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Last month's Apple event was a big one. The company announced (and subsequently released) the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12, and Apple Watch Ultra 4. It also announced the iPhone Duo, though the company's first foldable phone still isn't out yet. Despite all these new products, Apple apparently wasn't finished. Next week, the company will host another product announcement, titled "Welcome Home." Here's what we know.

What will Apple announce at its "Welcome Home" event?

Apple's product announcement hints are usually pretty subtle. This time, it isn't. "Welcome Home" is almost assuredly referencing Apple's long-rumored smart home devices. Sure, the company makes some smart devices, like the HomePod and HomePod mini, but leaks suggest the company has some big updates up its sleeve.

Perhaps no announcement will be bigger than its smart home hub. This device, according to the rumor mill, will be a mix between an iPad and a HomePod, competing with similar devices from companies like Amazon and Google. It may ship with a six-inch display (some reports suggest the screen is a square), but it won't be like an iPad on a stand. Instead, the experience seems more focused, letting you control smart home devices, make and receive FaceTime calls, watch videos, display the news and water data, and check your calendar. Of course, it will likely work with Siri AI, the company's new AI-powered assistant.

Apple may even expect users to buy more than one of these hubs. The idea could be to have multiple hubs throughout your house, which could let you use them like intercoms. (Apple currently offers a similar feature with its HomePods.) If the rumors are to be believed, the smart hub will understand the voice of whoever is talking to it, and tailor the experience to that user personally. If you have guests over, you could switch to a "visitor mode" to avoid revealing sensitive information.

While the smart home hub may steal the show, Apple is planning some updates to existing devices as well. The HomePod mini may come in new colors, and is expected to get both the N1 chip for improvements to wifi and Bluetooth, as well as an upgraded S-series chip for Siri AI. Apple may also update the Apple TV 4K with the A19 or A19 Pro chip, as well as that new N1 chip, and a new Siri remote. Apple may take this opportunity to reveal its new OLED iPad mini, but the company may keep the focus on smart home specifically.

When is Apple's "Welcome Home" event?

According to Apple's announcement, "Welcome Home" kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. PT). That's an early start time, considering the company is based in California, though it seems Apple is hosting the event in New York City this time around. For context, Apple's events usually kick off at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) when the company hosts them in Cupertino. It's not yet clear if there will be a livestream of the event, or if it will be exclusive for invited members of the media.


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Garmin watches are my favorite training partner. The brand has long been one of the biggest names in the world of rugged sports watches and fitness trackers, and the Forerunner line especially is a go-to pick for accurate and reliable GPS tracking for runners.

So, looking at the date on my Garmin Forerunner 970, I can see that Amazon's October Prime Day sale is officially over. But if you missed your chance to upgrade your running watch, you're in luck: Two of the most popular Garmin Forerunners are still on sale, even after Prime Day has technically ended.

These Garmin Forerunners are still a great deal right now

The Garmin Forerunner 55 is $161.99, down from $199.99. This is the most basic Garmin running watch you can buy new. Don't be deterred by the word "basic." As my colleague Beth Skwarecki reports, it was good enough for Sabastian Sawe to wear to break the sub-2-hour marathon barrier earlier this year.

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is $199.99, down from $249.99. This is my favorite entry-level running watch. The music version is also on sale; as always, it runs $50 more than the standard.

While it's not a dramatic, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is 5% off, bringing the original price of $449.99 down to $429. Although it isn't the latest and greatest anymore, this is still a fan favorite among Garmin users. It's a step above entry-level options, with dual-band GPS, power meter compatibility, and advanced analytics (like training status).

For more, I'll be keeping my eye on these other deals on Garmin watches that are still live after October Prime Day.

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Tanium has relaunched Tanium Security Operations to address AI-assisted attacks in which adversaries use legitimate administrative tools to blend into normal activity and spread across endpoints. The platform is designed to detect this behavior, support response across affected endpoints and help analysts investigate threats.

With AI, attackers no longer need malware that a scanner can catch. They sign in with stolen credentials and run the same administrative tools IT uses every day. To a security tool hunting for known-bad files, that activity looks like a normal workday. Catching that behavior means knowing what normal looks like on every endpoint and acting on all of them the moment something drifts. Tanium already does that job for IT teams. Tanium Security Operations turns that same foundation on the attacker, working alongside the SIEM and EDR tools teams already own.

