Hasta La Gadget!

If you recently treated yourself to an iPhone 15 or new Mac computer, Amazon’s Black Friday sale has Apple accessories you can buy to complete your setup. The highlight of the promotion are the company’s FineWoven Wallets, which are currently $6 or 10 percent off their $59 MSRP. Apple offers the MagSafe accessory in five different colors, with the evergreen, mulberry and taupe models included in the sale. And if you don’t mind basic black, that wallet is discounted even further at $48 currently. Not everyone is a fan of Apple’s new FineWoven accessories, but on the plus side, the material is vegan-friendly and the wallet attaches magnetically to recent iPhones.

As part of the same sale, Amazon has also discounted Apple’s first-party AirTag Key Ring. The coral, taupe, mulberry, pacific blue and black models are all 9 percent off their usual $35 price tag, making them $31 at the moment. Like the MagSafe Wallets above, the AirTag holders are made using the company’s new FineWoven material. 

Separately, the sale discounts the company’s 35W dual USB-C power adapters. After a 25 percent discount, both the standard and compact models are $44, or $16 less than usual. Unlike the FineWoven accessories, these are universally well-regarded. In particular, I love the standard model for its modular design that allows you to swap out the power connector if you’re traveling in another country. Note that 35W won’t be enough to charge some of Apple’s more power-hungry laptops, including the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

For the Mac fan who has nearly everything, I’ll lastly mention Amazon has reduced the Magic Trackpad, Mouse and Keyboard. Of the three peripherals, I think the keyboard is the most useful, particularly if you own one of the company’s laptops and want to build a more ergonomic setup. It’s also subject to the most significant discount, with it costing $80 after a 19 percent price cut.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-black-friday-deals-include-up-to-25-percent-off-usb-c-chargers-magsafe-accessories-and-more-015305089.html?src=rss

If you’ve been patiently eyeing an air fryer, one of Engadget’s favorite models is on sale right now. Amazon has discounted the Instant Vortex Plus. Thanks to a 33 percent discount, the small appliance is $80 through the end of the weekend. Normally, the 6-quart model costs around $200, with the current price reflecting a new all-time low for the Vortex Plus.

If you’ve ever been around a kitchen, Instant needs no introduction. The brand is responsible for the very popular line of Instant Pot pressure cookers, and as it just so happens, it also makes an excellent air fryer. In fact, Engadget considers the Vortex Plus as the best model for most people. It features intuitive controls, an easy-to-clean basket, and enough internal capacity to cook four chicken thighs. The Vortex Plus is also versatile. On top of a fry setting, it includes five other cooking modes: roast, broil, bake, reheat and dehydrate. Best of all, it’s fast and doesn’t need much time to preheat.

The model Amazon has discounted is missing the OdorErase feature found on Engadget’s top pick. As the name suggests, Instant claims OdorErase lessens the strength of cooking smells when the Vortex Plus is working. In our testing, OdorErase didn’t completely eliminate all smells, but it did help the appliance produce less smoke. It’s a nice feature to have, but for $80, it’s hard to complain about omissions when the Vortex Plus offers such great performance.

I know what you’re thinking, does anyone really need another small appliance in their kitchen. For what it’s worth, I use the air fryer I bought earlier this year almost every day. It’s great for roasting perfectly crisp vegetables in about half the time required with a conventional oven. I also appreciate how easy the included basket makes cleanup.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-instant-pot-vortex-plus-air-fryer-is-on-sale-for-80-in-an-amazon-black-friday-deal-001218389.html?src=rss

Google’s MuJoCo 3 simulator, born from collaborative efforts between Google DeepMind, Brax, and Everyday Robots, signifies a major stride in the realm of robotics simulation. Originally acquired by Google DeepMind over two years ago, MuJoCo’s open-source version was released in May 2022, and MuJoCo 3 introduces significant enhancements, reflecting a unified approach in robotics simulation development.

