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Nest Labs, an Alphabet company based in California, has announced the official arrival of its connected safety and security devices to Australian shores, though you'll only be able to acquire them via iSelect’s new Life Admin online storefront. The Nest Cam Indoor and the weatherproof Nest Cam Outdoor security cameras carry a price tag of $319 each, while the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm has been priced at $189 for the Australian market. There’s even a subscription cloud storage service on offer – Nest Aware – with prices starting at $14 for the first paired Nest device, with an additional $7 for any subsequent ones. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FpKSEnYpog7PAKEtVyxQTZ.jpg “Nest is focused on creating a home that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it,” said Maxime Veron, Director of Product Marketing at Nest. “To date, Nest’s hardware, software and services have been available for purchase in just 12 markets, yet they’re used by millions of people in more than 190 countries. Today we’re excited to be entering our first market in Asia Pacific region through our partnership with iSelect.” Well, that makes us lucky number 13. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Z9mf7F4ay5QDnChxZ6cLUj.jpg The security and safety products will be available as either standalone purchases or as a bundle offer with iSelect energy and telco partners such as Optus, Sumo and Mate Communicate. Customers who purchase a Nest product could, in the coming months, avail exclusive offers on home loans and health insurance as well. Looking forward to the official launch of a smart speaker in Australia? Here’s how the Amazon Echo, Google Home and the Apple HomePod stack up against each other.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/VGMaSuVi188

This is the cheapest that you’ll find Amazon’s smart speaker – the original Amazon Echo – before Christmas time, because it’s Amazon Prime Day. The Amazon Echo is a whopping 50% off, or just $89, from its normal price of $179. Act fast, because this deal ends on July 11 at 11:59pm PT. No, this is not a refurbished product or one that’s already been succeeded by a more powerful version. This is the Amazon Echo that started it all, available for a massive $90 off. However, keep in mind that you won’t be able to take advantage of this huge deal without an Amazon Prime subscription (or a free trial) or a membership in the Amazon Prime Student program. More Echo devices have been price-slashedNaturally, this isn’t the only Amazon smart speaker to enjoy a steep discount. Both the Echo Dot and the Amazon Tap can be had for far less on this most glorious of Prime Days. The Amazon Echo Dot is a cool 33% off, or just $34.99, from its normal price of $49. This deal is even rarer, with it ending at 11:45pm ET on July 10, tonight. Meanwhile, the Amazon Tap enjoys a sweet 38% discount to just $79 for the speaker, from its normal price of $129. Like the OG Echo, this deal ends on July 11 at 11:59pm ET. Amazon Prime Day started at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on July 10, while the official 'Prime Day' date is all day on July 11. So, expect to see plenty more deals from now through end-of-day July 11. It's Amazon Prime Day 2017, the online shopping giant's annual mega sale. Stick with TechRadar for how to grab all the best deals. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/oYgRRsRpAOA

Filling your home with ‘smart’ products can be an expensive proposition once you’ve got smart bulbs in all of your lamps and smart plugs in all of your sockets. For today only, as part of Prime Day 2017, both of these things are reduced, with the TP-Link HS100 Smart Plugs 35% off. You control your smart devices using third party apps like If This Then That, if you want to use different providers, like for example Philips Hue bulbs. Both the HS100 and the TP-Link Smart Bulbs play nicely with Amazon's Alexa-powered devices and Google Home, meaning you can turn off lights and devices in the other room with just your voice. Once you're all set up you can control and monitor your devices even when away from your home, and even turn your lights on and off while you’re on holiday to make it look like your house is still occupied. For today, you can get your hands on the TP-Link HS100 for £16.19, 35% off its usual price. TP-Link smart bulbs are also reduced today, so you can kit out all your fixtures with dimmable, voice controllable bulbs for 30% cheaper than RRP. TP-Link LB110 Smart LED light bulbs for £15.74 on AmazonIt's Amazon Prime Day 2017, the online shopping giant's annual mega sale. Stick with TechRadar for how to grab all the best deals.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/_AVNXjiYzgo

Got smart devices up to the eyeballs? Remotes for every single one? Would you rather you had just one super-smart control to rule them all? Then checkout the Logitech Harmony Elite pack – which has conveniently for you had its price slashed for Amazon Prime Day 2017. The remote control lets you command up to 15 home entertainment and smart home devices from a single clicker, whether they're your TV, Blu-ray player or Philips Hue connected bulbs: Logitech Harmony Elite Remote Control and Hub - £112.49Logitech Harmony Home Hub - £53.99The top offer bags you the remote and the accompanying hub for £112.49 – a massive reduction on Amazon's usual £227 asking price. But if you're just after the hub, that's up for grabs too for £53.99. As more and more items in our homes jump on the smart wagon, a single device like this will make you the Gandalf of smart home wizards, letting you banish the army of remote's you'd otherwise need to the netherealm of the loft. It's Amazon Prime Day 2017, the online shopping giant's annual mega sale. Stick with TechRadar for how to grab all the best deals.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/6v7ZYQxCwLA

Eyes may be glued on Amazon Prime Day's upcoming deals today, but those looking for a smart speaker and streaming device on the cheap may just want to take a peek over at another site. Google is shaving 39% off its Google Home and Chomecast bundle via eBay, bringing the $164 price tag down to just $99.99. Individually, Google Home usually runs for $129 and Chromecast for $35. Last we checked, over two-thirds of eBay's stock has already sold and things show no sign of slowing down, so you'll need to act fast if you want to take advantage of this deal. Get Google Home and Chromecast for $99.99 on eBayGoogle has a deal, tooShould you miss out on the eBay sale, Google is also offering the Home smart speaker for $99 via its own online store. However, this doesn't include the bonus Chromecast, though Google is also selling its TV attachment for $25 — $10 off the normal price. Amazon has smart speaker sales of its own planned for Prime Day, which you can scope in advance on our dedicated deals page. The retail giant's own smart speaker, Amazon Echo, is getting a hefty 50% discount during the sales event, and its proprietary video dongle, the Amazon Fire TV Stick, is more than likely to follow suit. Google Home or Amazon Echo: which smart speaker is best for you?http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/OOwg5uVmqJs

The Google Home has dipped under £100 for the first time. We've been staring at the £129 launch price for months now, and our hard work seems to have paid off, as Currys has sliced £30 off the price, making it a much more attractive proposition. If you're planning on hitting F5 all day on Amazon Prime Day, waiting for a Google Home deal, you're out of luck. Amazon simply doesn't stock it, probably because they'd rather you dive in on an Amazon Echo deal. Google Home £99 @ CurrysTo sweeten the deal, you can claim three months of Google Music for free for hours of voice-activated tunes. Google Home is a tempting prospect, as it has the mighty Google search engine behind it (sorry, Alexa, you probably don't understand that either). Not to mention Google Assistant, a soon-to-be essential part of any Android user's life. This is a one-day deal set to expire at Midnight on Tuesday night, so don't hang about if you fancy picking up this super smart speaker deal. It's Amazon Prime Day 2017, the online shopping giant's annual mega sale. Stick with TechRadar for how to grab all the best deals.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/r7J_UwoZlnE

While Apple has original TV shows on the boil, all we’ve been hearing in recent times is that the company has limited ambitions in this respect, and indeed is unsure of its own strategy. However, the firm might need to push harder on this front, looking at new stats which show that iTunes video content is flagging (as is also the case with music). According to the Wall Street Journal, insiders with knowledge of the market share for the rental and sale of movies have observed Apple’s share fall from over 50% back in 2012, to around 20% to 35% right now. Note that these are estimates and unofficial statistics – because no organization shares any cast-iron figures – but obviously they still represent a worrying lurch downwards for Tim Cook’s outfit. The WSJ further notes that several Hollywood studios have observed a ‘marked decline’ in the success of iTunes when it comes to the amount of business they’re doing with Apple. Apple assertionsAn Apple spokeswoman, while not arguing with the above stats, did assert that film rentals and purchases on iTunes have increased over the past year, and indeed hit their highest levels in a decade – but the report puts this down to the overall increase across the whole digital movie industry, which is growing fast (by 12% last year, according to PwC). It’s easy to see, then, that there is a strong argument for Apple to at least solidify, or perhaps expand the scope of its ambitions with exclusive TV programming, to help reverse the current course of its overall video fortunes. In short, the company needs to bring to hand whatever weapons it can get to fight the likes of rising stars such as Amazon Prime, which is busy forging ahead in the current market, snaffling share from Apple. And quality exclusive content could be a powerful sword for Apple to wield – you only have to look at the success of the likes of ‘The Man in the High Castle’. If you are an Amazon subscriber, check out these Prime Day dealshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/u8KhPtk0f7o

Amazon Prime Day 2017 is more complex due to shifting deal start times and even more savings than ever promised by the online retailer. If you're in the US, there's a lot you should know before the clock strikes an odd 9PM Eastern or 6PM Pacific tonight. Like that deals start a day early – today. In fact, you can start saving right now thanks to early Amazon Prime Day deals that the official website has me available hours and even days in advance. Here are ten ways you are get the most out of this invented online shopping holiday. 1. Amazon Prime Day begins tonight at 6PMThe Amazon Prime Day start time can be summed up in one word: confusing. That's okay, we're here to explain it for you. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fsCXXpZGktF3CaTnHhPuY.jpg Amazon has been offering early Prime Day deals (see below) days in advance. But the real deals start at tonight, July 10 at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Yet the full Amazon Prime Day is actually on July 11. Here's why: In a way, this makes it easier to get the first (and usually the best) deals without having to wait until midnight or 3AM. Apple should take note. 2. You can get early Amazon Prime days right nowOn that note, you can get a bunch of Amazon Prime Day deals this very minute, and includes popular Echo and Kindle products. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a27d6eab96b72a3705eae469aa63108f.jpg You can save $30 on Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon.com's top-selling e-reader and our favorite deal so far. Looking for a cheaper take on the iPad mini? Just take another $20 off the Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet. Our favorite phone is the Samsung Galaxy S8 and it's 25% off for Prime Day. The even bigger Galaxy S8 Plus 25% off, too. Way more: Every Amazon Prime Day listed (so far)3. Amazon Prime Day leaked dealsAmazon leaked its own Prime Day deals this year, giving us a preview of what's to come at 6PM, including 50% off the Amazon Echo speaker. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U7xPPbMUS8w6eQiRQTB8NM.jpg It's slashing the price of the Amazon Echo Dot by $15, reducing the price of the Amazon Fire 7 tablet to $29.99 and rolling out a bunch of bundles for each. The best bit of news from the official Amazon Prime Day preview is that there will be at least six TV deals later today, including some 4K TV sets. 4. Some deals will go quicklyThe worst part about Amazon Prime Day is that the tens of millions of buyers it attracts means Lightning deals become a bit literal. They're over in a flash. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4133d5c59d7c149c55a95be9dbd400a9.jpg Amazon Prime Day tip: Just because you're shopping in your underwear doesn't mean there won't be virtual crowdsWhen deals begin at 6PM Pacific on Amazon, it'll require constant refreshing and nimble clicking to get the best doorbuster deals. There is a wait list that Amazon offers on sold out products, just in case buyers don't check out with the discounted item in time or cancel their order. 5. Don't forget about Amazon Video and servicesAmazon is more than about flashy new hardware like the Echo and the new Fire Tablets. It's also a big software and service company. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qvrBMSvc22yPY8BSdXZBjV.jpg We also love the fact that Amazon Music costs $0.99 and many Amazon Video rentals are $0.99. Also see the best Amazon TV shows and Amazon Channels. Plus, there's an excellent Kindle Unlimited price drop that gives you access to the online store's millions of books on a discounted subscription. 6. TV deals and cheap laptops are big-ticket itemsThe best deals are on big-ticket items, including 4KTV sets and laptops, including the MacBook Pro deals already in effect here, here, and here. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/adyxv6Xv9wPh4eiKhq9vMg.jpg The new Element 55-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV (complete with Amazon Fire TV) is going to be $400 for Amazon Prime Day starting at 6PM. We also like the TCL smart TVs, and there are savings there, too. There will be a $119.99 TCL that's TV that's 28 inches, and a 32-inch TCL TV that's $99.99. But It's Amazon prime Day, go big or go home, right? The 40-inch TCL TV will be $199.99. One more Amazon Prime Day TV deal: It'll have a 55-inch premium brand 4K smart LED TV for only $599.99. But it hasn't disclosed which one this is yet. 7. Amazon Prime phones are all unlockedAmazon Prime Phones run Android and and there are some good choices, like the award-winning Moto G5 Plus we reviewed and liked a lot. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vZpTiLHJFRJBGNvPp7EMNA.jpg Believe it or not, some of them are down to $49.99 for Android phones. And many more are below the magical $99 price range. The best part is that while you'll have to deal with Amazon lockscreen ads at this price (unless you upgrade for a fee), they're not locked down by US carriers. 8. Not everything is worth buying, in our opinionThere will be tons of amazing Amazon Prime Day deals for 2017, but we're not going to recommend every single item to you. That's a promise. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sD3dCZJdxVaC35tEynGB38.jpg Instead, we'll listed out the best Prime Day deals in order of what we think you should buy. Last on the list, so far, is the Prime Dash buttons. You don't need it. So while we'll include every deal that we see – and there will be hundreds – we don't steer you in the wrong direction about what you should buy today. 9. Amazon Prime Day is a 'members only' deal dayOne thing that you should buy is an Amazon Prime subscription, or at least start the free 30-day trial today. You can always cancel it. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eYgciHp9BDHWkSLzhZG47X.jpg There's also an Amazon Prime Student discount (with a free six months). Either way you go, a Prime membership is the only way to get today's massive deals. You also get two-day free shipping on most orders, Amazon Prime Instant Video, and a bunch of other extras we haven't lived without since it launched. 10. Didn't get want you wanted? Stay tunedThere's more where that came from can be the unofficial Amazon Prime Day motto, because the online retailer (and others) will be back in a few months. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FqYnxGYfvaKXWSJwFDNhmM.jpg We're already gearing up for our Black Friday and Cyber Monday plans, which kick off at the end of November. We'll do this deals thing all over again. Also, Amazon isn't the only deals vendor in town today. Expect to see Walmart, Target and NewEgg to roll out their own deals to compete with Prime Day. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/DnZBTCUhpcA

