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Only two days left to save! Register now to get $400 off your ticket or grab two Expo+ tickets for half the price of one with our Expo+ 2-for-1 Pass. Prices go up when the doors to Disrupt open on October 28.
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Connect with 10,000+ innovators and VC leaders
Join 10,000 tech visionaries, startup founders, and VC leaders for unparalleled opportunities to connect, collaborate, and forge lasting partnerships.
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Enter the Expo Hall to experience the future of tech as over 350 startups showcase their groundbreaking innovations from across the globe. You can also look forward to these startups presenting their ideas in dynamic, quick-fire pitches to TechCrunch editors and attendees on the Pitch Showcase Stage in the Expo Hall.
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Uncover exclusive insights from leading industry experts across six specialized stages, focusing on key sectors of the tech landscape: AI, startups, venture capital, fintech, SaaS, and space.
Participate in 50-minute interactive Q&A Breakout Sessions and 30-minute Roundtable discussions, where industry leaders tackle pressing challenges in the fast-changing tech landscape. Explore our expanding agenda for more details on these sessions.
Witness the intense startup battle
Experience the excitement as the top 20 hand-picked startups compete in the Startup Battlefield 200 pitch competition at the Disrupt Stage, vying for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. Top-tier VCs will judge the competition, providing invaluable feedback on what it takes to build a successful startup. Discover valuable lessons from the top contenders in this thrilling showdown.
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Beyond casual networking throughout the venue, elevate your connections with the Braindate app, which lets you create or explore topics for more meaningful discussions. Meet in person at the Networking Lounge powered by Braindate on level 2 for 1:1 or small-group conversations.
60+ pre and after-hours Side Events
Keep the energy of Disrupt 2024 alive by joining company-hosted Side Events happening all week across San Francisco. From workshops and cocktail parties to morning runs and Meetups, there’s an activity for everyone to enjoy!
Register before rates rise
Grab the chance to save up to $400 on your ticket! You can also enjoy our Expo+ 2-for-1 deal, allowing you to bring a +1 for just half the cost of one Expo+ Pass. These limited-time offers end on October 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT, and ticket prices will go up when the event kicks off on October 28.
Bear in mind that this event is exclusive to Amazon Prime members, so, if you’re not a member, you’ll need to sign up for a free 30-day trial to get in on the bargains. Without further adieu, here’s are the top deals we’ve spotted so far:
With the silly season soon upon us, Amazon has kicked off their second exclusive sales event for 2024, Prime Big Deal Days (not to be confused with Prime Day in July). From now until midnight on Sunday October 13 (AEDT), Amazon.com.au will feature some of it’s biggest discounts all year – in some cases, with even lower prices than even Prime Day or Black Friday week.
What is Amazon Prime Big Deal Days?
Similar to Prime Day (which normally takes place in July) this month’s Prime Big Deal Days is a sales event exclusive to Amazon Prime members in Australia and overseas. Aside from Prime Day and Black Friday, it’s just about your best chance all year to score some eyewatering deals on a huge range of products being sold on Amazon.
When is Amazon Prime Big Deal Days in Australia?
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days in 2024 commenced 12:01am AEDT on October 8, with local deals running for six days until 11:59pm AEDT on October 13.
Mashable Deals
Strategy is key for making the most of the Prime Big Deal Days event. Knowing how to shop on Amazon across the days will get you the best deals and save you heaps of time. If you feel like browsing for fun, be sure to check out the main Big Deal Days page!
Meanwhile, here are our top shopping tips for taking advantage of the sale:
Amazon’s ‘Spotlight Deals’ run for 24-hours or more – some even run for the whole Big Deal Days event. You can take your time with these purchases, read the reviews, compare prices, and hit “buy” once you are sure you’re getting bang for your buck.
Meanwhile, ‘Lightning Deals’ last for a limited amount of time, and have a limited amount of stock. If you see a good price on a lightning deal on something you want, be sure to get in quick!
