UPDATE: Nov. 21, 2018, 1:05 p.m. AEDT Apple has updated its system status to mark both the App Store and Apple Music as a “resolved issue.” Both platforms seem to be back up and running, after having been experiencing an “issue” from 12:20 p.m. to 12.52 p.m.
When trying to connect to the App Store, some users were met with a blank screen.
Cannot connect.
Image: mashable screenshot
Can’t connect here either.
Image: mashable screenshot
Apple’s system status originally didn’t show any sign of an outage, but when contacted by Mashable, an Apple Support representative said they too could see a lack of connection to the App Store.
Finally, the system status report showed an “issue” with the App Store — and Apple Music.
Issues afoot.
Image: mashable screenshot
People began reporting Apple Music and Books as down too, with Apple Music highlighted as having an “issue” on Apple’s system status page.
Apple Music’s Radio functionality appears to be down.
Image: Mashable screenshot
No music to be streamed in Apple Music today.
Image: Mashable Screenshot
Mashable has contacted Apple for further information.
Folks on Twitter reported outages too, commenting on a likely scheduled tweet from the App Store.
As many as 13 games available to download in the Google Play Store were actually Android malware and downloaded more than 560,000 times, a security researcher said this week.
The apps, listed as car and truck simulators and racing games, are no longer on the store. TechCrunch reports that an Android security researcher found that the games were just a cover to download malware in the background.
Don’t install these apps from Google Play – it’s malware.
Details: -13 apps -all together 560,000+ installs -after launch, hide itself icon -downloads additional APK and makes user install it (unavailable now) -2 apps are #Trending -no legitimate functionality -reported pic.twitter.com/1WDqrCPWFo
A Google spokesperson confirmed the apps were removed from the store, “Providing a safe and secure experience for our users is our top priority. We appreciate the researcher’s report and their efforts to help make Google Play more secure. The apps violated our policies and have been removed from the Play Store.”
The apps all came from a developer named Luiz O Pinto. A page on app discovery portal Softonic lists all the apps the researcher says were infecting users and that Google has since removed. On that site, every app lists zero downloads.
If the 560,000 installs is an accurate number, this is one of the biggest breaches the Google Play Store has experienced.
Children at training at the Somaliland Football Academy
Like most football-obsessed kids, those playing on the streets of Hargeisa dream of one day representing their country. The problem is their country, officially at least, doesn’t exist.
Somaliland has everything you expect from a country. Its people have Somaliland passports and pay with Somaliland shillings. The Somaliland flag flies in the Somaliland Parliament. The president was democratically elected in a “smooth and peaceful” election.
What it doesn’t have is a Fifa-recognised international football team or the means to maintain one. However, that is something four Britons of Somaliland descent are determined to change.
In February, Ahmed Ali and Mohammed Saeed, both 26, from Birmingham, joined Abdisalam Ahmed, 22, and Hussein Adan, 26, from London to establish the Somaliland Football Academy in their parents’ homeland.
“We think every young person should have the opportunity to play football,” Ali, a former community coach and scout for West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City and now head of youth football and coach education in Somaliland, tells BBC Sport.
“In most other countries there’s already some sort of structure in place whereas here the challenge was to build everything from the bottom up. The thing that excited us most was literally starting from grassroots football to one day forming a national team.”
The quartet arrived with coaching backgrounds but to no facilities, no money and no players. As it is not a Fifa member, Somaliland does not receive international funding and its government, perhaps understandably, has other priorities.
“The four of us went to the sport ministry and said ‘look, we’ll do it for free. We’ll do the whole youth development and coach education courses,’” says Ali, who credits Ahmed Adare, the former justice minister and Somalia international, with helping to open doors.
“They said ‘go ahead, let us know if there’s anything we can help with. As long as it’s not money.’”
The Somaliland ‘national’ team
Organised by London-based president Ilyas Mohamed, the Somaliland team played their first friendly fixture in 2014. A squad of mainly UK-based amateurs, including a PE teacher and hospital administrator, competed in the 2016 Conifa World Football Cup in Abkhazia, a partially recognised break-away region of Georgia.
