The best anti-Prime Day tech deals you can get

It may be Prime Day, but that doesn’t mean you can only save some money if you shop at Amazon. For the past few years, other retailers have used Prime Day as a catalyst for their own sales events. That’s good news for all of us because it means that yo…

The Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone air fryer is on sale for $160 for Prime Day

If you’ve been looking to join the legions of air fryer owners, this might be the deal for you. This Prime Day, you can snag a Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone air fryer for $160 on Amazon. That’s $70 off the regular price and a record low for the larger 10-quart model (there’s an eight-quart option as well).

Buy Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone air fryer at Amazon – $160

This might be the best dual-zone air fryer you can buy right now. The device has dual baskets, which means it can cook two foods simultaneously with different cooking methods. It can handle your protein and vegetables at the same time, for instance. Each zone has its own basket, cyclonic fan and rapid heater. Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone can adjust the cooking times so that the food in each drawer is ready to eat at the same time. 

If you only want to cook one thing, there is the option to heat a single compartment. You can also double the quantity of an item across the two baskets and cook them with the same settings, thanks to the Match Cook function.

There are six cooking methods: air fry, air broil, roast, bake, reheat and dehydrate. There’s almost no preheating time required. In some cases, you won’t have to wait at all for it to reach the right temperature. Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone may be a healthier cooking option as well — Ninja says the food it cooks has up to 75 percent less fat than traditional air frying methods.

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The best gadgets for students under $50

The little things can get you when you’re in college. You arrive on campus, fresh and ready to go, but before you know it, you’re a few weeks into the new semester and you have a long list of small things you forgot to pack. You may also think of unass…

Google’s Nest Learning Thermostat is on sale for $199 right now

A smart thermostat can help you save on energy costs while also giving you more control over your home’s environment. While they can be on the expensive side, both of Google’s main smart thermostats are on sale for Prime Day. The Nest Learning Thermostat has dropped to $199 while the standard Nest Thermostat is on sale for $90. Those aren’t record-low prices but they’re pretty close, making now a good opportunity to add one to your smart home ecosystem.

Buy Nest Learning Thermostat at Amazon – $199Buy Nest Thermostat at Amazon – $90

The Nest Learning Thermostat is the most advanced model that Google makes. It’s an Energy Star-certified device that monitors energy usage in your home while learning your preferences and building temperature schedules around your routines. After a bit of use, the device will learn when you like to keep your home cooler or warmer and automatically adjust the temperature to accommodate that. It also works with sensors that you can place around your home, if you prefer to keep certain rooms at specific temperatures. While a lot of the Nest Learning Thermostats features are designed to automate your home’s environmental changes, you can always tweak things yourself via the Nest mobile app, too.

If you’re on a tighter budget, the standard Nest Thermostat may be a better option. Unlike the Learning model, it doesn’t work with temperature sensors and it has a slightly different design. You’ll get a higher-quality display on the more expensive model, but the display on the regular version is just as usable. Otherwise, the standard smart thermostat is also Energy Star-certified and it lets you program your home’s temperature, set schedules and more.

A bunch of other Google IoT devices have been discounted for Prime Day, too. You can pick up the Nest Doorbell Battery for only $120, or the Nest Cam Battery for $200. These are some of Google’s newest smart home devices and they both run on rechargeable batteries, so there are no wires to fuss with.

Buy Nest Doorbell Battery at Amazon – $120Buy Nest Cam Battery at Amazon – $200

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The best Amazon Prime Day laptop and tablet deals from Apple, Lenovo, Razer and others

If you’re in need of a new laptop for work or for the upcoming school year, you could grab one for less on Prime Day. Amazon has discounted a bunch of notebooks from Lenovo, HP, Acer, Razer and others, and you’ll find plenty of options both at the high…

Peloton gives up on building its own products after just three years

Peloton will no longer build its own connected fitness products, as it’s moving entirely to third-party manufacturing. It said in a statement that it’s “exiting all owned-manufacturing operations” to simplify its supply chain and cut costs. “We believe that this along with other initiatives will enable us to continue reducing the cash burden on the business and increase our flexibility,” Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy said. “Partnering with market-leading third party suppliers, Peloton will be able to focus on what we do best — using technology and content to help our 7 million members become the best versions of themselves.”

The company is expanding its long-existing partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Rexon, which will be the primary builder of Bike and Tread devices. Peloton says it will suspend operations at Tonic Fitness for the rest of the year. It bought that company in 2019 to bring some manufacturing in house.

Things haven’t exactly been going swimmingly over at Peloton. In January, then-CEO John Foley said the company was “resetting our production levels for sustainable growth” following reports it was putting all production on hold. It was suggested that Peloton had thousands of products sitting in warehouses and on cargo ships amid decreased demand. The following month, Peloton brought in McCarthy as CEO and laid off around 2,800 corporate employees, equivalent to 20 percent of the total workforce.

