Apple’s latest iPad mini with LTE is $99 off at Amazon

If you’ve been holding out for a good deal on the latest iPad mini with cellular connectivity, you’re in luck. Amazon has dropped the prices of all color options for the 64GB iPad mini with LTE, bringing them all down to $550. That’s nearly $100 off their usual rate, not to mention the cheapest we’ve seen these models. It’s hard to get your hands on the iPad mini right now if you’re going through Amazon — most WiFi-only models are sold out, and very few WiFi + Cellular models are in stock. But if this configuration fits your needs, you can save a good sum of money if you pick it up right now.

Buy iPad mini (64GB, WiFi + Cellular) at Amazon – $550

Apple gave the iPad mini a much-needed facelift last year, and it only made the small tablet better than it was before. It now looks like a smaller version of the iPad Air, with a nearly edge-to-edge, 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, flat edges, a TouchID power button and a USB-C port for charging. It also has Apple’s latest camera array that features Center Stage, making the tablet even better for FaceTime calls.

Overall, the iPad mini is a slick little device that should not be underestimated purely because of its size. Powered by the A15 Bionic chip, the iPad mini handled everything we threw at it well. We also like that it works with the second-generation Apple Pencil, allowing you to treat the tablet almost like a digital notebook. Battery life is solid, too: we were able to get around 12 hours before needing to recharge the device.

The iPad mini now supports 5G, too, so you’ll get faster data speeds if you’re in an area of 5G coverage. Would we recommend using the iPad mini as your daily driver when you’re out and about? Not necessarily, but only because most people prefer larger screens. The iPad Air may be better if you’re looking for a true laptop replacement, but it’s hard to beat the iPad mini if you want something as lightweight as possible to use when you’re on the go.

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Elgato’s Stream Deck MK.2 falls to an all-time low of $125

Next-level game streaming requires some serious hardware, but popular products from Elgato and others don’t go on sale often. Luckily, you can now grab Elgato’s popular Stream Deck MK.2 for just $125, or $25 off — the lowest price we’ve seen yet.

Buy Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 at Amazon – $125

The latest version of the Stream Deck has 15 programmable keys that let you trigger actions to launch apps, mute your mic, turn on lights, post to social media and more with just a press of a button — making it a handy tool to have if you want a more professional setup. We included the Stream Deck Mini in a recent gift guide as a smaller, more affordable option, but the MK.2 gives you more flexibility — plus, you can inject more of your style into the MK.2 by customizing it with a faceplate.

While Twitch and other streamers are the primary users of the Stream Deck, others can benefit too. Think of the device’s hotkeys almost like keyboard shortcuts, but more powerful — you can program them to launch your most-used apps, open folders, control audio and video feeds and more. If you spend a ton of time on your computer, the Stream Deck could become an indispensable tool that makes your workflow more efficient. As mentioned, though, it rarely goes on sale — so if you’ve been waiting, now’s the time to act.

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The James Webb Space Telescope is capturing the universe on a 68GB SSD

With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now powered up and snapping some spectacular images, you may wonder exactly how it’s storing them. Surprisingly enough, it carries a relatively tiny 68GB SSD, according to IEEE Spectrum — enough to handle a day’s worth of JWST images, but not a lot more.

While that might sound ludicrously small for a $10 billion satellite, there are multiple reasons NASA chose the system. To start with, the JWST is a million miles from Earth where it gets bombarded by radiation and operates at a temperature of less than 50 degrees above absolute zero (-370 degrees F). So the SSD, like all other parts, must be radiation hardened and survive a grueling certification process. 

While not nearly as fast as consumer SSDs, it can still be nearly filled in as little as 120 minutes via the telescope’s 48 Mbps command and data handling subsystem (ICDH). At the same time, the JWST can transmit data back to Earth at 28 Mbps via a 25.9 Ghz Ka-band connection to the Deep Space Network. 

That means that while it collects far more data than Hubble ever did (57GB compared to 1-2GB per day), it can transfer all that data back to Earth in about 4.5 hours. It does so during two 4-hour contact windows each day, with each allowing the transmission of 28.6GB of science data. In other words, it only needs enough storage to collect a day’s worth of images — there’s no need to keep them on the telescope itself.

There is one puzzler, though. NASA estimates that only 60GB of storage will be available at the end of the JWST’s 10-year lifespan due to wear and radiation — and 3 percent of the drive is used for engineering and telemetry data storage. That will leave the JWST very little margin, making us wonder if it will have anywhere near the longevity of Hubble — still going strong after 32 years. 

Democratic lawmakers want federal regulators to track crypto mining energy use and emissions

Congressional Democrats are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to address the recent proliferation of cryptocurrency mining within the US. In a letter sent Friday (via The Guardian), Senator Elizabeth Warren and five other lawmakers said the two agencies should work together to require crypto mining firms to disclose their energy use and emissions.

The request comes after the group recently completed an investigation that began at the start of the year. According to the letter, data collected from seven of the largest mining companies in the US, including Stronghold, Bitfury and Riot, indicates they can collectively use more than 1 gigawatt of electricity. Put another way, that’s almost enough to power all the residential buildings in Houston.

Warren and the other lawmakers say they’re concerned about what all that power use will mean for the environment and consumers. Regarding the former, they state that emissions data from three of the surveyed companies indicate they emit approximately 1.6 million tons of CO2 annually or the equivalent of the tailpipe emissions of almost 360,000 cars. “Bitcoin miners are using huge quantities of electricity that could be used for other priority end uses that contribute to our electrification and climate goals, such as replacing home furnaces with heat pumps,” the letter states.

On the latter point, the lawmakers cite a 2021 study from the University of California, Berkeley that estimated crypto mining in upstate New York raised annual electricity bills by approximately $165 million for small businesses and $79 million for consumers. What’s more, they say their investigation doesn’t even scratch the surface of the full impact of crypto mining on power use and emissions in the US. “None of the companies provided full and complete information in response to our questions,” they note.

“The results of our investigation, which gathered data from just seven companies, are disturbing, with this limited data alone revealing that crypto miners are large energy users that account for a significant – and rapidly growing – amount of carbon emissions,” the letter states. By requiring crypto mining firms to disclose their energy use and emissions, the group says the EPA and Department of Energy could provide lawmakers with better data to inform future policy decisions. The agencies have until August 15th to respond to the request.