Controlling lights with your voice used to be something only a god could do, but these days we have smart lighting systems to make any of us feel all-powerful. The biggest name is Philips with its Hue bulbs, but now IKEA, Hive and a whole host of others have got in on the act too. Let’s get to the important stuff: what’s right for you, is it going to cost a fortune and is it likely to become obsolete any time soon? Let’s find out. What is smart lighting?Smart lighting is lighting that you can control from an app, usually on your Apple or Android phone. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RAKmpEGXcWaPUfgr8xCi6A.jpg Smart bulbs can completely transform the way your home looks, for a lot less than it’d cost to redecorate.The app enables you to change the brightness of the bulbs, and if the bulbs have coloured LEDs you can change their colours too. That opens up a whole world of possibilities, which you might call light recipes: you might have one light recipe for watching movies, another for dinnertime, and yet another for reading. Switching from one recipe to another is as simple as tapping a smartphone or yelling at your favourite voice-activated personal assistant. What you need for a smart lighting systemSmart lighting generally uses mesh networking, where each smart bulb wirelessly connects to its nearest neighbour. That network is controlled by a hub that plugs into your router, enabling your other networked devices - such as your phone or tablet - to communicate with your bulbs. Some systems also have an away from home mode that enables you to control the lights when you’re far away, which is handy if you’ve just remembered you left the lights on or want to terrify the babysitter. Not all systems require a hub, though. The LIFX platform just connects directly to your Wi-Fi. You’ll often find that smart light systems can also be accessorised with additional items such as dimmer switches or motion detectors, and in some cases they can be linked to the IFTTT (If This Then That) service to create complex rules that trigger particular recipes for particular things. Fancy a flash of colour to notify you of an instant message, or a glow to gently break the news of today’s weather forecast? This and much more is possible without too much tinkering. Siri, Alexa, Cortana and moreSmart lighting systems aren’t just controllable with smartphone or tablet apps. Philips’ Hue system works with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Echo and Google Home, and that means you can use those platforms’ voice assistants to relay your voice commands. There’s something undeniably cool about saying “Hey Siri, set scene to cinema” or “Alexa, turn the lights off” and seeing it happen. With HomeKit you can also control the lights with an Apple Watch. IKEA’s Trådfri will get similar compatibility later this year. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Lmv4pm8CNGhdhMWd82e28A.jpg Hue boasts an Apple Watch app and you can control it via Siri. It works with Google and Alexa too.Because developers have targeted mobile platforms first that puts Microsoft in the unusual position of being an afterthought: Hue works via a third party app, Huetro, and IKEA doesn’t appear to have any plans for Windows support. We’re sure somebody will hack something together, but for the time being Windows isn’t really welcome at the smart lighting party. What kinds of bulbs are available?There are three main kinds: standard bulbs, candle bulbs and spotlights. Standard bulbs come with E27 or bayonet fittings; candle bulbs with SES (small screw) fittings; and spotlight bulbs are most commonly GU10 spotlight fittings. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qkRfo7wjb4h2ajTAomuk6A.jpg Smart bulbs come with standard fittings: bayonet cap, large and small Edison screws and GU10 spotlight fittings.Smart lighting bulbs are LED, which draws much less power than traditional incandescent light bulbs. A typical smart bulb is 9.5W or 5.5W for spotlights and candle bulbs. That’s roughly equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb and a 50W spotlight bulb respectively. You’ll usually have a choice of two kinds of bulb: white ones or colour changing ones. The latter are more complex to make and therefore cost quite a bit more. As with normal LEDs, white bulbs come with stated colours: warm white has a yellowish cast which more closely resembles incandescent bulbs’ light, while cool white is blueish like modern car headlights. How much does a smart lighting system cost?Put it this way: if you’re hoping that switching to a smart LED lighting system is going to save you so much in energy bills it’ll pay for itself in no time, you’re going to be disappointed. Smart lighting systems don’t come cheap, although they are slowly getting cheaper. Let’s take the market leader, Philips’ Hue. To get up and running you need the Hue 2.0 Bridge - the previous model doesn’t play nice with Apple’s HomeKit - and some bulbs. At the time of writing a bridge and two white E27 (screw cap) bulbs is £49.95, while a bridge with three multicolour bulbs is £146.95. A lightstrip, which is a 2m strip of colour changing LEDs, is £64.99. A plain white bayonet bulb is £14.95, coloured E27 bulbs are £49.99, coloured E14s are £29.95 and coloured GU10 spotlights are £49.95 apiece. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ywnCTip7B4muiJCADxjd6A.jpg British Gas’s Hive system has expanded to include smart lighting technology under the Hive Active brand.Looking at a modest living room, we’ve got one ceiling lamp, three spotlights and a nice place behind the TV to put a lightstrip. That little lot works out at £49 for the bridge, £147 for the spots and £64.99 for the lightstrip. So that’s £260 for our living room; using coloured bulbs for the six spotlights in the dining room would add another £300. Ouch. That’s for an all-singing all-dancing colour system, though, and it’s using genuine Philips bulbs: third party bulbs are available for considerably less cash and should work okay with the Hue Bridge. We say “should” because an early software update accidentally on purpose removed third party compatibility, which Philips eventually restored after a PR storm. We hope history doesn’t repeat. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Mi2pXdSKvrgw4VJCBbpsAA.jpg OSRAM’s Lightify uses the same Zigbee networking as IKEA and Philips’ systems, so they should be interoperable.No matter what system you go for, colour changing bulbs and smart lighting kits are expensive. You’ll pay £49 for a Hive Edison Screw colour bulb and £39 for a bayonet fitting, and the Hive starter kit is £99.99 for a hub and two white bulbs. Osram’s Lightify bulbs are around £25 for GU10 spots, £22.99 for candles and £41 for the Lightify Gateway. Does IKEA have the white idea?If you don’t want to change colours then the price drops considerably: dimmable Hue bulbs are around £15 for white ones compared to the £50 for coloured ones, and the same applies to Hive Active bulbs. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HQ8gQ5P6idqe32Yf7Qzg6A.jpg IKEA’s smart lights are much cheaper than most, but they don’t currently offer colours. You can adjust colour temperature, though.IKEA’s new Trådfri system is cheaper still: a bridge - IKEA calls it the Gateway - is £25, and bulbs cost from £9 to £15 depending on fitting. Light panels are £55 to £100, dimming kits are £15 and a remote control is £15. You can’t adjust the colour but you can adjust the colour temperature, so you can have warm white for mood lighting and cool white for getting stuff done. It’s much cheaper, but we think colour changing is the key selling point of smart lighting, so for us IKEA’s one to watch in the long term but not a great investment right now. Will it be obsolete in a few years?Nobody can predict that with certainty, but there are encouraging signs that your smart lights won’t prove to be a not-so-smart investment in the long term - so maybe the energy savings will end up paying for the kit, albeit over a fairly long period of time. For example, when Philips added HomeKit compatibility to its Hue range with Hue 2.0, that was backwards compatible, so while you had to upgrade the hub you didn’t need to buy new bulbs. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BnFQaZuUMfLZt4qcKFA58A.jpg A smart bulb inside an interesting lamp can create something really amazing, as this example from LIFX demonstrates.Most smart lighting systems use the same ZigBee wireless networking technology. It’s called ZigBee Light Link and it’s used by Philips, IKEA and Osram, which should ensure ongoing compatibility and interoperability between competing systems. LIFX should be fairly future-proof too, as it simply uses your Wi-Fi network. And of course the various systems all use standard light fittings such as bayonet caps, edison screws and GU10 spots. Is smart lighting worth the money?That really depends on what you want to do. If money is your priority then non-smart LEDs deliver the efficiency savings without the significant up-front expense of smart lights, and that’s by far the most sensible option. But it’s also the least fun. Smart spotlights can turn a front room into something resembling your favourite band’s stage lighting, while lightstrips and light recipes can transform a room without the hassle and expense of redecorating. And if you have kids they’ll love messing around with the options and creating their own recipes or using third-party apps to turn your front room into a disco. For us, smart lighting does something priceless: it makes us smile. Whether we’re telling Siri that we’re going to bed, asking for the reading preset, getting the mood ready for a movie or making the house spooky for Hallowe’en, we’ve found smart lighting to be a constant delight - and it’s still uncommon enough to impress friends and family when they pop round. We wouldn’t recommend replacing every bulb in your house with a Hue, Hive, LIFX or Trådfri bulb, but having smart lighting in a sitting or dining room can be really effective. Want to go the whole way? Check out the Philips AmbiLux TVhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/LrvPKrD6U14

