Thinking of buying the latest Apple AirPods? Amazon has slashed the price of the true wireless earbuds, both with and without the wireless charging case, in a rare AirPods deal.
The price of the AirPods with the wireless charging case has been slashed by £30, representing a discount of 15% – that’s the cheapest we’ve seen them (although the price has dropped that low in the past.)
If you’re not interested in the wireless charging case, you can get the Apple earbuds with the regular case at a discount, too. Check out the deals below.
Today’s best Apple AirPods (2019) deals
Should I buy the Apple AirPods?
You may be wondering whether it’s the best time to buy a pair of Apple AirPods, with Black Friday 2019 coming up on November 29. It’s definitely possible that these prices will fall even lower during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Apple products rarely see the enormous discounts that other brands lavish upon us during the massive sales event.
There’s also the possibility that Apple is gearing up to release the Apple AirPods 2 in 2020. We didn’t see them at the recentiPhone 11 launch event, but a ‘leaked’ image could suggest an AirPods 2 release date is on the horizon.
The 2019 AirPods certainly weren’t the AirPods 2 we were hoping for, with precious little difference between them and the original AirPods.
However, the new H1 chip does improves connectivity and battery life, and allows for a new ‘Hey Siri’ voice activation feature, while the wireless charging case means you can use a Qi-compatible charging mat to power the device, rather than sticking a cable into the Lightning charging port in the bottom of the case.
So, if that all appeals to you, these deals could well worth be taking advantage of – if not, you’ll have to keep your fingers crossed for a speedy AirPods 2 launch in 2020.
However, Apple did update its website with the news that iPadOS will be released on September 30, so you’ll be able to download it then. Sadly, that’s a bit later than iOS 13’s public release, but better a bit late than never.
The new operating system is a big change for Apple, which finally committed to splitting the the iPad’s software from the iPhone’s OS it had run on since the tablet first came out.
The public beta for iPadOS has been open for a while, but for the finished product, you haven’t got long to wait.
We have a list of the best iPadOS features you’ll be able to experience when the new software rolls out. Sure, there are shared a lot of changes. After all, it “builds on the same foundation as iOS,” according to Apple, but expect iPadOS to grow more into its own operating system over time.
iPadOS brings a variety of critical improvements to the tablet UI. Some of these make better use of screen real estate while others introduce new gesture controls (and even mouse support) for a better tablet experience. In short, iPad users won’t just run an upsized iOS any longer.
iPadOS release date and public beta timing
Apple has confirmed through its website that iPadOS will be available to download from September 30 – that’s a little later than iOS 13.
That means the new iPad Pro, which we’re expecting to see launched in mid-October, should come with the operating system pre-installed.
The iPadOS public beta release date landed on June 24, and it contains a lot of the features Apple shows us at its WWDC 2019 keynote. Since then, Apple has pushed a new version out to enrolled tablets, with iPadOS public beta 2 made available from July 8. From there we’ve had the first iPadOS 13.1 public beta, as the new changes move forward ahead of the impending ‘full’ release.
Which iPads will work with iPadOS?
Apple has confirmed that the “iPad Air 2 and later, all iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 4 and later” will all get the iPadOS update when it releases later this year.
So which iPads are missing out this year, after getting iOS 12 in 2018? Well it’s the end of the update road for the original iPad Air, iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 3. It’s unclear if older iPads will be getting iOS 13 or if they’ve been completely left behind.
The following iPads will get an update to iPadOS in (likely) September and October)
(As a reminder, it’s always best to avoid using the beta version of software on a primary or daily-use device, as there can sometimes be erratic elements within the system – wait until the final version lands in the near future.)
New iPadOS home screen
Today View alongside a tighter grid of apps on the new iPadOS home screen. Image credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
The first big change over you’ll notice in iPadOS is on the new home screen. The grid of app icons is tighter, allowing you to fit more on the screen and reducing the amount of dead space on the display.
With a tighter grid of apps, there’s now an option to show Today View alongside them, for a more useful overview screen.
