Amazon has a pretty good deal on the Alienware Pro gaming keyboard right now that knocks a significant amount off of its regular price. The usual going rate for this keyboard is $199.99, which is also its full retail price, although it has been as low as $180 before. However, Amazon currently has it for $139.99 which is 30% off of full retail, and that’s a pretty good value for this keyboard considering all of its awesome gaming features.

For starters, it has hot-swappable switches. If you’ve never had a keyboard with hot-swappable switches before, you’re missing out. The reason they’re so good is because you can swap the switches for a type you prefer. Say you want something a little more tactile for your WASD keys. You can pop the keycaps off, swap out the default switches that come with the keyboard, and put the keycaps back. I personally love the hot-swappable switches because you have the ability to replace a switch if anything ever goes wrong with it.

You don’t just have to replace the entire keyboard or get it repaired. Or try to deal with repairing it yourself and messing with solder or anything like that. You just pop out the switch and put in the new one. Best of all, this keyboard comes with the tool to pop the switches off so the whole process is really rather easy.

The Alienware Pro is fairly compact too, as it has a 75% layout. This makes it great for travel and portability. It also connects in three different ways including wired, Bluetooth, and a 2.4GHz low-latency mode through the adapter. Plus, it has a battery life of up to 72 hours on a single charge, which is pretty darn good.

Buy at Amazon

October Prime Day will be here in a few days, but you can already save on some tech, including a few of Amazon’s own devices. Its most powerful streaming stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, has dropped to a record low of $35. That represents a 42-percent discount, and it’s a return to the same sale price we saw during July Prime Day. Notably, it’s just one of many Fire TV devices that have been discounted ahead of the sale event.

But the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a great streaming device as well, with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. As the name suggests, it can stream content in 4K Ultra HD. The stick also supports Dolby Atmos audio, for added immersion.

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This streaming stick includes the company’s proprietary Fire TV Ambient Experience, which allows users to display art and photos on the screen. This mimics the functionality of something like Samsung’s The Frame TV. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max also boasts 16GB of storage, for downloads, apps and games.

Speaking of games, this thing doubles as a highly functional cloud gaming box. It can stream Xbox games via Game Pass Ultimate and integrates with Amazon Luna. We singled out this device as a great option for retro gamers, as it can easily run many emulation apps. Finally, it ships with an upgraded remote that offers Alexa integration.

While the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is arguably Amazon’s best streaming dongle for most people that’s on sale right now, the rest of the Fire TV device lineup is on sale, too.

• 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 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.

Check out the rest of the best early Prime Day deals here.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.

EndlessAI has officially launched Lloyd, a groundbreaking AI assistant that brings real-time video analysis to smartphones without the need for additional hardware. Available now on the iOS App Store, Lloyd leverages advanced large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google’s upcoming Gemini to provide users with immediate insights about the world around them. Since launching just several weeks ago, Lloyd has organically amassed tens of thousands of users, and it appears their AI video assistant might represent the next evolution of generative AI.

Breaking the video barrier in AI

One of the significant challenges in scaling generative AI has been the computational cost associated with processing video data. Traditional LLMs require immense computing power to ingest and analyze video frames, making real-time applications impractical. EndlessAI is on a mission to “crack the code” by developing proprietary algorithms and patented processes that aim to optimize video data for LLMs efficiently.

“LLMs require very extensive computing power to understand visual data. With a 1080p video running 86,400 frames per hour, seamless, real-time video analysis has been out of reach. EndlessAI empowers existing LLMs, including the ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude families to ingest and understand complex, real-time video with utmost efficiency,” said Roi Ginat, co-founder and CEO of EndlessAI.

Lloyd’s real-world applications

Lloyd stands out by enabling smartphones to “see” the real world, not just static images. Users can interact with Lloyd in various innovative ways:

• Home Assistance: Child-proof a room or get home decor advice about your living room.
• DIY Fixes: Fix a leaky sink or a misaligned bicycle wheel without professional help.
• Educational Support: Flip through pages of homework and get tutoring help.
• Creative Content: Compose TikTok posts based on your surroundings or ask questions about what’s on TV.
• Everyday Convenience: Find misplaced items like glasses in a cluttered space or translate signage, menus and more.