PC World (now a subsidiary of Currys) is of course one of the first names that comes to mind for tech you can buy on the high street, and the computer emporium is also one of the first places to turn to come Black Friday. To save you wasting time running up and down the aisles (physical or virtual), we've collected the best PC World Black Friday 2017 deals right here for you. The usual Black Friday rules apply - top tech at low prices - and for PC World that means big savings on laptop computers, desktop computers, tablets, software, printers, computing accessories and more besides. Whatever part of your gadget life needs upgrading, you should be able to find something to suit at PC World over Black Friday. PC World prices are usually some of the lowest around anyway so on Black Friday 2017 they represent even more of a bargain. Whether it's hefty discounts across a whole range of products or special, time-limited deals on certain bits of gear, we'll list all the important offers you need to know about on this page. That's enough of an introduction - let the PC World Black Friday 2017 extravaganza commence! Black Friday deals quick linksAmazon Black FridayJohn Lewis Black FridayGAME Black FridayCurrys Black FridayArgos Black FridayTesco Direct Black FridayeBay Black FridayPC World Black Friday dealsIt was a bumper Black Friday 2016 over at PC World - these were just some of the many excellent deals on offer over the last year, and the signs are looking good for 2017 as well. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vexjajD268SyNXEZPTX3vK.jpg Desktop Black Friday deals - for raw computing power and that big screen experience you still can't beat a desktop computer, even if they're not as fashionable any more, and PC World has had the HP 411-a005na desktop as low as £399.98, complete with monitor. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JoLhafjbJzGRqpimF3ftHN.jpg Laptop Black Friday deals - if you were after a cheap but capable laptop during Black Friday 2016 then you couldn't have done much better than the Lenovo IdeaPad 510, with an Intel Core i3 CPU and a 1TB HDD, available for just £299 from the PC World shelves. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cTKLo84yXPQiPY2ARLnrjQ.jpg Convertible Black Friday deals - Microsoft's Surface Pro brings the best of both a tablet and a laptop into one sleek computing device, and last Black Friday you had the chance to pick up the 128GB Surface Pro 4 model, complete with Type Cover keyboard, for only £699. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BQSBprWvP5ifadLNCkNE3T.jpg Wearable Black Friday deals - maybe you're looking to get fit in time for Christmas, or at least by the start of the New Year, in which case a Fitbit can help: the large version of the Fitbit Blaze smartwatch was all the way down to £132.99 at PC World on Black Friday 2016. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kgjQQ6sRusDavoP5QXz6ZV.jpg Tablet Black Friday deals - the Samsung Galaxy Tab series of Android tablets continue to give the iPads from Apple a run for their money, and that's certain true in terms of sticker price at PC World, with the 32GB 9.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 available for £399.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Nu43Rhfr4SBTqrB6rsPLzX.jpg TV Black Friday deals - did you know PC World also does TVs? You do now. The store has had the rather impressive 49-inch LG 49UH850V Smart 3D LED TV set, complete with 4K Ultra HD and HDR capabilities, on sale for a mere £598.97 - that's more than £300 off. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sGcdAABrkvcH4ZBW8Co7wb.jpg Printer Black Friday deals - printers aren't the most exciting of gadgets but they're very handy to have around, and PC World has been offering the Epson Expression XP-345 - a quality all-in-one wireless inkjet print - for just £39.99, which is £40 off the regular price. PC World on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowYou can rely on PC World and its parent company Currys for some great deals during Black Friday 2017, and if you're in the market for a laptop, desktop, tablet or accessory then it's one of the places you should be checking first (via this page on TechRadar of course). The retailer has one of the best computing selections out there. On top of the Black Friday 2017 deals themselves, you get free delivery available on all orders, as well as the option of free collection from over 800 stores across the country if you just can't wait to get your hands on your shiny new gadget (just make sure to factor in those Black Friday traffic times), so pick whichever suits you best. Finance plans are available if you want to spread the cost over several months, and PC World promises to match the prices of its competitors on the goods it has in stock - you can find details here. Through the combined stock of PC World and Currys you can pick up pretty much any kind of tech you need - and on Black Friday 2017 the prices should be better than ever. The deals should go live from midnight onwards and last through the whole of the weekend, so you've got plenty of time to bag yourself a bargain. The top 5 PC World deals so far this yearhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/89ndwj5Cy8mbmJcUGNtXch.jpg 1. HP 14-an062sa 14-inch laptop If you want to get yourself a Windows 10 machine, then you couldn't do much better than this AMD-powered laptop from HP - it was more than £150 off for a retail price of £248.97. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bBZPGPaooh9bYkXe3nXwhj.jpg 2. LG OLED55C6V 4K TV How about more than £500 off your 4K television? If you've been paying attention to PC World this year then you might have grabbed the 55-inch LG OLED55C6V for just £1,489. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/jDZKJob5cYjYatbxSexVvm.jpg 3. Asus Zen 21.5-inch all-in-one All-in-ones give you the benefit of desktop power and screen size without the bulk, and PC World has had the Asus Zen 21.5-inch all-in-one on sale for £449.98, more than £100 off. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aFoPiiZRLb9Hco4ZUuaQs.jpg 4. Microsoft Surface Pro 4 PC World has been selling the excellent Surface Pro 4 from Microsoft for the knock-down price of £916.97, more than £160 off (that's for the 256GB Core i5 model with 8GB of RAM). http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Jv7V7pcX6X7GyofjVnrQx5.jpg 5. HP Stream x360 You can get the benefits of a tablet and a laptop with the Stream x360 from HP, with an 11.6-inch screen and Windows 10, which could've been yours for just £219.99 this year. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/zwfBQHVpDto

The 10,000-plus skills of Amazon Alexa range from making phone calls to ordering pizza, but now the digital assistant is getting yet another skill just in time for Amazon Prime Day. Amazon Echo speakers will soon receive an update that has Alexa tell users when their latest Amazon purchase is out for delivery, according to The Verge. While Alexa has always been adept at making Amazon purchases and tracking your order (it is made by Amazon, after all), the update gives Echo users in particular the option to have their smart speaker's LED ring light up yellow when a package is on its way. Of course, Alexa won't know the exact minute you should run out to your mailbox, but with Amazon Prime Day coming up on July 11, we imagine plenty of Echo users will take advantage of this new feature to remind them of all the goodies they couldn't keep themselves from buying. Speaking of sales, check out what's happening on Black Friday 2017http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/2DAyRhsnxAw

It feels like Black Friday just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year, and no one does Black Friday better than Amazon - the ecommerce giant has a ton of special deals on offer to satisfy your gadget cravings. You don't have to spend ages searching around the site yourself (though feel free if that's what you'd prefer), because we've collected together all the must-see deals for your bargain-hunting pleasure, from consoles to cameras. Whether you need a smart assistant for the living room, an upgrade on your ailing mobile phone, or a wearable to track your fitness over Christmas and into the new year, you're sure to find something of interest in our Amazon Black Friday 2017 round-up. Read on for our picks - and happy shopping! Note that all deals on this page will keep going until they sell out of their allocated discounted stock - Amazon doesn't say how much stock it has, so if you like the look of something, go for it before the prices go back up./ Amazon Prime and Black FridayYou're probably familiar with the Amazon Prime subscription club - you might even be a member - and some of the deals you're going to come across on Black Friday are tailored for Prime users. For example, you can get early access to the Lightning Deals on Amazon that don't stick around for very long. In other cases you might get extra discounts on prices that have dropped already, or you might get deals that don't apply to non-Prime members. It's hard to predict exactly what Amazon is going to do but generally speaking you're at an advantage if you sign up for Amazon Prime (the retailer always wants to boost those subscription numbers after all). At the moment a subscription costs you £79 (or $99) a year, or slightly more if you go month-to-month, and of course there are a host of other benefits besides improved access to the Black Friday deals. Amazon even runs its own deals day exclusively for Prime members every summer. You get access to the Netflix-style Amazon Prime Video, the Spotify-style Amazon Prime Music, and a ton of cloud space to store your digital photos as well. All that and more, and faster delivery times throughout the year as well. Amazon Lightning DealsAmazon loves its Lightning Deals: as the name suggests, these are very short-lived offers that usually involve items where the stock is low, so if you don't jump in when you've got the chance, you might miss out. Don't feel pressured into deals you don't feel sure about - just be aware that Lightning Deals aren't going to stick around. As they're only available for a short amount of time, they often offer some very tasty discounts. In the words of Amazon, a Lightning Deal is "a promotion in which a limited number of discounts are offered on an item for a short period of time", and you can usually find them on the Today's Deals page. As we mentioned above, Prime members get early access to the Lightning Deals on Amazon. Black Friday deal predictionsWe're still a few months out from this year's Black Friday sale, but you can make some pretty good educated guesses as to what may possibly get a discount based on a) what else is on sale throughout the year and what's been on sale during previous events. While we've picked out our favourite historical deals a little further down the page, you can almost certainly guarantee that Amazon's own line of products – including the Echo and Echo Dot speakers, Fire stick, Fire tablets and Kindle e-Readers. Also, if you're a Prime member, it's worth keeping an eye on the Early Access deals that are on offer, with a wide variety of items from wearable tech to homeware on offer. As for odds-on deals, expect to see the Xbox One S and PS4 heavily discounted, massive savings on Blu-rays and computer accessories. Amazon Black Friday dealsAhead of Black Friday 2017, here are the best deals we saw during Black Friday 2016, just to whet your appetite for this year's extravaganza. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/t3iCgnPsECtEGdXagnkM3D.jpg PS4 Black Friday deals - we didn't have the supercharged PS4 Pro to drool over last year but we did have the original console on sale for under £200 with two games, plus the 500GB edition, with Lego Star Wars and The Force Awakens Blu-ray, for £229.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5r6UrezA7n4nofuKZan3pF.jpg Xbox One/One S Black Friday deals - last year the Xbox One X was just a rumour, but Amazon treated buyers to the 500GB Xbox One S plus Minecraft plus Forza Horizon 3 for £199.99. Xbox Live 12 Month Gold memberships were going for £24.99 apiece too. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mZqWzLSJEHWuj6jVwXNNGJ.jpg Computing Black Friday deals - there were a host of computing deals last year, including £200 off the ASUS Flip UX360UA 13.3-inch Touchscreen Zenbook Notebook (down to £599.99) and a very capable HP Slimline 410-135na Desktop machine for just £329.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UxqEmQvEoA44dnkwEbbxiL.jpg Audio Black Friday deals - audiophiles were certainly spoiled during Black Friday 2016, with more than 50% off the Sennheiser HD 598 headphones, down from £199.99 to £89 on the day, and the Sonos Play:1 smart wireless speaker down to £138 from £169. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/whVMVgicrYzSB75LVjovuN.jpg Camera Black Friday deals - those after a discounted camera during Black Friday 2016 could've gone for the Canon EOS M3 and lens, available for £409 rather than £479.99, or the GoPro HERO Session Bonus Bundle Action Camera, down to £149 from £200.97. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/D8Pm4qV5hPyNkTLW9FacES.jpg Phone Black Friday deals - we saw a lot of great deals covering smartphones last year, including the excellent Wileyfox Swift 2, discounted from £174.99 to £119.99, and a significant £180 drop for the Sony Xperia X, down from £499.99 to £319.99 on the site. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UaQuFpcWStGNUygf5Rx86V.jpg Smart Home Black Friday deals - smart home enthusiasts had plenty to tempt them with 30% off the Netatmo Smart Thermostat on Amazon on Black Friday 2016, down to just £99.99 from £142.37, and up to 40% off various bits of Philips Hue lighting kit as well. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Dv26P2XHSA2tx8Dt7qpYXX.jpg Television Black Friday deals - plenty of bargain hunters picked up a smart TV last year. You could, for example, have got yourself a Panasonic TX-40DX600B 40-inch TV for £429 instead of £549.99, or a Sony Bravia KD49XD7004BU 49-inch TV for £550 instead of £799. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nGy8Qt9RqhWhGhz2W3Npha.jpg Wearable Black Friday deals - smartwatches and fitness trackers were a big part of Black Friday 2016 too, with £50 off the Fitbit Blaze in gunmetal, for instance, knocked down from £179.99 to £129.99, and up to 40% off various Withings activity trackers during the day. Amazon on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowEven though it has its own Prime discount day of sales, Amazon still goes all-in when it comes to Black Friday, and few retailers can match it for the breath or size of its discounts. If you're looking for Black Friday deals, you need to include Amazon on your list. While the deals are great, sometimes it's hard to get to them, thanks to Amazon's notoriously cluttered interface - and hopefully, that's where we come in. We'll highlight the best offers for you to save you a lot of clicking and scrolling around. We've been given a sneak preview of some of the Black Friday 2017 discounts that Amazon's planning, and while we can't share them with you yet, there are some treats in store - from short-term Lightning Deals to major discounts on hot gadgets that will run through Black Friday and beyond. The top 5 Amazon Black Friday deals last yearhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PCmKhtAbh5JyUHMgB7ALkh.jpg 1. Amazon Echo Amazon loves to discount its own kit during Black Friday, and 2016 was no different, with £40 off the full-size Echo to make it yours for just £119.99 rather than the usual £159.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dLcdyjcPHNAnjbpDHnaasm.jpg 2. Xbox One S bundle Console bundles were popular during Black Friday, and one that particularly caught our eye was the Xbox One S 500GB model plus Minecraft and a controller for £204.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fEJ7xMNnUqaBhoAqxr8no.jpg 3. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite The Kindle remains the ereader to beat, and the Paperwhite is one of the best models - last year the lightweight device was on sale for £79.99 as opposed to the usual price of £109.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hXvY3SHhCEGMCo8LzCXrF5.jpg 4. MSI Gaming Notebook Few laptops match power with portability quite as well as the MSI GL62 15.6-inch Core i5 laptop does, and last year it was yours for £649.99 from Amazon, £100 off the retail price. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/f3tcx4SKLBbqRnxMUnZaE8.jpg 5. Sony Bravia KD65XD7504BU Black Friday is a great time to get discounts on big ticket TVs, and if you were around last year you could get the Sony Bravia KD65XD7504BU 65-inch TV for £1,149 instead of £1,699. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/rJiahgBkOyQ

