Hello, Australia! And welcome to TechRadar’s live coverage of Amazon’s first big sale of the year – the Big Smile Sale.
We’ve had a few Big Smile Sales in Australia perviously, so we know a thing or two about it. It’s typically held in March — though this year the start date of Monday, March 16 is a touch earlier than 2025. It’s always been a week-long sale, so nothing new in the fact that you have until Sunday, March 22 to shop till you drop (figuratively speaking, we hope).
Don’t expect record-low prices on Amazon this time round, though — that’s typically reserved for the Amazon Prime Day sale and the Amazon Black Friday sale — but you’ll typically see about 20% to 30% off a range of items. There will be deeper discounts on select items, but it will be the rare offer that comes in at an all-time low.
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If there are any, be assured that my team and I will be right on it, bringing you the best and latest discount on tech as soon as we spot them.
I’ve covered every single Amazon sale since the retailer launched its Australian site in December 2017, so I know how spot a good Amazon deal. Moreover, my team has expertise in different categories of tech, so anything we list on this page will be worth your attention. So stick with us as we bring you a plethora of discounted hot tech.
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After five years of trying, Revolut has finally secured a full banking licence to form Revolut Bank UK, just days after applying for a US licence.
Revolut has made no secret of its ambition to build “the world’s first truly global bank”, applying just last week for its US banking licence, but it has taken it five years to gain that licence in the UK. It originally applied for the licence in 2021 and in 2024 was given a banking licence “with restrictions”.
Now it has announced that it has secured its full banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK, which will allow it to offer its 13m customers across the UK, including Northern Ireland, deposit protection of up to £120,000 from the FSCS. In Ireland, Revolut’s customers are served by its European-licenced entity Revolut Bank UAB.
Revolut describes the success as a “milestone”, and says that Revolut Bank UK will soon be able to start offering accounts as a fully licenced bank for both retail and business customers. It says it will gradually begin the process of rolling out current accounts to new customers in a few days, “starting with a small group and expanding over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth user experience”.
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“Launching our UK bank has been a long-term strategic priority for Revolut, and marks a significant moment in our journey,” said Nik Storonsky, Revolut co-founder and CEO. “The UK is our home market and central to our growth. This is a vital step in our mission to build the world’s first truly global bank.”
“Securing this licence lays the foundation for our next chapter: expanding into a broader suite of products, including credit, to sit alongside the innovative services our customers already rely on every day,” said Francesca Carlesi, UK CEO at Revolut.
Revolut recently announced a global $13bn investment over five years, which it said would create 10,000 new jobs as it expands its global footprint. The company aims to launch in 30 new markets by 2030. One of the world’s biggest fintechs, Revolut currently operates across 40 markets globally, servicing around 70m customers.
The company recently expanded operations to Mexico, opened a new global headquarters in London and secured a payments licence in India. It hopes that this continued expansion can help it reach 100m customers by mid-2027.
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India is considering new manufacturing incentives in an effort to shift production of the iPhone and other smartphones out of China, and to stall any move to move it to the US.
iPhone Air internal components
Officials in New Delhi are working on a new version of India’s production-linked incentive program. The subsidy program, which has been crucial in attracting smartphone manufacturing, will expire in March 2026. The program helped attract major manufacturers, and the next phase could tie incentives more closely to export performance. The policy reflects India’s growing role in Apple’s supply chain as the company steadily increases iPhone production outside China. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Unlike chatbots, which learned to imitate human language through vast stores of online text, robots require something the internet doesn’t provide in abundance: detailed examples of real-world movement. How a person grips a sponge, stirs soup, or shuts off a running tap contains a level of nuance that sensors and… Read Entire Article Source link
When EA confirmed there were no plans for a Sims 5, most fans were disappointed and moved on. Tytar decided to do something about it instead. With no background in game development whatsoever, he opened up Unreal Engine 5, gave himself a brutally tight 14 day deadline, and got to work building a playable version from scratch. Remarkably, he pulled it off. The result is a familiar top down experience where you guide your Sims through their daily lives, complete with a few pointed jabs at EA for leaving fans out in the cold in the first place.
The first challenge was getting the characters into the game in a way that actually looked right. Tytar used a free online tool called a model ripper to pull character models directly from his own Sims 4 save files, though what came out the other end was rough and needed a lot of work before it was ready for Unreal Engine. That meant getting into bone weights, which sounds more intimidating than it is but still requires a fair amount of trial and error to get feeling natural. Eventually he got his Sims to a point where they could walk, stand idle, and transition between poses without anything looking like it was about to collapse.