Keep an eye on specific items you want, especially with the upcoming holiday gifting season. Simply search for these items on the Amazon store and see if they’re on sale.
Try out Alexa shopping. You can simply ask “Alexa, what are my Prime Day deals?”, or even track your orders by asking “Alexa, where’s my stuff?”.
BEST BUY MEMBER DEALS DAYS: Now, through Sunday, Best Buy members can shop for exclusive offers and daily deals during Best Buy’s Member Deals Days. Bonus: Plus and Total members will get a $50 reward when they spend $500 or more between Sept. 27 and Oct. 10.
With Prime Big Deal Days right around the corner, retailers are doing the most to compete for consumer attention and dollars.
Now, Best Buy’s getting in on the action with a little sale called Member Deals Days (super original, we know), where Best Buy members can score exclusive deals and daily discounts on a wide range of products. Bonus: Best Buy Plus and Total members can also score a $50 reward whenever they spend $500 or more through Oct 10.
If you’re not a member, signing up is easy. Just visit the Best Buy website and create an account. The My Best Buy membership tier is free and includes free shipping along with a few other perks. The Plus and Total memberships cost $49.99 per year and $179.99 per year, respectively, and come with a ton of add-ons like free two-day shipping and 24/7 Geek Squad tech support.
The sale ends on Sunday, Sept 29, so if you’re looking to upgrade your smart home or buy some early holiday gifts, you might want to check out what Best Buy has in store.
Here are some of the best deals and discounts Best Buy is offering during this member-exclusive event.
Best TV deal
Why we like it
The 58-inch INSIGNIA Class F30 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV is just $209.99 (regularly $379.99) for members and non-members. This isn’t an exclusive deal, but it’s still a good one we thought worth mentioning.
At 58 inches, you can host game days and movie marathons or become the ultimate couch potato. Plus, it has 4K Ultra HD (2160p resolution), high dynamic range, and DTS Studio Sound to make your viewing experience even better. With Fire TV, you can access thousands of shows, movies, and apps or hook up your gaming console via one of the three HDMI ports.
Best soundbar deal
Why we like it
The Samsung HW-B650/ZA 3.1 Channel Soundbar with wireless subwoofer is $199.99 for Plus and Total members. Without a membership, it’s $279.99, which is still a $120 discount.
This soundbar features Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Virtual: X surround sound, so you can feel like you’re really in the game, movie, or concert you’re listening to. With Bass Boost, you can feel every rumble and explosion. (I recommend queuing up some Supertramp Crime of the Century for an epic listening experience.)
Mashable Deals
The built-in center speaker helps make dialogue crystal clear, even if you have the volume cranked up. So you won’t have to ask, “What did they say?” every five minutes. There’s also a built-in subwoofer, a special night mode to prevent disturbing the rest of the house during late-night hours, and Bluetooth compatibility.
Best earbud deal
Why we like it
The JBL Tune 235NC true wireless noise-canceling in-ear earbuds are $49.99 for Plus and Total members. That’s a $50 discount off the list price.
They come with a compact charging case, up to 40 hours of total battery life, and active noise cancellation to help you tune in and out of the world as you please.
Four mics make voice calls easier for you and the person on the other end, and the water- and sweat-resistant design means you can use these earbuds for workouts, runs, and other activities sans worry.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
For a new feature article, my colleague Franklin Foer interviewed two dozen participants at the highest levels of governments in both the U.S. and the Middle East to recount how “11 months of earnest, energetic diplomacy” have so far ended in chaos. Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, the U.S. administration has managed to forestall a regional expansion of the war, but it has not yet found a way to release all the hostages, bring a stop to the fighting, or salvage a broader peace deal in the region. “That makes this history an anatomy of a failure,” Frank writes: “the story of an overextended superpower and its aging president, unable to exert themselves decisively in a moment of crisis.”
I spoke with Frank about how the core instincts of both President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have come into play over these past 11 months, what most surprised him in his reporting, and what some Americans misunderstand about their country’s priorities in the Middle East.
331 Days
Isabel Fattal: Tell me a little about how you started working on this story.
