Technologies

Best Black Friday Chromebook Deals Right Now From Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo and Samsung

These Chromebooks already cost less than many Windows laptops or any MacBook. Black Friday deals make them an even better bargain.

Chromebooks are laptops running Google’s ChromeOS and are designed to be user-friendly for everyone. Even better, the best Chromebooks tend to be more affordable than competing Windows laptops or Apple MacBooks. And the prices only get better this time of year with Black Friday sales. Plus, since they’re safe and less complicated to use, a Chromebook can make an excellent gift for kids (they might already be using one for school) and less tech-savvy adults in need of just a simple computer, or anyone who wants an inexpensive laptop for a home office and entertainment.

Read more: Best Chromebook for 2022

To help you find the best Black Friday Chromebook deal for you, CNET’s editors have selected all the top discounted Chromebooks available right now as Black Friday nears. That includes pricier models that you can pick up on sale, as well as more affordable models that are a great value thanks to their low list price. One word of shopping advice: Although Chromebooks can run well on modest components, Black Friday doorbuster models might still be too underpowered. A big discount might not be worth the frustration. Also, if the Chromebook is really cheap, be sure to check the auto-update expiration date for the model. The AUE is when ChromeOS stops receiving system updates and is typically eight years, but the date is not the same for every model.

We’ll continue to monitor Chromebook deals and regularly update this list with the best Black Friday has to offer.

Best Black Friday Chromebooks

What should you look for in a Chromebook deal?

One of the biggest things to consider is which configuration is on sale. Often, with the best Chromebook deals, only a specific version of the Chromebook is on sale and making any changes to it could affect the price. This means that sometimes you find the 256GB model is actually cheaper than the 128GB option, or a similar situation.

When are the best Chromebook deals available?

Generally, you’ll find the best Chromebook deals during back-to-school shopping time in late summer or early fall, and a bit later in the year during annual Black Friday sales events. There are Chromebook deals available throughout the year, but if you’re looking for the best deal and can afford to wait a little, these are the best times of the year to buy one.

Which retailers usually offer the best Chromebook deals?

You can usually find deals across a variety of retailers when it comes to Chromebook sales. Amazon and Best Buy are constantly running discounts, and deals can also be found at Newegg and Walmart. Amazon’s prices fluctuate and Best Buy’s sales come and go, so it’s worth checking back weekly to see if a discounted price returns.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.

How to set Google Translate as the default on an iPhone or iPad

Setting Google Translate as your default app is simple on an iPhone or iPad, so long as it’s running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 or later.

Download the Google Translate app or update it to the latest version.
Go to the Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
Scroll down to the bottom then select Apps.
Click Default Apps at the top of the screen.
Then choose Translation.
Select Google Translate.

Technologies

The 20 Best PC Games Right Now

Put your gaming computer to the test with the best PC games out right now, including AAA hits like Elden Ring and Black Myth: Wukong as well as indie darlings.

PC gaming gives you the best of most worlds. With a decent budget and some gumption, you can build a solid desktop rig — or you can invest in one of CNET’s best gaming PCs and gain access to a wide world of PC exclusives, indie games and even some titles that were previously exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.

There’s a truly unlimited amount of tags, store queues and interactive recommendations to browse through, and it can get overwhelming trying to find the next best metroidvania, boomer shooter, collectathon or whatever your cup of tea is. PC gamers aren’t lacking for choice.

In fact, between Steam, the Epic Games Store, Game Pass and more, there are thousands upon thousands of games to choose from. One of the biggest issues you can run into with a massive backlog is choice paralysis. Just which are the best PC games out there?

We’re here to help. To narrow your game choices, CNET curated this list of the best PC games you can play right now.

Read more: Best Gaming PC Deals Right Now

TL;DR? These are the 20 best PC games for June 2025

Balatro
Warframe
Baldur’s Gate 3
Overwatch 2
Valorant
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Elden Ring
Cassette Beasts
Dread Delusion
Celeste
Total War: Pharaoh
Stardew Valley
Lunacid
Black Myth: Wukong
Neon White
Helldivers 2
Risk of Rain 2
Soulstone Survivors
Terraria
Haste

PC gaming FAQs

Recent updates to the list

February 2025: While no new games have been added to the list so far this year, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an early frontrunner. A spate of stellar seasonal events, maps and new heroes has also put Marvel Rivals in contention for the PC hero shooter crown.

Read more: The Best Heroes to Play in Marvel Rivals

June 2025: Added Helldivers 2, Risk of Rain 2, Soulstone Survivors, Terraria and Haste to the list in order to represent both games industry behemoths and indie gaming hidden gems.

How we determined CNET’s best PC games

When creating this list of the best PC games, we factored in how unique and enjoyable these games are for most players. We evaluated criteria including graphical quality, innovative gameplay mechanics and compelling narratives. The picks we made cover a variety of genres from fantasy to retro platformers to shooters to strategy games, and while we favored PC-exclusive games and indie titles you won’t find on Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo Switch, we also included some can’t-miss games that appear on multiple platforms. If you’re looking for help choosing your next game, CNET’s top PC list is a good place to start narrowing your choices.