Technologies
Black Friday 2021: The best deals on TVs, headphones, kitchenware, and more
Here is our round up of the best early deals happening at major retailers like Amazon, Target, Best Buy and many more

It seems as if Black Friday begins earlier and earlier every year. And this year is no exception. Both in store and online, companies like Walmart, Target, Amazon, Best Buy and pretty much every other major retailer are already getting a jump on the holiday savings. And some very solid deals are already available. In many cases the sales are labeled as Black Friday offers, so you won’t have to work too hard to find them. As the seasonal chaos grows, we’ll keep scouring the internet in search of the best Black Friday deals so you don’t have to. Expect this page to be updated frequently, as we’ll keep adding to it as more offers appear. This story was last updated Thursday, Nov. 11 with the latest deals.
Note: Today is also Veteran’s day and Singles Day, which often see additional discounts on top of the usual holiday sales. If you’ve got your eye on something, now is a great time to snag it as it may jump back up in price tomorrow.
Black Friday sales at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target and more
On the calendar, Black Friday is Friday, Nov. 26 — the day after Thanksgiving. But «Black Friday sales» are already alive and well. To help navigate the pandemonium, here is a handy guide of what you can expect on sale when and where:
- Amazon: Sales are ongoing now.
- Best Buy: The big-box retailer has an early Black Friday sale running now.
- Walmart: The Black Friday Deals for Days sale has been running since Nov. 3, and another big wave of sales just dropped yesterday (Nov. 10), adding more great deals like $89 Airpods.
- Target: The first wave of Target’s deals were pretty unimpressive, but the retailer opened a new wave of sales last Thursday, with more following every Sunday from here on out. Full details here.
Best Black Friday deals at Walmart
More great deals at Walmart:
- Apple Airpods (2nd gen): $89 (save $40 vs. apple store)
- Roku Ultra LT: $30 (save $39)
- Toshiba 1TB portable HDD: $39 (save $13)
- Tineco cordless vacuum: $125 (save $74)
- Anker Eufy Robovac 25C: $99 (save $50)
Best Black Friday deals at Target
More great deals at Target:
- JBL Tune wireless headphones: $30 (save $40)
- Beats Solo 3 wireless headphones: $100 (save $100)
- Motorola Moto G Fast: $170 (save $30)
- Vizio V-Series compact sound bar: $50 (save $50)
- Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen): $25 (save $15)
Best Black Friday deals at Best Buy
More great deals at Best Buy:
- Samsung 75-inch 7 Series TV: $850 (save $250)
- Apple iMac — 21.5″: $1000 (save $500)
- Acer Chromebook Spin 514: $299 (save $200)
- Ninja Mega System blender: $160 (save $40)
Best Black Friday deals at Amazon
More great deals at Amazon:
- Garmin Instinct outdoor watch: $170 (save $130)
- Roku Streambar Pro: $150 (save $30)
- Blue Yeti USB Mic: $100 (save $50)
- Le Creuset enameled cast iron oven: $180 (save $120)
Best Black Friday headphone deals
You can always find headphones on sale during Black Friday events, but finding the right balance between a good deal and a good set of headphones can be a challenge. Here’s what we’ve found so far.
More great headphone deals:
- Beats Studio3 wireless headphones: $180 (save $170)
- AirPods Pro with MagSafe charging case: $190 (save $59 versus Apple Store)
- JBL Live 660NC noise canceling headphones: $100 (save $100)
- Beats Powerbeats Pro: $150 (save $100 in select colors)
Read more: Best early Black Friday 2021 headphones deals available right now: Sony, Bose, Jabra and more
Best Black Friday TV deals
Televisions frequently fill out Black Friday sale pages, but it’s not always easy to tell which sales are actually worthwhile. Here are some deals on good TVs worth adding to your shopping cart.