Amazon Black Friday deals in the US are always the best, and 2017 will be no different, with plenty of TV deals, cheap laptops and discounted video games. The problem is that Amazon.com has such big Black Friday sales that it's often difficult to seek what a good deal is and what doesn't actually have much of a price drop compared to any other day of the year. That's why we're assembling an Amazon Black Friday deals list for 2017, one that will offer our recommendations for everything from phones, Kindle e-readers and cameras, to PS4, Xbox One and even toys. You'll still have to be fast to claim these on sale gadgets. Amazon often sells out of its most popular deeply discounted electronics, with limited Deal of the Day and Lightning deals. The same thing will happen on Cyber Monday 2017 and, even sooner, Amazon Prime Day in the US on July 11. Amazon Prime and Black FridayAmazon Prime during Black Friday has major benefits, including free two-day shipping, and members sometimes get exclusive deals tailored for Prime users. For example, you can get early access to the Lightning Deals on Amazon that don't stick around for very long. In other cases you might get extra discounts on prices that have dropped already, or you might get deals that don't apply to non-Prime members. It's hard to make Amazon Black Friday predictions, but generally speaking you're at an advantage if you sign up for Amazon Prime (the retailer always wants to boost those subscription numbers after all). At the moment a subscription costs you $99 a year, or slightly more if you go month-to-month, and of course there are a host of other benefits besides improved access to the Black Friday deals. Amazon even runs its own deals day exclusively for Prime members every summer. You get access to the Netflix-style Amazon Prime Video, the Spotify-style Amazon Prime Music, and a ton of cloud space to store your digital photos as well. All that and more, and faster delivery times throughout the year as well. Amazon Lightning DealsAmazon loves its Lightning Deals: as the name suggests, these are very short-lived offers that usually involve items where the stock is low, so if you don't jump in when you've got the chance, you might miss out. Don't feel pressured into deals you don't feel sure about - just be aware that Lightning Deals aren't going to stick around. As they're only available for a short amount of time, they often offer some very tasty discounts. In the words of Amazon, a Lightning Deal is "a promotion in which a limited number of discounts are offered on an item for a short period of time", and you can usually find them on the Today's Deals page. As we mentioned above, Prime members get early access to the Lightning Deals on Amazon. Here's everything you need to know about Amazon Black Friday 2017. Amazon Black Friday deals from last yearAhead of Black Friday 2017, here are the best deals we saw during Black Friday last year, just to whet your appetite for this year's extravaganza. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/t3iCgnPsECtEGdXagnkM3D.jpg PS4 Black Friday deals - we didn't have the supercharged PS4 Pro to drool over a year ago, but we did have the newer PS4 Slim console bundled with Uncharted 4. The Sony's video game system with a 500GB hard drive and free game cost $250. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5r6UrezA7n4nofuKZan3pF.jpg Xbox One/One S Black Friday deals - last year the Xbox One X was just a rumor, but Amazon treated buyers to the 1TB Xbox One S console bundled with Gear of War 4 for just $250. That made it $50 than it normally was. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bezip37aQMHHaPRL9AzCiU.jpg Amazon Black Friday laptop deals - there were a host of computing deals last year, including $100 off the prior year's MacBook Pro, whether you wanted the 15-inch or 13-inch versions with a Retina display. The 12-inch MacBook saw a $100 price cut, starting at just $1,199 during Black Friday. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KzuNEz6DDcRwbTrb9TEgNW.jpg Amazon Black Friday headphone deals - audiophiles were certainly spoiled during Black Friday a few months ago, with $80 off of the Beats Solo3 headphones. Although Beats is a now an Apple company, their headphones were on sale for Black Friday. Maybe that will happen again in 2017. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zDh35cnzeUU5KKdSDyAXoT.jpg Camera Black Friday deals - You were a winner if you wanted Canon DSLR or GoPro action camera discounts on Black Friday. The Canon 80D EOS camera experienced a $400 price cut to just $1,399 on Amazon, and GoPro Hero deals were plentiful, with the entry-level version starting at under $100 for the first time. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PKYDmGKHWzRKDQbMc5b8L5.jpg Phone Black Friday deals - Amazon is just getting started with Amazon Prime Phone deals, and that made things cheap if you were looking for a budget Android phone. The Moto G4 with 32GB of storage – our favorite affordable phone last year – for just $139. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YiBDYM5q9BqCq7kfySdwWP.jpg Smart Home Black Friday deals - Amazon Echo deals were popular for Black Friday, with the new product category for many buyers seeing a $40 discount. Instead of paying full price for the flagship smart speaker with Alexa, Amazon was asking for a mere $139.99 in the US. This year, we expect Amazon Echo Show to go on sale with specs that include a helpful display. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Dv26P2XHSA2tx8Dt7qpYXX.jpg Amazon Black Friday TV deals - There's no bigger big ticket item on Amazon during Black Friday than a brand new flat-screen TV. Forgot HDTVs, we're talking about 4K televisions with HDR. We really liked the LG 55-inch 4K OLED set for $1,797 and the Samsung 40-inch UN40KU6300 at a very affordable $347 – a great value for any budget. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iWQzj5azMaqFQKtAdDnnpi.jpg Wearable Black Friday deals - Fitbit and Apple Watch deals are hot on Black Friday through Amazon, with the retailer rivaling the sales at Target last year. You were able to save the most money (more than $70) if you went with the older Apple Watch Series 1. We're hoping the year-old Apple Watch 2 will be on sale via Amazon for Black Friday 2017. Amazon on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowEven though it has its own Prime discount day of sales, Amazon still goes all-in when it comes to Black Friday, and few retailers can match it for the breath or size of its discounts. If you're looking for Black Friday deals, you need to include Amazon on your list. While the deals are great, sometimes it's hard to get to them, thanks to Amazon's notoriously cluttered interface - and hopefully, that's where we come in. We'll highlight the best offers for you to save you a lot of clicking and scrolling around. We've been given a sneak preview of some of the Black Friday 2017 discounts that Amazon's planning, and while we can't share them with you yet, there are some treats in store - from short-term Lightning Deals to major discounts on hot gadgets that will run through Black Friday and beyond. Amazon Black Friday 2017 predictions and adsWe don't have an Amazon Black Friday 2017 ad just yet, but we're ready to make predictions for what this year's deal will be. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5d7bhuQPsDttn2hDfgN8jN.jpg 1. Amazon Echo Show We expect major Amazon Echo deals, and there'll be no bigger item than the new Amazon Echo Show during Black Friday 2017. It's already discounting the Echo Show by $100 if you buy two of them now with the promo code SHOW2PACK to activate the price drop. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dLcdyjcPHNAnjbpDHnaasm.jpg 2. Xbox One S bundle Xbox One X will be the popular new console, so we fully expect the Xbox One S to see deep discounts and bundled with free games during Black Friday. It's more than Amazon just wanting to offload its inventory. Microsoft wants to keep making the system because it allows the company to have an entry-level video game console on sale. More Xbox One systems in buyers hands means more game sales, where the real money is made. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fEJ7xMNnUqaBhoAqxr8no.jpg 3. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is the e-ink reader that impresses us the most, and it's almost always on sale during the holidays. It's currently on sale for $119.99 today, so you should see be able to get one even cheaper – if you want to wait. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BotJ7RdNffoZBakFqrqWtf.jpg 4. 4K TVs We can't get enough of Amazon Black Friday TV deals, and it's where we predict that you'll see price cuts by hundreds of dollars. It happened last year, and we fully expect better specs via deeply discount 4K TV sets with HDR. We'll continue to update our Amazon Black Friday guide, as the date approaches. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/IpcL-AxMLEg

Snapchat's been on an update roll lately and that continues today with three new features for the disappearing chat app's iOS and Android editions. The first and by far most useful feature is the ability to share links with friends in Snaps. By tapping the new paperclip icon in the vertical toolkit, you can share a website link that your pals can swipe up to view inside the app. It's a simple addition, but one that should prove helpful for those who want to share and receive pertinent links to outside sites. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Za4FPB7xStUWhcLMoCvHGF.jpg From left: Snapchat backdrops, link sharing and voice filtersNext up is backdrops for Snaps, a feature that's firmly in Snapchat's wheel house. To access backdrops, tap the scissors icon in the vertical toolkit and look for the new backdrop icon. You'll next highlight the figures or area you want to stand out from the backdrop, then select a pattern or graphic to place in the background. Snapchat will introduce a new batch of backdrops every day. Disappearing warsFinally, Snapchat is bringing voice filters to all. Previously sequestered to Lenses, voice filters are after-Snap effects that let you change your voice to sound like a chipmunk (natch), robot or other creature. You'll first record a Snap, then select the speaker icon on the bottom of the screen and pick from a smattering of sound effects. Snapchat isn't setting the chat app world on fire with this update, but as the competition tightens between itself, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and particularly Instagram Stories for users' attention, introducing fun - and somewhat useful - features is one way Snapchat can stay in the race. Stories, Instagram's take on disappearing posts, already has over 200 million daily users, putting it well above Snapchat's last updated figure of 158 million daily users, according to Engadget. Instagram Stories has been known to ape Snapchat's features in the past, so it may not be long before we see updates similar to today's land on the Facebook-owned service. Arriving soon: great deals on Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2017!http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/GcUpRxLegPA

