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Today's Dealmaster is headlined by an early Black Friday deal on Sony's WH-1000XM4. The wireless noise-canceling headphones are currently on sale for $278 at various retailers, which matches the price we've seen advertised for upcoming Black Friday sales events and ties the lowest outright discount we've seen. (An Amazon Prime Day deal last month dropped the headphones down to $298 with a $25 Amazon gift card.) Normally, they retail for $350.

We recently recommended the XM4 in our home-office setup guide, deeming it the best pair of noise-canceling headphones on the market. Like its predecessor— another Ars favorite —the XM4 provides an excellent blend of comfort, convenient features, customizable sound quality, and, above all else, active noise cancellation that's just about best-in-class. Now, though, it offers the ability to connect to multiple devices simultaneously as long as both devices use the AAC codec, which shouldn't be an issue the vast majority of the time. The new XM4 also has a motion sensor that automatically detects when you've taken off the headphones and pauses playback accordingly, and it has a nifty "speak to chat" feature that can do the same when it detects you talking to somebody else. We've found the touch controls on the side of the earcups to be less hyper-sensitive than before, too.

Beyond that, the headphones still get a little over 20 hours of battery life per charge, which is solid, and charge over a USB-C port. They still have minimal issues in the way of Bluetooth connectivity and offer a useful "ambient sound" mode that lets you listen to music while better hearing outside noises. The mic quality still isn't ideal, but it's fine, and while the mildly bass-forward sound isn't as detailed as you could get from a good wired pair, it's still full, fun, and customizable thanks to the nifty EQ tool in Sony's companion app. While we'd like the XM4 to offer the ability to tone down its noise-canceling strength a la Bose's Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 , the overall package here is excellent.

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Today's Dealmaster should be of interest to anyone in the market for a new Nintendo Switch gamepad, as both the Switch Pro Controller and pairs of the console's default Joy-Con controllers are currently $10 off. The deals bring them down to $59 and $69, respectively. Neither offer represents the absolute lowest price we've seen, and there's always a chance we see steeper drops on Black Friday, but discounts on both products have been rare this year. For the Switch Pro Controller, this matches the best price we've seen (on a handful of occasions) in 2020. For the Joy-Cons, it's the best price we've tracked since January, though for some newer variants it matches the biggest discount we've seen in general.

As for the devices themselves, we still recommend the Switch Pro Controller for anyone who spends as much time playing their Switch on the TV as they do in the console's handheld mode. It's immediately more comfortable than the default Joy-Cons, with roomier triggers, face buttons and joy-sticks, an actual d-pad, and excellent battery life that lasts around 40 hours. It should feel right at home for anyone who has played an Xbox or PlayStation in recent years. Plus, it can work with a gaming PC if needed.

The Joy-Cons aren't as ergonomic, especially over longer play sessions, and there's always the risk of "drift" settling in over time. If you only need one controller, note that Nintendo will soon drop the price of single Joy-Cons to $40 in the coming weeks. But Nintendo has gotten better about addressing any durability issues that may arise, and really, there aren't many other options for those who mostly play their Switch away from the big screen.

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Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a wide range of deals on Amazon Echo, Fire, Kindle, and Fire TV devices, almost all of which equal the deal prices we saw during Amazon Prime Day last week. Kohl's and Best Buy appear to have the largest collection of deals available, but a handful are also live at other retailers including Staples, B&H, and Target. (Amazon, meanwhile, is not matching the discounts on its own storefront.) Best Buy's landing page says its sale will end at 11:59pm CT on October 22.

You can find our full list of the most noteworthy deals in the sale below, but the highlights include Amazon's Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets available for $55 and $80, respectively. Both deals match the all-time lowest prices that were available on Prime Day. We've detailed the Fire HD line before , but in general it remains a solid value for those who want an competent tablet for as low a cost as possible. You'll have to deal with a heavily customized version of Android that doesn't support Google apps by default, although there are ways around that . But the hardware itself is comfortable and quick enough for light reading, video viewing, and Web browsing.

A Fire HD 8 Plus adds a USB-C port, an extra GB of RAM (3GB in total), and wireless charging to the 8-inch slate, while the Kids Edition models continue to provide a more durable design and a year's subscription to Amazon's Kids+ (formerly FreeTime Unlimited), which is a library of child-friendly books, shows, and apps. All of those are back at their Prime Day discounts—and thus lowest prices to date—as well.

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Amazon Prime Day may be over, but the Dealmaster never stops. Today's discount roundup includes a number of Prime Day deals that are still available despite Amazon's sales event officially ending on Wednesday.

Among the offers still kicking is Apple's AirPods Pro available for $199 , which matches the best price we've seen at a major retailer. It's still a great price for what we consider one of the best pairs of fully wireless headphones on the market, particularly if you want active noise-cancellation and already use an iPhone.

