From jogging and cycling to multi-tasking or puttering around the house, open earbuds are an excellent way to jam out in the real world. If you've done any wireless earbuds shopping lately, you've likely noticed a new design category cropping up everywhere. They're called open earbuds (or open-ear buds, depending on the brand), and just about every audio brand has a pair (or three). They come in a slew of styles, but most either loop around your ears like older Beats buds, or clip on like funky-futuristic earrings. Whatever the style, they're designed to deliver satisfying sound while keeping your ear canals open to the sounds of the world around you.

Shortly after I became pregnant with my second child, in the fall of 2022, I decided to try a modest experiment. I wanted to see whether I could hide my pregnancy from my phone. After spending my twenties eagerly surveilling and sharing the details of my life online, I had already begun trying to erect some walls of technological privacy: I'd deleted most apps on my phone and turned off camera, location, and microphone access for nearly all of the ones that I did have; I had disabled Siri--I just found it annoying--and I didn't have any smart devices. For the experiment, I would abide by some additional restrictions. I wouldn't Google anything about pregnancy nor shop for baby stuff either online or using a credit card, and neither would my husband, because our I.P. addresses--and thus the vast, matrixed fatbergs of personal data assembled by unseen corporations to pinpoint our consumer and political identities--were linked.

We're increasingly littering our homes with smart devices from TVs and fridges to home assistants, known broadly as "the internet of things". The internet of things now extends to devices aimed at new parents, marketed as making parenting easier, and babies safer. These include the types of products you'd expect (wifi-enabled baby monitors) and a whole range of more surprising objects (remote-operated white noise machines; smart cots that soothe babies to sleep; socks that monitor a baby's heart rate and oxygen levels; smart toys that get to know their child owner). There are even surveillance systems that read the facial expressions, sounds and movements of babies, with the promise of alerting parents to potential dangers lurking in their little one's cot. Many baby monitoring devices work by using facial recognition technology, designed to pick up changes in a child's expression.

This month, Amazon inked a deal to acquire smart vacuum company iRobot – the makers of Roomba – for a tidy US$1.7bn. As some see it, if the purchase goes through, that should worry us. "It's all about the data," says David Vaile from the Australian Privacy Foundation. Privacy advocates such as Vaile are concerned the robot vacuum cleaner will give Amazon access to floor plans of users' homes, using mapping features some iRobot products already offer. Amazon are yet to release details about what existing and future iRobot data will be used for; and the company told Reuters that they safeguard customer privacy and do not sell their data.

Parenthood, while constantly entertaining, is also one of the most eye-ball meltingly frustrating experiences I've personally ever had. At the end of the day, I do not have patience for any additional extra hassles, be it an unresponsive device, lagging apps or diaper wipes that come out 15 at a time. There are some parenting gadgets that are actually worth your money because they can make life with new babies much more convenient, and some of our favorites are on sale for Black Friday. We've tried out nearly every product below so we can vouch for their advantages, functionality and what really counts as a good deal for the holiday shopping season. That way you can save all your patience for the toy cars, houses and high chairs you're going to have to build after Christmas.

Panasonic's baby monitors have a pretty strong reputation, and after using the KX-HN4101W model, I have to say it's well-earned. This camera and parent unit kit comes with pan-and-tilt capability; smart motion, sound, and temperature detection and alerts; two-way communication; and a built-in sound library. In other words, offers everything the modern parent desires in a baby monitor. And it's dead simple to operate, so it won't saddle new parents with yet another learning curve to master. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the camera resembles a cute, Wall-E style robot with a two-eyed, rectangular camera head on an egg-shaped body.

Some of you may have noticed that it's been a while since my last article. That's because I've become a dad in the meantime, and I've had to take a momentary break from my projects to deal with some parental tasks that can't (yet) be automated. While we're probably still a few years away from a robot that can completely take charge of the task of changing your son's diapers (assuming that enough crazy parents agree to test such a device on their own toddlers), there are some less risky parental duties out there that offer some margin for automation. One of the first things I've come to realize as a father is that infants can really cry a lot, and even if I'm at home I may not always be nearby enough to hear my son's cries. Commercial baby monitors usually step in to fill that gap and they act as intercoms that let you hear your baby's sounds even if you're in another room.

Some of you may have noticed that it's been a while since my last article. That's because I've become a dad in the meantime, and I've had to take a momentary break from my projects to deal with some parental tasks that can't (yet) be automated. While we're probably still a few years away from a robot that can completely take charge of the task of changing your son's diapers (assuming that enough crazy parents agree to test such a device on their own toddlers), there are some less risky parental duties out there that offer some margin for automation. One of the first things I've come to realize as a father is that infants can really cry a lot, and even if I'm at home I may not always be nearby enough to hear my son's cries. Commercial baby monitors usually step in to fill that gap and they act as intercoms that let you hear your baby's sounds even if you're in another room.

This week brought a handful of good tech deals along with the announcement of Amazon Prime Day 2020. While Amazon's annual shopping event will take place on October 13 and 14, there are still some deals worth considering right now (not to mention, a couple of early Prime Day deals for members). Here are the best deals from this week that you can still get today. Prime members can get two 3rd-generation Echo Dots for $20 each when they use the code DOTPRIME2PK at checkout. This brings the price per Echo Dot down to its lowest ever, making this a great deal if you don't absolutely need the redesigned Echo Dot Amazon announced last week.

We've come a long way from baby monitors that just let you listen in on your child's coos and cries. The Miku Smart Baby Monitor is great example of how cutting-edge video technology and artificial intelligence are being used together to give parents more information about their sleeping bundles of joy. In addition to now-standard capabilities such as sound and movement (and non-movement) detection, the Miku tracks your child's breathing patterns and aggregates all this data in digestible sleep analysis reports. Though some hiccups I encountered during testing suggest there's still some room for improvement, the Miku has the all the makings of a great baby monitor. The Miku is attractive, with a white matte finish and silver trim.