In free indie game Passpartout, you play a penniless French artist, who must eke out a living and build a reputation selling works created using the equivalent of brightly coloured finger paints. Draw a masterpiece using the simple Microsoft Paint style canvas on the left, set a price, and give it a name. The piece will then appear in the art gallery on the right, and customers will visit throughout the day to either spend their hard-earned Euros, or pass scathing judgement (apparently my doodle of a cat was "atrocious"), Painting for numbersSome patrons are looking for big name artists, some are seeking out new talent, and others only want something incredibly cheap to paper over the cracks in the wall. The value of your paintings is determined by several factors including how long you spent creating each one, and how experienced you are. You must set your prices carefully to ensure you make enough money to pay the bills each week, or risk losing your creative space. It's oddly compelling, but making a name for yourself won't happen overnight so don't be surprised if you sink a good few hours into it. Download here: Passpartout Download of the Day is our pick of the best free software around – whether it's useful, fun, or just plain silly. If you have any recommendations, please send them to downloads@techradar.com. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/oiMxTPMHLkU

As another Black Friday rolls around, no doubt you'll be wanting to know where the best bargains can be grabbed, and we're here to tell you everything you need to know - and specifically about all the most tempting offers coming out of Argos. Argos always goes all-in for Black Friday, which we like, and it looks like this year's extravaganza isn't going to be any different. Of course Argos has a bewildering number of categories and departments to sift through, but we're going to focus on all the best tech and gadget deals you can pick up, as well as a few extra surprises. Save yourself some frantic clicking and scrolling by browsing through the selections below, which we'll update before, during and after Black Friday 2017. If there's an electronics deal that you need to know about, then you're going to find it here - whether it's a cut-price gaming console or a significant saving on a smartphone. Don't waste any more time reading this introduction - check out the best of Argos Black Friday 2017 below! Black Friday deals quick linksAmazon Black FridayJohn Lewis Black FridayGAME Black FridayCurrys Black FridayArgos Black FridayTesco Direct Black FridayeBay Black FridayArgos Black Friday dealsTo get you more in the mood for Black Friday 2017 here are some of the best deals that Argos announced during the shopping craziness that was Black Friday 2016. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/n4ppJVh3TLCQxERDZtBq5K.jpg Gaming Black Friday deals - Black Friday is usually the perfect time to pick up that games console you've had your eye on, and Argos made the purchase of a PS4 Slim that little bit more appealing by reducing its Call of Duty Infinite Warfare bundle down to £199.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eu9Px8AdScT26kcHnfp6HM.jpg TV Black Friday deals - Argos usually comes up with the goods when it comes to deals on TVs, and Black Friday 2016 was no different, with the 43-inch LG 43LH570V Full HD Smart LED TV (complete with USB recording and playback capabilities) down to £295 on the day. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YiBDYM5q9BqCq7kfySdwWP.jpg Gadgets Black Friday deals - as we've mentioned, one of the reasons we pay special attention to Argos on Black Friday is because it has so many gadgets on offer, including the full-sized Amazon Echo, which last year could be yours for the bargain price of £119.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HPmTqY8b3SCL5pd4uRE4eR.jpg Smartphone Black Friday deals - Black Friday is also the perfect time to get that smartphone upgrade you've been promising yourself as there are so many decent deals around, such as £50 off the LG G4 at Argos last year, putting the price down to just £249.95. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FDVRbSUiqu3atJM2NprvFU.jpg Tablet Black Friday deals - if you were more interested in tablets than smartphones during Black Friday 2016, then Argos had you covered in this department too. The 32GB Wi-Fi iPad Air 2, for example, could be picked up for a mere £209 in silver or space grey. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/X4NtxWEgcCe4vyoZYXpK3X.jpg Audio Black Friday deals - audiophiles really were spoilt for choice at Argos during Black Friday 2016, with a pile of offers available. One of the best was the Bose SoundSport audio-only in-ear headphones on offer at half price, just £39.99 of your hard-earned cash. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RWSKJpCvDuBbcou2PsaCqb.jpg Toy Black Friday deals - Argos is also a great choice for toys of all descriptions. One of the Black Friday deals that particularly caught our eye last year was the Disney Star Wars AT-AT U Command Figure for only £79.99, offering plenty of Star Wars fun for fans of all ages. Argos on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowYou probably know what to expect from Argos already, but on Black Friday its simple ordering system, straightforward website navigation, and host of item categories become even more valuable to the keen bargain hunter. You've got the flexibility of popping in a store if you want to save on delivery charges too - just make sure to double-check opening times and traffic conditions (you do have a seven-day window to pick up purchases). Argos recommends signing up for an online account in advance of Black Friday 2017, so you're ready to go on the actual day itself and don't have to spend time entering your payment and address details when you really just want to be clicking through on some special offers. Signing up for email updates is a good idea if you want to hear about the best deals first, and if you need to you can spread the cost of purchases with an Argos Card - check online for details. Deals go live on the stroke of midnight and Argos says the quietest time on its website on Black Friday 2016 was between 3am and 4am: if you're really eager to pick up the pick of the bargains before anyone else, you might want to consider setting your alarm accordingly. If you're heading into a store to browse through the catalogue or pick something up, Argos says it'll be putting extra staff on to lend a hand as well. The top 5 Argos Black Friday deals last yearhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/EGsbUB8X9rw7L6LAL2WKTh.jpg 1. HP 15-ay020na laptop bundle Black Friday is always a good opportunity to pick up a cheap laptop: last year Argos was selling the HP 15-ay020na laptop with a bag, mouse and a copy of McAfee for just £269.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dgdXt3GYP9rPcEF2TiGt5k.jpg 2. Amazon Fire tablet The Amazon Fire tablets are some of the best value slates around, especially on Black Friday - last year you could pick up an Amazon Fire 7 tablet with Alexa for only £29.99. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/58QU2VWssgWADTDA9g7vQ5.jpg 3. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge The S6 Edge still holds up pretty well against the flagship smartphones of 2017, and last Black Friday at Argos the price of one of these handsets was discounted down to £419.95. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U82zdeCfPRXkoopToisHg7.jpg 4. Sony KD55XD7005 4K TV 4K TVs have never been cheaper - for just £769 you could have bagged a Sony KD55XD7005 55-inch model running Android TV last year, more than £200 off the model's original price. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cX5zpV6XZESWzbWbvpX76B.jpg 5. The Force Awakens Interactive Darth Vader Star Wars fans were spoilt last Black Friday at Argos, with this interactive Darth Vader toy figure reduced from £119.99 to just £24.99, a bargain whatever side of the Force you're on. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/y2hjfThp2NA

Microsoft’s neat Timeline feature, which allows for easily working across multiple devices in Windows 10, has been delayed and won’t be included in the big Fall Creators Update as was originally planned. That’ll be something of a disappointment for those running multiple pieces of hardware, as this is a major boon for Windows 10 users. The Timeline feature shows a visual timeline of the desktop, allowing the user to jump right back into what they were doing on another device – and that includes Android and iOS handsets. As well as allowing for this seamless transition when switching between different devices, it will also let the user revisit a desktop state from an earlier time. A bit like a desktop Time Machine (now where have we heard that term before…?). http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UUxEjDBPEqzKoc3Hj4KpvJ.jpg Testing, testing…So when will Timeline be ready? As The Verge reports, Joe Belfiore, the guy in charge of operating systems at Microsoft, commented: “Timeline won't be in the Fall Creators Update. We're planning for it to be in early insider builds shortly after Fall Creators Update is out.” In other words, testing of the feature will only begin after the big update drops, putting Timeline back considerably on the Windows feature rollout, er, timeline. Presumably, putting all this functionality together has turned out to be a more complex undertaking than was first thought. In other Windows 10 news this week, Microsoft’s operating system has made good progress according to Steam’s monthly hardware survey, even if the folks who are switching to the newest OS aren’t also making the move to the firm’s Edge browser. Want to get a Windows 10 device? It may be worth waiting until Black Fridayhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/c2Veuf8nFpw

We all know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but what about Amazon Prime Day? If you’re not familiar with Prime Day, it’s when Amazon goes mad for 24 hours and offers big discounts on things you might actually want to buy. The event has garnered a lot of attention in the international market already but it is coming to India for the first time.Last year it was the biggest day in Amazon’s history: Amazon's traffic was up 36%. It sold 90,000 TVs and thousands of Kindle Paperwhites, Fire TV Sticks and tablets. So what exactly is Prime Day? Can you trust the deals or is Amazon at it? And when will Prime Day 2017 be anyway? Read on for the answers to these questions and some you might not have thought of. When is Amazon Prime Day 2017?Amazon has said that Prime Day 2017 will be held on Tuesday 11 July 2017. Prime Day 2016 was the 12 of July, which was the second Tuesday of the month. This year that falls on the eleventh. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ec59465937c13562bd597d5220fbca91.jpg What's the point of Prime Day?Prime Day exists to promote Amazon’s Prime subscription service, which Amazon says is the best deal in the history of shopping. Prime Day is for Prime members, many of whom will sign up for a free trial of the service so they can get the deals. Once signed up, many of them stay as Prime subscribers. If you're not a Prime subscriber, there's usually a big Amazon Prime sale in the run-up to the big day. As we mentioned in our Amazon Prime review, we think Prime is an absolute bargain anyway so at the discounted price it's hard not to strongly recommend signing up. Why Amazon Prime Day mattersIf you’re looking for bargains, Prime Day 2017 is important - not just for gadgets, but for any kind of item. Amazon has already given a preview of all the brands planning to launch their products exclusively on Prime Day sale. This day is one of the biggest yearly event for Amazon, and India is now one of the top markets for the company. So we are anticipating some crazy unexpected deals on this day. Amazon Prime Day is more about personal shopping, either for treating yourself or for saving money household items. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/07802b759f8ececb4e1870292aa6b350.jpg Will Prime Day 2017 India be as exciting as in US and UK?No big claims to be made but yes, being the biggest shopping event of the year in leading countries, the Amazon Prime Day may get interesting for some of us. It's evident that we'll see some tempting deals on Amazon products like Fire Stick TV, Kindle and Amazon Fire tablets. In addition to these products, Amazon is exclusive e-commerce partner with leading tech brands in India, who we think will step up for the event and make the most out of it. Just like the US and UK, there will be stacks of lightning deals on the day too. Unless Amazon decides to do things radically differently in India, with laptop deals next to handbag deals next to power tools and prosecco. If only there was a website beginning with “T” and ending in “echradar.com” to find the best deals so you don’t have to delve through the dross. Hang on… there is! As you’d expect, we’re going to be hyped up on energy drinks throughout Prime Day on both sides of the Atlantic, finding the deals that you really don’t want to miss. Do I need a Prime subscription to get involved? Yes and no. While Prime is for Prime customers, there will be other deals on the day that are open to everyone - it’s just that with lightning deals, which tend to have limited stock, the Prime users get to see them before anybody else. That means some of the very best deals can be gone long before people who aren’t Prime members get to know about them. That doesn’t mean you need to pay for a Prime membership, though. You can sign up for a free trial and take full advantage of all the Prime benefits, including Prime Day. But don’t forget to cancel the trial afterwards if you don’t intend to continue. If you don’t, you’ll be automatically billed for membership when the trial period ends. What to expect from Prime Day 2017We’d expect Prime Day 2017 to follow the same template as in the US and UK. In the week or two before sale day, we'll see an enticing Amazon Prime subscription discount. Then on the day itself deals will be grouped into two category: Deals of the Day, which tend to be the most eye-catching and which are available in big numbers, and Lightning Deals, which cover every conceivable kind of product, have limited availability and often sell out very quickly. In the latter case Prime members get to see the deals before non-members. Prime Day 2017 FAQ: what it is, when it happens and where to get the best deals What is Prime Day? It’s Amazon’s annual birthday celebration, when it discounts more than 100,000 products of all kinds. When is Prime Day 2017 in India? Amazon India has announced that the Prime Day 2017 will be on Tuesday 11 July 2017. Is Prime Day 2017 Amazon only? The name is Amazon’s, yes, but in 2016 plenty of other retailers decided to try and spoil Amazon’s fun by running their own doorbuster sales. Are Prime Day deals real? Yes and no. They’re real in the sense that you’re paying less than the official price for things, but sometimes that official price was just silly. Like many retailers, Amazon is very keen on comparing prices against MRPs that nobody really expects anybody to pay. Such deals are essentially the same thing as supermarket wine promotions or amazing, never-ending furniture sales. If you have a particular product in mind it's worth keeping an eye on the prices now to make sure the deals are genuine on Prime Day. It enable you to see exactly what prices are being charged for specific things - not just big purchases, but smaller items such as video games too. Some of the deals will clearly be paper bargains like we mentioned above, but that doesn't mean all of them will be. Amazon will have been bargaining hard with key suppliers to cut the prices it pays for some products, and it'll sell some high-profile items as loss leaders in the expectation of cross-selling, up-selling and, well, selling. From Amazon's point of view it can lose money on big deals and make it back from Prime subscriptions and by shifting stock it wants to get rid of anyway. How do I get the best Prime Day 2017 deals? Know what you want, know what you can afford to spend and know the market: you’ll often spot interesting price hikes in June to enable amazing-looking discounts on Prime Day. Pay particular attention to real prices, not MRPs: TVs are particularly bad for this, with sets whose MRP is eleventy billion pounds routinely selling for five hundred quid. It’s also a very good idea to be flexible: for example, if you fancy a Sony 4K TV then think about the features you want rather than a specific model number: the BRV123ABD54-88C-9218-B may not be discounted on Prime Day, but an almost identical set with the specification you want probably will be. Can I get cashback on Prime Day deals? You will get 20% Cashback on Amazon Pay balance from 29th June – 11th July and shop on Prime Day with HDFC cards to Get 15% cash back. How can I stay safe on Prime Day? There’s a good chance that spammers and scammers will latch on to Prime Day much as they have with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so be wary of unsolicited emails or links to deals on social media no matter how legitimate they look: anything asking for card details or login details is a scam. If you’re on a PC, make sure your security software is up to date. Many suites automatically block known scam sites. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/hPvu92k1qh8