It can be added to the Home screen for quick access to widgets with a simple swipe from the left side of the screen, and you can switch out the widgets pinned here to display the ones most relevant to you.
Sidecar is a big new change
If you’re wondering what the biggest feature of iPadOS might be, Sidecar is a real contender. It natively bakes in wired (or wireless) support for using your iPad as a Mac second screen, bringing with it a whole host of functionality.
This mode effectively turns any iPad into a portable monitor, one with a powerful internal battery, allowing apps and multiple windows to be dragged onto its screen and interacted with using a mouse, keyboard or Apple Pencil.
You can’t mess around with the resolution just yet, so you can’t work in super fine detail and may want to wait a little while until the final software launch appears in late September – but even at this early stage, Apple fans will find they’ve suddenly got a new screen for their Mac right in another pocket of their backpack.
iPadOS has a new way to multitask
Slide Over in iPadOS in action, with a side view of Messages over Safari. Image credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
Multitasking also gets an upgrade on iPadOS is a few ways.
First up, you’ll be able to use Split View to see two app windows at a time for the same app, or two different apps. iPadOS uses a drag-and-drop interface here, making switching between apps and windows easy.
Slide Over lets you quickly pull up an app in a side window, over the top of another app – allowing you to quickly check things such as emails, messages or reminders without having to exit the current app you’re using.
Dragging up from the bottom of the screen will allow you to move between apps in the Slide Over panel.
Apple has also brought the Mac’s Exposé feature to iPadOS, allowing you to get an overview of all your open apps – making it easy to jump between them, and close down any you no longer need running in the background.
iPadOS gets USB drive and SD card support
USB drive and SD card support arrives in iPadOS. Image credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
External storage fans rejoice! iPadOS will allow you to plug a USB drive or SD card reader into your iPad, and the Files app will be able to read the plugin and allow you to easily manage data between the iPad’s internal storage and the external drive.
Files gets a Column View to better take advantage of the iPad’s wide screen, and the iCloud Drive allows folder sharing, and will show content from a USB drive or SD card if they’re plugged in.
There’s good news for photographers too, as support is being built into iPadOS to allow you to plug your camera into your iPad and import images directly into editing apps such as Lightroom.
iPadOS performance boost
Your current iPad could get a performance boost when iPadOS arrives, with Apple claiming that its tablet-specific operating system is quicker than iOS 12.
It says Face ID unlocks are up to 30% faster, while apps launch up to twice as fast as on iOS 12 – and apps themselves should be smaller in download size (by up to 50%), taking up less of that precious storage space.
Desktop-quality websites and browsing on iPadOS
Image 1 of 2
A desktop-class Google Docs website with touch optimization on iPadOS. Image Credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
Image 2 of 2
Desktop-class websites and 30 new keyboard shortcuts. Image Credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
The Safari web browser is also improved with iPadOS, because it’s no longer purely tied to iOS and a mobile ecosystem.
That’s right: you’re no longer just viewing mobile sites, as iPadOS views websites in a modified desktop view that’s a bit cleaner and optimized for touch.
It doesn’t just work with Apple’s websites either – the likes of Google Docs and WordPress web apps will also work better with Safari on iPadOS.
Apple’s browser will also get a download manager, 30 new keyboard shortcuts, and improved tab management when iPadOS lands later this year.
New iPadOS gestures
One of the bigger features across the whole of iPadOS are the new gestures. The ones we’ve seen are pretty simple: three-finger pinch to cut, three-finger splay to paste, three-finger swipe to undo. Easy.
In some apps, you’ll also be able to two-finger-pinch the keyboard to shrink it to iOS mobile size and move it around. Plunk it next to the side of the screen and boom: you can type on it with one thumb.
Add to that the new gestures for the home screen and multi-tasking, and there may be a learning curve required to get used to all the new interactions which come with iPadOS.
Markup and much more on iPadOS
Image 1 of 2
The new tool palette for the Apple Pencil, which can be dragged anywhere on the screen. Image credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
Image 2 of 2
There’s a bunch of new custom fonts on iPadOS. Image Credit: Apple
(Image credit: Apple)
Markup also gets an update, and you’ll be able to mark up entire web pages, documents and emails.
