Elgato’s Stream Deck holds a tiny place in the hearts of many here at The Verge. We just love buttons, and we love tinkering, so its programmable LCD buttons are kind of a perfect fit. And today, you can get the Elgato Stream Deck XL, which has 32 of those excellent macro buttons, for $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon or for $3 more at Best Buy.

A Stream Deck is a perfect companion for anyone doing extensive Twitch streaming on a Windows PC or Mac, but it’s also versatile enough to control just about anything on your computer — even smart home stuff. While most people may feel fine opting for the six or 15-key Stream Decks, the XL can help you go full Sicko Mode. Think of all the things you can control and program with 32 buttons — that gives anyone’s workflow room to grow. Plus, since one of my colleagues made a free app to turn the Stream Deck’s buttons into digital bubble wrap, you can always set some up for some tactile and ponderous time-wasting.

The Vizio Elevate soundbar is currently selling for its lowest price of $649.99 ($350 off MSRP) at Amazon and Best Buy. The unique 10-channel 5.1.4 sound system has 18 drivers, a wireless eight-inch subwoofer, and rotating speakers that fire upward for more immersive Dolby Atmos surround. The 48-inch Elevate supports eARC, so it’s fully compatible with the latest TVs and not plagued by the audio latency commonly found in older soundbars. Plus, it also has two HDMI 2.1 ports, so you can connect two sources without sacrificing picture quality or higher refresh rates.

While there are many cheap soundbars out there — and frankly, many are better than the tinny audio coming from most TVs today — few offer something as unusual as the Elevate. It’s a no-fuss way to get some actual surround sound.

Some more deals to help cure the Monday blues

• Shark’s AI Ultra robovac, our top pick of midrange vacuums, is once again on sale for its best price of $399.99 ($200 off) at Amazon. While its AI name may be a little deceiving (as it can only avoid objects taller than four inches), it’s an excellent bang-for-the-buck alternative to pricier Roomba and Roborock vacuums. It maps out your house, has strong suction, and comes with a bagless auto-emptying station.
• Amazon is throwing in a free pair of Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds with a Google Pixel 7A for $499 (saving $99 off their combined price). That’s a great midrange combo since the new 7A is the best phone available for around that price and the Pixel Buds A are quite good if noise cancellation isn’t a must.
• The second-gen Apple Pencil is back down to $89 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, and the last-gen version is also on sale for $79 ($20 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. These styluses for iPads go on sale pretty frequently, so if you have a compatible Apple tablet and a need for note-taking or sketching, you shouldn’t pay full price.
• The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 is on sale for $79.99 ($20 off) in four fun colors at Amazon. The tiny Bluetooth speaker from UE pumps out sounds in all directions, and in addition to being waterproof, it even floats to ensure you don’t lose it in the pool. The little speaker’s biggest downside is that it charges via Micro USB.
• While the Xbox Series X may soon be getting a price increase in some countries, you can currently buy Microsoft’s flagship console for $479.99 ($20 off) at Antonline (via eBay) or in a bundle with Diablo IV for $539.99 ($30 off their combined price) from Woot.

Daily Deals: Get an M1 MacBook Air for $799

The AppleInsider team scours the internet for high-quality discounts at ecommerce stores to curate a list of top-notch deals on popular tech gadgets, including discounts on Apple products, TVs, accessories, and other products. We share the most valuable bargains each day to help you save money.

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Let’s face it: many of us have considered opting for the 10th-gen iPad because it’s one of the more affordable options in Apple’s current lineup. But today’s deal on its midrange sibling changes things. Right now, you can buy Apple’s latest iPad Mini with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage at its all-time low of $399.99 ($100 off) at Amazon and Best Buy — which is even less than the price of the latest iPad.

Unlike the 10th-gen iPad, the iPad Mini is compatible with the second-gen Apple Pencil. It’s also lighter, with a smaller 8.3-inch screen that’s easier to hold with one hand, which makes it particularly ideal for reading. At the same time, it comes equipped with a faster A15 Bionic chip while sharing some of the same features, including a USB-C port.

Read our iPad Mini (2021) review.

If you’d like to keep an eye on your porch while you’re away traveling this summer, the last-gen Google Nest Doorbell (Wired) is on sale for $74.99 ($154 off) at Woot. Despite the fact that the 2018 model isn’t as fast or as smart as Google’s newer doorbell, it’s still a good option, with features like person alerts and night video. The doorbell also features a 4:3 aspect ratio and 1600 x 1200-resolution sensor with HDR, so you’ll have no trouble getting a full view of who’s at your door. Plus, if you pay for the monthly subscription, you get 24/7 continuous recording and other smart alerts.