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With the basics in place, Tytar turned his attention to giving the Sims actual needs to manage. Energy, bathroom breaks, and hygiene all tick down at their own pace, and a basic mood system keeps you loosely informed about how your Sim is holding up. A plumbob floats above each character’s head and shifts color to give you an at a glance read on their state of mind, which honestly tells you everything you need to know without a single menu in sight. Sometimes the classics are classic for a reason.
The main game screen came next, and Tytar kept it clean and uncluttered in a way that will feel immediately familiar to anyone who spent time with the original Sims. A clock ticks away in the corner, your current cash balance sits in plain sight, and a little Polaroid style photo represents each member of the household. Speed controls are right there on screen too, with the 1, 2, and 3 keys handling the pacing just like they always did. Old habits die hard, and in this case that’s entirely the point
Clicking on a Sim brings up a small pop-up menu, and if you grew up with the original game you’ll immediately recognize the sound effect that comes with it. The options available shift depending on what’s nearby, and the go here command taps into Unreal Engine’s built-in navigation system to get your Sims moving around the lot in a way that feels surprisingly natural. Even the smaller animations hold up well, capturing those everyday moments that made the original so memorable. Watch a Sim crumple to the floor from pure exhaustion or desperately take care of one need while completely tanking another.
Careers and money came next, handled through a simple in game newspaper where job listings change from day to day. One morning you might find an opening in the culinary world, the next something a little more questionable. Pay comes in after each shift just as it always did, and for anyone who never quite played by the rules, the classic cheat codes are alive and well.
The final piece of the two week sprint was getting furniture placement and lot building into a working state. Buy mode lets you preview items in real time, rotate them with a click, and snap them into place with a satisfying precision that feels right at home in a Sims game. Build mode keeps things equally straightforward, giving you the tools to throw up walls and carve out rooms around a basic starter home layout. A free nature pack brought trees and grass into the yard, and a proper day and night cycle means shadows actually shift across the lot as the sun moves overhead, which is one of those small details that makes the whole thing feel surprisingly alive.
It all holds together well enough for a decent play session, long enough to appreciate some of the finer touches Tytar managed to sneak in along the way. Familiar faces like Mortimer and Bella Goth sit in their chairs and go about their business in a way that will put a smile on the face of any longtime fan. He even got a car driving around the lot, which is more than the official Sims 4 can say after years of updates. Even more impressive, not a single line of it was generated by AI. Every animation, every menu, and every line of code was built entirely by hand over the course of just two weeks.
Edwin Olding’s approach to building his own theme park began with an unlikely discovery on Temu, a two seater spin ride with three independently rotating rings, an electric motor, and basic safety features, all for a surprisingly reasonable $2,500. Most people would have scrolled straight past it, but Edwin saw exactly what it could become, another worthy addition to the 1,000 square foot storage unit that already housed a loop roller coaster and a pair of go-karts.
Weeks later a large container arrived from China, and it was clear the ride had earned every mile of its journey. Dirt, seawater stains, and rusted nuts told the story before he even got the box fully open. Once he did, and after plugging it into a high voltage socket in his garage, three rings unfolded and began spinning independently on their own axes. At the center sat an electric motor running dry v-belts, alongside a large electronics box covered in buttons that were entirely in Chinese. Safety restraints were present in the form of leg straps and a lap bar, though calling them reassuring would be a stretch.
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The control panel made a lot more sense once Edwin ran it through a translation app on his phone, revealing the first set of operating warnings. Exposed wires poked out from various points around the machine, making it pretty clear this wasn’t a plug and play situation. There was no power plug included either, so Edwin sourced one locally just to get things started. The wiring that came with the ride turned out to be far too thin for the job, overheating quickly under any real load, so he swapped it out for thicker six gauge wire and added a proper ground connection to keep things from getting out of hand.
Positioned in the center of the storage unit, the ride slotted in perfectly, leaving enough room around it to accommodate the 15 foot roller coaster track and keep a lane clear for the go-karts. A few neon palm trees and some artificial grass pulled the whole corner together with exactly the Florida vibe Edwin was going for. Getting the ride to sit completely stable took a bit of patience, the whole thing relied on a slot system that needed to be lined up just right, but once it was dialed in everything came together surprisingly well.
First tests revealed a lot about how the machine actually behaved once the power was on. A single button got things going and a built in timer let riders go for up to ten minutes at a stretch. One immediate quirk was that the local electricity frequency pushed the rings to spin noticeably faster than they would have back in China. Stopping in an emergency was handled by the same button cutting power instantly, which did the job but wasn’t exactly graceful since there was no way to slow things down gradually. Still, it stopped when you needed it to. As for the experience itself, riders climbed in, buckled up, and found themselves being thrown, swirled, and spun in every conceivable direction all at once.