A simple swipe up from the corner with your Apple Pencil launches markup and brings up the newly-redesigned tool palette, which can be dragged around and repositioned anywhere on the screen.
And speaking of the Pencil, Apple has reduced the latency of its input from 20ms to 9ms, which means you’ll get a more natural, pen-like experience when using it.
Plenty of new features that are coming to iOS 13 are also headed to iPadOS, like Dark Mode, custom fonts, the new Photos organized by machine learning, and the SwiftKey-like slide-and-type QuickPath keyboard feature.
Mouse support for iPadOS
iPadOS does supports connecting a mouse to your iPad, though it’s not something you’ll find front-and-center on the official iPadOS features list.
Developer Steve Troughton-Smith initially tweeted out instructions he’d discovered to connect a mouse through new Accessibility settings, and Tom’s Guide successfully activated a mouse on an iPad. While it doesn’t seem to be the smoothest thing, we’re excited for a serious leap in the iPad family’s productivity potential and accessibility.
Oracle is planning to open three more data centres in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries by next year in a bid to up the game against Amazon Web Services.
The US software giant is planning to open one more data centre in the UAE, likely in Dubai, and two in Saudi Arabia as part of their “in-country” dual region strategy to help customers address disaster recovery and compliance needs and expand the footprint for Microsoft Azure interconnect.
Big tech companies have shown interest in the Middle East, especially in the UAE, to open data centres. Amazon Web Services has a cluster of data centres in Bahrain and the UAE.
Oracle already opened its first data centre in the UAE this year in Abu Dhabi while Microsoft opened its data centres in Dubai and Abu Dhabi recently.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has already invested in the one data centre in the UAE while Huawei is also set to open its data centre in the UAE this year.
Oracle announced at the OpenWorld that it plans to launch 20 new Oracle Cloud regions by the end of 2020, for a total of 36 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure regions compared to 25 for Amazon Web Services.
Oracle has opened 12 regions in the past year and currently operates 16 regions globally—11 commercial and five government—the fastest expansion by any major cloud provider by opening an average of one region every 23 days over the next 15 months.
High availability round-the-clock
Karan Batta, director of product management for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, told TechRadar Middle East that most of our customers are running mission-critical applications today that require high availability while the data centres will be completely isolated from each other and can withstand the failure of each other, with different power sources and networks.
“Every time we go to a region, we have plans for a second region [more data centres] in that country for various reasons such as data residency, natural disaster and high availability for our customers to build highly available applications without crossing borders. It is an orders-of-magnitude difference when compared to Amazon Web Services,” he said.
Most of the packaged applications such as PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, he said, require very high availability to run round-the-clock with guarantees that customers want from a back-office application standpoint.
“For that, we need a second data centre in a country. With these dual regions, customers can deploy both production and disaster recovery capacity within their country or jurisdiction to meet business continuity and compliance requirements.”
Building intelligence into every layer of the cloud
Moreover, Batta said that Oracle is the only company delivering a complete and integrated set of cloud services and building intelligence into every layer of the cloud.
“There is a change in strategy in the last few years. We have an autonomous database and autonomous applications. If you look at other cloud providers, everybody has compute, storage and networking at the end of the day.
“We have built compute, storage, database, networking and services a little bit differently in a bid to tune to our customers,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that other cloud providers offer pre-selected products and services by “lift, edit and shift” but Oracle provides “lift and shift” method to move your 10-year old OS and virtualize it.
“Our model is move in and improve. Amazon gives you a bunch of Lego bricks and tells you to build your own. It is our responsibility to protect you and we are going to have foolproof services,” he said.
Vodafone plans to expand its retail presence with the opening of 24 new high street stores in premises that were previously vacant.
The Newbury-based operator is expanding its franchise programme, inviting local entrepreneurs to manage stores with no up-front costs involved. Franchisees will be provided with devices to sell and will earn commission on sales.
More than a third of Vodafone’s existing 400 stores are franchises, with 50 added this year alone. The first two stores to open through this expansion are in Morecambe, Lancashire, and St Austell, Cornwall.
