Technology

Microsoft’s next Surface Pro 8 tablet and its upcoming Surface Laptop 4 have appeared in leaked images online. Twitter user cozyplanes discovered the images at what appears to be an FCC-like filing, noting that the Surface Pro 8 may ship with LTE support. Both devices will likely launch early next year, and don’t appear to feature any major updates to their design. Windows Central reports that the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4 could launch as early as mid-January, with 11th Gen Intel processors and Intel’s Xe graphics support. The Surface Laptop 4 is also rumored to include AMD processor options, which will likely be a custom Microsoft chip based on AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series. Microsoft previously co-engineered a special Ryzen Surface Edition processor for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3, A...

Things have been tough this year for many of us, and while everyone loves giving great gifts to friends and family, you also don’t want to spend more than you’ve got. Well, don’t worry — we’ve got your back. There are loads of great gifts being discounted to under $50, and we’re letting you know where you can get them and for how much. We’ll be scouring the sales for games, gadgets, and other tech that can put a smile on your loved ones’ faces and keep your bank balance in a reasonable condition. Looking for more Black Friday deals? Be sure to check out our continuously updated roundup of all the best sales. Smart speakers and home tech deals under $50 Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google Nest Mini Google Nest Mini $19 $50 62% off Prices taken at time of publishing. The Nest Mini is Goo...

Rome’s Fiumicino airport plans to welcome passengers from the US without requiring them to quarantine, as long as they test negative for the novel coronavirus multiple times. Fiumicino says it will be the first airport in Europe to offer the “COVID-tested flights,” creating what it calls “safe air corridors” between Italy and the US. It will test the idea out in December starting with flights from New York’s JFK airport, New Jersey’s Newark Airport, and Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport. If those flights are successful, similar flights could be made “widely available” by summer 2021, according to Fiumicino. It’s risky to rely solely on testing Fiumicino says it will require passengers to take a molecular or antigenic test within 48 hours before taking off. They’ll also need to t...

Best Buy is offering a pair of great deals on Apple’s recently-released 10.2-inch iPad, with offers of up to $70 off. The retailer has knocked $50 off the price of the base 32GB model, which is now $280 compared to its usual asking price of $330. Meanwhile the 128GB model, which is the model we recommended most people should buy, is $70 less than its usual price of $430 at $360. It’s the lowest price we’ve seen the 128GB model sell for since its launch. Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad sits at the bottom of its tablet lineup, but it’s still very good at doing the kinds of things iPads have always done well. This year’s model comes with a faster A12 Bionic processor that means the tablet still feels fast and sprightly to use, even if its outward appearance is starting to look a little bit dated. It l...

If you’re looking for something to do while recovering from your Thanksgiving meal — whether you’ve enjoyed it with family or ate it while zooming with friends — something to enjoy are this year’s biggest shopping events: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Nearly everything has moved online so that you can do all your holiday shopping and saving from the comfort of your couch. There are a wide range of retailers participating in the Black Friday / Cyber Monday festivities, including Google, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. You’re bound to find a discount on most of your wishlist items, including 4K HDR televisions, laptops, video game consoles, headphones, and more. Many retailers are depending on this week’s sales to push up their annual sales performance, and so there are bou...

Disney plans to lay off around 32,000 employees, mainly in its theme parks business, in the first half of next year, the company has announced in a 10-K filing. The company says it’s making these redundancies “due to the current climate, including COVID-19 impacts.” It’s an increase of 4,000 compared to the 28,000 layoffs it initially announced back in September. The new figure includes the layoffs that were previously announced, Variety reports. Along with the layoffs, Disney said it’s considering additional measures like reducing its investments in film and TV content, halting capital spending, and furloughing more employees. Already, 37,000 of its employees were on furlough as of October 3rd, Variety notes. The announcement comes after a difficult year for Disney’s business. Its theme p...

Apple has asked Foxconn to move some iPad and MacBook manufacturing capacity to Vietnam, Reuters reports. The assembly lines are set to start production in the first half of next year at Foxconn’s Bac Giang province, according to Reuters’ source, who notes that Apple wants to diversify its supply chain due to the ongoing trade disputes between the US and China. Reuters’ report doesn’t state which iPad or Mac models will be assembled in Vietnam, nor what proportion of Apple’s total production will shift out of China. But these wouldn’t be the first Apple products to be assembled in Vietnam — Apple started producing AirPods Pro units there earlier this year. Apple has also used India for production of certain iPhone models for a while, although that mostly predates the US-China trade war and...

Netflix has settled a lawsuit over its interactive special Bandersnatch. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix announced the deal with Choose Your Own Adventure book publisher Chooseco on Monday. The settlement ends a bitter legal fight between Netflix and Chooseco, which claimed the streaming video platform had infringed its trademark. Chooseco sued Netflix in early 2019 after the release of Bandersnatch, a branching-path film about a game developer who’s obsessed with a “choose your own adventure” (but not necessarily Choose Your Own Adventure) book. Chooseco is known for aggressively defending its trademark against other companies and even small game developers, and it claimed Netflix was unlawfully using the name. Netflix responded with a counterattack, asking a court to invalid...

The EU has just taken a big step toward establishing stronger “right to repair” rules, with the the European Parliament voting overwhelmingly in support of a resolution on a “sustainable single market,” according to iFixit. The vote marks the latest major push toward the EU’s larger goals of making devices last longer and reducing e-waste. The EU Commission had announced plans earlier this year for new “right to repair” rules for phones, tablets, and laptops by 2021. With the European Parliament having now approved the EU Commission’s original proposal, the ball is back in the commission’s court to “develop and introduce mandatory labelling, to provide clear, immediately visible and easy-to-understand information to consumers on the estimated lifetime and reparability of a product at the t...

Let’s be honest: gaming is expensive, but the holiday season is a good time to take advantage of deals and sales and buy more than one game. Whether you are adding games to your personal library for your backlog, or you are planning to buy some games for a friend or family member, retailers like Amazon, GameStop, and Target have various discounts on titles. If you are planning to buy a PS5 or an Xbox Series X / S on Black Friday, please keep in mind that both are in high demand, limited supply, and are receiving irregular restocks at retailers. But if you are looking for games on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, there are many deals available right now. If you own a next-gen console, several of these games on PS4 and Xbox One are either backward compatible or include a free upgrade. If you are l...