Playing against other de facto nations, autonomous regions and minority peoples, Somaliland lost three of their four matches, finishing 10th out of 12. Their one victory was a 3-2 win over the Chagos Islands, a diaspora team representing the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
Though the squad included four players based in Somaliland, the government at the time claimed the team could not represent the ‘country’ and that the goal was to be accepted into Fifa.
‘We had 140 kids turn up on a seven-a-side pitch’
Somaliland Football Academy founders Ahmed Ali (far left), Mohammed Saeed (third from right), Hussein Adan (second from right) and Abdisalam Ahmed (far right)
Cut off from international assistance, the average Somalilander lives on US$347 a year. One in 11 children do not survive to their fifth birthday and the average life expectancy from birth is 50.
In Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital, camels and donkey-drawn carts merge in traffic with battered taxis.
Though it is attracting growing foreign investment, Somaliland is a place with plenty of challenges. Chief among them: proving it is a ‘real’ nation.
After gaining independence from Britain, Somaliland unified with Somalia in 1960. As Somalia fell into civil war, Somaliland re-declared independence in 1991. Ever since, as Somaliland has strived to show the world it is independent, the world has looked the other way.
Compared to Somalia, which suffers regular terrorist attacks, Somaliland is relatively stable and, though it may be poor, its people are proud.
Somalilanders will tell you their ‘country’ is in the Horn of Africa, bordering Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia, with a small (pirate-free) coast on the Gulf of Aden. Ask the United Nations, or any government in the world, and they’ll say Somaliland is an autonomous region in north-west Somalia.
Somaliland’s presence in the football world is similarly hidden. An unofficial ‘national’ team plays in Conifa (the Confederation of Independent Football Associations), but draws largely on players from the roughly one-million-strong diaspora in areas including the UK, US and Scandinavia.
Until recently, the region roughly the size of Uruguay, with a population of 3.5m, also had no structure for youth football, but that too is being addressed by the Somaliland Football Academy.
From the academy base in Hargeisa, the four founders have self-funded travel across the country, training 132 coaches and recruiting 1,600 players.
“In the UK everything is set-up and you’re just there to deliver a coaching session, but here it was literally at zero,” Ali says. “There were a lot of kids playing football in the streets but there weren’t any organised teams.”
What wasn’t lacking was a passion to play.
“We once had 140 kids turn up on a seven-a-side pitch” Ali says. “You’d have one kid come and the week after he’d bring six friends, and then they’d bring 20 friends and before you knew it you’d have hundreds of little ones wanting to play.”
Ahmed Ali (right) was recently appointed head of youth football and coach education in Somaliland
Adan, who moved to Somaliland in July 2017 and set up the All Star Sports Academy, now one of seven centres under Somaliland Football Academy, adds: “The country loves football. Tell someone a team and they will tell you about any player in that team,” Adan, who also works with schools to design and deliver physical education programmes, says.
“I was walking around the city and you see kids playing on street corners kicking around a bottle or socks wrapped into a ball.”
‘It is about giving them hope’
The academy has established national leagues for boys at Under 13, 15 and 17 level
The academy has relied on donations. West Brom gave training equipment and a delivery from KitAid means somewhere in Somaliland youngsters are proudly wearing last season’s Port Vale and Walsall shirts.
With astroturf pitches scarce and expensive, they have also had to be creative finding places to play, often utilising disused patches of dusty land.
“The boys will come to a pitch before the session and sweep the place to make sure there aren’t any bricks or rocks. It’s helped us – one, by not having to pay for facilities and two, the players put a bit of care into their local area,” Ali says.
Within a year, the academy has established national leagues for boys at Under 13, 15 and 17 level. They also want to develop football for women and, at a recent girls’ tournament, the Vice-President congratulated the winning team.
The academy works closely with Lions Gate, a sports centre set up by another Brit, Mohammed Yusuf, in one of Hargeisa’s poorest areas. Established to combat gang violence, Lions Gate has trained former gang members to be coaches, referees and ground staff.
