Amazon has officially launched its October Prime Big Deal Days event, which means tons of discounts. Chief among them are many deals on Amazon brand products, like the Echo and Alexa-enabled devices. Of course, Amazon isn’t the only one with incredible discounts. Take the Best Buy Prime Big Deal Days sale, for instance. You might be surprised to see something like the Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen) discounted to $85, from $150, which saves $65. Yes, that’s the same price as Amazon but here’s why it matters. If you’re a you’ll get extras like free two-day shipping, or possibly save more, especially if you have the brand’s credit card with rewards. So, you could technically get it cheaper through Best Buy if you play your cards right.

Why shop the Echo Show 8 deal at Best Buy?

MicroSD cards come in tons of different storage capacities but you don’t often see super low prices on high capacity options from brands like SanDisk, luckily Prime Big Deal Days has brought SanDisk’s 1.5TB Ultra microSD back down to its lowest ever price of $89.29.

We’ve seen this microSD card at this price once before but that was all the way back in July. On average, it sits at around $120 and just earlier this month it was around $94. If you’re in need of a high-quality microSD card then this is one you’ll want to pick up.

These days, all kinds of devices take microSD cards for their expandable storage. So you can use it for anything from smartphones to laptops. If you’re a gamer, then this is a perfect solution to expandable storage for devices like the ROG Ally X or the Steam Deck OLED. I’m using the 1TB model of this card in my ROG Ally X and it’s been a huge improvement in the experience. As it allows me to install more games so I have more to play.

It features fast read and write speeds too, so I’m not dealing with slow-downs on game load times or installation times. It’s generally been just as fast as the internal storage. If you’re using this inside a phone, then it should translate to faster load times for apps. It comes with an SD adapter too. Basically, if you want to use this with a digital camera or a camcorder of some sort, you’ll probably need a regular-size SD card for that. And that’s where the SD adapter with this card comes in. No matter how you slice it, $89.29 for 1.5TB of storage in a SanDisk microSD card is a great deal.

Buy at Amazon

When it comes to tech on sale for Amazon Prime Day, Amazon’s own hardware is at the top of the list. The online retailer usually discounts Echo speakers, Fire tablets, Kindles and the like to record-low prices for October Prime Day, and this year is no different. We’re seeing some of the best prices of the year right now on things like Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers, Fire TV devices and more. If you’ve had one of these gadgets on your wishlist, or you want to cross it off your holiday gift list early, now’s the time to grab it. These are the best October Prime Day deals on Amazon gear you can.

Prime Day deals on Echo speakers and displays

If you’re keen on making your home a bit smarter, an Echo speaker or smart display can help by giving you an easy way to interact with Alexa. The voice assistant is compatible with so many smart home devices at this point, including smart light bulbs and robot vacuum cleaners, and it’s convenient that there’s an Echo device for nearly every budget now.

• Echo Dot for $23 ($27 off): This is one of the best smart speakers you can get right now thanks to its compact design, physical button controls that compliment voice commands and its solid sound quality for its size.

• Echo Pop for $18 ($22 off): One of Amazon’s newest smart devices, the Pop sports a 1.95-inch front-facing speaker, a physical mic mute switch for extra privacy and eero compatibility.

• Amazon Echo Spot for $45 ($35 off): This recently revived smart display is billed as a smart alarm clock, and it features a customizable screen, big sound for its size and all the perks for Alexa voice commands. You can also grab it bundled with a free TP-Link smart light bulb.

• Echo for $55 ($45 off): We consider this to be the best smart speaker for $100 or less at the moment thanks to its loud audio with good bass quality, the ability to pair two together for stereo sound and Alexa’s utility.

• Echo Show 5 for $50 ($40 off): This is one of our favorite smart displays thanks to its compact design, ambient light sensor and sunrise alarm feature, all of which make it an excellent smart alarm clock. Amazon improved the speaker quality on this latest model, which gives sound deeper bass and clearer vocals.

• Echo Show 8 for $85 ($65 off): This is our current top pick for the best smart display with Amazon’s Alexa thanks in part to its 8-inch touchscreen, 13MP camera that supports auto-framing for better video chats and its built-in Zigbee smart home hub.