Lloyd’s can also be used for pure entertainment — as the founders are already seeing these use cases. Lloyd can craft personalized bedtime stories; by taking a panoramic video of a child’s room and specifying a hero or theme, “Lloyd will tell them a mesmerizing story where the elements of the room come alive. Pick a new hero or a new theme or a new room every night. The kids want another story? No problem; how about two more!”

No additional hardware required

Unlike other visual AI assistants that necessitate hardware purchases, Lloyd operates entirely through existing smartphones. This approach eliminates the need for consumers to invest in additional gadgets that may quickly become obsolete.

“Some of our competitors seem to be taking the opposite approach of building their own smartphones or other smart devices to get better AI features. That approach no longer makes sense: why would anyone want to purchase a separate device to get what was meant to be better AI features that Lloyd has now leapfrogged?” said Thomas Pompidou, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of EndlessAI. “Rather than requiring users to buy new phones or other hardware and be limited to their modest AI capabilities, Lloyd leverages smartphones connected to the Cloud to provide a vastly superior experience.”

Privacy and data security

EndlessAI emphasizes robust privacy measures in processing live video and audio inputs. The company employs secure login protocols, data encryption in transit and at rest, and strict access controls. Data retention policies ensure that user data is not held beyond the necessary time to fulfill its intended purpose.

“EndlessAI is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations related to data protection and privacy,” added Ginat. “Extensive guardrails with regards to content adequacy are also provided by the own guardrails of the LLM operators; OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, etc. all have processes and training in place to prevent inappropriate and privacy-breaching content.”

An evolving platform

As LLMs continue to advance, Lloyd is designed to improve alongside them. The assistant functions on an over-the-top (OTT) basis, optimizing the input data ingested by LLMs. This means that as models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others evolve, Lloyd’s capabilities will automatically enhance.

“We are a force multiplier for ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama, etc. and are poised to significantly expand their market opportunity and we make them immediately viable at scale for video analytics use cases. As a result, as LLMs get better, Lloyd gets better. It’s that simple,” Pompidou explained.

Future developments and B2B opportunities

EndlessAI plans to introduce new features to Lloyd, including specialized “Powers” like a “Tour Guide” mode that uses precise geolocation for contextual information and an “Action Mode” for sports and fitness advice. The company is also preparing to launch an API for businesses, enabling enterprises to incorporate real-time video analysis into their processes at scale.

“Integrating video at scale in those solutions opens very extensive new opportunities but faces extensive Accuracy, Speed and Cost challenges,” said Ginat. “It will allow enterprises, businesses, AI scale-ups and developers to build and operate highly scalable Generative AI solutions tailored to their unique needs.”

Behind EndlessAI

Founded over a decade ago, EndlessAI has been at the forefront of video analysis and communication technology. The leadership team brings together expertise from software development, venture capital, marketing, and AI specialization:

• Roi Ginat, co-founder and CEO: 28 years of software development experience. Built and sold 3 separate prior technology start-ups: Giant Steps, MyFrame, Inc. and Wristcam.
• Thomas Pompidou, co-founder and executive chairman: 18 years in Venture Capital, including partner and co-founder at Marker LLC, venture partner and investment committee member at NightDragon and Team8 and vice chairman at Crescent Point. 14 years in investment banking, including in the technology groups at Lazard and Wasserstein Perella. Vice chairman of the New York Academy of Sciences.
• Matt Frischer, co-founder and CMO: 25 years of marketing and advertising experience including leadership positions at ZenithOptimedia, WWE and Branchout.
• Liron Hertz, development team lead: 25 years of technology development experience.
• Doron Adler, AI team lead: 20 years of technology development experience, including roles at AT&T and Flixwagon, and a specialization in generative AI since 2019. Co-inventor of the pioneering Toonify face transformation AI tools.

A new era for AI assistants

Lloyd’s launch represents a significant step toward making advanced AI capabilities accessible to the general public without the barrier of additional hardware costs. By harnessing the power of existing smartphones and cutting-edge LLMs, EndlessAI aims to redefine how we interact with the digital and physical worlds.

“Ask yourself ‘what if AI could see the real world like people do?’ and then ask yourself ‘why doesn’t it?’ The answer is ‘it can, but it’s just too expensive to make sense’. We have broken through the cost barrier and now enable LLMs to ‘see’ the real world as it is: a real-time, video world,” mused Pompidou.

VentureBeat newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.