Youth unemployment is high and many Somalilanders attempt the dangerous journey to Europe via Libya. One Unicef-funded study found those emigrating were typically young men, some as young as 14, and “abuse and death are common”.
“We’ve had mothers crying and hugging us because we stopped their boys from trying to emigrate. We gave them hope and something to look forward to and we didn’t even know it,” Ali says.
“For some, coaching is about developing players to play in the Premier League but for us it’s about giving them hope to keep going and not give up.”
The diaspora-heavy Somaliland team is ranked 27th out of 40 Conifa members while Fifa ranks Somalia joint-sixth lowest in the world
Recognition from Fifa seems unlikely but would not be without precedent. The organisation has 211 members, 18 more than the United Nations. In 2016, Gibraltar and Kosovo became Fifa’s latest additions. Both have since claimed victories on the pitch, even if political recognition off it is missing.
Instead, the academy is focused on recruiting and training more players and coaches, with the aim to build elite youth teams at Under 15 and Under 17 level.
The academy founders have seen enough talent to believe the place that claims Mo Farah as its own (his family live in Somaliland) can have a positive future on the pitch – if given the chance.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the players here are physically good. They can run and technically they are good because they have played a lot of street football.
“I think you can compare it a lot with the favelas in Brazil. There’s a lot of raw players, there’s a lot of raw talent, but they need a lot of coaching to fulfil their potential.”
The players and staff of Somaliland Football Academy
A team allowed to compete against other ‘nations’, even at youth level, could boost Somaliland’s bid for international acceptance.
“We are trying to gain recognition and sport is the best way,” Adan says. “If I ask people in Somaliland ‘what’s the capital city of Egypt?’ many can’t answer. But if I ask ‘who’s the best player from Egypt?’ they’ll tell you ‘Salah’ immediately.
“Football is an international language and if we were producing talented players and they were making noise on the international stage, that would do Somaliland the world of good.
“The people of Somaliland are so passionate about their country. If there was a group of people representing Somaliland on the international stage, it wouldn’t just be for the young people, it would be for everybody.
“I hope one day it does happen, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Dick appointment makeup tutorials are the only good thing left from beauty YouTube.
As cuffing season picks up, people are bound to schedule a quick dick appointment. But how do you make sure your makeup stays flawless through the hook up, and be reminded to have safe, consensual sex? Beauty guru YouTube is here for you.
The term “dick appointment” is self-explanatory; Urban Dictionary defines it as “to set up an appointment to have sex with a man.” A second entry clarifies that “no feelings are involved” in the interaction. Unlike a drunk one night stand you bring home from a party or a late night “u up?” text, a dick appointment is often premeditated — which gives the appointee some time to actually prepare for it.
Your every day makeup won’t stay in place during a good romp in bed. As vlogger Sophie Dolan joked in her video, “Do you really want to put on that foundation? No!”
The incredibly helpful niche gained popularity with the general internet population when misogynist manbaby Roosh V complained that “YouTube is handing out strikes to right-wing creators like Halloween candy while ‘Dick appointment makeup tutorial’ closes in on 1 million views.”
Instead of sparking outrage, his tweet inspired support for dick appointment makeup tutorials.
sounds like the world isn’t such a bad place after all.
Primers or baking? Falsies or mascara? Lip gloss or lip tint? What do you even wear to a dick appointment?
What do you even wear to a dick appointment?
Despite Roosh’s attempt at undermining the beauty gurus behind the videos, dick appointment makeup tutorials are freaking helpful. Between eggplant jokes and sex positivity, the videos offer useful advice to cement a look that’ll survive any activity.
It’s not like the straight men scheduling the appointment will even notice what you’re wearing — if anything, he’ll probably wash his face with bar soap, put on deodorant, and think he’s good to go. Whatever. As the YouTubers behind the tutorials concur, you’re not applying a a full face for him, you’re doing it for you.