More great TV deals:
- LG 43-inch Class 4K UHD Smart TV: $400 (save $80)
- TCL 32-inch Class 3-Series Roku Smart TV: $160 (save $50)
- LG 48-inch C1 OLED TV: $1,097 (save $200)
- Insignia 32″ Fire Smart TV: $150 (save $50)
- Samsung 32-inch The Frame wall-art TV: $528 (save $72)
Read more: Best TV deals for Black Friday 2021 so far
Best Black Friday laptop deals
More great laptop deals:
- Acer Aspire 5: $530 (save $100)
- Samsung Chromebook 4+: $209 (save $110)
- MSI Prestige 14: $699 (save $400 after rebate)
- Lenovo Yoga 9i: $1,350 (save $400)
- Lenovo IdeaPad S340: $729 (save $71)
Best Black Friday tablet deals
It’s never hard to find a cheap tablet, but it can occasionally be challenging to find a good tablet at a reasonable price. Here are all of the worthwhile tablet deals we’ve found for early Black Friday.
More great tablet deals:
- Apple iPad Pro (2nd Generation): $750 (save $150)
- Amazon Kindle Paperwhite: $90 (save $50 versus current Amazon price)
- Apple iPad Mini (256GB): $600 (save $50 versus Apple store)
- Hyundai HyTab 7LC1: $80 (save $20)
Best Black Friday kitchen deals
Kitchen tech can totally change the way you cook, and a great sale on kitchen tech makes that exploration even more enjoyable. Here are the best Black Friday kitchen deals we’ve found.
More great kitchen and home deals:
- KitchenAid Food Chopper: $40 (save $15)
- Bella 1.7L Electric Kettle: $20 (save $20)
- Mr. Coffee Iced Coffee Maker: $25 (save $10)
- Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 Indoor Grill: $250 (save $50)
- Ninja Mega Kitchen blender system: $160 (save $40)
Best Black Friday fitness deals
With New Year’s Day inching ever closer, those fitness resolutions can start to feel daunting. But not if you’ve got the right equipment. Here are the best Black Friday fitness deals we’ve found.
More great fitness deals:
- Fitbit Luxe: $100 (save $50)
- Airex Fitline Non Slip Floor Mat: $61 (save $31)
- Total Gym APEX Versatile Indoor Home Workout: $399 (save $136)
- Sunny Health & Fitness Air Bike: $238 (save $52)
Best Black Friday deals under $50
- Roku Streaming Stick 4K: $29 (save $21)
- Google Nest Mini (2nd generation): $25 (save $24)
- TP-Link Wi-Fi Extender: $30 (save $20)
- Lenovo Smart Clock: $30 (save $20)
More great Black Friday deals
- Marshall Kilburn II portable Bluetooth speaker: $250 (save $50)
- Sony UBP-X700M 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player: $178 (save $72)
- Samsung HW-A650 soundbar with wireless subwoofer: $208 (save $192)
- WD EasyStore 14TB external hard drive: $260 (save $160)
Technologies
I Put Apple AirTags on Basically Everything and You Can Too Thanks to This Labor Day Deal
I use AirTags for travel and tracking everything from my bike to my keys. If you want to stock up, you can get a four-pack for $70 right during Amazon’s Labor Day Deal.

Labor Day deal: With Labor Day weekend comes some pretty significant savings, especially on top tech like the Apple AirTags. During Prime Day in July, the four-pack dropped to $80. But right now, Amazon’s Labor Day deals have this four-pack down to just $70. That’s a 29% discount, saving you $29. Just remember, deals like these can be fleeting so scoop up this deal while you can.
Not long ago, as I waited at baggage claim after a trip to Paris, I became increasingly nervous as bag after bag dropped onto the carousel, none of them mine. I knew there was no need to panic, though. Back at Charles de Gaulle airport, I had dropped a sophisticated little tracking device into my trusty rolling suitcase before handing it over and heading to my gate. So, I pulled out my iPhone, and with just a few taps, I could see that my bag had never left the City of Light. (Merde!)
Over the years, I’ve come to depend on Apple’s AirTags to keep track of my easy-to-lose valuables. They’re not just good for luggage, I use them to track wallets, bikes, keys and even my car. I tell everyone who will listen that you can never have too many of these handy devices.
