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Prime Day is still two weeks away, but the early deals are already arriving on Amazon. There's everything from the fun, like 8BitDo's Micro Bluetooth gamepad, to the practical, like the Levoit Core 400S air purifier. Falling firmly in the latter category is Amazon's latest offer, a 29 percent discount on the TP-Link Deco AXE5400 WI-Fi mesh router system. You can pick up the three-pack for $250, down from $350.

The TP-Link Deco AXE5400 is our choice for best mesh Wi-Fi system for most people. It debuted in 2023 and scored an 87 in our review thanks to features like its incredible speed — arguably the most important measure of a good Wi-Fi system. It's also very reliable.

The Wi-Fi system is very user-friendly and works well even in a large home. Plus, its basic security and parental control features come at no extra cost. Our only qualms were minimal like the app is a little rough and the power cables are a bit short. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-mesh-wi-fi-system-drops-to-a-record-low-price-ahead-of-prime-day-151326363.html?src=rss

Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released its first full-resolution imageIt was captured using an ultra-powerful 3,200-megapixel digital cameraThe telescope will scan the sky for dark matter, asteroids, and Planet NineThe world’s most powerful digital camera has taken its first photos, and they reveal the cosmos in stunning detail. Shared as part of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s ‘First Look’ campaign, the composite image captures a panoramic view of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae – a region where new stars are being formed.The stills come from the largest digital camera ever made. With a resolution of 3,200MP, it’s the central component of the telescope at the Rubin Observatory in Chile. By capturing a scene some 4-5,000 light years from Earth, the images offer a spectacular glimpse of the star-making machinery of our universe.The full-size image, which you can download here, is made up of 678 individual exposures, measuring around five gigapixels in total. A closer look reveals stellar clouds of dust and gas in breathtaking color and detail. More impressive than the scale, though, is how quickly the observatory produced the image: it took just 7.2 hours.That makes the Rubin unique among space telescopes. By working fast and covering an ultra-wide field of view in each frame, it’s able to map large areas in a short amount of time. The results are as scientifically valuable as they are beautiful. By revealing regions of the universe in new depth, they allow researchers to advance their understanding of our cosmic surroundings.All eyes to the skyVera C. Rubin Observatory telescope pictured during the First Look observing campaign. (Image credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/T. Matsopoulos)These early images mark the start of a new era in astronomy. The Rubin Observatory is about to begin the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a ten-year mission to map the night sky in unprecedented detail. It’s a project which could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe – not just because of what it reveals, but because of how often.Unlike traditional observatories which target narrow slices of space, the Rubin telescope is designed to scan the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every three nights. The dome repositions quickly to cover the heavens, capturing images more than once a minute for around ten hours. This regular cadence will allow astronomers to detect changes more readily.The observatory is situated atop Cerro Pachón, a mountain peak in northern Chile. The remote location, high altitude and dry climate create near perfect conditions for astronomy: the thinner air and lack of light pollution allow the telescope to take advantage of clearer, darker night skies. That gives the Rubin Observatory a wide observational window.During its testing phase, it detected more than 2,000 previously unknown asteroids in just 10 hours, highlighting the telescope’s potential as an early-warning system for our planet.The observatory is also expected to play a leading role in the hunt for the hypothetical Planet Nine, a massive celestial body which some scientists believe to be hiding on the distant edge of our solar system. Its powerful optics and sweeping reach make the Rubin telescope the perfect tool for spotting what's lurking beyond Pluto’s orbit.But perhaps Rubin’s most ambitious goal relates to what can’t be seen. By capturing data from countless galaxies, the observatory will help researchers to build a better picture of the invisible dark matter that makes up most of the universe – and the mysterious dark energy that’s causing its expansion.Key to the mission is the camera itself, which is the largest ever installed on a telescope. The size of a small car, it captures a portion of the sky equivalent to 45 full moons in a single shot.Over the course of its survey, Rubin is expected to generate more than 60 petabytes of data. It will be up to the world’s scientific community to analyze the results and decipher their secrets.You might also like...I spent a year with the $550 smart telescope that's shaking up the astrophotography worldBeyond Webb: why NASA's new $10 billion space telescope is just the beginningI’m an amateur astronomer and this is the stargazing app I can't live without

