Month: March 2024
You can get a MacBook Air for $699 and a Dell XPS 13 for just $599 – is this the best time ever for laptop buyers?
Both the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13 have been favorite models of ours for years – and right now they’re both at rock-bottom record-low prices.
Both the Apple MacBook Air and the Dell XPS 13 are outstandingly good premium laptops – and both are on sale for some of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen currently.
For example, Walmart currently has the Apple MacBook Air M1 for just $699, which isn’t just a record-low price but a whopping $300 cheaper than the original retail price. Granted, it’s an older 2020 model, but this is a superb deal for a machine that’s still more than capable for most users in 2024.
Over at the official Dell store, you can pick up a 2022 XPS 13 for just $599 – which is almost unbelievable considering how premium this Windows laptop is. With super-thin display bezels and a gorgeous aluminum chassis, this model is a great buy right now – just know that it’s the configuration with the 256GB SSD (like the M1 MacBook above).
Two outstanding good laptop deals
Apple MacBook Air M1: was $999 now $699 at Walmart
Processor: Apple M1
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 256GB
The 2020 MacBook Air is getting on a bit now but it’s still one of our favorite laptops ever. Inside, you get a capable M1 chipset that’s still great for everyday tasks like web browsing, streaming content, or most work-from-home applications. Yeah, the bezels are a little thicker now but it’s a great laptop – and one that is now sitting at a rock-bottom record-low price thanks to Walmart’s latest deal. View Deal
Dell XPS 13 laptop: was $799 now $599 at Dell
Processor: Intel Core i5-1230U
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 256GB
The cheapest Dell XPS 13 you can buy right now is a third of the price of the fancy new models. In fact, at $599, this deal is the cheapest XPS 13 we’ve ever seen. There are some trade-offs, of course, in the fact that you get a relatively small 256GB SSD and an older 12th gen Intel Core i5, but this machine still features a premium high-end design. If you’re just looking for a Windows machine to cover the basics then this one is a great choice. View Deal
But, which is the better deal right now?
(Image credit: Future)
Windows vs MacOS – it’s a battleground that’s been around for as long as computers have been a thing. In 2024, both eco-systems offer incredible app support, superb interfaces, and plenty of headroom for upgrades down the line. So, realistically, it comes down to personal preference in regard to which is best for you.
That said, we’d single out the MacBook Air M1 as an incredible bang-for-the-buck option for most people right now. Apple products haven’t traditionally been known for their value, but this M1 MacBook is barely as expensive as some refurbished and second-hand models right now. It’s quite simply a ton of laptop for the money.
Not only that, but the M1 chipset inside the MacBook Air is incredibly power efficient, which lends not only to excellent battery life but a unique fan-less design that’s almost silent in operation. Performance-wise, there won’t be much between the two laptops, but the Air will provide better battery life overall.
With all that said, both of these laptops are fantastic, powerful, and, above all, cheap. If your budget is around $600 to $700, you can’t go wrong with either choice.
Want to see what else is available this week? Head on over to our laptop deals and MacBook deals pages for more recommendations.
AT&T confirms data for 73 million customers leaked on hacker forum.
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America’s DHS Is Expected to Stop Buying Access to Your Phone Movements
America’s Department of Homeland Security “is expected to stop buying access to data showing the movement of phones,” reports the U.S. news site NOTUS.
They call the purchasers “a controversial practice that has allowed it to warrantlessly track hundreds of millions of people for years.”
Since 2018, agencies within the department — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Secret Service — have been buying access to commercially available data that revealed the movement patterns of devices, many inside the United States. Commercially available phone data can be bought and searched without judicial oversight.
Three people familiar with the matter said the Department of Homeland Security isn’t expected to buy access to more of this data, nor will the agency make any additional funding available to buy access to this data. The agency “paused” this practice after a 2023 DHS watchdog report [which had recommended they draw up better privacy controls and policies]. However, the department instead appears to be winding down the use of the data…
“The information that is available commercially would kind of knock your socks off,” said former top CIA official Michael Morell on a podcast last year. “If we collected it using traditional intelligence methods, it would be top-secret sensitive. And you wouldn’t put it in a database, you’d keep it in a safe….” DHS’ internal watchdog opened an investigation after a bipartisan outcry from lawmakers and civil society groups about warrantless tracking…
“Meanwhile, U.S. spy agencies are fighting to preserve the same capability as part of the renewal of surveillance authorities,” the article adds.
