💰 Early Black Friday deals, 🆚 PS5 vs PS5 Slim, 📱 OnePlus Open review, 📈 Apple TV+ price hike
Read our 10 banner-ad-free tech headlines, and weekly 👍 winners & 👎 losers
🐦 Ask Matt Swider on Twitter or Instagram for hand-picked deals from Walmart / Best Buy / Amazon / B&H / Samsung / Google Pixel / GameStop / Xbox Game Pass / PlayStation+ / Microsoft Office (PC) / MS Office (Mac)
It’ll be November next week, and we’re transitioning from last-minute Halloween costume deals to early Black Friday sales at Best Buy (today) and Walmart (Nov 1). But the end of October isn’t going out with a whimper for tech.
The OnePlus Open foldable phone just went on sale, Alan Wake 2 comes out today, Resident Evil Village will be the first console-quality game on the iPhone 15 Pro, and Apple’s next launch event will happen on Tuesday, October 30.
Next week, expect new Macs next week – and live updates on The Shortcut.
For now, the newsletter continues below ⤵️
📆 Your Calendar
🏷️ Today: Best Buy’s early Black Friday deals begin
🔦 Today: Alan Wake 2 release date (buy it at Microsoft or Sony)
💸 Oct 29, Sun: Best Buy’s early Black Friday deals end
🧟♂️ Oct 30, Mon: Resident Evil Village (iOS) release date
😱 Oct 30, Mon: Watch Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event for new Mac announcements
🎃 Oct 31, Tues: It’s Halloween! 🧟♂️👻🎃🦇💀
🎮 Oct 31, Tues: Lenovo Legion Go release date (pre-order at Best Buy)
🏠 Nov 3, Sun: Selling Sunset: Season 7 comes to Netflix
🔫 Nov 10, Fri: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 release (pre-order at Walmart)
🙌 Nov 15, Wed: PlayStation Portal release date (pre-order at Walmart)
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1. Best Buy Black Friday early deals are now available for members
💰 👍 Winner: Beat the Black Friday rush with Best Buy’s early deals
Black Friday doesn’t begin until November 24, but that hasn’t stopped Best Buy from offering early deals for My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total members.
📆 Dates: Today until Sunday night leaves you with a limited shopping window
🙌 Bonus: Members who spend $500 or more in October will also receive $50 of credit for free. Check out some of the best deals below 👇
Quick links to Best Buy deals
2. DJI Osmo Pocket 3 review: the best small camera gimbal out there
📸 👍 Winner: Get Hollywood-style action shots with this little camera
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is a small camera that allows you to easily capture incredibly-stabilized video footage by putting a tiny 3-axis gimbal in the palm of your hands. It’s from the creators of the DJI Mini 4 Pro drone, and there’s nothing like it at this size.
Pros
✅ 📸 1-inch camera sensor dramatically improves the quality
✅ 📺 2-inch touchscreen rotates to allows 16:9 & 9:16 shots
✅ 🫨 Stabilizes shaky footage with a mechanical three-axis gimbal
Cons
❌ 📱 Your iPhone and GoPro stabilize footage pretty well, too
❌ 🤕 Mechanical moving parts are more delicate than a GoPro
❌ 🤹♂️ It’s yet another camera tool to pack with my camera gear
Here’s my full review and where you can buy it:
3. OnePlus Open review: a powerful foldable phone to take seriously
📱 👍 Winner: The new OnePlus foldable phone deserves some attention
The most powerful folding phone of the year has arrived and Max Buondonno has our review. OnePlus Open comes the blazing-fast experience that fans of the OnePlus brand have come to know and love.
Starting price of $1,699 – or $1,499 with the trade-in of any smartphone – OnePlus is playing hardball to drive as many people as they can over to their foldable.
Pros
✅ 📱 Excellent built quality with barely any screen crease
✅ 💡 Beautiful displays that get insanely bright
✅ ⚡ Super-fast performance
Cons
❌ 🪫 No wireless charging
❌ 📲 OxygenOS might not be for everyone
❌ 🪨 No official dirt and dust protection
Check out Max’s full review and where to buy it:
4. PS5 vs PS5 Slim: specs, size, differences and price
🆚 👍 Winner: We’ll have you pick the right console before the PS5 Slim launches
Sony’s PS5 Slim releases in November and will eventually replace the standard PlayStation 5 we all know and love. But should you buy one, and what are the key differences? We’ve compared the two so you can make an informed buying decision when the time comes. Here are some things you need to know:
📏 PS5 Slim is 30% smaller in volume and up to 24% lighter compared to the launch day original PS5 Disc
👍 It has more storage space: 1TB vs 825GB
👎 You’ll need to purchase a vertical stand for the PS5 Slim separately, which costs an extra $29.99
🤷♂️ You can add a 4K Blu-ray disc drive to the Digital Edition model, which costs $79.99
5. X rolls out audio and video calling – here's how to enable or disable it
📞 👎 Loser: X’s new feature is enabled by default, which isn’t ideal
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Elon Musk owning Twitter, the social media platform began rolling out audio and video calling. It’s yet another step in Musk’s grand plan to make X “the everything app”. Musk wants to let people receive and make payments on X, find jobs, live stream gaming, and even find love.