• Echo Buds for $25 ($25 off): These are one of our top picks for the best budget wireless earbuds you can get right now thanks to their comfortable design, pocket-friendly case, automatic wear detection, multi-device connectivity and, of course, built-in Alexa voice controls.

• Echo Dot Kids for $28 ($32 off): The kids version of the Echo Dot uses the same basic hardware, but comes with a cute dragon or owl cover, plus parental controls and a year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ that can play kid-friendly audiobooks and more.

Prime Day deals on Kindle ereaders

The three best times of the year to buy a new Kindle ereader are Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Prime Day. Typically the latter is the best of the three, and we’re seeing solid sale prices across the entire Kindle lineup right now.

• Kindle Paperwhite for $125 ($25 off): The latest version of the Paperwhite has thinner bezels, an adjustable warm light, speedier page turns and a battery that can last up to 10 weeks on a single charge. This model is also IPX8 waterproof and has built-in Audible integration.

• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids for $115 ($55 off): This kids bundle includes the standard Kindle Paperwhite with 16GB of RAM, a kid-friendly cover, a two-year warranty and one free year of access to Amazon Kids+.

• Kindle Scribe for $255 ($85 off): The Scribe is one of the best E-Ink tablets you can buy at the moment, and certainly the top pick if you want a writable table that also excels as an ereader. It provides a great reading and writing experience, thanks in part to its ability to access the entire Kindle ebook library, and it has handy Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox integration.

Prime Day deals on Fire tablets

Amazon’s Fire tablets make great couch devices, or first tablets for kids who have no business touching their parents’ fancy iPads and Galaxy tabs. While they go on sale semi-frequently throughout the year, Prime Day is the time where you’re likely to get the greatest discounts.

• Fire HD 8 tablet for $55 ($45 off): Amazon just released this new version of the HD 8 tablet, which includes more RAM, a better camera and new AI features not found on the previous model.

• Fire HD 10 tablet for $75 ($65 off): This slab has a 10-inch FHD touchscreen, improved camera for video calls, 13 hours of battery life and it works with a stylus (although you have to buy that separately). If you’re looking for a cheap tablet that doesn’t compromise too many of the basics, this is a good option.

• Fire Max 11 tablet for $140 ($90 off): Amazon’s most powerful tablet sports an 11-inch 2,000 x 1,200 touchscreen, an octa-core processor, up to 128GB of storage and 14 hours of battery life. It also works with a number of optional accessories, including a stylus and keyboard case.

• Fire HD 10 Kids tablet for $110 ($80 off): Designed for kids aged three to seven, this tablet comes with full parental controls plus one year of Amazon Kids+ for free with the tablet purchase. It also has a 10-inch FHD touchscreen, an octa-core processor and 13 hours of battery life, plus it comes with a two-year warranty and a protective case.

• Fire HD 10 Kids Pro tablet for $110 ($80 off): This model is designed for kids aged six to 12 and comes with a slimmer protective case, a two-year warranty and one year of access to Amazon Kids+. Otherwise, you get a very similar experience here that you would with the non-Pro version, including parental controls, a 10-inch touchscreen, solid performance and a 13-hour battery life.

Prime Day deals on Fire TV devices

Fire TV devices can help turn an old TV into a smart one, or give you respite from a smart TV interface that you despise (as long as you can deal with Fire TV OS pushing Prime Video content in your face). But arguably the best thing about these devices is that there’s an option for every budget, and the barrier to entry lowers even further with Prime Day deals.

• Fire TV Stick Lite streamer for $18 ($12 off): This is already the most affordable Fire TV streaming stick, but it’s a steal at this sale price. It supports 1080p content and comes with a “lite” version of the Alexa Voice Remote.

• Fire TV Stick streamer for $20 ($20 off): This dongle ups the ante on the TV Stick Lite by adding support for Dolby Atmos audio, plus it comes with the regular version of the Alexa Voice Remote. It also supports Wi-Fi 5 and comes with 8GB of internal storage.

• Fire TV Stick 4K streamer for $25 ($25 off): This mode is the cheapest Fire TV Stick you can get to stream 4K content, plus it has support for Wi-Fi 6 and Dolby Vision and Atmos. With its live picture-in-picture feature, you can view security camera feeds right on your TV while you’re watching your favorite show or movie.

