Understanding the 4 Main Approaches to LLM Evaluation (From Scratch)

Wang Chuanfu, the founder of BYD Co., has tried his hand at many things. Producing batteries, making electronics and most recently, what BYD is famous for, electric vehicles. But for more than a decade, he’s also been attempting to build out another enterprise — a monorail network to solve the problems of congestion and carbon emissions at the same time.

Musk’s Neuralink Submits Brain Implant Patient Data to Journal

Neuralink Corp., Elon Musk’s brain implant company, has submitted a scientific paper to a journal describing the results from some of its patients, which would be its first peer-reviewed publication with human data.

Apple Puts Hardware Chief John Ternus in the Succession Spotlight

Apple is intensifying the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus as executive succession looms. Also: The company shelves the “Vision Air” to focus on glasses, but updates of the Vision Pro and iPad Pro are imminent.

Nvidia Partner Hon Hai Meets Sales Estimates on Strong AI Demand

Nvidia Corp.’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. reported 11% growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for AI infrastructure.

I furnished my post-divorce home for free. It taught me the importance of community.

After divorce, I turned to a Buy Nothing group to furnish my home. I found more than just furniture, I found belonging.

I watched every day of the Diddy trial. I thought he'd get 10 years.

After hearing Judge Arun Subramanian launch into an F-bomb-laden recounting of trial testimony, I thought a sentence of 10 years was likely.

Kevin Hassett says 'there will be layoffs' if Trump decides shutdown talks are not progressing

Top White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said he's hopeful lawmakers can reach an agreement to end the government shutdown before layoffs begin.

OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla slams 'tunnel vision creatives' attacking Sora as 'AI slop'

OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla said viewers should judge Sora's AI videos, "not ivory tower luddite snooty critics or defensive creatives."

TikTok shut down its LA headquarters after a series of online threats

Police said they arrested a suspect on Friday and that TikTok's headquarters would remain closed through the weekend out of "an abundance of caution."

How luxury doomsday bunkers turned into a billionaire status symbol

Atlas Survival Shelters is the world's largest bunker manufacturer, and it's extra busy with orders from billionaires.

I'm the only person in my family to go to grad school and become an entrepreneur. I often feel guilty for 'making it.'

I consider myself a success — thanks to my master's degree and business. But it isn't easy. I sometimes feel out of place in my family.

7 famous couples who signed prenups — and 4 who didn't

From Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban to the world's wealthiest pairs, celebrities often sign detailed prenups to avoid financial drama during a divorce.

Hedge fund September returns: Here's how Citadel, Millennium, and Balyasny have performed so far this year

Big-name funds were mostly unable to keep up with the S&P 500's gains in September.

I spent 27 hours flying with Royal Jordanian. It wouldn't be my first choice for another long-haul flight.

I booked Royal Jordanian flights for my family from Washington, DC, to Amman, Cairo, and back. The price was nice, but the food and seats let me down.

My partner and I moved from Utah to Illinois. We have less time in nature but our careers have taken off.

My partner and I traded the outdoors of Utah for the energy of Chicago — and discovered growth, connection, and opportunity.

I made Ree Drummond's simple butternut-squash mac and cheese. It's my new go-to fall dinner.

The Pioneer Woman's butternut-squash mac and cheese was easy to make and the perfect combination of autumnal flavors.

My father-in-law retired at 55 and is 87 now. His early retirement made me realize I don't want to travel the same road.

Early retirement is a dream for many, but watching my husband's dad retire at 55 helped me see possible drawbacks and realize that it's not mine.

My partner and I were so burned out that I couldn't even plan a trip. That's when I turned to ChatGPT.

I was overwhelmed with city life and work. My partner and I needed a vacation, so we turned to ChatGPT. The AI planned a one-of-a-kind trip to Italy.

How new details from Trump's student-loan repayment overhaul could affect Americans seeking advanced degrees

Some healthcare programs, like clinical psychology, will face lower student-loan borrowing caps due to a new professional degree definition.

'SNL' mocks the Trump administration in season kickoff: 'Remember, daddy's watching'

James Austin Johnson returned as President Donald Trump while Colin Jost played Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

I said I didn't get the Costco hype. Then the superfans came at me.

In this Sunday edition of Business Insider Today, readers respond to a Costco skeptic and share why they love the wholesaler.

I quiet quit my job after years of prioritizing my career. It only made my burnout worse.

I quiet quit my job for a year before hitting a breaking point. Actually quitting and traveling for a while helped me find better work boundaries.

Meet Lisa Su: CEO and president of Advanced Micro Devices, the main competitor to Nvidia

Lisa Su is the CEO behind AMD's meteoric rise, with the ambition to lead the AI chips industry and become a formidable rival to Nvidia.

Weeks after my husband retired, he was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney cancer. It was a reminder of why you shouldn't wait to live fully.

My husband and I have always prioritized living fully. His kidney cancer diagnosis weeks after retirement reminded us why that's important.

What Is the Next Big AI Crypto? Traders FOMO into DeepSnitch AI as BTC Surges

Demand for the next big AI crypto is rising in 2025 following Bitcoin’s recent surge to $122,000. Both Near Protocol and Virtuals Protocol are poised to maintain their current rally. […]

The post What Is the Next Big AI Crypto? Traders FOMO into DeepSnitch AI as BTC Surges appeared first on Datafloq.

Which AI Crypto Will Explode in 2025? DeepSnitch AI Presale Hits $300K

Bitcoin is eyeing new all-time highs thanks to a sudden surge in liquidity in crypto markets. Traders are looking for the market to squeeze higher, while analysts claim that this […]

The post Which AI Crypto Will Explode in 2025? DeepSnitch AI Presale Hits $300K appeared first on Datafloq.

How to Create an IoT App in Kotlin Multiplatform

In this article, you’ll build a small multiplatform app for Android and iOS that blinks an LED on an IoT device. You’ll use Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) for shared logic, Compose Multiplatform for the UI, and the Kable library for Bluetooth communication.

Kotlin Multiplatform provides the foundation for sharing application logic. Compose Multiplatform lets you create a fluid, native UI for both Android and iOS from a single codebase. For connectivity, you'll use Kable, a modern, coroutine-based library that simplifies Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication. This stack helps you build high-performance, native IoT controller apps, reuse the most code, and improve your development workflow.

In this tutorial, you'll create a simple IoT controller app for Android and iOS called "Bluno Blink Controller." The app will connect to a Bluno BLE device, let you select a number on a slider, and send it to the device. The Bluno will then blink its onboard LED the corresponding number of times. This project shows how to interact with hardware from a shared codebase.

The video below shows the final app controlling the Bluno device.

Bluno blink controller in action

And here's a video showing Bluno devices in action, blinking in response to commands from the app.

Bluno device blinking

The main reason to choose Kotlin Multiplatform for an IoT project is code sharing. IoT apps often have identical logic across platforms for managing connection states, defining communication protocols, and processing data. KMP lets you write this core logic once in a shared module, which reduces duplication and errors. This approach gives you a single source of truth for your app's logic while delivering a native experience on both Android and iOS.

While KMP is great for shared logic, you still need to handle platform-specific tasks like runtime permissions and enabling the Bluetooth adapter or location services. You do this in the native Android and iOS source sets. Once you complete the platform-specific setup, a library like Kable can manage BLE communication. Kable provides a unified, cross-platform abstraction for scanning, connecting, and exchanging data with BLE devices, which you'll use in the shared code.

You'll build the project on a stack where each layer has a clear role, from the user interface down to the hardware. The diagram below shows how these components fit together, with a shared core running on both Android and iOS.

Architecture diagram

Here’s a closer look at each component's role:

Kotlin Multiplatform: This is the core of your project. It lets you share the application's business logic between Android and iOS. You'll write all logic for managing connection state, handling BLE events, and preparing data for the Bluno device once in the commonMain source set.
Compose Multiplatform: You'll use Compose Multiplatform to build the entire UI from a single, shared codebase. The screen contains a connection button, status indicators, and a blink-count slider. You only need to define it once with composable functions that render natively on both Android and iOS.
Kable: This coroutine-based library is your tool for Bluetooth Low Energy communication. It provides a clean, modern API for scanning peripherals, establishing connections, and reading or writing data to device characteristics. Kable abstracts many platform-specific BLE complexities, letting you write the communication logic once in shared Kotlin code.
Bluno BLE Device: Your IoT app targets a Bluno device, an Arduino-compatible board with a BLE module.

Before diving into the code, it helps to understand the hardware you'll control. The Bluno is a microcontroller board based on the Arduino platform. An Arduino is a tiny, programmable computer that interacts with the physical world through sensors, motors, and LEDs. Hobbyists and professionals use it to build interactive electronic projects.

The Bluno is special because it has a built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module. This lets it communicate wirelessly with devices like smartphones, making it a great choice for simple IoT apps. The logic on the Bluno runs a C++-based language, and you develop it using an environment like the Arduino IDE. For this project, the device runs a simple script (in arduino/BlunoBlinkController.ino) that listens for a number sent over BLE and blinks an LED accordingly.

This development model is different from mobile app development. Instead of an event-driven UI, Arduino programs run a continuous loop() function that contains the device's main logic. You also work with significant constraints. A microcontroller has a fraction of the memory and processing power of a modern smartphone, so the code must be efficient. Communication happens through a Serial interface. On a standard Arduino, this would be a USB cable. On the Bluno, the firmware bridges this Serial communication over its BLE connection, letting your mobile app send and receive data like a wired terminal.

For your KMP app to communicate with the Bluno, it needs the device's specific BLE "address." This isn't a physical address but a set of unique identifiers (UUIDs) for the services and characteristics the device exposes. A "service" is a collection of related functions, and a "characteristic" is a piece of data within that service. In our case, the Bluno exposes a serial port service that we can write to.

Here is the specific characteristic our app will target, defined in the shared Kotlin code:

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/Constants.kt
internal val blunoSerialPortCharacteristic = characteristicOf(
    service = "0000dfb0-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb",
    characteristic = "0000dfb1-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb"
)

When you send the blink count from the app, you write to this exact characteristic. The Bluno's firmware listens for this write event, reads the number, and runs the blinking sequence.

The project uses a standard Kotlin Multiplatform structure. The core logic and UI are in the composeApp module. The composeApp/build.gradle.kts file configures key dependencies, including Compose Multiplatform for the UI and Kable for BLE communication.

The most KMP-specific part of the configuration is the kotlin block, where you declare compilation targets. This project targets Android and multiple iOS architectures to support physical devices and simulators.

// file: composeApp/build.gradle.kts
kotlin {
    androidTarget()
    listOf(
        iosX64(),
        iosArm64(),
        iosSimulatorArm64()
    ).forEach { iosTarget ->
        iosTarget.binaries.framework {
            baseName = "ComposeApp"
            isStatic = true
        }
    }
    //...
}

This configuration tells Kotlin to build a native Android app and an iOS framework from the same shared codebase.

Two important settings here are baseName and isStatic.

baseName = "ComposeApp": This sets the name of the compiled framework. The iOS app will use this name in its Swift code (import ComposeApp) to access the shared Kotlin code.
isStatic = true: This configures the framework as a static library. The compiled Kotlin code is linked directly into the final app executable at build time. This is a common way to integrate KMP into an iOS project.

At its core, BLE communication uses a client-server model. The peripheral device (your Bluno) is the server, which advertises its presence and data. The central device (your phone) is the client, which scans for and consumes that data. The peripheral exposes its features through a standard structure.

Peripheral: The IoT device itself (the Bluno).
Service: A collection of related functions. Our Bluno has a "Serial Port" service.
Characteristic: A specific piece of data within a service. A characteristic isn't just a value; it has properties that define how you can interact with it. You can write to it (send data), read from it (request its current value), or subscribe to notifications to have the peripheral push updates to you automatically when the value changes.

Kable provides a developer-friendly abstraction over this structure. It simplifies low-level platform details into a clean, coroutine-based API centered on the Peripheral object. This object represents the device you want to interact with.

The typical workflow for connecting and sending data looks like this:

Scan: Use a Scanner to find nearby devices. Kable lets you filter by advertising data, such as services, name, or manufacturer-specific data.
Connect: Once you find the target device's advertisement, you create a Peripheral instance from it and call connect().
Interact (Read/Write/Observe): After connecting, you can interact with the device's characteristics. Kable handles service discovery, so you can start making calls right away. You can write() to send data, read() for a one-time data request, or use observe() to listen for a stream of notifications.

In the project, BleRepository encapsulates this logic. The scanAndConnect function creates a Scanner that filters for Bluno's unique service UUID.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/BleRepository.kt
val scanner = Scanner {
    filters {
        match {
            services = listOf(blunoSerialPortCharacteristic.serviceUuid)
        }
    }
}
val advertisement = scanner.advertisements.first() // Find the first matching device

For this tutorial, you connect to the first device that matches the service filter. In a production app, you would probably scan for a few seconds, show a list of found devices, and let the user choose one.

Once the app finds the device, it creates a Peripheral and connects to it.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/BleRepository.kt
private suspend fun connectToAdvertisement(advertisement: Advertisement) {
    peripheral = Peripheral(advertisement)
    peripheral.connect().launch {
        _connectionStatus.value = ConnectionStatus.Connected
        _isReadyToSend.value = true
    }
}

The peripheral.connect() call returns a CoroutineScope that remains active for the connection's duration. If the device disconnects, this scope cancels automatically, giving you a structured way to manage connection-specific tasks. The UI observes the connection status, which is updated in a StateFlow.

The BleRepository uses two StateFlows to communicate its state to the UI:

connectionStatus: This flow tells the UI if the app is Idle, InProgress, or Connected. The UI uses this to change the button text (e.g., from "Scan & Connect" to "Disconnect"), show a progress indicator, and display controls only when connected.
isReadyToSend: This boolean flow controls the UI's interactivity. It enables the slider and "Send" button when the device is ready and disables them while a command is in flight. This prevents the user from sending multiple commands at once.

The BleViewModel exposes these flows, and the App composable collects them. This creates a reactive link between the back-end BLE logic and the front-end UI state.

With the connection established, you can now implement the main feature: sending the blink count to Bluno. This process involves capturing user input, encoding it for BLE, writing it to the device, and waiting for a confirmation.

1. UI and state management

The BlinkControls composable provides a Slider to select a number and a "Send" button. The screenshot below shows the app's main screen when connected.

Blink Controller UI

When the user presses "Send," it triggers the onSend callback, passing the integer value to the BleViewModel. The ViewModel then calls the corresponding function in the BleRepository.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/BleViewModel.kt
fun sendBlinkCount(count: Int) {
    bleRepository.sendBlinkCount(count)
}

2. Sending data and awaiting confirmation

The BleRepository handles the logic for sending data and managing UI state. When sendBlinkCount is called, it sets isReadyToSend to false. This disables the "Send" button to prevent the user from sending a new command while the first one is running.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/BleRepository.kt
fun sendBlinkCount(count: Int) {
    _isReadyToSend.value = false
    peripheral.scope.launch {
        awaitBlinkConfirmation()
        _isReadyToSend.value = true
    }
    peripheral.scope.launch {
        writeData(count)
    }
}

You launch two independent coroutines in the peripheral's connection scope. The first one listens for the device's confirmation signal. The second one sends the data. This separation is important because writing the command and listening for the response are distinct, asynchronous operations.

3. Writing to the characteristic

The writeData function is where the app communicates with Bluno. It takes the integer, converts it to a ByteArray, and uses Kable's write function to send it.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/BleRepository.kt
private suspend fun writeData(value: Int) {
    peripheral.write(
        characteristic = blunoSerialPortCharacteristic,
        data = value.toString().encodeToByteArray(),
        writeType = WriteType.WithoutResponse
    )
}

Here, you use WriteType.WithoutResponse, a "fire-and-forget" write. The app sends the data but doesn't wait for a low-level acknowledgment from the BLE stack. This is fine for our use case because we implement our own application-level confirmation by listening for the "C" character.

4. Handling the device response

After the Bluno receives the number, it blinks its LED and sends a confirmation character ("C") back to the app to signal it is finished. The awaitBlinkConfirmation function catches this response.

// file: composeApp/src/commonMain/kotlin/pl/droidsonroids/kmpiotdemo/data/BleRepository.kt
private suspend fun awaitBlinkConfirmation() {
    try {
        peripheral.observe(blunoSerialPortCharacteristic).awaitConfirmation()
    } catch (_: IOException) {
        createPollingFlow().awaitConfirmation()
    }
}
private suspend fun Flow<ByteArray>.awaitConfirmation() = map(ByteArray::decodeToString)
    .first { it.contains(BLINK_DONE_TOKEN) }

It first tries to observe() the characteristic, which sets up a notification listener. It then waits for a ByteArray that contains the "C" token when decoded. Once it receives this confirmation, the coroutine completes, isReadyToSend becomes true, and the UI becomes interactive again.

The try-catch block handles a common hardware quirk. For BLE notifications to work, a characteristic must include a Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor (CCCD) that the client app writes to. The Bluno firmware, however, doesn't expose this descriptor correctly. This is a known issue, especially on iOS, where the Core Bluetooth framework strictly follows the BLE specification and refuses to subscribe to a characteristic without a valid CCCD. This causes Kable's observe() call to fail.

To work around this hardware limitation, the code falls back to a manual polling flow. If the observe() call throws an IOException, the catch block repeatedly reads the characteristic's value until it receives the confirmation token. While less efficient than notifications, this polling strategy reliably gets the completion signal from this device. You can read more about this long-standing issue in this ble-serial GitHub thread.

While most of your code is in commonMain, you still need to write some platform-specific code in the native Android and iOS source sets. Here, you handle system-level features like permissions and services before the shared code takes over.

Android

On Android, you must handle permissions, the Bluetooth adapter, and location services.

Android permissions

First, you declare the necessary permissions in composeApp/src/androidMain/AndroidManifest.xml. For an app targeting SDK 31 (Android 12) or newer, you need:

BLUETOOTH_SCAN
BLUETOOTH_CONNECT
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION

You might wonder why location permissions are needed. On Android, discovering nearby BLE devices can infer the user's location. For this privacy reason, Google requires apps to have location permission to perform BLE scans. You cannot add the neverForLocation attribute to the scan permission for the same reason.

Android runtime checks

In MainActivity.kt, you implement the runtime logic to ensure all requirements are met before the user can connect. The code does the following:

Requests permissions: It uses ActivityResultContracts to launch the standard runtime permission dialogs.
Enables Bluetooth: If the Bluetooth adapter is off, it launches an intent with BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_REQUEST_ENABLE to prompt the user to turn it on.
Enables location: It checks if Location Services are enabled and directs the user to system settings if they are not.

The official Android documentation notes that intents for Bluetooth, location, and application settings may not always resolve. A device manufacturer might block or fail to implement them. The sample project handles this by falling back to the generic settings screen.

To keep the UI state synchronized, the app rechecks all permissions and service statuses in the onResume lifecycle method. This ensures that if a user enables Bluetooth in system settings and returns to the app, the UI correctly reflects the new state. Additionally, a BroadcastReceiver listens for ACTION_STATE_CHANGED (for Bluetooth) and PROVIDERS_CHANGED_ACTION (for location). This allows the app to react to these service changes in real-time.

iOS

On iOS, the platform handles more of the setup flow automatically, so you write less boilerplate code.

iOS permissions

For permissions, you only need to provide a usage description string in the iosApp/iosApp/Info.plist file.

<!-- file: iosApp/iosApp/Info.plist -->
<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses Bluetooth to scan and connect to BLE devices</string>

The first time Kable attempts a BLE scan, iOS automatically detects the required permission, finds this string, and displays a standard system dialog.

iOS Bluetooth service

The flow for enabling Bluetooth is also system-managed. If a user tries to use the app with Bluetooth off, the Core Bluetooth framework automatically displays a system alert prompting them to enable it. This differs from Android, where you must manually create and launch an intent for a similar prompt.

Real-world IoT is rarely as clean as this sample app. Platform-specific quirks, where devices don't conform to standards, are just one part of the challenge. You will encounter issues that can affect reliability and user experience. Remember that Bluetooth can be unreliable: connections drop, devices lose power, or users might turn off their devices or Bluetooth.

The current app's most critical flaw is its inability to handle unexpected disconnects. If the Bluno device loses power or goes out of range while the app waits for the blink confirmation, the UI will get stuck with a spinning progress indicator. Another issue is that the app will wait forever for a device during the initial scan. You can fix both problems by adding timeouts. After a reasonable period, such as 10 seconds, you can abort the scan or connection attempt and reset the UI to its Idle state, letting the user try again. For a better user experience, you could add a dedicated Error state to display a helpful message like "Device not found" instead of just returning to the idle screen.

You should now have a solid understanding of how to build a simple IoT app with Kotlin Multiplatform. The worlds of IoT and Kotlin Multiplatform are evolving quickly, so stay updated with the latest library versions and best practices.

Why We Built Meku? Rethinking How Developers Turn Ideas Into Apps

Let me start with a familiar feeling.

You’ve got an idea. The kind that wakes you up at 2 a.m. because you can already see it working. You grab your laptop, open your editor, spin up a new project... and within twenty minutes, you’re knee-deep in setup.

Folders. Config files. Auth. Routing.

And just like that, the spark fades into “I’ll get back to it later.”

That’s what happens to most ideas. Not because they weren’t good — but because the process of starting got in the way of building.

That moment right there is why we built Meku.

I’ve used almost every “instant app builder” that’s come out in the past few years. The promise is always the same: type a prompt, get a working app.

And to be fair, they deliver something fast.

But open the code, and it’s chaos.

Nested components inside random folders. Inline logic. Styling that breaks when you breathe near it.

You end up with something that runs but can’t grow.

Developers don’t just want speed.

We want control. We care about structure, clarity, and ownership.

We want to know what’s happening under the hood, because that’s where trust comes from.

And yet, almost every tool out there seems to treat code like a side effect.

That’s when I realized... maybe it’s not the developers who need to change. Maybe it’s the tools.

We built Meku because we wanted an AI App builder that actually understood how developers work.

Something that could move fast without breaking everything that matters.

Meku doesn’t replace your craft. It respects it.

You tell it what you want, and it builds a real React and Tailwind project.

Production-ready. Modular. Clean.

Something you can actually deploy, version, and scale.

It’s not about skipping code. It’s about skipping the repetition.

The boring setup work that steals your momentum and makes side projects feel like chores.

Meku takes care of that, so you can get back to the part that made you fall in love with development in the first place — creating.

Here’s the thing we’ve learned building Meku.

Developers don’t mind complexity. We mind clutter.

We don’t hate writing code.

We hate rewriting setup code for the hundredth time.

And if AI can help us cut through the clutter without taking away our control, that’s not automation — that’s amplification.

That’s why Meku integrates with tools you already use.

Supabase for backend.

GitHub for version control.

React and Tailwind for the front-end.

You’re not building inside some closed ecosystem.

You’re building software that’s yours.

Meku isn’t a no-code tool. It’s not another AI playground.

It’s a new way of thinking about building — where AI handles the groundwork, but you stay in charge of the foundation.

Every project is deployable, editable, and fully exportable.

You can host it anywhere.

You can fork it, modify it, break it, rebuild it.

You own it. Completely.

That’s the kind of freedom we wanted as developers, and it’s what we built into Meku from day one.

We’re building toward something bigger than an app builder.

We’re building toward a world where developers can move from idea to deployment in minutes, not hours.

Where AI isn’t an abstract assistant but a real collaborator — one that helps you think faster, build smarter, and stay creative longer.