Frank Foer: In February and March, I heard about certain instances in which the region had come to the brink of all-out war before things de-escalated. I heard about how, on October 11, Israel almost mistook a flock of birds for paragliders drifting in from Lebanon. It was just this narrowest escape, and I started asking about that story and whether there were other similar incidents over the past 11 months.
Isabel: Something that struck me reading your reporting is how the ingrained instincts and worldviews of both Netanyahu and Biden have influenced policy outcomes at every turn. In what ways did you see Netanyahu’s particular instincts show up?
Frank: Netanyahu would love nothing more than to have Israel normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, and I think he would like to get the hostages home at the end of the day. But not only is his own political situation somewhat tenuous—he has this almost characterological aversion to making the most difficult decisions. When it comes time for him to make hard choices, he reverts to negotiating and negotiating and negotiating and never really settling on an actual policy or solution. He ends up dragging things out.
There’s some ways in which this places him to the left of a lot of the other people in the room on questions about confronting Hezbollah or Iran. He’s oftentimes the voice pleading for restraint or saying, We need to make sure that we have our American allies with us. I think he was to the left of other people in his cabinet about letting humanitarian aid into Gaza. But he was unwilling to have a massive confrontation with his coalition partners over that. And so he became a source of incredible frustration to Joe Biden. Biden wasn’t naive about Netanyahu, but I think he expected reciprocity—that at some point Netanyahu would take a political hit on his behalf in the same sort of way that Biden was taking political hits on Netanyahu’s behalf. Biden has a code of morality that’s all about generosity and reciprocity, and he expects that in return.
Isabel: You write about Biden being able to remember the dawn of the atomic age, and how fear of escalation has animated his decision making. Of course, that’s nothing new for an American president. But does Biden operate from that place of fear in a way that’s distinct from other American leaders?
Frank: I think he’s got this very singular combination of a willingness to do bold things, and then this other side that is filled with excessive prudence. This was obvious in Ukraine, where he sent them lots of arms and stood with them in a way that I don’t think many other American presidents would have. But for a long time, he also put hard brakes on Ukraine when they wanted to strike within Russia. He’s done a little bit of the same thing here. There were moments where it seemed inevitable that Israel was going to have a military confrontation with Hezbollah. And he asked them to pull back because he was afraid that everything could go up in flames in the Middle East. That’s a very reasonable position for a president of the United States to take, because the consequences of a regional war are so extreme.
Isabel: It seems like when Americans talk about America’s interests and priorities in this war, they can sometimes forget the major role that the threat of all-out regional conflict plays.
Frank: Absolutely. One of the things that I learned reporting this story was the extent to which Saudi Arabia’s place within the Middle East and within the global economy was one of the things that drives a lot of America’s Middle East policy. We’ve been worried that Saudi Arabia could drift into China’s economic sphere, and we’ve been trying to build a regional coalition of allies to contain Iran. Plus, we wanted to have a tight economic relationship with Saudi Arabia. That became a pillar of Biden-administration policy, even though Biden came to office after the Khashoggi assassination and intended to punish Saudi Arabia. He’s walked a long way from that.
Isabel: What most surprised you in reporting this story?
Frank: The fact that Biden was against the Israeli invasion of Gaza at the beginning, just after October 7, in the form that it took place—that he had a different vision for what the war would look like. It was really far removed from the Israeli vision. That was a suppressed source of friction; both sides were worried about how Israel’s enemies would exploit any perceived disagreements between the U.S. and Israel. But that was the first real source of tension between the Biden administration and the Israelis.
Read Frank’s full exploration here.
Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Today’s News
Israel is considering a ground invasion of Lebanon, according to the Israeli military’s chief of staff. U.S. officials said that they are working to avoid an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The House passed a short-term funding bill, which the Senate will also need to pass to avert a government shutdown next week.
In a speech to the United Nations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is planning on carrying out strikes on Ukraine’s nuclear-power plants.
Evening Read
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty.