• Fire TV Stick 4K Max streamer for $35 ($25 off): In addition to 4K HDR streaming with Dolby Vision and Atmos support, the 4K Max dongle includes Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, 16GB of built-in storage and live picture-in-picture capabilities.

• Fire TV Cube set-top box for $100 ($40 off): This model will provide the best performance of any Fire TV streaming device, and it supports 4K HDR content, Dolby Vision and Atmos and an enhanced version of the Alexa Voice Remote. Along with live picture-in-picture view and the Fire TV ambient experience, you can also hardware other devices to the Fire TV Cube including a cable box or a game console.

Prime Day deals on Ring, Blink and smart home devices

You may not immediately think of them when you think about Amazon’s own tech, but the shopping giant also owns Ring and Blink. Gadgets from these companies make up most of Amazon’s home security offerings, and you can usually find steep discounts during Prime Day on security cameras, alarm systems and other bundles.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

Cloud providers are chasing after AI unicorns, and the latest is Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs. The startup just tapped Google Cloud as its primary compute provider to train AI models, a deal that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But Li’s tenure as chief scientist of AI at Google Cloud wasn’t a factor, the company says.

During the Google Cloud Startup Summit on Tuesday, the companies announced World Labs will use a large chunk of its funding to license GPU servers on the Google Cloud Platform, and ultimately train “spatially intelligent” AI models.

A handful of well-funded startups building AI foundation models are highly sought after in the cloud services world. Some of the largest deals include OpenAI, which exclusively trains and runs AI models on Microsoft Azure, and Anthropic, which uses AWS and Google Cloud. These companies regularly pay millions of dollars for computing services, and could one day need even more as their AI models scale. That makes them valuable customers for Google, Microsoft, and AWS to build relationships with early on.

World Labs is certainly building unique, multimodal AI models with significant compute needs. The startup just raised $230 million at more than a billion-dollar valuation, a deal led by A16Z, in order to build AI world models. General manager of startups and AI at Google Cloud, James Lee, tells TechCrunch that World Labs’ AI models will one day be able to process, generate, and interact with video and geospatial data. World Labs calls these AI models “spatial intelligence.”

Li has deep ties with Google Cloud, having led the company’s AI efforts in 2018. However, Google denies that this deal is a product of that relationship, and rejects the idea that cloud services are just commodities. Instead, Lee said services, such as its High Performance Toolkit to scale AI workloads, and its deep supply of AI chips were a larger factor.

“Fei-Fei is obviously a friend of GCP,” said Lee in an interview. “GCP wasn’t the only option they looked at. But for all the reasons we talked about – our AI optimized infrastructure and the ability to meet their scalability needs – ultimately they came to us.”

Google Cloud offers AI startups a choice between its proprietary AI chips, tensor processing units or TPUs, and Nvidia’s GPUs, which Google purchases and has a more limited supply of. Google Cloud is trying to get more startups to train AI models on TPUs, largely as a means to reduce its dependency on Nvidia. All cloud providers are limited today by the scarcity of Nvidia GPUs, so many are building their own AI chips to meet demand. Google Cloud says some startups are training and inferencing solely on TPUs, however, GPUs still remain the industry’s favorite AI training chip.

World Labs chose to train its AI models on GPUs in this deal. However, Google Cloud wouldn’t say what went into that decision.

“We worked with Fei-Fei and her product team, and at this stage of their product roadmap, it made more sense for them to work with us on the GPU platform,” said Lee in an interview. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a permanent decision… Sometimes [startups] move onto different platforms, such as TPUs.”

Lee would not disclose how large World Labs’ GPU cluster is, but cloud providers often dedicate massive supercomputers for startups training AI models. Google Cloud promised another startup training AI foundation models, Magic, a cluster with “tens of thousands of Blackwell GPUs,” each of which has more power than a high-end gaming PC.

These clusters are easier to promise than they are to fulfill. Google’s cloud services competitor Microsoft is reportedly struggling to meet the insane compute demands of OpenAI, forcing the startup to tap other options for computing power.

World Labs’ deal with Google Cloud is not exclusive, meaning the startup may still strike deals with other cloud providers. However, Google Cloud says it will get a majority of its business moving forward.