Because the truth is, developers don’t need another shortcut. We need leverage.

And that’s what Meku is.

A way to get your ideas out faster, without sacrificing the craftsmanship that makes them great.

Every tool we’ve ever loved as developers made us feel more capable.

Git. React. Tailwind. VS Code.

They didn’t take power away. They gave it back.

That’s the legacy we want Meku to join.

It’s not just about AI writing code.

It’s about AI finally understanding how developers build.

If that sounds like something you’ve been waiting for, maybe it’s time to give Meku a try.

👉 Meku.dev

Ideas deserve better than to die in setup.

If you’ve ever had one that did, you already understand why we built Meku.

Because we’re not here to replace developers.

We’re here to make sure their ideas never get stuck in SaaS boilerplate again.

AI Agents for Marketing: A Real-World Content Automation Case Study

Creating 45 quality articles per month sounds crazy, right? That was my exact thought when I set this goal for AffiliateOS – my experiment in AI-powered affiliate marketing.

Speed alone is not the problem. The real challenge is keeping editorial quality, a unique voice, and authenticity at scale. Off-the-shelf AI tools (Jasper, Copy.ai, and the like) spit out content fast, but everything sounds the same – that bland corporate tone no one wants to read.

The hypothesis I decided to test: what if, instead of one generalist AI, I built eight specialized agents? Each would have a specific responsibility, working together like a real marketing team.

This article documents the journey. It is not a step-by-step tutorial nor a puffed-up success story. It is an honest account of how I built the system, the technical decisions, the challenges I hit, and the lessons I learned along the way.

Modern content marketing faces a cruel dilemma: scale versus quality.

You need to publish consistently to rank on Google. But every article must be unique, useful, and engaging if you want to convert readers. Templates help with consistency but kill personality. Generic AI is fast, but the output has no soul.

Here is what does NOT work:

Rigid templates: every review looks identical. Readers notice. Google does too.
Generic prompts: “Write an article about X” yields shallow, predictable content.
AI without context: hallucinates technical data, ignores niche nuances, uses the wrong jargon.
No process: writing straight away leads to weak structure and poor SEO.

What I needed was a system with a point of view – one that deeply understands each stage of content creation and preserves quality through specialization.

Think of every agent as a specialist within a marketing team. The planning-agent is the creative strategist. The content-agent is the writer. The seo-agent is the performance analyst. Each excels at one job.

Here is the complete architecture:

🧠 Orchestrator Agent – Coordinates the entire pipeline and makes strategic prioritization decisions.

📝 Planning Agent – Collaborates with you about the article idea and creates a detailed creative brief (concept, angle, tone, bespoke structure).

🗺️ Routing Agent – Chooses the best URL by analyzing niche benchmarks (for instance, /coupons/ converts 4× better than /reviews/ according to VPNMentor data).

🔍 Research Agent – Looks up up-to-date product data, studies the competition, and validates information before creation begins.

✍️ Content Agent – Produces the article using the creative brief and a custom structure (not generic templates).

🎯 SEO Agent – Optimizes meta tags, headings, and keywords without breaking the content’s personality.

🚀 Publisher Agent – Handles Git commits, automated deploys, and publication validation.

📊 Analytics Agent – Monitors performance and suggests data-backed optimizations (planned – kicks in after initial validation).

The full flow is Planning → Routing → Research → Content → SEO → Publish → Analytics.

From the initial concept to automatic deploy it takes 20–35 minutes. But the magic is not the speed – it is the quality maintained through specialization.

🛠️ Tech Box: Agent Architecture and Prompts

Each agent is a .md file inside .claude/agents/ with a specialized prompt. They are not scripts – they are refined instructions that guide Claude 4.5 Sonnet through the Claude Code CLI.

Code stats:

8 agents defined (7 implemented, 1 planned)
3,170 lines of specialized prompts
Largest agent: content-agent (790 lines)
Smallest agent: seo-agent (305 lines)

Why specialized prompts beat generic ones:

Specific context: Planning-agent knows requirement elicitation strategies. SEO-agent knows meta description formulas.
Clear guardrails: Publisher-agent has a critical rule – NEVER commit without explicit approval.
Consistent output: Each agent produces structured JSON/Markdown consumed by the next agent.
Iterative refinement: Prompts evolve with real-world use. Planning v2.0 is 40% better than v1.0.

Excerpt from the Planning Agent:

## YOUR ROLE
You are the planning-agent of AffiliateOS. Your role is to collaborate
with the user to define a complete creative brief for content creation.

## IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES
1. NEVER suggest generic templates. Each article must have unique structure.
2. ALWAYS ask clarifying questions before assuming intent.
3. BALANCE technical depth with accessibility based on target audience.
4. DEFINE specific tone - "professional" is too vague.

Tools available to the agents:

WebSearch: fetch up-to-date information
WebFetch: extract content from specific URLs
Read/Write: manipulate project files
Grep/Glob: search patterns in the codebase
Bash: run commands (git, npm, deploy)

How agents coordinate:
The orchestrator-agent manages the handoffs. When the planning-agent generates creative-brief.json, the orchestrator checks the JSON structure before passing it to the routing-agent. This prevents cascading failures.

This is where AffiliateOS v2.0 got interesting. I initially had rigid templates (review.md, comparison.md). They worked, but every piece looked the same. Pasteurized websites.

The solution was the planning-agent – it dialogues with you before writing a single line.

How it works in practice:

You: “I want to create content about NordVPN.”

Planning Agent: “Great! Let me understand. What’s the goal of this content?”

You: “I want to show how NordVPN is good for privacy.”

Planning Agent: “Nice angle. Who are you targeting? Beginners or tech-savvy users?”

You: “More beginners – people concerned about privacy but without technical knowledge.”

Planning Agent: “Got it. And the tone? Educational and approachable, or a more aggressive ‘stop being tracked NOW’ vibe?”

You: “Educational, no alarmism.”

Planning Agent: “Understood. I’ll craft a brief for an educational article on privacy with NordVPN, aimed at beginners, approachable tone. Suggested structure: [...]”

The outcome is a complete creative brief in JSON with:

A unique article concept
A specific editorial angle
Personalized tone
Custom structure (no generic template)
Keywords aligned with intent
Quality guidelines

Real example of the brief generated for THIS article:

{
  title: "Agentes de IA para Marketing: Um Estudo de Caso Real",
  concept: "Documentar a jornada de construção do AffiliateOS",
  angle: "Estudo de caso autêntico e educacional. Não é tutorial nem case inflado.",
  tone: "Mentor técnico acessível - entende tecnologia mas explica claramente.",
  structure: {
    type: "layered",
    description: "Camada 1 (narrativa) acessível a todos. Camada 2 (boxes técnicos) para devs."
  }
}

Switching to this format eliminated pasteurization. Every article now has its own personality, a structure tuned to its specific goal, and a tone suited to the audience.

Another crucial learning: the route matters as much as the content.

When I launched the first pieces I used /reviews/ for everything. Semantically it made sense, but it ignored a market reality: different URLs convert differently.

Real benchmark example:

Studying VPNMentor (the VPN niche leader) I found:

/coupons/nordvpn converts 4× more than /reviews/nordvpn
/best-vpn-for-streaming ranks better than /vpn-reviews/streaming
/tools/ has 2× the CTR of /resources/ for utility content

The routing-agent automates this analysis. It:

Reviews niche benchmarks (VPNMentor for VPN, NerdWallet for fintech, swyx.io for tech personal brands)
Consults routing-config.json with conversion metrics by route
Chooses the best URL based on keyword intent and conversion potential
Justifies the decision with data (no guesswork)

For THIS article, it chose /blog/ because:

That’s the go-to pattern for personal tech brands (swyx.io, kentcdodds.com, leerob.com)
Aligns with the goal of building authority (not immediate conversion)
SEO-friendly for informational long-tail keywords
Simplicity wins over over-engineering (I don’t need a separate /case-studies/ yet)

🗺️ Tech Box: How the Routing Agent Analyzes Benchmarks

The routing-agent doesn’t invent decisions. It consults the routing-config.json file which maps site routes to performance metrics.

Structure of routing-config.json:

{
  active_routes: [
    {
      path: "/blog",
      purpose: "Artigos de opinião, insights e reflexões técnicas",
      benchmark_sites: ["swyx.io", "kentcdodds.com", "leerob.io"],
      notes: "Authority content - builds personal brand and expertise"
    },
    {
      path: "/reviews",
      purpose: "Reviews honestos de ferramentas e SaaS",
      benchmark_sites: ["techradar.com", "theverge.com/reviews"],
      notes: "Affiliate content - monetization while maintaining authenticity"
    }
  ],
  route_performance_insights: {
    "/blog": {
      typical_ctr: "1-2%",
      intent: "informational",
      conversion_stage: "awareness-top-funnel",
      seo_potential: "high - thought leadership keywords"
    },
    "/reviews": {
      typical_ctr: "4-6%",
      intent: "commercial",
      conversion_stage: "consideration-decision",
      seo_potential: "high - product keywords"
    }
  }
}

Decision algorithm:

Parse creative brief: identify goal (monetize vs build authority), audience, and keywords
Match intent: informational keywords → awareness routes. Commercial keywords → decision routes.
Check benchmarks: see what niche leaders do for similar content
Score routes: expected CTR × SEO potential × goal alignment
Output: chosen route + data-backed justification

Benefit:
Optimized conversion paths from day one. I don’t have to wait six months of A/B testing – I leverage what the niche champions already learned.

Limitation:
Benchmarks are third-party data, not mine yet. Once I have traffic, the analytics-agent will refine decisions using first-party metrics.

Choosing the right stack was crucial. I didn’t want a heavy JS framework (Next.js) or a bloated CMS (WordPress). I needed:

Outstanding performance (static site, zero unnecessary JS)
Type safety (content validated at build time, not production)
Top-tier developer experience (fast hot reload, reusable components)
Native SEO (automatic sitemap, meta tags, canonical URLs)

The stack I chose:

🚀 Astro 5.14.1 – the main framework for static sites. Why?

Static site generation (SSG) → blazing-fast sites
Zero JS by default – only loads JS when needed
Partial hydration for React – interactive components only where necessary
Whole-site builds in 30–60 seconds

⚛️ React 18.3.1 – only for interactive components. Why?

ThemeToggle (dark mode) needs state
Dialog/Modal (Radix UI) needs interactivity
Everything else is plain Astro (faster)

📘 TypeScript 5.4.5 – type safety everywhere. Why?

Content Collections with Zod schema validate frontmatter
Typed components prevent bugs
Perfect autocomplete in VS Code

🎨 Tailwind CSS 3.4.18 – utility-first CSS. Why?

Consistent design system via CSS tokens
Built-in dark mode (dark: prefix)
Reusable components with CVA (Class Variance Authority)

🤖 Claude 4.5 Sonnet – the brain behind the agents. Why?

Superior reasoning for complex tasks (planning, routing)
Large context window (200k tokens) – digests entire documentation
Tool integration through Claude Code CLI

☁️ Cloudflare Pages – hosting and deploy. Why?

Automatic deploys via Git push
Global edge network (worldwide CDN)
Zero setup required
Free for personal projects

Result: Sites with Lighthouse scores of 95+ in Performance, load under 1 second, and JS bundles of only 50–80 KB (gzipped).

🏗️ Tech Box: Content Collections and Type Safety

One of Astro’s best features is Content Collections – type-safe content management with build-time validation.

How it works:

src/content/config.ts defines the Zod schema:

import { defineCollection, z } from 'astro:content';

const contentSchema = z.object({
  title: z.string(),
  description: z.string().max(160),
  slug: z.string().optional(),
  route: z.string(), // Dynamic routing (v2.0)
  rating: z.number().min(0).max(5).optional(),
  publishDate: z.coerce.date(),
  updateDate: z.coerce.date().optional(),
  category: z.string(),
  tags: z.array(z.string()).min(1),
  author: z.string(),
  featured: z.boolean().default(false),
  affiliateLink: z.string().url().optional(),
  schema: z.record(z.unknown()).optional(),
  faq: z.array(z.object({
    question: z.string(),
    answer: z.string(),
  })).optional(),
});

const articles = defineCollection({
  type: 'content',
  schema: contentSchema,
});

export const collections = { articles };

What this guarantees:

✅ Description never exceeds 160 characters (meta tag limit)
✅ Tags always present (at least one)
✅ Rating between 0–5 (never 6 or -1)
✅ AffiliateLink always a valid URL
✅ Route required (dynamic routing v2.0)

Real benefits:

Errors caught at build time, not in production
Autocomplete for fields while writing frontmatter in VS Code
Impossible to publish malformed content – build fails if schema is invalid
Safe refactoring – change the schema and all articles update

Path aliases for clean imports:

// tsconfig.json and astro.config.mjs
{
  "@/": "src/",
  "@ui": "src/components/ui/",
  "@content": "src/content/",
  "@design-system": "src/design-system/"
}

Usage:

import { Button } from '@ui/Button'; // Not '../../../components/ui/Button'
import { cn } from '@/lib/utils'; // Not '../../lib/utils'

Outcome: A clean, type-safe codebase with enterprise-grade developer experience.

Let’s follow a real article from start to finish to see how the agents collaborate.

Scenario: I want to create a piece about “NordVPN for Netflix.”

Phase 1: Planning (5–10 minutes)

Me: “I want to create content about using NordVPN to watch Netflix from other countries.”

Planning-agent conversation:

What’s the objective? (inform vs convert)
Audience? (beginners vs tech-savvy)
Tone? (educational vs promotional)
Structure? (tutorial vs review vs comparison)

Output: creative-brief.json with a unique concept, editorial angle, personalized tone, and custom structure.

Phase 2: Routing (2–3 minutes)

Routing-agent analyzes benchmarks:

VPNMentor uses /coupons/nordvpn-netflix (high conversion)
TechRadar uses /how-to/use-vpn-for-netflix (strong SEO)
My goal: conversion (affiliate)

Decision: /coupons/nordvpn-netflix because conversion > traffic volume.

Output: routing-decision.json with the chosen route and a data-backed justification.

Phase 3: Research (3–5 minutes)

Research-agent gathers data:

Current NordVPN pricing (via WebSearch)
Streaming catalogs per country (official sources)
User reviews (Reddit, Trustpilot)
Technical specs (servers, speed)

Output: research-report.json with verifiable data and sources.

Phase 4: Content Generation (5–8 minutes)

Content-agent writes the article:

Follows the creative brief structure (not a generic template)
Uses data from the research report
Keeps the tone defined in planning
Includes affiliate disclaimers
Uses Lucide icons (not emojis)

Output: Full MDX article with validated frontmatter.

Phase 5: SEO Optimization (2–3 minutes)

SEO-agent tweaks:

Meta description 150–160 characters
Title tag 50–60 characters
Proper heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
Keyword density 1–2% (naturally used)
Schema markup (Article structured data)
Internal links to related pieces

Output: Optimized article without losing personality.

Phase 6: Publishing (1–2 minutes + 2–5 deploy)

Publisher-agent:

Saves to src/content/articles/coupons-nordvpn-netflix.md
Updates routing-config.json
Creates a descriptive Git commit
Waits for human approval (critical rule!)
Pushes to main → automatic deploy via Cloudflare Pages

Output: Live article 2–5 minutes after the push.

Total: 20–35 minutes from concept to deploy. 90% automated, 10% human review.

That human review is critical – I validate editorial quality, technical accuracy, and tone before approving the commit.

A technical detail that made a real difference: choosing the OKLCH color space instead of HSL or RGB for the design system.

Why it matters:

HSL has a subtle but critical issue: perceived lightness inconsistency. A yellow hsl(60, 100%, 50%) looks much brighter than a blue hsl(240, 100%, 50%), even though both have L=50%.

That breaks dark mode – you have to manually tweak L for every color to balance it.

OKLCH fixes this.

OKLCH (Lightness, Chroma, Hue) was designed for perceptual consistency. L=70% in any color has the same perceived brightness to the human eye.

Real benefits:

✅ Balanced dark mode with zero manual tweaks
✅ Smooth, predictable color transitions
✅ Better accessibility (consistent contrast)
✅ Cleaner code (no magic numbers)

Implementation:

/* src/design-system/tokens.css */
:root {
  /* Light mode */
  --background: oklch(1.0000 0 0);
  --foreground: oklch(0.3588 0.1354 278.6973);
  --primary: oklch(0.6056 0.2189 292.7172);
  --border: oklch(0.9299 0.0334 272.7879);
}

[data-theme="dark"], .dark {
  --background: oklch(0.2077 0.0398 265.7549);
  --foreground: oklch(0.9299 0.0334 272.7879);
  --primary: oklch(0.6056 0.2189 292.7172);
}

Tailwind consumes these tokens via var(--background) automatically.

Other design tokens:

Typography: Roboto (UI), Playfair Display (headings), Fira Code (code)
Border radius: four levels (sm, md, lg, xl) derived from --radius: 0.625rem
Shadows: seven levels (2xs → 2xl) with OKLCH consistency
Dark mode: React toggle with localStorage persistence

🎨 Tech Box: Components with Class Variance Authority

One of the best React component patterns I found: Class Variance Authority (CVA).

CVA lets you define component variants in a typed, composable way.

Example: Button Component

// src/components/ui/Button.tsx
import { cva, type VariantProps } from 'class-variance-authority';
import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';

const buttonVariants = cva(
  'inline-flex items-center justify-center gap-2 whitespace-nowrap rounded-md text-sm font-medium ring-offset-background transition-colors focus-visible:outline-none focus-visible:ring-2 disabled:pointer-events-none disabled:opacity-50',
  {
    variants: {
      variant: {
        default: 'bg-primary text-primary-foreground hover:bg-primary/90',
        destructive: 'bg-destructive text-destructive-foreground hover:bg-destructive/90',
        outline: 'border border-input bg-background hover:bg-accent',
        ghost: 'hover:bg-accent hover:text-accent-foreground',
      },
      size: {
        default: 'h-10 px-4 py-2',
        sm: 'h-9 rounded-md px-3',
        lg: 'h-11 rounded-md px-8',
        icon: 'h-10 w-10',
      },
    },
    defaultVariants: {
      variant: 'default',
      size: 'default',
    },
  }
);

export const Button = ({ variant, size, className, ...props }) => {
  return (
    <button
      className={cn(buttonVariants({ variant, size, className }))}
      {...props}
    />
  );
};

Usage:

<Button variant="default" size="lg">View Offer</Button>
<Button variant="outline">Learn More</Button>
<Button variant="ghost" size="icon">×</Button>

Benefits:

✅ Type-safe: TypeScript ensures variant is valid
✅ Composable: combine variants with custom classes via className
✅ Consistent: all button variations share the same base classes
✅ Maintainable: change every button style by editing one file

cn() utility to merge classes:

// src/lib/utils.ts
import { type ClassValue, clsx } from 'clsx';
import { twMerge } from 'tailwind-merge';

export function cn(...inputs: ClassValue[]) {
  return twMerge(clsx(inputs));
}

It combines clsx (conditional classes) with tailwind-merge (resolves Tailwind class conflicts). Essential for components that accept a custom className.

Result: A professional, typed, reusable component library – shadcn/ui quality.

The project is still early. I’ll share honest numbers – no embellishments, nothing hidden.

What’s been built so far:

✅ 8 specialized agents (7 implemented, 1 planned)
✅ 3,170 lines of refined prompts
✅ 2 active niches (vpn-saas + jucelinux personal brand)
✅ 1 site live (vpn-reviews-br.pages.dev)
✅ Full stack: Astro + React + TypeScript + Tailwind + Claude
✅ Dynamic routing v2.0 with automated benchmarks
✅ OKLCH design system with dark mode
✅ Full automated pipeline (20–35 minutes concept→deploy)

Production speed:

Initial goal: 45 articles/month
Time per article: 20–35 minutes (automation)
Human review: ~10 minutes per article (quality validation)
Real total: 30–40 minutes per article (including review)

Perceived quality:

Content Collections + Zod: zero malformed articles published
Planning v2.0: killed pasteurization – every article has personality
Lucide icons: professional look
OKLCH design tokens: perfect dark mode with zero tweaks

Challenges faced:

❌ Agent synchronization – ensuring one agent’s output is valid input for the next
❌ Data validation – AI can hallucinate specs if WebSearch isn’t used
❌ SEO vs personality – optimizing without keyword stuffing
❌ Routing decisions without first-party data – relying on third-party benchmarks initially

What worked well:

✅ Collaborative planning – dialogue before writing
✅ Benchmark-driven routing – data-driven decisions from day one
✅ Type safety via Content Collections – build catches issues early
✅ Specialized prompts – higher quality than generic AI
✅ Human guardrails – publisher never commits without approval

What still fails (for now):

⚠️ Analytics-agent not implemented yet – waiting for real traffic
⚠️ Internal linking automation – still manual
⚠️ A/B testing for creative briefs – need more volume first

SEO metrics: waiting for the first 30–60 days of indexing. Realistic goal: 60% of articles ranking top 50 within 90 days for long-tail keywords.

Revenue: still zero (waiting on affiliate program approvals). Initial target: R$50–200/month to prove the system works.

Not a success story (yet). It’s an ongoing experiment with promising results.

1. Collaborative Planning Eliminates Pasteurization

Problem: Rigid templates (review.md, comparison.md) made every piece identical.

Solution: Planning-agent talks before writing. Every article has a unique creative brief with a custom structure.

Impact: Higher editorial quality. Sites don’t feel “pasteurized.” Readers notice the authenticity.

2. Benchmark-Based Dynamic Routing Is a Game Changer

Problem: Using /reviews/ for everything ignored the fact that /coupons/ converts 4× better (VPNMentor data).

Solution: Routing-agent analyzes leaders in the niche and makes data-driven URL decisions.

Impact: Conversion rates optimized from day one. No six-month A/B testing cycle.

3. Content Collections + Zod = Type-Safe Content

Problem: Malformed frontmatter broke builds – discovered in production.

Solution: Zod schema validates every frontmatter field at build time. Description > 160 chars? Build fails.

Impact: Zero malformed content bugs in production. Superior developer experience.

4. OKLCH > HSL/RGB for Design Systems

Problem: HSL has perceptual inconsistencies. Yellow L=50% looks brighter than blue L=50%. Dark mode is unbalanced.

Solution: OKLCH ensures consistent perceived lightness. L=70% looks equally bright in any color.

Impact: Balanced dark mode without manual tweaks. Better accessibility. Professional design.

5. Lucide Icons > Emojis for Professionalism

Problem: Emojis render differently across systems (Windows vs macOS vs Linux). Visual inconsistencies.

Solution: Lucide Icons – 400+ consistent, accessible SVG icons.

Impact: Visual consistency. Screen readers understand them. Elevates professionalism.

6. AI Needs Human Guardrails

Problem: Publisher-agent could auto-commit and publish mistakes.

Solution: Critical rule – NEVER commit/push without explicit user approval.

Impact: Controlled quality. Trust in the system. Avoids bad publications.

7. Specialized Prompts > Generic Prompts

Problem: One-size-fits-all prompt (“write an article about X”) yields generic output.

Solution: Eight agents with 3,170 lines of specialized prompts. Each excels at its task.

Impact: Higher-quality output. Fewer regenerations. Maintained consistency.

AI agents are not a universal solution. Here’s my honest decision framework:

✅ Use AI agents when:

You handle high volumes of repetitive content where each piece still needs to be unique.
Example: 50 product reviews – similar structure but different substance.

