AR glasses on the whole aren't faring much better.

We’re seeing good early Prime Day deals ahead of the event next week, and unsurprisingly, some of the best deals are on Amazon’s own devices. Several Echo speakers have dropped to new low prices, including the Echo Dot Max, which is on sale for $64.99 ($35 off) at Amazon.

Our smart home reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy named the Echo Max her top pick among Alexa speakers, calling it “Amazon’s best all-around smart speaker.” The elegant, fabric-wrapped speaker delivers plenty of bass, and comes with its own dedicated tweeter and woofer that provide crisper sound than its predecessor. It’s also faster and more responsive, with Amazon’s AZ3 Neural Edge processor helping it hear voice commands more accurately, even if you’re speaking from across the room or over background noise.

The Echo Max also doubles as a capable smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, allowing you to connect and control a wide range of compatible smart home devices from brands beyond Amazon. It also supports Alexa Plus, Amazon’s more context-aware AI-powered voice assistant, which can handle multiple requests at once. That means you can do things like dim the lights and lock the doors without having to issue separate commands. In our reviewer’s testing, Alexa was even able to turn off the hallway lights, adjust the upstairs thermostat, and start a robot vacuum in the kitchen all at once.

Read our Echo Dot Max review.

Google is betting generative AI can breathe new life into the smart speaker. The company's new $99.99 Google Home Speaker replaces the rigid commands of the Google Assistant era with more conversational Gemini interactions.

Yesterday, Snap debuted its new $2,195 Specs glasses. In an interview with CNBC, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel described the Specs as something the company had been working on for more than 12 years, an attempt to "bring computing into the world" and "make it more human." He positioned them as a device to help people stay more connected to the world around them instead of looking down at their phones. People, he said, are tired of screens.

While Spiegel was speaking, I was struck by how, whenever his head moved, the light caught the lenses just so, revealing the hidden outline of the Specs' display. It was ironic that Spiegel was talking about scr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Jackery announces three new tiers of modular home backup batteries.

SanDisk has announced an expensive way to boost the PlayStation 5's storage capacity. The company's new Optimus GX PRO 850P NVMe SSD is an officially licensed PS5 accessory in capacities ranging from 1TB to 8TB. The largest option can store up to 200 PS5 games (based on average installation sizes) SanDisk claims, but thanks to the global memory shortage, it will cost you $2,959.99 when it's eventually available through the company's online store, discounted from $3,699.99.

Even after you take into account Sony's recent console price hikes, you can buy three PS5 Pro consoles for the price of just one of these 8TB sticks. But the smaller capa …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Illinois is pumping the brakes on where you're allowed to wear AI on your face.

Paramount Plus is offering new and former subscribers a discounted rate until June 25th, 2026. You’ll pay 99 cents per month for the first two months, with the Premium plan automatically renewing for $13.99 per month after that, and the more limited Essential plan renewing for $8.99. 

Both plans include some excellent shows, like Freaks and Geeks, Colin from Accounts, and South Park, and is one of the only places to find the majority of the Star Trek series — I know I’ll be spending two dollars to rewatch The Next Generation.

You can also find new movies like the 2025 Naked Gun reboot, classics like Mean Girls, while both plans include access to live NFL games on CBS, UEFA Champions League matches, and Showtime Originals. The Essential plan only includes a subset of the Showtime Originals found on the Premium plan, is ad supported, and doesn’t allow for downloads or live CBS.

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Amazon’s Prime Day is one of the biggest shopping events of the year, and the four-day sale for 2026 begins June 23rd at 3:01AM ET and ends at the same time on June 27th. It will grant Prime members access to some of the best prices of the year on Amazon devices, as well as those from Sony, Sonos, Bose, Anker, Apple, and other well-known (and lesser-known) brands we cover at The Verge.

As always, you can count on us to publish only the best deals from Amazon — as well as any worthwhile ones featured at Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other competing retailers. That said, if you want to be sure you catch any and all deals that are most important to you, we’ve compiled some helpful tools and advice.

