Ask most people how Black Friday and Cyber Monday differ, and you’ll hear the same answer: one happens in stores, the other happens online. That was true ten or fifteen years ago, but it isn’t really true now. Both events are mostly online, and both have been stretched from a single day into something closer to a week. The differences that matter today are smaller and easier to miss.

Where Each Day Came From

Black Friday started as an in-store event, one where shops opened early the day after Thanksgiving and slashed prices to get the holiday season moving.

Cyber Monday arrived later, as online retailers wanted a day of their own after a weekend that was all about queues and parking lots, so they made one.

Even though the line between online and in-store shopping has mostly disappeared, those origins still explain which products tend to be cheapest on each day.

Big Items on Friday, Digital Ones on Monday

Black Friday is usually the better day for large, physical purchases such as washing machines, sofas, TVs, and the cut-price electronics retailers use to pull people in. Stores build their whole campaign around that Friday, so it’s often when prices on these items are at their lowest.

Cyber Monday tends to be better for things you do not need to see in person, such as streaming plans, software licenses, online courses, and small tech accessories. Prices on these often fall further on Monday than they did on Friday, especially at retailers that sell mostly online or hold back their best web deals until after the weekend.

Consider How Long the Deals Last

Black Friday deals often go live before Thanksgiving, reach their lowest price on the Friday, and sell out or end soon after. Cyber Monday prices tend to stay put all day, and some carry over into Tuesday or Wednesday. Without crowds at the door, retailers have less reason to squeeze everything into a few hours.

If you need a new fridge, buy it on Black Friday before stock runs out. A software subscription or digital gift card can usually wait until Monday, and it may cost a little less by then.

Don’t Pick a Favorite

It’s tempting to treat the two days as rivals and put all your shopping into one of them. That’s a mistake. They suit different kinds of purchases, and you’ll save the most by matching each item on your list to the day it’s likely to be cheapest.

Checking You’ve Got the Best Cyber Monday Price

Since Cyber Monday deals don’t vanish within a few hours, you’ve got time to double-check a price before you pay.

Discoup has a page just for Cyber Monday that lists active codes as retailers release them. It’s a quick way to see whether the price in your cart is already the lowest one or whether there’s a code you can add on top.

It’s also worth checking a second coupon site before any bigger purchase. A few extra minutes won’t usually cost you anything, because these offers stick around far longer than Black Friday’s doorbusters.

Before You Check Out

Of course, you do not have to choose one day over the other. You could buy large, physical items on Black Friday while the lowest prices are available, and leave your software and other digital purchases for Cyber Monday, when discounts last longer. Whichever day you shop, compare prices first, since the first item marked as a sale often isn’t the cheapest option.

Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season’s biggest issue: data centers. They’re out this week, so Caroline Haskins is reporting for duty. If you’ve got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Caroline an email at [email protected] or reach her securely on Signal at carolinehaskins.61.

The nonprofit 7×24 Exchange International wants to promote data centers, which they believe are “mission critical” infrastructure. As part of this work, the group recommends a children’s story, “What is a Data Center?,” which follows a honey badger named Honey who gets a guided tour of a data center from a worker named Oliver. Oliver explains that the job of data center employees is to make sure that the “functions supported by the data center” are available to anybody, “no matter what time it is.”

“Like when my mom shops online late at night because my dad is sleeping and won’t know about it?” Honey asks.

The story is part of a broader pattern across the data center industry. In addition to lobbying, job creation programs, tax breaks, companies and interest groups are trying something a bit more creative: winning over the youth. As pushback to massive data center build-outs and energy-guzzling campuses intensifies, the industry is apparently taking a softer approach to community building using a tactic other industries with a public relations problem have tried.

Alex Molnar, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and the director of the National Education Policy Center, tells WIRED that, for over a century, industries with an image problem—fast food, tobacco, oil and gas—have brought their messaging to schools.

“A very, very big reason why corporations get involved in the schools is, quite simply, corporate propaganda—for the purpose not necessarily of selling a product, but of telling their ‘story,’” Molnar says.

In May, the Potomac chapter of the Association for Computer Operations Management (AFCOM), a trade group for the data center industry, sponsored Memorial Day-themed flag-making kits to be distributed to 3,100 first graders across 37 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, also known as Data Center Alley. In addition to the flag kits, kids received an informational card with statistics about “the positive impact” that the data center industry has on the local economy.

• Arm’s AGI CPU nearly doubles AMD’s modelled rack-level performance across seven workloads
• A 24-kW rack accommodates up to 23 Arm servers under the assessment’s assumptions
• Arm’s rack-level advantage reaches 3.19x in the strongest individual workload

Arm’s AGI CPU has recorded nearly twice the modelled rack-level performance of AMD’s EPYC 9755 across seven workloads designed to evaluate agentic artificial intelligence.

The assessment, conducted by Signal65 with Arm’s cooperation, compared measured processor results before estimating performance across racks operating within a fixed power budget.

