Save big on back to school and dorm room essentials on Amazon. During the back-to-school shopping season, you can find deep discounts on top brands on Amazon. Now is your chance to stock up on school supplies, backpacks and dorm room essentials for up to 50% off the list price. Get your back-to-school discounts delivered in time for the first day by signing up for a Prime membership. The benefits include fast, free delivery, access to invite-only deals and the option to Buy With Prime. Most purchases can be delivered to your door in 24 hours if you're an Amazon Prime member.

Now is the best time to buy a laptop--even if you're not a student. Here's what you need to know to find the best deals! 'Tis the season for heading off to school for another year of higher learning. But at the very least, there are some cool back-to-school gadgets to get excited about – including high-tech devices to keep you organized, productive and entertained while in a dorm room. And the good news is you don't have to blow your budget to get some great gear.

The tech giant is celebrating its 20th birthday with a new Google Doodle marking the special occasion. The multi-billion dollar technology titan has certainly come a long way from its humble beginnings in the dorm rooms of Stanford University just two decades ago. Here's a look at the history of Google and what a Google Doodle is. Google's newest Doodle marks the company's milestone 20th birthday in September 2018 Google's history dates back to 1995 at Stanford University in Stanford, California after prospective graduate school student Larry Page met Sergey Brin, a student at the college assigned to show him around. After becoming friends, both Page and Brin developed a search engine from their dorm rooms known as Backrub in 1996 designed to improve online search by using links to determine the importance of website pages.

Starting this fall, some students at Northeastern University in Boston will be given the option of getting an Echo Dot smart speaker linked to their university accounts. They'll be able to ask Amazon's Alexa what time their classes are, how much money's left on their food card and even how much they owe the bursar's office. The program gives students instant access to information they would have to call or go online for, as well as taking pressure off the school's offices. It also makes Amazon's digital assistant a go-to source for a generation who will inhabit a world in which talking to computers is commonplace and who will soon have paychecks to spend. At the same time, it raises questions about security and privacy for young adults living in close quarters, often on their own for the first time.

Not all of your college fun will involve keggers or games of ultimate frisbee. As the weather gets colder, you might have difficulty tearing yourself out of your dorm, in which case your entertainment options are limited: Host an in-room dance party, Netflix and chill or settle in for a little gaming. In addition to our favorite consoles (no, we couldn't choose just one), we've selected a handful of accessories and must-have titles for our back-to-school guide. Enjoy, and may you do a better job making friends with rival fanboys in real life than you do online. Engadget is the original home for technology news and reviews.

The Netflix logo is shown in this illustration photograph. Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of excerpts we are publishing from sociologist Jerry Davis's new book, "The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy." For more on the topic, watch last week's Making Sen e report below. Suppose you wanted to start an enterprise without leaving your couch. Imagine a hypothetical product: the iPhone Remote Drone Assassin App.