You have a clear editorial process that can be codified.
Example: Planning → Research → Writing → SEO → Publish is a repeatable pipeline.

You want to scale without hiring a big team.
Example: One person + eight agents can do the work of three or four people.

You have the expertise to review AI output.
AI produces fast but needs a human to validate quality and accuracy.

You value process consistency.
Agents always follow the process. Humans may skip steps.

❌ DON’T use AI agents when:

You need genuinely original creativity.
AI recombines known knowledge well; it struggles to invent something unheard of.

You produce a small volume of highly personalized content.
For five super-custom pieces per month, a human beats the setup overhead.

You lack the time/expertise to review output.
AI can hallucinate data. If you can’t validate, don’t use it.

You need deep emotional storytelling.
AI shines at technical/informational pieces. Human writing still wins at touching emotions.

You don’t have a clear editorial process.
If you don’t know what you want, AI won’t guess it.

Real trade-offs:

Aspect	Human	AI + Human Review
Speed	1–2 articles/day	15–20 articles/day
Creative quality	High	Medium-high
Consistency	Variable	High
Cost	High (salary)	Medium (API + review)
Required expertise	None (if good writer)	Yes (review output)
Scalability	Hard	Easy

My honest recommendation:

Use AI for scaled production + human review for quality. It’s not “AI replacing humans” – it’s “AI augmenting humans.”

For this project (affiliate marketing with 45 articles/month), AI agents make sense. For a personal blog with two or three deeply reflective posts a month, probably not.

AffiliateOS is actively under construction. Here’s what’s next:

Short term (next 30 days):

[ ] Implement analytics-agent for continuous monitoring
[ ] Produce the first 15 articles in the vpn-saas niche to validate SEO
[ ] Test 3–5 creative briefs and compare engagement
[ ] Apply to affiliate programs (Hostinger, Impact, Amazon)
[ ] Collect the first real traffic data

Mid term (60–90 days):

[ ] Refine routing decisions with first-party conversion data
[ ] Add automatic internal linking across related articles
[ ] Implement A/B testing for headlines and CTAs
[ ] Expand to a third niche (validate system in another vertical)
[ ] Optimize underperforming articles based on analytics

Long term (6–12 months):

[ ] Open source the agents (if validation is positive)
[ ] Automatic content refresh system for older pieces
[ ] Multi-language support (expand to EN and ES)
[ ] CRM integrations for lead nurturing
[ ] Predictive analysis of trending topics

Current limitations:

⚠️ Analytics-agent depends on real traffic (still waiting)
⚠️ Internal linking is still manual (tedious at scale)
⚠️ Content refresh isn’t automated
⚠️ Multi-language needs dedicated agents per language
⚠️ Technical data validation could be more robust

Long-term vision:

Turn AffiliateOS into an open framework for creators and agencies that want to use AI responsibly and effectively in content marketing. It’s not about “replacing writers” – it’s about giving creators superpowers.

After building eight specialized agents, 3,170 lines of prompts, and running dozens of experiments, here’s my honest takeaway:

AI doesn’t replace content creators. It amplifies them.

AffiliateOS agents are not “autonomous writing robots.” They’re specialized tools that let humans produce more, better, and more consistently.

The planning-agent doesn’t invent strategy alone – it collaborates with me to structure ideas. The content-agent doesn’t write without context – it follows detailed creative briefs. The publisher-agent doesn’t deploy without approval – it waits for human validation.

The magic isn’t in eliminating humans. It’s in specialization.

Each agent masters ONE thing. Planning. Routing. Research. SEO. Publishing. That division of responsibility keeps quality high at scale – impossible with a single generalist AI or generic templates.

For marketing leaders: AI agents can 10× your content output without hiring ten more people. But you still need someone with expertise to review the output, validate accuracy, and ensure brand voice alignment.

For content creators: AI won’t steal your job. It will eliminate repetitive tasks (research, SEO optimization, formatting) and free up time for what humans do best – genuine creativity, emotional storytelling, original insights.

For developers: Architecting specialized agents is a powerful pattern. Don’t build a “super agent that does everything” – build experts that collaborate. Quality comes from specialization.

If you run a marketing team, agency, or content operation and want to explore how AI can multiply results without losing authenticity, let’s talk.

I’m not selling a product. I’m sharing the lessons from building real AI systems applied to marketing.

Reach out if you:

Manage a content team and want to scale without sacrificing quality
Work at a digital marketing agency exploring smart automation
Are a tech lead evaluating AI for content operations
Are a creator looking to scale output without becoming a generic factory

I don’t promise magic results. I promise an honest conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and how to build responsible AI systems.

Stack mentioned:

Astro – Static site framework
Claude AI – AI model (Anthropic)
Tailwind CSS – Utility-first CSS
Lucide Icons – SVG icon system
Radix UI – Headless components
Cloudflare Pages – Hosting and CDN

How to Deploy n8n with Defang

Introduction

n8n is a powerful open-source workflow automation tool that allows you to connect various applications and services together. Defang is a modern deployment platform that simplifies the process of deploying containerized applications to the cloud. In this guide, we'll walk through the process of deploying n8n using Defang.

Before getting started, make sure you have:

A Defang account (sign up at defang.io)
Docker installed on your local machine
Basic knowledge of command-line interface
Git installed for version control

First, install the Defang CLI tool on your system:

# For macOS/Linux
curl -fsSL https://s.defang.io/install.sh | sh

# For Windows (PowerShell)
iwr https://s.defang.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

Verify the installation:

defang version

defang login

This will open a browser window for authentication. Follow the prompts to complete the login process.

Create a new directory for your n8n deployment:

mkdir n8n-defang
cd n8n-defang

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.8'

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changeme
      - N8N_HOST=${N8N_HOST}
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://${N8N_HOST}
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n

volumes:
  n8n_data:

Deploy your n8n instance using Defang:

defang compose up

Defang will:

Build and package your application
Create the necessary cloud resources
Deploy your n8n instance
Provide you with a public URL

Once deployed, Defang will provide you with a URL where your n8n instance is running. Access it through your browser:

https://your-n8n-instance.defang.dev

Username: admin
Password: changeme (remember to change this!)

After logging in:

Click on "Create Workflow" to start building your automation
Add nodes by clicking the "+" button
Connect different services and applications
Test your workflow using the "Execute Workflow" button
Activate your workflow when ready

Security Configuration

Change Default Credentials: Update your basic auth password immediately
Enable SSL: Defang automatically provides SSL certificates
Set Up Environment Variables: Store sensitive data securely using Defang secrets:

defang config set N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD your_secure_password

Monitoring and Maintenance

Check Logs: View application logs using:

defang logs

Monitor Performance: Access Defang dashboard to monitor resource usage
Update n8n: To update to the latest version:

defang compose up --force

Integration Best Practices

Use Webhooks: Configure webhook URLs for external service integrations
Set Up Credentials: Store API keys and credentials securely in n8n
Test Workflows: Always test workflows in a staging environment first
Enable Notifications: Set up error notifications for workflow failures

Backup Configuration

Ensure your n8n data is backed up regularly:

Use Defang's volume backup features
Export important workflows regularly from the n8n UI
Store workflow JSON files in version control

Common Issues

Connection Errors: Check your Defang logs for error messages:

defang logs --follow

Port Issues: Ensure port 5678 is properly exposed in your compose file

Authentication Problems: Verify environment variables are set correctly

Getting Help

Defang Documentation: https://docs.defang.io
n8n Documentation: https://docs.n8n.io
Defang Discord Community
n8n Community Forum

Deploying n8n with Defang provides a streamlined, production-ready workflow automation platform. With automatic SSL, easy scaling, and simple deployment commands, you can focus on building powerful automations rather than managing infrastructure.

The combination of n8n's versatile automation capabilities and Defang's deployment simplicity makes this an excellent solution for teams looking to implement workflow automation quickly and reliably.

Happy automating! 🚀

Devoxx: Hello (Virtual) World by Keren Kenzi

Hello (Virtual) World by Keren Kenzi

Keren Kenzi takes us on a fun dive into building your own virtual reality playground using JavaScript, HTML, and A-Frame. Through a live demo, you’ll learn the fundamentals of crafting a simple VR game—think loading scenes, placing objects, and making it interactive with the DOM API.

This talk is all about sparking your creativity and giving you the tools to start experimenting with VR right in your browser. Whether you’re a coding newbie or a seasoned dev, you’ll leave inspired to build games and have a blast in your very own virtual world!

Watch on YouTube

TechWorld with Nana: Kafka Crash Course - Hands-On Project

Kafka Crash Course – Hands-On Project

Dive into Apache Kafka from the ground up: learn what Kafka is, why it exists, and how it delivers rock-solid performance compared to other message brokers. Then roll up your sleeves with a step-by-step Python + Docker demo—spin up Kafka via Docker Compose, build a producer and consumer, play with the CLI, and gracefully shut everything down.

You’ll also get handy links to the GitLab repo, official docs, and beginner-friendly Python/Docker tutorials, plus timestamps so you can jump straight to any part of the journey. Perfect for anyone who wants a smooth, practical deep dive into building scalable systems with Kafka.

Watch on YouTube

🛠️ Hacktoberfest 2025 — 17 Pull Requests in One Day, for the Love of Clean Code 😅🤖🧠

Experience report from Boly38 on an intense open source contribution day: 17 PRs focused on security, CI/CD, and code sustainability.

Published by @boly38 — October 5, 2025

🌍 Introduction

Every October, Hacktoberfest inspires thousands of developers to give back to open source.

This year, I decided to dedicate an entire day to improving the quality and security of the projects I maintain or contribute to.

The result?

👉 17 Pull Requests opened or under review across 5 repositories, all focused on maintenance, modernization, and automation.

🔒 The Day’s Goal: Make Code Safer and More Sustainable

Instead of adding new features, my focus was to:

fix npm security alerts (audit fix),
repair and clean up CI workflows,
migrate to modern tools (pnpm, Node 18),
and automate releases using gh (GitHub CLI).

These aren’t flashy changes, but they make projects stronger and more reliable for every contributor.

⚙️ The Contributions in Detail

🧩 `creharmony/node-etsy-client`

🧾 Update README — updated workflow name (#72)
🧪 Fix audit & tests — updated dependencies (#71)
🚀 gh release + improved contribution doc (#70)
🧱 Migrated Node 16 → 18 (#68)

🧩 `boly38/drobadi`

🔁 npm → pnpm + ESLint fixes (#67)
🧭 Immutable release + gh create release doc (#66)
🧪 Bump chai@latest (#64)
🩹 Audit fix: multiple dependencies (#63, #61, #57)

🧩 `DatavenueLiveObjects/Start-here-nodeJS`

🧱 Audit fix + log4js/mqtt updates (#35)
⚙️ Re-established audit job (#31)
🚀 Added release workflow (#29)

🧩 `boly38/action-umami-report`

🧩 Fix audit on main push (#103)
🧩 Add vulnerability scan to PRs (#101)

🧩 `boly38/botEnSky`

🌐 Make app Nixpacks/Coolify compatible (#152)
⚙️ Switch npm → pnpm (#151)
🚀 Immutable release + GitHub CLI integration (#149)

📊 Technical Summary

Category	Count	%
Security / audits	7	~41%
CI/CD / workflows	5	~29%
Automation & release	3	~18%
Performance / migration	2	~12%

🧮 17 PRs across 5 repositories, with 16 validated for Hacktoberfest.

💬 Key Takeaways

Open source isn’t only about new features — it’s also about keeping code healthy.
Automating workflows frees up time for innovation.
Every audit fix is a small, invisible but essential win.

And above all: contribution doesn’t have to be flashy to be valuable.

🪴 Bonus: Hacktoberfest, Holopin & Treenation

As always, Hacktoberfest rewards contributors with Holopin badges and a Treenation tree 🌳 for every 6th accepted PR.

A small symbolic gesture that makes every commit a little greener 💚.

❤️ Conclusion

One day, 17 PRs, and a huge sense of satisfaction:

seeing the builds green again, audits clean, and dependencies up to date.

If you want to join in, there’s still time this October!

➡️ hacktoberfest.com

👤 About Me

I’m Boly38, an open-source developer passionate about code reliability, CI/CD workflows, and the Node.js ecosystem.

⚙️ github.com/boly38

💬 Come say hi on BlueSky

PS: I didn’t actually write a single line of this post — ChatGPT generated the summary based on a simple copy/paste from my Hacktoberfest profile 😎🤖

O que é o Método RED para Observabilidade

Surgido das experiências adquiridas enquanto trabalhava no Google, Tom Wilkie desenvolveu o método RED (rate, errors
and duration), derivada das práticas adotadas pelo time de SRE da Google. O foco do RED é no que os usuários estão tendo de experiência com a aplicação, focando nos serviços individuais dentro de uma arquitetura distribuída.
Isso se deve ao fato que o método USE atende bem hardware, rede e discos, mas ele não atende bem os cenários de serviços de software, exigindo uma filosofia especifíca para software em microsserviços.

RED busca garantir que os serviços de software funcionem adequadamente para os usuários, onde as principais métricas dão nome ao método.: Taxa (Red), Erros (Errors) e Duração (Duration). A seguir iremos falar um pouco de cada uma delas.:

✔ Taxa (Rate).: Taxa é utilizada para medir o número de solicitações por segundo que um serviço está processando.
Ela permite entender o comportamento da demanda em cada serviço individual e identificar padrões que podem tanto gerar oportunidades como problemas de otimização.
Medir taxas de solicitações por segundo pode ser útil para a maioria dos serviços de software, mas alguns casos que possuem padrões indefinidos de demanda, olhar médias ao longo de determinados períodos de tempo pode ser mais indicado.
Além disso, a taxa pode ser uma métrica de contexto útil para entender o comportamento de outras métricas em um ambiente complexo e distribuído.

✔ Erros (Errors).: Dentro da filosofia do método RED, erros são os números de solicitações que tiveram problemas.
É uma métrica importante por que ela analisa algo que impacta diretamente os usuários, pois serviços com erros são percebidos pelos usuários. Solicitações que demoram mais que um tempo limite determinado podem ser considera das erros mesmo que retornem mensagem de sucesso.
Lembrando que é importante não apenas contar a quantidade de erros, mas considerar a taxa de erros como uma % do tráfego. Por exemplo.: taxas de erros de 1% para um serviço pode ser considerada aceitável, mas inaceitável para outro, classificar os tipos de erros é importante e ajuda na criação de alertas mais eficientes e na priorização
de atendimento em caso de incidente.

✔ Duração (Duration).: duração é a métrica que irá medir o tempo que as solicitações são atendidas. É a mais facilmente percebida pelos usuários, quando um serviço fica lento, os usuários logo percebem a lentidão.
Para medir essa métrica, é necessário atenção especial as distribuições para evitar usar apenas média. Médias podem trazer resultados enganosos por causa da influência de determinadas quantidades de solicitações. Trabalhar com porcentagens como P95 por exemplo podem trazer uma foto mais realista do que a maioria dos usuários estão tendo de comportamento do serviço.
Separar o que é a duração de solicitações com sucesso de solicitações com falha é importante pois cada uma gera diferentes impactos para os usuários e para o diagnóstico de problemas.

Benefícios do Método RED

RED fornece diversas vantagens para aplicações construídas em arquitetura de microsserviços. Além de reduzir a carga de trabalho através de uma visão de como cada serviço está agindo, possibilitando a rápida identificação de serviços com problemas ou instáveis.
RED também permite identificar como anda a experiência do usuário, possibilitando ações para manter os usuários satisfeitos com os serviços. Na arquitetura de microsserviços, a metodologia RED permite abstrair de forma eficiente o que está de errado com um serviço, permitindo ações mais eficientes e rápidas de correção.
Finalmente, RED permite a automação de tarefas e alertas, gerando aos times alertas e dashboards padronizados, o que torna os times mais efetivos.

Limitações e Considerações Finais

Apesar de ser muito bom para a arquitetura de microsserviços, RED tem algumas limitações que devem ser levadas em conta. Ele é muito bom para serviços orientados a solicitações, serviços que usam processamento em lotes ou streaming ele pode não ser tão efetivo. Outro ponto.: ele foca em solicitações síncronas, podendo não ser muito adequado para serviços assíncronos ou orientados a eventos.

Outra limitação é que RED não possui insights para problemas em recursos específicos, por exemplo.: um aumento no tempo de resposta de solicitação de forma ligeira pode ocorrer e você não ter as métricas internas do serviço para determinar as causas.
Em cenários de serviços que fazem muitas solicitações de downstream, RED pode ter suas métricas influenciadas por dependências, o que torna difícil identificar problemas no serviço.

O próprio criador do método, Tom Wikie recomenda que RED deva ser usada em conjunto com outras métricas, pois RED não foi pensada para cobrir todos os pontos da monitoração, o que faz com que ela seja possível de usar junto com outros métodos como o USE, fornecendo aos times uma cobertura de forma abrangente do monitoramento de uma aplicação.

Referências.:
https://grafana.com/blog/2018/08/02/the-red-method-how-to-instrument-your-services/
https://gist.github.com/lpsm-dev/af6acc8bf6581614e3f88485d87d27e4
https://www.opservices.com.br/o-metodo-red-uma-nova-estrategia-para-monitorar-microsservicos/
https://medium.com/@valentin.marlier/monitoring-made-simple-understanding-red-and-use-methodologies-608aec056ae9
https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/red-and-monitoring-three-key-metrics-and-why-they-matter/
https://thenewstack.io/monitoring-methodologies-red-and-use/
E-book Os Métodos RED e USE e os 4 Golden Signals para Observabilidade - Jeferson Fernando - LinuxTips.

Untitled

Check out this Pen I made!

COLORS: SABRI | A COLORS SHOW

SABRI radiates pure soul and vulnerability in her epic COLORS session, showcasing her Dutch roots and magnetic presence. Catch her performance on YouTube, TikTok, and all your streaming platforms for an intimate musical journey.

Dive into COLORS with handpicked playlists—ALL COLORS SHOWS, FEEL, MOVE—and our 24/7 livestream. Don’t forget to follow for merch, socials, and fresh talent from every corner of the globe!

Watch on YouTube

How to draw province borders

I'm making an AoH2-like strategy game. I have a provinces.bmp image where each province has a unique color. The border coordinates are currently extracted by looping through pixels and checking neighbors. How can I draw the borders and fill the provinces with color? Also, is there a better way to extract border coords?
fn draw_borders(mut commands: Commands) {
let img =
image::open("assets/maps/testmap/provinces.bmp").expect("Failed to open provinces.bmp");
let (width, height) = img.dimensions();

let mut pixels: Vec<(u8, u8, u8)> = Vec::with_capacity((width * height) as usize);
for (_, _, pixel) in img.pixels() {
    pixels.push((pixel[0], pixel[1], pixel[2]))
}

let mut border_coords = Vec::new();
for y in 0..height {
    for x in 0..width {
        let current = pixels[(y * width + y) as usize];

        let neighbors = [
            (x.saturating_sub(1), y),
            ((x + 1).min(width - 1), y),
            (x, y.saturating_sub(1)),
            (x, (y + 1).min(height - 1)),
        ];

        for &(nx, ny) in neighbors.iter() {
            if pixels[(ny * width + nx) as usize] != current {
                border_coords.push((x, y));
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

let border_coords: HashSet<_> = border_coords.into_iter().collect(); // remove duplicates
// render borders

}

Polyphonic: The War Songs of Greenwich Village

The War Songs of Greenwich Village

This snippet teases a dive into the “War Songs of Greenwich Village” but mostly serves up a plug for Century of Song, complete with purchase links at Barnes & Noble, Blackwells, Amazon, and Indigo.

Also included is a nod to a haunting rendition of “The Foggy Dew” by Dancing Willow—your free demo track via Wikimedia Commons.

Watch on YouTube

OpenAI's first device with Jony Ive could be delayed due to 'technical issues'

OpenAI and Jony Ive could still have some serious loose ends to tie up before releasing their highly anticipated AI device. According to a Financial Times report, the partnership is still struggling with some "technical issues" that could ultimately end up pushing back the device's release date, which is expected to be sometime in 2026.

One of those lingering dilemmas involves figuring out the AI assistant's voice and mannerisms, according to FT's sources. The AI device is meant to be "a friend who's a computer who isn't your weird AI girlfriend," according to a FT source who was briefed on the plans. Beyond landing on a personality, OpenAI and Ive are still figuring out potential privacy concerns stemming from a device that's always listening. On top of that, the budget could reportedly be a challenge due to the increased computing power necessary to run these mass-produced AI devices.

Outside these latest struggles, we still know very little about the upcoming product. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, reportedly offered some clues to employees that it could be pocket-sized, aware of its environment and sans display. There are still plenty of questions about what OpenAI's first hardware project will amount to, but the company could be exercising more caution since similar devices, like the Humane AI Pin, were discontinued after failing to deliver on sales.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-first-device-with-jony-ive-could-be-delayed-due-to-technical-issues-182226416.html?src=rss

Anker's latest Prime charging devices are already 20 percent off

Anker's latest Prime charging devices are already on sale thanks to some handy coupons. The best deals include the laptop-compatible Prime Power Bank (26,250mAh, 300W), which is 20 percent off and down to $184 when you clip the on-page coupon on its Amazon page.

This portable charger delivers a whopping 300W of total output between its two USB-C ports and single USB-A port. Anker says that, thanks to its 140W output (and if you're using a 5A cable), you can top up the battery of an M4 Pro MacBook Pro to 50 percent in 27 minutes and an iPhone 17 Pro Max to 50 percent in 22 minutes. You can keep tabs on what's happening on each port using the display.

This is also the first Anker power bank that supports up to 250W of input recharging by using both USB-C ports simultaneously. This faster charging can top up the powerbank's own battery to 50 percent in just 13 minutes, according to Anker.

This model has a capacity of 26,250mAh (99.75Wh), which is very close to the FAA's limit of 100W. It's TSA-approved, so you'll be able to take it on flights. It's capable of taking an M4 MacBook Pro from fully dead to an 80 percent charge. The power bank weighs 1.3 lbs — the same as about three iPhones, Anker says.

Other Anker Prime devices are on sale too. A new 3-in-1 MagSafe charger — which can top up the batteries of your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods with wireless charging case simultaneously — also gets a 20 percent discount to $184 when you use a clippable coupon. While there are certainly less expensive 3-in-1 MagSafe options out there, this one includes Qi2 25W support for faster charging, as well as TEC active cooling. Anker suggests this can help speed up charging times and help guard against iPhone battery degradation over time.

A three-port GaN Prime Charger that plugs into an outlet is 20 percent off too, at $120 with a clippable coupon. Anker says it's as compact as an AirPods Pro 3 case and can provide a total output of 160W, with up to 140W via a single USB-C cable. The charger is said to offer smart power distribution, and you can monitor what's happening and adjust modes via an onboard display and controls.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/ankers-latest-prime-charging-devices-are-already-20-percent-off-152040336.html?src=rss

Uber and Lyft drivers in California are able to unionize under new law

California governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Friday that grants rideshare drivers in the state the right to unionize. It's the second state to grant organizing rights to rideshare drivers, who are independent contractors, following the passage of a similar law in Massachusetts in 2024. There are over 800,000 rideshare drivers in California, and the bill that was just signed into law "establishes a clear legal framework for union certification, bargaining processes and enforcement," according to a press release from the office of Assemblymember Buffy Wicks.