If you’re looking for an Xbox controller, right now, you can buy the white 8BitDo Ultimate Wired Controller from Amazon for $29.99 ($16 off). That marks a new all-time low for this particular shade, though if white doesn’t appeal, you can also buy it in black for $5 more from Amazon and Best Buy. The controller is an excellent budget-friendly option that offers some nice features for its price, including two back buttons, customizability, and an adjustable stick. Plus, it works with PCs and even features a 3.5mm audio jack for wired headphone fans.

For a gadget that’ll help you streamline your workflow, you might want to check out the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2. Right now, you can buy the handy tool for $129.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from Elgato, which is its second-best price of the year.

The little gadget comes with 15 programmable buttons that act as shortcuts for various tasks, making it a particularly handy tool if you often host live streams. However, many staffers at The Verge also use it to automate other tasks, like turning Slack messages into to-do list items with the push of a button. Plus, the MK.2 comes with a few extra features to make life even easier, like a detachable stand, a removable USB-C cable, and a swappable faceplate.

Just a few more to get you through the midweek hump

• Apple’s second-gen HomePod is on sale for $249.99 ($50 off) through June 2nd at Costco. Nonmembers can also get it on sale but will have to pay an additional $14.50 surcharge. The smart speaker offers excellent, room-filling sound alongside new temperature and humidity sensors. Read our review.
• You can buy Anker’s 511 Charger for $11.99 ($5 off) at Amazon, which matches its all-time low. The small USB-C charger delivers 20W of power to smartphones, tablets, earbuds, and other electronics.
• Razer’s new Kishi V2 Controller Grip for the iPhone is on sale for $89 ($11 off) at Amazon, which is a new record low. The grip turns your smartphone into something like a Nintendo Switch so you can play mobile games more comfortably. The newer model offers an improved design over its predecessor, too, with two remappable shoulder buttons. Read our review of the Razer Kishi V2 Controller Grip for Android.
• You can still buy Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones for around $278 ($70 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The last-gen headphones may not cancel out as impressively as the new Sony WH-1000XM5, but they still offer excellent noise cancellation and good sound quality. Read our review.

Happy Saturday, readers! Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now less than two weeks away. The company is largely expected to introduce its mixed reality headset — ending what feels like a decade of rumors — along with a new 15-inch MacBook Air. However, if you’re looking for a 13-inch machine that packs plenty of value, Apple’s base MacBook Air from 2020 is matching its all-time low of $799.99 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.

Despite its age, Apple’s M1-equipped remains one of our go-to recs for anyone who can’t afford the newest MacBook Air but wants something lightweight and relatively fast. We once heralded it as one of the best laptops you could get, namely due to its long-lasting battery life, solid keyboard, and the strength of Apple’s M1 silicon, which continues to hold up even if the last-gen Air can’t quite compete with newer models. It’s not a budget buy, per se, but if you want an everyday machine for work and entertainment, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that offers more value for the money.

Read our M1 MacBook Air review.

Streaming devices might not literally be a dime a dozen, but, suffice it to say, there are a lot of fantastic options to consider when you’re on the hunt for your next streamer. Most of them aren’t anywhere near as versatile as Amazon’s third-gen Fire TV Cube, though, which has hit an all-time low of $119.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.

At its core, the latest Fire TV Cube is a streaming device that also pulls double duty as a smart speaker thanks to an array of beam-forming mics. Much like the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, it supports Wi-Fi 6E and 4K streaming in all the popular HDR formats (including Dolby Vision), yet it also touts faster performance and support for hands-free voice commands, which are now far more capable than they were just a few years ago. Now, pair the aforementioned specs with the speaker’s built-in HDMI input and attractive, fabric-adorned and you have a streaming device that’s a real step up from Amazon’s budget offerings.

Read our Amazon Fire TV Cube (third-gen) review.

Peacock may have dropped its free membership tier in February, but there are still ways to save on the streaming service if you know where to look. Now until June 12th, for example, new and returning subscribers can grab a year of Peacock Premium for $19.99 ($30 off) when they use promo code SUMMEROFPEACOCK.

If you’re curious as to how Peacock’s two subscription plans differ, well, there isn’t much to know. The ad-supported Premium plan gives you access to all of the same movies and TV shows as the higher tier — meaning you can still use it to burn through Cocaine Bear, Rian Johnson’s oh-so-excellent Poker Face, and whatever the hell Vandepump Rules is — along with select sporting events and news. You won’t get as much live programming or the ability to download content for offline viewing, but, hey, it’s also less than $2 a month.