It's been five breakneck years since Apple unveiled Apple silicon during its first virtual WWDC keynote amid a global pandemic. Even without the visceral on-stage moment of CEO Tim Cook emerging from the shadows to unveil a huge helping of Apple platform excitement, this was momentous.As I wrote back then:"One world, one universe, one platform, unification. Apple’s momentous Worldwide Developer’s Conference keynote just painted a picture of a world in which the walls come down and, from the silicon underneath to the pixels in front of your face, Apple’s ecosystem becomes one."What Apple Silicon will bring to the Mac. #WWDC20 #WWDC2020 pic.twitter.com/oqJ4MtG8zVJune 22, 2020Apple switching hardware platforms was not unheard of – after all, only 14 years earlier, it had migrated its systems from IBM and Motorola's PowerPC to Intel.This time, though, was different. Like an 'A' student preparing for finals, Apple was deeply prepped for this new transition. It used XCode to rewrite all its first-party apps, and worked with major partners like Microsoft and Adobe to ensure that core third-party apps were able to run on the revolutionary new hardware. There was even a Developers Transition Kit ready to go for app partners.Rosetta 2, a software compatibility layer, was also released, promising to ease the transition for non-Arm-ready apps.Silicon promise(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)Back then, I was well aware of the potential benefits of a five-nanometer, power-saving platform. It was the holy grail of mobile computing, one that Microsoft had already approached, though less successfully, with Windows on Arm in the Surface X Pro, which ran on the SQ2 chip.Apple silicon would transform MacBooks from decent battery performers to 17-hour marathoners. I had my concerns about the integrated graphics, but also knew that graphics performance on Apple's bespoke A-series chips on the iPhone and iPad was always stellar, so I also had reason for hope.I saw the potential, writing, "What Apple’s doing is switching all its systems from running on a variety of fuels, like wind, solar, and gas, to just one that might arguably be described as rocket fuel."And yet, I had no intention of switching from Windows to Mac.I had my reasonsIt's not that I was unfamiliar with the Mac. I'd used the OG Macintosh in the 1980s but switched for good to Windows when I joined PCMag in the early 1990s.Windows was for me like an old but beloved car. It could be clunky and even sometimes break down in the middle of the road, but I knew every control and contour. It molded to me, and I, a bit, to it. I knew its foibles, but also knew how to work around them. That no Windows laptop could ever give me more than five hours of battery life (on a good day) was something I accepted, along with the fact that I felt like the blue screen of death was always lurking around some unforeseen corner.Barely five months after the announcement, and developers got their hands on the transition kit, which, among other things, helped them build Universal apps for all systems running Apple silicon. I reviewed the first Apple MacBook Air with the M1 chip. I called it "an astonishing breakthrough."Benchmarks made a mockery of even Intel Core i7 systems, especially in the area of integrated graphics. Battery life was incredible, ranging between 15 and 20 hours. I knew, intuitively, that such a system could transform my life.Even so, the idea of switching from Windows to macOS (the operating system Macs run) was daunting. I think I worried that, with time, I might discover that most of my key apps didn't work on Apple silicon or that Apple wouldn't meet its two-year deadline of fully transitioning away from Intel, and that it might even abandon the project altogether and return to Intel.I needn't have worried. By 2023, even the Mac Pro had switched to an M2 Ultra. I was impressed with Apple's innovative approach to producing ever more powerful Apple silicon chips, often by clustering them together (the M2 Ultra really is two M2 Max chips). What's more, I never found an app that wouldn't run on Apple silicon.Making the change and what might have beenThe first time I touched a MacBook Air M2, until I started using it permanently. (Image credit: Future)Three years into the Apple silicon journey, I switched to the M2 MacBook Air and documented the effort in a journal. There were some struggles, but almost all of them revolved around long-standing differences between macOS and Windows. I was forced to learn many new keyboard commands and shortcuts.Two weeks into my journey, I wrote:"Becoming second nature to use the Mac. Will I ever go back?"Spoiler alert: I never did.If Apple had failed to deliver on the Apple silicon promise it made on June 22, 2020, this would've been a different story (one that might more closely resemble Apple Intelligence). The fact that it made the effort early on to make the hard stuff look easy (supporting all those apps, making different platform apps work on different systems, making it rock-solid stable, and providing industry-leading efficiency) put the wind at Apple silicon's back. Apple showed immediate commitment by unveiling the MacBook Air M1, along with an iMac and a Mac Mini in those first six months.Apple has never looked back and continues to build and innovate on the Apple silicon platform to deliver more powerful mobile CPUs. It's only in the last year or so that, with the help of Qualcomm, the Windows world has started to catch up, nearly matching Apple silicon in performance, efficiency, and stability.Apple silicon changed the computing world, but it also changed me. I walked away from a platform I loved (and still have affection for) and have not looked back. Apple's market share has grown on the back of Apple silicon, and, and least in that Mac space, I think the best is yet to come.You might also likeMac gaming just leveled up – Steam finally runs natively on ...The best Apple silicon Mac apps in 2025: top programs for ...Most Intel MacBook Pro laptops could miss out on macOS ...