“AI has changed who the attacker is and how fast they move. The next breach won’t look like malware. It will look like one of your own administrators,” said Harman Kaur, chief technology officer at Tanium. “We have spent years learning what normal looks like on every endpoint our customers run. Now we use that to catch what doesn’t belong and stop it everywhere at once. That is what security operations has to become in the AI era.”

Detection, response, and hunting as one continuous loop

Tanium Security Operations runs on the same platform and real-time data IT teams already use to manage every endpoint. With the relaunch, detection, response, and hunting are no longer separate steps handed from tool to tool. They run as one continuous loop.

Detection that looks for behavior, not just known-bad files. When attackers use the same tools as IT, a list of bad files will not catch them. New Endpoint Drift learns how each endpoint normally behaves and ranks the machines acting out of character, so hunters start where it matters. New Insights Engine replaces Tanium’s process injection detection with an engine built to catch attackers hiding inside trusted processes.

Response sized to the threat. Detection without action is just an alert queue. When an attack spreads across thousands of endpoints in minutes, one quarantine button is too blunt and too slow. Tanium runs a range of responses directly on the endpoint, from stopping a single process or collecting forensic evidence to isolating a host, on one machine or across the whole fleet at once. A new Federated SOC model lets separate security teams share one platform while each sets its own suppressions and automatic reactions, so one team’s rules never land on another team’s endpoints. People set the guardrails, and every automated action stays inside them.

Hunting for every analyst, not just a few experts. Most teams rarely hunt because it takes deep skill and days of work. Tanium Atlas changes that. An analyst asks a question in plain language, gets an answer from every endpoint in seconds, and acts on it in the same place. Hunt strategies written by Tanium threat hunters guide each step. Tanium Atlas also ranks the alert queue and recommends whether to dismiss, escalate, hunt, or contain each one, and new SecOps dashboards and templates give every team a place to start. With Tanium, hunting becomes a routine, repeatable workflow any analyst can run.

“The AI-fueled threat landscape has changed the dynamics of security operations,” said Dave Gruber, chief analyst at Omdia. “Speed is more important than ever before, as attack execution speeds out pace current security operations mechanisms and processes. Agentic capabilities can speed detection and response, but without access to near real-time telemetry and response, agentic SOC capabilities still lag attacker activities. Tanium’s approach of grounding detection and hunting in real-time endpoint state addresses one of the most persistent gaps in enterprise SOC architectures.”

For organizations that want experts on their side, Tanium HuntIQ pairs Tanium threat hunters with the same platform and AI. HuntIQ hunters work directly in customer environments to find threats, strengthen detections, and support incident response, and can build a hunt before a patch or CVE exists, as they did for the FalconFlank zero-day. What they learn feeds back into the platform, so every hunt that follows starts smarter.


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People are often unprepared for the amount of work a house requires. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new build or a creaking classic; unless they’ve got the cash to just hire out for every little project, new homeowners are going to need tools. That makes a basic tool set the perfect housewarming gift, and this one from Black+Decker is my go-to when a friend buys their first home. It has everything a DIY newbie needs, and at this price you can buy a couple to have on hand for future gifting needs.

The Black+Decker 20V MAX 68-Piece Kit has everything the new DIYer needs

A basic tool kit like this is a great idea for folks who don’t have a lot of experience doing small repairs and DIY jobs around the house because it has all the basics (including a durable bag to carry it all around in):

  • A basic 12oz hammer

  • An adjustable wrench

  • Needle-nose and slip-joint pliers

  • A ratcheting screwdriver with a full set of bits

  • One Phillips and one flathead screwdriver

  • A utility knife

  • A tape measure

Those are the basic hand tools anyone looking to do small jobs around the house needs. They’re basic, but decent quality, so they’ll last a long time. They can also be upgraded one piece at a time as people gain knowledge and skills.

This kit is special because it includes a power drill

What really sets this kit apart from others is that it’s one of the only decent-quality beginner tool sets that includes a power drill (as well as a battery and charger). Sure, Black+Decker is happy to hook newbies into their battery ecosystem, but a power drill is a game-changer when it comes to DIY stuff around the house. The kit includes all the basic drilling, spade, and hole saw bits you might need for basic work (as well as the screwdriver bits listed above), and includes a magnetic bit holder to prevent bit loss.

