Anker charging gadgets are up to 40 percent off for Prime members

Now’s a good time to pick up a new charger for your phone, tablet and other devices while a number of Anker’s charging accessories are down to record-low prices for Amazon Prime members. Standouts among the discounts are Anker’s 521 magnetic battery pack for MagSafe-compatible iPhones, which is 40 percent off and on sale for $30, and Anker’s 511 2-in-1 power bank, which is 30 percent off and down to $35.

Shop Anker deals at AmazonBuy Anker 521 magnetic battery pack at Amazon – $30Buy Anker 511 2-in-1 power bank at Amazon – $35

Both portable batteries have a 5,000 mAh capacity, but they’re each versatile in their own ways. The 521 magnetic power pack will snap onto the backs of the latest iPhones, charging them up wirelessly. It’ll provide almost a full extra charge for your iPhone, depending on the model you have, and it’ll even snap on and power up the handset when it has a MagSafe case on it.

The 511 battery pack is essentially a wall charger and a portable battery in one. If you’re near an AC outlet, it can act as a USB-C adapter for all of your mobile devices — provided you have a USB-C charging cable with you. And when you’re not near a power source, you can use its built-in battery to charge up your gadgets. Unlike the 512 magnetic pack, the 511 battery will work with iPhones as well as Google Pixel smartphones, Samsung devices and others.

Prime members can also get the Anker Nano Pro 20W charger with a USB-C to Lightning cable for $28, which is 30 percent off its usual rate. The bundle gives you everything you need to charge your iPhone as quickly as possible, and we like that Anker’s 20W adapter is more compact than Apple’s version. Other accessories on sale include the 623 MagGo 2-in-1 wireless charging station, which you can pick up for a record low of $70, and a two-pack of wireless charging stands, which is on sale for $35.

Anker Nano Pro 20W charger bundle at Amazon – $28Buy Anker 623 MagGo charging station at Amazon – $70Buy Anker wireless charging stands (2 pack) at Amazon – $35

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Fitbit will end support for PC syncing this fall

Fitbit is discontinuing support for PC and Mac syncing. On a support page spotted by 9to5Google, the company said it would remove the option for users to sync their trackers over its Connect app on October 13th, 2022. After that date, the only way to transfer your data off your Fitbit wearable will be through the Fitbit mobile app. While the shutdown is unlikely to affect many people, it does mean there will be one less way to transfer your favorite songs to your wearable for offline playback.

“On October 13, 2022, we’re removing the option to transfer playlists to your Fitbit watch through your computer,” the company says on a separate support page. “You can continue to play personal music stored on your watch and transfer music to your watch with the Deezer app and Pandora app.” 

In other words, if you use your Fitbit tracker or smartwatch for listening to music, you’ll need to depend on two music services that aren’t the most popular options out there. With the Pixel Watch set to offer deep Fitbit integration, that probably won’t be much of an issue with new Fitbit wearables, but it is something current users will have to consider.

Microsoft helps game devs pull more performance from the Xbox Series S

Frustrated that games don’t run as well on the Xbox Series S as you’d expect given the 1440p-capable hardware? Microsoft might have a fix. The Verge has learned the company’s recently highlighted June Game Development Kit gives programmers more access to memory, freeing up “hundreds of additional megabytes” of RAM for their games. That can improve graphics performance in titles where limited memory is a problem, Microsoft said.

This move won’t put the entry-level console on par with the Xbox Series X, which uses the same CPU but packs a more powerful graphics processor. However, it might reduce bottlenecks that sometimes force developers to run games on Series S at lower resolutions and frame rates. While the Series X has 16GB of RAM (about 13.5GB of it usable), its lower-end counterpart has just 10GB — in practice, devs have just 8GB to themselves. Creators talking to Digital Foundry have complained about the limitations.

If this sounds like a familiar strategy, it should. Microsoft gave more power to Xbox One coders in 2014 when it let them disable Kinect features in games that didn’t need the motion controller. In both cases, Microsoft is tweaking available system resources in response to gripes.

It will take time for developers to optimize games, and there’s no guarantee this will affect many titles. Don’t expect patches that improve the graphics on all your favorite releases. Still, this is a welcome move that could make the Xbox Series S a more viable option if you’d rather not splurge on its pricier counterpart.