The generative AI revolution hasn’t been kind to Vanniall, an OnlyFans creator who lives in New York City. She now constantly finds hyperrealistic deepfakes—AI-generated images and videos that copy everything about her—circulating online and often isn’t able to get them removed.

On top of that, Vanniall struggles to build an audience on popular social media platforms, like Instagram, without getting in trouble. “There’s always some sort of report or appeal that I’m going through with them,” she tells WIRED. Vanniall’s Instagram account, which has over 100,000 followers, is currently restricted and cannot be viewed without logging in.

So, when I tell her that Meta allows its AI agent, called Muse, to engage in explicit sexting with adult users, she seems frustrated by the decision: “It’s not fair that they get to pull money out of people with their sexually active AI agent, but they won’t let real people, real adults, engage in any sort of sensuality or sexuality.”

It’s a common refrain I heard from other adult content creators, who questioned why their accounts on Meta platforms often seem restricted, while Meta’s AI agent is now allowed to talk dirty with millions of adult users.

“A private, one-to-one conversation between an adult and an individualized AI agent on a platform restricted to people 18 and over is very different from the marketing and promotion of services on a social media platform,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells WIRED.

Meta’s Muse is the first always-on AI agent to break out of early adopter circles in San Francisco. The Muse app is like a message thread; text the digital assistant, give it access to your personal data, like calendar and email, and have it proactively find ways to help, like canceling a workout class that overlaps with your dinner reservation. Meta’s large distribution network, through platforms like Instagram and Facebook, helped catapult the app to the top of the download charts during its first month, as millions of new users experimented with an agent for the first time.

In addition to having it organize your calendar, Meta says, it’s OK for users of the adults-only app to engage in X-rated AI conversations with Muse. A Meta spokesperson previously told WIRED the company wouldn’t “block legal adult behavior.” Meta’s Muse generates explicit text but not images or videos.

While Meta takes a different approach to moderation on Instagram, other social media platforms in the United States do allow sexually explicit content. X remains one of the most popular platforms for many OnlyFans creators to draw in new subscribers and connect with fans. Many adult performers have also migrated to Bluesky after Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter, where users can also share adult content.

Drivers of electric trucks could soon keep rolling without pulling over for a plug if a new system from Honda works as planned. The company has spent the past several years on dynamic wireless power transfer, the idea of sending electricity from the pavement into a moving vehicle. In early October 2026 Honda R&D said it had finished the underlying technology with two construction firms, Taisei Corporation and Taisei Rotec. Together they built a magnetic coupling road system that places transmitter units under the surface so a matching receiver on the vehicle can pick up power while the wheels turn.

As of the end of September, each ground unit now houses both the inverter and the coil in a single housing, which Honda claims is a global first. That single package connects to a roadside direct current source, reducing the amount of wiring and various parts need to run into the pavement. Taisei is in charge of the power supply, which must respond quickly enough to keep the entire field steady, whilst Taisei Rotec is working on getting the technology to work in conjunction with milling into existing roadways and laying in the units without having to pull out the entire lane. We’re talking about a pavement that can support commercial cars weighing up to 20 tons, and will eventually bring the power up to 150 kilowatts.

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A private test road at one of Taisei’s facilities has already put the basic equipment through its paces with significant loads. Starting in late 2026, the partners will begin construction on another stretch at a second site, this time for longer durability tests. Those tests will simulate a million wheel loads, which are approximately 49 kilonewtons each, using real automobiles, while simultaneously determining how much electromagnetic field is escaping off the surface. Once they have some firm figures in place, the next destination will be a brief public segment of the Tateyama Expressway in Chiba. That 300-meter piece is part of a project they’re completing with the East Nippon Expressway Company, and it’s set to open for demo runs in Japan’s fiscal year 2027, which begins in April.

Honda has made it clear that the first individuals to use this technology will be logistics fleets, not conventional passenger automobiles. A vehicle that can charge its battery while driving down the highway may require a smaller battery pack overall, resulting in less weight, lower costs, and more cargo space. The same concept could ultimately trickle down to smaller vehicles, but the company has been open about the fact that commercial routes provide the most immediate benefit because those trucks currently travel the same routes on a daily basis. There is still a lot of work to be done, such as determining efficiency at full highway speed, as well as the expense of installing the hardware and the fact that each vehicle would have to carry its own receiver… the list goes on. For the time being, the focus is on demonstrating that the system can withstand real pavement, trucks, and traffic without prompting cars to pull over.
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I like an automated house, with things happening automatically for convenience and simplicity.

For the most part, I try to have automations run with definite actions, such as when my office door locks or unlocks.

However, there’s a certain degree of power that comes from using motion detection, but I’ve found motion detectors to be inflexible for a lot of what I want, which is why I’m switching to presence detection.

The meaning of the Samsung Galaxy Watch’s orange dot

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Other symbols on the Galaxy Watch

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