Switch 2 controllers and the OnePlus Watch 3 top our list of the best deals this week
Nintendo’s first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller can’t be beaten when it comes to its breadth of features and comfort. But at $89.99, let’s be real, it’s way too expensive for most people. Thankfully, a controller I’ve been testing recently, which is nearly as good despite lacking a 3.5mm audio jack, is currently on sale for $40 less. The EasySMX S10, as it’s called, is available for $50.39 from EasySMX with code GETS10. The S10 is comfortable to use for long gaming sessions, and it has features that aren’t commonly built into third-party gamepads, including amiibo support and rumble that feels like it’s in the same ballpark as Nintendo’s HD rumble. It can also remotely wake the Nintendo Switch 2, not just the original Switch, from standby. The S10 would be easier to recommend than Nintendo’s Switch 2 Pro Controller even if they were the same price, since EasySMX’s model features accurate, power-efficient TMR joysticks, plus some satisfyingly...
Nintendo’s first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller can’t be beaten when it comes to its breadth of features and comfort. But at $89.99, let’s be real, it’s way too expensive for most people. Thankfully, a controller I’ve been testing recently, which is nearly as good despite lacking a 3.5mm audio jack, is currently on sale for $40 less. The EasySMX S10, as it’s called, is available for $50.39 from EasySMX with code GETS10.The S10 is comfortable to use for long gaming sessions, and it has features that aren’t commonly built into third-party gamepads, including amiibo support and rumble that feels like it’s in the same ballpark as Nintendo’s HD rumble. It can also remotely wake the Nintendo Switch 2, not just the original Switch, from standby.The S10 would be easier to recommend than Nintendo’s Switch 2 Pro Controller even if they were the same price, since EasySMX’s model features accurate, power-efficient TMR joysticks, plus some satisfyingly clicky b***ons and triggers (note: these are divisive, you might not like them as much as I do). But at $40 less, you don’t need to feel bad about getting this instead of Nintendo’s official gamepad. Take that leftover money and treat yourself to something nice instead.
EasySMX S10 Gaming Controller for Switch 2
Where to Buy:
$59.99 at Amazon
$59.99 $50.39 at EasySMX (with code GETS10)
If you’re an Android user looking for an unobtrusive Bluetooth tracker for your wallet, Ugreen just launched the FineTrack Slim Smart G. It’s just 1.7mm thick (approximately the thickness of two credit cards), letting it to sit next to your other cards without sticking out, and its built-in battery can last for up to five years. For its launch, Ugreen has knocked $2 off the $25.99 tracker, dropping it to $23.99 at Amazon.The downside is that it can’t be charged, so you’ll need to dispose of it and buy a new tracker once those five years are up. That stinks, but its specs mean it should provide a pretty good five years of service. It features a built-in 80db alarm to help you find it via Google’s Find Hub network, after all, along with IP68 protection against dust and water. Just keep in mind that, if it’s submerged, you won’t be able to track it.
Ugreen FineTrack Slim Smart G Bluetooth tracker
Where to Buy:
$25.99 $23.99 at Amazon
Now through October 5th, OnePlus has a few back-to-college deals up its sleeve that everyone can enjoy, whether you’re a student or not. The one that caught my eye is the 43mm OnePlus Watch 3, which is available for $269.99 ($30 off) from Amazon and OnePlus (with coupon code HARVEST). The Wear OS 5-equipped smartwatch has gone on sale before, but after a nearly month-long period when it wasn’t discounted, it’s returned to its second-best price to date.If you’re shopping for an Android watch, we recommend including OnePlus’ latest wearable on your shortlist. Outside of Samsung’s recent Galaxy Watch 8 series, the OnePlus Watch 3 is one of the newest models available. It offers a better value than its predecessor, the OnePlus Watch 2, with updated software, a rotating crown, an enhanced GPS antenna, and a suite of new health features.
Read our hands-on impressions.
OnePlus Watch 3 (43mm)
Where to Buy:
$299.99 $269.99 at OnePlus (with code HARVEST)
$299.99 $269.99 at Amazon
Other deals we loved from this week
Nintendo’s tappable amiibos are an expensive hobby, as most figures for the Switch and Switch 2 usually cost between $15 and $40 each. However, GameStop recently did collectors and trinket enjoyers a favor by slashing prices on a handful of models, which start at just $5.99 a pop. Not just that, some of the newer ones that debuted alongside the Switch 2 (including ones from The Legend of Zelda series and Street Fighter 6) are down to $15.99 at GameStop and Amazon — over half off their original price.
We highlighted the Prime-exclusive deal on Kindle Unlimited last weekend, but it’s worth sharing again in case you missed it. If you sign into your Prime account ahead of Amazon’s October Prime Day event, which starts on October 7th, you’ll be able to sign up for a free three-month trial of Kindle Unlimited. After your free trial period ends, you’ll be charged $11.99 a month unless you cancel the service. Kindle Unlimited is filled with many, many t**les you can read for no extra charge, so if you’re a voracious reader, this is a fabulous deal that costs nothing to redeem.
