Hasta La Gadget!

Though the Pixel 6a may not be top of mind now that the Pixel 7 is out, it only came out in July and is still a darn good budget phone. You can now grab one at Amazon for just $299, for a savings of $150 (33 percent), the lowest price we’ve seen by far. It appears to be part of a mini sale, as Google has also discounted the Pixel Buds Pro by 25 percent and a bunch of Nest routers by up to 45 percent. And on top of all that, B&H Photo Video also has the Google Nest Audio on sale for half price.

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The Pixel 6a is a top mid-range smartphone pick. It offers the same Tensor chip as the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, while giving you the purest Android experience possible. At the same time, you get excellent camera quality for the price, thanks to the two 12-megapixel rear cameras and 8-MP front sensor delivering bright, colorful pictures and video. It also comes with a distinctive design, sharp 6.1-inch OLED screen covered with Gorilla Glass 3, long-lasting battery, IP67 water/dust protection and more. It does have a slower 60Hz refresh rate than the Pixel 6/6 Pro models, less storage and no wireless charging, but it’s still a real steal at $299.

Meanwhile, Google’s Pixel Buds Pro are one of our preferred sets of true wireless earbuds, having earned a review score of 87 earlier this year. They offer effective active noise cancellation (ANC), responsive on-ear controls, a solid seven hours of continuous playback time with ANC on (and up to 11 or so hours with it off), and a powerful bass-forward sound that works especially well with hip-hop and modern pop tracks. At the $200 full price they have some serious competition, but are a very solid deal at at the $150 sale price. 

If you’re in the market for Google Nest routers, Amazon has you covered there two. The AC2200 models (not the new WiFi 6a models) are on sale in a variety of configurations, including the router only, extender only, and router with one and two extenders. As a reminder, the extenders also double as smart speakers with Google Assistant. They’re on sale from $99 to $199, with the best deals (up to 45 percent) on the router and extender combos. 

Finally, if it’s a nice smart speaker you’re looking for, Google’s Nest Audio is down to just $50 at B&H Photo Video. The speaker has an unassuming yet attractive design, plus great audio quality that’s made even better if you pair two of them together and use them in stereo mode. Since you can get two for the price of one right now, that might be a good option. 

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The film raked in an estimated $67 million in its opening weekend.

Remember back in 2014 when U2 gave away an album’s worth of songs to every iTunes user in the world? And it turned out that a large number of them didn’t want said album anywhere near their music library — to the point that Apple had to release a special tool to remove it? That was completely my bad, U2 lead singer Bono wrote in an article for The Guardian. 

When Bono approached Tim Cook, along with Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller about the idea, he was met with some incredulity. “Are you talking about free music?” Cook said, according to Bono. “But the whole point… is to make sure musicians get paid.”

“‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?'” Bono wrote.

“Tim Cook raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean we pay for the album and then just distribute it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, like when Netflix buys the movie and gives it away to subscribers.’ Tim looked at me as if I was explaining the alphabet to an English professor. ‘But we’re not a subscription organization,'” Cook said in the excerpt. “‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘Let ours be the first.’ Tim was not convinced. ‘And this is just to people who like U2?’ ‘Well,’ I replied, ‘I think we should give it away to everybody. It’s their choice whether they want to listen to it.”

It was clearly a humbling lesson for the band when they realized that many people not only didn’t want to listen to it, but didn’t want it there in the first place.

“As one social media wisecracker put it, ‘Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper.’ Or, less kind, ‘The free U2 album is overpriced.’ Mea Culpa,” he wrote. “‘I take full responsibility. Not [U2 manager] Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue. I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite.'”

Bono also recalled a happier tie-up with Apple on the iPod, which feted its 21st anniversary just yesterday. It was U2 that convinced Steve Jobs to let them be in those famous iPod silhouette ads for the first time, and also talked him into building the U2 edition iPod in black with a red click wheel — marking the first time it wasn’t white. Amusingly, they also asked Jobs for some Apple stock, even a symbolic amount — which he refused, in his typical direct style. “‘Sorry,'” said Steve, according to Bono. “‘That’s a dealbreaker.'”

Wordle is kicking off Monday with a fairly simple word, assuming you’ve developed your starter-word skills and have these hints to help you along.

Damon Lindelof is working on a Star Wars movie and now it has a director. Deadline reports that Lindelof, best known for his work on Lost, The Leftovers and Watchmen, is co-writing a script which will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed two episodes of Ms. Marvel.

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