The Logical Extreme of Anti-aging
By Yasmin Tayag
Something weird is happening on my Instagram feed. Between posts of celebrities with perfect skin are pictures of regular people—my own friends!—looking just as good. They’re in their mid-30s, yet their faces look so smooth, so taut and placid, that they look a full decade younger. Is it makeup? Serums? Supplements? Sleep? When I finally inquired as to how they’d pulled it off, they gladly offered an explanation: “baby Botox.”
Read the full article.
More From The Atlantic
Culture Break
Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: Momodu Mansaray / Getty; Jason Davis / Getty; PjrStudio / Alamy.
Debate. Is Katy Perry stuck in a musical rut? Though she’s never been known as a bold and forward-thinking artist, her latest album, 143, sounds like the light has gone out, Spencer Kornhaber writes.
Reimagine celebrations. Many Latina women hitting 50 aren’t just throwing a big party—they’re determined to redefine what it means to age, Valerie Trapp writes.
Time is running out to grab savings of up to $600 on individual tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! This limited-time offer ends on September 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT, so now’s your last opportunity to score a great deal before the final countdown begins.
Disrupt 2024 is the ultimate gathering for the startup world. From October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, you’ll be among 10,000 tech innovators, startup founders, and VC leaders. With 200+ sessions, 250+ expert speakers, and endless networking opportunities, this is the place to be for anyone serious about shaping the future of tech.
Don’t miss out — grab your Disrupt 2024 ticket now and save big!
Reasons to attend Disrupt 2024
Gain priceless insights from over 250 industry leaders in startups and venture capital. Across six dynamic stages, you’ll explore AI, SaaS, fintech, space, and more.
Hear from industry heavyweights like Alex Pall and Drew Taggart of The Chainsmokers, co-founders of MANTIS Venture Capital; Bridgit Mendler, CEO of Northwood Space; Colin Kaepernick, founder and CEO of Lumi; Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack; Erin and Sara Foster, co-founders of Oversubscribed Ventures; Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors; and many more distinguished leaders.
Participate in more than 200 Roundtable and Breakout Sessions, tailored to promote meaningful engagement and collaboration with your peers, focusing on the pressing challenges encountered by today’s entrepreneurs.
Make the most of countless networking opportunities, from the lively Expo Hall to intimate 1:1 or small group Braindates, plus a variety of Side Events during “Disrupt Week.”
Witness the intense startup battle
Be sure to catch one of Disrupt’s thrilling highlights: Startup Battlefield 200. The top 200 pre-Series A startups will take the stage to pitch their innovations to an elite panel of VC judges, with the winner earning a $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup.
Our esteemed panel of judges is composed of prominent VC leaders who will share their expertise and feedback, using their criteria to evaluate the viability of each company:
Catch the final sale before the countdown to Disrupt 2024
Only 4 days left to enjoy savings of up to $600 on individual ticket types! This is your final chance to grab big discounts before the countdown to Disrupt 2024 kicks off.
Go here to grab your massive ticket savings before time runs out.
Prime Big Deal Days is coming just mere months after Amazon’s July Prime Day event. On October 8 and 9, the retailer will unleash a barrage of deals on just about everything you can imagine. While Amazon usually showcases its own products and services during the Prime Day event, plenty of other brands join in on the fun too.
Ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, we’re tracking deals on headphones and speakers. Historically, we’ve seen some of our favorite headphones drop down to their lowest prices during Prime Day. With Amazon’s October Prime Day just two weeks away, there are some deals available now, but we’re still holding out for more.
Right now you can find savings on Apple, Soundcore by Anker, and Sony, however, we’re still waiting on bigger price drops to come on Bose headphones. Plus, with Apple’s recent AirPod drop, we’re eager to see if any of these new models will dip below full-price.
If you can’t wait to start shopping, here are the early Prime Big Deal Day deals on headphones and speakers.