Vodafone store
The expansion has two aims. The first is to strengthen Vodafone’s multi-channel approach by allowing customers who want in-person advice on a new contract or device to visit a physical location.
Although customers are able to research products and gain support online, Vodafone stores still attract 20 million visits a year and account for 70 per cent of pay-monthly sales.
The second aim is to “bring life” to high streets across the UK following a wave of closures.
“As a business with its roots in the UK, we are keen to do what we can to help local communities, whether that is giving local entrepreneurs the opportunity to be their own boss of a retail store or extending our network to remote areas,” said Vodafone UK CEO Nick Jeffrey.
“New services have helped us become the fastest growing home broadband provider this year and attract thousands of new mobile customers every week. With this momentum, we are looking to extend our high street presence so that we can provide face-to-face advice and support to even more customers.”
There are a few things Apple is known for with its snartphones. Innovation, style, easy-to-use IOS. But perhaps above all, it’s the massive price tags. And nothing resembles that eye-watering price range more than the new iPhone 11 Pro Max deals.
With that in mind, for those that want Apple in one of its larger forms, we actually think last year’s iPhone XS Max could be the way to go. While this older phone is also a pricey investment, a recent crash in price has made it a more than affordable alternative.
Of course, there is a reason for the 11 Pro Max’s hefty price tag. It is currently Apple’s best phone, rocking a triple camera set-up, the fastest CPU around and a glorious HD screen. But, if you don’t mind taking a small reduction in power and dropping down to a dual camera system, the iPhone XS Max will be the far cheaper option.
This brilliant iPhone XS Max deal in full:
The closest iPhone 11 Pro Max deal:
iPhone XS Max or 11 Pro Max? Which deals should you choose?
Across the device, everything about the iPhone XS Max feels premium. Apple’s near infinity OLED display with smart HDR looks stunning and its 3174mAh battery is a vast improvement on previous options. Although it hasn’t been hugely improved on from the previous model it’s an impressive phone to get for the price on offer.
For those looking for the best in life, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is just that. It currently stands as the best (and most expensive) iPhone on the market but it is clear to see why. A 3969mAh battery, a camera night-mode to compete with the best and even Apple’s own Super Retina XDR OLED screen – a fancy way of saying ‘very high definiton’.
The 2019 iPad was just unveiled last week at the Apple Event, and it’s already on sale right now at Amazon. For a limited time, you can pre-order the 10.2-inch Apple iPad with 128GB of storage for $399.99 at Amazon. That’s a $30 discount and the best price we’ve found for the latest iPad.
The 2019 Apple iPad features a larger screen with a 10.2-inch Retina display that now supports a full-size smart keyboard. The updated tablet runs on iPadOS, which improves the overall experience with new ways to multitask, use of the Apple Pencil and a redesigned Home screen. The iPad still packs the powerful A10 Fusion chip and includes an impressive 1.2MP front-facing camera. The new iPad provides an all-day battery life of 10 hours and offers Touch-ID for secure entry.
This rare deal from Amazon is for the Apple iPad with 128GB of storage and comes in your color choice of gold, silver, or grey. The 2018 128GB iPad is currently on sale for $379 at Walmart which is only $20 less than Amazon’s offer on the 2019 model. The 2018 model comes with a smaller screen and lacks the ability to use a full-size keyboard and Apple Pencil. We don’t know how long Amazon will have the pre-order deal available, so you should act now before it’s too late.
If you’re looking for deals on older model iPads, Walmart has the 2018 iPad with 32GB of storage on sale for $249, and the 2018 iPad with 128GB of storage on sale for $379.
iPad deals:
Apple iPad 32GB $329 $249 at Walmart For a limited time you can save $80 on the 2018 Apple iPad at Walmart. A fantastic price for a tablet, the 9.7-inch iPad features 32GB of storage and comes in your choice of Gold, Silver or Space Grey. View Deal
Apple iPad 128GB $429.99 $379 at Walmart Get the 6th generation Apple iPad on sale for $379. That’s a $50 discount for the tablet that packs 128GB of storage, an A10 Fusion chip and comes in your color choice of Silver, Gold or Space Grey. View Deal
Interested in other iPad models? We’ve listed even more of the cheapest iPad dealsthat are currently available.