“Your man probably can’t even tell what look you’re doing,” guru Sarah Cheung said in an interview with Dazed Digital. “But he’ll be able to tell if you’re feeling yourself in the bedroom.”
They offer tips like what lipstick to wear — if you choose to wear lipstick at all. The YouTubers who do recommend lipstick agree on a liquid to matte color that’ll probably last longer than the fling itself.
Like a friend offering backup lip gloss in a bar’s bathroom, YouTuber bongsandtattoos casually chats with her audience: “We need something that isn’t gonna come off during that makeout session, girl. It’s gonna last all night long through your fuckboi session.”
Lezzy, another vlogger, has a more humorous reason you’d want to stick to liquid lipstick.
“If you’re a side chick, you definitely have to wear a liquid lipstick that will not come off,” Lezzy says in her tutorial. “But you’re gonna wanna wear something that won’t come off because if you get that guy in trouble no more for you!”
Then she makes the classic hand motion for getting dicked.
Crass jokes are all over dick appointment YouTube, but so are discussions about consent and safe sex. Casual hook ups and no-strings-attached flings aren’t treated as a taboo or novelty on dick appointment YouTube, but as a fact of life. While waiting for their foundation to finish baking or their hairspray to set, the vloggers nonchalantly deliberate the nuances of sex.
“I really liked how she emphasized that she wasn’ta freak,” ShadeyBangs tells her viewers in a one-sided conversation about the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. “Society sees people who have many sexual partners as promiscuous … But some people just don’t want titles. They just want sex. And they do so in a safe environment, and respect is still there.”
She continues, telling her viewers that she wants to be “open” about sexuality, consent, and healthy relationships on her channel. While brushing on bronzer for a sun-kissed contoured glow, ShadeyBangs discusses the empowerment behind saying “no.”
“I say it with confidence, I say it with penache!” she rants, unblended concealer still dotting her cheekbones. “A lot of my female friends, we’re coerced in certain situations to do things because we don’t want to offend anyone, but then you’re compromising on yourself! Say no! Say no, ho!”
Deja Renee shares a similar sentiment in her dick appointment prep video, where she reminds her viewers of the importance of using protection.
“You wanna make sure you wear condoms because there’s people out here who will try to set you up on purpose,” Deja Renee says while skillfully filling in her brows. “They don’t wear one, and they know they have something, and they wanna give it to you.”
One brow done, she emphasizes that birth control protects against pregnancy, but not against sexually transmitted diseases.
“Make sure you know what no means,” she explains while filling in the other brow. “Especially if it’s a casual thing.”
The dick appointment YouTube niche is more than just a platform for endorsing promiscuity through tutorials — it’s a genuine community for people to educate their viewers. And after the mess of Dramageddon tore the circle of makeup vloggers apart, it’s one of the last decent pillars of beauty guru YouTube left.
In the dick appointment niche, you won’t find the shade and snark that pollutes many of the other beauty tutorials. Instead, you’ll learn how to apply eyeliner that will stay throughout the wildest hook up, while also getting the rundown on consent.
Happy cuffing season, everyone. Now go schedule that dick appointment.
Halifax Town of the National League take the lead over League Two’s Morecambe via a twisting run and finish from Cameron King in their FA Cup first-round replay.
Watch all the goals from Tuesday’s FA cup replays here.
Smart devices are so great, right? You can control your lights, music, and TV with just the sound of your voice. But while they are becoming more ubiquitous every day, most smart devices are a bit impersonal. The Echo Spot is not like the others though: it’s a smart device that has personality to fit every need. So much in fact, that we’re giving these as gifts to everyone on our list this year — which is why we’re so excited about this deal.
The Echo Spot can do everything you’ve come to expect from Amazon devices, like show you the news, give you weather updates, play your music, and control your other smart devices via Alexa. The best part through is that you can pick and choose your own interface and display from a wide range of options.