This means drivers working for companies like Uber and Lyft will be able to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits and working conditions. Under the terms of the law, driver organizations will be able to apply for union recognition starting in May 2026 as long as they have support from at least 10 percent of active rideshare drivers in the state. The organization would then need support from at least 30 percent of active drivers to begin bargaining on their behalf.

As part of a deal made in September, Newsom also signed a measure that reduces the insurance coverage requirements for Uber and Lyft in the case of accidents caused by uninsured drivers, Associated Press reports.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-and-lyft-drivers-in-california-are-able-to-unionize-under-new-law-171309594.html?src=rss

This Roomba robot vacuum is on sale for $150 for Prime Day

Robot vacuums are great items to look for during events like October Prime Day. They're usually hundreds of dollars off, so you can save a ton if you're buying one as a gift or you want to upgrade an aging robovac you have at home already. One of the best deals this time around is on the iRobot Roomba 104, which is 40 percent off and on sale for only $150.

This is a newer version of the unit that topped our list of the best budget robot vacuums. It's an entry-level robovac that gets the job done. The cleaning motor is fairly powerful and it ships with a multi-surface brush and an edge-sweeping brush. The vacuum uses LiDAR to map a home and to help it avoid obstacles when cleaning.

It's also been equipped with specialized sensors to prevent falling down stairs. Steps are the natural enemy of all robot vacuums, except maybe this one. The Roomba 104 integrates with the company's proprietary app, which allows for custom cleaning schedules and the like. The robot can also be controlled via voice assistant and boasts compatibility with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.

The vacuum will automatically head to the charger for some juice when running low, which is nice. The battery lasts around 200 minutes per charge, which is a decent enough metric for a budget-friendly robovac. The only downside here? This is just a vacuum. It doesn't mop and it doesn't come with a dedicated debris canister.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-roomba-robot-vacuum-is-on-sale-for-150-for-prime-day-164953753.html?src=rss

ICE is planning to create a surveillance team that hunts for leads on social media

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has plans to build out a 24/7/365 surveillance team that focuses on scouring social media for case leads, as revealed in documents first discovered by Wired. According to public records, ICE has put out a request for information — which allows the agency to detail its preliminary scope of work to gauge any interest from contractors — that details using social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube to develop leads on wanted individuals.

For "urgent cases," the team is expected to work on leads with ICE's Top 10 Most Wanted within a 30-minute timeframe. However, the breadth of work ranges all the way to low-priority cases, like those involving someone convicted of a non-violent misdemeanor or "has no convictions but has a significant arrest history," with a more generous eight-hour window to generate leads.

According to the documents, ICE wants at least 12 full-time staff to work at its National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, which will require three staffers on duty at all times. On the other side of the country, ICE is looking for a minimum staff of 16 full-time contractors for its Pacific Enforcement Response Center in Santa Ana, California, that will also have a duty rotation of at least two staffers on for "after-hour requirements and emergency situations."

While the plans are in the very early stages, ICE's plans are aggressive and even ask how prospective contractors would use artificial intelligence to achieve its goals. The federal agency is no stranger to controversial tech though, as it has previously been accused of using facial recognition.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/ice-is-planning-to-create-a-surveillance-team-that-hunts-for-leads-on-social-media-163743143.html?src=rss

Prime Day Kindle deals include the second-gen Scribe for $100 off

Amazon devices are already on sale for fall Prime Day. Case in point: the second-gen Kindle Scribe. The E Ink tablet with 16GB of storage is $100 off, down from $400 to $300, which is a record-low price. If you want more storage, the 32GB and 64GB versions are also 25 and 24 percent off, respectively.

The Kindle Scribe is our pick for best e-reader E Ink tablet. It scored an 86 in our review, thanks to the smooth reading and writing experience it provides. We were also fans of its sleek and slender design. It has a 10.2-inch screen and offers front lights that auto-adjust to your needs. Our biggest gripe was the cost which, thanks to this deal, is less of an issue.

It's worth noting that Amazon announced a few new Kindle Scribe models recently, but none of them are available just yet. The Kindle Scribe 3 has a thinner and lighter design, plus faster page-turning and writing experiences. The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is Amazon's first full-color E Ink tablet. If you want the latest and greatest, it's worth it to wait — but Amazon hasn't yet named specific release dates for either new model. During its latest hardware event, it only said the new Scribes were coming "later this year."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-kindle-deals-include-the-second-gen-scribe-for-100-off-134701051.html?src=rss

The best Amazon Prime Day vacuum deals you can get right now: Save on machines from iRobot, Shark, Dyson and others

It's frankly amazing how good vacuum cleaners are these days. Once the laughingstock of the gadget world with their dusty bags and tiny wheels, today's vacuums are sleek dirt-destroying machines, capable of rendering a house habitable no matter how many cats live in it. Some of them are even robots that will do the cleaning for you. For October Prime Day, Amazon has steeply cut the prices of some of the best vacuums (and some pretty good ones alongside). Now is a fantastic time to upgrade your cleaner, so check out the list below for our best recommendations.

Dyson V15 Detect Plus for $570 (33 percent off): Our top pick for the best cordless vacuum on the market right now, the V15 Detect has some of the strongest suction power you'll find in a stick vacuum, plus a lightweight design and a dustbin that can hold more dirt and debris than it might seem. This model comes with five cleaning attachments, including the Fluffy Optic cleaner head that has LEDs to illuminate the floor as you're vacuuming so you can better see where all the dust bunnies are.

Dyson Ball Animal Total Clean Upright Vacuum for $410 (38 percent off): Dyson is still the king of reinventing vacuums, and the bagless, hyper-maneuverable Ball Animal is a blast to use. The Ball design is based on ease of steering, but the hidden MVP is the sealing — from the head to the canister, not a hair is getting out of this one once it's in.

Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum for $459 (29 percent off): If you like the look of the AV2501S but have even more space to clean, the AV2501AE is also on sale. Its self-empty base can go a full 60 days before you have to dump it out, so it's ideal for large spaces, complex homes or areas that see heavy use. It's got the same features otherwise, including LiDAR mapping and two hours of autonomous work.

Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch for $450 (55 percent off): This robotic mop/vacuum combo is engineering so you'll almost never need to revisit it after you set it up. It can clean its own mop, refill its own water tank and empty its own dustbin for up to 30 days at a time. It's also equipped with air jets that blast dirt out of corners the vacuum can't fit into.

Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 for $300 (57 percent off, Prime exclusive): The Shark Matrix Plus takes the robot vacuum concept even further by working a mop into the design for hands-off wet cleaning. This model is self-cleaning, self-emptying, self-charging and capable of tackling ground-in stains on hard floors.

Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe for $160 (27 percent off): Moving into manual vacuums, let's start with one of the best. The Shark Navigator Lift-Away is a champion at getting deeply ingrained crud out of carpets, but it's also capable of squaring away bare floors. You can switch between the two settings quickly, and the lift-away canister makes it easy to empty.

iRobot Roomba 104 Vac for $150 (40 percent off, Prime exclusive): This entry-level Roomba is a good pick for anyone who's new to owning a robot vacuum. It features a multi-surface brush and an edge-sweeping brush to clean all types of flooring, and it uses LiDAR navigation to avoid obstacles as it goes. The iRobot mobile app lets you control the robot, set cleaning schedules and more.

iRobot Roomba Plus 504 for $380 (36 percent off): For those looking to upgrade to a more advanced robot vacuum, the Roomba Plus 504 is a great next step. It can clean almost anything that might land on a home floor, and if it can't clean it, it can steer around it. Two brushes and strong suction get at tougher stains, and it even includes an app you can use to set cleaning zones and change suction force remotely.

Levoit LVAC-300 cordless vacuum for $250 (29 percent off, Prime exclusive): One of our favorite cordless vacuums, this Levoit machine has great handling, strong suction power for its price and a premium-feeling design. Its bin isn't too small, it has HEPA filtration and its battery life should be more than enough for you to clean your whole home many times over before it needs a recharge.

Amazon Basics Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner for $55 (21 percent off): All right, nobody goes to Amazon Basics to be impressed, but we have to admit this vacuum exceeds expectations. It's light, it has a big dust reservoir and it comes with all the attachments you'll need for a reasonably sized apartment. The filter is also simple to remove and clean.

Black+Decker QuickClean Cordless Handheld Vacuum for $27 (33 percent off): Rounding out the list, we've got this small-but-mighty hand vacuum, perfect for crevices, shelves or cleaning out your car. It weighs about 1.4 pounds and hoovers up small messes in the blink of an eye. The lithium-ion battery stays charged for up to 10 hours.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-amazon-prime-day-vacuum-deals-you-can-get-right-now-save-on-machines-from-irobot-shark-dyson-and-others-151504387.html?src=rss

The best Amazon Prime Day deals on Anker wireless chargers, power banks and other accessories

Maybe you’re not looking to snag an iPad, a robot vacuum or a VR headset this Amazon Prime Day because you’re set with what you already have. Instead, though, consider picking up a few discounted “essential” gadgets, or really, devices you don’t want to be left without in a pinch. Charging gear falls into this camp, and Anker makes some of our favorite power banks, cables, wireless chargers and more.

A bunch of Anker’s gear is on sale for October Prime Day, making now a great time to stock up. Personally, I always end up getting an extra charging cable or surge protector for my house, or I take stock of the gifts I’ll need over the next couple of months and pick up a power brick while they’re deeply discounted. Here, we’ve collected all of the best October Prime Day deals on Anker devices and other charging accessories so you don’t have to go searching for them.

Power banks are not as straightforward as you might think. They come in all shapes, sizes and capacities and can have extra features like magnetic alignment, built-in kickstands, extra ports and more.

It's worth considering how you'll use a power bank before you decide on the right one to buy. Smartphones don’t need huge-capacity bricks to power up a couple of times over; a 5K or 10K portable charger should be plenty if that’s all you’re looking to support. If you want a more versatile accessory that can charge a tablet, laptop or gaming handheld, consider a brick with a higher capacity — and more ports so you can charge multiple devices simultaneously.

A good wireless charger can lighten your cable load. While wired charging remains faster and more efficient, wireless chargers can clean up your space by eliminating a few of those cables that constantly trip you up.

We recommend thinking about where you'll use a wireless charger before buying one. Those outfitting a home office with new tech may want a wireless charging stand that puts their phone in an upright position that’s easier to see while it’s powering up, while those who want a wireless charger for their nightstand might prefer a lay-flat design or a power station that can charge a smartphone, smartwatch and pair of earbuds all at once.

Plenty of other charging gear is on sale for Prime Day. It’s never a bad idea to pick up a few 30W USB-C adapters so you always have what you need to reliably power up your phone. Same goes for extra USB-C (or USB-A) cables that can live in your car, in your office at work or by the couch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-amazon-prime-day-deals-on-anker-wireless-chargers-power-banks-and-other-accessories-164536013.html?src=rss

The best Prime Day SSD deals: Save on gear from Samsung, Crucial, Seagate and others

If you've never considered adding a solid-state drive (SSD) to your PC or game console, October Prime Day is a great time to start — and if you already know what a difference extra storage can make, October Prime Day is the perfect time to outfit your build. For those who haven't heard of SSDs, they're physical upgrades that stack on top of a device's storage to make more files accessible at once. The more data a console or PC can hold at a time, the quicker it can retrieve and process that data, which makes everything run faster. Here are the best SSD deals we've managed to find on Amazon.

Best October Prime Day SSD deals

Crucial X10 4TB Portable SSD for $240 (39 percent off): The Crucial X9 is our current favorite portable SSD, but the X10 is a step beyond. Based on USB 3.2, it's compatible with a wide range of devices, and reaches reading speeds of 2,100MB/s — all in an extremely portable pocket-sized case.

Crucial BX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5-inch Internal SSD for $64 (33 percent off): The BX500 is Crucial's budget-conscious SSD option, but that doesn't mean it disappoints. This internal solid state drive cuts down on battery consumption and improves processing with read speeds reaching 540MB/s. It comes with a three-year warranty, too.

Crucial P310 2TB for $122 (49 percent off): The 2TB level of the Crucial P310 is available at the lowest price we've seen all year. It's a compact drive that works great in small laptops or Steam Decks — especially the latter, given Valve's warning against cramming in large SSDs. For this small size and great price, you get read speeds of over 7,000MB/s.

Samsung 990 Evo Plus 1TB for $70 (33 percent off): This is an incredible deal on an internal SSD from a reliable brand. All capacities of the Samsung 990 Evo Plus are currently on sale, but even the 1TB option can visibly boost your performance with top read speeds of 7,250MB/s. There's no heatsink, but nickel plating on the controller reduces both heat output and energy use.

Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB for $170 (19 percent off): Samsung's 990 Pro series represents a massive leap forward for the brand, cutting energy costs by around half while boosting speeds up to at least 7,000MB/s write and 5,000MB/s read. This version comes with 2TB of storage and its own built-in heatsink.

Samsung Fit Plus 256GB for $23 (30 percent off): The Samsung Fit Plus isn't just the best thumb drive on the market right now — it's one of the best SSDs, period. This deal gets you 256GB of storage and read speeds of 400MB/s for almost unfathomably cheap. It's also built to resist water, extreme temperatures, magnets and even radiation.

Kingston SX1000 1TB High Performance for $105 (9 percent off): If you can't swing a Crucial X9 or X10 right now, Kingston offers a much more affordable alternative. The SX1000 can handle both PC backups and gaming storage with ease, nearly matching the X9 in our speed tests. It's also easy to carry around, though keep a tight grip as it's not officially rated for any drop height.

SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD for $148 (29 percent off): The SanDisk Extreme line of portable SSDs provides a great middle ground in both price and performance. Read speeds of 1,050MB/s are enough for transferring most files you'll encounter day-to-day. Its external design holds up too, with a large carabiner loop, IP65 waterproofing and dustproofing and drop protection as high as three meters.

Seagate Storage Expansion Card 2TB for $250 (31 percent off): This SeaGate SSD is specifically for expanding storage on the Xbox Series X and S, and it's designed to meet Xbox specs exactly. You'll get exactly the same performance booting a game from this card as you would from internal Xbox storage, which makes data management infinitely easier.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-prime-day-ssd-deals-save-on-gear-from-samsung-crucial-seagate-and-others-170039409.html?src=rss

The best October Prime Day TV deals: Early discounts on sets from Sony, Samsung, TCL and others

While Black Friday remains the best time to grab a new TV at a discount, Amazon’s latest October Prime Day sale looks to be a decent time to take the plunge if you need to upgrade right away. A handful of well-reviewed sets from Samsung, Sony and other name brands are a bit cheaper than usual, including high-end OLEDs and more budget-friendly models alike. We’ve picked through the best October Prime Day TV deals we can find below, and we’ll update this roundup as prices change and more offers arise. Note that the Prime Big Deal Days sale, as the two-day event is technically called, officially runs October 7-8, with some deals exclusive to Prime subscribers.

Hisense U8QG 65-inch Mini-LED TV for $1,082 ($416 off): Several reviews suggest that the Hisense U8QG ticks most of the requisite boxes for a LCD TV in 2025: robust local dimming and mini-LED backlighting, exceptionally high brightness, vibrant quantum-dot colors, a fast refresh rate (165Hz in this case), support for the major HDR formats and so on. It’s a higher-end option than something like the TCL QM6K with much better brightness and contrast, though it still falls short of a good OLED TV when it comes to the latter. Like most LCD panels, it’ll also look a bit washed out if you view it from an angle. It has three HDMI 2.1 ports, which is one fewer than many other TVs in this price range, though it uniquely includes a USB-C video input if you want to hook up a gaming laptop or Nintendo Switch. (Just note that you won’t get VRR or HDR when using that.) You’d mainly get it over an OLED TV if you’re willing to trade some picture quality for something that’s better-suited in a bright room. This deal on the 65-inch model isn’t an all-time low, but it matches the best price we’ve tracked since July.

Samsung S90F 55-inch QD-OLED TV for $1,498 ($100 off): The Samsung S90F is an upper-tier model with a QD-OLED panel, which blends the usual perks of a quality OLED set — near-perfect contrast, wide viewing angles, clear motion, low input lag — with a layer of quantum dots. This helps it produce a wider gamut of more vivid colors compared to traditional WOLED TVs. It also comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports and has a fast refresh rate of 144Hz. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, however, and reviews we trust say that the LG C5, a competing WOLED model, retains darker black levels in a bright room. (The S90F has a more colorful image, though.) We saw this 55-inch model go for $100 less earlier in the month, but this deal matches the best price we’ve tracked otherwise. The 65-inch version is similarly discounted. Just make sure you only buy the 55-, 65- or 77-inch model, as every other size in the US uses a lesser WOLED panel. Shady, we know.

Sony Bravia 8 II 65-inch QD-OLED TV for $2,998 ($502 off): It’s certainly not cheap, but the Sony Bravia 8 II has earned plaudits for its excellent image processing, upscaling and overall accuracy alongside the expected color, contrast and motion benefits of its QD-OLED display. This should help it make lots of movies and shows look closer to their original intent. It also uses the handy Google TV interface. Outside of an extremely brief dip in June, this deal matches the best price to date for the 65-inch version. That said, if you can’t stomach the high price, other reviews note that the older Sony A95L offers similar performance a bit less, while more recent competitors like the LG G5 and Samsung S95F can get noticeably brighter (even if they’re not always as accurate). Those two should be better for gaming as well, as the Bravia 8 II only has two HDMI 2.1 ports — one of which is an eARC port for soundbars — and its input lag is slightly higher.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $25 ($25 off): The standard Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K offers the same core experience as the pricier Fire TV Stick 4K Max, only it comes with a slightly slower processor, half the storage (8GB) and Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. For most people just looking for a casual streamer on the cheap, those shouldn’t be huge losses. This model is also more powerful than the just-announced Fire TV 4K Select, though its Fire OS interface can still be messy and ad-heavy, with special emphasis on Amazon’s own services. This deal is $3 more than the stick’s all-time low, though it matches the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday last year.

Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18 ($17 off): The Fire TV Stick HD is the budget pick in our guide to the best streaming devices. It can only stream up to 1080p, and it can run a bit choppier than the 4K models since it has a slower chipset and half the RAM (1GB). The usual issues with the Fire TV interface still apply here too. But if you just want to add streaming apps to an aging TV or basic monitor for as little cash as possible, it should get the job done. This discount ties the device's lowest price to date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-october-prime-day-tv-deals-early-discounts-on-sets-from-sony-samsung-tcl-and-others-180051602.html?src=rss

The best Amazon Prime Day kitchen deals: Get up to 50 percent off our favorite air fryers and more

Whether you call it October Prime Day or use Amazon’s official title, Prime Big Deal days, the sale represents some of the lowest prices of the year in nearly every department — and that includes kitchen gear. We have a slew of food enthusiasts on staff who have tested plenty of excellent kitchen tech, as seen in our reviews and buying guides. We’ve covered everything from air fryers to sous vide machines and now, many of those gadgets are on sale. Here are the best Prime Day deals on kitchen tech we recommend, along with links to our testing so you can see why we vouch for it.

Ninja Creami ice cream maker with extra pints $200 ($55 off with Prime): Here's a bundle that includes two additional pint jars for the ice cream maker. It's one of our favorite pieces of kitchen tech and we called it a frozen fantasy-maker in our review. Note that the unit itself dipped down to $160 last Black Friday and the extra pints have gone as low as $16.

Hamilton Beach Digital Rice Cooker for $37 ($13 off): Our top pick for a budget rice cooker is great for small kitchens (but probably not for big families). We thought it outperformed other cookers that are four times the price, though it’s not the best for all-day warming of rice as the bottom bigs got a little overdone.

Instant Pot Vortex Plus with Clear Cook for $80 ($20 off with Prime): This Vortex air fryer model is similar to our top airfryer pick, but is missing the Odor Ease feature. It still has the Clear Cook window that lets you keep an eye on your food as it crisps and the Vortex cooking tech heats up remarkably fast, with almost no pre-heating time.

Instant Pot Vortex Plus Air Fryer (4QT) for $65 ($65 off): Here’s a smaller version of our best overall air fryer. This one has a four-quart capacity, which is perfect for one person and small kitchens. And, like its larger sibling, pre-heats quickly thanks to a 1600-watt output.

Instant Pot Vortex 2-QT Mini for $38 ($22 off with Prime): The budget model from our air fryer guide may not be large but its two-quart basket is enough to reheat leftovers for two or cook up a batch of frozen appetizers. And, because of its small size, it doesn’t take up a ton of space on your countertops — ideal for a small kitchen.

Breville InFizz Fusion beverage maker for $200 ($50 off): We called this fizz-maker the bubble master in our review. True, it’s pricier than rivals in the same space, but the upscale design — that actually looks good on a countertop — somewhat makes up for the price premium. We also appreciate the Fusion Cap that helps prevent messy eruptions when you’re bubbling up your drinks.

Cosori Air Fryer Pro Compact for $85 ($15 off with Prime): One of our concerns with the Cosori 9-in-1 was that it was a little on the wide side, taking up extra countertop space. The Pro Compact has a more space-saving design while still packing a five-quart basket.

Instant Pot 4QT Vortex mini air fryer for $55 ($35 off with Prime): This model’s four-quart capacity falls between our top Instant Pot air fryer pick and the budget model. It has the Clear Cook window feature, six presets and it comes in pink in addition to the standard white and black.

Instant Pot Duo Plus for $90 ($50 off): We named this the best multicooker in our guide to the best kitchen tech we’ve tested. It can cook a dizzying array of foods from basic beans and rice to homemade yogurt. We like this one because it’s simple to use, and has quick-cooking modes for soup, eggs and grains. There’s even a sous vide cooking function.

Breville Bambino Plus for $400 ($100 off): In our gift guide for coffee lovers, this espresso machine earned our respect for its compact size and the fact that it doesn’t cost a grand, like some machines do. Plus the controls are easy for beginners to learn but makes silky milkfoam for pro-level latte artists.

Breville Juice Fountain Plus for $130 ($20 off): This went as low as $110 back in January, but it’s still a decent discount on a high-powered juice extractor. We were won over by its impressive juicing abilities and despite how it looks, it's surprisingly easy to clean — as long as you do it right away.

Ninja Dual Foodie Zone Air Fryer (DZ302) for $180 ($50 off): If you want to air fry two different things at the same time, this is the one to get. This is the same in specs, capacity and wattage as our top pick for a dual-zone air fryer, just with a different model number. It even has a feature that makes sure the two different foods are ready at the same time. Note the price was $20 lower for Prime members back in July.

Ninja 5.5-quart Air Fryer XL (AF150AMZ) for $130 ($50 off): This one earned an honorable mention in our guide to air fryers. It’s double the capacity of our budget pick and has a dehydrate preset. While we found the round basket a little cramped, we liked how the fryer’s vertical design saved counter space. Just note that this went as low as $90 in July.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-amazon-prime-day-kitchen-deals-get-up-to-50-percent-off-our-favorite-air-fryers-and-more-193009513.html?src=rss

Best Amazon Prime Day laptop deals: Early sales on machines from Apple, Dell, Lenovo, HP and more

If your laptop simply isn’t cutting it anymore, October Prime Day might have arrived just in time. As has been the case for the past few years, laptop deals are abundant for Amazon's Big Deal Days, bringing discounts to MacBooks, Windows laptops, Chromebooks and more. But we wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t know how to figure out if that laptop you’re eyeing actually has a good discount for Prime Day, or if the deal is stale.