If you’re a PC gamer with a taste for spooky games, you might have already dipped into several t**les from Remedy Entertainment’s catalog, including Alan Wake 2, Control, and others. But if you haven’t yet tried them, there’s an affordable way to go all-in, as Humble is offering a nine-game bundle for just $27. Getting Alan Wake 2 (redeemable via the Epic Games Store) at that price would be a steal on its own, but you also get Control Ultimate Edition, Quantum Break, Alan Wake Remastered, Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, and more. The step-up tier of the bundle also includes a 25 percent off coupon for FBC: Firebreak, Remedy’s cooperative first-person shooter set in the Control universe.
Roku is offering up to 90% off streaming subscriptions, but you only have until Sunday
You know, there's always a big rush from retail companies to meet the demands of popular retail days like Black Friday. But what if a company just made up a day and then began celebrating it with deals? I mean, nothing's stopping a business from announcing that today's a special...
You know, there's always a big rush from retail companies to meet the demands of popular retail days like Black Friday. But what if a company just made up a day and then began celebrating it with deals? I mean, nothing's stopping a business from announcing that today's a special kind of day and then offering discounts because of it.
احسان رضاییان Iran
Published by: aplhsindia.in
You, too, can build this ESP32 ePaper device that tells your fortune
If you want to get started with both the ESP32 and ePaper displays, what better way to get accustomed to both than by a small, simple, yet endlessly fun little project? If you're on the hunt for something to make that doesn't take a ton of effort and gives you...
If you want to get started with both the ESP32 and ePaper displays, what better way to get accustomed to both than by a small, simple, yet endlessly fun little project? If you're on the hunt for something to make that doesn't take a ton of effort and gives you something cool to talk about, then this ESP32 fortune teller may just be what you're looking for. It has a ton of pre-made fortunes loaded on it, works offline, and best of all, it comes with additional features that elevate it past being just a novelty.
Esra Vreeken Netherlands
Published by: aplhsindia.in
AMD just dropped a compact AI workstation that makes discrete GPUs look outdated for running LLMs
AMD has announced the availability of the Ryzen AI Halo developer platform, powered by AI Max 300-series processors. This range of mini PCs isn't going to win awards for gaming prowess, nor are they designed as low-cost options for attaching behind workstation monitors.
AMD has announced the availability of the Ryzen AI Halo developer platform, powered by AI Max 300-series processors. This range of mini PCs isn't going to win awards for gaming prowess, nor are they designed as low-cost options for attaching behind workstation monitors.
Loris Marie Switzerland
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Someone built a fully motorized Lego WALL-E controlled by a PS4 controller, complete with a built-in taser
One of the coolest things people who build stuff can do is bring something from fiction into reality. We've seen plenty of Pip-Boys and even a fully 3D-printed wearable suit of Doomguy's armor that used in-game assets for extra accuracy. One recurring trend is when people remake robots from movies...
One of the coolest things people who build stuff can do is bring something from fiction into reality. We've seen plenty of Pip-Boys and even a fully 3D-printed wearable suit of Doomguy's armor that used in-game assets for extra accuracy. One recurring trend is when people remake robots from movies and books, because tinkering and robotics often go hand-in-hand.
Hélmut Silva Brazil
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Outlook is Microsoft’s neglected masterpiece
There was a time when Microsoft Outlook was the undisputed king of Windows productivity — a fast, feature-packed native application that handled massive enterprise workflows without breaking a sweat.
There was a time when Microsoft Outlook was the undisputed king of Windows productivity — a fast, feature-packed native application that handled massive enterprise workflows without breaking a sweat.
Esma Kuzucu Turkey
Published by: aplhsindia.in
In SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk is a risk factor
The SpaceX IPO is here, and it's more than just an historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. It also reveals more ways in which Elon Musk's companies interact and overlap with each other, shuffling money around in ways that are often difficult to keep...
The SpaceX IPO is here, and it's more than just an historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. It also reveals more ways in which Elon Musk's companies interact and overlap with each other, shuffling money around in ways that are often difficult to keep track of. This is evident in ways that are both obvious and less so. A CTRL-F search for "Tesla" yields 87 results, xAI is mentioned 356 times, and X 267 times. Even the Boring Company (7 times) and Neuralink (3) get a few mentions. Throughout its 330 pages of rocket launches and interplanetary wishes, you can trace the network of ways in which Musk's …Read the full story at The Verge.
Michael Johnson Chicago
Published by: aplhsindia.in
‘Fuck you, Bambu’: How one private message could change the face of 3D printing
Bambu Lab makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet, but that reputation is suddenly under siege. It all started when Paweł Jarczak received a private message from the company on Reddit asking him to delete his code. Now the 3D printing community is lining up behind Jarczak to fund...