Below, we’ve spilled a few of our best deal-hunting tips, from how to use automated price trackers to the different ways you can set up your own personalized deal alerts. All of these methods and tools are free to use, and once you put in just a little bit of work, you can rest easy knowing that you don’t need to take much action until it comes time to make a purchase.

Use a price-tracking tool or deal aggregator

CamelCamelCamel and CamelMart

CamelCamelCamel tracks the price of every product sold on Amazon and can send you alerts only when they reach the price that’s right for you. Once a product reaches the desired price you’ve set (or goes below it), you’ll get an email about it. CamelCamelCamel only works for products on Amazon, so you’ll need to use one of the other methods below if you want to track price movement at Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers.

To track prices and get alerts via email, you’ll first need to create a free account. We also suggest installing the site’s browser extension, called The Camelizer, which lets you see pricing trends on a product-by-product basis, and allows you to set your desired price without navigating away from Amazon. It’s fantastic and easy to use.

And, if you already have a wishlist saved on Amazon, you can import it into CamelCamelCamel.

The developers also make Camelmart, which is its price tracker for Walmart. It’s just as good as its Amazon-exclusive tracker, which is nice if you prefer shopping at Walmart, or just want to track prices. You can find and save items you want to keep tabs on, view its pricing history, and set a price alert that’ll ping your email so you can quickly make a purchase. There currently isn’t a browser extension you can use alongside shopping at Walmart, but our fingers are crossed that one gets made.

Slickdeals

Slickdeals aggregates some of the best deals around the internet, as discovered by its team and community of users. It’s a great place to find a curated set of deals on things you might be interested in. The site also allows you to create deal alerts based on keywords, but they work a little differently on Slickdeals than they do on the above sites.

You can type in a product name, like “Sonos Era 100” or a retailer’s name, and once it’s added to your list, you’ll be notified of a deal alert if it meets your criteria. You can set it to alert you to any deal related to your keyword, or you can filter out deals so that you’ll be notified if, for example, the deal is popular enough to make it to Slickdeals’ front page or has earned a high rating from the community. Setting these keywords a little too broadly may result in frequent notification pings and emails, though, so you’ll need to use some discretion and find the right balance of how aggressively you want Slickdeals to notify you.

Keepa

Keepa is another handy tool you can use to track and compare Amazon prices over time. Like CamelCamelCamel, Keepa provides charts that track pricing trends and will alert you when it finds a deal. You can also import any wishlists you’ve previously saved on Amazon.

Unlike CamelCamelCamel, however, you don’t necessarily need to create an account in order to track prices with Keepa. You just need to install the extension, and Keepa will automatically add a price history graph to supported product listings. The embedded extension features different tabs as well, one of which showcases pricing history and another that allows you to specify various pricing details. Once you’ve set your desired price, you’ll then receive price alerts via email, push notification, or RSS.

Alexa for Shopping

Amazon’s “Alexa for shopping” tool will show you pricing history for most products, and let you set a price alert. If you’re using a desktop or laptop computer, you can access the feature by clicking “Price history” next to the price listed in the middle of the product page. You may also be able to find a button for it in the main nav bar of Amazon’s homepage.

However you access it, Alexa for Shopping will summon a widget that can show you price history for product, which can be toggled up to a year ago. There is also an option in the widget to let you set a price alert. It will likely offer some price suggestions based on data, but you can type in your desired price. You’ll receive a deal alert to the email address associated with Amazon if the price drops accordingly. You can also set the tool to automatically buy the product if it drops to a certain price.