Best noise-cancelling headphone deal
Why we like it
AirPods Max are stylish headphones with easy connectivity to boot. Just like the rest of the AirPods collection, the AirPods Max connect to iOS devices just by turning them on, plus you don’t need an auxiliary app to control them. While AirPods Max aren’t in our round-up of best headphones, we’ll still sing their merits as they possess excellent audio quality and good battery life.
A big hang-up we have with the AirPods Max is their price tag because at $549, you can find headphones with the same quality for far cheaper. However, when the AirPods Max are on sale, we’re all in. Ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, you can get the AirPods Max for $429, saving $120 for 22% off. This is just $50 short of their lowest price ever.
More noise-cancelling headphone deals
Best earbud deals
Why we like it
If you’re shopping Prime Big Deal Days and are focused on budget finds, let us point you toward the Soundcore by Anker P20i wireless earbuds. For under $25, these earbuds check most of our boxes including 10 hours of battery life, a charging case, and customizable audio. While they don’t include active noise cancellation, they’ll still deliver pleasing audio quality, even if they don’t block out the world around you.
Normally $39.99, the Soundcore by Anker P20i earbuds are down to $19.99, for 50% and $20 in savings.
Mashable Deals
More earbud deals
Best Bluetooth speaker deal
Why we like it
Maybe your Bluetooth speaker kicked the dust this summer after one too many pool parties. If you find yourself in the market for a new one, Prime Day is an especially great time to hit add to cart.
The Sony SRS-XE200 X-Series Bluetooth speaker is on sale ahead of Prime Big Deal Days. It comes with a corded strap, making it easy to tote around on your adventures. With a IP67 rating, it’s water- and dust-proof, giving it a rugged build. Not to mention the 16 hours of battery life keeping the party going all day.
Ahead of the October Prime Day, this speaker is down to $66.74, down from $129.99. That’s 49% off for $63.25 in savings.
Amazon’s next big event — Prime Big Deal Days — is just around the corner. Prime Day Part Two will kick off on Oct. 8 and run for 48 hours, with big discounts going live throughout. Be there, or be square. And as usual, lots of early deals are already ripe for the picking, especially when it comes to Apple (the company, not the fruit).
SEE ALSO:
October Prime Day is closer than you think: 4 tips for finding the best deals
Check out our top early Apple deals ahead of October Prime Day so far, including discounts on MacBooks, iPads, AirPods, and plenty more.
Best MacBook deal
Why we like it
It doesn’t really get much better than Apple’s recent M3 line of MacBooks. The M3 Air is one of our favorites, and ahead of Prime Big Deal Days you can score one for just $929, which $170 off the usual price. This MacBook Air in particular comes with a 13-inch screen (great for traveling), and features the speedy M3 chip. It also has support for Apple Intelligence and can handle up to 18 hours of usage on one charge.
If you’re more of a tablet person than a laptop person, then the iPad Pro is where it’s at. The Pro is packed with the lightning-fast M4 chip, Ultra Retina XDR display, and supports use of the Apple Pencil (which is unfortunately sold separately). It’s on sale for $80 off ahead of October Prime Day, just $1,119 for one of the best tablets on the market.
More iPad deals
Best AirPods deal
Why we like it
The AirPods Max are a great pair of over-ear headphones for those who prefer that style to that of earbuds. The Max provide super high-quality audio, active noise cancellation, a transparency mode so you can enjoy your tunes and the world around you, and personalized spatial audio. It’s also got a 20-hour battery life, which is pretty sweet. Snag a pair before Prime Big Deal Days and save $100.
Mashable Deals
More AirPods deals
Best Apple Watch deals
Why we like it
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a smartwatch made for active people. Apple’s most durable piece of wristwear has advanced features for hikers, runners, and swimmers like offline maps, advanced metric tracking, and up to 100m of water resistance. The Always-On Retina display is bright and easily readable, and the watch also allows for up to 36 hours of use on a charge (and up to 72 hours in Low Power Mode). Get one on sale ahead of October Prime for $689, which is $110 in savings.