Safety was never far from anyone’s mind during testing. The steel flexed under hand pressure in a few spots, the foot bindings had a habit of loosening over time, and the open rings left enough of a gap to make loose hair or wandering hands a genuine concern. Helmets were mandatory for every rider and Edwin made a point of reminding everyone to keep their arms tucked in throughout the ride. There was also a close call involving the wiring that could have turned serious, though the modifications they had made held up when it counted. Even with all the improvements, it was hard to ignore the fact that the ride had never been looked at by any official safety inspector, and some of those question marks were still very much open.
Automotive maintenance and repair can get expensive, which is why many car owners prefer to do maintenance at home, at least the easy DIY auto projects. If you’re one of these DIYers, you may have dealt with a difficult customer service experience at your local auto parts store. Such experiences can cause delays, and make even the simplest job more challenging than it needs to be. If you regularly shop at AutoZone, chances are you might have nothing but good stories to share.
According to a January 2026 report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), AutoZone leads the way as the best auto parts retailer, based on customer satisfaction. In fact, the company improved over the prior year by 3%, which comes to a total score of 79%. This shift put the company ahead of O’Reilly Auto Parts, even though O’Reilly has a rewards program to help you save money. O’Reilly slid down to the No. 2 spot, from an 81 to a 76. Rounding out the top three is Advance Auto Parts, down from a score of 77 to 75.
The ACSI doesn’t reveal its exact formulas used for generating these scores. However, the organization does explain on its website that customer satisfaction is based on thousands of interviews with said customers. Those interviews are then fed into an internal model that records the key points of satisfaction, including customer expectations, perceived quality, and value. Those figures are then used to formulate a single score for each company reviewed, on a scale of 0-100.
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Customer feedback is mixed on AutoZone
M. Suhail/Getty Images
Beyond its 2026 ranking in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), AutoZone also performs well in reports from other publications. As an example, in Newsweek’s America’s Best Customer Service 2025 rankings, AutoZone placed third in the Online Retailers: Transportation category. The company has a total score of 85.65, behind RockAuto with an 87.05 and first-place Auto Parts Warehouse with an 88.25. Newsweek’s numbers are based on a large consumer survey conducted with Statista.
However, not all customer satisfaction reports have been positive for AutoZone, and that’s despite the fact that you can get some things for free at the stores. According to the 2024 Market Force research, via PR Newswire, NAPA Auto Parts ranked highest in overall customer experience, earning a score of 77.5%. This was based on several customer experience metrics. But NAPA is actually in the second spot for total customer visits, coming in at 18.3%, which is well behind AutoZone’s No. 1 ranking of 32.3%. So even though AutoZone had more customers overall, the study found that other automotive retailers performed better in customer experience.
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ConsumerAffairs shows a similar trend for AutoZone, as the retailer doesn’t display positive customer experiences consistently. According to reviews on the organization’s website, some of AutoZone’s mployees go the extra mile to help, but that same level of service isn’t the norm overall. In fact, AutoZone has 2.4 stars out of 5, and out of 770 total reviews, 471 are one star only. So while some customers are pleased, many leave disappointed.
Smart speakers often promise big sound in small boxes, but few actually manage to fill a room properly, which makes this latest discount on Amazon’s most powerful Echo Dot worth attention.
The 4.5-star Amazon Echo Dot Max positions itself as the most capable entry in the Echo Dot family, designed to deliver noticeably fuller audio while still keeping the compact form that fits easily on shelves, desks, or bedside tables.
Unlike smaller Echo models like Echo Dot (5th Gen) that prioritise voice assistant convenience over audio performance, this version adds a dedicated 2.5-inch woofer and a 0.8-inch tweeter, helping it produce deeper bass and clearer vocals during everyday listening.
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That hardware works alongside automatic room adaptation, meaning the speaker analyses your environment and adjusts output accordingly so music remains balanced whether it sits against a wall, in a corner, or on an open surface.
Where the Amazon Echo Dot Max becomes particularly useful is in its role as a built-in smart home hub, allowing compatible lights, locks, and other devices to connect directly without needing additional bridges.
Support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread means the speaker can act as the central control point for many smart home ecosystems, letting users create routines, automate devices, and manage everything through Alexa voice commands.
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That practical integration becomes especially helpful in day-to-day routines, whether dimming lights for a film night, setting temperature-based automations, or simply asking Alexa for reminders, weather updates, or quick information.