That’s where Engadget can help. We’ve poured over the Prime Day laptop deals available this year to pick out the best ones you can get across all kinds of computers. If you’re super picky about the specs you want in a new laptop, we always recommend going straight to the manufacturer so you can configure the machine exactly to your needs. But if you’re willing to work with premade models, October Prime Day deals could help you save some cash on your next laptop.

Apple’s latest laptops are the MacBook Air M4 and the MacBook Pro M4, and we recommend getting those if you want a device that’s as future-proof as possible at the moment. You’ll find decent MacBook deals on Amazon throughout the year, and most of them will be on the base configurations. In a welcomed update earlier this year, Apple recently made all base models of the MacBook Air M4 have 16GB of RAM by default (which is the same as you’ll find on the base-level Pros).

You’ve got a lot of variety to choose from when it comes to Windows laptops, and that can be a blessing or a curse. We recommend looking for a laptop from a reputable brand (i.e. Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and others like them), and one that can handle daily work or play pressures. That means at least 16GB of RAM and 245GB of SSD storage, plus the latest Intel or AMD CPUs. If you’re looking for a new gaming laptop, you’ll need a bit more power and a dedicated graphics card to boot.

Most Chromebooks are already pretty cheap, but that just means you can get them for even less during an event like Prime Day. However, there are a ton of premium Chromebooks available today that didn’t exist even three years ago, so now is a great time to look out for discounts on those models. In general, we recommend looking for at least 4 to 8GB of RAM and at least 128GB of SDD storage in a Chromebook that you plan on using as your daily driver.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/best-amazon-prime-day-laptop-deals-early-sales-on-machines-from-apple-dell-lenovo-hp-and-more-130507583.html?src=rss

Shark robot vacuums are up to $400 off for Amazon Prime Day

For the Amazon Big Deal Days event (aka October Prime Day), a tasty deal on a Shark robot vacuum has popped up. You'll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of the offer on the Shark AV2501S AI Ultra robot vacuum, but if you are, you can get the device for over half off. The discount drops the price from $550 to $230.

That means you can snap up the robot vacuum for $320 below list price. The discount marks a record low for this model.

Shark offers several variations of its AI Ultra robot vacuums. There are small variations between them, and a different model is our pick for the best robot vacuum for most people. In general, you can expect solid cleaning performance from these devices, along with accurate home mapping and an easy-to-use app.

The model that's on sale here is said to run for up to 120 minutes on a single charge, which should be enough to clean an entire floor in a typical home. The self-emptying, bagless vacuum can store up to 30 days worth of dirt and debris in its base. Shark says it can capture 99.97 percent of dust and allergens with the help of HEPA filtration.

If you'd rather plump for a model that's able to mop your floors too, you're in luck: a Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 vacuum is on sale as well. At $300 for Prime members, this vacuum is available for $400 (or 57 percent) off the list price. Its mopping function can scrub hard floors 100 times per minute. You can also trigger the Matrix Mop function in the app for a deeper clean. This delivers 50 percent better stain cleaning in targeted zones, according to Shark.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/shark-robot-vacuums-are-up-to-400-off-for-amazon-prime-day-171836038.html?src=rss

The best Amazon Prime Day deals under $50: Early sales on tech from Apple, Anker, Ring, JBL, Roku and others

This is technically the third Prime-related sale of the year, after March’s spring sale and the official Prime Day in July. Amazon calls this one Prime Big Deal Days, but to you, me and most everyone else, it’s the October Prime Day sale. The deals stretch across every department, but this guide covers tech and gadgets that go for under $50 after the discount. And these aren’t just any gadgets — here you’ll find the batteries, mice, earbuds, speakers, wall chargers and other accessories that the Engadget team has tested for our guides and reviews. We’ve even linked to our coverage so you can see why we recommend a particular deal. Here’s Engadget’s guide to the best Prime Day tech deals for under $50.

Amazon Echo Pop Kids for $33 ($17 off with Prime): Among the announcements for the new Echo devices, Amazon did not include new Echo Pop Kids models, so this is still the most current model for now. It’s good for smaller spaces, not necessarily audio fidelity, and it comes with six months of free access to Amazon Kids as well as early access to Alexa+.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $40 ($20 off): Amazon's most powerful streaming dongle supports 4K HDR content, Dolby Vision and Atmos and Wi-Fi 6E with double the storage of cheaper Fire TV sticks. It earned an honorable mention in our guide to streaming devices and also happens to make a good retro gaming emulator.

Blink Video Doorbell for $35 ($35 off): True, Amazon just announced new Blink devices, but those won’t hit the market until after Prime Day is over. If you want a video doorbell right now at an impressively low price, this should serve. We’ve tested Blink security devices before and have been impressed by what you get for such a small price.

Ring Battery Doorbell for $50 ($50 off): At $49.99 this juuust qualifies as an under $50 tech deal. If you don’t have doorbell wires at your front entrance, you can still have a camera to capture all the package deliveries and neighborhood animal sightings with the Ring Battery Doorbell. It records video in HD with more vertical coverage than the last model, so you can see people from head to toe. Just note that newer Ring devices are on the way.

Blink Mini 2 security cameras (two-pack) for $35 ($35 off): This is currently the top budget pick in our guide to the best security cameras. The Mini 2 is a great option for indoor monitoring or you can put it outside with a weatherproof adapter, but since it needs to be plugged in, we like it for keeping an eye on your pets while you're away and watching over entry ways from the inside.

Blink Mini 2 security cameras (three-pack) for $50 ($50 off): A three pack is also on sale and squeezes in just under the $50 mark.

Lego Star Wars: The Mandalorian Paz Vizsla and Moff Gideon Battle for $17 (56 percent off): You can have a tiny version of the dramatic season-three battle from The Mandalorian to admire whenever you want. This 289-piece set is rated for kids seven and up, but no one will judge if you keep it for your own shelves.

Check out more Lego sets in our Prime Day guide to Lego deals.

Anker 622 5K magnetic power bank with stand for $34 ($14 off with Prime): This 0.5-inch thick power bank attaches magnetically to iPhones and won't get in your way when you're using your phone. It also has a built-in stand so you can watch videos, make FaceTime calls and more hands-free while your phone is powering up.

Ring Indoor Cam for $25 ($25 off): While we thought the Blink Mini 2 was a better overall indoor camera in our guide, we do like the Ring app, which is ideal for beginners. Plus you get access to the Ring Neighbors app which is a fascinating glimpse into your neighborhood’s Ring-captured events.

Amazon Smart Plug for $13 ($12 off): We named this the best smart plug for Alexa users because it hooks up painlessly and stays connected reliably. Use it to control lamps or your holiday lights using programs and schedules in the Alexa app, or just your voice by talking to your Echo Dot or other Alexa-enabled listener.

Levoit Mini Core-P air purifier for $40 ($10 off with Prime): This is the mini version of the top pick in our guide to air purifiers. It has a three-stage filter (pre, activated carbon and particle filters) though that particle filter is not a true HEPA filter. But it’s rated at 250 square feet and can help clear the air in your office or other small room.

Echo Pop smart speaker for $25 ($15 off): The half sphere Pop is the most affordable Echo speaker in Amazon’s lineup. The sound won’t be as full as its larger siblings, but will do a fine job of bringing Alexa’s help to smaller rooms. Just note that it went as low as $18 for Black Friday and October Prime Day last year.

Roku Streaming Stick Plus 2025 for $24 (40 percent off): This is our top pick for the best streaming device for accessing free and live content. The dongle supports 4K video and HDR and doesn’t need to be plugged into the wall for power. It’s a great way to access any streaming service you could ask for: Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and many more.

Roku Streaming Stick HD for $20 ($10 off): If you don’t care about 4K (or your screen resolution isn’t that high anyway) you can still get the same simple-to-use Roku OS with this device. The best thing about Roku streaming sticks is the access to all the free content — so this is an affordable way to get it.

Leebein 2025 electric spin scrubber for $40 ($30 off with Prime): This is an updated version of the electric scrubber we love that makes shower cleaning easier than ever before. It comes with seven brush heads so you can use it to clean all kinds of surfaces, and its adjustable arm length makes it easier to clean hard-to-reach spots. It's IPX7 waterproof and recharges via USB-C.

Jisulife Life7 handheld fan for $25 ($4 off with Prime): This handy little fan is a must-have if you live in a warm climate or have a tropical vacation planned anytime soon. It can be used as a table or handheld fan and even be worn around the neck so you don't have to hold it at all. Its 5,000 mAh battery allows it to last hours on a single charge, and the small display in the middle of the fan's blades shows its remaining battery level.

Anker Soundcore Select 4 Go speaker for $26 ($9 off with Prime): This is one of our top picks for Bluetooth speaker. It gets pretty loud for its size and has decent sound quality. You can pair two together for stereo sound as well, and its IP67-rated design will keep it protected against water and dust.

Amazon Echo Spot for $50 ($30 off): Amazon brought the Echo Spot smart alarm clock back from the dead last year with a new design and improved speakers. In addition to being able to control smart home devices and respond to voice commands, the Echo Spot can also act as a Wi-Fi extender for those that have Eero systems. It went as low as $45 for Black Friday last year.

Samsung EVO Select microSD card (256GB) for $23 ($4 off): This Samsung card has been one of our recommended models for a long time. It's a no-frills microSD card that, while not the fastest, will be perfectly capable in most devices where you're just looking for simple, expanded storage.

Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam $40 ($20 off): If you like the idea of being able to move the camera around to follow the action in your home, you may want to get a pan-and-tilt option like this one. We will again note that new Ring devices are on the way, but if you don’t have to have the latest thing and just want to see what your dog gets up to while you’re gone, you may want to snag this 33 percent discount.

JBL Go 4 portable speaker for $40 (20 percent off): The Go 4 is a handy little Bluetooth speaker that you can take anywhere you go thanks to its small, IP67-rated design and built-in carrying loop. It'll get seven hours of playtime on a single charge, and you can pair two together for stereo sound. The previous model, JBL Go 3 is on sale for $30.

Anker Soundcore Space A40 for $45 ($35 off): Our top pick for the best budget wireless earbuds, the Space A40 have surprisingly good ANC, good sound quality, a comfortable fit and multi-device connectivity.

JLab Go Air Pop+ for $17.49 ($12 off): JLab earbuds pop up in a few of our guides including the best running headphones and best budget buds. The Pop+ earbuds are smaller and lighter than the previous model, and the app’s preset EQ modes let you customize your sound. Total battery life with the case comes in at more than 35 hours.

Anker USB-C to USB-C cable (10FT,100W) for $10 ($2 off): Having a bad cable is almost as bad as not having a cable at all. We’re big fans of Anker’s cords. This one is a generous 10 feet and can deliver up to 100W of power. While it can transfer data, it does so slowly, so don’t grab this one for that purpose. This is $1 more than it sold for as a Prime-exclusive in July.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-amazon-prime-day-deals-under-50-early-sales-on-tech-from-apple-anker-ring-jbl-roku-and-others-120531085.html?src=rss

The best early October Prime Day deals on Apple devices: Save on AirTags, iPads, Apple Watches and more

If you’ve been waiting for a discount before grabbing a new iPad, MacBook or Apple Watch, Amazon’s October Prime Day sale might be worth checking out. Prime Big Deal Days, as it’s officially called, doesn’t technically begin until October 7, but we’re keeping an eye out for the best Apple deals that are going on in the lead-up to the event. So far, we’ve found a few decent prices on iPads and MacBooks, along with a few modest but early discounts on the recent crop of Apple Watches. You can find our full roundup below, and we’ll be updating this post over the course of the week as more offers pop up.

Apple AirPods 4 (no ANC) for $90 (30 percent off): Apple's entry-level wireless earbuds are the best AirPods for folks on a budget. They have an open-ear design that some will prefer over eartips that stick into your ears full, plus they have much improved audio quality and the H2 chip that enables features like Voice Isolation, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking and Adaptive EQ.

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 512GB) for $999 ($200 off): The MacBook Air tops our guide to the best laptops. The latest model isn’t a major overhaul, but it’s still exceptionally thin, lightweight and well-designed, and the M4 chip is more than powerful enough for everyday use. This deal is just a few bucks below the best price we’ve seen for a configuration with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Other configs with more memory are $200 off as well.

Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M4, 512GB) for $1,199 ($200 off): The 15-inch MacBook Air is essentially the same as the 13-inch version, only it has a roomier display, a more spacious trackpad and better speakers. This is another discount we’ve seen plenty of times before, but it’s only slightly higher than the all-time low for a model with 512GB of storage.

Apple AirTags (4-pack) for $75 ($24 off): With its enormous finding network and ultra-wideband tech for accurately locating nearby items, Apple’s AirTag is the top pick for iPhone users in our guide to the best Bluetooth trackers. We saw a four-pack fall as low as $65 earlier in the year, but this is still a nice drop from Apple’s list price. If you’re not in desperate need for these, though, note that we may see an updated model later this year.

Apple iPad (A16, 256GB) for $399 ($50 off): The entry-level iPad earned a score of 84 in our review: If you mainly want a tablet for streaming, browsing the web, emailing or lighter word processing, it should do the job. It doesn’t lose out on the Mac-style productivity features introduced with iPadOS 26 either. We’ve seen this discount on the 256GB model fairly often in recent months, and it’s about $25 above the device’s all-time low, but it’s still $50 cheaper than buying directly from Apple.

Apple iPad Air (11-inch, 128GB) for $449 ($150 off): The best iPad for most people, the latest iPad Air runs on the powerful M3 chip, has an improved display and supports the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard. This model has better performance and multitasking capabilities than its predecessor, and it's available in both 11- and 13-inch sizes.

Apple Mac mini (M4) for $499 ($100 off): This latest iteration of Apple’s tiny PC has a smaller footprint, a faster M4 chip, 16GB of RAM by default, two front-facing USB-C ports and an extra Thunderbolt 4 port. It can also drive three external displays, though it lacks USB-A ports entirely. We gave a higher-end config with Apple’s M4 Pro chip a score of 90 in our review. This deal is for the entry-level model with the base M4 chip and a 256GB SSD — it’s $30 above the all-time low but still a nice savings.

Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm, GPS + Cellular) for $329 ($170 off): As a general rule, most people should buy the newest version of whatever Apple product they want. That said, the Series 11 is only a minor upgrade over the prior Series 10 — the glass is more scratch-resistant, the cellular model has 5G support, the battery is marginally bigger and that’s about it. If you’re mostly worried about saving cash, want LTE support and still need the more advanced health features the Apple Watch SE lacks, this is a worthwhile discount for a version of last year’s model with cellular support.

Apple Watch SE (2nd gen, 40mm, GPS + Cellular) for $189 ($110 off): The Apple Watch SE 3 is a far more substantial upgrade over its predecessor than the Series 11, so we strongly recommend paying the premium to get the latest version. But if you’re sure you can live without the always-on display, faster charging, superior chip and other upgrades that come with the SE 3, the last-gen model can still get you most of the basic Apple Watch experience for less cash while it remains in stock. This is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for the 40mm cellular model.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-early-october-prime-day-deals-on-apple-devices-save-on-airtags-ipads-apple-watches-and-more-125644340.html?src=rss

Prime Day Lego deals: Get up to 56 percent off Star Wars and Super Mario sets

October Prime Day is nearly here, and new early deals are popping up every day. Amazon uses October Prime Day to kickstart the holiday shopping season — even if you haven't even thought about the holidays yet, you should give the latest Prime Day Lego deals a look. A number of Lego sets from the Super Mario and Star Wars collections are already on sale for up to 38 percent off.

When shopping for Lego sets on Amazon, we highly recommend checking a price tracker like Keepa or CamelCamelCamel before buying. It's not difficult to find Lego sets "on sale" at Amazon, but often those discounted prices have been around for a long time. We've clocked "deals" in which the sale price has been available for months already, going back as far as late spring and early summer 2025. Here, we're mostly highlighting discounts on new Lego sets, recent price drops and record-low (and close to them) prices on popular Lego sets from franchises like Star Wars, Super Mario and others.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-lego-deals-get-up-to-56-percent-off-star-wars-and-super-mario-sets-121513566.html?src=rss

The Apple Watch SE 2 is on sale for a record-low price in this Prime Day deal

If, like me, you're wondering how it could possibly be October already, perhaps you need a watch. Probably one with a calendar function. Strangely enough, there are some solid deals on several Apple Watch models right now ahead of Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days event. The second-gen Apple Watch SE with LTE connectivity has dropped to $189, which is a discount of $110 or 37 percent.

That's a new record low price for this 40mm variant with a small/medium band. The discount applies to versions with an ink sport loop and denim sport band.

It's worth bearing in mind that this deal is for the previous-gen model, which Apple released in 2022. The company started shipping the latest Apple Watch SE in September. That starts at $240 for a GPS and Wi-Fi model without LTE connectivity. The third-gen SE 3 is now our pick for the best budget Apple Watch. However, if you're looking for a cheaper option for fitness tracking, at-a-glance notifications and, perhaps, quick access to a calendar, the second-gen SE is worth considering.

Several variants of the Apple Watch Series 10 are on sale on Amazon as well. This is last year's version of the smartwatch, but it's still plenty capable and it supports some of the same new features as the Series 11, such as sleep apnea detection and sleep scoring. You can pick one up for as little as $329.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-apple-watch-se-2-is-on-sale-for-a-record-low-price-in-this-prime-day-deal-162845820.html?src=rss

The best Amazon Prime Day deals: Get up to 57 percent off gear from Apple, Shark, Anker, Dyson, Samsung and others

Amazon Prime Day has returned in the fall for the past few years, and 2025 is no exception. Prime Day will return on October 7 and 8, but really, you don't have to wait until the official start date to save. Amazon typically always has early Prime Day deals in the lead-up to the event, and this year we’re already seeing some solid discounts on gadgets we like. Here, we’ve gathered all of the best Prime Day deals you can get right now, and we’ll keep updating this post as we get close to Prime Day proper.

Apple MagSafe charger (25W, 2m) for $35 (29 percent off): The latest version of Apple's MagSafe puck is Qi2.2-certified and supports up to 25W of wireless power when paired with a 30W adapter. The two-meter cable length on this particular model gives you more flexibility on where you can use it: in bed, on the couch, at your desk and elsewhere.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (3 months) for $60 ($30 off): Microsoft recently jacked up the price of Game Pass Ultimate to $30 per month, but for now, you can get around that by stacking codes. Pick up this code for three months of the service at the old rate and you'll save some cash.

Leebein 2025 electric spin scrubber for $40 (43 percent off, Prime exclusive): This is an updated version of my beloved Leebein electric scrubber, which has made cleaning my shower easier than ever before. It comes with seven brush heads so you can use it to clean all kinds of surfaces, and its adjustable arm length makes it easier to clean hard-to-reach spots. It's IPX7 waterproof and recharges via USB-C.

Jisulife Life7 handheld fan for $25 (14 percent off, Prime exclusive): This handy little fan is a must-have if you life in a warm climate or have a tropical vacation planned anytime soon. It can be used as a table or handheld fan and even be worn around the neck so you don't have to hold it at all. Its 5,000 mAh battery allows it to last hours on a single charge, and the small display in the middle of the fan's blades show its remaining battery level.

JLab Go Air Pop+ for $17.49 (42 percent off): These ultra-affordable wireless earbuds are 15 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the previous model, and they have a mobile app in which you can choose from three preset EQ modes to customize your sound. Total battery life with the case comes in at more than 35 hours, and they come with three different sizes of eartips so you can get the best fit.

Apple Mac mini (M4) for $499 ($100 off): If you prefer desktops over laptops, the upgraded M4 Mac mini is one that won’t take up too much space, but will provide a ton of power at the same time. Not only does it come with an M4 chipset, but it also includes 16GB of RAM in the base model, plus front-facing USB-C and headphone ports for easier access.

Apple Watch SE 2 for $189 (37 percent off): The SE 3 is the latest model as of September, but the SE 2 still has a lot going for it. It was our top pick for the best smartwatch for newbies (and those on a budget) because it gives you a solid core smartwatch experience at a great price.

Samsung EVO Select microSD card (256GB) for $23 (15 percent off): This Samsung card has been one of our recommended models for a long time. It's a no-frills microSD card that, while not the fastest, will be perfectly capable in most devices where you're just looking for simple, expanded storage.

Roku Streaming Stick Plus 2025 for $24 (40 percent off): Roku makes some of the best streaming devices available, and this small dongle gives you access to a ton of free content plus all the other streaming services you could ask for: Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and many more.

Blink Mini 2 security cameras (two-pack) for $35 (50 percent off): Blink makes some of our favorite security cameras, and the Mini 2 is a great option for indoor monitoring. It can be placed outside with the right weatherproof adapter, but since it needs to be plugged in, we like it for keeping an eye on your pets while you're away and watching over entry ways from the inside.

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar 2025 75418 for $38 (16 percent off): 'Tis the season for advent calendars. They've flooded the internet, as they usually do this time of year, and there are plenty to choose from (and stock up on) before we get to December. Lego has a bunch, and this Star Wars one will be fun for everyone, not just kids, to open up each day at the end of the year.

JBL Go 4 portable speaker for $40 (20 percent off): The Go 4 is a handy little Bluetooth speaker that you can take anywhere you go thanks to its small, IP67-rated design and built-in carrying loop. It'll get seven hours of playtime on a single charge, and you can pair two together for stereo sound.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $40 (33 percent off): Amazon's most powerful streaming dongle supports 4K HDR content, Dolby Vision and Atmos and Wi-Fi 6E. It also has double the storage of cheaper Fire TV sticks.

Anker Soundcore Space A40 for $45 (44 percent off): Our top pick for the best budget wireless earbuds, the Space A40 have surprisingly good ANC, good sound quality, a comfortable fit and multi-device connectivity.

Amazon Echo Spot for $50 ($30 off): Amazon brought the Echo Spot smart alarm clock back from the dead last year with a new design, improved speakers and added Alexa chops. In addition to being able to control smart home devices and respond to voice commands, the Echo Spot can also act as a Wi-Fi extender for those that have Eero systems.

Anker MagGo 10K power bank (Qi2, 15W) for $63 (22 percent off, Prime exclusive): A 10K power bank like this is ideal if you want to be able to recharge your phone at least once fully and have extra power to spare. This one is also Qi2 compatible, providing up to 15W of power to supported phones.

Levoit Core 200S smart air purifier for $70 ($20 off, Prime exclusive): This compact air purifier cleans the air in rooms up to 140 square feet and uses a 3-in-1 filter that removes microscopic dust, pollen and airborne particles. It has a mobile app that you can use to set runtime schedules, and it works with Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.

Amazon Fire TV Cube for $100 (29 percent off): Amazon's most powerful streaming device, the Fire TV Cube supports 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision content, Dolby Atmos sound, Wi-Fi 6E and it has a built-in Ethernet port. It has the most internal storage of any Fire TV streaming device, plus it comes with an enhanced Alexa Voice Remote.

iRobot Roomba 104 Vac for $150 (40 percent off): This entry-level robot vacuum is an upgraded version of one of our favorite budget robot vacuums. iRobot makes robovacs that are easy to use, even for those who have never had a machine like this, and they do a good job of cleaning up all kinds of messes, including pet hair.

Levoit LVAC-300 cordless vacuum for $250 ($100 off, Prime exclusive): One of our favorite cordless vacuums, this Levoit machine has great handling, strong suction power for its price and a premium-feeling design. Its bin isn't too small, it has HEPA filtration and its battery life should be more than enough for you to clean your whole home many times over before it needs a recharge.

