Google brings back Black Friday prices for earbuds, phones, and more
Google’s Pixel Buds 2a come in a stylish purple shade that stands out. Google just launched its holiday sale, and it’s basically Black Friday and Cyber Monday revived. From smartphones to smart security devices, plenty of great gifts have returned to their Black Friday prices, with some third-party retailers in some cases offering better deals than Google. Prices for a few of our favorite gadgets are even matching their all-time lows, including the Pixel 9a, Pixel Watch 4, Pixel Buds 2a, and the latest Nest Doorbell. So if you’re still holiday shopping, here are the deals that genuinely stand out. Google Pixel 9A The Pixel 9A adds more robust water resistance and a brighter, bigger screen to what was already a winning formula for a good midrange phone. Read our review. Where to Buy: $499 $349 at Amazon $499 $399 at Best Buy $499 $399 at Google First up, the unlocked base Pixel 9a is one of...
Google’s Pixel Buds 2a come in a stylish purple shade that stands out. Google just launched its holiday sale, and it’s basically Black Friday and Cyber Monday revived. From smartphones to smart security devices, plenty of great gifts have returned to their Black Friday prices, with some third-party retailers in some cases offering better deals than Google. Prices for a few of our favorite gadgets are even matching their all-time lows, including the Pixel 9a, Pixel Watch 4, Pixel Buds 2a, and the latest Nest Doorbell. So if you’re still holiday shopping, here are the deals that genuinely stand out.
Google Pixel 9A
The Pixel 9A adds more robust water resistance and a brighter, bigger screen to what was already a winning formula for a good midrange phone. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
$499 $349 at Amazon
$499 $399 at Best Buy
$499 $399 at Google
First up, the unlocked base Pixel 9a is one of the best smartphone deals we saw on Black Friday, and it’s back at its all-time low of $349 ($150 off) at Amazon. It’s our favorite midrange phone, offering a 6.3-inch OLED screen and a great camera for the price, even if it lacks the Pixel 10’s telephoto lens or Pixel 9’s low-light performance. It’s powered by the older but still snappy Tensor G4 chip and the battery can easily last a full day, even with the always-on display enabled. You also get wireless charging, a robust IP68 rating, and seven years of software updates, which matches the support Google offers on its pricier phones.
Pixel Buds 2a
Google’s latest pair of wireless earbuds feature crisp sound quality, a comfortable design, and solid active noise cancellation, which is great considering the budget-friendly price tag. They even offer built-in support for Gemini and, unlike the entry-level AirPods, a purple option! Read our review.
Where to Buy:
$129 $99 at Amazon
$129 $99 at Best Buy
$129 $99 at Target
Speaking of cheap gadgets that offer a lot of value, Black Friday brought the first meaningful discount on Google’s Pixel Buds 2a before the deal disappeared. Now, once again, though, you can snag them at their all-time low of $99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store. Even at full price, the buds are impressive, offering a useful active noise cancellation that reduces most background noise, along with a natural transparency mode. They deliver crisp, pleasant sound for the price and include built-in Gemini support. Plus, they come in a unique purple color option that looks fabulous, making them an overall great pick for Android users on a budget. Read our review.
Google Pixel Watch 4
The Pixel Watch 4 has a bigger display, longer battery life, more repairable design, and new Satellite SOS mode. It also leverages Google Gemini, and introduces an AI Health Coach. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
$349.99 $299.99 at Amazon (41mm, Wi-Fi)
$349.99 $299.99 at Best Buy (41mm, Wi-Fi)
$349.99 $299.99 at Target (41mm, Wi-Fi)
Smartwatches make for popular gifts, and the Pixel Watch 4 is one of the best on the market particularly for Android owners. Right now, you can buy the Wi-Fi-enabled version of the 41mm Pixel Watch 4 from Amazon, Google, and Best Buy starting at $299.99 ($50 off).The wearable brings a number of impressive improvements over the Pixel Watch 3. Along with full support for Gemini, it’s faster, lasts longer, and is twice as bright thanks to its new domed Actua 360 display with slimmer bezels for more screen real estate. Both the display and battery are now replaceable and repairable, and Google added thoughtful perks like a side-mounted charger that turns your watch into a small at-a-glance display for things like battery percentage. On the health and fitness side, you get dual-frequency GPS, retroactive AI activity recognition, and improved sleep tracking. Plus, LTE models get a new Satellite SOS mode that lets you call for emergency services even without cellular service. Read our review.
