Technology

The best Amazon Prime Day tech deals you can get

Published

2 years ago

July 17, 2024

The best Amazon Prime Day tech deals you can get

Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale is here through July 17th, offering you a chance to save big on all kinds of gadgets and endless amounts of other junk you probably don’t need. And we’re here to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

We’re surfacing discounts that are actually worth the time and attention of a voracious tech enthusiast — or just someone looking to at least save something on a nice little upgrade of an aging device.

Below, we’ve compiled our most comprehensive and wide-ranging roundup of Prime Day deals, which includes noise-canceling headphones, tablets, TVs, smart home accessories, and much more. Many of these deals require an Amazon Prime membership, though you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to access them (and always cancel later).

We try to pool together a little somethin’-somethin’ for everyone, but if you don’t find anything here that moves your needle, be sure to check out the full breadth of our coverage — including more specific posts covering categories like games, streaming devices, and a competing sales event that doesn’t require a subscription.

Prime Day deals spotlight

A marketing image of a blue Sonos Roam 2 speaker.

Like its predecessor, the Sonos Roam 2 is a compact and travel-friendly Bluetooth speaker that easily syncs up with Sonos’ home audio ecosystem via Wi-Fi. While it looks much like the original, the Roam 2 has some small quality-of-life improvements, like a separate button for Bluetooth connections. Read our hands-on impressions.

The 10th-gen iPad in yellow, resting face up on a wooden table.

Apple’s 10th-gen iPad is the spiritual successor to the older ninth-gen model. In exchange for its revised design, landscape-oriented webcam, USB-C port, larger 10.9-inch screen, and faster processor, it ditched the headphone jack and got more expensive. Read our review.

Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro photographed on a reflective black surface.

The second-gen AirPods Pro improve upon Apple’s original pair with much better noise cancellation, sound quality, and onboard volume controls. The latest refresh also ships with a USB-C charging case, as opposed to Lightning. Read our hands-on impressions.

With improved comfort, refined sound, and even better active noise cancellation, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 offer a compelling mix of features for the price. Read our review.

Hoto’s electric screwdriver is perfect for making small to medium-sized repairs around the house. In addition to a USB-C port, the screwdriver comes with a case and 12 steel bits.

The AirFly Duo Bluetooth transmitter and receiver features an integrated 3.5mm cord and long-lasting battery life. It can also connect up to two sets of headphones, making it a great choice for listening to in-flight entertainment.

A hand holding the 2022 Kindle in front of red flowers.

Amazon’s new entry-level Kindle is essentially the budget-friendly six-inch version of the Kindle Paperwhite. It lacks waterproofing but otherwise is similar, with the same sharp display and USB-C support. Read our review.

The third-gen Echo Show 5 turned on while on a desk in front of the window during a rainy day.

The new Echo Show 5 is just as small as its predecessor but features updated mics and a speaker system that delivers double the bass and clearer sound quality.

8BitDo retro keyboard with mouse next to it.

This mechanical keyboard is designed to look like Nintendo’s original NES controller, with features like two red customizable buttons. Along with Bluetooth support, it also offers a standard tenkeyless layout with clicky, hot-swappable switches.

The Beats Fit Pro earbuds have integrated wing tips that help keep them secure during runs and workouts. They also have excellent noise cancellation, and their sound has just the right amount of bass and kick to keep you motivated. Read our review.

Apple’s AirTags can help you find your lost items with its UWB technology. You’ll get the best compatibility with an iPhone, though Apple released an Android app to detect an AirTag’s location if one seems to be following you. Read our review.

A limited-edition version of Elgato’s Stream Deck MK. 2, featuring a seethrough purple design, matching USB cable, and downloadable icon pack to complete with retro look. The MK. 2 version of the standard Stream Deck features 15 programmable buttons along with a swappable faceplate and a detachable stand.

The L20 Ultra is a great all-around bot that can remove its mop pads to vacuum carpet and do the splits with its mops to better clean your baseboards. It has 7,000Pa suction, a bigger base station, and fewer advanced cleaning features than the newer X30 and X40 Ultra models, but it’s still an excellent robot vacuum.

Apple Watch Series 9 with Siri pulled up

The Apple Watch Series 9 features a brand-new S9 processor that enables offline Siri use, brighter displays, and the double tap gesture. It also has the second-gen ultra wideband chip for Precision Finding if you have an iPhone 15. Read our review.

The Horizon is the fully round version of the Oura Ring Gen 3, matching its specs and health / fitness tracking capabilities but without the flat edge. It comes with a one-month free trial, with a $5.99 subscription after that. Read our review of the standard Oura Ring.

A hand holding the silver Apple AirPods Max.

Apple’s AirPods Max feature exemplary build quality, sound phenomenal, and keep up with the best at noise cancellation. Read our review.

The LG C3 offers more processing power than its predecessor and several new picture modes. It continues to offer a 120Hz refresh rate and low input lag as well, along with support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync variable refresh rate tech.

The fifth-gen Echo Dot touts a temperature sensor, better sound, and faster response time than the prior model. It can also act as an extender for your Eero Wi-Fi system. Read our review.

The MacBook Air M3 is a jack-of-all-trades, with a balanced combination of performance and power efficiency. It also now supports dual displays with the lid closed, and the storage speed is noticeably faster. You don’t need to think about if this laptop will meet your needs — it just will. Read our review.

An Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max streaming stick with its remote sitting beside a bowl of popcorn in front of a TV.

Amazon’s latest streaming stick is faster than its predecessor with Wi-Fi 6E and double the storage. It also now displays widgets and artwork when idle while continuing to offer a terrific selection of streaming apps and Alexa integration.

An iPhone propped up horizontally by the kickstand of a Belkin MagSafe charger on a table with a prop skeleton sitting in a chair and looking at the phone.

Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe supports 15W fast wireless charging with MagSafe-compatible iPhones and has a lengthy 6.6-foot built-in cable. Its 15W charging speeds and little kickstand make the BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe the best all-purpose magnetic charging puck.

LifeStraw’s basic filter removes unwanted viruses, bacteria, and microplastics as you drink, giving you a safe way to hydrate no matter where you are.

Open screwdriver tool kit showing all the various bits and parts.

A 46-piece screwdriver kit that can help you repair practically any tech device out there.

The best Prime Day deals on headphones and earbuds

Sony’s flagship WF-1000XM5 noise-canceling earbuds improve upon the previous model with richer sound quality, slightly more powerful ANC, and vastly improved comfort thanks to their reduced size and weight. Read our review.

Apple’s third-gen AirPods have a new design and sound significantly better than their predecessors. They also add new features like head tracking for spatial audio. Read our review.

The Beats Studio Pro are down to $169.95 (a massive $180 off) at Amazon. The noise-canceling headphones may have a slightly outdated look (they look like many prior sets of Beats), but they’re an excellent value if you want flexibility across Android and iOS. Read our review.
The Beats Studio Buds are still a serviceable pair of noise-canceling earbuds even if they’re a few years old since they’re just $79.95 ($70 off) at Amazon. Just keep in mind that the newer Studio Buds Plus have a variety of improvements and an even more fun seethrough design for $129.95 ($40 off).

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro are the company’s first earbuds to include active noise cancellation. They also combine impressive sound, great battery life, and good comfort — all without the connection issues of earlier models. Read our review.

Google’s Pixel Buds A-Series are selling for their usual all-time low of $69 ($30 off) at Amazon. They’re a little long in the tooth for a midrange pair of wireless earbuds, but they remain a great low-cost option for Pixel phone owners. Read our review.
Amazon is selling the Echo Buds with Active Noise Cancellation with a wired charging case for $34.99 ($85 off) or a wireless charging case for $44.99 ($95 off). It’s hard to beat the value of these ANC buds, even if other models have better noise cancellation. Read our review.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds FE may be a little no-frills since they lack features like wireless charging and multipoint connectivity; however, at just $69.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, they remain Samsung’s cheapest pair of noise-canceling earbuds. Read our review.

A photo of Samsung’s purple Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

Samsung’s excellent-sounding Galaxy Buds 2 Pro introduce support for 24-bit audio and have a lighter, smaller, more comfortable in-ear fit than the first Buds Pros. Read our review.