The lighting infrastructure in India is changing rapidly alongside the greater digitisation drive India is going through. Lightbulbs used to be use-and-throw products but today we have advanced bulbs which are both energy efficient and come with advance features such as remote management. These light sources also known as smart lights are now moving beyond its functional aspect and making inroads into our lifestyle. Latest advances also make it easier to light-smart your home on top of your exiting lighting arrangement. However, the greater India isn't yet moving from the standard Rs 10 incandescent lamps to smart lighting devices for houses, offices, and cities. The overall penetration of smart lighting in India is still at a nascent stage with a meagre five per cent presence in the lighting industry. Rural India still favors conventional power guzzlers over CFLs and LED lightbulbs. And it's purely because of affordability. But clearly a trend is setting in with awareness for efficient lighting going up. Plus, with the Government undertaking several programmes for LEDification of the country and phasing out incandescent bulbs, the country appears to be ready to embrace smart lights on a scale. Philips Lighting has a large R&D base and factories here in India and almost 95% of what they sell in India is made in India. The company, which is betting big on its smart lighting solutions, has its smart light product-line called Philips Hue currently available in India. To understand the bigger picture, we caught with up Harsh Chitale, the CEO of Philips Lighting, South Asia. What’s the current state of lighting infrastructure in India across homes, offices and public spaces? We have seen a significant increase in the speed of digital transformation of lighting over the past two years. With the advent of LED lighting, the industry has transformed from analogue to digital as LED lighting allows users to control, monitor and measure lighting output. This transformation is taking place across public, home and professional lighting. India is home to the world’s youngest population that is increasingly smartphone savvy and an early adopter of the latest technology trends available globally. We have witnessed a growing awareness about IoT and connected lighting amongst consumers. Philips has launched Hue for tech-savvy population who are keen on enhancing their lifestyle using technology. The dominant share of LED in consumer space is 50-50. As India’s business landscape matures, expectations of a new generation of employees from their workplaces have increased. These developments have led to the emergence of smart and connected offices, where the Internet of Things drives new ways to collaborate, innovate and socialize. More than 75% of lights that are now sold are LED lights. Thanks to Smart City programme that’s underway and the government’s drive towards energy efficiency. More than 75% of lighting in the B2G is now LED. However, the penetration of smart lighting still less than 10%, but it is increasing rapidly. What trends do you see in Indian market when it comes to smart lighting for home users? Over the years, we have witnessed a considerable shift in the behavior pattern of our target consumers in the Home lighting segment. Given the evolved lifestyle and preferences of consumers, lighting has moved way beyond its functional aspect. Today, lighting has become a key consideration for customers planning their overall home decor. Connected LED lighting has made it possible for consumers to personalize their lighting experience at home. It allows users to seamlessly integrate their lighting systems with their Wi-Fi network and control its operation through their smartphones. Increasingly, consumers are also becoming conscious of the effect of lighting on their overall health and well-being. Light has a profound impact on regulating the human body’s 24-hour circadian rhythm, playing a critical role in how people wake up and fall asleep and also affects their mood, behavior, alertness and routines. Our Philips Hue White Ambiance range can help users get out of bed and start their day feeling refreshed. Using the” wake up” routine, the light brightness increases gradually mimicking the effect of sunrise, helping users wake up naturally. Conventional lighting is still all over! Why aren't people going for energy efficient alternatives as yet? Affordability is a big part of it. As we know conventional bulbs are still cheaper, and there is a large section of our society that cannot afford bulbs which are expensive. So, in India where conventional bulbs will cater to needs of one segment, LED or more efficient bulbs will cater to the second segment and then there is more mature, technically progressive segment, which is open to adopting these newer technologies. All three segments will co-exist, however as the technology matures, the share of the third segment will see a boost. For instance, LED is growing at a very high pace; over 100% year-on-year for us. Smart lighting is growing at even faster pace while conventional category is gradually declining. Beyond affordability, do you think the lack of right level of awareness is to blame for the sluggish pace of adoption? One segment of the society --which is the digitally active and connected segment, is well aware of smart lighting and their propensity to buy is increasing. It is not different from any other smart technology penetration in the country. For example, ten years back when smartphone came in, it was a novelty; it didn’t even exist. And then it started catching up and now more than 25% of phones sold are smartphones. Similarly, the penetration wave is going to come to lighting, and it is coming at a faster pace than the phones. It took smartphones ten years to go from 0-25% penetration today, whereas in lighting it may take five to seven years to attain the same kind of penetration. Philips' new Hue bulbs cover the white-light spectrum to set the right mood for you Is India on track to leverage this connected-lighting opportunity given the benefits it brings to table? Connected lighting is the next big thing in lighting. Every technology comes across a point of inflection, which happens to be the right time for it. LED has been in talk for many years till that inflection came. LED was used for general lighting purposes for the first time in 1994. However, they did not become popular due to certain limitations at that time. Then there came the inflection following some technology development, cost reduction, and above all, the acceptance - all three put together constitute consumers' side. And when these three come together, we can clearly observe what can happen. We envisage that the same thing would ensue in connected lighting. When it comes to LED, it is about energy-efficiency; while connected lighting is a concept that encompasses a gamut of benefits bringing a lot of other areas under its purview. For instance, it would offer better environment for children to study, induce better healing of a patient, enhance productivity, makes the city safer, reduces the real estate cost, etc., all these come bundled with the smart connected lighting towards which we are striding forward. While the government’s initiatives have increased awareness about LED lighting, the adoption of connected lighting will depend on the acceptance from consumers. Under the street-light programme, over 21 lakh street lights have been upgraded with LED lights across the country! Your take. The government is doing a big enablement. Two years back, Prime Minister announced ‘Prakash Path’ programme, which is aimed to move from basic lighting to LED lighting. Government is driving this through various government procurement mechanisms. With smart city plan underway, where hundreds of smart cities are planned, we’re going to see connected smart lighting for streets being implemented. In some cases, smart connected lighting is being used for architectural lighting—for parks and tunnels. We appreciate the Indian Government’s efforts towards LEDification of the country with programmes such as Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP). Besides their energy savings potential, the cost of maintenance for LEDs is much lower and the quality of light is also better. Moreover, LED solutions such as Solar Powered LED street lights can be installed in both semi-urban and rural areas and offer reliable off-grid lighting. Many states in India have started adopting energy efficient streetlights because of the Street Lighting National Programme and the Smart City initiative of the Indian government, but a lot more needs to be done. India has more than 5,000 towns and at least 100 large cities and three crore street lights, therefore offering a huge potential for upgrade to energy efficient LED lighting. Urban populations are growing rapidly and 60 percent of the world’s population are predicted to be living in cities by 2030 with more than 70 billion light points. Lighting will play a significant role in the development of smart cities of the future as it pervades every area of an individual’s life – home, work, on the road and in public places. The way forward in public street lighting will be connected lighting solutions that allow city administrators to control and monitor lighting remotely. During non-peak hours, the lights can be remotely dimmed to save energy. Similarly, they can be fully illuminated during peak hours or on detecting movement through sensors equipped in street lights. Some cities in India have taken the lead and already upgraded to connected street lighting. One example is Naya Raipur, the new capital of Chhattisgarh. This city has one of the world’s most modern connected lighting infrastructure that is monitored remotely. The city engineer monitors the infrastructure from his office. What are Philips Lighting’s top priorities and investment areas moving ahead in 2017? We have global partnerships with various players who are promoting smart homes. Whether it is Amazon Alexa, Samsung Smart Home technology, or Apple Home Kit; Philips Hue is the only solution that has native connectivity with each of them. It is the default lighting system that works with each of these systems. We have built-in APIs and connectors into all of these systems. As the smart home accessories like Apple Home Kit, Google Home or Amazon Alexa grows in India, the smart lighting ecosystem will automatically grow. Connected and smart lighting is one big priority area, and we are investing in it as newer connected lighting systems are getting launched. We’re building our points of sale so that more and more consumers can go and buy from retail stores such as Chroma, Reliance Digital, online through e-commerce, and over 200 light lounges in India. We’re making sure each of them is equipped with Hue experience zones where consumers can go and experience it. Building out these points of presence, where consumers could go, touch and feel the connected or smart lights, is one area where we are making big investment. Enhancing consumers’ communications through ATL or digital marketing and continuing to build these partnerships like I mentioned are the three pillars we are working on. Philips Hue reviewhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/Drqpp_qOnCU