Shark Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo for $300 (57 percent off, Prime exclusive): If you're looking for an autonomous dirt-sucker that can also mop, this is a good option. It has a mopping pad and water reservoir built in, and it supports home mapping as well. Its self-emptying base can hold up to 60 days worth of debris, too.

XReal One Pro AR glasses for $649 (16 percent off): The latest from XReal, these smart glasses can let you use almost any device, including your smartphone, with a large virtual display. Their 1080p Micro-OLED screens are bright and sharp, plus they're pretty comfortable to wear.

Nintendo Switch 2 for $449: While not technically a discount, it's worth mentioning that the Switch 2 and the Mario Kart Switch 2 bundle are both available at Amazon now, no invitation required. Amazon only listed the new console for the first time in July after being left out of the initial pre-order/availability window in April. Once it became available, Amazon customers looking to buy the Switch 2 had to sign up to receive an invitation to do so. Now, that extra step has been removed and anyone can purchase the Switch 2 on Amazon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-amazon-prime-day-deals-get-up-to-57-percent-off-gear-from-apple-shark-anker-dyson-samsung-and-others-050801311.html?src=rss

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus drops to a new record-low price for Prime Day

If you're looking for a way to upgrade an old TV or add a more convenient smart interface to your main set, Roku devices are good ways to do that. Thanks to Prime Day deals that you can already get now, you can get one of our favorite Roku streaming devices for less than $30. The Roku Streaming Stick Plus is on sale for just $24 right now, which is 40 percent off and the lowest price we've seen.

We picked the Streaming Stick Plus as the best streaming device for free and live content, thanks in large part to The Roku Channel app that accompanies it. The Roku Channel features over 500 free TV channels with live news, sports coverage and a rotating lineup of TV shows and movies.

In our hands-on review of the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, we thought it was perfect for travel thanks to its small size and the fact that it can be powered by your TV's USB port, nixing the need for a wall adapter. Menu navigation and opening or closing apps won't happen at quite the same speeds as more expensive streamers, but it's quick enough for what is ultimately a pretty low-cost option. The Wi-Fi range on this one is also weaker than Roku's pricier devices, but unless you are placing it exceedingly far from your router, it shouldn't be an issue.

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus supports both HD and 4K TVs, as well as HDR10+ content. It doesn't support Dolby Vision, however; for that you'll need to upgrade to Roku's Streaming Stick 4K or Roku Ultra. It comes with Roku's rechargeable voice remote with push-to-talk voice controls. Roku's remote can also turn on your TV and adjust the volume while you're watching.

If you've been thinking about getting a Roku device, or you already love the platform and want a compact and convenient way to take it with you when you travel, then this sale provides a great opportunity. If you'd prefer a more powerful and slightly more stationary device, the Roku Ultra is on sale for $69 right now, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-roku-streaming-stick-plus-drops-to-a-new-record-low-price-for-prime-day-134656750.html?src=rss

Apple's AirPods 4 drop to $90 for Prime Day

If you prefer open-ear AirPods but still have an older model, this deal could be worth noting. Amazon's October Prime Day has the AirPods 4 on sale for $90, or 30 percent off their usual price. That's also the lowest we've seen them.

When Apple updated its standard AirPods in 2024, it released two models: one with active noise cancellation (ANC) and one without. We consider the non-ANC models to be the best budget AirPods you can get, so they're an even better buy at this sale price. The ANC versions are also discounted at the moment, so you can pick them up for $140 instead of the usual $180.

The AirPods' H2 chip brings a bunch of Pro-adjacent features to the standard model. That list includes Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Transparency, Personalized Spatial Audio and wireless charging. For calls, it supports Voice Isolation, which helps filter out background noise and make it easier for you to be heard. And if that call is via FaceTime, it supports Apple's 48kHz "cinema-quality" audio.

Sound is improved over the AirPods 3. "There's more low-end tone than the previous model right out of the gate, and the punchier treble opens the sound stage so it's wider and more immersive," Engadget's Billy Steele wrote. "The improved frequency response is on full display with Dolby Atmos content (movies, music, and TV), but the AirPods 4 are also more sonically adept with non-spatial tunes and video."

You can expect around five hours of battery life on a single charge. With the ANC model, that estimate drops to around four hours with the marquee feature activated. With either version, you can drop them in the charging case to extend their total time to around 30 hours. And hey, it's good to give your ears a rest now and then anyway.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-airpods-4-drop-to-90-for-prime-day-130033169.html?src=rss

Audible deal: Get three months for only $3 with this Prime Day discount

The traditional Amazon Prime Day Audible sale has returned for October Prime Day. Audiobook fans can get three months of Audible for just $3, or $1 per month for the first three months. Once the three-month initial period is over, though, the subscription will auto-renew at $14.95 per month.

Audible features thousands of titles in its catalog, including podcasts and Audible Originals. Subscribers will also get to choose one audiobook each month to keep in their collection for free, including best-sellers or new releases. Amazon Prime members will receive two credits the first month of their trial.

Amazon has been bringing Prime Day back in the fall for a few years now, and this year it returns October 7 and 8. Great deals tend to start rolling out in the days ahead of the event and this year is no exception. There are already sales on Apple devices, smart doorbells and most importantly, Lego sets.

If you're a book lover but don't have the time to sit down and read a hard copy, or you just prefer listening to the latest novel while on the go, then take advantage of this sale. It's a limited-time offer and will only be available through December 16.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/audible-deal-get-three-months-for-only-3-with-this-prime-day-discount-090052719.html?src=rss

Prime Day Apple deals include 25 percent off a four-pack of AirTags

Prime Day Apple deals can be hard to come by, but right now you can save on one of Apple's smallest (and arguably one if its most useful) gadgets. A four-pack of Apple AirTags is down to $75 right now, which is 24 percent off its usual price. That brings each AirTag in the bundle down to $18.75 each. If you're an Apple user, then the AirTag is the best Bluetooth tracker on the market for you.

You can put these little discs in your wallet, in a backpack or in your luggage while you're traveling. Your AirTag's location will show up in your Find My app, powered by the vast network of iPhones, iPads and other compatible devices that receive the AirTag's Bluetooth signal. Keep in mind these only work when close enough to participating devices to be located.

You can attach AirTags to just about anything thanks to an abundance of available accessories. Their built-in speakers can play a tone, triggered from your iPhone, to help you find them when the object they're affixed to is lost. On iPhone 11 and newer models, you can take advantage of the AirTag's Ultra Wideband capability and have your phone lead you right to your AirTag, complete with directional arrows on your iPhone screen.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-apple-deals-include-25-percent-off-a-four-pack-of-airtags-143112286.html?src=rss

How to change your Apple Account password

Your Apple Account is the key to everything you do on your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro. It keeps your purchases, subscriptions and personal data secure. If you think your account has been hacked, if you’ve logged in on a shared device or if you haven’t updated your password in a while, it’s a good idea to update it. Apple officially rebranded Apple ID as Apple Account in 2024, but your login details work the same way. We’ll walk you through how to reset or change your Apple Account password on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or the web.

The fastest way to update your password is through your device’s settings. This method works for iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro devices, and can also be started on Apple Watches if you have Stolen Device Protection enabled.

Navigate to Settings > Your Name > Sign-In & Security.

Tap Change Password.

You’ll need to enter your current password or device passcode.

Enter your new password and confirm the new password.

Tap Change.

If you want to change your child’s Apple Account password, you can do so if you have an iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro running the latest version of iOS, iPadOS or visionOS with two-factor authentication turned on.

Navigate to Settings > Family > Your child’s account.
Tap Apple Account & Password.
Tap Change Child’s Name Password.
You’ll be prompted to enter your device passcode and follow the onscreen instructions.

If you’re on macOS Sequoia or later, the process is just as simple. Although the general process is the same as in previous macOS versions, specific menu names may be different.

Navigate to the Apple menu > System Settings > Your Name.
Select Sign-In & Security.
Select Change Password.
You’ll need to enter your current password that you use to unlock your Mac.
Follow the prompts to enter and verify your new Apple Account password.

If you don’t have access to your devices, you can still change your password online. However, you will initially be prompted to access a trusted device to manage your Apple Account (where possible).

Go to account.apple.com and sign in to your Apple Account.
Navigate to Sign-In and Security > Password.
Follow the prompts to enter and verify your new Apple Account password.

If you don’t remember your password, Apple gives you a couple of ways to reset it. The easiest way to reset your password is by using your iPhone or other trusted Apple device (one that’s already signed in to your Apple Account).

Using your iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro:

Navigate to Settings > Your Name > Sign-In & Security > Change Password.
Follow the onscreen instructions to reset your password.

Using your Mac:

Navigate to the Apple menu > System Settings > Your Name > Sign-In & Security > Change Password.
Follow the onscreen instructions to reset your password.

If you don’t have access to a trusted device, there are a few things you can do:

Borrow an Apple device from a friend or family member or use one at an Apple Store to access the Apple Support app. You’ll be able to choose the option to “Help Someone Else” if you have access to your Apple Account email address or phone number.
Reset your password on the web at iforgot.apple.com and follow the instructions.

When setting up your new password, keep these things in mind:

Use at least eight characters
Include a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols
Avoid common words, birthdates or anything that’s easy to guess

Apple won’t let you reuse a recent password, so be ready to come up with something fresh. iOS devices and password apps can generate strong passwords for you, but these are not going to be easy to remember. A password manager is a smart way to keep track of it if you’re juggling multiple logins.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/how-to-change-your-apple-account-password-120010992.html?src=rss

‘Welcome to Derry’ Will Make You Wait for Full Pennywise

It Welcome To Derry 0

Pennywise is up to his old tricks in 'Welcome to Derry,' but you won't always see him in his full, clown glory.

Roborock’s Ready for Prime Time With Savings of Up to 45% Off Their Award-Winning Robot Vacuums

Roborock Qrevo Curvx

Amazon's big Fall Prime Day event is the perfect opportunity to score a huge deal on one of Roborock's AI-powered cleaning machines.

Adobe Firefly Creates Videos from Your Images, Discover the AI Tool That Turns Imagination Into Motion

Adobe Firefly

Turn your still images, illustrations, and text prompts into amazing AI videos with this advanced yet easy-to-use tool.

‘Running Man’ Will Have a New, Stephen King-Approved Ending

Running Man Trailer Glen Powell

Modern history dictates a change to the new 'Running Man' movie, one that Stephen King and Edgar Wright hope you'll like.

Two Newly Discovered Comets Will Streak Across the Skies This Month. Here’s How to See Them

Cometlemmon Dewinter 3549

Comets Lemmon and SWAN may be visible around the same time as they race across the solar system.

Genndy Tartakovsky Won’t Give Up on Getting ‘Black Knight’ Made

Black Knight Tartakovsky

With 'Demon Slayer' and 'KPop Demon Hunters' taking animation by storm, Tartakovsky thinks 'Black Knight' should get a fair shot.

Netflix’s ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Anime Levels Up to A Physical Release

'Scott Pilgrim' gets a little bit more life with its hit anime coming to Blu-Ray just in time for the holidays.

Lenovo Legion Go 2 Review: A Handheld Made For Big, Meaty Claws

Lenovo Legion Go 2 Review 02

The Legion Go 2 looks so damn nice. You'll have to pay through the nose for it.

‘Peacemaker’ Almost Brought Back the Whole Season 1 Gang

Peacemaker S1

James Gunn could've made 'Peacemaker 2' a whole reunion, but he's saving one key character to use for later.

JBL Grip Speaker Review: A Tiny Way to Be Big Loud

Jbl Grip Review 2

Hold my beer—I mean—Bluetooth speaker.

Roamless eSIM Starts Cheap at $1.25/GB, and Our Exclusive 20% Off Code Pushes It Practically Free

Roamless

A global pay-as-you-go eSIM app is the best travel invention since rolling luggage, and our special code will save you 20% sitewide.

Hungry Rogue Planet Is Gobbling Gas and Dust at 6 Billion Tons per Second

Illustration Of The Rogue Planet Cha 1107 7626

The free-floating object is swallowing surrounding material at an astonishing, record-breaking pace.

What Past Education Tech Failures Can Teach Us About the Future of AI in Schools

The Best Vpn For School

Teachers need to be scientists themselves, experimenting and measuring the impact of powerful AI products on education.

AI in the World of Ornithology: Using AI to Learn More About Birds

BirdCast is a collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University, and UMass Amherst. Launched in 2018, it uses data collected from 143 radar sites across the lower 48 U.S. states to identify bird movements and forecast how those birds will migrate.

Read All

Greta Thunberg Among Gaza Flotilla Detainees To Leave Israel

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg will be among more than 70 people of different nationalities to leave Israel on Monday after they were seized aboard an intercepted Gaza aid flotilla.

France Unveils New Government Amid Political Deadlock

French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government on Sunday, putting together a team under Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he struggles to pull the country out of a political crisis.

Russell Wins Singapore GP As McLaren Seal Constructors' Title

Mercedes' George Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as McLaren clinched the Formula One constructors' championship.

Trump Administration Declares US Cities War Zones

The Trump administration branded Chicago a "war zone" Sunday as a justification for deploying soldiers against the will of local Democratic officials, while a judge blocked the White House from sending troops to another Democratic-run city.

Newcastle Inflict More Pain On Postecoglou, Everton End Palace's Unbeaten Run

Newcastle beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 to extend Ange Postecoglou's wait for a win, while Crystal Palace's 19-game unbeaten run was ended by Jack Grealish's late winner for Everton on Sunday.

French PM Under Pressure To Put Together Cabinet

France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was under mounting pressure on Sunday to pull together a cabinet as he struggled to ensure support on the left and right.

Opec+ Plus To Raise Oil Production By 137,000 Barrels A Day In November

Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other members of Opec+ on Sunday decided to raise their production quotas by 137,000 barrels per day in November, as they continue to push for greater market share.

Georgia PM Vows Sweeping Crackdown After 'Foiled Coup'

Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze vowed opposition arrests Sunday after police used force against opposition protesters who tried to enter the presidential palace in what he termed was a coup bid during a controversial election.

Landslides And Floods Kill 63 In Nepal, India

Landslides and floods triggered by heavy downpours in Nepal and neighbouring India have killed more than 60 people, officials said Sunday, as rescue workers raced to reach cut-off communities in remote mountainous terrain.

Georgia PM Announces Sweeping Crackdown On Opposition After 'Foiled Coup'

Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze vowed opposition arrests Sunday after the ruling party won local elections and police used force against protesters who tried to enter the presidential palace.

Babis Pledges Loyalty To Europe As Czech Government Talks Begin

Czech billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis vowed loyalty to Europe as he met the president to start talks on a new government Sunday, a day after his movement topped a national vote.

Russian Strikes Kill Five In Ukraine, Cause Power Outages

Intense Russian strikes Sunday on Ukraine killed five people in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west and badly damaged energy infrastructure, severing power supplies to tens of thousands.

Beats Studio Pro wireless headphones are now $170

Amazon October Prime Day isn't until Tuesday, but the Beats Studio Pro ANC headphones are on sale now for over 50% off at $170.

Best early Amazon Prime Day deals 2025: Our 75+ favorite sales this October

Prime Day returns this Tuesday, but some great deals on tech, home goods, and more are live now.

Best early October Prime Day TV deals 2025: All-time-low prices from Samsung, LG, and more

Amazon's October Prime Day sale is two days away, but you can already find great deals on TVs from Samsung, LG, Hisense, and more.

At $24, I recommend this Roku Stick Plus 4K above all others

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus, now 40% off with this October Prime Day deal, is one of the most affordable ways to add smart capabilities to your existing TV.

The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is now $75 off

It's two days before Amazon October Prime Day, but Best Buy is already offering the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet for $75 off at only $65 right now.

Apple AirPods 4 are down to just $90 before Prime Day

Amazon October Prime Day is two days away, but Apple AirPods 4 are available now for just $90.

Best Sam's Club deals to compete with October Prime Day 2025: My favorite deals

You don't have to run to Amazon to find great deals for October Prime Day. Competitors like Sam's Club are also offering discounts on the best tech before Prime Day even starts.

Top Best Buy deals ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2025: My 20+ favorite sales in October

October Prime Day is two days away, and Best Buy is expected to run its own sale with major discounts on everything from laptops to TVs later this month. These are our favorite Best Buy deals that are already live.

Best early Amazon Prime Day deals under $25 in 2025: My favorite cheap sales this October

October Prime Day starts Tuesday. These are my favorite under $25 deals live now.

Best early Target Circle Week deals to compete with Prime Day 2025

Target's shopping event competes with Amazon, and plenty of deals are already available.

Best Amazon Prime Day tablet deals 2025: My 19 favorite sales ahead of October

We found the best early tablet deals ahead of Amazon's October Prime Day sale, including discounts on the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and tablets perfect for work and entertainment.

Best early Amazon Prime Day headphones deals 2025: My favorites deals ahead of the sale

Amazon Prime Day is two days away, but there are already some excellent deals if you are looking for your next pair of headphones or earbuds.

Best Prime Day Amazon Echo device deals 2025: My 15+ favorites sales available now

Prime Day is just two days away, but we've already found some great deals on Amazon Echo devices ahead of the sales event.

Best Costco deals to compete with Amazon Prime Day 2025: My favorite sales so far

October Prime Day is in two days, but you can find great deals at Costco right now.

Best early Amazon Prime Day Kindle deals 2025: My favorites sales

October Prime Day is two days away, but you can shop deals on Kindles before the event and cross more books off your to-read list.

Best October Prime Day smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

Prime Day is two days away, and I've rounded up the smartwatch and health tracker deals I'd want to shop ahead of October Prime Day.

Best October Prime Day deals under $100: My 20+ favorite early sales

Looking to stick to a budget? You don't need to spend a fortune to pick up some excellent tech ahead of Amazon's Prime Day event. We found the best early tech deals under $100, including tablets, earbuds, and smart home gadgets.

Best Amazon Prime Day phone deals 2025: My 15 favorite sales ahead of October

We searched Amazon's October Prime Day deals to find the best early discounts on top-rated phones we've tested and recommend.

Best Amazon Prime Day Apple deals 2025: My 25+ favorite sales in October

Amazon's October Prime Day is approaching, but I've already found some great deals on Apple tech, including iPhones, AirPods, iPads, and the Apple Watch.

Best early Amazon Prime Day laptop deals 2025: My 30 favorites sales ahead of October

Amazon October Prime Day is around the corner, but the laptop deals are already heating up. Here are the best we've found, from Apple, Lenovo, HP, and more.

Beats Studio Pro wireless headphones are now $170

Amazon October Prime Day isn't until Tuesday, but the Beats Studio Pro ANC headphones are on sale now for over 50% off at $170.

Best early Amazon Prime Day deals 2025: Our 75+ favorite sales this October

Prime Day returns this Tuesday, but some great deals on tech, home goods, and more are live now.

Best early October Prime Day TV deals 2025: All-time-low prices from Samsung, LG, and more

Amazon's October Prime Day sale is two days away, but you can already find great deals on TVs from Samsung, LG, Hisense, and more.

At $24, I recommend this Roku Stick Plus 4K above all others

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus, now 40% off with this October Prime Day deal, is one of the most affordable ways to add smart capabilities to your existing TV.

The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is now $75 off

It's two days before Amazon October Prime Day, but Best Buy is already offering the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet for $75 off at only $65 right now.

Apple AirPods 4 are down to just $90 before Prime Day

Amazon October Prime Day is two days away, but Apple AirPods 4 are available now for just $90.

Best Sam's Club deals to compete with October Prime Day 2025: My favorite deals

You don't have to run to Amazon to find great deals for October Prime Day. Competitors like Sam's Club are also offering discounts on the best tech before Prime Day even starts.

Top Best Buy deals ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2025: My 20+ favorite sales in October

Best early Amazon Prime Day deals under $25 in 2025: My favorite cheap sales this October

October Prime Day starts Tuesday. These are my favorite under $25 deals live now.

Best early Target Circle Week deals to compete with Prime Day 2025

Target's shopping event competes with Amazon, and plenty of deals are already available.

Best Amazon Prime Day tablet deals 2025: My 19 favorite sales ahead of October

We found the best early tablet deals ahead of Amazon's October Prime Day sale, including discounts on the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and tablets perfect for work and entertainment.

Best early Amazon Prime Day headphones deals 2025: My favorites deals ahead of the sale

Amazon Prime Day is two days away, but there are already some excellent deals if you are looking for your next pair of headphones or earbuds.

Best Prime Day Amazon Echo device deals 2025: My 15+ favorites sales available now

Prime Day is just two days away, but we've already found some great deals on Amazon Echo devices ahead of the sales event.

Best Costco deals to compete with Amazon Prime Day 2025: My favorite sales so far

October Prime Day is in two days, but you can find great deals at Costco right now.

Best early Amazon Prime Day Kindle deals 2025: My favorites sales

October Prime Day is two days away, but you can shop deals on Kindles before the event and cross more books off your to-read list.

Best October Prime Day smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

Prime Day is two days away, and I've rounded up the smartwatch and health tracker deals I'd want to shop ahead of October Prime Day.

Best October Prime Day deals under $100: My 20+ favorite early sales

Best Amazon Prime Day phone deals 2025: My 15 favorite sales ahead of October

We searched Amazon's October Prime Day deals to find the best early discounts on top-rated phones we've tested and recommend.

Best Amazon Prime Day Apple deals 2025: My 25+ favorite sales in October

Amazon's October Prime Day is approaching, but I've already found some great deals on Apple tech, including iPhones, AirPods, iPads, and the Apple Watch.

Best early Amazon Prime Day laptop deals 2025: My 30 favorites sales ahead of October

Amazon October Prime Day is around the corner, but the laptop deals are already heating up. Here are the best we've found, from Apple, Lenovo, HP, and more.

Agentic Design Methodology: How to Build Reliable and Human-Like AI Agents using Parlant

Building robust AI agents differs fundamentally from traditional software development, as it centers on probabilistic model behavior rather than deterministic code execution. This guide provides a neutral overview of methodologies for designing AI agents that are both reliable and adaptable, with an emphasis on creating clear boundaries, effective behaviors, and safe interactions. What Is Agentic […]

The post Agentic Design Methodology: How to Build Reliable and Human-Like AI Agents using Parlant appeared first on MarkTechPost.

How to Evaluate Voice Agents in 2025: Beyond Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Word Error Rate (WER) to Task Success, Barge-In, and Hallucination-Under-Noise

Optimizing only for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Word Error Rate (WER) is insufficient for modern, interactive voice agents. Robust evaluation must measure end-to-end task success, barge-in behavior and latency, and hallucination-under-noise—alongside ASR, safety, and instruction following. VoiceBench offers a multi-facet speech-interaction benchmark across general knowledge, instruction following, safety, and robustness to speaker/environment/content variations, but […]

The post How to Evaluate Voice Agents in 2025: Beyond Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Word Error Rate (WER) to Task Success, Barge-In, and Hallucination-Under-Noise appeared first on MarkTechPost.

Beyond the Nobel Prizes Is a World of Scientific Awards

Nobels are awarded in only three scientific categories, but other awards honor researchers across different fields.

Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now

The wearables help dairy farmers gather more data so their animals are happier and produce more milk.

Can Cory Doctorow’s Book ‘Enshittification’ Change the Tech Debate?

Cory Doctorow’s new book looks to offer comfort, and solutions, to the inescapable feeling that digital platforms have gotten worse.