With dynamic, rich sound and the best noise cancellation available in true wireless earbuds, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are a terrific pick if you want to listen to your music in peace. Read our review.

Bose’s latest flagship headphones are a replacement for the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 that offer a more travel-friendly design, spatial audio, better call quality, excellent comfort, and some of the best noise cancellation around. Read our review.

The donut-shaped Sony LinkBuds are selling for $128 ($50 off) at Amazon, matching the best price we’ve seen on the open-style earbuds. Their unique design offers a comfy fit that allows outside noise in, helping keep you aware of your surroundings. Read our review.
If you don’t need a cutting-edge pair of headphones, it’s hard to deny how good Sony’s WH-1000XM4 still sound, especially when you can grab them at Amazon for $198 ($150 off). Plus, unlike the newer XM5 that has usurped them, the older XM4 fold down for more convenient storage and travel. Read our review.
Are you on a tighter budget but still want some noise-canceling headphones? Check out the Sony WH-CH720N, which are selling for $88 (about $61 off) at Amazon. They’re not as fancy as the pricier XM models, but they have up to 35 hours of battery life and weigh just 192 grams.

A photo of Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 Wireless headphones on a table.

With marathon 60-hour battery life and sublime comfort, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless also make good on the company’s reputation for detailed, expansive sound quality. Read our review.

The second-generation AirPods near their charging case on a white surface.

These AirPods are Apple’s second generation of true wireless earbuds and the cheapest model in the AirPods lineup. Though they’re from 2019, they remain a reliable pair of buds with solid sound quality. Read our review.

The best Prime Day deals on smart speakers and smart displays

A purple Echo Pop smart speaker on a table surrounded by Ring Pop candy.

The Echo Pop is Amazon’s newest Alexa-enabled smart speaker. It offers a unique semisphere form factor and can function as an Eero mesh Wi-Fi extender. Read our review.

A photo of the Sonos Era 100 speaker in a kitchen setting beside an iPad and toaster.

Sonos’ Era 100 smart speaker is a replacement for the older Sonos One, utilizing two tweeters (left and right) and one larger woofer. In addition to Wi-Fi, the Era 100 also supports Bluetooth audio and line-in playback via an optional 3.5mm to USB-C adapter. Read our review.

It can’t fully match the loudness and sheer power of the flagship Sonos Sub, but the more compact Sub Mini still kicks out plenty of boom that will make you feel the low-end bass from your couch. Read our review.

The JBL Authentics 300 is one of only a few smart speakers on the market with simultaneous Google Assistant and Alexa support. The ’70s-style speaker is heavy, but it produces impressive, powerful sound, especially at louder volumes. Read our review.

Amazon is selling its new Echo Spot for $44.99 ($35 off), exclusively for Prime members. The semicircular smart display supports customizable clock faces and Alexa, allowing you to set your alarm and pull up the weather with your voice.
The fourth-gen Echo is on sale at Amazon for $54.99 ($45 off). The Prime-exclusive deal takes $35 off the spherical smart speaker, which can be easily used to control smart home features via Alexa or double as a Wi-Fi extender for Eero mesh systems. Read our review.

Amazon’s new Echo Show 8 features spatial audio and room adaptation software for improved audio quality. It also displays a different homescreen on its eight-inch display based on whether you’re standing near it or farther away. Read our review.

The Echo Show 15 is a large wall-mounted device that acts as a shared hub for families to view upcoming calendar appointments, virtual notes, and more. The 15.6-inch device also features the same Alexa functionality as other Echo displays and smart speakers. Read our review.

The best Prime Day deals on tablets and e-readers

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite has a 6.8-inch E Ink display with adjustable color temperature for nighttime reading. It also boasts a fast processor, monthslong battery life, IPX8 waterproofing, and a USB-C port. Read our review.

The Kindle Scribe against a background of yellow post-it notes.

The Kindle Scribe is Amazon’s largest e-reader to date, with a crisp 10.2-inch display, terrific battery life, and a stylus for note-taking. Read our review.

Apple’s latest iPad Mini is on sale at Amazon starting at $379.99 ($120 off) in its base configuration with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage. The Mini was redesigned back in 2021 with a USB-C port and A15 Bionic processor, and it remains the go-to option if you want a smaller tablet from Apple. Read our review.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 features a lovely OLED screen, speedy performance, and some great speakers for a tablet. It’s currently on sale in several colors at Amazon with 128GB of storage and Wi-Fi starting at $599.99 ($200 off). Read our review.
Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite Kids is selling for $149.99 ($20 off) at Amazon right now. The kid-friendly editions are often the low-key best value for a Kindle when they go on sale, especially since this incarnation of the 6.8-inch e-reader doesn’t have ads and includes a case and an extended warranty. Just keep the parental lock features turned off if you plan on using it. Read our review.

A Pixel Tablet mounted on its speaker dock showing a Weather Frog screensaver.

Google’s 11-inch Pixel Tablet uses the same Tensor G2 chip found in the Pixel 7 lineup. It also comes with a magnetic charging dock so you can use it as a de facto smart display. Read our review.

An Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet in its keyboard case on a wooden table.

Amazon’s highest-end tablet features an 11-inch LCD display with 2000 x 1200 resolution as well as options for an add-on keyboard and stylus. Read our review.

The best Prime Day deals on TVs and streaming devices

The LG C4 is similar to its predecessor, with support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync variable refresh rate tech. However, it now sports a max 144Hz refresh rate, a brighter panel, and overall better picture quality.

A photo of a man leaning over on a couch and using LG’s StanbyME Go briefcase TV.

LG’s StanbyME Go is a fun 27-inch panel nestled within a briefcase. The basic 1080p display doesn’t offer high-end specs, though it does come with a selection of preloaded games, versatile viewing options, and a wide selection of streaming apps. Read our review.

Amazon’s Fire TV Omni features built-in microphones for Alexa commands and low input lag. It also provides access to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and most major streaming services. Only the 65-inch and 75-inch models support Dolby Vision, however. Read our review.

An image of Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED television on a wall with onscreen widgets for weather, sticky notes, music, and more.

Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED features built-in microphones for Alexa commands, low input lag, and support for two-way video calling with a compatible webcam. It also provides access to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and most major streaming services.

The latest Hisense 4K TVs boast excellent value for image quality and Google Play, giving you access to a wide selection of streaming apps. They also support Dolby Vision, HDR, and HDR10 Plus.

TCL’s midrange Q7 is a 4K LED TV with a native 120Hz refresh, VRR, and two HDMI 2.1 ports for modern consoles like the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. One of its other two HDMI ports also offers eARC support for soundbars.

A photo of Amazon’s Fire TV Cube on a TV stand.

The hybrid Echo and Fire TV is faster than its predecessor with extensive hands-free voice control capabilities, support for Wi-Fi 6E, and excellent performance. Read our review.

Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K maintains its simple interface that puts your apps front and center and adds support for Dolby Vision HDR. Read our review.

Nvidia’s Shield TV, the best streaming player for home theater experts and gamers, pictured on a table.

Nvidia’s tube-shaped streaming device is one of the best ways to experience Android TV. It has fast performance, impressive 4K upscaling, and its GeForce Now support makes it a good option for gaming.

The Ray is Sonos’ entry-level soundbar that’s best for bedrooms and smaller apartments. It only connects to TVs via optical cable, thus missing out on HDMI-CEC functionality. It also produces balanced, dynamic sound despite its small size, easily besting built-in TV speakers. Read our review.

Amazon’s own Fire TV Soundbar is a 2.0-channel speaker that stretches 24 inches long. It’s got support for Dolby Audio, DTS, and Bluetooth and connects to a compatible TV via an HDMI port with eARC or ARC.

Vizio’s M-Series Dolby Atmos soundbar comes complete with a subwoofer and wired rear surround speakers — all for less than $500.

The best Prime Day deals on phones

Unlike years past, the Galaxy S24 Plus gets the same QHD resolution as the Ultra model. Otherwise, it offers a very similar experience to the base model, only it’s noticeably bigger at 6.7 inches. That makes it roomy enough for a bigger 4,900mAh battery with 45W fast charging, too. Read our review.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra showing a blue and yellow homescreen, on a blue and yellow background with green translucent rectangles.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first in the series to use a titanium frame. It also includes an integrated S Pen and upgraded camera suite, along with the biggest display in the S24 line. Read our review.