A key feature of MuJoCo 3 is its support for accelerated simulation through the MuJoCo XLA (MJX) module, allowing users to run simulations at high speeds on Google Cloud TPU or other accelerator hardware. This capability is particularly advantageous for data-intensive learning methodologies like reinforcement learning and optimization for model predictive control.

MuJoCo 3 facilitates smoother transitions for Python users between running simulations on CPU, GPU, or TPU. The MJX API closely mirrors MuJoCo, ensuring compatibility with existing data models and simulation algorithms. The addition of support for collision geometries defined via signed distance functions (SDFs) expands the versatility of MuJoCo 3, enabling the creation of new primitives with enhanced collision detection efficiency.

The simulator’s ability to detect and solve for independent “contact islands” in complex scenes, along with the introduction of a thread-pool API for parallelization, significantly improves computational efficiency. Furthermore, MuJoCo 3’s incorporation of collision geometries via SDFs allows for more intricate and customizable shapes, reducing the computational cost of collision detection.

MuJoCo’s evolution (now in its third iteration) underscores its importance in the robotics research community. Originally a MuJoCo customer, DeepMind’s decision to acquire and subsequently open-source the technology has contributed to advancing realistic physics engines and easing the challenges of developing complex robotics systems.

The MuJoCo 3 release stands as a testament to ongoing innovation in the realm of robotics simulation, with potential applications in various fields of research and development. Learn about all the changes in MuJoCo 3 on the release page and in its documentation.

MuJoCo 3: Google’s Enhanced Robotics Simulator With Accelerated Simulation

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Some Biden administration officials are reportedly worried about the effect broader press access might have on the public’s opinion of Israel.

Ahead of the official start of Black Friday, Amazon has discounted the Pixel 7a to $374. That’s a 25 percent reduction from the $499 Google released the 7a earlier this year, and a return to the handset’s previous all-time low price. Moreover, all three colorways — snow, charcoal and aea — are included in the promotion, and in stock as of the writing of this article.

At $499, the Pixel 7a was already a great value. Budget phones often involve some compromises, but with the 7a, those are few and far between. The phone comes with Google’s previous generation Tensor G2 chip. What’s more, the company didn’t cut back on memory — the 7a features 8GB of RAM, just like the Pixel 7. Subsequently, the Pixel 7a offers performance on par with its more expensive sibling.

Google didn’t skimp in other areas either. The 7a features a vibrant 6.1-inch OLED screen. And for the first time on one of the company’s A-series phones, the 7a boasts a 90Hz refresh rate, meaning interactions like scrolling will feel faster and more responsive than on 60Hz phones. The 7a even comes with wireless charging, a feature that’s frequently hard to find on other phones in the 7a’s price range. Add to that an excellent 64-megapixel main camera with Google’s best-in-class photography software, and there’s not much the 7a doesn’t have going for it.

In fact, when Engadget Senior Reporter Sam Rutherford reviewed it earlier this year, he found little to fault with the 7a. “The Pixel 7a delivers everything I like about the regular Pixel 7 for $100 less,” he wrote in his 90 review of the device. “So if you’re the kind of person who just wants a solid phone for a great price, the Pixel 7a has everything you need.”

For those with more to spend, it’s worth noting the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are also on sale. After a 21 percent discount, the former is $549 for the 128GB model, with all three colorways — hazel, obsidian and rose – included in the promotion and in stock. Meanwhile, the 128GB Pixel 8 Pro is $799 following a 20 percent discount. Once again, all three colorways — bay, obsidian and porcelain — are part of the sale and available.

Considering the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro only hit the market at the start of October, this is a great opportunity to buy a brand new device. Engadget awarded the two handsets scores of 90 and 93 respectively, calling them Google’s most compelling phones in years. The inclusion of Google’s new Tensor G3 chip, genuinely useful AI features and an unprecedented seven years of software support should make the new Pixels compelling to anyone in the market for a new flagship smartphone.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-black-friday-deals-the-pixel-7a-is-25-percent-off-and-cheaper-than-ever-223006599.html?src=rss