden Ring is already a big hit. At the time of writing, Twitch streams have more than 796,000 viewers, an impressive number for a primarily single-player game in this genre. Elden Ring hit peak concurrent viewership of 910,000, according to Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad. Elden Ring is far outpacing the peak player counts of other FromSoftware titles on Steam too. The number of concurrent players has hit a high of 764,835 — even before people have more free time to play at the weekend. 

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Feb 25

There Are 3 Types Of Perfectionism. Which Category Are You?

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Here are the signs of being a self-oriented, other-oriented or socially prescribed perfectionist, plus advice on how to cope with each type.

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Feb 25

Morgan Super 3 Is A Modern Reboot Of The Iconic 3-Wheeler

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Morgan Super 3 was revealed as a reboot of the original 3-wheel vehicle, now appearing with features that make it look like the epitome of automotive fun.

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Feb 25

Hubble Images Two Galaxies In Spectacular Head-On Collision

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NASA revealed a new image from Hubble showing two galaxies colliding, or in an intergalactic tug of war, however you want to look this fantastic display.

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