Prime Day can be overwhelming. No, scratch that, it is overwhelming. Amazon’s big discount holiday features so many products and categories, that it can be tough to track down exactly what you need. And with the next Prime Day event coming in hot this October (officially happening on Oct. 8 through Oct. 9), it’s prime time for us to bestow a little advice on how to shop it successfully.
We don’t recommend buying everything you’ve ever wanted and throwing caution (and your wallet) to the wind, but if there’s a good deal on something you need, you don’t want to miss that, either. That’s why it helps to know what to buy and what to avoid ahead of time. Mashable already has a hub for Prime Day coverage that can give you in-depth analysis of every shopping category you can imagine, but here are a few quick tips on things to buy and things to not buy as you parse through Prime Big Deal Days next month.
Deals we’ve already seen ahead of Prime Big Deal Days
The best things to buy on Prime Day
While the Mashable Shopping team’s bread and butter is recommending to you all the latest and greatest products on the market, sometimes you already know exactly what you want, and just need to know where it find it on sale. We can help you with that, too. Here’s a breakdown of all our top categories that you should shop during October’s Prime Day event if you want to score the biggest deals.
SEE ALSO:
Yes, Amazon is hosting *another* Prime Day-esque event. Here’s everything we know about Prime Big Deal Days.
1. Apple products
Buying the fruit company’s flagship tech during Prime Day is a major hack. If you’re already planning on buying some of the most notoriously expensive tech on the market, why not buy it at a discount? In light of Apple’s latest drops and announcements, we expect to see markdowns on older model Apple Watches, AirPods, iPhones, and more.
2. Amazon devices
It’s no secret that the biggest discounts of Prime Day are usually on Amazon’s own devices. Whether you’re working on building out your smart home or you’re finally ready to pull the trigger on a new e-reader, you can expect record-low pricing on Amazon Echo speakers, Echo Show devices, Kindles, and more. Just stay away from Ring cameras (more on that below).
3. Robot vacuums
There are good robot vacuum deals out in the wild all the time, but Prime Day almost always brings some of the biggest discounts on iRobot Roomba models, Shark vacs, and more big-ticket brands. We expect that iRobot will have the best deals, since the brand is now owned by Amazon.
SEE ALSO:
Our top 4 robot vacuums for carpet and rugs, tested
4. Everyday essentials
Even if you’re not planning on making a big tech purchase on Prime Day, it’s an ideal time to score the household items you would buy even if they weren’t on sale. From laundry detergent, to paper towels and diapers, there are almost always deals on home products you might toss in your cart on a Target or Walmart run. And with Prime shipping, your must-haves will be at your door ASAP so you can spend more time taking care of the house and less time shopping.
5. Pet supplies
If you’re a pet owner, you know the struggle of having to buy pet supplies like food, toys, grooming products, and more on a consistent basis. Luckily, Prime Day is the best time to stock up on pet stuff, especially from the Amazon Basics brand.
6. Drones and cameras
DJI drone bundles, Holy Stone drones, and GoPro cameras are almost a given for deals we expect to see on Prime Day. We’ve also spotted solid deals on cameras from Panasonic, Canon, Sony, and Nikon in the past — just in case you’re finally ready to get serious about filming for your YouTube channel.
7. Smartwatches
In addition to sweet Apple Watch deals, you can bet that Prime Day will bring steep discounts on Fitbits, Garmin smartwatches, and Samsung smartwatches. For reference, we saw the lowest price ever for multiple Fitbit models during last year’s Prime Day.
SEE ALSO:
Shop the best early Prime Day smartwatch deals, including the lowest price on the Apple Watch Series 9
8. TVs
You might not find the best deals on premium TVs during Prime Day, but it’s a good time to get a deal on mid-budget Fire TVs. These won’t be your showstopper living room TVs, but are great for your guest bedroom or kids’ rooms. During last year’s event, we saw an invite-only deal for the 43-inch version of a 4K Omni Series TV for just $99.99, and we expect to see even more cheap Fire TVs to come this year.