Honestly, not everyone needs an Amazon Echo. Sure, it’d be nice. But most of us don’t have $179 (£150, around AU$230) burning a hole in our pockets. Sometimes, an Amazon Echo Dot or an Amazon Tap might make more sense, considering that they cost less and are nearly identical in terms of functionality. The last thing we’d want you to do is overspend on a gadget you might not really need and have therefore come up with a quick and easy guide to figuring out which of the four – technically five if we include the Amazon Echo Look – smart speakers you should buy. But before we dive into the specifics of each speaker, let’s talk about the Amazon Echo platform as a whole and why you’d choose that over the Google Home or Apple HomePod. The first and most important reason to pick up an Echo, in any one of its forms, is because it’s leading the pack of smart speakers at the moment. It has the most hardware partners, skills and while we can’t verify this for a fact, it seems like Alexa understands a few more commands than the Google Home can. It also hooks into Amazon’s Prime Music service and has the ability to call other Echo devices – or even ‘drop in’ on them whenever you’d like. So which of them is the cheapest?If you’re limited by budget and not concerned with sound quality or visual cues to go along with Alexa’s responses, your best bet is the Amazon Echo Dot. It might not offer the fullest, most robust sound on its own but it’s cheap and it can connect to any other speaker you already own via a 3.5mm Aux cable. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kJco9kRM9aBySDtMf3aMBX.jpg Buying the cheapest Amazon Echo is worthwhile for a few reasons. First off, it’s the cheapest way to get Alexa, the Echo’s built-in voice assistant who can communicate with other smart devices and act as a nexus for your smart home. Second, because it has internal microphones, it can pick up your voice from anywhere in the room – allowing you to DJ a party without holding onto your phone all night or jot down some notes without ever picking up a pen. The big differentiator between the Amazon Echo Dot and the Amazon Tap is the fact that the Echo Dot doesn’t have much of audio prowess on its own, and needs to stay plugged in at all time. The Tap isn’t an immaculate concept, but it does offer a few key features. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xo5726rbDQAMN9UruUo597.jpg Are any of them portable?If you’re looking for an Echo to take with you when you’re out and about, you should consider the Amazon Tap – a basic Bluetooth speaker that has Alexa built right in. That said, the Tap has one advantage over the Amazon Echo Dot, and one major disadvantage compared to the the Amazon Echo. The positive here is that the Tap is an actually decent-sounding Bluetooth speaker. It’s not going to blow the UE Boom 2 or JBL Flip 4 out of the water, but it does have decent range and balance. On the debit side, however, in order to get Alexa’s attention on the Tap, you have to get up and physically press the microphone button on the speaker. At that point, it’s usually more convenient to pull out a phone and ask Siri your question or Cast a song to another device. If you want a decent speaker and a voice assistant who’s ready to listen at any time, you’re going to need an Amazon Echo. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/38982625ad3f8bcffa0a2fc1dcff505a.jpg What’s the best all-around option?For most people, we’d say the Amazon Echo is the best all-around option of the bunch. It offers an always-listening artificial intelligence, solid audio quality and doesn’t cost too much. While some folks find the stalwart canister a bit of an imposing monolith of music and cybernetic brains, it’s relatively easy to tuck away on a shelf without any negative consequences in terms of voice recognition or sound quality. It’s a staple for most smart homes simply because it can integrate with so many products, and continues to be a major building block in Amazon’s future plans – it’s likely that you’ll see further integration with the Home and products like the Fire TV and Kindle products down the road. Everything considered, Alexa’s just getting warmed up. While the Amazon Echo is somehow both the alpha and the omega of Echo products, it’s worth considering the two newest entries of Amazon family: the Echo Show and Echo Look. They both offer a unique gimmick of their own that might appeal to a different crowd. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sUeL2iy7jnbXiNDmtoideB.jpg The Amazon Echo ShowFor the visually inclined and fashionably insecureLet’s run through two more use cases. If you’re someone who likes seeing visual notifications in addition to audio cues, you’ll probably want an Amazon Echo Show. It comes with a built-in screen that gives some visual flair to Alexa’s responses. Instead of simply hearing what the weather is like, it can show you a five day forecast. Instead of listening to Alexa read off a recipe, the Show can pop it on the screen for you. For those who are more aesthetically insecure about themselves, there’s the Amazon Look, a device that builds Alexa into a camera that can take photos and suggest alternate outfits. We should point out, however, that the whole process is optional – it’s not like the Amazon Look is going to snap pictures of you without you knowing it. If you’re stuck between two different outfits, you can submit the pictures to Amazon’s Style Check algorithm that processes the photos and suggests which one to go with. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/jevmzHKeEV3T3AFo8sphMG.jpg The Amazon Echo LookBoth the Look and the Show are a bit more expensive than the standard Amazon Echo, and while we admire their added features, we’re not totally sold that they’re worth the markup in price. You should feel like you know your way around an Echo, but if you need more buying advice don’t be shy to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! The best smart speakers 2017: which one should you buy?http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/Bj1NYHIPKm8

As we rapidly approach another Black Friday, you'll be wanting to know where all the largest price drops and reductions are to be had - and here we're going to focus on one of the biggest players in the Black Friday 2017 fun and games, John Lewis. The venerable high street department store always has lots going on for Black Friday, as we saw last year and in previous years, so stop all the frantic scrolling and clicking and let us be your guide to the best that John Lewis has to offer during this sales season. One of the advantages of stopping by at John Lewis during Black Friday 2017 is that there's such a variety in terms of the bargains to be had. You can usually rely on offers across clothing, home and garden, sports and leisure, and of course electricals - which is where we'll be focusing in particular. Read on to explore the John Lewis Black Friday 2017 bonanza, and have fun shopping! Black Friday deals quick linksAmazon Black FridayJohn Lewis Black FridayGAME Black FridayCurrys Black FridayArgos Black FridayTesco Direct Black FridayeBay Black FridayJohn Lewis Black Friday dealsWith Black Friday 2017 approaching, it seems like a good time to round up all of the notable bargains we saw from John Lewis on Black Friday 2016. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/B67CHuvMWKRix4i69jSx9A.jpg TV Black Friday deals - John Lewis always a good bet for your next television set and that was emphasised again last Black Friday, when you could pick up the 65-inch LG OLED65B6V for a discounted price of £2,869, with a year of Sky Q thrown in for free. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UgcLokRfVo67JijBrXNKUD.jpg Gaming Black Friday deals - games consoles you want, is it? John Lewis has previously offered punters the 500GB version of the PS4 Slim, complete with a copy of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, for just £209.95. Expect some similarly attractive bargains this year. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/F6GfZYZRncScdtHAYaTydG.jpg Computing Black Friday deals - there was plenty to get excited about in the computing department at John Lewis during Black Friday 2016, including top-end Surface Book complete with Arc Mouse, Surface Pen and leather sleeve for a superb £1,399 (£400 off). http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gnE7wsEKvFLTApCiVxfkaR.jpg Tablet and phone Black Friday deals - everyone loves a good tablet or phone deal, like the Moto X Force for £449.95 (£30 off) and the iPad Air 2 for £349 (also £30 off), both bargains you could have snapped up from John Lewis during Black Friday 2016. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nqZiSesDuKYrhpoYy5nGRU.jpg Audio Black Friday deals - John Lewis went big with the reductions on audio kit for Black Friday 2016. One of our favourite deals during last year's sales extravaganza was £30 off the normal price of the Sonos Play:1, which means you could pick up the speaker for just £139. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7zBiPeMWv9UNhiQrdm4fMY.jpg Wearable Black Friday deals - "get your wearable bargains here" was the call from John Lewis during Black Friday 2016, and in amongst a host of very decent deals was the rather attractive Withings Activité Steel smartwatch discounted to just £87.99 for the occasion. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ta3rhQNvhwAsdtg6ubmcXa.jpg Drone Black Friday deals - John Lewis might not be the first place you think of when it comes to drones, but if you were in the market for an unmarried aerial vehicle during Black Friday 2016 then the store was offering the Archos Drone for just £100 (half price). John Lewis on Black Friday 2017: what you need to knowYou've got a lot of reasons to include John Lewis in your Black Friday 2017 shopping spree, and of course the retailer provides an excellent customer experience the whole year round. Bonuses like free delivery, click and collect, and international delivery are par for the course when shopping at John Lewis, and there's a minimum two-year guarantee on all electricals sold through the store. As far as Black Friday 2017 goes, John Lewis calls it "the perfect time to stock up on Christmas presents", and is promising some super-hot deals in appliances, computers and TVs later this year. You've also got the benefit of the retailer's Never Knowingly Undersold policy, which is a price promise that's been in place since 1925 - it applies all year round, but it's still relevant for Black Friday 2017. That means if you see a better deal elsewhere on a particular item, John Lewis promises to match it - so get those browser tabs fired up and see what's out there. It also gives you another option if there's suddenly no stock left on a deal offered by another retailer, because you can switch to John Lewis and get it there for a cheaper price instead. We'd expect deals to go live as soon as the clock hits 12am on Black Friday 2017, and you can look forward to bargain prices throughout the store across the weekend and during Cyber Monday 2017 as well. The top 5 John Lewis Black Friday deals last yearhttp://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hnepgZvGg3moeg8SFJvqcn.jpg 1. Lenovo Yoga 900S We love a convertible laptop or two, and so does everyone else apparently - the Lenovo Yoga 900S was on sale for less than £1,000 at John Lewis last year, a very popular deal. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uotUmqeMZnmcfWLLF45EZ4.jpg 2. Microsoft Xbox One S What about that Xbox One S then? John Lewis has had the slimline console on offer with either Gears of War 4 or FIFA 17 for £279.95, which are very good bundles for gamers. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gpPWg2ajDaL7fLoFpwGDU7.jpg 3. Samsung UE40KU6020 HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart TV 4K prices continue to drop across the board and the Samsung UE40KU6020 40-incher was available for a mere £349 - complete with Freeview HD, Playstation Now and PurColour. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9JV4LUua97QSbvEuZYV6EA.jpg 4. MacBook Air The MacBook Air lives on and continues to be popular, and during last year's Black Friday event, John Lewis was offering the slimline laptop for £849, a hefty discount of £100. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zK88oo3qqJhUHbYSUjgwED.jpg 5. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge The Galaxy S6 Edge launched in 2015 but is still a great phone, and could've been yours last year for just £399.95. Let's hope for some similarly impressive deals this time around. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/KvZSNxjldV8