If you want the Echo Spot to be an alarm clock, it has a clock face setting. If you want the Echo Spot to be your primary news source, it has a setting for various news outlets like CNN. If you want the Echo Spot to be your music hub, it works as a Bluetooth speaker that can show you music lyrics on its 2.5-inch touchscreen display with Amazon Music, as well as Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and Audible for audiobooks. The Amazon device can even be used for video chats or as a baby monitor when the Ring Video Doorbell or Amazon Cloud Cam are synced to it.
While one Echo Spot is on sale for $129.99 in honor of Black Friday, if you buy two, you can get them for just $159.98 — that’s a $100 savings.
“The Echo Spot is everything I thought it would be, and more. I love being able to play Prime videos and music from what essentially is taking the place of my alarm clock. It’s also great to be able to check in on my various security cameras and control my Philips Hue lights. The screen is small (as expected) but still has great playback quality. I really like the analog clock faces and it would be great if even more were released for some variety. I can’t think of any drawbacks to this product. It was worth the wait.”
For Camila Mendes, the key to a successful relationship is simple. “I think communication is everything, and not feeling ashamed of your feelings,” she told MTV News. “The more you share with your partner about where you’re at emotionally, the better it is for the relationship and the more the other person will feel comfortable to share their feelings.”
This position holds true for any type of relationship, be it romantic, platonic, or even transactional — like those she partakes in in her latest movie, The New Romantic.
In the indie flick, on iTunes and VOD now, Mendes plays Morgan, a sugar baby who introduces student journalist Blake (Jessica Barden) to the plush lifestyle. For the uninitiated, a sugar relationship is one in which a younger person (sugar baby) enters a relationship with an older, wealthy person (sugar daddy/momma) — complete with whatever relationship benefits both parties agree upon, from platonic hangouts to sex — in exchange for gifts or money.
The Orchard Movies
It’s an arrangement that sounds pretty far from the romance we’re used to championing onscreen. Although, the way the actress sees it, sugaring isn’t so different from traditional relationships, and her passionate reasoning in support of the pay-to-play arrangement is actually pretty feminist.
“I think if anything all we need to do is just accept the fact that these women have the right to decide for themselves what they want to do,” she said. (For the record, Mendes does identify as a feminist — “Of course, absolutely I do” — particularly when it comes to “being fully comfortable with my sexuality and not feeling any shame about it.”)
It’s a stance Mendes has been developing for years. In college, long before she ever saw a script for The New Romantic, her social circle provided her with a wealth of second-hand knowledge. “There was one girl who I was better friends with, she would share her stories,” Mendes recalled. “She had no shame about it whatsoever. For her, it was kind of empowering. She used to always say it’s taking advantage of a flawed system or turning the situation on its head.”
Getty Images
The cast of The New Romantic with writer-director Carly Stone (center).
To illustrate the similarities between a sugar relationship and a traditional courtship, let’s start with what matters to Mendes: communication. Creating an open and honest dialogue comes into play right at the onset of any sugar daddy/baby bond, when both sides establish what they are willing to contribute to the relationship. “If anything, the difference is that the sugar-baby date is way more definitive and clear about what the relationship is,” she said.
In terms of the actual dating of it all, much like any relationship, Mendes deemed sugaring a “case-by-case situation,” noting that a sugar baby is in complete control of who she sees, when she sees them, what she does with them, and how much she’s compensated — or, to put it another way, her worth.
“I learned that a lot with my friend who was a sugar baby,” Mendes said. “She’d talk about certain situations … like she’ll immediately recognize when she’s not comfortable with a person … and then she would cut off that connection immediately. But then there were people that she actually was attracted to and that she wanted to go on dates with, you know?”
The Orchard Movies
As the movie also points out, it’s not like sugar babies are creating entirely new dating decorum. “There already is this kind of inherent cultural dynamic where men seem to feel like they need to provide for a woman and they pay for all the dinners and blah blah blah,” Mendes argued. “I’m not saying that that’s how it should be, but given that that is a pretty normal dynamic that people want to adhere to, it’s like, well, then what difference does it make if it’s a sugar baby going on a date?”