Set up deal alert notifications through Alexa or the Amazon app

If you’re a Prime member who owns a fourth-gen Echo speaker or a newer model, you can also request that Amazon send you deal notifications up to 24 hours ahead of time on products you’re interested in. Amazon can alert you to price drops on eligible products in your shopping cart or wishlist, as well as anything you’ve marked as “saved for later.” To enable the feature, tap More > Settings > Notifications in the Alexa app, and then tap Amazon Shopping. Then, scroll down to Shopping Recommendations and enable Deal Recommendations. Once done, you’ll receive a notification on both your device and your Echo speaker (the latter in the form of a yellow ring) notifying you of the deal.

Alternatively, you can sign up to receive deal alerts regarding products you’ve recently viewed in the Amazon Shopping app, as well as those related to your recent search history. If you’re a Prime member, you just need to navigate to the Prime Day event page in the mobile app between now and Wednesday, October 8th, to create an alert. Once done, you’ll receive push notifications for any deal(s) you’ve subscribed to when the event begins. You can also just open the Amazon Shopping app and tap Settings > Notifications > Deals and Recommendations before toggling “Savings” and / or “Recommendations.”

Look for deals outside of Amazon

Prime Day is meant to show off Amazon’s huge retail presence, so, naturally, other retail chains take notice. Because of this, you can sometimes find better deals at retailers like Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. At the very least, they may be able to match Amazon’s pricing if you ask.

If Amazon’s upcoming sale doesn’t have everything you want, or if you just want to make sure you’re getting the best deal, shop around a bit. For example, Walmart will soon host a Walmart Deals event from June 22nd through June 28th. Target is getting in on the deals, too, with Target Circle Deal Days happening the same span of time as Prime Day. Lastly, Best Buy is hosting its Tech Fest sale from June 22nd through June 29th. And as usual, you’ll be able to find all of our deals coverage in and outside of Amazon here.

Trust the experts

We’re a discerning bunch here at The Verge, so don’t fret if you’re going into this without any prep. We’ll be corralling the best tech deals and keeping our coverage up to date in the run-up to the main event this week. So mark June 23rd on your calendar, sign up for Amazon Prime and our Verge Shopping newsletters, and maybe start putting aside a little spending cash.

Amazon’s Prime Day is now in its second day, and whether you’re looking for a new pair of wireless earbuds or a smartwatch, there’s a good chance you’ll find a discount. The Apple Watch Series 11 has already dropped to a new low price, while the AirPods Pro 3 are discounted to $179. With Tim Cook warning that price hikes are coming, now may be the moment if you’ve been eying one of the company’s devices.

Below are the best Apple deals currently available. Some are exclusive to Prime Day, while others are simply great discounts we think are worth highlighting. We’ll continue updating this guide throughout Prime Day, highlighting more deals as they become available.

Earbud and headphone deals

• The AirPods 4 are on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $99 ($30 off). Apple’s entry-level earbuds offer richer bass than previous generations along with a more robust IP54 rating for water and dust resistance. They match the latest AirPods Pro in voice call quality and work well with other Apple devices too, though they lack more advanced features like active noise cancellation. It might be a pro or con to some that this model simply rests in your ear. They don’t create a tight seal like the AirPods Pro.
• The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and wireless charging are also on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $148.99 ($30 off). It’s a solid deal, but given the AirPods Pro 3 are currently available for about $30 or so more, we’d recommend buying those instead. They drown out noise better and offer additional features like a heart rate sensor that justify the small price difference. Read our review.

• The Beats Powerbeats Fit are on sale for $159.95 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is $20 shy of their all-time low and their second-best price to date. Like all Beats earbuds and headphones, the noise-canceling Fit are platform-agnostic and natively support a number of iOS and Android features like one-step pairing and Find My support. The Beats Fit Pro successor also features a redesigned wingtip with built-in silicone fins and ear tips that are designed to provide a more secure fit during workouts than traditional earbuds.
• The Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are on sale for $179.95 ($90 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, which is also $20 shy of their all-time low price. Their ear-hook design helps keep them securely in place, while Apple’s H2 chip grants access to AirPods Pro features like Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and better noise cancellation than you’ll get with the Powerbeats Fit. Plus, unlike the Fit, they support wireless charging. Read our review.