Here’s how the Apple AirTag (like the one that was in my suitcase on that fateful trip) works. It uses an ingenious method of tracking itself, detecting its location from nearby iPhones and using them to anonymously piggyback the coordinates to a secure server where I could look it up on my iPhone. Until just a few years ago, this would have seemed like a scene straight out of a spy movie.
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Instead of wondering if my belongings were stuck on an abandoned luggage cart or strewn across the tarmac, I could see in almost real time that my suitcase was still chilling at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I was able to calmly tell the airline my bag didn’t make the flight, and it made arrangements to have it delivered to me a few days later.
Apple AirTags are all about peace of mind
By itself, an AirTag isn’t much. A smooth, round, 1.26-inch puck that looks like a glossy white breath mint, it sinks to the bottom of a bag or dangles from a key chain (with a compatible key ring, sold separately). It’s meant to disappear.
Activating the AirTag was a simple process of pairing with my iPhone. And then, because it obviously doesn’t really do anything out of the box, I forgot about it.
But the next time I couldn’t find my keys? Sorcery. My iPhone didn’t just tell me they were somewhere nearby — it walked me directly to them, thanks to the AirTag’s built-in Ultra Wideband chip. Suddenly, all that time I’d spent retracing my steps and overturning couch cushions in the past felt like ancient history.
Now I have AirTags in or attached to every significant item I’d want to keep track of: My everyday laptop bag, my camera backpack, the suitcase I use most when traveling, my key chain, my car and a smaller sling bag I take on walks. I can pull up the Find My app on any of my Apple devices (or sign in to iCloud on any web browser) and see where my items are and the last time the AirTags registered their locations.
AirTags aren’t just for my everyday items. People I know in the movie business tell me that AirTags are tossed into nearly every bag and Pelican crate, not solely to ensure that the valuable equipment inside doesn’t walk away but also to quickly differentiate equipment amid similar-looking containers. Some of my friends also attach AirTags to their pets’ collars (though experts say there are better ways to track your pets).
AirTags are also useful for things that you want to keep close by
Being able to detect my luggage a continent away provided a sense of relief, to be sure. But at the local level, my AirTags will also trigger an alert when I get too far away from them. For example, if I accidentally forget my camera bag in the car when I stop somewhere for lunch, a Find My notification appears telling me I’ve left it behind. It works the same for newer AirPods models as well.
Sharing is now a big part of AirTag tracking
My family has two cars, and I wanted to be able to track them both. But it used to be inconvenient to pair the AirTag in the car my wife drives to her iPhone (and the one in my car to my iPhone).
To guard against unwanted tracking, an AirTag will notify nearby iPhones of its existence, so whenever I drove my wife’s car without her in it, I got a notification that an AirTag was traveling with me. (If the owner is near the AirTag, the alert does not appear.)
However, ever since the release of iOS 17, AirTags are shareable, which solves this problem. I shared my AirTag with my wife, and she with me, so regardless of which car I’m driving, I can find it more easily in a crowded parking lot without getting constant, unnecessary alerts.
A more recent feature is the ability to temporarily share an AirTag’s location with someone I trust. In my luggage example above, if the suitcase was in the airport with me, but the airport’s staff hadn’t yet been able to locate it (not uncommon during peak travel times), I could share its location with an attendant who could quickly retrieve it from areas inaccessible to the public.
Apple AirTag specs
- Diameter: 1.26 inches (31.9 mm)
- Height: 0.31 inches (8 mm)
- Weight: 0.39 ounces (11 g)
- Splash, water and dust resistance: Rated IP67 (maximum depth of 1 meter up to 30 minutes)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery: Replaceable CR2032 coin cell battery
The only minor annoyance about AirTags
An AirTag includes Bluetooth, the U1 Ultra Wideband chip and an NFC chip to share basic details when it’s in Lost Mode. That’s all powered by a CR2032 coin cell battery, which in my experience lasts roughly a year before I need to replace it.
