Month: December 2022

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Black Friday and Cyber Week are technically done and dusted. But the season of deals and record-low pricing continues for a variety of electronics as we wind down the year.

Among some of the best deals running are a few of Apple's iPads, MacBooks, and Apple TVs. Both the latest iPad and iPad Air are on sale right now for their lowest-ever prices. In our review, we dubbed the iPad Air the best iPad for most people, thanks to its blazing-fast M1 processor and goldilocks zone price point. Especially at this record-low $499 price, it's hard to beat the value of the latest iPad Air.

If you're an iPhone user looking for a streaming box, the Apple TV is a no-brainer. It's available in HD and 4K models to save you money on things you don't need, has the most user-friendly, paired down interface, and the widest app support of any streaming box, plus it can mirror your Apple devices. It's also a great place to stream Apple Fitness+. The main strike against them is price, but these current discounts put them within striking distance of much simpler, less future-proof devices like Google's Chromecast with Google TV. The latest Apple TVs don't add anything substantial, just HDR 10+ support, if that's important to you. Otherwise, snagging an HD Apple TV for $63 or 4K version for $80 is sure to make most any Apple user happy for some time.

A lesser-known PlayStation 5 game called Returnal is coming to PC, and while it hasn't had as much fanfare as big-ticket titles like Spider-Man, The Last of Us, or Horizon, it's definitely one you should try. It's simultaneously a throwback to classic arcade action games, a PC-style Roguelike, a technical showcase for modern systems, and an homage to the moody science fiction novels and films of the 1970s and 1980s. But most importantly, it's a good game.

Published by Sony and developed by (now Sony-owned) Finnish studio Housemarque, Returnal was one of the earliest PS5 exclusives when it launched in early 2021, and it was a major step up into the triple-A game big leagues for Housemarque, which had previously released arcade-style games like Super Stardust HD and Resogun.

During The Game Awards on Thursday, Sony announced that, like many of its other recent first-party titles, Returnal will launch on PC with as-yet-unnamed PC-specific enhancements. The port is being handled by Climax Studios, and the release window is "early 2023."