Technologies

Amazon Prime Day Drops Fitbit Ace LTE Kids Smartwatch to a New Record-Low Price

Score nearly 40% off this Fitbit smartwatch for your kids on Prime Day’s final day.

Many of us have smartwatches as they’re helpful for so many tasks, like tracking your steps or making phone calls — all without taking your phone out of your pocket. Parents also often find that they make great alternatives to their kids’ mobile phones. While they tend to be rather expensive, you can find discounts throughout the year.

This Prime Day, you can score a Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch for its lowest price ever at only $114, which is perfect if you want to start shopping early for the holidays. Slashing the cost by almost 40% off its regular price of $180, this is a record-low deal that you won’t want to miss. And since Prime Day ends tonight, this deal isn’t going to stick around much longer.

The Fitbit Ace LTE is equipped with 4G for connectivity on the go, and it’s designed to be set up as a standalone device without the need to be paired to a phone — ideal for parents who want to be able to communicate with or track younger kids who aren’t ready for a mobile phone of their own. It does require a subscription to enable the call and text service via the Fitbit Ace app, as well as location tracking and on-device games. The watch offers some innovative features, including games that encourage kids to move and watch bands that unlock different features.

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The watch is designed to make movement more sustainable for kids. According to former CNET Editor Lisa Eadicicco, «With the Fitbit Ace LTE, Google is trying to strike a balance of encouraging kids to move without pushing them to overexercise. Activity rewards hit a limit each day to prevent kids from exercising too much just to unlock new content.» With a battery life of up to 16 hours, kids can enjoy their games and stay in touch with family during school and other activities. Other features like Tap to Pay via supported kids’ debit cards are also super useful for kids on the go.

Don’t want to shop at Amazon? That’s fine, this deal along with many others is available at Walmart, too.

SMARTWATCH DEALS OF THE WEEK

Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 46mm, Black, M/L Sports Band):

$329 (save $100)
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (Bluetooth, 40mm, Cream):

$200 (save $100)
Amazfit Active 42mm Smartwatch With 14 Day Battery Life (Black):

$85 (save $25)
Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch With AMOLED Display:

$200 (save $100)
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (Wi-Fi, LTE, 47mm, Titanium Silver):

$500 (save $150)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

Smartwatches don’t come cheap, whether they’re for you or your child. Fitbit is one of the first ones in the game, making top trusted fitness watches for everyone. Amazon Prime Day has knocked the price down to a record low we haven’t seen before. During Amazon’s last Prime Day event, we saw this watch go to a record low of $171. This is a much better deal. But since Prime Day ends today, don’t spend too long thinking about it.

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Technologies

A Hacker Threat Is Hiding in Your Car’s Tire Pressure System

A new study reveals that a car’s tire pressure monitoring system can be easily accessed by hackers.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Feb. 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 27.

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.

Was today’s Mini Crossword too short for you? The New York Times now has a Midi Crossword, which is not as big as the original NYT Crossword, but longer than the Mini. Read on for the answers to today’s Mini Crossword. 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: Lacking locks
Answer: BALD

5A clue: One of the Great Lakes
Answer: ERIE

6A clue: Movie with the fake newspaper headline «Wonder Elephant Soars to Fame!»
Answer: DUMBO

8A clue: Live tweeter?
Answer: BIRD

9A clue: The slightest bit
Answer: ATAD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Hard thing to leave on a cold day
Answer: BED

2D clue: Caribbean island northwest of Curaçao
Answer: ARUBA

3D clue: The sky, in a saying
Answer: LIMIT

4D clue: Actress Messing
Answer: DEBRA

7D clue: Like this clue number
Answer: ODD

Technologies

Smartphone Sales to Plummet 13% in 2026 Due to RAM Crisis, Says IDC

AI-fueled memory scarcity is hitting the phone market hard this year, particularly for inexpensive, low-end devices.

The projected shortage of memory chips worldwide will have a more serious impact on smartphone sales in 2026 than previously projected, according to new data from International Data Corporation Worldwide. Whereas the company just in November had estimated a drop of between 0.9% and 5.2% (the latter being its «pessimistic scenario»), now it sees a 12.9% decline this year, based on its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

«What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry,» Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for Worldwide Client Devices at IDC, said in a statement.

The hardest-hit companies are expected to be those selling to the lower end of the market, which can’t absorb the higher component costs while maintaining profitable margins. As a result, Jeronimo says, many of those players will pass the added costs on to consumers.

That also includes regional markets like the Middle East and Africa that sell mostly inexpensive smartphones, which could see a steep 20.6% drop year-over-year.

By contrast, IDC expects Apple and Samsung to be better able to withstand the crisis. «As smaller and low-end-positioned Android vendors struggle with rising costs, Apple and Samsung could not only weather the storm but potentially expand market share as the competitive landscape tightens,» said Jeronimo.

Memory has become scarce due to the insatiable demand to feed generative AI. Essentially all of the memory set to be manufactured this year is already earmarked. What started as a demand for graphics processors has expanded to other components. For example, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital announced in early February that it had already sold out of its supply for 2026.

«We expect consolidation as smaller players exit, and low-end vendors face sharp shipment declines amid supply constraints and lower demand at higher price points,» said Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, projecting a 14% rise in the average selling price of smartphones to $523.

Popal expects memory prices to stabilize by the middle of 2027, but doesn’t see them coming down to earlier levels. The sub-$100 segment, made up of approximately 171 million devices, will be «permanently uneconomical,» she said. «In short, there is no return to business as usual for vendors and consumers.»