If you or your gift recipient develop your DIY skills, you’ll definitely wind up replacing most of this kit with better, more capable tools. But for a complete newcomer who has just completed the stress and complexity of buying their first property, this kit gets them set up to tackle basic maintenance right off the bat—and at 20% off, it's a great value.

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There's a reason the MacBook Pro is so expensive. Apple saves its most premium features for this product line—mini-LED displays, built-in fans, HDMI and SD ports, and, depending on the model, the most powerful chips. None of these comes cheap, and, after recent RAM-related price hikes, the MacBook Pro now starts at a steep $1,999. That's not the case during October Prime Day, however: Right now, you can take a decent chunk off many MacBook Pro models, and even more if you opt for one of Apple's M5 Pro or M5 Pro Max devices.

You can save $160 on the M5 MacBook Pro

Let's start with the standard M5 MacBook Pro. This uses a similar M5 chip to the one found in the MacBook Air, though the Pro does come with 10 GPU cores (that costs extra on the Air). Other than that, these are the same processors, running the same 16GB of RAM—though the M5 MacBook Pro comes with 1TB of storage standard. You also get most of the hardware perks of the other MacBook Pro devices, without venturing into $2,499 and up territory, including three USB-C ports, the HDMI and SD card ports, a 14.2-inch mini-LED display, and a 12MP FaceTime camera. Typically, that'd cost you $1,999. But on Amazon, you can pick this machine up today for $1,869.

Save $155 on the 14-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro

This is a great price for this MacBook, but it's not the only savings you'll find on MacBook Pros this October Prime Day. If you upgrade to the M5 Pro MacBook Pro, you can save $155 off its retail price, bringing the machine down to $2,345 from $2,499. With this laptop, you get all the perks of the M5 MacBook Pro, but with the M5 Pro chip, which is much more powerful. This chip comes with a 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, along with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It also supports Wi-Fi 7, while the M5 MacBook Pro only supports Wi-Fi 6E.

Amazon also has the M5 Pro MacBook Pro with an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU $150 off. But the biggest discounts are on Apple's most expensive 14-inch MacBook Pros. If you're in the market for a souped-up M5 Pro model, or one of Apple's M5 Max configurations, Amazon has huge discounts:

Save $150 on the 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro

Similarly, Amazon has big discounts on the 16-inch version of these MacBook Pros. The best option for most people in this category is going to be the base model 16-inch, which comes with the M5 Pro with an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, as well as 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

But as with the 14-inch MacBook Pros, the biggest deals are on the most expensive 16-inch Pros. Here's how much you can save:

October Prime Day FAQ

When is Prime Day in October?

Amazon Prime Day is an annual event held in June or July. Amazon's October Prime Day event, known as Prime Big Deal Days, is a two-day sale that starts Oct. 6 and ends on Oct. 7.

What goes on sale during October Prime Day?

Since Prime Big Deal Days happens in the fall, you're likely to see more deals on gaming and indoor gym equipment. Amazon has already announced some of the 35 categories that will be on sale, including beauty, tech, kitchen, fashion, and home. Some brands Amazon has already mentioned are: Shark, Princess Polly, Soundcore by Anker, UGG, Nest New York, Sony, Tarte, Adidas, and Barefoot Dreams.

Is Prime Day once a year?

Prime Day happens every summer. Prime Big Deal Days (or October Prime Day) happens every October. Amazon's Big Spring Sale happens every spring.

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A new Google wearable may be on the way, and leaked pictures suggest it may be a fitness band with a screen, a successor to the Fitbit Charge 6. Android Headlines reports that the new device will be called the Fitbit Edge. 

Earlier this year, Google ran ads on Reddit that seemed to show a new fitness band alongside Pixel watches and phones. In a post titled “Um so what the hell is that??,” redditors debated whether the unfamiliar wearable was an accidental leak of a yet-unreleased device, or just an AI hallucination. After all, if you asked an AI to create a hybrid of a Fitbit and a Pixel Watch, it would look more or less like what was in the picture.

