If you own a recent iPad Air, iPad Mini, or iPad Pro, then the latest Apple Pencil makes for a helpful — albeit expensive — accessory. Today’s deal helps a little with the costliness of it, as you can now get the second-gen Apple Pencil for $85 ($44 off) at Amazon or Walmart. That’s now the all-time low price for the pressure-sensitive stylus with convenient wireless charging.
Yes, you can spend a whole lot less and get a knockoff stylus that mostly does the job and looks the part, but you’re not going to get the tight software integration, such as seeing the Apple Pencil’s battery level displayed in a helpful widget. With Apple’s new launch of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on the iPad, it’s a good time to pick up a Pencil since they’re quite handy for making granular adjustments in those types of creative apps from Apple, Adobe, and others. Trust me, it beats trying to delicately pull a tone curve to an exact shape and setting with your big, dumb, meaty fingers.
The open-air Sony LinkBuds wireless earbuds are on sale for their second-best price of $138 at Amazon and $139.99 at Best Buy — a discount of $40. The LinkBuds offer some nice sound with a unique design that keeps you in tune with your surroundings. While they may look a little quirky, the donut-shaped buds have a great pair of mics for taking calls on the go. Since they’re IPX4 water-resistant, they should do fine with some exercising, which is handy if you go on runs where you need to mind lots of traffic around you. They even got an update shortly after their release that added multipoint connectivity. If you want some flexible earbuds with a comfy fit that don’t fully block out the outside world, this is a stellar deal. Read our review.
Speaking of audio devices, it’s nearly beach and outdoor party season, which is the perfect time for a good deal on a Bluetooth speaker. You can get the JBL Charge 4 in a variety of fun colors for just $99.95 ($50 off) at Amazon. The Charge 4 is the last-gen model, behind the newer Charge 5, but it offers a similar formula — a beefy, rugged speaker that sounds good, complete with lots of bass and water resistance, so it’s no big deal if it takes a dip. Its battery can last up to 20 hours, and if you’re in a pinch, you can plug your phone in via USB to siphon off a little of that juice. The more recent Charge 5 has small improvements that make it our top pick for Bluetooth speakers with the best battery life, but it normally costs $179.95 (though it’s also on sale for $139.95 right now), and it goes pretty bold on the JBL branding.
Apple’s latest Mac Mini with the powerful M2 Pro processor is on sale for $1,099.99 ($200 off) at Amazon. This ties the lowest price for this excellent value of a desktop computer for creative folks who don’t want to spend a whole lot more on the Mac Studio. The base configuration of the M2 Pro Mac Mini comes with 512GB of solid-state storage and 16GB of RAM. What it doesn’t come with is a mouse, keyboard, or monitor, but that’s part of what makes the Mini such a great value compared to the similarly specced base 14-inch MacBook Pro (which costs you $900 more than this current deal). And if you already have those components, then just $1,100 for such a capable machine is a steal. Can you tell that I’m still tempted to get one myself? Read our review.