• The Beats Solo 4 have dropped to $99.95 ($100 off) at Amazon and Walmart, which is $10 more than their all-time low we saw last year. The wireless headphones offer a noticeable step up in performance from the Beats Solo 3, delivering more detailed sound and support for lossless audio over the included USB-C or 3.5mm cable. They also provide up to 50 hours of battery life, plus comfortable memory foam ear cushions, though they don’t include active noise cancellation. Read our review.
• You can buy the Beats Studio Buds Plus on sale for $89.95 ($80 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is one of their better prices to date. The wireless earbuds offer good active noise cancellation along with four swappable ear tips for a comfortable, secure fit (though perhaps not as secure as the Powerbeats Pro 2). They also sport a slick translucent colorway and can last up to 27 hours on a single charge. Read our review.

Apple Watch deals

• You can buy the Apple Watch Ultra 3 with an Ocean Band, Trail Loop strap, and Alpine Loop strap for $649 ($150 off) at Amazon, which is a new low price. The Ultra 3 is Apple’s most rugged and feature-packed smartwatch, making it a great choice for athletes and outdoorsy folks. It delivers up to 42 hours of battery life — six hours more than its predecessor — and features a larger wide-angle OLED display with a refresh rate that goes down to just 1Hz for battery savings, plus slimmer bezels. It also supports both satellite connectivity and 5G. Read our review.

• If you’re looking to change up the look of your Apple Watch Series 11, Woot is selling a variety of Apple Watch bands starting at $14.99 ($35 off) through June 26th. They’re available in multiple colors, sizes, and styles, and the deal marks a new low price.

iPad deals

• The 11-inch M4-powered iPad Air is on sale for $519.99 ($79 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is its best price to date. The Air is a sizable step up from Apple’s entry-level iPad, combining a faster M4 chip with 12GB of RAM, Apple Intelligence features, and support for the Apple Pencil Pro. It also includes newer connectivity standards like Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, making it more future-proof. Read our review.
• The 13-inch M4-powered iPad Air is on sale for $699.99 ($100 off), which is its second-best price, at Best Buy. The tablet is identical to the 11-inch model, but sports a larger display that’s better suited for multitasking.

Other Apple deals

• You can buy a pack of four first-generation AirTags on sale for $69.99 at Woot, which isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen but still a decent $30 discount off the original price. The last-gen AirTags aren’t as precise as the newer model and don’t feature as loud of a built-in speaker, but they still offer more impressive item tracking than other competitors when paired with an iPhone. Read our review.
• The 13-inch MacBook Air is available with an M5 chip, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for $949.99 ($149 off) at Amazon, which is $50 shy of its all-time low price. The 15-inch model, meanwhile, is also on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $1,149, which is also $50 more than its record low. Both laptops deliver excellent everyday performance, with SSD read and write speeds that rival the M5-powered MacBook Pro, along with long battery life, a comfortable keyboard, and support for Wi-Fi 7. Read our review.
• The Apple Magic Mouse is on sale for $59.99 ($19 off) at Amazon, which is a new low price. The wireless mouse features a multi-touch surface for gestures like scrolling and swiping between web pages, and a battery that lasts about a month on a single charge. It also pairs automatically with compatible Macs and charges via USB-C.

Update, June 24th: Adjusted prices and availability.

The Google Home Speaker is available for preorder today and hits shelves on June 25.

Germany’s Push for a Homegrown Cloud A growing share of German companies would accept a weaker cloud service

Android 17 Reaches Pixel Google started pushing Android 17 to Pixel phones today, and the update arrives alongside

Snap, the parent company of social network Snapchat, on Tuesday launched its Specs augmented reality glasses, a major bet by a struggling company to stake out ground in the post-smartphone era.

