Long outages catch people off guard, but a few smart tools make it easier to stay charged, informed, and reachable while you wait for the power to return.


You know how it goes — power outages are becoming more frequent and lasting longer. These days, our smartphones are our lifeline, not those old landlines on the wall.

When you think of an emergency kit, you probably picture food, water, and first aid supplies. But let's not forget about those little tech gadgets that keep us connected when the power's out.


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Early Black Friday sales on iPads are in effect now, with deals from $399 and discounts of up to $200.


Avoid the holiday rush and grab an iPad now, as Amazon drops prices across Apple's iPad line. Deals as low as $399 are in effect today, with a breakdown of the offers available in our iPad Price Guide.

Buy iPad 11 for $399.99


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Elgato's Virtual Prompter doesn't need special hardware, and follows your voice as you read, keeping scripts near your webcam during presentations, recordings, and video calls.


On Tuesday, Elgato announced Virtual Prompter, a new feature in Elgato Studio that turns your computer screen into a teleprompter without external hardware requirements. There are two modes that users can utilize: docked or floating.

Docked places the script in a strip along the top of your screen near your camera, perfect for maintaining eye contact while reading. Docked is free to use and has no time limits.


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Apple is now catering towards gym users, with Apple Fitness+ adding a new Gym Strength feature that plans workouts to your schedule that will help at your local fitness center.


Apple Fitness+ is usually intended for home workouts and occasional outdoor walks and runs, with exercises requiring little equipment other than an Apple Watch and a device screen. A new feature will change that, enabling it to help those with access to gym equipment.

Gym Strength, arriving in the iOS 27.3 developer beta, can create personalized workouts for users with either access to a public gym or their own home workout space. Just so long as they have some form of gym equipment they can use.


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Popular M5 MacBook Air deals are back at Amazon, with November price drops knocking 1TB models to as low as $1,399.


Amazon's M5 MacBook Air deals deliver discounts of up to $199.01 off, including this 13-inch model with a 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, and an upgraded 1TB SSD.

Buy M5/16GB/1TB for $1,399.99


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Amazon is clearing out M5 MacBook Pro inventory this weekend, with the 14-inch spec dropping to an all-time low $1,349.99 price.


Bargain hunters can save $649.01 this weekend on Apple's closeout M5 14-inch MacBook Pro with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. This spec, which is marked down to $1,349.99 in Space Black, has 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage.

Buy M5 MacBook Pro for $1,349.99


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Amazon has launched steeper 2026 Mac mini markdowns, with M6 and M5 Pro models with 24GB of RAM now $150 off.


Amazon has increased its Mac mini discounts on two upgraded configurations. The first, the M6 Mac mini, has a boost to 24GB of RAM from the standard 16GB, along with 512GB of storage. Now $1,149, this reflects a $150 discount off MSRP and is $30 below its previous sale price.

Buy M6 Mac mini 24GB for $1,149


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B&H has Apple's 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM and a 96W adapter for $1,999, a discount of $420 off.


The blowout $1,999 special at Apple Authorized Reseller B&H Photo delivers the lowest price of the season as B&H looks to clear out inventory to make way for M6 models.

Buy M5 MacBook Pro 32GB for $1,999


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Amazon's $399 iPad deal is back for the end of October, delivering the lowest iPad price in Apple's iPad lineup.


As Apple unveiled a new iPad mini 8 this week with a higher starting price than the last generation, shoppers looking for a cheaper option can pick up the A16 11-inch iPad for $399 at Amazon today.

Buy iPad 11 for $399


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Apple Creator Studio has more AI-based updates, with the biggest change being the inclusion of MotionVFX plug-ins and templates.


Apple has been steadily making updates to the Apple Creator Studio, including one in September taking advantage of the new iPhone 18 Pro camera. Its latest update is, however, more AI-focused.

The main change is the inclusion of MotionVFX directly into Final Cut Pro for Mac. The addition brings with it thousands of templates, graphics, titles, and transitions.


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Owners of M4 Macs may feel the temptation to upgrade to the M6 Mac mini, MacBook Pro, or iMac. Here's what to expect with the jump to Apple's newest silicon.


In August 2026, Apple introduced the M6 as its new entry-level chip, as well as the M6 generation itself. Brought out with the Mac mini, the M6 was framed by Apple as a way to benefit more from AI, with changes that made it an ideal chip for machine learning workloads.

The introduction took place just over two years after Apple launched its first M4 chip in the iPad Pro. The M6 is also a two-generation jump for some models, such as the Mac mini, which skipped the base M5 chip completely.


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The Logitech Options+ software phones home, is a resource hog, and crashes a lot on Mac. OpenLogi is an open source replacement for the configuration tool, is light-weight, and runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Better yet, there's no telemetry.






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B&H is discounting Apple's M5 MacBook Air line, with the 15-inch model with 24GB of RAM marked down to $1,499, $200 off.


The $1,499 15-inch MacBook Air configuration in Midnight is equipped with Apple's 10-core M5 chip, along with an upgrade to 24GB of unified memory. A 512GB SSD rounds out the configuration.

Buy 15" MacBook Air 24GB for $1,499


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Viwoods wants you to embrace artificial intelligence with its AiPaper e-reader — but I think it's actually banking on the wrong features.


The e-book reader market is growing, with plenty of companies offering their own takes on the genre.

Some, like most of Boox's lineup, offer an option that lies somewhere between a Kindle and an iPad. Others, like Durobo's Krono, want you to focus on portability over all else.


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Amazon-owned Woot is slashing up to 60% off Magic Keyboard accessories for Apple's iPad Air and iPad Pro.




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Wireless carriers are competing for your business with iPhone Duo incentives offering up to $1,200 in bill credits.


Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, is finally available to purchase, and wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are already offering up to $1,200 off via bill credits.




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Save $200 on Apple's upgraded 13-inch MacBook Air M5 that's equipped with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.


Amazon's mid-October MacBook Air sale delivers $200 in savings on a popular configuration that features a bump up to 24GB of unified memory and a 1TB SSD.

Buy MacBook Air 24GB, 1TB for $1,599


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This video is a blast from the past for most of us. The Art of Storytelling YouTube channel posted it a few days ago, looking back at how Jobs build the story around product releases, and kept doing it for his entire life. It's worth 20 minutes of your time today.






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Amazon is taking on Apple's iPad lineup with three new Alexa tablets that pack larger displays, built-in AI features, and prices starting at just $229.99.


The Alexa Tablet 8, Alexa Tablet 11, and Alexa Tablet 12 Pro feature aluminum bodies, upgraded displays, and built-in Alexa+ integration. Preorders opened October 8, with shipping scheduled to begin October 14.

Amazon's new tablets also replace the Fire OS software used on existing Fire tablets with Android and full Google Play Store access.

Customers can download popular apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Gmail, and Google Docs directly from Google's store. They won't need the workarounds previously required to install those apps on Fire tablets.


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If you want to use chroma key effect in a streaming or video conference app, but you can't get a physical green screen background in place, you can fake it. All by using Background Replacement in macOS.


Whether it is streaming gameplay to Twitch or improving your Zoom calls, sometimes you want to replace the background with something else. It's unprofessional to have a background that includes piles of dirty clothes, random dinner plates, and other unsightly items.

When it comes to using tools like Zoom or FaceTime, you can get around that by blurring the background, or even replace the background with a picture.


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