How a Mobile Photography Darkroom Empowers Vulnerable Children

The Sirkhane Darkroom a mobile photography darkroom, brings education, passion, and most importantly, hope, to overlooked communities in Turkey where children face limited access to education and safety, especially in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes that regularly rock the region.

[Read More]

Save Up to 30% on SmallRig Gear This Week on Amazon

To celebrate the arrival of autumn, SmallRig is offering up to 30% off over 400 products on Amazon from October 7 to 8.

[Read More]

Embracing the parallel coding agent lifestyle

For a while now I've been hearing from engineers who run multiple coding agents at once - firing up several Claude Code or Codex CLI instances at the same time, sometimes in the same repo, sometimes against multiple checkouts or git worktrees.

I was pretty skeptical about this at first. AI-generated code needs to be reviewed, which means the natural bottleneck on all of this is how fast I can review the results. It's tough keeping up with just a single LLM given how fast they can churn things out, where's the benefit from running more than one at a time if it just leaves me further behind?

Despite my misgivings, over the past few weeks I've noticed myself quietly starting to embrace the parallel coding agent lifestyle.

I can only focus on reviewing and landing one significant change at a time, but I'm finding an increasing number of tasks that can still be fired off in parallel without adding too much cognitive overhead to my primary work.

Here are some patterns I've found for applying parallel agents effectively.

Research for proof of concepts

The first category of tasks I've been applying this pattern to is research.

Research tasks answer questions or provide recommendations without making modifications to a project that you plan to keep.

A lot of software projects start with a proof of concept. Can Yjs be used to implement a simple collaborative note writing tool with a Python backend? The libraries exist, but do they work when you wire them together?

Today's coding agents can build a proof of concept with new libraries and resolve those kinds of basic questions. Libraries too new to be in the training data? Doesn't matter: tell them to checkout the repos for those new dependencies and read the code to figure out how to use them.

How does that work again?

If you need a reminder about how a portion of your existing system works, modern "reasoning" LLMs can provide a detailed, actionable answer in just a minute or two.

It doesn't matter how large your codebase is: coding agents are extremely effective with tools like grep and can follow codepaths through dozens of different files if they need to.

Ask them to make notes on where your signed cookies are set and read, or how your application uses subprocesses and threads, or which aspects of your JSON API aren't yet covered by your documentation.

These LLM-generated explanations are worth stashing away somewhere, because they can make excellent context to paste into further prompts in the future.

Small maintenance tasks

Now we're moving on to code edits that we intend to keep, albeit with very low-stakes. It turns out there are a lot of problems that really just require a little bit of extra cognitive overhead which can be outsourced to a bot.

Warnings are a great example. Is your test suite spitting out a warning that something you are using is deprecated? Chuck that at a bot - tell it to run the test suite and figure out how to fix the warning. No need to take a break from what you're doing to resolve minor irritations like that.

There is a definite knack to spotting opportunities like this. As always, the best way to develop that instinct is to try things - any small maintenance task is something that's worth trying with a coding agent. You can learn from both their successes and their failures.

Carefully specified and directed actual work

Reviewing code that lands on your desk out of nowhere is a lot of work. First you have to derive the goals of the new implementation: what's it trying to achieve? Is this something the project needs? Is the approach taken the best for this current project, given other future planned changes? A lot of big questions before you can even start digging into the details of the code.

Code that started from your own specification is a lot less effort to review. If you already decided what to solve, picked the approach and worked out a detailed specification for the work itself, confirming it was built to your needs can take a lot less time.

I described my more authoritarian approach to prompting models for code back in March. If I tell them exactly how to build something the work needed to review the resulting changes is a whole lot less taxing.

How I'm using these tools today

My daily drivers are currently Claude Code (on Sonnet 4.5), Codex CLI (on GPT-5-Codex), and Codex Cloud (for asynchronous tasks, frequently launched from my phone.)

I'm also dabbling with GitHub Copilot Coding Agent (the agent baked into the GitHub.com web interface in various places) and Google Jules, Google's currently-free alternative to Codex Cloud.

I'm still settling into patterns that work for me. I imagine I'll be iterating on my processes for a long time to come, especially as the landscape of coding agents continues to evolve.

I frequently have multiple terminal windows open running different coding agents in different directories. These are currently a mixture of Claude Code and Codex CLI, running in YOLO mode (no approvals) for tasks where I'm confident malicious instructions can't sneak into the context.

(I need to start habitually running my local agents in Docker containers to further limit the blast radius if something goes wrong.)

I haven't adopted git worktrees yet: if I want to run two agents in isolation against the same repo I do a fresh checkout, often into /tmp.

For riskier tasks I'm currently using asynchronous coding agents - usually Codex Cloud - so if anything goes wrong the worst that can happen is my source code getting leaked (since I allow it to have network access while running). Most of what I work on is open source anyway so that's not a big concern for me.

I occasionally use GitHub Codespaces to run VS Code's agent mode, which is surprisingly effective and runs directly in my browser. This is particularly great for workshops and demos since it works for anyone with GitHub account, no extra API key necessary.

This category of coding agent software is still really new, and the models have only really got good enough to drive them effectively in the past few months - Claude 4 and GPT-5 in particular.

I plan to write more as I figure out the ways of using them that are most effective. I encourage other practitioners to do the same!

Waffles eat Bluesky

A waffle-centric controversy underlines ongoing tensions between Bluesky and some of its most vocal users.

Suspect arrested after threats against TikTok’s Culver City headquarters

Police say they have arrested a suspect allegedly connected to multiple online threats that led TikTok to evacuate its headquarters near Los Angeles on Friday.

California’s new AI safety law shows regulation and innovation don’t have to clash

“Are bills like SB 53 the thing that will stop us from beating China? No,” said Adam Billen, vice president of public policy at youth-led advocacy group Encode AI. “I think it is just genuinely intellectually dishonest to say that that is the thing that will stop us in the race.”

OpenAI and Jony Ive may be struggling to figure out their AI device

OpenAI and Jony Ive reportedly face significant technical challenges as they work to develop a screen-less, AI-powered device.

TechCrunch Mobility: Toyota makes a $1.5B bet on the startup ecosystem

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

The Reinforcement Gap — or why some AI skills improve faster than others

AI tasks that work well with reinforcement learning are getting better fast — and threatening to leave the rest of the industry behind.

The Young Minds App wants to protect and educate children online and will show its tech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Young Minds gives parents control over what their kids do on the internet, while also protecting their children’s privacy and teaching them good online habits.

Scorability, a college sports recruiting marketplace for athletes and coaches, raised $40M led by Bluestone Equity Partners, bringing its total funding to $51M (Jessica Golden/CNBC)

Jessica Golden / CNBC:
Scorability, a college sports recruiting marketplace for athletes and coaches, raised $40M led by Bluestone Equity Partners, bringing its total funding to $51M — Sports tech platform Scorability has raised $40 million in fresh funding as the company looks to modernize college sports recruiting, the company announced on Tuesday.

Polars, the Amsterdam-based startup behind the popular open-source library for data manipulation of the same name, raised a €18M Series A led by Accel (Anna Heim/TechCrunch)

Anna Heim / TechCrunch:
Polars, the Amsterdam-based startup behind the popular open-source library for data manipulation of the same name, raised a €18M Series A led by Accel — Polars, the Amsterdam-based company behind the popular open source project of the same name, has raised €18 million …

SiPearl unveils Athena1, Europe's first high-performance CPU with up to 80 cores designed for civilian and military use, slated for commercial launch in H2 2027 (Anton Shilov/Tom's Hardware)

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:
SiPearl unveils Athena1, Europe's first high-performance CPU with up to 80 cores designed for civilian and military use, slated for commercial launch in H2 2027 — Rhea with advanced security and cryptography and without HBM2E. — SiPearl, a CPU developer funded by the EU …

Alvys, an AI-powered logistics software provider, raised a $40M Series B led by RTP Global, bringing its total funding to $77M; Alvys has 1000+ customers (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Alvys, an AI-powered logistics software provider, raised a $40M Series B led by RTP Global, bringing its total funding to $77M; Alvys has 1000+ customers — Alvys, an AI-powered logistics software provider, has raised $40 million in Series B funding, the company tells Crunchbase News exclusively.

Robinhood is expanding aggressively in the UK, releasing low-cost investment products and seeking to launch its prediction market products in the country (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Robinhood is expanding aggressively in the UK, releasing low-cost investment products and seeking to launch its prediction market products in the country — US broker in talks with regulator about bringing its products to Britain — US broker Robinhood is taking aim at Hargreaves Lansdown …

Insiders detail negotiations between politicians, tech and AI companies, VCs, and others over California's SB 53, the first-in-the-nation AI safety law (Chase DiFeliciantonio/Politico)

Chase DiFeliciantonio / Politico:
Insiders detail negotiations between politicians, tech and AI companies, VCs, and others over California's SB 53, the first-in-the-nation AI safety law — The process also highlighted the stakes for the top Democrats involved: Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, and the bill's author …

Foxconn reports Q3 revenue of ~$67.71B, up 11% YoY, driven by strong demand for AI products; the company's consumer electronics division posted a slight decline (Ben Blanchard/Reuters)

Ben Blanchard / Reuters:
Foxconn reports Q3 revenue of ~$67.71B, up 11% YoY, driven by strong demand for AI products; the company's consumer electronics division posted a slight decline — - Foxconn's Q3, September revenue hit records — Foxconn benefiting from surge in AI demand — Foxconn to report broader Q3 results on Nov 12

An interview with DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on the company's £2.9B acquisition of Deliveroo, which closed on Oct. 2, to bolster its plans to expand abroad, and more (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
An interview with DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on the company's £2.9B acquisition of Deliveroo, which closed on Oct. 2, to bolster its plans to expand abroad, and more — Tony Xu says bar is high for deals as M&A is ‘mostly littered with failure’ — DoorDash chief executive Tony Xu first met Will Shu …

The FBI estimates that North Koreans posing as IT workers, using stolen IDs and AI-fabricated work, funneled up to $1B into the country over the past five years (Amanda Gerut/Fortune)

Amanda Gerut / Fortune:
The FBI estimates that North Koreans posing as IT workers, using stolen IDs and AI-fabricated work, funneled up to $1B into the country over the past five years — In corporate security circles, a ghastly new fear has led to some strange advice for recruiters interviewing potential IT staffers …

Another look at Apple's executive succession, as it increases the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus; sources: Apple weighed hiring a senior Meta AI exec (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Another look at Apple's executive succession, as it increases the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus; sources: Apple weighed hiring a senior Meta AI exec — Apple is intensifying the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus as executive succession looms.

How video games are shaping a generation of boys, as a survey says US males aged 15 to 24 now spend ~10 hrs/week on average on games, over 2x the time from 2010 (New York Times)

New York Times:
How video games are shaping a generation of boys, as a survey says US males aged 15 to 24 now spend ~10 hrs/week on average on games, over 2x the time from 2010 — They've become an important way to spend time with peers. But they've also become more addictive.

The AI boom is driving memory and storage shortages that may last a decade; OpenAI's Stargate has deals for 900K DRAM wafers per month, or ~40% of global output (Luke James/Tom's Hardware)

Luke James / Tom's Hardware:
The AI boom is driving memory and storage shortages that may last a decade; OpenAI's Stargate has deals for 900K DRAM wafers per month, or ~40% of global output — Once-cheap SSDs, DRAM, and HDD prices are climbing fast as AI demand and constrained supply converge to create the tightest market in years.

PitchBook: VC investment in Asia slowed to $48.9B in the first nine months of 2025, just over half of 2024's total, amid uncertainty due to US tariff policies (Pak Yiu/Nikkei Asia)

Pak Yiu / Nikkei Asia:
PitchBook: VC investment in Asia slowed to $48.9B in the first nine months of 2025, just over half of 2024's total, amid uncertainty due to US tariff policies — NEW YORK — Asian venture capital dealmaking has slowed down so far this year, as the region faces liquidity shortages …

How Ordos, a coal-rich northern Chinese city, has become a testing ground for self-driving trucks after turning into a ghost town due to 2012's coal price crash (Kinling Lo/Rest of World)

Kinling Lo / Rest of World:
How Ordos, a coal-rich northern Chinese city, has become a testing ground for self-driving trucks after turning into a ghost town due to 2012's coal price crash — The empty boulevards that once symbolized the mainland's property bust now serve as testing grounds for hundreds of autonomous vehicles.

A study found that by late 2024, around 24% of English-language corporate press releases and 14% of UN press releases used LLM-assisted writing (AJ Dellinger/Gizmodo)

AJ Dellinger / Gizmodo:
A study found that by late 2024, around 24% of English-language corporate press releases and 14% of UN press releases used LLM-assisted writing — Hopefully it got the numbers right. — If there is one place that AI seems to have found work, it's in corporate press offices.

Robots on the sidewalk: big cities' experiment in automation meets mixed reviews

Robots like 'Courtney' and 'Esther', conspicuous for their blinking LED "eyes" and compact, cooler-like frames, have quietly settled into the daily rhythms of Atlanta's Midtown neighborhoods. Developed by Serve Robotics, these autonomous four-wheeled machines deliver Uber Eats orders over short distances – generally less than a mile – and have...

Read Entire Article

What was the first Android smartphone ever released?

Android rocking a full QWERTY keyboard.

Read Entire Article

TCL enters US gaming monitor market with Call of Duty partnership

The new lineup uses QD-Mini LED panels – a mix of quantum dot color layers and Mini LED backlighting – that promise better brightness and contrast than traditional LCDs without the higher cost of OLED. TCL says the setup allows for high peak brightness, accurate color, and deeper black levels,...

Read Entire Article

Microsoft just reminded everyone that streaming games isn't cheap

Microsoft's decision to raise prices for its Xbox Game Pass subscription service has reignited debate over whether the company's ambitious streaming strategy is delivering the financial returns it once hoped for.

Read Entire Article

Why vibe coding won’t kill software engineering

Vibe-coding platforms are dishing out code faster than ever before. But software engineering is more than just prompting LLMs.

The post Why vibe coding won’t kill software engineering first appeared on TechTalks.

The EU plans a new AI strategy to cut its reliance on US and Chinese technology

Brussels is preparing to launch a new AI strategy aimed at strengthening Europe's digital independence and reducing its reliance on the US and China.

The article The EU plans a new AI strategy to cut its reliance on US and Chinese technology appeared first on THE DECODER.

OpenAI's new AI device reportedly faces technical hurdles that could delay its launch

OpenAI and former Apple designer Jony Ive are working on a new AI device, but the project is facing technical hurdles that could delay its launch.

The article OpenAI's new AI device reportedly faces technical hurdles that could delay its launch appeared first on THE DECODER.

Reasoning models like Claude Sonnet 4.5 are getting better at spotting security flaws

Anthropic sees growing potential for language models in cybersecurity.

The article Reasoning models like Claude Sonnet 4.5 are getting better at spotting security flaws appeared first on THE DECODER.

Meta's Yann LeCun reportedly clashed with the company over new publication rules

Meta's top AI researcher, Yann LeCun, is reportedly at odds with the company over new publication guidelines for its FAIR research division.

The article Meta's Yann LeCun reportedly clashed with the company over new publication rules appeared first on THE DECODER.

OpenAI's Sora 2 answers science questions directly in its generated videos

OpenAI's Sora 2 can handle knowledge questions, too.

The article OpenAI's Sora 2 answers science questions directly in its generated videos appeared first on THE DECODER.

Meta will start using chatbot conversations to target ads across all major platforms

Meta is set to start mining users' conversations with its chatbot to target ads and content across all Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

The article Meta will start using chatbot conversations to target ads across all major platforms appeared first on THE DECODER.

SysLinuxOS: The Go-To Linux for System Administrators

Today’s Linux distributions are plentiful and run the gamut of purposes. There are Linux distributions for those who are new

The post SysLinuxOS: The Go-To Linux for System Administrators appeared first on The New Stack.

A Cloud Built for Python Data Scientists, Not Infrastructure Engineers

The cloud is incredibly useful — but what if you’re a Python-loving data scientist? The prevailing advice has been that

The post A Cloud Built for Python Data Scientists, Not Infrastructure Engineers appeared first on The New Stack.

AI chatbots that butter you up make you worse at conflict, study finds

Top AI models keep saying you’re right, and that’s the problem

State-of-the-art AI models tend to flatter users, and that praise makes people more convinced that they're right and less willing to resolve conflicts, recent research suggests.…

SAP's vision for the AI era

Learn how SAP is answering enterprise AI needs with a unified business suite

The Sequence Radar #731: Rails, Windows, and Shots — Tinker, DeepSeek V3.2, Sora 2, and Periodic’s $300M

An impressive week of AI releases.

Jane Goodall’s death triggered the premiere of Netflix’s new show

For the last several years Netflix has been quietly banking episodes of a new show called Famous Last Words, interviews with famous people entering their twilight years. The catch is that episodes will only air after the subject passes away. The full list of interviewees is a closely guarded secret, but last week Netflix quietly […]

If you can get past the terrible logo, Audacity 4 looks pretty great

Rebrands rarely get much love. That backlash can be especially strong if you’re giving a facelift to a decades-old piece of software beloved by nerds around the globe. So, it was no surprise that when Audacity revealed its new logo people on the internet got a little worked up. And look, there’s no two ways […]

Roland is finally honoring its legacy instead of just cashing in on it

If the only thing Roland ever released was the TR-808, the company would still deserve a place in the music gear hall of fame. The 808 is arguably the most important instrument since the creation of the electric guitar. It's been a cornerstone of hip-hop, electronic, and pop music for 45 years now, used by […]

I’ve tested the latest Switch 2 controllers, and this one is the best

Editor’s note: Amazon’s fall Prime Day event kicks off on October 7th; however, if you want to shop ahead of the two-day sale, we’ve rounded up the best early Prime Day deals you can already get. If you choose to get an extra controller for your Nintendo Switch 2, you can spend a lot — […]

The developers behind a hit sausage-dueling game hope Steam launch will take it furter

Life is a series of battles, and I just lost my last one against four gyoza on a skewer. It was an unexpected blow, because honestly, who could have expected me - a springy, respectably proportioned hot dog - to lose against a seemingly inflexible spear of small, unassuming dumplings? This is my struggle in […]

Version History is live — here’s how to find it

We've been working on a new show for the last few months, called Version History, and the first episode is now live! It's called "Hoverboards: so hot right now," and it's an hour-long tour of the biggest rideable gadget of the 2010s. Hidden inside the history of this weird two-wheeled scooter is a crucial inflection […]

Can tap-to-pay save public transportation?

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the intersection of transportation and technology, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started I vividly remember the first time I […]

The best lists to keep — and the best ways to keep them

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 100, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, get ready for a big gadget week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Tim Berners-Lee and stain removers and […]

Asteroid: How I built a Comet Browser Clone using Streamlit and TavilySearch — Part 1

We are all familiar with Perplexity AI and their popular product, Comet Browser, which has revolutionised how we surf the internet. After…

Continue reading on Towards AI »

Perplexity’s Comet Browser: The AI-Powered Browser That Just Went Free

The AI browser wars have begun, and Perplexity just made the first move.

Continue reading on Towards AI »

Advanced RAG: Comparing GraphRAG, Corrective RAG, and Self-RAG

You’re Doing RAG Wrong. Let’s Talk About a Real Production System.

Continue reading on Towards AI »

CTO’s ADAPT System: My Five Bets for the Agentic Engineering Era

A Principal’s Bets for Thriving in the Agentic Engineering Era

Continue reading on Towards AI »

The $200 AI Browser That Freaked Out Google Is Now Free — Here’s Why It Matters

Perplexity’s Comet isn’t just another browser. It’s a bold, aggressive play to redefine our relationship with the internet, and it represents the first real existential threat to Google’s search empire.

Introduction: The Shot Heard ‘Round the Valley

In the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence, it takes a truly audacious move to make the entire industry stop and stare. On October 2, 2025, Perplexity AI delivered exactly that. The company announced that Comet, its revolutionary AI-native browser, was now free for everyone, worldwide. This wasn’t a minor product update; it was a seismic shift. Just months prior, access to Comet was a privilege reserved for a select few, locked behind the formidable paywall of Perplexity’s Max subscription, a plan that cost an eye-watering $200 per month. The browser had become, as the company itself noted, “the most sought-after AI product of the year,” with a waitlist that had swelled into the millions.

Then, in a single moment, the velvet rope was gone. The exclusive club was thrown open to the public.

The market’s reaction was immediate and telling. While not a catastrophic plunge, the stock of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Google’s parent company, edged downward by 0.6% in the wake of the news. It was a subtle but unmistakable tremor, a sign that Wall Street was paying close attention. This wasn’t just another startup launching another app; this was a direct, calculated assault on the very heart of Google’s kingdom: the Chrome browser and the search monopoly it protects. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas framed the decision not as a business pivot, but as a crusade. “We want to build a better internet,” he declared, “and that needs to be accessible to everybody”.

This move, however, was far more strategic than a simple act of digital altruism. The initial $200 price tag was never about building a sustainable business at that price point; it was a masterclass in psychological marketing. It served as a powerful hype generator, creating an aura of extreme value and exclusivity around Comet. By positioning it as a tool so powerful that elite users would pay a premium, Perplexity manufactured an intense level of desire. When the company then made this “most sought-after” product free, it transformed that pent-up demand into a massive, frictionless user acquisition engine. It was a classic two-step maneuver: create desire through scarcity, then fulfill it with overwhelming abundance, a tactic designed for the kind of rapid, widespread adoption necessary when you’re in a high-stakes race against titans like Google and OpenAI.

This report will dissect that audacious strategy. It will explore the “agentic” technology that makes Comet a fundamental paradigm shift, moving beyond a simple tool for viewing webpages to a proactive assistant that accomplishes tasks. It will analyze Comet’s potential to disrupt Google’s two-decade-long dominance by changing the very nature of search. And finally, it will reveal how Perplexity is attempting to fix the broken economics of the web, creating a new, symbiotic relationship with the content creators that AI has, until now, threatened to consume. This isn’t just a browser launch; it’s a glimpse into the next era of computing.

I. The Agent in Your Browser: Your New Chief-of-Staff

For over thirty years, the web browser has been a passive window. It displays information, renders pages, and follows our clicks, but it has never truly understood our intent. It’s a tool we operate, not a partner we collaborate with. Perplexity’s Comet is engineered to shatter this paradigm. The central innovation is the transition from a passive “browser” to an active “agent” — a shift from being the navigator of the web to having a digital chauffeur who also happens to be your chief-of-staff.

The Comet Assistant in Action (For Everyone)

At the heart of the free Comet experience is the AI sidebar assistant, a constant companion that fundamentally changes the user’s workflow. This isn’t a simple chatbot bolted onto a browser; it’s a deeply integrated intelligence layer that understands context and executes commands.

The first and most obvious change is the move to conversational control. Instead of dissecting a query into a string of keywords for a search bar, users can ask full, natural-language questions. A query like, “What are the top AI/ML certifications in 2025?” doesn’t return a list of ten blue links; it provides a structured, cited response directly within the browser, synthesizing information from multiple reputable sources.

This intelligence extends to the content on the page itself. With on-page context awareness, the assistant can interact with whatever the user is viewing. You can highlight a dense paragraph in a technical paper and ask, “Explain this like I’m five,” or point it at a lengthy YouTube video and command, “Summarize this video”. This capability eliminates the constant, flow-disrupting ritual of copying text, opening a new tab, pasting it into another AI tool, and then returning to the original page. The answers are generated right where you are, keeping you focused on the task at hand.