Google’s latest midranger touts a whopping seven years of software support and a number of small upgrades, including Google’s speedy Tensor G3 processor, a 120Hz display, and plenty of new AI features. Read our review.

Google Pixel 7A standing upright on a table showing home screen.

The Pixel 7A includes several features that are hard to find for around $500, including wireless charging and an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. It’s a generation behind the current 8A, but it will be supported with software updates for years to come. Read our review.

The OnePlus 12R is selling for just $349.99 ($150 off) at Amazon. The midrange phone comes with a flagship-level processor and a large 6.78-inch display. It lacks wireless charging, but it makes up for it slightly with superfast 80W wired charging. Read our review.
The Samsung A35 5G is $299.99 ($100 off) at Amazon. It’s got surprisingly good specs for a budget-friendly phone, including IP67 water and dust resistance usually reserved for much pricier handsets. Read our buying guide.
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 FE is $449.99 ($150 off) at Amazon, which is a good deal for the colorful midrange phone (though it was $50 cheaper last holiday season). The S23 FE is one of Samsung’s rehashed “FE” models, meaning it has the processor of the older S22 flagship but at a lower price. Read our review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 in-hand showing customized cover lock screen with a photo wallpaper

Samsung’s Z Flip 5 is its latest 6.7-inch flip phone that folds in half, now sporting a larger front cover display and a new hinge design that allows it to close flat. Inside, it packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a dual-camera setup. Read our review.

A photo of Google’s Pixel Fold smartphone.

The Pixel Fold, Google’s first foray into the world of foldable phones, features an outer 5.8-inch display and a 7.6-inch tablet-like inner screen. Read our review.

The best Prime Day deals on laptops and computer accessories

A photo of Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air laptop.

The 15-inch MacBook Air is also equipped with Apple’s M3 chip. It features a larger display and better speaker array than the 13-inch MacBook Air M3.

This last-gen gaming laptop is a great amalgamation of parts: 165Hz display, an Intel Core i7-13650HX processor, Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics card, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD for all those 50GB-plus game installations. It’s rare to find a midrange gaming laptop like this for anywhere near $1,000.

Nuphy’s latest version of its Air mechanical keyboard is outstanding. This one omits a numpad but still includes arrow keys and a full row of function keys that double as media keys. It comes in black, gray, and white, with a few different switch options, and it’s both wired and wireless. It also supports both Windows and macOS.

If you need a basic, no-frills way to elevate your laptop to eye level, then this Nulaxy laptop stand is likely to get the job done. It’s on sale for just $15.86 ($6 off) when you click the on-page coupon at Amazon.
The Ugreen USB 3.0 Switcher, which allows you to share four USB ports across two computers, is down to $33.11 (about $13 off) with a coupon at Amazon. It’s particularly handy if you work from home and want to use the same accessories for work and personal computers.

A side view of the Corsair Xeneon Flex OLED gaming monitor, showing a still photo of 2018 God of War on PC.

Corsair’s Xeneon Flex does as its name promises, allowing you to bend and flex it from a flat 45-inch gaming monitor with 250Hz refresh rate to a curved 45-inch gaming monitor with 250Hz refresh rate. Seeing it in action is uncanny, but the flex-able OLED with a 3440 x 1440 resolution is quite unique.

The Link features a 0.5-inch Sony sensor mounted on a gimbal that can follow you around the room. It typically runs for $299.99, and it comes with numerous features that take advantage of the gimbal’s flexibility. Read our review.

This 8-in-1 USB-C hub delivers plenty of connectivity, including ethernet, a 4K / 60Hz-capable HDMI port, microSD / SD card readers, USB-C, and USB-A. It can also power your laptop with up to 85W of power.

Logitech’s Litra Glow is on sale for $45.11 (about $15 off) at Amazon. The compact streaming light has controllable brightness and a simple foot for mounting atop a laptop or monitor.
Sometimes you just need a high-quality extension cord with a low profile, three outlets, two USB-A ports, and a USB-C port. This five-foot cord from Tessan does all that and is currently just $15.19 (nearly $8 off) at Amazon. While it’s not the most powerful extension cord, it’s handy for road trips and bridging the gap in rooms where you don’t have enough outlets.

The MK. 2 version of the standard Stream Deck comes with 15 programmable buttons, a swappable faceplate, and a detachable stand.

Keychron’s C3 Pro may lack switch options and rely on a USB-C–to–A cable for connectivity, but the entry-level mechanical keyboard offers dead-simple programming and an enjoyable typing experience for less than $30.

The G Pro X Superlight 2 is Logitech’s lightest and most advanced mouse to date. It features a 32,000 DPI Hero 2 sensor and 4kHz polling rate as well as support for USB-C charging and Logitech’s Powerplay mouse mat. Read our hands-on impressions.

These cables from Ugreen are six feet each, and they support charging speeds of up to 100W, making them a suitable fit for tablets, some laptops, phones, and other portable gear.

The best Prime Day deals on smart home tech

Google’s Matter-compatible Nest Thermostat is a simple thermostat with a minimalist, mirrored-finish screen. It doesn’t automatically adjust to your habits, but it’s easy to install, controllable with your phone, and compatible with most HVAC systems. It also supports the new Matter standard, unlike the Nest Learning Thermostat. Read our review.

The Amazon Smart Thermostat mounted to a wall.

Developed in partnership with Resideo, the Amazon Smart Thermostat allows you to control the temperature of your home through Alexa voice controls and remotely via an app. Read our review.

Philips Hue’s Bluetooth-enabled 800-lumen smart bulbs feature simple functionality and allow for a broad range of colors, giving you a quick means of controlling your lighting.

Ring’s Wired Doorbell Pro (formerly known as the Video Doorbell Pro 2) is selling for $149.99 ($70 off) at Amazon for Prime subscribers. This model may be a few years old, but it has excellent 1536 x 1536-resolution square video with HDR to show your whole porch. If your house has the wiring, it remains one of the fastest-responding video doorbells you can get. Read our review.
Amazon is selling its newer Ring Battery Doorbell Plus for $99.99 ($50 off) for Prime members. This is our top pick for battery-powered video doorbells thanks to its speedy response time and square head-to-toe view (1536 x 1536 resolution), which can also be found on the Pro models. Read our buying guide.
Amazon’s Smart Air Quality Monitor is down to $46.99 ($23 off) at Amazon for Prime subscribers. The compact monitor can give you voice alerts when air quality is low and trigger Alexa Routines to turn on a compatible purifier, dehumidifier, or fan. Read our review.
The Withings Body Smart scale offers a unique approach to weigh-ins, allowing you to focus less on the number and more on how you’re trending with gentle emoji. It’s available at Amazon for $75.95 ($24 off) in either black or white. Read our review.

The 1080p Blink Mini 2 adds weather resistance to the affordable security camera, so you can use it both indoors and out, while continuing to offer a ball-and-socket mount for easy mounting to a wall. It has the option of local storage with a Sync Module or it’s $3 a month for cloud storage and features like person detection. Read our review.

Amazon’s apt-titled Smart Plug doesn’t require a hub and lets you add Alexa functionality to any outlet, allowing you to control a range of devices with just your voice.

Kasa’s smart plugs are a solid, inexpensive option that can monitor your energy usage and are compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

A four-pack of Matter-compatible Kasa smart plugs are $39.94 ($30 off) at Amazon. Since these are certified for use with Matter, they are interoperable with Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home ecosystems, allowing you to control various non-smart appliances around your house with whichever compatible app you choose.
Amazon is selling the Google Nest Wifi Pro mesh router as a single unit for $149.98 ($50 off), a two-pack for $219.99 ($80 off), or a three-pack for $284.99 ($115 off). They’re easy to set up with the Google Home app and include support for Wi-Fi 6E — which is still great unless you want to be at the cutting edge with Wi-Fi 7. Read our review.
The Level Lock Plus is selling for $250.04 (about $79 off) at Amazon. Its simple, unbranded styling makes it one of the best-looking smart locks you can buy, and it is very simple to install. Read our review.

The customizable Govee M1 Matter-compatible LED strip light is 6.56-feet long and can display millions of colors and shades of white. You can also use it to create light patterns that sync with music. Read our review.