What rumors say about the new "Fitbit Edge"

The leaked photos appearing at Android Headlines look like the device from the ad. It has an oval screen, only about as wide as the wristband and taller than it is wide. The rounded edges and the style of watch band match aesthetically with Pixel Watches, while the overall form factor—a tall screen set into a thin wristband—fits the design of the old Fitbit Charge 6. 

According to spec sheets that were reportedly also included in the leak, the device will have GPS, an altimeter, and a seven-day battery life. That's the same battery life as the Charge 6, which had GPS but no altimeter. The new device is said to work with both iOS and Android, as the Fitbit Air does, rather than being Android-only like the Pixel Watch. The rumors do not include a price, a release date, or a full list of features.

What this means, if true

If it weren’t for the earlier ad—the one that many thought was a hallucination—I probably wouldn’t have expected Google to release a device like this at all. Its last fitness tracker with a screen was the Fitbit Charge 6 in 2023. The Fitbit Air makes sense since smart bands are having a moment, and the Fitbit Air is a really well-executed one. But I wasn’t sure if Google was interested in continuing the Fitbit line beyond that one device. 

It’s a good idea, I think. Small trackers are easy to wear (and forget you’re wearing), but sometimes you just want to be able to see the time on your wrist. If Google is smart, they’ll allow you to swap seamlessly between the new device and the screenless Fitbit Air. (Currently, you can pair one Pixel Watch and one Fitbit to your phone, but you can’t pair two different models of Fitbit.) 

I’m excited to see what Google has in mind for the new device, assuming the rumors are true about its size, shape, and capabilities. I was disappointed by all the things the Charge 6 couldn’t do, and I hope the new Fitbit doesn’t repeat those mistakes. For example, the Charge 6 can control the music that’s playing on your phone, but only if you pay for a YouTube Music subscription. Most fitness watches—including Garmin, Coros, and Suunto watches I’ve tried—will simply give you controls for whatever is playing on your phone, no matter what app it comes from. 

If it’s true that the new device also has its own GPS and altimeter, that’s also exciting—but I’m skeptical that Google will be able to stuff in high-quality versions of those components in the space available. The Charge 6, I found, had trouble getting a good GPS reading and a good heart rate reading at the same time. But the Fitbit Air is surprisingly small and capable for its size, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the new device might be able to do.


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The October Prime Day sale is officially here, and the best deals on headphones, fitness tech, and other essentials from premium brands are popping up all over Amazon. Right now, these Sony LinkBuds Clip Open Earbuds are down to $158 (originally $229.99), an all-time low according to price tracking tools.

One of the top Prime Day earbuds deals for people who dislike conventional in-ear buds, the Sony LinkBuds Clip gets praise in PCMag for crystal-clear audio and long-lasting battery life. With a lightweight clip-on design that sits outside the ear canal and lets you hear background noise like traffic or announcements, they’re a useful essential for errand runs, busy workdays, dog walks, and other settings where you don’t want total noise cancellation. An IPX4 rating can handle sweat and light rain, while multipoint pairing lets you stay connected to devices without constant re-pairing. 

The earbuds last up to 37 hours and offer nine hours of continuous use per charge, far more than the AirPods 4 with ANC, which last five hours with ANC off and four with it on. A three-minute charge provides around an hour of playback. The app makes the sound heavily customizable, and while sound quality is robust and impressive, it’s not quite as bass-forward as in-ear buds.

Though they can’t overcome the limitations most open-ear designs face, the Sony LinkBuds Clip Open Earbuds are a reliable, long-lasting option for settings where you need situational awareness.

October Prime Day FAQs

How does Prime Day work?

Prime Day lets Prime Members shop online for thousands of products with big discounts. It only lasts two days, so make sure you check out everything we know about the sale before it starts.

Is Prime Day only for Prime Members?

Yes, you will need to be a Prime Member to shop the exclusive sales during Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days. Prime membership starts at $14.99 per month.

What goes on sale on Prime Day?

Since Prime Big Deal Days happens in the fall, you're likely to see more deals on gaming and indoor gym equipment. Amazon has already announced some of the 35 categories that will be on sale, including beauty, tech, kitchen, fashion, and home. Some brands Amazon has already mentioned are: Shark, Princess Polly, Soundcore by Anker, UGG, Nest New York, Sony, Tarte, Adidas, and Barefoot Dreams.

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