The assistant is also designed to be a hub for your personal knowledge. It can search not just the public web, but your own digital footprint within the browser. You can ask it to “Summarize the last video I watched,” “Take me to my most visited page recently,” or even “Group my research tabs into a collection”. It becomes a personalized tool that learns and adapts to your workflow, capable of drafting emails, describing images, and managing your digital environment without ever leaving the browser window.

The True Endgame: Background Assistants (For Max Subscribers)

While the free Comet Assistant is a powerful tool, it is merely the opening act. The true, futuristic vision of Perplexity is revealed in the “Background Assistants” feature, reserved for its premium Max subscribers. This is where the browser transcends assistance and achieves genuine autonomy.

CEO Aravind Srinivas describes this feature as having “a team of assistants working for you”. These AI agents operate concurrently and independently in the background, executing complex, multi-step tasks even while the user is working on something else or is away from their computer entirely. This is the “agentic” promise fulfilled.

The potential applications are staggering. A user could give a high-level command like, “Find me the best flight options to Tokyo for the second week of December, compare them based on price and layover time, and book the one with the best balance.” The background assistant would then navigate airline websites, apply filters, compare the outcomes, and proceed through the booking process, all tracked through a “mission control” dashboard. Other examples include complex comparison shopping that goes from initial research to reading reviews to final checkout, sending automated follow-up emails based on a meeting, or even finding and adding event tickets to a digital cart.

This tiered approach reveals a sophisticated business strategy. Perplexity is using a freemium model based not just on access to features, but on escalating levels of AI agency. The free tier offers assisted intelligence — the AI helps you perform tasks more efficiently. It demonstrates immediate value, solves common user pain points like summarization and research, and builds a crucial foundation of trust. Once a user becomes accustomed to this level of intelligent help, the proposition of the paid tier becomes immensely compelling. It offers delegated autonomy — the AI works for you, proactively and independently. This transforms the value proposition from “a smarter browser” to “a personal, autonomous assistant that lives in your browser.” It creates a powerful psychological and practical upgrade path, allowing Perplexity to capture a massive user base with a compelling free product while creating a high-margin, premium offering that showcases the true, world-changing potential of its technology.

II. Under the Hood: The Architecture of a Smarter Internet

A revolutionary AI is useless if the vehicle delivering it is clunky, unfamiliar, or incompatible with a user’s established digital life. Perplexity’s team understood this implicitly, and the architectural decisions behind Comet are as strategically brilliant as its AI capabilities. They designed a browser that feels instantly familiar yet operates in a fundamentally new way.

Built on Familiar Ground (The Chromium Decision)

Perhaps the single most important strategic choice Perplexity made was to build Comet on Chromium, the open-source project that forms the foundation for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and dozens of other browsers. This was a masterstroke that instantly neutralized the biggest obstacle to new browser adoption: user inertia.

For the average user, switching browsers is a high-friction event. It means abandoning years of muscle memory, saved passwords, and carefully curated bookmarks and extensions. By building on Chromium, Perplexity sidestepped this entire problem. The browser supports the vast ecosystem of Chrome extensions and allows for the seamless import of bookmarks, making the transition virtually painless. The implicit message to potential users is powerful: “You get a revolutionary AI experience without having to give up the browser environment you already know, trust, and rely on.”

This decision reveals a “Trojan Horse” approach to innovation. The familiar, user-friendly Chromium shell is the delivery vehicle for the disruptive AI agent within. It allows Perplexity to avoid a decade-long battle over basic browser features and focus the competition squarely on the value of its AI. It’s a clever judo move, leveraging the incumbent’s own technology to create a platform from which to challenge its dominance.

Taming the Tab Chaos (Workspaces & Organization)

Perplexity also demonstrated a keen understanding of the modern knowledge worker’s primary frustration: tab overload. The endless proliferation of open tabs is a universal source of digital clutter and cognitive drain. Comet addresses this head-on with a feature called “Workspaces” or “Spaces”.

This feature allows users to intelligently group related tabs, tasks, and research projects into distinct, organized collections. A developer could have a workspace for a specific coding project, a researcher could have one for an academic paper, and a project manager could have one for each client. This not only reduces visual clutter but, more importantly, maintains context, making it easier to switch between complex tasks without losing focus. The AI assistant can even automate this organization, with commands like “Group my research tabs” or the particularly useful “Close everything I haven’t touched in three days”. This isn’t just a feature; it’s a solution to a pervasive problem, showing that Comet is designed with deep empathy for the user’s actual workflow.

Connecting Your Digital Life (Gmail & Calendar Integration)

Finally, Comet aims to break down the artificial walls that separate the browser from the rest of a user’s digital life. Through direct integration with services like Gmail and Google Calendar, the browser transforms from a simple window onto the web into a centralized dashboard for personal productivity.

With these connections enabled, the Comet Assistant can perform tasks that were previously impossible for a browser. It can brief you on your day’s schedule upon opening a new tab, telling you who you’re meeting with and when. It can search the contents of your inbox to find a specific piece of information or draft and schedule an email on your behalf. This deep integration turns the browser into a true command center, a single interface from which to manage not just web-based information but also personal communications and scheduling. It’s a key step toward realizing the vision of a browser that doesn’t just show you things, but actively helps you get things done.

III. The Market Tremors: A New Challenger Enters the Arena

Perplexity’s decision to unleash Comet for free was not just a product launch; it was a declaration of intent aimed squarely at the heart of Silicon Valley’s most formidable fortress: Google. The shockwaves are challenging not only Google’s market share but the fundamental economic and behavioral models that have defined the web for two decades.

The Google Disruption — From Links to Answers

For over twenty years, Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) has been the de facto entry point to the internet. Its model is simple: a user enters keywords, and Google returns a list of ten blue links, often interspersed with advertisements and SEO-optimized content of varying quality. The user’s job is to click through these links, sift through the content, and synthesize an answer for themselves. Google’s business model is built entirely on this process; it profits from the clicks on the ads that surround the organic results.

Perplexity’s Comet represents an existential threat to this model because it fundamentally alters the user’s journey. It replaces the list of links with a direct, conversational, and meticulously cited answer. This creates what analysts call “reduced click dependency”. When a user gets a comprehensive, trustworthy summary directly in their browser, the need to click through to multiple external websites diminishes or disappears entirely. This efficiency for the user is a direct threat to Google’s revenue. Every query answered by Perplexity is a potential ad impression lost by Google. The slight but symbolic dip in Alphabet’s stock following the Comet announcement was a clear signal that investors understand this dynamic.

The New SEO: From Ranking to Citation

This paradigm shift has profound implications for the entire digital marketing and content creation ecosystem. For years, the holy grail for businesses and publishers has been achieving a top ranking on Google’s SERP. An entire industry, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), was built around deciphering and manipulating Google’s algorithms to gain this coveted visibility.

In the world of agentic browsers like Comet, this model is upended. Success is no longer defined by your rank in a list of links, but by whether your content is deemed authoritative enough to be included as a source in an AI-generated answer.

Citation is the new ranking. This forces a dramatic shift in content strategy. The focus moves away from technical SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and backlink acquisition — factors that Perplexity’s AI largely ignores — and toward creating high-quality, well-structured, and deeply informative content that an AI can easily parse, understand, and trust. Expertise, clarity, and factual accuracy become paramount. Small but authoritative sources can now compete on a more level playing field with large, established players, as the AI prioritizes informational reliability over domain authority alone.

Racing Against the Giants

Perplexity’s aggressive “free for all” strategy must be understood in the context of a high-stakes race. The company knows it has a temporary head start, but the giants are stirring. Google is actively working to integrate its powerful Gemini AI more deeply into Chrome, and OpenAI, Perplexity’s ideological sibling and rival, is widely reported to be developing its own AI-powered browser.

The decision to make Comet free is a classic land grab. The goal is to acquire a critical mass of users as quickly as possible, building brand loyalty and a network effect before its larger, better-funded competitors can bring their own products to market. By getting millions of users accustomed to the “Comet way” of interacting with the web, Perplexity hopes to create a defensible user base that will be less likely to switch when Google or OpenAI eventually launch their alternatives. It’s a calculated gamble that user experience and first-mover advantage can triumph over the sheer scale and distribution power of the incumbents.

Perplexity Comet vs. Traditional Browsers: A Paradigm Shift

IV. Fixing a Broken Web: Perplexity’s Gamble on a New Economy

Beyond the technological disruption and the market competition lies a deeper, more philosophical battle over the future of the internet itself. The rise of large language models has created an existential crisis for the publishers and content creators who form the backbone of the web. AI models are trained by scraping vast quantities of online content, often without permission or compensation. They then summarize this information, frequently eliminating the user’s need to visit the original source, thereby gutting the ad-based business models that fund journalism and content creation. It’s a fundamentally extractive relationship that threatens to poison the well from which AI itself drinks.

Perplexity’s Proposed Solution: Comet Plus

While other AI companies are facing a barrage of copyright lawsuits, Perplexity is taking a radically different approach. It is proactively attempting to build a new, symbiotic economy with its Comet Plus subscription plan.

Priced at an accessible $5 per month, Comet Plus is designed to create a direct financial link between AI users and premium content creators. The subscription grants users — and their AI assistants — access to high-quality, behind-the-paywall content from a growing roster of major publishers, including CNN, The Washington Post, Fortune, Condé Nast, and Le Monde.

Crucially, this is not just a content bundle. Perplexity has engineered a novel revenue-sharing model to ensure publishers are fairly compensated for the value their content provides to the AI ecosystem. The company pools the subscription revenue, keeping 20% for itself and distributing the remaining 80% to its publisher partners. This revenue is divvied up based on a sophisticated, multi-faceted metric that tracks three types of engagement: direct visits from users browsing with Comet, instances where publisher content is cited in an AI-generated answer, and, most innovatively, when that content is used by an AI agent to complete a complex task.

A Symbiotic Future?

This model represents a powerful strategic and ethical differentiator for Perplexity. At a time when the relationship between AI and journalism is fraught with tension, Perplexity is positioning itself as a partner, not a parasite. The statement from Jessica Chan, Perplexity’s Head of Publisher Partnerships, is telling: “Perplexity only succeeds if journalism succeeds. We’re really committed to building and funding more sustainable, thriving news ecosystems for the AI age”. This is a direct appeal to both users who are concerned about the spread of low-quality, AI-generated “slop” and to publishers who are desperate for a viable business model in the AI era.

The Comet Plus model is far more than just a feature or a public relations gesture; it is a strategic moat in the making. The quality of any AI answer engine is fundamentally limited by the quality of the data it can access. By creating a financial alliance with the world’s leading publishers, Perplexity is attempting to secure privileged, direct access to a vast repository of high-quality, fact-checked, and structured data. This could create a powerful flywheel effect: better, more reliable content leads to more accurate and trustworthy AI answers. This, in turn, attracts more paying subscribers, which generates more revenue for publishers, further strengthening the alliance and incentivizing them to provide even deeper access to their archives. Over time, this could give Perplexity’s AI a significant and defensible advantage in data quality, potentially starving competitors who rely solely on scraping the increasingly polluted public web of the authoritative information needed to generate reliable results. It is a bold attempt to turn a business model into a long-term competitive advantage.

Conclusion: The Browser Is Dead, Long Live the Agent

Perplexity’s decision to pivot its $200-a-month Comet browser to a free-for-all product was a masterfully executed strategic shockwave. It was a calculated, aggressive move designed to seize the narrative and capture a massive user base in the escalating war for the future of web interaction. But the true significance of Comet lies not in its price tag, but in its purpose. It represents a fundamental re-imagining of what a browser is and what it can do — a shift from a passive tool for viewing information to an active, intelligent agent for accomplishing goals.

This vision is the brainchild of Aravind Srinivas, a founder whose resume reads like a tour of the AI industry’s Mount Olympus, with stints at OpenAI, DeepMind, and Google. His background as an industry insider gives his mission a unique weight. This isn’t the venture of an outsider looking to disrupt; it’s the creation of someone who has seen the future from within the walls of the incumbents and has chosen to build it himself, on his own terms. His stated ambition is not just to build a better browser, but to build a better index of the internet itself — one designed from the ground up for AI systems to ingest and understand, not just for humans to click through.

We are standing at a profound inflection point. The very concept of “browsing” — of manually navigating a chaotic, hyperlink-strewn web — may soon seem as archaic as using a physical card catalog to find a book in a library. Perplexity’s Comet, and the wave of agentic browsers that will inevitably follow, are proposing a new contract with the internet. It’s a contract where we move from searching for information to delegating outcomes. The operative question is no longer “Where can I find the answer?” but is rapidly becoming, “Can you just do this for me?” We are witnessing the birth of the browser as a true digital chief-of-staff, and the internet will never be the same.

The $200 AI Browser That Freaked Out Google Is Now Free — Here’s Why It Matters was originally published in Towards AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Unpacking the Implications of the US Government’s LLaMA Approval: Your Future in an AI-Driven…

Why the US Government’s LLaMA Decision Changes EVERYTHING

Unpacking the Implications of the US Government’s LLaMA Approval: Your Future in an AI-Driven America

From Labs to the Capital: How LLaMA’s Approval Signals a New Era for the US

Source: Image created and edited by the post author

Hey everyone,

Remember when AI felt like something out of a sci-fi movie? That distant, futuristic concept we’d talk about, filled with both awe and a healthy dose of apprehension? Well, strap in, because that future just got a whole lot closer, and it’s landing squarely in the halls of power. The recent news of the US government approving LLaMA for official use isn’t just another tech headline; it’s a seismic shift that could redefine everything from national security to your daily commute.

For us, the curious minds and builders in the AI space — whether you’re a seasoned engineer or just starting to dip your toes into the fascinating world of large language models — this news carries a weight that can’t be overstated. It’s not just about a powerful AI model getting the green light; it’s about a government, arguably one of the most influential entities globally, actively embracing a technology that has, until now, largely been in the domain of private enterprise and academic research.

So, what does this truly mean? Is the US government truly moving into an “AI Era”? Is this a challenge or an opportunity for us, the citizens? And most importantly, why should you, a technically inclined individual, care? Let’s dive deep and unpackage this groundbreaking development.

The Elephant in the Room: What Exactly Is LLaMA, and Why Does This Approval Matter?

Before we get into the “why it affects you,” let’s quickly recap what LLaMA is. LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI) is a family of large language models developed by Meta AI. Think of it as a super-intelligent digital assistant, capable of understanding, generating, and even summarizing human-like text at an unprecedented scale. Unlike some proprietary models, LLaMA has been released with various sizes and under more permissible licenses, making it a favorite among researchers and developers for its accessibility and power.

Now, for the approval part: The US government’s decision to integrate LLaMA into its official operations isn’t just about a powerful new tool. It signifies a profound shift in strategic thinking. For years, there’s been a cautious approach to integrating advanced AI into sensitive government functions, often due to concerns about security, bias, and control. This approval suggests a robust evaluation process has taken place, and LLaMA has met stringent requirements for reliability and ethical deployment.

Why does this matter beyond the technical specs? It’s a validation. It’s the government saying, “Yes, this technology is mature enough, secure enough, and beneficial enough for us to use at scale.” This endorsement could accelerate AI adoption across various sectors, not just within government agencies.

The Dawn of the AI Era: Is the US Government Ready?

For a long time, government operations have been perceived (sometimes unfairly, sometimes not) as slow to adapt to technological advancements. But with LLaMA’s approval, we’re seeing a clear signal: the US government is not just passively observing the AI revolution; it’s actively participating in it.

This move could be driven by several factors:

Efficiency and Productivity: Imagine AI assisting with the colossal task of sifting through vast amounts of data, drafting complex reports, or even streamlining public services. The potential for efficiency gains is monumental.
National Security: In an increasingly complex global landscape, leveraging advanced AI for intelligence analysis, cybersecurity, and strategic planning becomes a critical advantage.
Economic Transformation: The ripple effect of government adoption could be massive. It could spur innovation in AI development, create new job markets, and transform existing industries as businesses adapt to an AI-accelerated regulatory and operational environment.

This isn’t just about “moving towards an AI era”; it’s about actively shaping it. And as AI engineers and enthusiasts, this is our moment to contribute to this transformation responsibly and effectively.

Will This Transform the US Economy? A Look at the Ripple Effect

Absolutely. The approval of LLaMA for official use is more than just a bureaucratic decision; it’s an economic catalyst. Here’s how:

Increased Demand for AI Talent: Government agencies will need more AI engineers, data scientists, and ethicists to deploy, manage, and audit these systems. This will undoubtedly boost demand in the job market.
Private Sector Innovation: The government’s confidence in LLaMA could encourage private companies to invest more heavily in AI research, development, and integration, leading to new products, services, and entire industries.
Standardization and Regulation: As AI becomes more embedded in critical government functions, we can expect a greater emphasis on developing standards, best practices, and potentially new regulations around AI development and deployment. This will create a more structured, albeit complex, environment for AI innovation.
Productivity Boom: Automation of routine tasks, enhanced data analysis, and intelligent decision support systems powered by LLaMA could lead to significant productivity gains across both public and private sectors, ultimately boosting GDP.

Think of it like the early days of the internet. Once the government started using it, the floodgates opened for private innovation and widespread adoption. We’re seeing a similar trajectory here with advanced AI.

Is This Challenging for US Citizens? The Good, the Bad, and the Nuances

Any technological revolution brings both opportunities and challenges. LLaMA’s government adoption is no different.

The Opportunities:

Improved Public Services: Imagine faster processing of applications, more personalized government communications, and more efficient allocation of resources.
Enhanced Security: Better intelligence gathering and threat detection could lead to a safer society.
Economic Growth and Job Creation: As discussed, this could lead to a thriving AI industry and new employment opportunities.

The Challenges (and why we need to be vigilant):

Privacy Concerns: How will vast amounts of citizen data be handled by AI systems? Robust data governance and privacy safeguards will be paramount.
Bias and Fairness: AI models, if not carefully trained and monitored, can perpetuate and even amplify existing societal biases. Ensuring fairness and preventing discrimination in AI-driven decisions will be a continuous challenge.
Job Displacement: While new jobs will be created, some existing roles might be automated. A focus on retraining and upskilling will be crucial.
Accountability and Transparency: When an AI makes a critical decision, who is accountable? Understanding the decision-making process of these “black box” models becomes even more important.

This is where we come in. As AI engineers and technically aware citizens, it’s our responsibility to advocate for ethical AI development, robust oversight, and transparency in its deployment. We must push for systems that serve humanity, not the other way around.

What Does This Approval Really Mean for You?

Beyond the macro-level impacts, let’s get personal. What does the US government’s embrace of LLaMA mean for you?

If you’re an AI Engineer: Your skills just became even more valuable. The demand for ethical, skilled AI practitioners will skyrocket, both within government and in the private sector that will now be racing to keep up. Get ready for more opportunities, but also for greater responsibility.
If you’re a Beginner in AI: There’s never been a better time to learn. The foundational knowledge of LLMs, data science, and AI ethics will be critical. Start exploring, building, and understanding. The landscape is ripe for new talent.
As a Citizen: Expect subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, changes in how you interact with government services. Be informed, ask questions, and hold institutions accountable for the ethical and responsible use of AI. Your voice matters in shaping this future.

The approval of LLaMA by the US government isn’t just a technical footnote; it’s a profound declaration that AI is no longer a fringe technology but a central pillar of national strategy. It marks a shift from theoretical discussions about AI’s potential to its concrete, large-scale implementation in critical sectors.

Limitations and Open Questions

While this news is exciting, it’s crucial to approach it with a balanced perspective. Several limitations and open questions remain:

Scalability and Integration Challenges: Integrating a complex AI system like LLaMA into a vast and often fragmented government IT infrastructure is a monumental task.
Continuous Security Threats: AI systems, like any technology, are vulnerable to attacks. Maintaining robust cybersecurity measures will be an ongoing battle.
Evolving Ethical Guidelines: The ethical landscape of AI is constantly evolving. The government will need to continuously update its guidelines and policies to address new challenges.
Public Trust and Acceptance: Building and maintaining public trust in AI systems, especially those used by the government, will be crucial for successful adoption.

These aren’t insurmountable obstacles, but they require continuous attention, research, and collaboration between government, industry, and academia.

Conclusion: Our Role in the AI-Powered Future

The US government’s approval of LLaMA for official use is a landmark decision, heralding a new chapter in the AI revolution. It’s a clear signal that we are moving into an era where AI will not only drive innovation but also shape policy, economy, and society at large.

For us, the AI community, this is a call to action. It’s an invitation to engage, to innovate responsibly, and to ensure that the AI systems we build and deploy are not just powerful but also ethical, transparent, and beneficial for all. The future of an AI-powered America is being written now, and we have a crucial role to play in authoring its best possible version.

What are your thoughts on this monumental shift? Do you see it as a net positive, a significant challenge, or a bit of both? Share your insights and perspectives in the comments below!

Acknowledgements

This post was inspired by the rapidly evolving landscape of AI governance and large language model adoption. Research was conducted using publicly available information and news reports on the US government’s AI initiatives and Meta AI’s LLaMA project. Special thanks to the researchers and developers at Meta AI for their contributions to the open-source AI community.

Also learn how other country is doing in the AI:

Unpacking the Implications of the US Government’s LLaMA Approval: Your Future in an AI-Driven… was originally published in Towards AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

AI 日报

1. UI and state management

2. Sending data and awaiting confirmation

3. Writing to the characteristic

4. Handling the device response

Android

Android permissions

Android runtime checks

iOS

iOS permissions

iOS Bluetooth service

🛠️ Tech Box: Agent Architecture and Prompts

🗺️ Tech Box: How the Routing Agent Analyzes Benchmarks

🏗️ Tech Box: Content Collections and Type Safety

Phase 1: Planning (5–10 minutes)

Phase 2: Routing (2–3 minutes)

Phase 3: Research (3–5 minutes)

Phase 4: Content Generation (5–8 minutes)

Phase 5: SEO Optimization (2–3 minutes)

Phase 6: Publishing (1–2 minutes + 2–5 deploy)

🎨 Tech Box: Components with Class Variance Authority

1. Collaborative Planning Eliminates Pasteurization

2. Benchmark-Based Dynamic Routing Is a Game Changer

3. Content Collections + Zod = Type-Safe Content

4. OKLCH > HSL/RGB for Design Systems

5. Lucide Icons > Emojis for Professionalism

6. AI Needs Human Guardrails

7. Specialized Prompts > Generic Prompts

✅ Use AI agents when:

❌ DON’T use AI agents when:

Introduction

Security Configuration

Monitoring and Maintenance

Integration Best Practices

Backup Configuration

Common Issues

Getting Help

Hello (Virtual) World by Keren Kenzi

Kafka Crash Course – Hands-On Project

🌍 Introduction

🔒 The Day’s Goal: Make Code Safer and More Sustainable

⚙️ The Contributions in Detail

🧩 creharmony/node-etsy-client

🧩 boly38/drobadi

🧩 DatavenueLiveObjects/Start-here-nodeJS

🧩 boly38/action-umami-report

🧩 boly38/botEnSky

📊 Technical Summary

💬 Key Takeaways

🪴 Bonus: Hacktoberfest, Holopin & Treenation

❤️ Conclusion

👤 About Me

The War Songs of Greenwich Village

🧩 `creharmony/node-etsy-client`

🧩 `boly38/drobadi`

🧩 `DatavenueLiveObjects/Start-here-nodeJS`

🧩 `boly38/action-umami-report`

🧩 `boly38/botEnSky`