Govee’s latest TV immersion backlight utilizes a fisheye camera that tracks the colors across your screen to mimic them on its rear-mounted LED strip and side light towers. It’s compatible with 55- to 65-inch TVs. Read our review of the 2021 model.

Designed to mimic an actual skylight, Nanoleaf’s smart ceiling lights offer tunable LEDs as well as hundreds of lighting scenes — including AI-generated dynamic effects.

The best Prime Day deals on robot vacuums

The Yeedi Vac 2 Pro has high-end features — an oscillating mop, big bin, mapping, keep-out zones — for a low price. Its navigation can be spotty and its suction power is a lowish 3,000Pa, but you can get it for under $200, which is a real bargain. Read our review.

The Q5 Pro has a big 770ml bin, 5,500Pa of suction power, and can be paired with an auto-empty dock, making it a great budget option when it’s on sale. It also mops with a removable mopping pad with a small built-in water tank. It has dual rubber brushes, lidar mapping, and keep-out zones, and the app is very good.

Roborock’s Q Revo robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor with its charging dock.

This is a great bot with a multifunction dock that can auto-empty its bin, fill its water tank, and clean and dry its oscillating mops. There’s no AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and no heated mop drying, but it has a compact dock and works with the excellent Roborock app. It can also lift its mops over carpet and has a rubber brush that’s less prone to tangling.

The Combo j9 Plus is the first Roomba that can refill its own mop tank and empty its own bin. With a redesigned dock that doubles as a table, increased suction power, and a new SmartScrub feature that moves back and forth to mop more effectively, it’s the best Roomba available.

The best Prime Day deals on smartwatches and fitness trackers

The rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 comes in one size: 49mm. It offers the brightest display of any wearable in Apple’s lineup, along with better battery life and improved performance. It sports Apple’s new S9 processor, too, allowing you to take advantage of Apple’s new double tap feature. Read our review.

Woman holding a purse while modeling the Stripes watchface on the Apple Watch SE (2022)

The latest SE borrows a few features from the Series 8, including the same chipset and Crash Detection feature, but it’s an otherwise subtle upgrade from the last-gen SE. Read our review.

The new Google Pixel Watch 2 now achieves a reliable 24 hours on a single charge with the always-on display enabled. It sports a new processor, multipath health sensor, Wear OS 4, and new safety features — all around a substantial update. Read our review.

Polar’s H10 heart rate monitor chest strap is a great smartwatch alternative that’s actually more accurate and works for anyone with tattoos on their wrists. It’s selling for $84.95 (about $15 off) at Amazon.
The Amazfit Band 7 is on sale for $41.99 ($8 off) at Amazon. It’s not a huge discount, but these inexpensive fitness bands are a rare breed these days. The Band 7 is comfortable on the wrist and offers two weeks of battery on a single charge (with an always-on OLED display). Read our review.
The Whoop 4.0 fitness tracker is selling for $199 (about $40 off) at Amazon. Whoop specializes in some heavy-duty fitness tracking with oodles of recovery data, though it comes with a $30 monthly subscription requirement, making it only for the most hardcore or deep-pocketed athletes. Read our review.

The OnePlus Watch 2 has WearOS 4, multiday battery life, dual-frequency GPS, and helps fill the void left by Fossil exiting the Android smartwatch space. Read our review.

Fitbit Charge 6 showing exercise app on screen.

The Fitbit Charge 6 features a haptic side button, an improved heart rate algorithm, turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps, and the ability to broadcast your heart rate on certain Bluetooth gym equipment. Read our review.

The Amazfit GTR 4 is a platform-agnostic smartwatch that delivers a lot of bang for your buck. It has dual-band GPS, is Alexa-compatible, and has 14 days of battery life. Read our review.

The best Prime Day Bluetooth speaker deals

Bose’s SoundLink Flex offers pristine, detailed sound quality with a surprising amount of bass for its size — all in a rugged design that you can take anywhere.

Sony’s adorable SRS-XB100 speaker offers USB-C charging, a built-in strap, and great sound for the price, rendering it a terrific travel speaker or home office companion. Read our review.

~~It’s hard to beat the JBL Clip 4 in handiness and affordability, especially since the travel-friendly lock-shaped Bluetooth speaker is going for $48.30 ($31 off) at~~ ~~Amazon. The compact, water-resistant speaker sounds good for its size, and its built-in carabiner allows it to clip to all kinds of bags and straps.~~ ~~Read our buying guide~~.
The Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is a low-key fave of some of us here at The Verge, offering a 10W Bluetooth speaker that can get quite loud and easily attach to a bike’s handlebars or a hiking backpack. It’s currently available for $42.99 ($27 off) at Amazon after clicking the on-page coupon.

Perfect for the pool or beach, the JBL Go 3 may not be quite as powerful as larger models in the JBL lineup but remains an excellent choice for a Bluetooth speaker that can fit in your pocket.

Two Wonderboom 3 speakers in pink and blue.

The rugged Wonderboom 3 packs plenty of punch for its size, allowing you to dish out 360-degree sound for up to 14 hours with or without stereo pairing. It also floats, rendering it a potential pool party mainstay.

The best Prime Day deals on games and gaming accessories

A bundle of an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max with a standard Xbox Wireless Controller and one-month membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It’s a starter pack for Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing you to play over 300 titles via the cloud, sans Xbox console. The feature is now natively compatible with select Fire TV Sticks.

The InZone H3 is the wired (3.5mm / USB-A) model in Sony’s latest lineup of gaming headsets, which are compatible with both PlayStation and PC. You can customize the sound profile of InZone headsets with the InZone companion app and Sony’s Spatial Sound Personalizer.

The H9 is at the top end of Sony’s InZone gaming headsets. It features active noise cancellation, compatibility with both PCs and the PlayStation 5, and can simultaneously connect to two devices (one over 2.4GHz wireless and one over Bluetooth).

The HyperX Cloud III Wireless is a 2.4GHz wireless headset for PC, PlayStation, and the Nintendo Switch that sports 120 hours of battery life, large 53mm drivers, USB-C charging, and a detachable boom mic with a built-in pop filter. It also continues the Cloud’s legacy of relatively low weight and excellent comfort.

The Nova Pro Wireless aims to be the one headset to rule them all. It features multiple ways to connect wirelessly, active noise cancellation, great sound quality, and swappable batteries. Read our review.

The Quest 3 is a mixed reality and virtual reality headset. In addition to more processing power and RAM than the Quest 2, the headset sports new cameras and higher-resolution adjustable lenses. Read our review.

A screenshot of Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

The middle game in a three-part trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues the reimagining of the classic PS1 RPG with modern visuals, an expansive open world, new gameplay elements, and even better character development than the original. Read our review.

A screenshot of Demon’s Souls (2020) on the PlayStation 5.

A remake of the 2009 game Demon’s Souls by FromSoftware, rebuilt from the ground up by Bluepoint Games.

Sony and Naughty Dog gave The Last of Us a fresh coat of paint to make it look, sound, and play more like The Last of Us Part II, complete with a welcome graphical makeover. Read our review.

A new Western Digital Xbox expansion card plugged into an Xbox Series S console

Western Digital’s storage expansion cards for Xbox Series X / S consoles are speedy, plug-and-play cards that match the performance of the consoles’ onboard SSDs. They offer a slightly lower-cost alternative to Seagate’s expansion cards, which were the only game in town for years.

A Seagate 1TB Expansion Card plugged into the back of an Xbox Series X console.

Proprietary SSD expansion for the Xbox Series X / S consoles. The plug-and-play drives are designed to be as fast as the Xbox internal SSD and are sold in 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations.

This Lexar Play microSD card offers lots of extra storage for a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck at a good price point.