A few more deals for your Memorial Day weekend

• Anker’s MagSafe-ready 622 Magnetic Battery is still on sale at Amazon for $39.99 ($30 off) when you clip the on-page coupon for an additional $10 off. Anker is offering the same discount through May 28th with promo code WSCPJQTUSS, making now a good time to pick up the 7.5W magnetic charger. Read our magnetic charger buying guide.
• The AirPods Max, Apple’s luxe on-ear headphones, have returned to $449.99 — about $100 off and their second-best price to date — at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The wireless headphones certainly aren’t cheap, though they do showcase phenomenal build quality, great noise cancellation, and the kind of simplicity for which Apple has become known. Now, if only the included carrying case wasn’t such a travesty. Read our review.
• The Razer Huntsman Mini is currently on sale at Amazon with clicky optical switches for $69.60 (about $50 off). Although the wired 60 percent board is one of Razer’s smallest, it still features programmable macros and RGB backlighting, which you can customize with Razer’s Synapse software.
• We aren’t going to wax too poetic regarding Vizio’s M512a-H6, but if you’re looking for a powerful soundbar with up-firing speakers and support for Dolby Atmos surround sound, you can pick it up on Amazon with a 6-inch sub and two rear speakers for $374.43 (about $126 off). Read our soundbar buying guide.
• The fifth-gen Echo Dot is still down to $39.99 ($10 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. It remains to be seen how the latest Dot compares to Amazon’s newest Alexa speaker, the Echo Pop, but we do know the Dot retains some hardware advantages over the latter. This includes a temperature sensor and an option for an LED clock, one that can display the time, weather, song titles, and other helpful tidbits of information. Read our review.

]]> https://www.latest-apple-news.com/2023/05/26/hands-on-what-the-iphone-15-and-iphone-15-pro-will-look-like/ Fri, 26 May 2023 19:39:17 +0000 https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/26/iphone-15-dummy-model-hands-on/ Ahead of new iPhone launches, case makers invest significant money into sourcing leaked details on updated designs to be the first to come out with appropriate cases. That often results in dummy models that are accurate replicas of future iPhones, such as the iPhone 15 dummy models that we’re sharing today.

We were able to get our hands on a set of dummy models that represent the ‌iPhone 15‌, ‌iPhone 15‌ Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ Max, aka the four new iPhones that we’re expecting Apple to launch in September 2023. We’ve already heard endless rumors about the ‌iPhone 15‌ models, but it helps to be able to see all the changes and design updates in person.

At first glance, the ‌iPhone 15‌ and ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ models look similar to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, but there are notable differences when you look a bit closer. There are no more Lightning ports, for example, as Apple is adopting USB-C this year. There are USB-C ports at the bottom of each device, which will allow for charging with the same USB-C cable that can be used to charge a modern Mac or iPad.

On the surface, the USB-C ports on the ‌iPhone 15‌ and ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ look identical, but we are expecting the ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ models to support faster data transfer speeds with possible Thunderbolt support. There have also been hints that Apple will restrict some functionality to Made for ‌iPhone‌ cables, but we can’t tell if that’s the case with dummy models.

There have been multiple rumors of a minor design change to the corners of the ‌iPhone 15‌ models, which you can indeed see. It’s a subtle shift, but the corners are rounder than before, making for a more comfortable feel in the hand.

Rumors suggest the ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ models will use titanium instead of stainless steel, but that’s a feature we can’t see in the dummy models. Rather than the shiny finish of the dummy models, we’ll likely see a more high-end matte finish. All of the dummy models feature a frosted glass back, something that has in the past been limited to the Pro models. We have heard rumors that frosted glass will be used across the board, but it is a curious choice.

All four iPhones in 2023 are also expected to have the Dynamic Island instead of a notch, and that will effectively mark the end of the notch in Apple’s flagship ‌iPhone‌ lineup. Right now, the ‌Dynamic Island‌ is limited to the ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ and Pro Max, but even the lower-priced ‌iPhone 15‌ will have the updated design in 2023.

The ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ and Pro Max dummy models feature a unified volume button, but that design tweak may have been changed last minute. Apple was rumored to be implementing solid-state technology into the volume buttons, but there were too many bugs to be worked out, so the function has been held until the iPhone 16. Because of that, we may see the traditional two-button design rather than the unified button.

What’s more certain is Apple’s elimination of the mute switch, which is turning into a button. We’ll have a button above the volume buttons, and it may be an Action button instead of a dedicated mute button, similar to the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra. The Action button would be programmable and able to do more than just mute the ‌iPhone‌.

Cameras look about the same and you won’t notice major external changes, but the ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ Max is expected to get a new periscope lens with up to 6x optical zoom. It takes a lot of space inside the phone to implement this technology, so it’s going to be limited to the Pro Max.

We’re about four months away from the debut of the ‌iPhone 15‌ models, which means the design has been finalized and Apple will soon start mass production. We’ll be hearing more about the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models as a launch approaches, with everything we know aggregated in our dedicated roundups.

This article, "Hands-On: What the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Will Look Like" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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