Jared's essential apps

Plus: Prime Day deals and useful productivity tools

By sheer coincidence, the timing of this week's newsletter lines up perfectly with Amazon Prime Day, the annual sale event that typically includes some major discounts on tech gear.

I'll round up the best of those deals later in the newsletter. But first, let's discuss some things that don't require you to spend more money.

New guides inbound!

In lieu of a regular newsletter column this week, I've published a couple of new guides on the members-only website.

The first is a list of my most essential apps and tools, including all the ones I use to write this newsletter, browse the web, and organize my digital life. While I've mentioned many of these apps before, this guide puts them all in one place and allows me to evolve the list over time. Check it out if you need some inspiration on new apps to try.

Jared's essential apps →

Also, I've turned last week's "big list of free stuff" issue into a free-standing guide. Some of you responded to that newsletter with some excellent suggestions, and I look forward to expanding the list with more free content sources over time. Add it to your bookmarks for whenever you're feeling bored and don't feel like paying for entertainment.

The big list of free stuff →

Want to read more guides? Check out the full list.

Need to know

iOS and Mac betas: For those who are feeling brave, Apple's first public betas for iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura are now available, so you can try them without a $100 per year developer account. Among the major features: Lock screen customization, shared iCloud photo libraries, and an "Undo Send" option for iMessage. You can enroll in the beta through this page.

iOS and Mac betas can be pretty buggy, and they tend to be tougher on battery life than stable versions. Conventional wisdom says you shouldn't install them on your primary phone or computer, especially since you can't roll back to previous versions without restoring from a backup.

That said, I've been assigned a Fast Company story on some of the new features, so I have no choice but to put my iPhone 13 Pro Max in harm's way. I'll let you know how it goes.

Tip of the moment

The best new productivity apps: Keeping with annual tradition, I've put together my usual mid-year productivity app roundup over at Fast Company. The list is a major undertaking, as I generally steer clear of well-known apps like Slack and Zoom in favor of hidden gems, all of which are either new or have received substantial updates over the past year.

If you've been reading Advisorator for a while, you may recognize some of the selections already. But here are a few I haven't mentioned here yet:

• SignFree lets you digitally sign documents with just your mouse, trackpad, or touchscreen. It's free with no sign-in required, and certainly beats having to print, sign, and scan.
• Switchboard (pictured above) is a Zoom alternative in which anyone on the call can load a web page, post a sticky note, or share a file, with everything appearing on a big, shared canvas.
• Adobe Express lets you create slick-looking flyers, business cards, or social media posts with minimal effort. Just choose a template to start with, then use the drag-and drop interface to add, remove, or modify elements.

Check out the full story for even more new productivity tools to try.

Now try this

Another neat newsletter: On a related note, I've been reading Jeremy Caplan's free Wonder Tools newsletter for a while now, and I always learn something new from it. Jeremy focuses on highlighting useful productivity tools—I especially enjoyed his recent ambient noise app roundup—and he clearly puts a lot of thought into his recommendations. If you appreciate my occasional coverage of productivity apps, you should check out Wonder Tools as well.

Another app discount finder: In response to last week's newsletter on finding free stuff, reader Tom L. suggested checking out AppSliced, a site that lists sales and giveaways for iOS apps. It also has an alerts feature that notifies you when an app you want goes on sale. (For Android users, AppSales has a similar feature in its mobile app.) Thanks for the suggestion, Tom!

Around the web

• From Spotify: A fun web app for emulating office sounds.
• Google has totally botched the Nest-to-Google Home app transition.
• iOS 16 will get an anti-spyware "Lockdown Mode" this fall.
• PCWorld's Melissa Perenson has a helpful guide to buying a computer monitor.
• Amazon Prime subscriptions now include a year of Grubhub Plus.
• Rumor mill: Apple's rugged sports watch may have a larger screen than other models.

Spend wisely

If I tried to list every tech deal that was available on Prime Day, I'd probably lose my mind and also would never end up sending the newsletter. So I'm going to take a somewhat curated approach here, listing only high-quality products at prices we don't see very often, if at all.

Even then, I suggest checking price histories on CamelCamelCamel before hitting the Buy button, beware of hyper-inflated list prices, and try to avoid buying things without a clear idea of how you'll use them. There will always be more deals in the future.

Note that many of these deals require an Amazon Prime subscription, but you can always sign up for a one-month free trial and cancel after Prime Day is over.

Also, you can currently buy a $50 Amazon gift card and get a $12.50 promo credit in return. Just click the coupon code atop this page, or use the code EGCPRIME22 at checkout.