Amazon is offering the 2TB version of Western Digital’s WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD for $132.99 ($58 off) and the 4TB version for $246.99 ($453 off). These internal drives are very speedy, with 7,300MBps read speeds / 6,600MBps write speeds, making them a good fit for gaming PCs or a PlayStation 5 (with an added heatsink).
Samsung’s 512GB Pro Plus microSD card is down to $39.99 (about $15 off) at Amazon and can add a ton of storage to a Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, or Nintendo Switch.
Prime members can get an absolutely massive 1.5TB SanDisk Ultra microSD card for $83.59 (about $66 off) at Amazon. That fits, like what, seven Call of Duties?
~~You can grab a physical copy of 2022’s Game of the Year contender, God of War Ragnarök, for $39.99 ($20 off) at~~ ~~Amazon. The action RPG has a deep combat system married to an epic narrative, and its~~ ~~free DLC roguelike mode~~ ~~is a nice add-on that provides even more enjoyment for PS5 players.~~ ~~Read our review~~.
Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon is selling for $39.99 ($20 off) at Amazon. Last year’s Action Game of the Year is a return to form for FromSoftware, one that resurrects its long-dormant mech combat game with the right mix of nostalgia and Dark Souls-like difficulty.
Final Fantasy XVI is currently matching its all-time low of $28.49 ($31 off) at Amazon. It’s the most grimdark of Final Fantasy games, telling a very cutthroat, Game of Thrones-like story. But the PS5 exclusive also features adorable chocobos. Read our review.
The incredibly charming Super Mario RPG remake for the Nintendo Switch is down to $37.98 ($22 off) at Amazon. The quirky classic is a turn-based RPG originally made by Squaresoft (long before its merger with Enix), offering a unique journey around the Mushroom Kingdom. Read our review.

The Backbone One can connect to Android phones and iPhones as far back as the 6S, depending on the model. It’s a fully featured controller complete with dual analog sticks, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and its own software for capturing screenshots and connecting to game streaming services.

The best Prime Day deals on charging accessories

Belkin’s triple charging stand achieves 15W MagSafe wireless iPhone charging speeds and keeps your phone and Apple Watch elevated for easy reading.

Anker’s 621 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) holding up an iPhone with its kickstand on a desk.

Anker’s magnetic power bank touts wireless Qi charging, a folding kickstand, and a convenient USB-C port for wired charging.

Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro power bank features a set of LED indicator lights and can deliver up to 20W of power via USB-C. Its biggest draw, however, is that it can do so while fast-charging the latest Apple Watch models.

Anker 521 portable power station sitting on counter

Anker’s 521 Portable Power Station offers a 256Wh battery with up to 300W of typical throughput and up to 600W peak. It has two AC ports, two USB-A ports, and a 60W USB-C Power Delivery port, and you can recharge it using a car port or an optional solar panel if traditional sources aren’t available.

With 27,650mAh of capacity, Anker’s 250W Prime Power Bank can charge smaller devices like smartphones and cameras multiple times over; it even has enough capacity and speed to satiate laptops and tablets.

Anker’s 65W charging station features two AC outlets, a pair of USB-C ports, and a single USB-A port. It also features a clever cable management system built into the base.

Anker’s 150W 747 GaNPrime USB four-port charger is selling for $59.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, exclusive for Prime members. It’s got three USB-C ports and one USB-A, and 150W is enough to charge even larger laptops or fast-charge multiple smaller devices at once.

Verge Deals on X /

Join more than 50,000 followers and keep up with the best daily tech deals with @vergedeals

The best Prime Day deals on Verge favorites

The Victrola Stream Onyx may be a cheaper alternative to the higher-end Stream Carbon, but it still features a metal platter and the ability to stream records straight to a Sonos system.

Thermacell’s long-lasting repeller uses replaceable cartridges and a built-in battery to create a 20-foot bug-free zone that’s fit for any BBQ or outdoor shindig.

The Nerf Pro Gelfire Mythic gel blaster is on sale for $31.49 ($48.50 off) at Amazon. The Gelfire Mythic propels water-infused gel pellets instead of the usual foam darts, and it comes with 10,000 of them.
Catan is selling for $37.49 (around $12 off) at Amazon. The iconic tabletop game of trading and building is one of those games that can easily consume many game nights if it really clicks with your family or friend group. Just try not to argue over sheep too much.
Amazon is selling the Lego Star Wars Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing for $34.99 ($15 off). It’s one of the most iconic crafts in all of Star Wars, and this small 474-piece Lego set is being retired, so get it while you can.
The Glocusent Book Light is a favorite among resident Verge bookworms, and it’s selling for $17.99 ($15 off) at Amazon. The neck-worn light easily illuminates what you’re reading without you having to clamp anything to your book.

The Joseph Joseph Garlic Rocker is just a simple curved piece of metal with holes in it, but it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to mince / crush garlic.

Furbo’s rotating 1080p gadget can fling treats on command and automatically track your dog as they roam around your home, allowing you to keep a closer eye on your pet via a mobile app when you’re away.

The DJI Mini 3 is on sale at Amazon with a DJI RC controller for $429.99 ($120 off), matching its all-time low. DJI’s last-gen Mini is great for beginners, offering 4K video and great stabilization. Plus, unlike some models, it doesn’t require a permit to take to the skies.
The Solo Stove Bonfire + Stand 2.0 is selling for $241.49 ($103 off) at Amazon. The Bonfire 2.0 makes a great backyard addition for outdoor gatherings, and it also travels well if you want to light up some marshmallows at the beach.
If you’re looking for a basic charger for your car, the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2 is on sale for $39.85 ($10 off) at Amazon. It can wirelessly deliver up to 7.5W of power to iPhones and up to 10W of power to Android phones, and it firmly attaches to most car vents.
~~Amazon~~ is selling the second-gen AeroGarden Harvest for $69.99 ($20 off). The indoor hydroponic garden comes with a 20W LED light and lets you grow up to six plants at once. This particular model comes with a herb kit containing basil and thyme, but you can also grow flowers and vegetables with the right kit.

Breville’s Barista Express certainly isn’t the cheapest option out there, but it’s elegant, straightforward, and relatively easy to maintain.

The Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro is a portable smart projector and Bluetooth speaker that delivers surprisingly good picture and sound quality for its size. Read our review.

Love Letter, a tabletop card game that’s a mainstay in our gift guides, is on sale for just $10.99 ($4 off) at Amazon. This game is the perfect ice breaker at parties, as it’s simple to pick up and play and it gets people casually competing with a fun card-counting mechanic.
Pandemic: Fall of Rome is down to $24.99 ($25 off) at Amazon. The four-player co-op board game has you working together to stave off the fall of the Roman empire, and just like the original Pandemic, which was about a worldwide biological outbreak, even losing can be a whole lot of fun.
The 14-ounce Yeti Rambler can keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold for hours on end, and it’s currently just $19.50 ($10.50 off) at Amazon. It’s the humble, logical alternative to those pricey Ember mugs many of us love so much.

Hand holding a nasal aspirator in front of a colorful background of childrens’ toys and books.

The Grownsy snot sucker comes with three interchangeable soft tips for a good fit and provides three levels of suction. Your kid might still hate it, but at least one of you will have an easier time with it.

The Theragun Mini is a small, ultra-portable massage device that’s quiet and effective at providing relief for muscle pain and melting away tension.

Update, July 16th: Adjusted pricing and removed several deals that were no longer available, including the Nerf Halo Needler.

Technology

US arrests soldier who allegedly made $400k on Maduro Polymarket bets

Published

7 hours ago

April 23, 2026

Press Room

US arrests soldier who allegedly made 0k on Maduro Polymarket bets

On or about January 6, 2026, for example, VAN DYKE asked Polymarket to delete his Polymarket account, falsely claiming that he had lost access to the email address to which the account had been associated. That same day, VAN DYKE changed the email registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account to an email address that was not subscribed to in his name, which email address was created on or about December 14., 2025.

Technology

How Florida retiree lost $200K in fake PayPal refund scam

Published

8 hours ago

April 23, 2026

Press Room

How Florida retiree lost 0K in fake PayPal refund scam

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Brian Oliver is retired, sharp and financially savvy enough to have a stock-and-bond portfolio worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He is not the type of person you picture getting scammed. That is exactly why scammers picked him.

What happened to Oliver, 85, is the kind of story that makes your jaw drop, and your stomach turn at the same time. It started with a routine-looking email and ended with a box of gold coins rolling away in the back of a black Mustang. In between, Oliver lost $200,000 and nearly half of his retirement savings.

He told his story on my Beyond Connected podcast at getbeyondconnected.com, along with Detective Justin Torres of the Gainesville Police Department in Florida. What they shared together is equal parts chilling and clarifying.