Elsewhere, Roku's Streaming Stick+ remains at its Prime Day price of $37 . This still isn't the absolute lowest price we've seen, but it's the cheapest the speedy streamer has been since last Black Friday. If you can't wait until this Black Friday—when similar devices like Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K are likely to go on sale— and want a dead-simple way to stream video apps in 4K and HDR, it's a solid deal. If you can live with 802.11n Wi-Fi and a simpler remote without power and mute buttons, the Roku Premiere also does 4K and HDR and is still on sale for $27 .

Enlarge / Sony's WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

With Amazon Prime Day comes a flood of discounts, but in truth, only a fraction of those are worth buying. So we've spent the last couple of days trying to pick out the deals most worth your attention from Amazon's self-manufactured shopping holiday.

With the event scheduled to end by tomorrow, though, we thought it'd be fun to have our final Prime Day post share the most purchased items by readers here at Ars. To be clear: we absolutely do not (and can not) track individual buying habits, but we are able to see what's received the most attention in anonymized aggregate.

Furthermore, don't take this as a scientific set of data. We've highlighted specific products as especially noteworthy within our deal roundups, with entire articles dedicated to the best Amazon device deals and the best Apple device deals . Naturally, some of the products that got the most prominent call-outs wound up among the most popular. (We appreciate your faith in our recommendations, by the way.) Without getting too deep into the minutiae of retailer affiliate networks, we'll also note that the items below are only based on Tuesday's activity.

Enlarge / Breath of the Wild , along with a few other Switch games, have been discounted on Prime Day. (credit: Mark Walton)

Amazon's two-day Prime Day event is kicking off its last day, and we’ve been diligently combing through it all for the best deals. While there are some higher-priced products seeing steep discounts—see our full Prime Day deals roundup for the details—we have a handful of our favorite deals under the $50 mark that'll reward thriftiness.

Among them are desktop accessories, streaming devices, microSD cards, and a few more fun choices, like Nintendo Switch games and smart home gear.

While you may see some shipping delays on some picks due to Prime Day's high demand, you can check out the full list below to nab yourself some cheap thrills.

Enlarge / Amazon's waterproof Kindle Paperwhite. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Amazon Prime Day is upon us once again, folks. As it does every year, the sales event brings discounts to thousands of products—with the company’s own devices getting some of the biggest price cuts. This year, we have markdowns across the board , ranging from services like Amazon Music and Audible to Kindle, Fire, and Echo devices.

So, if you’re seeking to set up your smart home, buy a new e-reader, tablet, streaming device, DVR alternative, or even a set of security cameras, we've gathered Prime Day's best Amazon device deals in one place for your convenience. As a reminder, the Prime Day offers below are only available to Prime subscribers , and the event itself will last until 12am PT on October 14.

Best Kindle e-reader and Fire tablet deals of Prime Day 2020

The Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

For the budding or long-time bookworm, the Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader you can buy . The waterproof device is available in a classic black casing or a handful of playful, colorful alternatives for kids, who unfortunately aren't waterproof. The former in particular is down to $80, which is the lowest price we've tracked.

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It's later than usual , but Amazon Prime Day has arrived . The Dealmaster is here to guide you away from the junk and toward 2020's best Prime Day deals—particularly when it comes to discounts on gadgets and gear.

Much like last year, Prime Day 2020 is actually a 48-hour affair, live through October 13 and 14. The sales event remains a way for Amazon to bolster its hugely popular Prime membership program first and foremost, so you'll still need to subscribe to Prime to take advantage of the myriad Prime Day sales. Those on a free trial can take part, but trials are only available to people who haven't been a Prime member within the last 12 months.

For those who haven't bothered with Prime Day in the past, know that most of the "deals" Amazon advertises aren't, well, deals. Sometimes, a product's advertised price isn't much cheaper than its typical street price; other times, the product itself just isn't worth buying in the first place. This hasn't changed with Prime Day 2020.

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Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a handful of early Prime Day deals on various Amazon subscriptions and services. Like most Prime Day offers, you have to be a Prime member to take advantage, but if that's the case you can currently grab six months of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited e-book service for $30 or grab the first year of its Audible Premium Plus audiobook service for $100. Those are $30 and $50 discounts, respectively.

For the unfamiliar, Kindle Unlimited is an all-you-can-eat subscription that gives access to a large library of e-books for one monthly fee. It can be used on Kindle e-book readers or just through Amazon's Kindle app. Audible Premium Plus, meanwhile, provides a similar setup for audiobooks, podcasts, and original shows. Amazon recently introduced a similar subscription plan called Audible Plus that costs $8 a month , though that covers a smaller selection of content. This deal also includes 12 book credits upfront, which can be used to purchase a title permanently.

In any event, note that both subscriptions will be set to renew automatically if you take the plunge, so keep an eye out to avoid any unwanted charges. Elsewhere, the Dealmaster also has deals on various first-party Switch games, the PlayStation exclusive Ghost of Tsushima , various iPads, Dell monitors, and more. Have a look at our full rundown below.