“A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, led by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden in the Senate and Republican Rep. Warren Davidson in the House, is pushing to ban U.S. government agencies from buying data on Americans.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
America’s Department of Homeland Security “is expected to stop buying access to data showing the movement of phones,” reports the U.S. news site NOTUS.
They call the purchasers “a controversial practice that has allowed it to warrantlessly track hundreds of millions of people for years.”
Since 2018, agencies within the department — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Secret Service — have been buying access to commercially available data that revealed the movement patterns of devices, many inside the United States. Commercially available phone data can be bought and searched without judicial oversight.
Three people familiar with the matter said the Department of Homeland Security isn’t expected to buy access to more of this data, nor will the agency make any additional funding available to buy access to this data. The agency “paused” this practice after a 2023 DHS watchdog report [which had recommended they draw up better privacy controls and policies]. However, the department instead appears to be winding down the use of the data…
“The information that is available commercially would kind of knock your socks off,” said former top CIA official Michael Morell on a podcast last year. “If we collected it using traditional intelligence methods, it would be top-secret sensitive. And you wouldn’t put it in a database, you’d keep it in a safe….” DHS’ internal watchdog opened an investigation after a bipartisan outcry from lawmakers and civil society groups about warrantless tracking…
“Meanwhile, U.S. spy agencies are fighting to preserve the same capability as part of the renewal of surveillance authorities,” the article adds.
“A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, led by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden in the Senate and Republican Rep. Warren Davidson in the House, is pushing to ban U.S. government agencies from buying data on Americans.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label could mean constant 60fps and ray-tracing
The original PlayStation 5. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Sony will use a new “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label to tell players which games take advantage of the console’s new abilities, according to documents seen by InsiderGaming yesterday. The outlet writes that to get the label, a game would have to offer a PS5 Pro graphics mode, which includes PSSR for 4K upscaling, constant 60fps framerate, and added or improved ray-tracing. It would reportedly also indicate higher resolution for both fixed and variable refresh rate games.
The site says that the internally-named “Trinity Enhanced” label would be akin to the “PS4 Pro Enhanced” label from the last PlayStation generation (or the “X|S” label that denotes games with improvements like better load times or higher framerates). It also told players when a game was given graphical upgrades specific to the then-new system, but not necessarily what the mix of improvements is.
Rumors have suggested that the PS5 Pro will launch at the end of 2024, putting it about a year out from its release of a smaller PS5 this past November. Compared to the vanilla PS5, it may offer as much as 4x the ray-tracing performance, a 10-percent-higher-clocked version of the original console’s CPU, 28 percent faster memory, and up to a 45 percent rendering performance improvement.
The original PlayStation 5. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Sony will use a new “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label to tell players which games take advantage of the console’s new abilities, according to documents seen by InsiderGaming yesterday. The outlet writes that to get the label, a game would have to offer a PS5 Pro graphics mode, which includes PSSR for 4K upscaling, constant 60fps framerate, and added or improved ray-tracing. It would reportedly also indicate higher resolution for both fixed and variable refresh rate games.
The site says that the internally-named “Trinity Enhanced” label would be akin to the “PS4 Pro Enhanced” label from the last PlayStation generation (or the “X|S” label that denotes games with improvements like better load times or higher framerates). It also told players when a game was given graphical upgrades specific to the then-new system, but not necessarily what the mix of improvements is.
Rumors have suggested that the PS5 Pro will launch at the end of 2024, putting it about a year out from its release of a smaller PS5 this past November. Compared to the vanilla PS5, it may offer as much as 4x the ray-tracing performance, a 10-percent-higher-clocked version of the original console’s CPU, 28 percent faster memory, and up to a 45 percent rendering performance improvement.