1. DualShock 4 Controller (Crystal) – $38.99
This is probably the most popular controller in general with native support on PS4 (obviously), Steam, and now iOS 13. While I’d still recommend getting the Xbox One controller, getting a DualShock 4 hasn’t been cheaper. A few of the colour options are available at this price.

2. Xbox One Wireless Controller – $39.00
This is the best overall controller for mobile if you play on PC as well as iOS. Most PC games have native Xbox One button support and this works great with Steam Link. I’ve linked a variant I like but you can go with anything. The Sport controllers are mostly sold out but they are worth looking into for a better overall grip and feel compared to the regular controller. Many Xbox One controllers are down to $39.00 right now.

3. SanDisk 400GB Ultra MicroSDXC card – $49.99
You can never have too much storage space on your Nintendo Switch and prices will likely keep going lower as we get closer to Black Friday and eventually Cyber Monday. If you’ve just gotten a Nintendo Switch, I’d recommend either a 256 GB or 400 GB Micro SD card. If you’re feeling like it, you can even get a 512 GB one through the same link above by clicking on the variant. Game sizes are continuing to increase and some games force you into large downloads.

4. Hori D-Pad Controller (Mario) – $19.40
If you play a lot of retro games or fighting games on Nintendo Switch, you’ve probably already realised how bad the stock Joy-Con “d-pad" or lack thereof is for the aforementioned genres. This Hori D-Pad controller that replaces the left Joy-Con isn’t perfect since you give up HD Rumble but it gets the job done for a d-pad at least. There are a few colour options but the Mario one is the cheapest right now.

BONUS: SEGA Genesis Mini – $49.99 (or $45 in the DOTD)
Nintendo’s mini consoles no doubt made many publishers and hardware manufacturers look into cashing in on nostalgia. While Nintendo did a pretty good job with the NES Classic Mini and the SNES Classic Mini, Sony’s PlayStation mini was a flop overall and it has regularly been heavily discounted. SEGA’s SEGA Genesis Mini on the other hand is pretty great. Shaun did an in depth look at it and how it stacks up against SEGA Forever. Check it out here. The SEGA Genesis Mini is available for $49.99 down from $79.99 for a limited time.

A lot of these deals are likely also available in more online stores. If you buy any of them through our links on Amazon, it helps TouchArcade in a small way and you get some great hardware at a discount for a limited time.

Previously, the “sweet spot" was the 256GB card as the price jump between 256GB and 400GB was significant, but today’s deal that brings these cards down to $60 is real hard to pass up. Last time one of these deals rolled around (which I think I put it at around $80?) I grabbed one for my Switch and it is ridiculously liberating to just never really need to worry about space again, particularly as Nintendo keeps releasing these huge download-only games. This isn’t a junky card either, it’s a name brand, fast card. Usually when these ultra-cheap cards roll around they’re weird, slow, no-name cards we don’t even bother posting about.

And hey, buying through our links helps TouchArcade in a small way, so get loads of storage and throw us a bone at the same time!

Update: Looks like these sold out absurdly quickly. I’m going to keep an eye to see if there’s a restock, but the 256GB card for $44 is also a great deal.

My local tabletop gaming Facebook group is absolutely losing it this morning over Gloomhaven being on sale today on Amazon for $103.37 down from its regular price of $140. Admittedly, I’m not as deep into the world of board games as I once was, but according to friends of mine, Gloomhaven is a lot like Space Hulk (and many other similar games) that are impossible to find and rarely sell for anywhere near the original retail price. I only even know one person who owns a copy of Gloomhaven, and when he brings it to the local game store, it’s a thing. If you’ve never heard of this before, the reason it’s a big deal is because it’s the #1 game, overall, on Board Game Geek, as well as the #1 thematic and #1 strategy game- Likely because Gloomhaven is not only unbelievably complicated, but also features a single player mode.

Take a look at this quick video to get an idea of what the game is all about:

The staggering thing about Gloomhaven is the absolutely unbelievable content in the box. It’s really hard to quantify this in any meaningful way if you’ve never played it before, but the box weighs 20 pounds. What other game have you played in your entire life that requires 20 friggin’ pounds of boards, booklets, cards, pieces, and other gizmos to play? Here’s a review by The Dice Tower, which is my favorite board game channel:

Now, the one odd thing about Gloomhaven is amongst those 20 pounds of pieces is a lot of various stickers which are applied on maps, cards, and all sorts of other places as you play. These stickers aren’t removable, which seems like a real odd oversight unless I’m missing something. (I’ve only every watched this being played at my FLGS.) It’s recommended that you pick up this removable sticker set, I asked my buddy who owns the game what the deal is with the few negative Amazon reviews, and his response was effectively, “I have no idea, mine are great."

Gloomhaven is currently out of stock on Amazon, but they’ll ship whenever they get more which … hopefully is quickly. Either way, if you’re even remotely interested in board games, this is the crown jewel of any board game collection. Also, if you’re thinking ahead for Christmas gifts, if you have any board gamer significant others I’m fairly certain they’ll absolutely lose it if they open up a copy of Gloomhaven.

UPDATE: Ugh, looks like this deal lasted an annoyingly short period of time. While the normal price of $139.99 isn’t on sale, it still might be a decent “deal" as this game has absurd resale prices. Looking at what resellers are charging on Amazon isn’t anywhere near $139.99, which makes me wonder if it wasn’t resellers that scooped them all up?