9. Headphones
After covering basically every Prime Day that’s ever happened, we know with certainty which headphone brands will be on sale during the big event. Bose, Sony, Beats, AirPods, and JBL models will definitely see some solid discounts. During last year’s Prime Day, we saw steep price drops on the QuietComfort line of Bose headphones, so we’ll be looking out for sales on the latest QuietComfort Ultra headphones and earbuds.
10. Invite-only deals
Amazon has brought back its invite-only deals program for Prime Day 2024, and we expect to see something similar this October. In the past, we’ve seen invite-only deals on headphones, SodaStreams, and more popular items, so be sure to keep an eye out for when those go live (of course, we’ll also remind you). You’ll need to request access to these doorbusters ahead of time, and if you’re one of the chosen ones, you’ll be able to score those products at their sale prices.
Mashable Deals
11. Nintendo Switch and gaming deals
Upgrading your gaming console and even buying new games feels like a drag — when you’re doing it at full price, that is. Luckily, during Prime Day, you can catch markdowns on both. During last year’s Prime Day, Nintendo’s holiday bundle arrived earlier than expected, so we can’t wait to see what this year’s has in store.
Things to avoid on Prime Day
While Prime Day is chock full of good deals, there are some things you’ll want to be wary of while you shop. Mashable covered all the things we recommend avoiding in detail, but here are a few quick tips.
SEE ALSO:
What not to buy on Prime Day, from third-party scams to Ring cams
1. Third-party sellers
In general, you can trust things sold and shipped by Amazon. Third-party sellers tend to be less reliable, and you run the risk of buying counterfeit products. If a deal from a third-party seller seems too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Ring doorbells and cameras
The steep discounts on Ring cameras and bundles might be tempting around Prime Day, but we don’t recommend anything from Ring due to privacy concerns. Not only are they easily hackable, but Ring is also notorious for giving people’s info away without their consent. There are normally plenty of home security deals from other brands on Prime Day, and if you need a little guidance on the good ones, check out our guide to the best home security systems.
3. Anything you don’t need
Like we mentioned before, it’s best to use Prime Day as a way to get something you need at a good discount. What’s not as advisable is buying things just because. Something you don’t need or won’t use is still something you don’t need or won’t use, no matter how good the deal is.
Social networking startup Bluesky continues to benefit from X’s shutdown in Brazil having now added over2 million new users over the past four days, up from just half a million as of Friday. This rapid growth led some users to encounter the occasional error that would state there were “Not Enough Resources” to handle requests, as Bluesky engineers scrambled to keep the servers stable under the influx of new sign-ups.
As new users downloaded the app, Bluesky jumped to becoming the app to No. 1 in Brazil over the weekend, ahead of Meta’s X competitor, Instagram Threads. According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, Bluesky’s total downloads soared by 10,584% this weekend compared to last, and its downloads in Brazil were up by a whopping 1,018,952%. The growth seems to be having a halo effect, as downloads outside Brazil also rose by 584%, the firm noted. In part, this is due to Bluesky receiving downloads in 22 countries where it had barely seen any traction before.
In terms of absolute downloads, countries that saw the most installs outside Brazil included the U.S., Portugal, the U.K., Canada and Spain. Those with the most download growth, however, were Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Romania. Most of the latter group jumped from single-digit growth to growth in the thousands.
Bluesky’s newcomers have actively engaged on the platform, too, driving up other key metrics.
As one Bluesky engineer remarked, the number of likes on the social network grew to 104.6 million over the past four-day period, up from just 13 million when compared with a similar period just a week ago. Follows also grew from 1.4 million to 100.8 million while reposts grew from 1.3 million to 11 million.
As of Monday, Bluesky said it had added 2.11 million users during the past four days, up from 26,000 users it had added in the week-ago period. In addition, the company noted it had seen “significantly more than a 100% [daily active users] increase.”
Bluesky’s appeal to those forced to leave X may have to do with how closely the user experience resembles that of the now Elon Musk-owned app, formerly known as Twitter. Once incubated within Twitter, Bluesky spun out as a separate company and raised its own funding, but still retains much of Twitter’s look and feel.