Google Nest Doorbell (third-gen)
With 2K video, support for the Gemini for Home AI a**istant, 24/7 recording, and some free smart alerts, Google’s third-generation wired doorbell is a great option for home monitoring.
Where to Buy:
$179.99 $139.99 at Amazon
$179.99 $139.99 at Best Buy
The latest Google Nest Wired Doorbell is ideal if you want to keep an eye on packages, and it’s down to $139.99 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Released in October, the wired model is the upgraded version of our top pick for a video doorbell. It adds noticeably sharper 2K video along with a wider and taller field of view, letting you see more of your porch. It’s also built to work with the new Gemini for Home AI a**istant, which can handle more complex tasks than the older Google a**istant. And it still offers the perks that made its predecessor stand out, like free smart notifications that tell you whether it’s a person, package, animal, or vehicle outside of your door. And, if you pay extra for a subscription to Google Home Premium, you can get facial recognition along with 24/7 recording.
I ditched my mesh router after discovering the one setting that actually matters
You might think the best option when you hit a Wi-Fi dead zone at home is to invest in an expensive multi-node mesh system to ensure full coverage. However, there are downsides to adding consumer mesh nodes around the house, including wireless backward congestion, doubled latency hops, roaming packet drops,...
You might think the best option when you hit a Wi-Fi dead zone at home is to invest in an expensive multi-node mesh system to ensure full coverage. However, there are downsides to adding consumer mesh nodes around the house, including wireless backward congestion, doubled latency hops, roaming packet drops, and overlapping co-channel interference.
Natascha Faure Switzerland
Published by: aplhsindia.in
The C64 Mini showed me how fearless and wild ’80s game development really was
When one of our D&D group members couldn't make it to the session, we decided to make a night of it anyway. We headed over to a local pub, only to be told that they were about to start a pub quiz and that we were welcome to join. We...
When one of our D&D group members couldn't make it to the session, we decided to make a night of it anyway. We headed over to a local pub, only to be told that they were about to start a pub quiz and that we were welcome to join. We had never done a pub quiz before, but we thought we'd give it a go.
William Garcia Boston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Netflix looks worse on my PC than on a $30 streaming stick, and it isn’t the hardware
There is a major hardware contrast between my $2,500 custom gaming PC that features an RTX 40-series GPU, a high-end 4K HDR display, and a Gigabit fiber connection, and a $30 Amazon Fire TV Stick plugged into the same monitor. Yet somehow my PC delivers a blurry, artifact-ridden 720p or...
There is a major hardware contrast between my $2,500 custom gaming PC that features an RTX 40-series GPU, a high-end 4K HDR display, and a Gigabit fiber connection, and a $30 Amazon Fire TV Stick plugged into the same monitor. Yet somehow my PC delivers a blurry, artifact-ridden 720p or low-bitrate 1080p Netflix stream, and the streaming stick offers crisp, instantaneous 4K Dolby Vision with zero user configuration.
Brankica Polić Serbia
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Your Wi-Fi router is leaking airtime to legacy devices, and here is the 10-second fix
Even though you have a modern Wi-Fi 6, 6E, or 7 router and high-spec endpoints capable of gigabit wireless throughput, your network might still suffer from random latency spikes, package jitter, and sluggish page loads. This is down to airtime starvation. Wi-Fi is a shared half-duplex medium. It doesn't matter...
Even though you have a modern Wi-Fi 6, 6E, or 7 router and high-spec endpoints capable of gigabit wireless throughput, your network might still suffer from random latency spikes, package jitter, and sluggish page loads. This is down to airtime starvation. Wi-Fi is a shared half-duplex medium. It doesn't matter how fast your gaming rig or laptop is if the wireless radio spectrum is tied up waiting for slow legacy transmissions.
Michael Johnson Chicago
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I switched to this underrated Launcher, and my Pixel finally feels fun again
I've used plenty of Android launchers over the years, but most eventually start to feel the same. You install one, spend an hour changing icons and wallpapers, and then go back to using your phone like before. I wasn't looking for another launcher with endless customization options. I wanted something...
I've used plenty of Android launchers over the years, but most eventually start to feel the same. You install one, spend an hour changing icons and wallpapers, and then go back to using your phone like before. I wasn't looking for another launcher with endless customization options. I wanted something that would actually make using my phone feel a little more interesting.