📱 You can now audio and video call other users on X
🔜 The feature arrived just before Musk’s one-year anniversary of owning the platform formerly known as Twitter
✅ It’s enabled by default, so you may want to opt out
👍 Expect to see more features on X as it aims to become “the everything app”
6. Alan Wake 2 review roundup: 'a superb survival-horror sequel'
🔦 👍 Winner: Out today, this sublime sequel is bound to make you jump
Alan Wake 2 is available digitally on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC now and is the perfect game to enjoy over Halloween. It’s received glowing reviews from critics, achieving an OpenCritic score of 89 with 91% of critics recommending the long-awaited sequel.
🔦 Alan Wake 2 has an Opencritic score of 89 after 62 critic reviews
👌 91% of critics recommend the sequel to Alan Wake
🫰 Remedy Entertainment previously made Control, Quantum Break and Max Payne
💰 The game costs $59.99 for the standard and $79.99 for the Deluxe Edition, but it’s only available digitally
7. Logitech Wave Keys review: a new ergonomic champion
⌨️ 👍 Winner: A pleasure to type on for hours
The Logitech Wave Keys is a fantastic ergonomic keyboard that’s a joy to type on and feels completely natural to use. Your productivity won’t be hindered by a steep learning curve, and it’s a great addition to those who care about their workspace wellbeing.
Pros
✅ 😊 Comfortable built-in wristrest
✅ 🌊 Unique, ergonomic wave keyboard design
✅ 🎶 Dedicated media and function keys
Cons
❌ 🤷♂️ The number pad probably isn’t necessary for many
❌ 📏 Fairly large footprint
❌ ✋ You can’t detach the wristrest
8. When is Call of Duty coming to Xbox Game Pass?
🔫 👍 Winner: You’ll soon get Call of Duty games as part of your subscription
Microsoft’s drawn-out takeover of Activision Blizzard finally closed on October 13, which means we’ll soon see a plethora of games from the publisher arrive on Xbox Game Pass. But when will Call of Duty come to the service? It won’t be this year, sadly, but here’s everything you need to know.
📆 Expect to see Call of Duty games on Game Pass in 2024
🤯 There are 21 Call of Duty games that could be added
👍 Microsoft recently fixed the online servers of older Call of Duty games
🔜 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the next entry in the popular series
9. Apple TV+ is getting another price hike
📈 👎 Loser: Apple is raising its subscription prices once again
Another day, another price hike. The price of your Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+ subscription is set to rise for new and existing subscribers by up to 42%. The price of Apple One bundles that include these services is also going up, as you might expect. The price increase takes place immediately for existing subscribers, and in 30 days for existing subscribers.
😑 Apple is raising the price of its subscription services
😡 It already increased the price of Apple TV+ last year
👎 You’ll have to pay 42% more a month for Apple’s streaming service
📈 Subscription services continue to increase in price
10. Next week: Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ launch event – expecte new Macs
🍎 👎 Winner: The ‘big gift’ you wanted this holiday? That’s coming next week
Apple is closing out our weekly winners & losers list with some redemption: it’ll host a launch event on Tuesday. This rare nighttime live stream is likely to include Apple’s 3nm M3 chip for Macs – mere days after Qualcomm introduced its new M2 rival, the Snapdragon X Elite. Perfect timing for Apple fans.
🍎 Live stream starts on Tuesday at 8pm ET / 5pm PT (yes, at night 👻)
⚙️ Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ M3 chip to outperform Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite
🖥️ All-new iMac may launch with the rumored M3 chip
💻 Maybe a MacBook Pro refresh with the M3, too
⌨️ More Lighting accessories need go USB-C (Magic mice & keyboards)
See you see next!
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. Important Regulation A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
If Black Friday keeps sliding earlier, pretty soon we can just call it “Autumn.”