I get notified when a battery is starting to get low, although there’s no gauge to see how much is left until it goes into the red. And it’s easy to change batteries. But my small fleet of AirTags means I need to swap multiple ones each year. I buy them in packs of 20 that I slowly work through.
AirTags also make great gifts
Apple AirTags consistently appear in our gift guides throughout the year because you can always find another use for one. They’re often reduced in price when sold in packs of four. And there’s an ever-growing ecosystem of ways to mount them, from sturdy vaults that adhere to a car to discrete fabric holders that will keep your favorite classic bomber jacket from flying away. Whenever I show someone how I use AirTags on a bag or keychain, I kind of wish I had a pocket full of AirTags to hand out because once someone sees how it works, they’re sold.
When will this deal expire?
We don’t know how long this deal will last. We saw four-packs available at a slightly higher price ($80) during Amazon Prime Day, and these four-packs do go on sale a few times throughout the year. This particular deal could expire at any time without notice, even before Labor Day weekend is over, so if you know you want to pick some up, I recommend placing your order while you can be sure to get this price, because I’m confident you’ll find new uses for them once you have a few.
Technologies
Score a Free USB-C Charger When You Buy a Top-Rated EcoFlow Power Bank This Labor Day Weekend
Never stress about running out of a charge thanks to this sweet Labor Day deal on a handy power bank.

EcoFlow makes some of our favorite portable batteries and chargers. Its brand-new Rapid series includes compact, fast-charging power banks designed to keep all your devices running on the go. For Labor Day, EcoFlow is bundling in a free charger when you buy from the series.
I found that EcoFlow has set up a tiered promo depending on how much you spend. If you spend at least $59 on Amazon on Rapid series products, you’ll receive a free 30W EcoFlow wall charger. If you step up to $139 or more on Amazon, EcoFlow sweetens the deal with a free 65W fast charger instead. Both gifts are added automatically once you meet the spend threshold, so you’re getting an essential charging accessory for free while picking up new portable power gear.
EcoFlow’s Rapid power banks are designed for people who want compact, fast, and reliable charging when they’re away from an outlet. The lineup includes different capacities to suit different needs, whether that’s keeping a smartphone alive during travel, charging a tablet between meetings, or even giving a laptop an emergency top-up.
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With USB-C Power Delivery support, these packs can charge devices quickly and efficiently, which makes them stand out in a crowded market of slower, bulkier power banks. And there’s no better way to take advantage of this than with a free USB-C charger included.
We like that EcoFlow isn’t just another brand jumping into portable power — the brand already has a strong reputation with their larger home backup batteries and solar generators, and this new line extends that reliability into everyday carry gear. Features like pass-through charging and high-speed output make the Rapid line practical for daily use, whether you’re commuting, traveling, or working remotely.
The compact designs also mean they’ll slip easily into a backpack, messenger bag or even a jacket pocket. If you’re in the market for a portable charger, this promo is an especially easy way to stock up. We’ve seen plenty of brands charge extra for wall adapters, but EcoFlow is bundling them in for free if you jump on the deal.
Why this deal matters
This deal stands out because EcoFlow is offering a meaningful freebie — either a 30W or 65W fast charger — just for buying into its new Rapid lineup. Portable batteries are always useful, but getting an extra high-quality wall charger bundled in saves you money and makes the deal much more valuable.
Since these promos are tied to spending thresholds and are only live for Labor Day, it’s a great time to grab one if you’ve been considering a new power bank.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 30 #545
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 30, No. 545

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one. A few of the words took me a minute to unscramble, but the theme was so clear that the answers were pretty obvious. If you need hints and answers, read on.
I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: No small matter
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Think Godzilla or Goliath.
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
- SEEN, VISE, VISES, LOAN, TAMS, SALE, SALL, GIVE, GIBE, SLIT
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
- HUGE, MIGHTY, MASSIVE, COLOSSAL, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is BIGDEAL. To find it, look for the B that’s five letters down on the far-right row, and wind up and then down.
Toughest Strands puzzles
Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.
#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.
#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.
#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK
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