Amazon has also added its AZ3 processor to keep responses fast, while Omnisense technology enables contextual awareness features such as presence detection and temperature-based routines that can adjust your home automatically.
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At £69.99, the Amazon Echo Dot Max makes a strong case for anyone wanting better sound and smarter home control without stepping up to a much larger or significantly more expensive smart speaker.
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If you are considering other Alexa speakers before deciding, it is also worth checking out our Best Amazon Echo 2026 guide, where the Echo Dot Max was awarded the best budget smart speaker, and a number of them are on sale today.
Improved bass, better overall audio quality and a Zigbee/Thread smart home hub built in, the Amazon Echo Dot Max might be more expensive than its predecessor but it’s a clear upgrade. If you want the best audio quality then the Echo Studio (2025) is a better choice, while those with the old Echo (4th Generation) will find that they have slightly better audio quality. However, for new users looking for an Alexa smart speaker that’s decent for music, this is the best all-rounder – it would be nice to see Alexa+ in the UK to really maximise its capabilities, though.
Over half of UK adults feel uneasy interacting with robots daily
Limited exposure drives anxiety, with only 30% of Britons ever meeting robots
Domestic robots spark the strongest reluctance, especially in home environments
More than half of British adults say they feel uneasy around robots, making the UK the most robot-anxious nation globally.
A survey by Hexagon across nine markets, involving 18,000 participants, found 52% of UK respondents were concerned about potential problems when interacting with robots.
This is higher than the global average of 42%, which experts link partly to the limited exposure many Britons have to robots.
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Limited exposure fuels public concern
Low exposure may be driving the anxiety, as only 30% of Britons report ever encountering a robot in daily life, while the figure is 75% in China.
Britons express their strongest reluctance in home environments, with 39% stating they feel uncomfortable about robots in domestic settings.
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In industrial applications, such as factories and warehouses, robots are slightly more accepted, but comfort levels remain below the global average.
Security concerns are the main reason for the high anxiety levels, with 53% citing the risk of robots being hacked or misused as their top worry.
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Some Britons (41%) also fear that robots may malfunction and cause physical harm.
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Observers note that fear often diminishes once people meet a robot in person, particularly smaller, approachable models.
“Across the world, people aren’t simply pro-robot or anti-robot. They’re asking where robots belong, what they should do, and what safeguards must come first,” said Burkhard Boeckem, CTO at Hexagon.
“In the UK, the message is especially clear: confidence lags when robots feel distant or unfamiliar. Trust breaks down when robots are pushed into everyday or domestic roles before governance, safeguards, and human control are clearly in place.”
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Like robots, Britons do not want data centers anywhere near them, although national support for expansion remains high.
A survey of over 2,100 UK adults by YouGov reveals that only 44% of Gen Z respondents support a local data center, and 31% actively oppose one even though national support for new facilities reaches 69%.
Much of the opposition among younger voters is driven by environmental considerations, including concerns over energy consumption and water usage.
Although arguments about job creation and potential economic benefits exist, they are insufficient to outweigh the environmental concerns.
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This “not in my backyard” attitude implies that local realities may clash with broader national priorities as the UK plans to more than double data center capacity by 2030.
Across both robotics and data infrastructure, trust emerges as a central barrier, strongly influencing public perception, acceptance, and resistance.
Britons may accept automation in areas where the benefits are clear, including performing hazardous tasks or improving efficiency.
But reluctance persists when technologies are unfamiliar or perceived to threaten control.
Hello from sunny San Jose! I’m here and ready for the start of Nvidia GTC 2026 tomorrow – come back then for all the build-up to the opening keynote and much more.
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[Nick] came across an awesome Bluetooth speaker online, only, there was a problem. It didn’t really exist—it was just a render of a device that would be nice to have. Of course, there was an obvious solution—[Nick] just had to build the device for real!
The key to the aesthetic of the build is the external case. [Nick] was able to recreate the rough design of the rendered device in SolidWorks, before having the components produced on a resin 3D printer which provided excellent surface finish. Internally, the Bluetooth audio receiver was cribbed from an old pair of wireless headphones. However, a little more oomph was needed to make the speaker really usable, so [Nick] hooked the audio output up to a small MAX98306 amplifier board and a pair of 3 W speakers. The tiny tactile buttons from the headphone PCB wouldn’t do, either. For a nicer feel, [Nick] hacked in a set of four hall effect keyboard switches to control the basic functions.
The result is a Bluetooth speaker that looks as rad as the rendered unit, only you can actually take it outside and bump some tunes! It recalls us of some fine up-cycling work we’ve seen done to vintage 80s radios in a similar vibe.