Google Earth is celebrating its 20th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Google is bringing historical Street View imagery to the service. In a blog post, Google said the anniversary update allows users to "explore the wonders of the planet from even more viewpoints, whether it’s a bird’s eye view or at street level."

From today, when you load up Google Earth you’ll see a new option for historical imagery in the toolbar, which allows you to move back and forth between now and years gone by. Seemingly predicting that you might be overwhelmed by the prospect of having the entire planet at your fingertips, Google offers some suggestions. You might want to look at a timelapse of Berlin between 1943 and the modern day, in which time the Berlin Wall was built and fell, before the city underwent huge urban transformation. You could also observe the rapid expansion of Las Vegas since the 1980s, or how Houston’s NRG Stadium was built on top of what was just farmland back in 1944. Some Maps users have even used the historical view to look up, say, pictures of their homes from years gone by, occasionally finding imagery of lost loved ones in the process.

Google also announced further updates to Google Earth, including new AI-driven insights for professional users in the US. Urban planners will soon be able to access information about things like tree canopy coverage and surface land temperatures of different areas of a city using built-in Gemini insights.

Google Earth first launched in 2005, and according to Google was downloaded 100 million times in its first week. It’s had a number of major updates over the years, adding features such as searchable wallpapers and 3D timelapse videos.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-brings-historical-street-view-to-google-earth-153040270.html?src=rss

Picking up a new MacBook can be pricey, so we always like sharing when a great model is having a steep sale. If you’re in the market for a lightweight yet powerful laptop, then Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air with the M3 processor might fit the bill, and it’s $450 off right now. In particular, the silver model with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is on sale for $1,249 from its regular price of $1,699.

The M3 MacBook Air was our top budget pick for MacBooks, and we were impressed with its fast performance thanks to the M3 chip, as well as its sturdy and sleek design. We also enjoyed the six-speaker array on the 15-inch model, as well as the 3K Liquid Retina display. Thanks to these features and more, it earned a score of 90 in our hands-on review.

Our only real gripe was that the charging and USB-C ports are all on one side of the MacBook Air, which can make arranging peripherals a touch cluttered. It can also make charging just a little more complicated if you have to drape a charging cable around the laptop to reach the port on the other side.

This sale comes ahead of this year’s Prime Day, which will be Amazon’s longest one yet. Great deals are all over Amazon’s site right now with even more to come during the July 8 to 11 event.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-15-inch-m3-macbook-air-is-450-off-ahead-of-prime-day-154537752.html?src=rss