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BEWARE FAKE CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT RESTRICTION SCAMS

Brian Oliver shares how a routine-looking email pulled him into a sophisticated refund scam that cost him $200,000. (Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance)

It all started with a PayPal refund scam email

Brian got an email that said PayPal owed him money. It was not a wild claim. He had dealt with PayPal before and figured, “Maybe they found some money for me.” So he responded. The email included a phone number, and that number connected him to a man who called himself Andrew Johnson.

“Yeah, we have $450 for you. Type in the number 100 on your computer and we’ll get it started.”

Brian typed 100. Andrew immediately said he had made a mistake: “Oh no, you put in 10,000.”

Brian pushed back. He said he did not type 10,000. Andrew told him to check his Bank of America account. Brian opened it, and there it was: $10,000 sitting in his checking account.

Except it was not real. The scammers had somehow mirrored his bank’s website. What Brian saw looked exactly like his actual Bank of America page, complete with a new balance and a phone number embedded in the “Contact Us” section. That number was fake, too.

Brian called it. A man named Josh answered, identifying himself as a Bank of America representative. He told Brian that the only way to return the money without triggering a $3,500 tax penalty was to withdraw $10,000 in cash and feed it into a crypto ATM.

How the PayPal refund scam tricked Brian

Oliver had never heard of a crypto ATM before that day. Josh helpfully told him exactly where to find one. It was in a sketchy part of town, and Oliver walked in carrying $10,000 in his pocket.

“I’m on my knees, on a cement floor, and I’m 85,” Oliver said.

He fed one hundred $100 bills into the machine, bill by bill, watching over his shoulder the entire time. Some bills got kicked back out. He fed them in again. When the machine finally accepted all of them, he photographed the receipt and sent it to Andrew Johnson, just as he had been instructed.

Then Oliver went home and told Andrew it was done. Andrew told him they still had to take care of his refund. He told Oliver to type in the number 200.

FAKE PAYPAL EMAIL LET HACKERS ACCESS COMPUTER AND BANK ACCOUNT

Oliver typed it. Andrew’s response came fast: “Oh my God, my boss is going to kill me. It’s $200,000 we’ve transferred to your account.”

This type of scam is becoming more common, and it often involves criminals impersonating trusted platforms like PayPal.

“PayPal does not tolerate fraudulent activity, and we work hard to protect our customers from evolving phishing scams,” a spokesperson for PayPal told CyberGuy. “We always encourage consumers to learn how to spot the warning signs of common fraud, including our tips on the PayPal Newsroom for identifying phishing emails that attempt to impersonate trusted brands. We further recommend contacting Customer Support for assistance through official channels such as the PayPal app and our Contact Us webpage, and never responding to suspicious, unexpected emails.”

How the scam escalated to $200,000 in gold

Oliver opened his bank account again. The fake mirrored site showed $200,000 sitting there. Josh Wilson was back on the phone with a new plan. This time, the crypto ATM would not work because the amount was too large. Oliver needed to liquidate $200,000 from his stock and bond portfolio, convert it to cash and use it to buy gold coins.

Oliver protested. He told them to just reverse the transfer. They said it was impossible.

“This is my retirement money. 50% of my retirement money,” he said.

The scammers told him not to breathe a word to anyone. Josh specifically warned him that telling his broker the truth could trigger tax problems. So Oliver called his broker and said he had his eye on a piece of real estate he wanted to flip. The broker processed the sale without question.

YOUTUBE JOB SCAM TEXT: HOW TO SPOT IT FAST

Oliver went to a gold coin store, wrote a check for $198,560 and waited two to three days for it to clear. Andrew Johnson stayed in regular contact the entire time.

When the gold was ready, Johnson gave Oliver one final instruction. A courier would come to his door to pick up the box. Before handing it over, Oliver should ask the courier for a password. The password was “blue.”

The courier arrived. He was driving a black Mustang. He said the word blue. Oliver handed over the box.

“He told me the password,” Oliver said. “I handed the box, and off went my $200,000.”

The moment Brian Oliver realized it was all a scam

The day after the courier left, Andrew Johnson called back with urgency. He told Brian Oliver another $200,000 had landed in his account, and they needed to do the whole thing over again. That was the moment it broke.

“That’s when I came out from under the ether of this scam,” Oliver said. “And I said, this cannot be right.”

He immediately called the Gainesville Police Department.

The high-stakes sting that brought down a scam courier

Detective Justin Torres of the Gainesville Police Department took the call and started working the case immediately. The scammers had asked Oliver for photos of the gold and the purchase receipt, which gave law enforcement about a day and a half to set up an operation before the courier was scheduled to return.

Detective Torres pulled in four officers from the department’s Gun Violence Initiative unit, a team of intermediate detectives trained for exactly this kind of boots-on-ground work. They set up covert and marked vehicles around Oliver’s residence at a careful distance.

“It was pretty high intensity because I’m listening to Mr. Oliver’s conversation with Andrew,” Torres said. “And I’m also trying to be a good distance away to listen to my radio and be able to broadcast what I need to to the other officers on the outside.”

The scammers were suspicious. They kept pushing Oliver to be more compliant. Oliver pushed back. The goal was to keep them on the line long enough for the courier to show up. The courier, a man named Seth Wayne, drove in from Tampa. The officers waited. When he arrived, they arrested him. The case went to trial. Seth Wayne received an 18-year prison sentence.

A federal jury has since convicted a second courier in the same scheme. Atharva Shailesh Sathawane, 22, an undocumented immigrant from India, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, with Brian Oliver among his victims.

Sathawane was arrested after the Gainesville Police Department set up a second sting operation at Brian’s home. Court documents showed Sathawane was involved in more than 30 transactions across multiple states, contributing to nearly $8 million stolen from elderly victims. He faces up to 20 years on each count, with sentencing scheduled for Dec. 16 in Gainesville, though he is appealing his conviction.

How refund scams are hitting multiple victims

The scam began with a convincing message and quickly escalated as criminals guided Brian Oliver step by step through fake account activity. (Halfpoint/iStock/Getty Images)

Ten other victims testified at Seth Wayne’s trial. They had come from all over the state of Florida, and their stories made Oliver furious.

Some had received fake arrest warrants, official-looking documents claiming their identities had been tied to gun running. They were told the only way to clear their names was to pull their savings and buy gold, which would be placed in a special locker in Washington, D.C., until their names were cleared.

One victim lost $1.8 million. Another lost $4.9 million. A third woman lost over $1 million across two separate pickups by the same courier. Her husband was in hospice care in Florida while all of this was happening. She drained her entire life savings, sold her condo and had to move in with her daughter and son-in-law in Alabama, leaving her dying husband behind.

Where the money from refund scams actually goes

Once the gold or cash leaves a victim’s hands, recovery is nearly impossible. Most of Seth Wayne’s deliveries went to parking lots at McDonald’s or shopping centers, where he handed the money directly to a controller. One pickup went to a jewelry store, where an employee came outside to collect it. That connection is still under active investigation by the IRS and FBI.

The call centers running these operations are overseas. Higher-level couriers in the United States are still being investigated. The full network is, as Detective Torres put it, “very intricate” and “very complicated.”

Seth Wayne himself was a mid-to-upper-level courier. He was also paying other couriers and compensating his handler. When investigators downloaded his cell phone after a judge-approved search warrant, they found evidence that he had researched exactly what he was doing before deciding the money was worth the risk.

SCAMS THAT AREN’T ILLEGAL (BUT SHOULD BE)

The defense of “willful blindness,” the idea that a courier can claim ignorance and escape responsibility, no longer holds up in Florida courts. Seth Wayne found that out the hard way.

For a deeper look at what Oliver went through, you can hear the full story on my Beyond Connected podcast at getbeyondconeccted.com.

How to stay safe from refund scams

Detective Torres laid out the most important red flags clearly, and Oliver added a few from painful personal experience. Here is what both of them want you to know.

1) Hang up on urgency

Scammers manufacture pressure because it works. If someone on the phone is telling you that you must act right now, that is not a real emergency. That is a tactic. Torres put it directly: “They want to make you believe that you have to do all this right now.”

2) Never call the number they give you

If someone calls claiming to be from PayPal, your bank or a law enforcement agency, hang up and find the real number yourself. The number embedded in Oliver’s fake bank website looked completely legitimate. It was not.