Father’s Day is nearly here. Hopefully, you already got a gift for dads you care about, but if not, here’s a quick, easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys a good comic strip. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes contains every one of Bill Watterson’s beloved strips made during the comic’s ten-year run from 1985 through 1995, packed in three deluxe hardcover books, for $89.48 at Amazon when you check the on-page coupon. The set originally sold for $225, but it’s often available for around $130. This is the best price I’ve seen it sell for.

The lighthearted, kid-friendly comics couldn’t be more different from Watterson’s darker, adult-themed The Mysteries, which brought him out of retirement with its 2023 launch.

If you’re thinking of getting dad a book, but aren’t sure Calvin and Hobbes is the right pick, there are some good deals happening on gorgeous hardcover versions of The Lord of the Rings and other tales in the franchise. The deluxe slipcase hardcover version of The Lord of the Rings that includes illustrations by the author J.R.R. Tolkien himself is $105.14 at Amazon, its lowest price in about a year.

He can go further back in the lore with Silmarillion, the prequel to The Hobbit and to The Lord of the Rings. It, too, is illustrated, comes in a bold hardcover, and is down to its lowest price in a while. The book costs $30.50 at Amazon, while the slipcase hardcover version of The Hobbit that contains illustrations is $81.41.

Google’s Android 17 update includes highlights like new floating “Bubble” app windows for easier multitasking, a Screen Reaction recording mode, and a 50/50 split gaming mode for foldable phones. Meanwhile, Wear OS 7 brings Live Updates and better battery life for smart watches, and it prepares connections for new Android XR smart glasses that will launch this fall. 

The update is rolling out to Pixel phones first, then other devices, with some features, like Gemini Intelligence, set to debut later this year.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

• Android 17 arrives on Pixel phones today
• Android foldables are getting new gamepad controls.
• Google launches Wear OS 7 with Live Updates and a battery life boost
• The Google / Xreal Aura XR glasses are now available to preorder
• Android 17 is getting its own version of Apple’s Handoff
• Wear OS 7 will keep track of deliveries and sports scores on your wrist
• A first (and second) look at the Android XR glasses launching this year
• The 9 biggest new features in Android 17
• A new Android 17 beta reveals plans for “Pixel Glow” light animations.
• Android 17 will let you share one-time location data with apps.
• The second Android 17 beta is out now for Google Pixel.
• Google and Xreal extend hardware partnership for Android XR.
• A first look at Google’s Project Aura glasses built with Xreal
• Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses

Go ahead, find the non-AI feature you actually care about on Android 17.

Following its official debut last month, Google is now rolling out Android 17 to compatible Pixel phones, alongside additional exclusive features as part of the June Pixel Drop. Not every feature announced alongside the OS at the pre-I/O Android Show is available today, though.

Android 17 itself is arriving on Pixel phones today, and Google says other manufacturers will be issuing the update throughout 2026. The biggest user interface update is the introduction of Bubbles, floating app windows that you can open with a long press - similar floating windows are already found in many Android skins, but are now an official part of 17. Google is …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google's Wear OS 7 update is starting to roll out today for the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4, adding a new Live Updates feature that tracks live events from your Android smartwatch. Live Updates will now sync with Wear OS devices, so updates like sports scores or an ongoing meal delivery will show up on both your watch and your phone.

You might also notice your watch lasting a little longer - Google claims Wear OS 7 offers up to 10 percent more battery life than Wear OS 6.

Wear OS 7 will also introduce some new Gemini Intelligence features, but Google says these aren't launching until "later this year." They'll include Create My Widget, which …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Now that we're clear of WWDC and all of the new AI-powered features coming to Apple's platforms, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has more details about rumored new hardware, like the camera-equipped AirPods he'd previously written about. He says they are currently on schedule for a late 2027 launch, and that while we're checking out beta releases for this fall's iOS 27 update, the new earbuds are internally being tested with next year's update, iOS 28.

With cameras mounted in their stems and lights to indicate when data is being uploaded to the cloud, they could give the upgraded version of Siri "visual context" about your surroundings, be …

Read the full story at The Verge.