Tech
Some of Amazons early Prime Day Apple deals are already add-to-cart worthy
Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C)
(save $79.01)
Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + cellular, 42mm)
(save $170)
Apple iPad, 10.9-inch (A14 Bionic, WiFi + cellular, 256GB)
(save $150)
Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD)
(save $200)
Apple fans should circle Oct. 7 and 8 on their calendars: That's when Amazon is having its fourth annual Prime Big Deal Days sale. This "October Prime Day" event (an informal Black Friday kickoff) typically prompts record-low prices on AirPods, Apple Watches, iPads, and MacBooks, marking one of the absolute best times of year to upgrade any older Apple gadgets that just aren't cutting it.
This year, Prime Big Deal Days comes hot on the heels of Apple's "Awe Dropping" launch of new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods. I doubt the new iPhone 17 series or iPhone Air will go on sale once the event starts, but I'm pretty confident we'll see some initial discounts on the new Apple Watch Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3, as well as the updated AirPods Pro 3.
At the time of publication in early October, the Series 11 was already $10 off (normally $399, now $389). I'd personally wait to see if it dips even lower, but if you're jonesing to have it right away post-release, this is a fine excuse to add it to your cart. An even better pre-Prime Day Apple Watch deal stars its predecessor, the Series 10, which is a whopping $170 off if you opt for cellular connectivity. That blows past its previous all-time low price.
Two other Apple gadgets that I'd go ahead and buy now without hesitation are the 10th-generation iPad with 256GB of storage and cellular connectivity, and the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with 512GB of storage. Amazon currently has on sale for record lows of $499 and $1,199, respectively. I can't see them getting much cheaper once Prime Big Deal Days begin. (Happy to be proven wrong, though!)
If you're in the market for new AirPods, the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 are already seeing steep discounts. While neither has dropped to its best price on record, we don't see prices this low on either option very often. You could hold off until the shopping event starts, but there's no guarantee they'll get any cheaper.
Below, I've rounded up over two dozen of the best early October Prime Day Apple deals. I'll continue to monitor prices and flag record lows (marked with a 🔥) in the lead-up to the sale, so check back often.
Best AirPods deal
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Why we like them
The second-generation AirPods Pro offer top-tier sound quality, excellent noise cancellation, and a battery life of about seven hours per charge. They're our current favorite earbuds for Apple users, though that may soon change once we finish testing the newer AirPods Pro 3, which have a different design and five swappable ear tips (up from three), even better active noise cancellation, Live Translation, and extra health features. They're a pretty significant upgrade on paper, but if price is your biggest concern, the AirPods Pro 2 are $79 cheaper. While this isn't the cheapest they've ever been, it's still a hefty discount compared to its usual $199 sale price.
Read Mashable's full review of the Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C).
More AirPods deals
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Apple AirPods 4 — $89.99 $129 (save $39.01)
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Apple AirPods 4 with ANC — $139.99 $179 (save $39.01)
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Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) — $519 $549 (save $30)
Best Apple Watch deal
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Why we like it
While the Apple Watch Series 10 is virtually identical to its successor in terms of features and design, its battery life is worse. That's not ideal if you plan to regularly use tracking tools like Sleep Score, which get less accurate in Low Power Mode, but it's an easy sacrifice at a price like this. The rose gold Series 10 with cellular connectivity and a light blush sport band is now just $329 — a 34% savings and a new all-time low. Before this month, it never dipped below $370.
This deal is so good, I almost think it might be a fluke on Amazon's part (either that or an inventory-clearing clearance discount). The non-cellular version is on sale for the exact same price there.
Read Mashable's full review of the Apple Watch Series 10.
More Apple Watch deals
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Apple Watch SE, 2nd Gen (GPS, 40mm) — $179 $249 (save $70)
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Apple Watch SE, 2nd Gen (GPS, 44mm) — $199 $279 (save $80)
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Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 42mm) — $329 $399 (save $70)
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Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm) — $389 $399 (save $10) 🔥
Best iPad deal
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Why we like it
If you care more about storage capacity and cellular connectivity than processing power, this is a stellar deal on a 256GB 10th-gen iPad from late 2022. (It's a carbon copy of the 11th-gen model from early 2025, just with an older A14 Bionic chipset.) It usually retails for $649, but Amazon's dropped the silver variant down to a record-low price of $449 in the lead-up to Prime Big Deal Days. The other colors are either sold out or only available from a third-party seller.
More iPad deals
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Apple iPad, 11-inch (A16, WiFi, 128GB) — $299 $349 (save $50)
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Apple iPad, 11-inch (A16, WiFi + cellular, 128GB) — $449 $499 (save $50)
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Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro, WiFi, 128GB) — $399 $499 (save $100)
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Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M3, WiFi, 128GB) — $449 $599 (save $150) 🔥
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Apple iPad Air, 13-inch (M3, WiFi, 128GB) — $649 $799 (save $50) 🔥
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Apple iPad Pro, 11-inch (M4, WiFi, 256GB) — $899 $999 (save $100
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Apple iPad Pro, 13-inch (M4, WiFi, 256GB) — $1,099.99 $1,299 (save $199.01 with on-page coupon)
Best MacBook deal
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Why we like it
The latest MacBook Air is an absolute powerhouse, outperforming 89% of the laptops in our current testing database (many of which cost significantly more). Compared to the previous-gen M3 model, it offers a 24% speed boost along with an improved 12MP Center Stage camera and added open-lid support for two external displays. The 15-inch model with 512GB of storage (twice that of the base model) is on sale for $1,199 ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, or $200 off. It's currently the only MacBook that's sitting at an all-time low.
