Amazon Alexa Devices Are Already on Sale, but the Deals Aren't All as Good as They Look Amazon raised prices across its devices in August. Here are the early device deals ahead of Prime Day that are still worth it--and which aren't. Amazon's Prime Day has returned for its fall edition, and the Amazon Alexa-powered devices are already on sale. But are the sales actually any good? There's already the question of whether you want Alexa in your house, and now it's a question of whether the sales are more of a mind game than a real discount.

These WIRED-tested wearables reduce your reliance on a phone while keeping you connected. It elevates your outfit and makes you feel good. The best smartwatch can do even more, from tracking your workouts and heart rate to serving as a notification hub and accessing voice assistants. You can leave your phone in your pocket and use your wrist for simple tasks. Like many consumer gadgets today, wearables have gotten pricier, driven by several factors, including rising component costs and supply chain pressures. There are plenty of solid options, in various styles, at a range of prices, and with different levels of smarts. Below is a roundup of the best smartwatches I've tested. While not a major upgrade from its predecessor, the Apple Watch Series 12 is the best everyday smartwatch for most iPhone users.

Prime Big Deal Days Haven't Started, but These Robot Vacuums Are Already on Sale One of the best things to buy during (or leading up to) sales events is expensive home gadgets. These Roborock robot vacuums are already on markdown. With the changing weather brings many things: colder mornings; changing leaves; and, most important (particularly in this economy), a wave of sale events as the holiday season creeps around the corner. There are plenty of early Prime Day deals already underway, but given that I'm WIRED's resident vacuum tester, it's no surprise vacuum sales caught my eye. Robot vacuums are tested near daily in my house with the help of my constantly sand-covered 4-year-old and litter-tracking cat, and I've changed the lives of multiple friends after persuading them to try a modern robot vacuum .

She's 28, Loves God and Her Family, and Might Be the Reason You Can't Have Kids Emma Waters is leading a national fight against fertility tech--with her hot husband's permission, of course. By 5 am every morning, Emma Waters is on the sofa with a blanket, plotting America's baby-making future. For two hours, she stays off her phone, inspired by, the self-help bestseller. At 7:30, she does emails. Waters, 28 years old, is a monk of productivity who makes motherhood look like all-natural Adderall. At 8 am, it's time for breakfast and the Bible. Waters tries to live her life according to the mantra "Love God, get married, have babies." She asks that I not use the real names of her two daughters for their safety, even though they've been printed elsewhere. I'll call them Gertie and Ophelia, which are close enough. Ophelia, the baby, runs around in white tights, shirtless, clutching a pink purse; Gertie's doll won't stop crying. There isn't much to say about Jack, other than that he's hot, is studying to be a preacher, and has a big desk at home, much bigger than Waters', featuring a bust of Nietzsche. In the same room, Waters has a pull-out secretary where she takes meetings, not far from a portrait of a glowering President Trump . The only thing Waters doesn't really do is exercise; she hasn't found the time. Not many people outside of DC have heard of Waters, who mostly works from home in a dreary Pennsylvania suburb named after a long-offshored manufacturer. Yet Waters is a factory for policy papers and op-eds extolling the harms of unregulated reproductive technology, probing the moral issues that liberals don't want to touch with a 10-foot turkey baster.

Just about every home security system has paid options, but with a little effort and a focus on local storage, you can build your own without the recurring costs. No one wants to worry about a break-in. But no one wants to end up paying fees every month just to check their video doorbell feed or find out their window was broken, and most smart security systems (even the original ones that weren't touted as smart!) rely on your fear to have you paying month after month for the promise of catching burglars and stopping intruders for you. These systems do work, and they can give you a lot of peace of mind. This comes with a hefty price tag, though, and plenty of people would be more than happy with a system they build themselves sans monthly fees.

Patti Harrison Had Dreams of a Tech Utopia. The comedian sat down with WIRED to talk about social media, AI, and getting laughs for impersonating Boston Dynamics' robot dogs. Patti Harrison, like every great comic, knows how to use her face. If you've seen her stealing scenes in TV shows like Tim Robinson's or Hulu's, you know that she often starts out a bit demure, or pouty, before walking audiences into the deep end. It's that quality in Harrison's work that WIRED borrowed for our own rather unhinged cover concept. Harrison plays five (well, actually six) of the current masters of the universe--Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos (with Lauren Sánchez Bezos by his side). Combining her farcical sensibilities with our commentary on the man-heavy leader ship of Silicon Valley worked perfectly--and she was happy to lampoon the people behind the platforms she used to enjoy. We caught up with Harrison in London, where she had just finished a sold-out run of her show,, and a week of performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. KATIE DRUMMOND: When we were putting together our WIRED Women cover, we knew we had to put the best possible woman on it. You immediately came to mind, and I can't stress enough how much you nailed the assignment. I want to argue with a bunch of it. I was coming in today like, oh, I guess I didn't really check to see what the interview was about.

Apple lovers have long enjoyed seamless connectivity between their iPhones and Macs. Apple's hardware synergy means you can launch iPhone apps right from the macOS desktop, respond to texts without picking up your iPhone, and even copy text on one platform and paste it on the other. That kind of seamless connectivity does not natively exist for Android phone owners at the operating system level. Google's trying to change that with Googlebooks, a new class of laptop. First teased in May, the company finally shared more details about the new OS at a media-only event in New York City last week.

Apple has refreshed the Mac Mini with a brand-new chip, the M6. Impressive gaming for what it is. The Mac Mini has gone through a Peter Parker-esque transformation this year. Just six months ago, it was a meek, unassuming little Mac starter kit, content to fulfill the role of being Apple's smallest and most affordable Mac. It was so easy to overlook that Apple even skipped its M5 refresh last year.

Whether they're into feeders, field guides, or games, these tried-and-tested picks are sure to land perfectly. You may be familiar with the various memes detailing the fact that once you reach middle age, you're automatically sorted, Harry Potter hat-style, into one of a handful of hobbies, such as sourdough bread making, gardening, or bird-watching. I can't contradict this, since I'm a middle-aged person who got sorted into bird-watching. But I do know that enjoying birds and their various activities is fun for all ages. Birds are beautiful, interesting, and unpredictable, and it's fascinating to keep a running life list of all the birds you've seen and hope to see in your lifetime.

Prime Day Deals Are Already Here. These Are the Ones I'd Buy Amazon Prime Big Deal Days officially begin on October 6 and 7, but I've already spotted early discounts on gear our team recommends. Amazon Prime Day deals are back, baby. The second sale of the year is officially dubbed Prime Big Deal Days and will arrive on October 6 and 7. However, early deals have already started, and I've been using my 13 years of deal-hunting experience to find true discounts on the gadgets and gear the WIRED Reviews team has hand-tested and would recommend to our friends.