Like X, Bluesky offers features like likes, reposts, quote posts, lists, direct messages, search tools and user profiles, but it also improves on X’s capabilities in other ways. As a decentralized social network, users can set up their own instances (servers that run Bluesky and connect to others over the AT Protocol), customize their feeds, subscribe to third-party moderation services, and create and share “starter packs” that link to curated sets of recommended users to follow. In a coming update, Bluesky also plans to add support for video, the company says.
Another factor to consider here is how Bluesky’s approach to content and moderation differs from Threads.
Even when it was Twitter, X has long been known as a hotbed for breaking news and political debates, Threads has taken the opposite approach, saying it would not default to recommending political content on its platform. Instead, Threads wants to make itself palatable to brands and influencers, similar to Instagram, as it intends to eventually monetize via ads.
Given that X’s ban in Brazil is tied to politics — the country wanted control over what could be said on the platform — it’s likely that some Brazilians opting for Bluesky wanted to join a network that was not centralized and as easily controlled. On platforms like X, moderation decisions are left up to the site’s owners, but on decentralized networks, the users are in charge.
That flexibility combined with Bluesky’s ease of use could make the network a bigger draw than others.
For instance, though Mastodon offers its own decentralized network, the recent user growth driven by Brazil was on a much smaller scale. On Saturday, Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko said the service had seen 4,200 signups from Brazil, up from 152 signups on August 28, for instance. That could speak to the fact that Brazilians want more than decentralization: They also want a place that more closely resembles Twitter/X.
Meta has not yet commented on how large an increase it’s seen on Threads driven by Brazilians leaving X, but as a network that already has over 200 million monthly active users, even the addition of thousands or millions more would not be as noticeable a gain, compared with the much smaller Bluesky. Still, it’s also possible that Brazilians wanted to move to a place that was separate from friends, family and creators — one that defaulted to public postings and felt more like Twitter once did. Bluesky’s culture, which tends toward s***posting and memes, has the sort of chaotic energy of an early Twitter.
X is said to have had north of 20 million users in Brazil, which means there’s plenty of growth to be captured all around.
A new injectable, temporary pacemaker could help correct a heart arrhythmia in an emergency. This nanoparticle gel can regulate the heart’s electrical signals for up to five days before dissolving harmlessly in the body.
Electrical pulses keep the heart pumping at a steady rhythm, but sometimes it can get out of whack and beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. This is called arrhythmia, and if left untreated – especially in emergency situations – it can cause a range of complications and potentially be fatal. Defibrillators and surgically implanted pacemakers can get the rhythms back on track, but those aren’t always on hand.
Researchers at Lund University have now developed a much more portable alternative that could eventually become a staple of first aid kits. It’s essentially a syringe with an ultrathin needle – thinner than a human hair – that injects a solution containing nanoparticles. When this comes into contact with tissue, it forms an electrically conductive polymer hydrogel.
The idea is that when needed, this can be injected into the chest of a patient with arrhythmia, where it forms a kind of electrode around the heart. The tiny pinprick site of the injection acts as a point of contact for an external device, such as a mobile phone, the team says. This allows ECG measurements to be taken, as well as stimulating the heart with low-power electricity to regulate the heartbeat.
A diagram illustrating how the new injectable pacemaker would work
Lund University/biorender.com
The team says that the nanoparticle gel should be able to correct arrhythmia for up to five days, which should provide enough time for the patient to make it to a hospital for more permanent treatment. And thankfully, the gel is excreted naturally by the body after this, so it doesn’t need to be surgically removed.
The injectable pacemaker was tested in zebrafish and chicken embryos, and was found to work as designed. The gel was of a consistency that let it adhere to the heart, without negatively affecting its beating. Importantly, the team noted no toxicity or behavioral changes from the test subjects while the gel was in place, nor after it had dissolved.
The next steps are to test it on larger animals like pigs, which are more human-like. Ultimately, the team plans to develop a mobile app that can run the pacemaker.
