Technologies

Prime Day 2025: How to Use Amazon Layaway for Big July Sales

Here’s how to see if you can use Amazon Layaway for Fourth of July and Prime Day sales this month.

Amazon Prime Day is happening July 8 through July 11, and it’s one of the best online sales events of the year. Whether you’re looking forward to getting a good deal on new tech, home goods or anything in between, there will probably be a deal for it on Prime Day. And if you’re lucky, you might even be able to take advantage of Amazon’s Layaway program for your next purchase.

Amazon Layaway isn’t available for everyone, so you’ll either see the option in your account when checking out or you won’t. If you’re not sure if you’re eligible, we’ll show you where to look to see if your item is eligible and how it compares to other payment options available.

For more, check out the early Independence Day deals you can grab right now before Prim Day kicks off.

Check your item’s eligibility for Amazon Layaway

If an item you’re looking at is eligible for layaway, you’ll see a tag that says Reserve with Layaway — you may also see this when you add it to your cart. If you don’t see it, your item likely isn’t eligible.

Once you add all eligible items to your cart, select Reserve with Layaway at checkout next to each item you’d like to place on layaway. If you’re using Amazon Layaway you will not have to have your credit checked, so you won’t need to worry about this program affecting your credit.

Amazon’s layaway program isn’t available for orders shipping to Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC or outside of the US. Also, Amazon may remove its layaway program even if you had it as an option before.

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How Amazon Layaway works

Amazon divides the total price of the product you’re buying into five payments — not including tax and shipping. You’ll pay 20% upfront and make four additional 20% payments on the scheduled dates Amazon assigns. Your bill will come due every two weeks, for a total of eight weeks. Taxes and shipping costs will be included with your final payment, so it’ll be a bit more than the other payments.

When you make the first payment, Amazon reserves your item until it’s paid off — just like typical layaway. Once you pay it off, Amazon will ship the item to you. You won’t be charged interest while making payments, as you’re not financing your order.

What if I forget to make a payment?

If you forget to make one of your scheduled payments, Amazon will send you an email letting you know your payment attempt was unsuccessful. If you don’t make the payment before the next scheduled date, Amazon will cancel your layaway plan and refund all the money you’ve paid so far.

You won’t be charged any fees for overdue or canceled layaway plans. Also, if you have an overdue layaway plan, you won’t be able to start a new layaway plan.

If you decide to pay the balance in full ahead of time, log in to your Amazon account and go to My Orders > Order Details > Manage Payment Plans, and then click on Pay early.

How is this different from Amazon’s «Pay in 5 months» plan?

If you’ve never seen the «Amazon Layaway» name being advertised for a product, but do see the «Or $$$/month for 5 months (no fees or interest)» under the price of an item, then you’re actually in luck.

Also subject to availability, your purchase is broken into five monthly installments instead of over the course of eight weeks. Like Amazon Layaway, there are no additional fees or interest charges. And unlike Amazon Layaway, your items are shipped immediately. Your first payment will include the taxes and any shipping charges that may be involved, but the remaining four payments will all remain the same price.

How is this different from Amazon’s Affirm payment plan?

Using Amazon Layaway has no additional fees: Your only charges are for the product and any shipping costs and taxes. The Affirm payment plan lets you buy now and pay later, but you get your items immediately. This is because it finances your order, which means you’ll have to go through a credit approval process first.

However, with Affirm, if you miss a payment, it could potentially harm your credit score since Affirm reports some payment records, positive and negative, to the credit bureaus. Plus, it could come with interest, causing you to pay more in the long run — Affirm payment options can range anywhere from six weeks to 60 months. Some transactions may also be interest-free.

If you can wait eight weeks for the items you’ve ordered to be delivered, we recommend going with the layaway plan and avoiding buy now, pay later programs.

For more, here’s how to get Amazon Prime for free ahead of the big July sale.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 11

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 11.

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a bit tricky. 1-Down is one of those old-fashioned comic-book sounds that I had to remember how to spell correctly. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Study of the human mind, informally
Answer: PSYCH

6A clue: Common fixture in a gym bathroom
Answer: SCALE

7A clue: Kinda boring
Answer: HOHUM

8A clue: Like a commenter without a username, for short
Answer: ANON

9A clue: «All good between us?»
Answer: WEOK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Old-fashioned «Yeah, right!»
Answer: PSHAW

2D clue: Coffeehouse pastry
Answer: SCONE

3D clue: Google alternative
Answer: YAHOO

4D clue: Sound of a dull thump
Answer: CLUNK

5D clue: Line on the bottom of a pant leg
Answer: HEM

Technologies

OnePlus and Oppo to Raise Smartphone Prices as Memory Costs Climb

Oppo says rising costs for key phone components will trigger price adjustments on some devices starting March 16.

Chinese smartphone-makers OnePlus and Oppo plan to raise prices on some existing models starting next week, according to a 9to5Google report citing GizmoChina and a notice posted on Oppo’s China online store.

In its notice, Oppo said it would adjust pricing after evaluating rising costs for several key components used in its mobile phones. The changes are expected to take effect around March 16 and will affect some of the company’s more affordable smartphones, as well as some OnePlus models.

Flagship devices — like those in the Find and Reno series — are not expected to be affected for now. The reported adjustments currently appear to be limited to China.

The move highlights growing pressure across the smartphone supply chain as component costs climb. Analysts say prices for memory and storage chips used in phones have been rising in recent months as demand surges across the tech industry.

Much of the chip demand is coming from the rapid buildout of AI data centers, which rely on large amounts of high-performance memory.

That pressure isn’t limited to Oppo and OnePlus. Analysts say smartphone brands across the industry are facing rising component costs amid increased demand for memory chips.

As manufacturers shift production toward higher-margin memory used in AI servers, supply for consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops can tighten.

If component costs continue to rise, manufacturers may face difficult choices later this year, including raising retail prices or adjusting device specifications to offset higher manufacturing costs.

OnePlus and Oppo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Harvard Business Review Study Finds ‘AI Brain Fry’ Is Leaving Workers Mentally Fatigued

Study participants reported increased mental fatigue while using AI tools, but less burnout overall.

Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.

This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as «AI brain fry» — is described as a «‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog» that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.

Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.

Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.

The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue «is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.»

These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.

The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. «Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,» the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.

Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools «worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,» but warned that «workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.»