So essentially, a sugar baby/daddy relationship complies with long-established social conventions, using mutually agreed-upon relationship guidelines so that both consenting parties feel their value is fully appreciated and are, thus, happy in their dynamic. Sure, it requires assigning a price to every action, but all relationships require some kind of give-and-take.
James Forrest had not scored in his first 24 Scotland appearances but now has five international goals
Scotland clinched a Euro 2020 play-off place and Nations League promotion after a dramatic and angst-ridden night against Israel at Hampden.
Celtic winger James Forrest scored a hat trick – taking his tally to five in two games – to put Alex McLeish’s side 3-1 up just after the hour, cancelling out Beram Kayal’s surprise opener.
However, with the Scots in control, Eran Zahavi set up a tense conclusion and it took a stunning save from Allan McGregor to stop Tomer Hemed’s late, late volley and earn Scotland victory.
The win sets up a potential play-off at Hampden against Finland in March 2020 – with a possible final against Norway or Serbia.
However, those play-off matches will only be necessary should Scotland fail to emerge from the main Euro 2020 qualifiers, for which they will be in the third pot of seeds with the draw made on 2 December.
Scotland also now join the likes of Germany, Croatia and Wales in League B for the next edition of the Nations League after a win that eases the pressure on McLeish after an abject 2-1 defeat in Israel last month.
Forrest keeps on scoring
Celtic’s Forrest has the Midas touch right now. Everything he touches turns to goals. Twelve in his past 11 games for club and country is an astonishing statistic for a winger. His composure for all three goals spoke volumes of his burgeoning self-confidence.
It was Stuart Armstrong, though, who dragged Scotland up by their bootlaces as the good feeling built up in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Albania threatened to drain away with the Hampden rain.
Following a first quarter dominated by the Israelis, the Southampton midfielder drove the hosts forward. His first foray almost brought a goal for Callum McGregor – a good hand from Ariel Harush denying him.
But shortly afterwards Armstrong burst into the box again. His shot was charged down but fell kindly for Forrest, who lashed it low beyond the keeper to begin the turnaround.
Forrest’s second had echoes of the counter-attacking beauty of his second against Albania. Andy Robertson swept the ball forward, Steven Fletcher glanced it into the path of Ryan Christie, who did superbly to bring it under control before looping it towards Forrest, who slotted past Harush.
As impressive as the Scots were beginning to look, they could not begin to breathe easily until Forrest capped a wonderful evening with a delightful third, taking a deft touch from Ryan Fraser’s pass before slamming into the net.
But just when it appeared Scotland might coast to victory, they gave Israel hope. Just as they had done when Brighton’s Kayal curled in the early opener, they sat off the visitors, allowing Zahavi time and space to hammer the ball past McGregor from outside the box.
The Scotland keeper, though, pulled off an astonishing save with just two minutes to go, showing terrific reflexes to push Hemed’s point-blank shot away and ultimately win the game.
Hemed could not get the better of McGregor in the closing stages
‘McLeish buys plenty goodwill’ – analysis
There was an element of Jekyll and Hyde about this performance – at times brilliant, at others timid and wasteful. But the bottom line was always going to be the result.
It buys McLeish plenty of goodwill and delivers the top-of-the-table finish that could yet be the first step on the way back to a major finals.
He will know as well as anyone that this was the easy bit. Beating Israel felt like a massive achievement on this cold November night, but Scotland will face bigger challenges in the Euro qualifiers and, indeed, in the play-offs, which could culminate in a final against either Norway or Serbia.
But Forrest and his team-mates have earned the right to celebrate this small triumph.
Match stats
McLeish has won consecutive matches as Scotland manager for the first time since October 2007, during his first stint in charge
Scotland have lost just one of their past 13 competitive home games (W9 D3), remaining unbeaten in each of their past eight (W5 D3)
Forrest has scored five goals in his past two games for Scotland after failing to score in his previous 24 appearances
He is the first player to score a hat-trick for Scotland since Robert Snodgrass in September 2016 against Malta.