Read Mashable's full review of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4).
More MacBook deals
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Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $897 $999 (save $102)
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Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB, 512GB SSD) — $999 $1,199 (save $200)
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Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,399 $1,599 (save $200)
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Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2,249 $2,499 (save $250)
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Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,869 $3,199 (save $330)
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Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $3,099 $3,499 (save $400)
NASA is set to send four astronauts on a mission around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, and viewers can watch the launch countdown live on April 1.
Artemis II is a test flight of the U.S. space agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. The mission follows Artemis I, the successful uncrewed inaugural voyage of the spacecraft in 2022.
NASA will stream the launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its website, social media, and its YouTube channel. Live coverage of filling the rocket's tanks with fuel is expected to begin at 7:45 a.m. ET Wednesday on Youtube. Viewers can watch the event on NASA+, the space agency's free streaming service, starting at 12:50 p.m. ET.
The broadcast will track the four-person crew — Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen — as they board Orion. The actual two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
This mission is designed as a roughly 10-day deep space excursion that will loop around Earth before slingshotting around the moon and returning home. If successful, it would mark a major step toward future missions that aim to land astronauts on the lunar surface and establish a moon base there.
The flight also carries historic milestones. Koch is set to become the first woman to travel to the moon, and Glover the first Black astronaut to do so. Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, would be the first non-American assigned to a lunar mission. Their journey's estimated distance of 248,700 miles also could set a new record for farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.
Watch the launch livestream here beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1.
NASA's live coverage typically includes real-time updates from the firing room, views from the launchpad, and commentary explaining each stage of the countdown. The agency will also provide rolling updates on its official Artemis blog.
The forecast so far shows an 80 percent chance of good weather conditions for launch day. Mission managers are mostly concerned about cloud coverage and high winds.
If the launch attempt is called off for weather or technical issues, the agency could try again any day through April 6. There is one other launch opportunity at the end of this month on April 30. NASA has declined to provide future launch windows beyond April to the public.
The problem with announcing any kind of news on April 1 is that absolutely nobody will believe you.
Case in point: On Wednesday morning, KitKat announced that customers could use a special online tracking tool to figure out if their purchased confectionery goods were part of the massive 12-ton KitKat heist that's gotten the internet's attention over the past few days.
The KitKat heist tracker was advertised on the official KitKat X account, and whoever runs the account is ardently insisting, both in the original post and in the replies, that this is real and not an April Fool's joke.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Taking a look at the tracker itself, it's hard to parse fiction from reality. It appears to be a pretty straightforward tracker with a text input for an 8-digit batch code on the back of each KitKat package. I don't personally have any KitKats on hand to test this out with, but I typed in a random 8-digit number and was told that it wasn't part of the stolen batch.
So, at the very least, the tracker is actually checking for something. It's just impossible to say what would happen if you happened to type in a "correct" batch code.
Whether or not the tracker is a hoax, the heist was very real. More than 400,000 KitKat bars were stolen from a delivery truck going between Italy and Poland, prompting plenty of The Fast and the Furious memes (and some genuine concerns for the public supply of KitKats ahead of the Easter holiday).
For what it's worth, the company, Nestle KitKat, says there is no threat to the chocolatey supply chain at this time.
SAVE $400: As of April 1, the Hisense 55-inch Canvas QLED 4K TV is down to only $599.99 at Amazon. That's 40% off its list price and a new best price ever.
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The Amazon Big Spring Sale delivered plenty of excellent TV deals, but budget-friendly brand Hisense isn't playing by the rules. While the brand (which is one of our favorites, BTW) did drop prices over the last week, it waited until the sale was officially over to give us its best prices ever on several TV models — including the coveted Canvas art TV.
As of April 1, the Hisense 55-inch Canvas QLED 4K TV is down to just $599.99 at Amazon. That's 40% or $400 off its list price and a new lowest price on record. For those curious, the same TV was $87.98 more during the Spring Sale.
The Canvas TV is an alternative to the popular Samsung The Frame TV for budget-conscious shoppers. Like The Frame, it transforms a basic black box into a stylish piece of artwork that hangs on your wall. Its matte finish allows it to blend seamlessly into a gallery wall with other non-tech wall hangings. Unlike The Frame, it uses Google TV's interface, which Mashable's Miller Kern (a Canvas TV owner) says is "way more intuitive and responsive than Samsung's."
Beyond doubling as artwork, the Hisense Canvas is a QLED TV, so it's noticeably brighter and more saturated than a basic LED TV. It'll look brilliant in any lighting conditions. It also features a variable refresh rate up to 144Hz, which is surprisingly good for gaming, real-time adaptive brightness and color temperature, and an ultra-slim wall mount that lies flush against the wall for the true framed art look.
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