What started off as a slightly odd addition has expanded into a range of One phones for specific needs. This, as the name suggests, is pitches at those wanting their phone to be an excellent action camera. Here’s our full Motorola One Action review.
The Motorola One range is named as such because it comes with Android One. This means it comes with stock Android and the promise of future upgrades. We’ll explain more later on in the review.
Price
By looking at it, you wouldn’t guess how affordable this phone is – despite Motorola’s reputation for value.
It’s just £219 which means it’s actually cheaper than the Moto G7, which is an extra £20. The price means it’s one of the cheapest mid-range smartphones on the market and isn’t far off being budget. You can buy it from or Amazon.
There are other Moto One phones to consider including the One Zoom and One Vision, each with their own special skill in the photography department.
In terms of style, it’s not obvious that the One Action is a smartphone that’s focused on the camera. The module sits in the top corner of the phone like many others on the market.
That’s not to say it looks bad, this is an extremely attractive phone for the price. We love the One Vision and really the Action is its twin brother, sporting an almost identical design.
You’re getting a gorgeous combination of metal and glass, although the back is made from plastic. At this price it’s impressive to see small bezels and a ‘punch-hole’ camera not dissimilar to the Galaxy S10.
It’s not especially thin or light, but it doesn’t feel like a brick either. The main thing here is whether you’re happy to have such a tall phone. A widescreen might be good for some things, but it doesn’t make it easy to hold and use one-handed so bear this in mind.
For a phone that’s pitched as an action camera, we expected it to be more rugged. However, it only has an IPX2 rating which is technically only able to withstand dripping water. The One Vision has a better rating of IP52 so it dust protected, too.
This is something of a design flaw then as most people will expect to be able to shoot underwater footage if this is going to replace a GoPro or at least not worry if it gets a decent splash from something like a waterfall, for example.
We looked at the stylish Denim Blue colour but you can also get the One Action in Pearl White and Aqua Teal.
Specs and features
Since the One phones are all about the cameras, let’s start with what the Action can do in terms of photography and video first. Then we’ll look at the other aspects including the screen, performance, battery life and more.
Cameras
The reason for the Action name is a third camera with a wide-angle lens that offers a 117 degree field of view and a transverse-mounted sensor behind it. That means when you shoot video with the Action camera, you can hold the phone in a portrait orientation and get landscape video. This means it’s possible to hold the phone relatively steady with one hand and film; it’s much more difficult to do this when you phone is sideways.
There’s a problem, though. The Moto One Action isn’t a good replacement for a real action camera. As mentioned earlier, it isn’t water-resistant and also can’t be easily mounted to anything.
And aside from rotating the sensor by 90 degrees, Motorola hasn’t done anything else to make this a better GoPro than any other phone with a wide-angle lens on the back. Unlike the main camera which can record 4K video, the action camera is limited to 1080p. You do have a choice of a 21:9 aspect ratio, as well as the usual 16:9 at 30- or 60fps.
There’s reasonably effective digital stabilisation, which is something you’re unlikely to find on wide-angle cameras on competing phones. However, you can get visually similar footage by recording video using the wide-angle camera in any other phone. You’ll just have to hold it sideways to get landscape footage that displays properly on a TV.
The actual footage from the action camera is decent, although you’ll easily notice the softness of the video when you’re moving compared to how sharp it is when standing still. Dynamic range isn’t wonderful, so you’ll see blown-out skies and a lack of detail in shadowy areas.
Audio is recorded clearly, though as with any phone, it can be hard to capture what people are saying unless they are really close to you.
The bottom line is that the One Action can shoot GoPro-style video, but it lacks the other features necessary to make it a proper substitute, mainly the ability to mount it to stuff so you can film hands-free.
The other cameras are decent enough – there’s a 12Mp main camera with a 5Mp depth sensor also on the back – but that doesn’t help with the headline feature isn’t exactly a knock-out..