Bambu Lab makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet, but that reputation is suddenly under siege. It all started when Paweł Jarczak received a private message from the company on Reddit asking him to delete his code. Now the 3D printing community is lining up behind Jarczak to fund a war against Bambu - and the future of 3D printers could be at stake.Jarczak is a developer who shared a way to let people remote control their Bambu printers without using Bambu software. But Bambu wanted to lock down its system, despite relying on open-source code. That provoked a furious coalition of open-source advocates and YouTubers to respond."I' …Read the full story at The Verge.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I ditched Docker Desktop for native containers and everything is better
I adore Docker and its containerization ecosystem as much as the next tinkerer. Between its simple commands, Compose functionality, and massive community support, Docker is easy to pick up for beginners and reliable enough to serve veteran project-building enthusiasts. But as someone who started with Docker and moved on to...
I adore Docker and its containerization ecosystem as much as the next tinkerer. Between its simple commands, Compose functionality, and massive community support, Docker is easy to pick up for beginners and reliable enough to serve veteran project-building enthusiasts. But as someone who started with Docker and moved on to other container runtimes over the course of my DIY project-building journey, I have to admit that it has certain quirks that make it a bit of a hassle for advanced container-hosting tasks.
Indi Van Haalen Netherlands
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Home a**istant on bare metal works great — until it becomes your entire home’s infrastructure
Before combining everything onto a few Proxmox-powered cluster nodes, I ran dedicated hardware for specific packages, be it Home Assistant and Frigate. The former was running on a compact mini PC, and by compact, I mean ridiculously small. It had an Intel chip, barely any RAM, and almost no storage,...
Before combining everything onto a few Proxmox-powered cluster nodes, I ran dedicated hardware for specific packages, be it Home Assistant and Frigate. The former was running on a compact mini PC, and by compact, I mean ridiculously small. It had an Intel chip, barely any RAM, and almost no storage, making it perfect for running the smart home ... or so I thought. Though I enjoyed having no layers, no extra software, and no hypervisor at the time, I eventually outgrew the system it ran on. Bare metal can prove useful for many deployments, and it's never really the wrong choice to make for Home Assistant.
Necati Demirel Turkey
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Meta lays off thousands of employees to offset AI investments
Meta says it needs to “offset the other investments we're making.” | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they've been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared...
Meta says it needs to “offset the other investments we're making.” | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they've been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared by Business Insider, impacted staffers were told that the planned headcount reduction was part of the company's "continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making."Reports of an upcoming wave of layoffs started circulating in March, though at that time Meta was believed to be cutting up to 20 percent of its total company headcount. According to a recent memo shared in May, the layoffs are now …Read the full story at The Verge.
Sam Robinson United Kingdom
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I spent weeks chasing a DisplayPort problem that HDMI solved in seconds
DisplayPort has largely been the primary cable PC enthusiasts reach for, and for good reason. It has better bandwidth than the HDMI of its era, native VRR before HDMI caught up, and there's no royalty funny business or weird treatment of Linux drivers. When I upgraded from my 1440p IPS...
DisplayPort has largely been the primary cable PC enthusiasts reach for, and for good reason. It has better bandwidth than the HDMI of its era, native VRR before HDMI caught up, and there's no royalty funny business or weird treatment of Linux drivers. When I upgraded from my 1440p IPS display to a 4K OLED, I reached for DisplayPort once more. I plugged it in, set my refresh rate on the "Gaming Mode" of my Samsung Odyssey G8 to 240Hz, and thought that'd be the end of it. Then I experienced weird static lines in the display and periodic black screens that weren't frequent enough to be very concerning, but just enough for me to search for a fix. After chasing ghosts of panel problems, cable replacements and entire GPU swaps, I found that the DisplayPort implementation itself wasn't up to snuff, and switching to HDMI was the only fix.
Jane Smith Los Angeles
Published by: aplhsindia.in
The Flipper One is finally official, but Flipper isn’t selling it yet — they’re asking for help to build it
The Flipper Zero spent the past five years becoming the kind of device that people either own and love or have a strong opinion about despite never having touched one. It packaged NFC, sub-GHz radio, infrared, RFID, and a handful of hardware interfaces into a pocket-sized microcontroller toy that became...
The Flipper Zero spent the past five years becoming the kind of device that people either own and love or have a strong opinion about despite never having touched one. It packaged NFC, sub-GHz radio, infrared, RFID, and a handful of hardware interfaces into a pocket-sized microcontroller toy that became unexpectedly serious in the hands of researchers, hobbyists, and the occasional teenager. It was hugely popular, and the company says that it generated over $150 million in sales with more than a million devices sold.