After the pandemic-driven boom, when many people were buying Peloton gear to help them work out at home, business took a significant hit. Peloton posted a net loss of $757.1 million for the first three months of 2022 on revenue of $964 million, compared with revenue of $1.262 billion and a loss of $8.6 million a year earlier. It attributed the diminishing returns to a significant increase in operating expenses (which represented 95.4 percent of total revenue for the quarter) and having to manage its stockpile of products, which it believed it would sell eventually.

In April, Peloton cut the prices of some products to lower the barrier to entry while announcing plans to increase subscription fees in the US and Canada for the first time. The company now has a rental program for the original Peloton Bike. It costs $89 per month and an All-Access Membership is included. There’s a $150 delivery fee, though you can cancel at any time and there’s free pick-up. Customers have the option to buy the device outright after 12 months. Meanwhile, in May, Peloton teased its first rowing machine.

Anker charging accessories are up to 50 percent off for Prime Day

If you’re looking for a charging accessory, whether it’s just a charging cable or a portable power generator, you’ll probably find what you need among all the items Anker has on sale for Prime Day. The collection is pretty extensive and includes a bunch of wired and wireless chargers, power banks, charging stations, small generators, USB-C hubs and power strips. One of the most notable items in the list is the Anker MagGo 637 Magnetic Desktop Charging Station, which currently costs $70, or $30 less than its retail price. That’s an all-time low for the device on the e-commerce website.

Buy Anker charging accessories at Amazon

It’s a power strip with an unusual form factor that has seven ports and one magnetic charging pad for the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 13. Three of the seven are AC outlets, two are USB-A ports and two are USB-C ports capable of high-speed charging. Anker also designed the device to offer over-current, over-voltage and surge protection, as well as to be fire resistant. We liked the orb-shaped charging station so much, we included it in our list of best accessories for the iPhone.

The Anker MagGo 622 Magnetic Battery is also on sale for $45, $25 less than its retail price. It’s a wireless portable charger for the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 13, which can be folded to lay flat on its back or be turned into a kickstand if you want to prop up your phone. Plus, it comes with a USB-C port for other devices. If you’re looking for a more traditional charger, though, the Anker 511 Charger is also on sale for $24, or $6 off retail. It has a 20-watt output and can charge phones much faster than their original chargers can. And since it’s specifically meant for use with iPhones and iPads, it comes with a USB-C to Lightning cable. 

Like all other Prime Day deals, you can take advantage of these discounts if you have a Prime subscription. If you haven’t been a Prime member in the past 12 months, though, you can sign up for a free trial that will last for 30 days.

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iRobot’s Roomba i7+ is half off and down to $500 for Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day can be a great time to pick up a robot vacuum for much less than usual. This year, you can pick up iRobot’s Roomba i7+ for only $500, which is 50 percent off its normal price and the cheapest we’ve seen it. It’s not the newest robo-vac in iRobot’s lineup, but it remains one of the most powerful. Also on sale are the entry-level Roomba 692, which you can pick up for $180, and the midrange Shark AV2501AE AI robot vacuum, which is on sale for $380.

Buy Roomba i7+ at Amazon – $500Buy Roomba 692 at Amazon – $180Buy Shark AI robot vacuum at Amazon – $380

The Roomba i7+ impressed us when it first came out for its strong cleaning abilities, accurate home mapping and handy clean base. It has 10x the suction power of more basic Roombas, plus dual multi-surface brushes that do a good job capturing dirt, debris and pet hair. After one or two cleaning jobs, the machine builds a map of your home that you can then edit and label in iRobot’s companion mobile app. This will let you send the i7+ to specific rooms for targeted cleaning jobs and set “keep out zones” if you have spaces of your home that you don’t want to robot to clean.

But the machine’s clean base is what sets it apart from other robot vacuums. After each job, the i7+ will automatically return to its base to recharge, and it will also empty its dustbin into the clean base. That means you don’t have to empty the dustbin every time, rather you’ll only have to change the bag in the clean base about once every two months. If you’re someone who wants a robot vacuum that takes almost all of the work out of the chore, the Roomba i7+, or a machine like it with a clean base, is the best option.

Shark’s AV2501AE robo-vac is similar in that it also comes with a clean base, and some may prefer it because it’s a bagless system. You’ll simply pop part of the base off every time you need to empty it, and it snaps back into place when you’re finished. This Shark device is actually our favorite robot vacuum right now because it combines good suction power with a clean base and an easy to use mobile app.

On the budget end of things, the Roomba 692 is a solid option. You won’t get a clean base, as those are reserved for more expensive machines, but you will get good cleaning capabilities thanks to dual multi-surface brushes, adaptive navigation for better obstacle avoidance and Alexa and Google Assistant support.

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