If you want to take selfies, that camera which is surrounded by the display is also 12Mp and can record 4K video. It’s offers good quality when the conditions are right, including a portrait mode with adjustable blur – our example has maximum blur.
Screen
As mentioned earlier, the One Action has a very tall screen. It’s 21:9 aspect ratio makes it wider than most other phones on the market. It means you can ditch the black bars on most films but otherwise the bars are there – pinch zooming to fill the screen means you’re chopping a lot off.
Even when they’re not, the embedded camera is something of a distraction as it’s a larger lens than more expensive examples like the S10.
It’s the same 6.3in IPS display that Motorola has used on the One Vision. It’s got a crisp Full HD+ resolution and offers an impressively high peak brightness of 370cd/m2 so you’ll be able to see what’s going on outdoors even in tricky conditions.
This is IPS rather than OLED but that’s to be expected at this almost budget price. And really the screen is still suitably punchy and vibrant.
Performance
Most Android phones use a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor but the One range opts for Samsung chips. The One Action has an Exynos 9609 – a 2.2GHz octa-core processor which is backed up by 4GB of RAM.
There’s a decent 128GB of storage, important when you’re going to be shooting a lot of video with this phone. And there’s a microSD card slot so you can put a further 512GB in as well.
This is the same setup as the One Vision so it’s no surprise to find that performance is identical. It’s impressive stuff overall, outpacing the more expensive (by RRP) Moto G7.
Thanks to the clean Android One software, things generally run quite smooth but we have noticed the odd bit of occasional lag here and there with some apps. This isn’t an ideal handset for any really demanding gaming so look elsewhere if this is important, such as the Honor Play.
You can see our benchmark results below compared with other phones.
Connectivity and audio
There’s nothing special about the One Action in this area but for your information, the phone provides the things you would expect to find. This including 11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS and NFC.
There’s also a fingerprint scanner on the back and you can opt to use face unlock if you want.
It’s good news that the One Action has a headphone jack, but it only has a single speaker at the bottom. Dolby Audio provides a smart mode along with music and movie modes for optimised sound quality.
Battery life
Moving onto battery life and this is another area where the One Action is pretty average.
There’s a 3500mAh battery and Motorola claims ‘all-day’ usage. Of course, this will depend on what you’re doing.
In general use – web browsing and using social media apps etc – it will get through a day, but if you’re out shooting video with the action camera then it’s unlikely to make it. In the Geekbench 4 test with the screen set to 120cd/m2, the phone lasted a so so five hours and 41 minutes.
There’s no TurboCharge here either so the included 10W rapid charger can only get the One Action from dead to 29% in 30 minutes.
Software
There’s little to say when it comes to software but that’s a good thing. As mentioned at the start, the One series is named as such due to being part of the Android One program. It promises, at the least, OS upgrades for two years as well as regular security patches for three years.
Getting stock Android means no messing around with the interface like you would get with brands such as Samsung and Sony. Well, Motorola offers minor tweaks such as the clock widget and the addition of the Moto app.
This is where you find genuinely useful features like Actions and Display. These allow some handy gestures like twisting your wrist twice (with the phone in hand, of course) to launch the camera and peek display which shows notifications and the like when the screen is off.
You don’t get Moto Voice, which is a shame.
Verdict
The One Action is yet another affordable smartphone from Motorola that offers more than you would expect for the price.
It offers a modern style and good build quality for the price along with a decent screen and Android One software. We also like the screen, although it might be too tall for some with it’s 21:9 aspect ratio.
The key focus is the camera, particularly the dedicated action camera and this is sadly where we run into some issues. There are some good features here like filming landscape while holding the phone in portrait orientation and decent stabilisation.
However, for an action camera, we’d expect the phone to be more rugged than it’s measly IPX2 rating. It’s also limited to 1080p and there’s the issue of not easily being able to mount the phone to various things you would with an actual action camera.
You’re still getting a decent phone for your money, but it’s a shame Motorola hasn’t nailed it on the key selling point here. We still prefer the Moto G7 as a more all-rounder.