3) Pause for ten seconds

Literally ten seconds. Detective Torres confirmed what many security experts say: “If you pause these scams for just 10 seconds, many of them will just fall apart.” A scammer who is pushed back even slightly will often overreact, and that reaction will feel wrong.

4) Isolation is the biggest red flag

The moment someone on the phone tells you not to tell a family member, friend or neighbor what is happening, stop. That instruction exists for one reason: to prevent you from getting help before they get your money. “Once you start hearing that isolation conversation, that is the biggest red flag,” Torres said. “You need to hang up the phone.”

5) Gold is always a scam signal

Oliver made this one simple: “If you’re told to go buy gold, the only reason they tell you to buy gold is because it can never be traced. It’s a scam.” No legitimate company, government agency or financial institution will ever ask you to buy gold coins and hand them to a stranger.

6) The courier at your door means stop

If you have already bought gold and someone is coming to your home to pick it up in a box, Oliver’s advice is direct: “Stop right there. It’s a scam.”

7) Never move money to fix a ‘mistake’

If someone claims they accidentally sent you money and asks you to return it, stop right there. Real companies fix errors on their own systems. They will not ask you to withdraw cash, buy crypto or purchase gold to correct a transaction.

8) Verify your account on your own device

If you need to check your bank account, use your official banking app or type the website yourself. Do not trust links, screens or phone numbers provided during a call. In many cases, scammers create fake sites that look identical to the real thing.

9) Be wary of step-by-step instructions

Scammers often stay on the phone and guide you through every move. That level of control should raise concern. Legitimate companies do not walk you through withdrawing cash, using crypto ATMs or buying gold to solve a problem.

10) Bring in a second person

Before moving a large amount of money, pause and call someone you trust. A quick conversation with a family member or friend can shift your perspective. In many cases, that outside voice is enough to stop a scam in progress.

11) Limit how much of your information is online

Scammers build convincing stories using real details they find online. This can include your phone number, home address or financial history. To reduce that risk, consider removing your information from data broker and people-search sites. While you can do this manually, it often takes time, which is why some people use a data removal service such as Incogni to help automate the process and keep their information from resurfacing.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

Scammers often operate behind the scenes, using technology and social engineering to manipulate victims into handing over cash or valuables. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Brian Oliver lost $200,000, leaving him with only half of his retirement savings. Today, he says he is slowly sinking toward bankruptcy, and the odds of getting that money back are slim. Even so, he chose to go public so others could hear his story before it happens to them. What makes this case different is that it led to real consequences. Detective Torres and his team moved quickly and set up a sting operation. As a result, they arrested a courier who later received an 18-year prison sentence. Meanwhile, the IRS and FBI are still investigating the larger network. However, this kind of outcome is rare. In most cases, victims lose everything and never see justice. These scams are complex, often run from overseas, and are designed to move money fast. Because of that, law enforcement usually focuses on the people closest to the victim and works backward. In the end, Oliver’s turning point came during a second demand for money. At that moment, something felt off, so he paused. Then he said, “This cannot be right.” That instinct matters. In many cases, that brief pause is enough to break the scam.

If you were in Oliver’s position, at what exact moment do you think you would have stopped, and what would it have taken for you to make that call? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

BEWARE SOFTWARE BRAIN

Published

19 hours ago

April 23, 2026

Press Room

Today on Decoder, I want to lay out an idea that’s been banging around my head for weeks now as we’ve been reporting on AI and having conversations here on this show. I’ve been calling it software brain, and it’s a particular way of seeing the world that fits everything into algorithms, databases and loops — software.

Software brain is powerful stuff. It’s a way of thinking that basically created our modern world. Marc Andreessen, the literal embodiment of software brain, called it in 2011 when he wrote the piece “Why software is eating the world” as an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. But software thinking has been turbocharged by AI in a way that I think helps explain the enormous gap between how excited the tech industry is about the technology and how regular people are growing to dislike it more and more over time.

In fact, the polling on this is so strong, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people hate AI. And Gen Z in particular seems to hate AI more and more as they encounter it. There’s that NBC News poll showing AI with worse favorability than ICE and only a little bit above the war in Iran and the Democrats generally. That’s with nearly two thirds of respondents saying they used ChatGPT or Copilot in the last month. Quinnipiac just found that over half of Americans think AI will do more harm than good, while more than 80 percent of people were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the technology. Only 35 percent of people were excited about it.

Poll after poll shows that Gen Z uses AI the most and has the most negative feelings about it. A recent Gallup poll found that only 18 percent of Gen Z was hopeful about AI, down from an already-bad 27 percent last year. At the same time, anger is growing: 31 percent of those Gen Z respondents said they feel angry about AI, up from 22 percent last year.

Now, I obviously talk to a lot of tech executives and policy people here on Decoder, and I will tell you, they all know AI isn’t popular, and they can all see how that’s playing out in real life. Here’s Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talking about how the tech industry needs to make the case for the investments it’s making in AI:

Satya Nadella: At the end of the day, I think this industry, to which I belong, needs to earn the social permission to consume energy because we’re doing good in the world.

I think it’s safe to say that the tech industry and AI have not earned any of that social permission yet. Politicians from both sides of the aisle are opposing data center buildouts. Politicians in local communities that support data centers are getting voted out of office. And in the most depressing reminder of how much political violence has become a part of everyday American life, politicians who’ve supported data centers have had their houses shot at. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has had Molotov cocktails thrown at his house.

It’s sad that I’m going to have to say this again on the show, and it’s sad that we’re going to have commenters who disagree, but this violence is unacceptable. If you want to meaningfully oppose AI in a way that lasts, you should speak loudly with your dollars in the market and your attention online, and you should speak loudly with your votes. You should participate in a democratic regulatory and political process. Anything else will get dismissed and perpetuate the cycle. That dismissal is already happening.

I also think it’s incredibly important for our politicians and tech executives to make sure our political process makes people feel empowered, not helpless, which is a specific kind of nihilism they have all greatly contributed to. The violence is a result of that helplessness and nihilism. And the most powerful people in our society ought to reckon with that, especially as they run around saying AI will wipe out all the jobs. I’m not even exaggerating this. Here’s Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei saying he thinks AI will wipe out all the jobs:

Dario Amodei: Entry-level jobs in areas like finance, consulting, tech and many other areas like that —- entry-level white-collar work — I worry that those things are going to be first augmented, but before long replaced by AI systems. We may indeed —- it’s hard to predict the future — but we may indeed have a serious employment crisis on our hands as the pipeline for this early-stage, white-collar work starts to contract and dry up.

What I see when I encounter clips like this is the true gap between the tech industry and regular people when it comes to AI — and also the limit of software brain. Like I said, everyone in tech understands how much regular people dislike AI. What I think they’re missing is why. They think this is a marketing problem. OpenAI just spent $200 million on the TBPN podcast because the company thinks it will help make people like AI more. Sam Altman has said so explicitly:

Sam Altman: Oh, they are genius marketers and I would love to have better marketing. Somebody said to me recently that if AI were a political candidate, it would be the least popular political candidate in history. And given the amazing things AI can do, I think there’s got to be better marketing for AI.

It feels like someone just needs to say this clearly, so I’m just going to do it. AI doesn’t have a marketing problem. People experience these tools every single day. ChatGPT has 900 million weekly users, trending to a billion, and everyone has seen AI Overviews in Google Search and massive amounts of slop on their feeds. You can’t advertise people out of reacting to their own experiences. This is a fundamental disconnect between how tech people with software brains see the world and how regular people are living their lives.

Image: The Verge

So what is software brain? The simplest definition I’ve come up with is that it’s when you see the whole world as a series of databases that can be controlled with structured language and software code. Like I said, this is a powerful way of seeing things. So much of our lives run through databases, and a bunch of important companies have been built around maintaining those databases and providing access to them.

Zillow is a database of houses. Uber is a database of cars and riders. YouTube is a database of videos. The Verge’s website is a database of stories. You can go on and on and on. Once you start seeing the world as a bunch of databases, it’s a small jump to feeling like you can control everything if you can just control the data.