Ryan Fraser has been directly involved in 15 goals in 17 appearances for club and country combined in 2018-19 (5 goals, 10 assists)
Black Friday is nearly here. And yes, that means we’re going into the deep end of the holiday season.
You probably have a list of people to buy gifts for, and you might be on the hunt for something special for yourself, too. Chances are your eye on a product or two, and you’re eagerly awaiting the price to drop.
Black Friday is often your best bet for saving big on those products. Big-ticket items like 4K TVs will get some deep cuts along with more affordable options.
Here’s a list of top tech that you should snag immediately if a sale presents itself this Black Friday.
Image: ZLATA IVLEVA/MASHABLE
The has a larger display, better sound, and a sleeker design. While it’s typically not so cheap at $229, there’s a good chance it will get a discount. The 10.1-inch screen is great for watching shows on Hulu or from NBC. Plus it can be used for karaoke through Amazon Music or Spotify since it can show lyrics. Moreover, if you want immediate gratification, Whole Foods has it in store.
Dog owners, listen up. Leaving your dog is often sad, especially when they look at you as you’re closing the door. Furbo’s Dog Camera lets you watch, talk, and shoot a treat at your four-legged friend while away. While the camera is stationary, it’s weighted, so your pup can’t knock it over. It can shoot a treat or two out several feet. The HD camera can’t be panned, but you can zoom in, and it performs well in dark lighting conditions.
Image: lili sams/mashable
Apple’s AirPods, its true-wireless headphones, have become ubiquitous. They cost a decent amount at $159, but they’re also a few years old now, and you may see some great discounts on them this year. iPhone users really can’t go wrong with them. Bluetooth pairing is ridiculously easy thanks to the W1 chip, and sound is very good.
Apple’s iPhones have a great design, and the same goes for several Android phones. Some people value protection over style, but ideally you want a case that compliments the design. Totallee makes ultra-thin cases that look amazing (especially for iPhones). Even better, the cases come in many colors and finishes, including a clear option.
Ugg might be known for super warm boots, but at least one tech product is in its lineup. The Classic Tech Earmuff or Sheepskin Headband Earmuff packs in warmth and a fuzzy build, while also sneaking a pair of headphones in each ear. The sheepskin on either of these is water resistant, and the auxiliary cord can be attached or detached. For devices that have dropped the headphone jack (i.e. most flagship phones today), you’ll need to bring an adapter.
Everyone can always use more storage. Androids owners, GoPro users, avid DSLR shooters, and even Nintendo Switch gamers. SanDisk makes some of the best microSD cards that offer fast read and write times, with storage options from 16GB up to 400GB size. Check retailers like Amazon.com, Target, BestBuy, eBay, and even Walmart for some steep discounts.
Image: DIAMOND NAGA SIU/MASHABLE
A good pair of headphones doesn’t come cheap, especially with noise cancellation built-in. The current Bose QC 35 II is one of the better ones, with several levels of noise cancellation, Alexa or the Google Assistant built-in, and long battery life. The cost is high at $349.95, but Black Friday could deliver some discounts on them.
The entry-level Alexa speaker is the Echo Dot. For 2018 it got a redesign, with better sound. It keeps that same $49.99 price, and there’s a good chance it’ll get discounted for Black Friday. Plus Amazon is offering three of them together for under $100.
Image: ZLATA IVLEVA/MASHABLE
Samsung’s second go at a mesh WiFi system combines internet connectivity with a smart home network. The SmartThings WiFi three-pack covers up to 4,500 square feet with WiFi, ideal for most homes. Each of these hubs intelligently provided internet to the connected devices. Plus, each one contains ZigBee and Z-Wave connectivity to power your smart home.
Listen, AirPower still isn’t here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t charging pads that can handle more than one device. Nimble is an eco-friendly mobile accessory company from the team behind Mophie. You can charge two devices wirelessly on the Wireless Dual Pad. It also supports fast charging with iPhone and Samsung devices thanks to an output of up to 10 watts.
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