Rick's Picks: The 7 best tech deals — $75 off a Fitbit, 40% off an Echo Show and more
Amazon has some solid deals running on some great tech products right now. Below I've rounded up my top picks (a popular space heater down to $28, from $50; a power bank for $38, from $70), all of them discounted and in stock as of this writing. That can change on a moment's notice, though, so if you see something of interest, I recommend grabbing it.
This ties the lowest price on record for Amazon's flagship streaming stick, which features fast Wi-Fi 6, push-button Alexa voice controls and support for Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service. (So, yeah, it's pretty much a complete game console as well, though you'll need to buy a controller separately.) With a 4.7-star average rating from over 100,000 (!) buyers, how can you go wrong?
If you're layered under blankets and sweaters and still just not warm enough, it's time for a space heater. This top-rated model (4.4-star average from over 68,000 buyers), currently priced $22 below list, promises to heat a room as large as 200 square feet. It features two fan speeds and both overheat and tip-over protection. And it's extremely quiet, producing less than 45 decibels, according to GiveBest. A standard refrigerator generates about 50.
If you own an iPhone 13 or later and haven't experienced the joys of MagSafe, you're missing out. This Baseus power bank not only charges your phone wirelessly, it also clamps on magnetically. As an added bonus, it has a fold-out kickstand so you can read a book or watch a movie, hands-free, while charging. There's an LCD status display so you know how much power remains and a USB-C port for charging a second device simultaneously.
Although this was a bit cheaper around the holidays, it's still an extremely good deal on a very capable smart-screen. The Echo Show 8 does all the Alexa things — music, podcasts, weather, jokes and so on — but can also play videos from YouTube, Netflix and other services. That makes it suitable for just about any room in your home, be it kitchen, bedroom or office. For my money this offers the best bang-for-buck of all the Echo Show models.
Whether you run a small business or just ship things on a semi-regular basis, a thermal label printer is essential. I bought one a couple years ago and can't imagine living without it. iDPRT's top-rated model works on every platform with every major shipping service and supports a variety of label sizes. (Speaking of which, labels are all you need; the printer requires no ink or toner.) The SP410 is rarely priced this low (with coupon), so grab it while you can.
By all accounts the Fitbit Versa 4 is one of the best smartwatches money can buy, and if you don't mind the Waterfall Blue/Platinum color, you can buy it for a lot less money than usual. (The other two colors are also on sale, but for $180.) The Versa 4 does it all: phone notifications, exercising tracking (with GPS), heart-rate and oxygen-level monitoring and lots more. Plus, you can get up to six days of battery life, a huge improvement over Apple watches.
Want to be prepared for the next big storm? Got an RV that needs serious power? The Bluetti AC200P is here to handle all that and more. This battery-powered gas-generator alternative can produce 2,000 watts across six AC outlets, but that's just for starters. (It has DC, USB and Qi charging ports as well.) Optional solar panels keep the unit charged full-time more or less for free. Take note, however: The AC200P weighs 60 pounds, so although it's technically portable, it's also heavy as hell.
A former top cop will head the crackdown on sex traffickers using the migration system to exploit vulnerable foreign workers.Former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon will target criminal organisations abusing the system, calling allegations of sex trafficking through migration schemes "concerning".
The federal opposition leader will meet with the Indigenous voice referendum working group after he called for more details on the plan.Peter Dutton has not yet said whether he would support enshrining an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution while his Nationals colleagues have come out against it.
Former Test cricketer Stuart MacGill shed tears of joy before drinking six or seven bourbon and cokes in an hour-and-a-half and allegedly intimidating one of his best friend's former partners.MacGill, 51, is accused of stalking and verbally intimidating his friend's former fiance Samantha Ford while walking down a Sydney CBD street, and then at a nearby pub on February 1, 2022.
A Queensland man accused of abducting his mother last week has been charged with murdering the woman described by family as gentle, funny, caring and clever.Police laid one additional charge against Slade Murdok, 30, in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday for the murder of his 61-year-old mother, Wendy Anne Sleeman.
A woman has denied embellishing her evidence against former Australian Test cricketer Stuart MacGill, telling a court he was the main antagonist in a dispute resulting in her and her ex-fiance being told to leave a Sydney pub.MacGill, 51, is accused of stalking and verbally intimidating Samantha Ford while walking down Sydney's Kent Street and then later at the Captain Cook Hotel around 6pm on February 1, 2022.
ShutterstockWe know everything in our homes gathers dust. What you probably don’t know is whether there are toxic contaminants in your house dust, and where these might come from. Our newly published research found most of the dust inside homes came from outside and contains potentially toxic trace metals such as lead, arsenic and chromium. Worryingly, we found some contaminants can accumulate at higher concentrations inside homes than outside. This happened in homes with certain characteristics
Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne's third trial accused of rape will go ahead, with him seeking to have his accuser give evidence again.During a brief mention on Monday in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court, Judge Warwick Hunt confirmed the trial date of March 6 and noted that Hayne's legal team had put the Crown on notice for the complainant to be recalled.
Dan Peled/AAPPoetry has often been a matter of nation building, including in Australia. Who hasn’t learnt by heart at school some verses from My Country (1908) by Dorothea Mackellar? I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! I discovered this poem when I first visited Canberra, many years before becoming an Australian citizen
Australia could launch their Women's World Cup campaign in front of more than 80,000 fans after FIFA responded to the huge demand to see Sam Kerr's Matildas by moving their opening fixture against Republic of Ireland to Sydney's Accor Stadium.Alongside New Zealand kicking off the Trans-Tasman tournament at Auckland's Eden Park, more than 100,000 people will attend the World Cup's opening day.
The Perrottet government has committed $173 million to extend a school tutoring program launched during the pandemic, saying tutoring could become "business as usual" for NSW students.The announcement came on the same day as NSW Labor pledged $400 million to creating a permanent literacy and numeracy tutoring scheme for students, under its Education Future Fund.
The Greens are spoiling to block proposed government changes to lowering the ceiling on carbon emissions for some large companies if, at the same time, new fossil fuel projects are ticked off.Greens leader Adam Bandt has threatened to use the party's balance of power in the Senate to derail the proposals and accused Labor of being as "wedded to new coal and gas" as the former Liberal government.
The United States will not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its battle against Russia, President Joe Biden says, as Russian forces claim a series of incremental gains in the country's east.Asked if the US would provide the jets, Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday, "No.
COVID-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organisation says, designating the disease its highest form of alert.The pandemic was likely at a "transition point" that continues to need careful management to "mitigate the potential negative consequences", the agency said on Monday.