Amazon's Prime "Day" is now officially a bi-annual event. The company today confirmed that it will host a second deals event for Prime members on Oct. 10-11.

Between Prime Day 1.0 and this year's other major shopping holiday—Black Friday—Amazon will hold Prime Big Deal Days next month, beginning at 3 a.m. ET on Oct. 10 and running through Oct. 11. The name seems to be a nod to the fact that these sales are no longer one-day events, but multi-day deal extravaganzas looking to entice those eager to get a head start on their holiday shopping.

As usual, you'll need to be a Prime member in one of 19 countries to save: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the US, and the UK.

Last year was the first time Amazon expanded Prime Day savings to a second event in the fall, which it called the Prime Early Access Sale.

PC Magazine

Apple on Tuesday announced iOS 17 will be available for users to download for free on Sept. 18.

The company first announced the software update at its WWDC event in June, but it was initially only available in beta for users who were willing to deal with bugs. For iPhone users, iOS 17 will bring changes to major apps such as Phone, FaceTime and Messages. For iPad users, the update will add the Health app, expanded functionality for widgets and new ways to customize the lock screen.

In the new update for iPhones, voicemails are coming to FaceTime, meaning users will be able to leave video messages for their friends and family. There will be a more powerful search function in Messages, as well as a catch-up feature in group chats. Apple also introduced a new experience called Standby, which will function like a bedside clock when users turn their phone sideways and place it on a table or nightstand.

At its annual launch event Tuesday, Apple introduced the iPhone 15 lineup featuring new titanium exteriors and USB-C charging, plus the brand-new Apple Watch, with 72 hours of battery life.

There are four new phone models, ranging from the entry-level iPhone 15 at $799 to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which costs at least $1,199. Consumers can preorder the phones as early as Friday, and they will be available Sept. 22.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be priced at $799, the Series 9 will be priced at $399 and the second-generation SE will cost $249, the company said. Customers can preorder the watches now and they will also be available Sept. 22.

CNBC

Google announced today that it's extending Chromebooks' automatic update support from 8 years to 10 years for devices released from 2019 and later. The move follows increasing criticism from consumers, schools, and advocacy groups around the many Chromebooks in use and on sale with looming death dates.

"All Chromebook platforms will now get regular automatic updates for 10 years," Google's blog post says. Numerous Chromebooks released in 2019 were about to expire next year. Now, no Chromebooks should be expiring within the next two years.

Google's blog continues:

Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release when they receive their last automatic update.

Ten years of support is a notable achievement for Chromebooks, which are often budget-priced. The average Mac receives seven years of macOS updates. Windows, meanwhile, usually sees 10 years of updates, but you can install Windows (and update it) on devices from as long ago as the late 2000s. Chromebooks are unique in individual models having automatic update expiration (AUE) dates and have faced criticism for this for years.

Elizabeth Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, told Ars Technica:

Basing update and service timelines on first manufacture date instead of last new sale date is a fundamentally flawed model. It allows for the awful possibility that someone might buy a new retail product with expired security support, which should never happen.

Ars Technica

Apple has confirmed its new iPhone will not feature its proprietary lightning charging port, after the EU forced the change.

The tech giant said that the iPhone 15, unveiled at its annual event on Tuesday, would use a USB-C cable as the "universally accepted standard".

A new Apple Watch series was also unveiled with a more advanced chip.

But one analyst said a lack of "headline-grabbing" updates from Apple this year would disappoint some.

"It isn't a surprise given the maturity of the iPhone and Watch," said Ben Wood from CCS Insight.

"It reflects just how refined the iPhone and Watch devices are and how tough it has become to deliver truly disruptive updates every year."

Apple released a USB-C-to-lightning port adapter for £29 ($36). The product connects the lightning port accessories people will have built up over the years to its new USB-C-enabled iPhones or iPads.

The latest iPhone handset, which goes on sale next week, is the first since 2012 to feature an alternative charging port.

The firm said the USB-C cable - which already works with many Apple laptops and iPads - will also work on new versions of its AirPods Pro earphones and wired EarPods headphones.

The EU had told the tech giant to ditch its proprietary charging ports to make life easier for consumers, save them money, and help reduce e-waste by encouraging re-use of chargers.

However, some warn the move will lead to a rise in discarded cables in the years to come.

Perhaps in response, Apple used its launch event on Tuesday to make a series of environmental pledges about its new devices, including making the new Apple Watch range carbon neutral for the first time.

It will also increase the amount of recycled materials being used in batteries and other parts of the new Watch and iPhone.

The company also confirmed it would no longer use leather in any of its accessories and pledged to become carbon neutral as a business by 2030.

BBC News

The latest WhatsApp beta contains a new screen called Third-party chats that may allow it to work with other messaging apps, WaBetaInfo has reported. While the page is blank, its presence could signal that WhatsApp is getting such a feature ready in order to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In July, the EU announced that seven tech giant "gatekeepers" with over $7.5 billion in turnover — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung — must comply with all of the EU's new digital market rules. A key tenet of the DMA is that gatekeepers are prohibited from favoring their own services and must allow interoperability with third parties. Last week, the EU Commission designated key apps subject to the rules, including Meta's messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger.

That means Meta must make WhatsApp work with other third-party messaging apps like Signal and Telegram starting in March 2024. That will allow users of those apps to contact people on WhatsApp, even if they don't have a WhatsApp account — though WhatsApp users will supposedly be able to opt out. There's no news yet about what kind of features will be available with cross-messaging, though end-to-end encryption will supposedly be preserved, according to WaBetaInfo.

Engadget

Google Chrome is turning 15 and to celebrate the occasion, Google is overhauling Chrome on desktop and adding in brand new features.

The official blog post details how, in the coming weeks, Google will update Chrome’s UI based on Material You design language. According to the post, the redesign will refresh Chrome’s icons to make them more legible as well as create new color palettes that better complement your tabs and toolbar. These changes make it much easier to distinguish between profiles, like your work and personal accounts. Chrome will also be better integrated with your operating system so it can adapt to OS-level changes like dark mode.

Other quality-of-life changes include a more comprehensive menu for faster access to extensions, Google Translate, Password Manager, and more. This redesign had been first announced and pushed down through Google Canary earlier in 2023 and now regular users will finally get to reap the benefits.

The Chrome Web Store is also getting redesigned, with a fresh interface to make finding extensions easier. This includes extension categories – like AI-powered extensions and Editors' spotlight – as well as personalized results. Safety Check is also getting expanded to better identify extensions that have been recently unpublished, are in violation of policies, or are potentially malicious. And thanks to third-party tools, businesses can also risk-access extensions before applying them broadly.

Over the past few months, Chrome has been getting updates to make search much easier and safer, as well as several new features on its mobile version that enhance search capabilities and convenience. And now Google Safe Browsing, which automatically blocks potentially dangerous websites, will be upgraded as well. To combat the speed and sheer numbers of new phishing websites, Safe Browsing will begin checking sites against Google’s known bad site lists in real-time.

TechRadar