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Labor Day Deals: Save on HomePod, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro, Apple Accessories, and More This Weekend
Windows 10 laptop with 25-hour battery life? Lenovo shows new Yoga line-up at IFA
Microsoft officially christens 'Redstone 5' as the Windows 10 October 2018 Update

Labor Day Deals: Save on HomePod, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro, Apple Accessories, and More This Weekend

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 07:41 AM PDT

As we head into the three-day Labor Day weekend -- and the unofficial end of Summer in the United States -- numerous online retailers have kicked off sales for anyone shopping around during the long weekend. Although Labor Day is on Monday, September 3, many sales have already begun and last through Monday evening. We've collected many of the best bargains and discounts in this article, so be sure to check out each and if you're interested place your order before Labor Day ends.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Of course, one of the major Labor Day sales is over at Best Buy, which kicked off an event full of Apple devices early this morning. This includes savings on HomePod, Apple Watch Series 3, iPad mini, iPad Pro, MacBook, and more. We've listed the sales below:

There are plenty of non-Apple products in Best Buy's Labor Day sale as well, including Arlo Security Cameras, Philips Hue, Ultimate Ears, 4K Blu-Ray savings, and more. You can browse the entire sale right here.

Although there are a few MacBook Pro sales at Best Buy this weekend (centered upon the Mid 2017 refresh), B&H Photo is beating many of them by around $50. For example, while Best Buy has the 2.3GHz/8GB RAM/128GB SSD 13-inch MacBook Pro for $1,149.99, B&H Photo has the same model for $1,099.00, down from $1,299.00. Most of the other Mid 2017 refresh MacBook Pro models are on sale as well.

If you're on the hunt for a more recent model, B&H Photo and Adorama also have the 2018 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros on sale, with savings that began earlier this week. The cheapest model in the sale is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (2.3 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $1,599.00, down from $1,799.00 (also at Adorama). 15-inch models are also up for a discount, starting with the 15-inch MacBook pro with Touch Bar (2.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $2,099.00, down from $2,399.00 (also at Adorama).

For B&H Photo, many of the 2018 MacBook Pro sales end later tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, so be sure to browse these models right here before the deals expire.

Over on eBay, the retailer has a new coupon code offering 20 percent off select categories including tech and home electronics with code JUSTRELAX. This one expires on September 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT, and you'll have to purchase items worth $25 or more to take advantage of the discount (which will be capped at a max value of $50).

While not a sitewide sale, the coupon does include notable products in the discount, like iPhone X, Nintendo Switch, Dyson vacuums and fans, DJI drones, and much more. Head to the event's landing page to browse the full sale and place your order before the code expires on Monday.

There are numerous other sales online this weekend, so we'll give a quick rundown of them below:

SENA - Save up to 75 percent off iPhone cases (no code needed, expires 9/3)
OWC - Save on MagSafe adapters, Magic Keyboards, and other accessories (expires 9/10)
Casetify - Get 15 percent off orders of $30 or more with code LABORDAY18
Griffin - Save 25 percent off sitewide with code GRIFFIN25 (expires 11:59 p.m. PT 9/3)
JBL - Save up to 30 percent, and get free 2-day shipping on portable speakers and headphones over $19.95
Newegg - Save on PCs, printers, and more
Pad & Quill - Save 15 percent off sitewide
Speck - Purchase any Presidio iPhone X, 8, or 8 Plus case and battery pack to get a Lightning cable at no extra cost
Target - Save up to 30 percent off electronics, furniture, appliances and more (expires 9/3)

For more information on the latest sales, visit our full Deals Roundup.

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Windows 10 laptop with 25-hour battery life? Lenovo shows new Yoga line-up at IFA

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 05:13 AM PDT

Lenovo has revealed its new line-up of Yoga machines, including a Windows 10 laptop it says has a battery life of over 25 hours.

The new Yoga computers were unveiled at the IFA Conference in Germany this week.

Yoga C630 WOS

According to Lenovo, this Arm-based Windows 10 laptop offers more than 25 hours of battery life, based on tests where it played looping video on the machine's HD display.

Alongside the usual wi-fi connectivity, the 13.3-inch Yoga C630 WOS can also connect to the internet over cellular networks, using its integrated 4.5G LTE Advanced Pro chipset.

The Yoga C630 WOS runs on the eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 mobile compute platform, and possible downsides are performance and compatibility when compared with typical Intel-based Windows 10 laptops.

Tests of earlier Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Windows 10 laptops found sluggish performance and that not all Windows apps would work. That said, these machines were based on an earlier Qualcomm chipset, so the Snapdragon 850 may resolve these performance issues.