Smart speakers, virtual assistants or smart home speakers, whatever name you decide to call them, they’re pretty frickin’ cool. Many consider them the future of home automation, not only controlling other smart home devices like Philips Hue lightbulbs and smart locks but also contain within them the smarts and versatility to manage your schedule and record this week’s shopping list. Each of the speakers that follow have something called an artificial intelligence (“AI”) inside of them. Everything we just mentioned is done with some help from the AI and, without it, the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod would just be, well, regular speakers. While there’s no doubt that each of the aforementioned speakers are capable in their in own right, you’re here because you want to find the absolute best smart speaker – the one that syncs up to the most smart devices, understands the most enquiries and, ultimately, sounds the best when its time to rock out. You’re in luck, because that’s just about to happen. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mZM2j59ydZ8FjnLmKwrEXn.jpg It’s no small wonder that the smart speaker who pioneered the entire category is still on top three years into its existence. The Amazon Echo had more time to incubate than the Home has and a whole lifetime of experience over Apple’s still unreleased Apple HomePod smart speaker. But what is it that makes the Amazon Echo so great? Well, for one, it supports dozens and dozens of smart home devices including the most popular ones to date: the Nest and Honeywell Smart Thermostats, the Philips Hue and LIFX smart light bulbs, Belkin smart outlets and even the Samsung SmartThings platform that extends to even more devices. More than a capable smart home controller, the Echo can sync up to Amazon services like Amazon Music Unlimited and even, believe it or not, connect to your Google Calendar. Audio performance might not be its strongest suit and it’s not the best at answering every enquiry you might have, but it does provide the best combination of all of the above. Read the full review: Amazon Echo http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/acKySqa5piHKF9g6feVE3j.jpg Coming in a very close second is the Google Home. It has a somewhat bigger brain than the Amazon Echo in the sense that it knows a bit more about the world thanks to its tight integration into Google’s search engine, and it can control Chromecasts like it’s nothing. It connects to a few fewer devices than the Amazon Echo – although the list of supported services is nearly identical – and only sounds slightly better than the Echo. What might put the Home ahead of the Echo is the pace at which it’s catching up to the market leader. In less than a year’s time, the Google Home has learned quite a few new tricks, including the ability to recognize different users and be able to call anyone anywhere. Stranger, however, the Home will soon have the ability to connect to Bluetooth devices, a feature Google is adding via a firmware update despite nothing changing on a hardware level. We like that Home is a bit smarter than its corrival, and sounds a bit better, too. But considering the Echo already has Bluetooth, Echo-to-Echo calling and a few new tricks up its sleeve for 2017 as well, it’s probably the better pick of the two. Read the full review: Google Home http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XHoRBAbgRZC3LjL6dZaaeB.jpg The Amazon Echo Show is a bit of a strange one. It’s more or less the Amazon Echo but with a screen that gives you visual notifications to go along with audio cues. It’s a bit more expensive than the original Echo and, honestly, hasn’t quite proven to be worth that extra fee. Most of that has to do with the Echo Show’s age – it’s the youngest of the group, and only became available to purchase in the US on June 28. With time, and a lot of help from developers, the Show could combine the aspects from the Amazon Echo that we’ve come to appreciate like its ability to speak to smart home devices, answer enquiries and play music on command with a more familiar tablet-style interface. Read up on everything we know about the Echo Show http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rYLRNQ6ETfPmoYQdmYyUmk.jpg So far we’ve painted the Apple HomePod as an Amazon Echo or even a Google Home competitor. It’s not. The HomePod is probably better described as a Sonos alternative packing a still-in-development AI under the hood. (Sorry Siri, you’re just not there yet.) To that end, the Apple HomePod packs a pretty serious seven beam-forming tweeters and a four-inch upward-facing woofer that Apple promises will rock the house with distortion-free audio. And while the HomePod seems primarily focused on providing the best audio experience it can, bolstered by Apple Music no doubt, it will also pack in some smart home functionality as well in the form of Apple’s HomeKit platform. HomeKit, still in its early stages will allow you to control the home from your iOS device and the HomePod itself via voice commands when it launches in December of this year. The reason HomePod is ranking below the others is because, at the moment, we’ve only had the chance to play around with it at Apple’s busy Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) – and even then, Siri wasn’t properly up and running. We’re excited to try the smart speaker out in our own homes, however, and will certainly re-calibrate this list when that time arrives down the road. Read our hands on review: Apple HomePod http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/AsqukFruXZi3NMS2dyG5ag.jpg Last up on this list is the Amazon Echo Dot. While it shares many of the admirable traits of its full-size progenitor, the Echo, it’s pretty limited in the music playback department and . But the reason you’d buy an Amazon Echo isn’t for its pristine audio performance – no, the real reason is because you can hook it up via 3.5mm Aux to any speaker in your house. That’s right, awesome sound quality from the speaker you already own plus a pretty smart artificial intelligence who can help you out around the house. It’s a win-win. Add to that the Amazon Echo Dot’s crazy-low price point and you’ve got all the makings of a perfectly affordable entryway into the burgeoning smart home category. Don’t worry, you can thank us later. Don't miss our Amazon Echo vs Google Home vs Apple HomePod showdownhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/1w_94m86I28

Owners of Kodi boxes may want to rethink what goes into their streaming machine as a major intellectual property trade organization is cracking down on not just sellers of illegal add-ons, but those that use them as well. Kieron Sharp of the UK-based Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) told The Independent today that investigators could begin exposing illegal Kodi users in "the very near future." While Kodi's software is perfectly legal — as well as useful for managing a vast library of digital content — the platform is unfortunately also very popular with pirates. This has resulted in a cottage industry of selling modified, illicit Kodi streaming boxes online that come pre-loaded with copyrighted material and other illegal add-ons. Kodi has officially condemned using its service for illegal streaming, and though things have begun to clean up a bit, the Kodi brand still has trouble separating itself from its reputation for piracy. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ZQMmqLDXYGNLrECqexvW6i.jpg Copyright calamityAs for FACT's strategy for investigating the sale of less-than-legitimate Kodi hardware, it appears things will start from the source and fan out. “There’s the manufacture and importation of devices, and then the distribution and selling of those," says Sharp. "We’re also looking at the people who are providing the apps and add-ons, the developers." Investigators may not stop at catching manufacturers of illegal Kodi boxes and applications, however, with Sharp saying that buyers of said boxes may also wind up in hot water. “The reason for end users to come into this is that they are committing criminal offences,” Sharp says, explaining that sales records from illegal Kodi box makers could tie them to their customers. As FACT is a UK organization, it's not established how much other countries are invested in cracking down on illicit Kodi users. Copyright laws vary by region, (an EU court, for example, just recently ruled that selling pre-loaded Kodi boxes is against the law) though it's entirely possible that other organizations may follow suit with actions of their own soon. How to make your own (legit) Kodi boxhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/IPkDeJN9igA

The best smart home devices are dramatically bringing your dumb household into the future, letting you control everything from the front door lock to the bedroom lights with a phone, tablet or even a smart speaker. Here’s the problem: upgrading to a smart home isn’t as easy as simply buying a single device. It’s a complicated new category of products with dozens of choices that promise a future-ready home, but vary in quality, performance and price. Because smart homes rely on components being able to communicate with one another, before you stock up your shopping cart with all the latest and greatest smart home gadgets make sure they’re compatible with any other smart devices you own including your phone, tablet and any smart speaker you already own. Standards and personal preferences aside, we've picked out a list of eight gadgets that we believe are the best smart home products you can buy. Here are our recommended best smart home devices to get your existing house, apartment or other domicile up to speed: Best smart speaker: Amazon EchoBest smart home hub: Wink Hub 2Best smart light bulbs: Philips HueBest smart thermostat: Nest Learning ThermostatBest smart security camera: NetGear Arlo QBest smart power switch: iHome ISP5 Control Smart PlugBest smart lock: August Smart LockBest smart smoke detector: Nest ProtectChoosing the best smart home ecosystemIf you're starting your smart home from scratch, you'll want to consider which smart home ecosystem you'll want to build off of. There are quite a few out there, including Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, the Amazon Echo platform, IFTTT, ZigBee, Z-Wave, and more. Confused? We’ve put together a guide to help you consider what you need to when putting together your smart home, which you can check out here. You’ll also want to consider the ecosystem that you’re already plugged into. For example, avid Android owners might have more luck with Google Home than with the Amazon Echo or Apple’s new HomePod. On the contrary, those that need quick and easy ways to order things online might prefer the Amazon Echo. Speaking of, let's get into our list of the best smart home devices with... http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d3pbvHHhJr4zcEnLeFsRBP.png First up on the list is the Amazon Echo, and for good reason. The Echo is proven tech, and was a trailblazer when it was first launched in 2015 – now, Google and Apple have finally followed suit with their own products, and while the Google Home is a great product, it’s just not as versatile (yet) as the Amazon Echo. The Echo integrates with your Amazon account, after which you can ask it to do things like order food, and, of course, control your other smart home devices – making it a super useful addition to your smart home devices list. On top of that, it’s well-designed and should suit any home. Read the full review: Amazon Echo http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NnctLgDV4ysAcZFEHzY4Ke.jpg While most smart speakers these days can act as a smart home hub, you might not want to go the smart speaker route – and if not, then a smart home hub can be a seriously helpful way to tie together all your smart home devices. That said, perhaps the best choice of smart home hub is the Wink Hub 2. The device is great for a number of reasons, namely that it supports a huge range of standards – including Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Kidde, and Lutron Clear Connect. It also works with Amazon’s Alexa, and IFTTT. Perhaps the only downsides are that the device does not have any USB ports or backup battery power, both of which appear on some other hubs. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8t4i4cjJ4ihDrwgrrFiUS7.jpg One thing that you might want to do as soon as you decide to make your home a smart home is switch out the light bulbs – something easier said than done considering how many different options out there. Of them all, however, we think the best smart light bulbs are Philips Hue range of smart bulbs. If you opt for Philips Hue bulbs, you will need to get the Philips Bridge, which is kind of like a hub for your lights. The advantage, however, is reliability, and the fact that the system is compatible with a range of different standards and home control systems including Apple HomeKit, Nest and Samsung SmartThings. Read the full review: Philips Hue http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ZsqRf8LrFzgAPWtzHFsXRJ.jpg Automating your heating and air conditioning can be a great way to save time and money, and there are a few great smart thermostats out there. Perhaps the most famous and, in our opinion the best, is the Nest Learning Thermostat. As the name suggests, Nest gets to know your habits and adjusts accordingly – meaning it’ll switch off when you don’t need it, which ultimately saves you money. On top of its great features, the thermostat also looks stylish, and offers an extremely easy-to-use interface – which is an important thing to consider. Read the full review: Nest Learning Thermostat http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rP9dEGLriZCTLfCyUNuAbU.jpg Home security is an important thing to consider, and there are a ton of connected security cameras out there. One of the best is the NetGear Arlo Q, because of the fact that it has a nice design and reliable motion-detection that starts recording when it detects an object moving about. If you buy the camera, you’ll also get a free basic 7-day cloud recording service, and you can access that recorded footage through the accompanying app – which is excellently designed. There are a few downsides, however, which include the fact that the device does not store footage offline, and doesn’t have an ethernet port – an annoying caveat if you have a spotty Wi-Fi connection. Read the full review: NetGear Arlo Q http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kPESqDP9u67xJC5uEuXfDC.jpg While there are great smart replacements for many devices, a much simpler option is simply using connected plugs in your power outlets. Doing so will give any device that plugs into a power outlet basic smart features like the ability to turn the device on and off, or the ability to monitor the device's power usage. There are quite a few smart plugs out there (seriously, so many), but the best is the iHome ISP5 Control Smart Plug. It's Wi-Fi enabled, and works with HomeKit, Nest and Wink – so it should play nice with your other smart home devices. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ER2W6mVaBkmNErNSDJxLmB.jpg We mentioned security before, but a security camera is only helpful if someone has already broken in to your house. You also might want to prevent that from happening in the first place, which is where smart locks come into play. The best smart lock is the August Smart Lock, which can attach to your existing deadbolt. The lock is also compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, Nest and IFTTT – so it should easily connect to your other smart home devices. Using the lock, you can do things like lock and unlock the door from your phone, say to let friends and family into the house when you're not home, and have it automatically detect when you’re nearby, so it’ll unlock without you having to put down all the groceries. http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U6D3ofXKriRQ8SrHtFkjL4.jpg http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/f788dce7060e2bbe6800a65412bfe53b.jpg Nest doesn’t just make great smart thermostats: it also offers smoke alarms, which can connect to the rest of your smart home. That said, the Nest Protect looks great, and it offers great connectivity through Wi-Fi and IFTTT. Using the Nest Protect you can make sure that you’ll always be aware if there’s a fire, even if you’re on the other side of the world. The accompanying app is well-designed and easy-to-use ... though hopefully you won’t have to use it. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/xtUfxmboQ-U

Finding the Amazon Echo on sale isn't a rare experience, but getting it 28% off the normal list price isn't the type of discount that happens everyday. Amazon has reduced the price by $50 in a 24-hour flash sale, so you're going to ultimately pay $129.99 for the Alexa-enabled smart speaker. That's the lowest price we've seen for the Amazon Echo, which normally retails for $179.99. Now it's priced to compete with the $129.99 Google Home. Both the Amazon Echo in black and the one in white are seeing the price drop, but the amount goes back up to the full $179.99 at midnight. Amazon Echo Show dealThe Amazon Echo Show release date is Wednesday, June 28, and it's already on sale if you care to buy two smart speakers with a screen embedded into them. You can save $100 on the Amazon Echo Show when you buy two and use the promo code SHOW2PACK at checkout. Each costs $229.99 http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5d7bhuQPsDttn2hDfgN8jN.jpg This is a deal for early adopters who consider the Alexa AI their best friend, as you'll be spending $599.98. But that beats spending nearly $700 on a pair. With Google Home software updated recently and Apple HomePod launching at the end of the year, Amazon is making a big new push with its smart speaker. We'll have an Amazon Echo Show review soon and let you know how it performs as a screen-enabled smart speaker. Here's our PRIMEr: Ready for Amazon Prime Day 2017http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/GhGa-NFwgVY