Hunter Fortin Canada
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Unsloth’s new desktop app does the one thing LM Studio and Ollama never let me do
I’ve tried several tools for running AI models locally, but I keep returning to Ollama and LM Studio. Both make it easy to download a model and start chatting without building a complicated environment first. I can change the system prompt or connect the model to another app through an...
I’ve tried several tools for running AI models locally, but I keep returning to Ollama and LM Studio. Both make it easy to download a model and start chatting without building a complicated environment first. I can change the system prompt or connect the model to another app through an API. The model itself, however, remains exactly as I downloaded it.
William Garcia Boston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Your GPU’s upscaler has a secret second job, and nobody’s talking about it
I used to think of upscaling as a fairly simple trade-off. You give up some of the internal resolution of the image, and in return, DLSS or FSR would give you enough performance to push higher settings or a higher output resolution. That is still its biggest selling point, but...
I used to think of upscaling as a fairly simple trade-off. You give up some of the internal resolution of the image, and in return, DLSS or FSR would give you enough performance to push higher settings or a higher output resolution. That is still its biggest selling point, but after using DLSS upscaling ever since it arrived back in 2020, I've realized that there's another benefit hiding in plain sight.
Jane Smith Los Angeles
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I switched from Notion to a plain Markdown folder and Syncthing, and I’m faster than I ever was before
I have been a long-time Notion user. I have used it to take notes, prepare documents, write my articles, and even present things to people. I stuck around primarily because it has a dark mode, which Google Docs doesn’t have on desktop, and I found features like rich embeds helpful.
I have been a long-time Notion user. I have used it to take notes, prepare documents, write my articles, and even present things to people. I stuck around primarily because it has a dark mode, which Google Docs doesn’t have on desktop, and I found features like rich embeds helpful.
Emily Brown Houston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Google’s new Android sideloading rules could undermine the OS’ biggest strength
My very first smartphone was a Google Nexus One, which my dad bought me when I was 16. Back then, I would install APKs from outside the Play Store all the time, mainly because some of them weren't available in my region. Even though Android has come a long way...
My very first smartphone was a Google Nexus One, which my dad bought me when I was 16. Back then, I would install APKs from outside the Play Store all the time, mainly because some of them weren't available in my region. Even though Android has come a long way since the early 2010s, this part of the experience has largely stayed the same. Yes, the OS will warn you about the risks when you try to install an app from an unknown source, but overriding that warning and going ahead has always been easy.
Jane Smith Los Angeles
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I cut my phone’s animation speed in half, and now it feels twice as fast
I've been using my Galaxy Z Flip 5 for about three years now, so it's easy to blame its age whenever it feels a little slower than it used to. But there's a difference between a phone actually taking longer to do something and Android simply taking its sweet time...
I've been using my Galaxy Z Flip 5 for about three years now, so it's easy to blame its age whenever it feels a little slower than it used to. But there's a difference between a phone actually taking longer to do something and Android simply taking its sweet time showing you that it did it. I was recently reminded of that when I started messing around with the animation scale settings in Developer options.
Konon Dnistryanskiy Ukraine
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Grand Theft Auto VI exists in its own universe
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on GTA VI and the state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it...
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on GTA VI and the state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.How it startedFour years ago, fans got a long-awaited look at Grand Theft Auto VI with a huge cache of videos that showed off Rockstar's latest open-world epic. There were 90 videos in total, providing a glimpse at the next-generation take on Vice City, introducing the game's new dual protagonists, and generally showing off the crime-fueled mayhem the series is known for. …Read the full story at The Verge.
Sophia Wilson Atlanta
Published by: aplhsindia.in
My Jellyfin server has four layers of protection, and RAID isn’t the most important one
I’ve invested enough time in my Jellyfin library that losing it would be more than a storage problem. The media files matter, obviously, but so do everything I’ve done around them: folder organization, metadata, artwork, watched status, collections, and all the little choices that make the server behave the way...
I’ve invested enough time in my Jellyfin library that losing it would be more than a storage problem. The media files matter, obviously, but so do everything I’ve done around them: folder organization, metadata, artwork, watched status, collections, and all the little choices that make the server behave the way I expect. None of those things sound especially painful to rebuild on their own. Put them all together after a drive or server failure, though, and I’d be looking at hours of tedious work I’ve already done once.
