NETWORKING

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET There was a time I refused to drink coffee at home because no matter how strong of a coffee pod I bought for my Keurig, the coffee always tasted watered down. I started wondering whether I’d ever achieve the same hand-crafted coffee shop taste at home — until I was gifted the Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Machine by De’Longhi.  Also: The 55+ best Black Friday Amazon deals 2024: Early sales live now With this…

Anna Barclay/Getty Images In the wake of turmoil at Twitter (now known as X), several social networks have popped up over the past couple of years to offer people an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned platform. One such network is Bluesky, which works a lot like X but avoids the baggage that Musk has brought to the table. Officially launched in February of 2023 as an invite-only beta service, Bluesky has watched its user population grow,…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET The holiday shopping season is nearly in full swing, but this jolly deal is already live now: a 9th-generation iPad for $200 — a discount of $130, thanks to an early Black Friday offer at Best Buy.  Also: The best Black Friday deals 2024: Early sales live now At Best Buy, Apple’s 9th-generation iPad with a 10.2-inch screen is down to $200, $130 cheaper than its standard starting price. This gets you 64GB of…

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET Nomad is knocking it out of the park yet again, this time with a truly stunning, high-quality 3-in-1 MagSafe charger. It’s perfect if you want to step fully into the 21st century and make the switch to wireless charging. And the Base One Max is a charging station that is both a thing of beauty and highly functional!  Also: Apple’s Lightning to USB-C switch: What iPhone owners need to know The first thing that…

Nebo offers full stylus support when you have an Apple Pencil you are itching to use on your new note-taking app for iPad. It uses leading AI technology to provide the option of handwritten notes, or you can annotate where you see fit. Nebo works with 66 languages, converting your scrappy hand-scribbled notes into lovely notes.  Also, How to take notes on your iPad with an Apple Pencil  If you pick up where you left…

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET What’s the deal? The Amazfit BIP 5 is already a low-cost smartwatch, but right now it’s $20 off, bringing the price to just $69 ahead of Black Friday. If you’re new to smart watches or fitness tracking, we recommend the BIP 5 as a great place to start: it’s got tons of data, but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.  ZDNET’s key takeaways The Amazfit BIP 5 is on sale at Amazon…

Amazon/ZDNET Black Friday is still a week away, but you can already snag savings on some flagship Amazon products, including several models of the Fire TV Stick.  Also: The best Black Friday deals 2024: Early sales live now The Amazon Fire TV Stick is a streaming device that transforms your TV into a smart one by letting you access your favorite TV shows and movies from top services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon…

Pressure to implement AI plans is on the rise, but the readiness of enterprise networks to handle AI workloads has actually declined over the past year, according to new research from Cisco. Cisco’s second annual AI Readiness Index notes a “huge chasm” between the urgency companies feel to deploy AI and their ability to actually do it. Some 8,000 global companies were surveyed for the AI Readiness Index, which aims to measure how prepared organizations…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Raycon bone-conducting headphones are available now on the official site for only $70. They offer three sound profiles to help you get the best sound possible from the form factor. The control buttons aren’t exactly the easiest to use when you’re being active. I switched to bone-conducting headphones for exercise because traditional earbuds just can’t handle the amount of sweat I produce when running. Since that migration, I haven’t ruined a…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET After a year of rumors and speculation, Apple’s M4 processor came to the MacBook Pro laptop line earlier this month. The new lineup improves upon the already powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max with even faster performance, a more efficient battery, and the new Thunderbolt 5 port for blazing-fast data transfer speeds.  Also: The 50+ best Black Friday deals 2024: Early sales live now Better yet, the new M4 MacBook Pro starts at the…