The Yoga C630 WOS will be available from November with a starting price of $850.

YogaBook C930

The most distinctive feature of the C930 is its dual-display, featuring an E Ink touchscreen that serves as the keyboard but which can also be used for notes, sketching, or as an e-reader.

In a hands-on with the laptop, ZDNet's sister site CNET found the virtual keyboard to be better than on the first-generation YogaBook but still lacking the responsiveness and feedback of a physical keyboard.

CNET also highlights the device's limitations as an e-reader due to the E Ink display currently only supporting PDFs and not the proprietary formats used by Amazon's Kindle e-books. The nature of the E Ink display also prevents its being used as a second screen for the Windows desktop.

The Windows 10 laptop will be available with Intel Core m5 and i5 processors, will have a 2,560 x 1,600 primary display, and Dolby Atmos speaker support. Lenovo is promising up to 10 hours of battery life.

The YogaBook C930 will be available from the end of September with a starting price of $999.

Yoga C930

Unlike its YogaBook brother, this 2-in-1 Windows 10 machine sports a physical keyboard and is available with higher specs.

The laptop offers a HD or 4K display, both with Dolby Vision HDR support, and an 8th-generation Intel Core processor up to an i7.

Lenovo is touting the laptop's 'rotating sound bar', which supports Dolby Atmos, while the machine's 'far mics' allow Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft Cortana's virtual assistants to detect commands from up to four meters away. The device's digital pen can be stashed in an internal compartment that also charges the accessory.

The YogaBook C930 will be available from the end of September with a starting price of $1,400.

Yoga S730

Described by Lenovo as a premium laptop that, at 11.9mm thick, is one of the thinnest consumer clamshell laptops available.

The Windows 10 machine runs on an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, has a 13.3-inch HD screen, a Dolby Atmos speaker system, up to 10 hours of battery life and what Lenovo says is "rapid charging".

The laptop is available from the end of October starting at $1,000.

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Microsoft officially christens 'Redstone 5' as the Windows 10 October 2018 Update

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 08:01 AM PDT

It's not much of a surprise, but Microsoft made it official today: The next Windows 10 feature update, codenamed "Redstone 5," will be known as the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Microsoft will finalize the specific build it will designate as the October 2018 Update in the coming weeks.

I say this isn't a surprise because a year ago, Microsoft officials said that they'd be rolling out the twice-yearly Windows 10 feature updates in the spring and fall of each year. Specifically, those builds this year were known as "1803" (for the March, 2018, date when the code is RTM'd) and "1809" (for the September 2018 RTM date). After Microsoft officials select a build as "final," they continue to patch and update it and typically roll out both the final build and a cumulative update (or several) to mainstream users starting the following month.

Microsoft officials didn't specify today on exactly which day in October the October 2018 Update will start rolling out. The Windows 10 April Update began rolling out on April 30, 2018. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, a k a Windows 10 1709, starting rolling out to mainstream users on October 17, 2017.

The October 2018 Update rollout will likely be staggered, as in past feature releases, with machines known to be able to best handle the new bits getting them pushed to them first.

Microsoft also will likely begin rolling out the server complements to the October 2018 Update -- Windows Server 1809 and Windows Server 2019 -- on the same day in October as the client build goes live.

The part of today's announcement that is a bit more surprising is that Microsoft is still saying that the October 2018 Update will be going to the "nearly 700 million devices" running Windows 10. Microsoft has been using this same 700 million figure since March 2018 and hasn't provided an updated momentum figure.

I asked a spokesperson why Microsoft is continuing to use the "nearly 700 million"figure. Is it because the rollout of Windows 10 has stalled? Or because Redmond is done providing us with Windows 10 momentum updates? The official response: "(The) nearly 700 million number stands and that's all we have to share at this time."

My guess is Microsoft could be waiting for a bigger event, such as its upcoming Ignite IT Pro conference at the end of September, to announce a new momentum figure. Any new uptick is likely the result of enterprise migrations to Windows 10 at this point, rather than a ton of new consumer ones. And larger migrations from Windows 7 to Windows 10, due to the end of support by Microsoft for Windows 7 in January 2020, may not have yet begun in earnest.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update will include the Cloud Clipboard, dark-mode File Explorer option, a number of new Notepad features and other tweaks and updates. It also will deliver a number of new security and enterprise features, as well as a new Windows 10 Enterprise Remote Sessions edition. Microsoft will likely detail these enterprise features at its Ignite show.

The next Windows 10 feature update, currently known as "19H1," is in early testing now. It is expected to be finalized in March, 2019 and begin rolling out to mainstream users starting in April 2019, if Microsoft sticks to its own schedule.