But that doesn’t always work. Here’s an example: Elon Musk and DOGE showed up in the government, and the first thing they did was take control of a bunch of databases. And they ran into the undeniable fact that the databases aren’t reality, and DOGE ended in hilarious failure. It turns out software brain has a limit, and the government isn’t software. People aren’t computers, and they don’t live in automatable loops that can be neatly captured in databases.

Anyone who’s actually ever run a database knows this. At some point, the database stops matching reality. And at that point, we usually end up tweaking the database, not the world. The AI industry has fully lost sight of this. AI thrives on data. It’s just software. And so the ask is for more and more of us to conform our lives to the database, not the other way around.

Let me offer you another example that I think about all the time, especially as AI finds real fit as a business tool. It’s the idea that AI is coming for lawyers and the legal system. The AI industry loves to talk about not needing lawyers anymore, which is already getting all kinds of people into all kinds of trouble. But I get it. I’ve spent a lot of time with lawyers. I used to be a lawyer. My wife is still a lawyer. Some of my best friends are lawyers.

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I also spend all of my time at work talking to tech people. And so over time, I’ve learned that the overlap between software brain and lawyer brain is very, very deep. Alluringly deep. If the heart of software brain is the idea that thinking in the structured language of code can make things happen in the real world, well, the heart of lawyer brain is that thinking in the structured legal language of statutes and citations can also make things happen. Hell, it can give you power over society.

There are other commonalities. Both software development and the law depend heavily on precedent. We have a body of case law in this country, and we use it over and over again to help us resolve disputes. Much like software engineers have libraries of code that they turn to repeatedly to build the foundations of their products. I can go on.

At the end of the day, both lawyers and engineers do their best to use formal, structured language to guide the behavior of complicated systems in predictable and potentially profitable ways. I am far from the first person with this idea. Larry Lessig wrote a book called Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace in 2000. It’s just as relevant today as it was a quarter century ago.

And so you have this intoxicating similarity between law and code, and it trips people up all the time. People are constantly trying to issue commands to society at large like it’s a computer that will obey instructions. There are examples of this big and small. My favorite are those Facebook forwards insisting Mark Zuckerberg does not have the right to publish people’s photos. Honestly, I look at these, and I think it would be great if the law was actually code. Maybe things would be more predictable. Maybe we’d feel more in control.

But law isn’t actually code, and society and courts aren’t computers. I have to remind our fairly technical audience on Decoder and at The Verge all the time that the law is not deterministic. You simply cannot take the facts of a case, the law as written, and predict the outcome of that case with any real certainty, even though the formality of the legal system makes people think it works like a computer, that it’s predictable.

Because at the end of the day, it’s actually ambiguity that’s at the very heart of our legal system. It’s ambiguity that makes lawyers lawyers. Honestly, it’s ambiguity that makes people hate lawyers because it’s always possible to argue the other side, and it’s always possible to find the gray area in the law. That’s why prosecutors end up working as defense attorneys and why our regulators tend to end up working for big corporations.

So you can see the obvious collision between software brain and lawyer brain. This thing that looks like a computer isn’t actually anything at all like a computer. A lot of people even argue that the law should be more like a computer, that the system should be verifiable and consistent, and that merely issuing the right commands at the right times should lead to objectively correct outcomes.

Bridget McCormack, who used to be the chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, was on Decoder a few months ago pitching a fully automated AI arbitration system. Her argument to me was that people perceive the traditional legal system to be so unfair, they will accept a worse outcome from an automated system as more fair as long as they feel heard. And if there’s one thing AI can do, it’s sit there and listen all day and night. I don’t know if any of that is correct or even workable, but I do know software brain, and that is pure software brain. The idea that we can force the real world to act like a computer and then have AI issue that computer instructions.

You can see the same thing happening in every other kind of industry. You don’t hire a big consulting firm to actually come in and study your business and make it more efficient. You hire them to make slide decks that justify layoffs to your board and shareholders. Big consulting firms are great at this, and now they’re just going to generate those decks with AI. They are already doing this and the layoffs have already begun.

Any business process that looks like code talking to a database in a repetitive way is up for grabs. That’s why Anthropic has been so relentlessly focused on enterprise customers, and it’s why OpenAI is now pivoting to business use. There’s real value in introducing AI to business because so much of modern business is already software, collecting data, analyzing it, and taking action on it over and over again in a loop. Businesses also control their data, and they can demand that all their databases work together. In this way, software brain has ruled the business world for a long time. And AI has made it easier than ever for more people to make more software than ever before, for every kind of business to automate big chunks of itself with software. The absolute cutting edge of advertising and marketing is automation with AI. It’s not being in creative.

But not everything is a business, not everything is a loop, and the entire human experience cannot be captured in a database. That’s the limit of software brain. That’s why people hate AI. It flattens them. Regular people don’t see the opportunity to write code as an opportunity at all. The people do not yearn for automation. I’m a full-on smart home sicko; the lights and shades and climate controls of this house are automated in dozens of ways. But huge companies like Apple, Google and Amazon have struggled for over a decade now to make regular people care about smart home automation at all. And they just don’t.

AI isn’t going to fix that. Most people are not collecting data about every single thing that they do. And if they’re collecting any at all, it’s stored across lots of different systems — your email in Gmail, your messages in iMessage, your work schedule in Outlook, your workouts in Peloton. Those systems don’t talk to each other and maybe they never will, because there’s no reason for them to. And asking people to connect them all freaks them out.

Even taking the time to consider how much of your life is captured in databases makes people unhappy. No one wants to be surveilled constantly, and especially not in a way that makes tech companies even more powerful. But getting everything in a database so software can see it is a preoccupation of the AI industry. It’s why all the meeting systems have AI note takers in them now. It’s why Canva, which is design software, now connects to corporate email systems. My friend Ezra Klein just went to Silicon Valley, and he described the people that are actively trying to flatten themselves into a database:

Ezra Klein: You might think that A.I. types in Silicon Valley, flush with cash, are on top of the world right now. I found them notably insecure. They think the A.I. age has arrived and its winners and losers will be determined, in part, by speed of adoption. The argument is simple enough: The advantages of working atop an army of A.I. assistants and coders will compound over time, and to begin that process now is to launch yourself far ahead of your competition later. And so they are racing one another to fully integrate A.I. into their lives and into their companies. But that doesn’t just mean using A.I. It means making themselves legible to the A.I.
You can give it access to everything that’s there: your files, your email, your calendar, your messages. It operates continuously in the background, building a persistent memory of your preferences and patterns so it can better act on your behalf. The cybersecurity risks are glaring, but there’s a reason millions of people are using it: The more of your life you open to A.I., the more valuable the A.I. becomes.
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I’ve reviewed a lot of tech products over the past decade and a half, and all I can tell you is that it is a failure when you ask people to adapt to computers. Computers should adapt to people. And asking people to make themselves more legible to software, to turn themselves into a database, is a doomed idea. It’s an ask so big, I can’t imagine a reward that would make it worth it for anyone, even if the tech industry wasn’t constantly talking about how AI will eliminate all the jobs, require a wholesale rethinking of the social contract and — oops — also the latest models might cause catastrophic cybersecurity problems that might lead to the end of the world.

Does this sound like a good deal to you? Can you market your way out of this? This only makes sense if you have software brain, if your operative framework is to flatten everything into databases that you can control with structured language. The people paying thousands of dollars a month to set up swarms of OpenClaw agents and write thousands of lines of code, they’re people who look at the world and see opportunities for automation, to repeat tasks, to collect data, to build software. AI is great for them. It’s even exciting in ways that I think are important and will probably change our relationship to computers forever.

For everyone else, AI is just a demanding slop monster. It’s a threat. I’m not saying regular people don’t use Excel or Airtable to plan their weddings or have fun throwing PowerPoint parties, or even that AI won’t be useful to regular people over time. I think a lot of people enjoy data and tracking different parts of their lives. There’s my WHOOP band. I’m just saying these things aren’t everything. Not everything about our lives can be measured and automated and optimized. It shouldn’t be.

And so the tech industry is rushing forward to put AI everywhere at enormous cost — energy, emissions, manufacturing capacity, the ability to buy RAM — and locked into the narrow framework of software brain without realizing they are also asking people to be fundamentally less human. They then sit around wondering why everyone hates them. I don’t think a couple haircuts are going to fix it.

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