Here we go:

Amazon gear

• Get a Kindle e-reader for $45, or the bigger, waterproof Paperwhite for $95.
• Fire tablets: 8-inch for $45 or with more RAM for $65, 10-inch for $75, or with more RAM for $105.
• Echo speakers: Dot for $20, Dot with clock for $33, regular Echo for $60.
• Echo Show smart displays: 5-inch for $35, 8-inch for $75, 10-inch (with swiveling screen) for $180, 15-inch for $180.
• Wi-Fi routers: Eero 6+ two-pack for $155 or three-pack for $194, tri-band Eero Pro 6 two-pack for $259, three-pack for $389. Add a Beacon range extender for $49.
• Ring home security: 5-piece alarm kit for $120, and add a doorbell cam for $49 more. The 8-piece kit is on sale for $150. More doorbell and camera deals here.

Streaming deals

• Amazon Fire TV Stick for $17, Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $35, Fire TV Cube for $60.
• Roku: Express 4K+ for $25, Streaming Stick 4K for $30, Streambar for $90 (or $80 refurbished), Streambar Pro for $149.
• Apple TV 4K for $109—even lower than yesterday.
• Nvidia Shield TV Pro hits a record low of $170.
• Buy a $100 Netflix gift card, get a $15 Best Buy gift card.

Headphones and earbuds

• Bose's acclaimed noise-cancelling headphones hit record lows: QuietComfort 45 for $229, the higher-end Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 for $269, and earbuds for $179.
• eBay has refurbished Bose headphones for even less with code SUMMER20SAVE.
• Sony's WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones hit a record low of $228.
• Refurbished AirPods Pro for $130, or buy them new for $170.
• Refurbished third-gen AirPods for $108, or new for $140.
• Refurbished Beats Fit Pro for $90, or new for $160.
• Jabra's Elite 45h on-ear headphones drop to $50, a new low.

Chargers and power banks

• Anker 10,000 mAh power bank with 20W fast charging for $20.
• Get Anker's 5,000 mAh snap-on iPhone battery pack for $44 with code FTSBUAA55X.
• Aukey 20,000 mAh wireless charging power bank (with 18W wired charging) for $30.
• Two-pack of RAVPower 20W fast chargers for $9.
• Monoprice has a USB-A (12W) and USB-C (39W) charger for $11.
• Jackery power stations: 293Wh for $210, 1002Wh for $769. (Make sure to clip the on-page coupon.)

TVs and soundbars

• Walmart Onn's 50-inch QLED Roku TV with Dolby Vision is on sale for $228.
• HIsense's 50inch QLED Fire TV with 600 nits brightness drops to $340.
• Hisense 65-inch ULED (1500 nits, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision) for $800, or 55-inch for $550.
• TCL's 65-inch Mini-LED TV drops to $700.
• LG's 77-inch C1 OLED is on sale for $1997 from ABT. Great deal on a pricey TV.
• Costco has an 85-inch Vizio P-Series QLED TV for $2000.
• Samsung's HW-Q600A 3.1 soundbar and subwoofer with Dolby Atmos falls to $235.
• eBay has refurbished Bose soundbar deals with code SUMMER20SAVE.

Apple gear

• Apple Watch Series 7 starting at $279 (41mm, all colors) or $309 (45mm, all colors)
• The previous-gen iPad Air is on sale for $379 (64 GB) or $519 (256 GB).
• Grab the basic iPad (64 GB) for $299.

Laptops and PC gear

• Acer Spin 514 Chromebook (14-inch screen, 64 GB storage, 4 GB RAM) for $199.
• Acer Swift 3 (14-inch, 11th-gen Intel Core i5, 512 GB storage, 8 GB RAM) for $399.
• HP Pavilion x360 (14-inch touchscreen, Intel Core i5, 512 GB storage, 8 GB RAM) for $530.
• HP Envy x360 (15-inch touchscreen, AMD Ryzen 7, 512 GB storage, 12 GB RAM) for $700.
• The ultra-light LG Gram 16-inch 2-in-1 (11th-gen Intel Core i5, 512 GB storage, 16 GB RAM) drops to $1,100.
• Dell's extra-fancy XPS 13 Plus (OLED screen, Intel Core i7, 512 GB storage, 16 GB RAM) for $1450.
• Get a 14 TB external desktop hard drive for $210.

Odds and ends

• Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 drops to $150 in silver.
• Need just a basic Wi-Fi 5 router? Here's a decent one for $50.
• Get the Nest Audio speaker for $60, the Nest Hub smart display for $55, or the Nest Hub Max for $170. (This is available at most retailers; I'm linking to Kohl's as it's offering Kohl's Cash on each.)
• Google's Nest Cam Outdoor drops to $120.
• Get a TP-Link smart plug for $3.50 by saying "Alexa, order a Kasa Smart Plug Mini" to your Echo speaker or in the Alexa app.

Thanks for your support!

Phew. That's about all the deals I can stand to look at right now. But if you're looking for anything else or need help vetting a deal you've found, just send me an email or drop into the Advisorator chat room on Slack. I'm happy to help!

Until next week,

Jared