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

If you’re an Amazon Prime Member, you now have the ability to purchase Amazon’s best-selling tablet for a price so low it’s sort of unbelievable. For $35 you can get a Fire 7 Tablet, you’ll need to get the 8GB model with special offers (basically ads on the lock screen) to hit that price point, but holy moly. Thinking back to when tablets were brand new things that felt like using something out of a Sci-Fi movie, if you would’ve told me one day you’d be able to buy one for $35, I’d think you were some kind of nut.

Now, the Fire 7 Tablet comes with some pretty significant caveats you should be aware of: This particular model is about three years old now, so it’s not going to have the latest and greatest hardware inside of it. By today’s standards, the processor is sort of slow and the 1024×600 7" display will be way more pixel-y than you’re used to compared to the Retina Display of your iPhone. But, that being said, if you’re just looking for a ultra cheap Android tablet you can root and run emulators, give to your kids, or just use to watch movies or whatever else yourself at the gym, this tablet would do all of those things- And it has a SD card slot so you can increase the storage significantly if you’ve got an old SD card laying around.

The Fire 7 Tablet has a vast array of accessories you can buy for it, as all sorts of third party manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon of making things for such a popular tablet, but I’d really recommend looking at other models if you’re going to be spending money on that many things to go along with it. For instance, Prime members can get the Fire HD 10 which is a better tablet in just about every way for $110. You get a quadcore processor, way more RAM, a way better screen, and other perks… But, it’s 3x the price.

Anyway, $35 for the Fire 7 Tablet seems like a pretty wild deal, provided you’ve got your expectations in check with what the device is capable of. Lightweight emulators, Netflix, YouTube, some basic older mobile games and things like that are all fine. Anything beyond that, you’re really better off saving your money for something a bit newer… But, hey, your kid who watches Peppa Pig all day won’t care about anything fancier than a YouTube machine, right?

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

When I bought my car ages ago, I remember it being a real big deal to me that I spend the extra cash to get the one that had GPS. Well, fast forward nearly a decade and the GPS in my car is old, busted, and severely out of date. Sure, I could pay Toyota a couple hundred bucks for new map data, but what’s even the point when you can just use Google Maps or Waze? Additionally, while using my iPhone for mapping became more common, using the CD player slot in my car stopped entirely- Making it the best place to put a phone mount.

The Mpow CD Slot Car Phone Holder is universally adored on Amazon, and at $9.99, is totally worth picking up over having your phone in your cupholder, in your lap, or in your hands. You slide the mount into your CD slot then turn the locking crank until there’s enough pressure to keep it there, then, a normal spring enclosure setup keeps your iPhone in place.

The Mpow CD Slot Car Phone Holder is totally universal, and works with any smartphone you’d ever want to put in it, with the one exception being if you have a super bulky Otterbox-style case. You might need to downsize if that’s the case. Either way, all the ports on the bottom are exposed so you can charge, run a line in, or whatever else.

If you’re not into CD mounts, I like the Anker Vent Mount which I’ll fully feature tomorrow.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

This is a little odd to feature on TouchArcade, but I’ve given this advice to so many of my east coast friends this week as they get ready for Florence that I figured I’d post it here in case it helps someone in the TouchArcade community as well. Anyway, if you live in an area that is prone to any sort of weather that might lead to power outages, it’s generally a decent idea to have a generator. The problem there is, it’s one more gas engine to maintain, and they can take up a ton of room in your garage- Or potentially are not feasible at all to own if you don’t have a garage. What a lot of people don’t consider is that you can get most of the functionality of a generator out of a high capacity power inverter hooked up to your car, like the POTEK 750W Car Power Inverter. Most folks are familiar with smaller inverters that you plug into a 12v socket that might provide enough power to charge a laptop, but higher capacity inverters connect directly to your car battery- Effectively turning the alternator of your car into a reasonably decent capacity generator that can run for hours and hours and hours.

The POTEK 750W Car Power Inverter is capable of providing 1500 watts of peak power and 750 watts of constant power, which should be enough to power most average sized modern refrigerators and a few other things. For instance, my refrigerator which I got a few years ago when it’s running only uses around 100 watts, but when the compressor first kicks on its usage surges up to around 700 watts. So, this inverter is completely capable of handling my fridge. If you’re not sure how much power your appliances use, both at peak and at idle, it’s reasonably easy to find someone who has figured it out by searching Google for your model number or you can get something like the Kill A Watt usage monitor (which is another useful gizmo to have). 750 watt inverters are also sort of the sweet spot for what most average cars can handle, but this is also a good thing to do a bit of research on if you’re driving something weird like a Smart FourTwo or something that might have a lower power electrical system.

While blackouts in my area (knock on wood) have barely lasted long enough to be worth worrying about, I grew up in a very rural area where multi-day outages after a storm wasn’t that abnormal. If you cover your fridge with a bunch of blankets to insulate it better, you can just run it on an inverter for long enough for the compressor to complete a cycle, then just plug in something else like your TV or whatever else, then power your refrigerator some more a few hours later. Does this work as well as having some huge whole house generator setup? No, of course not, but we’re also talking a $45 power inverter that you can keep in your blackout kit and basically forget about until you need it versus a multi-thousand dollar generator setup. The only other thing to keep this whole thing going is a heavy gauge extension cord, which you might even already have.

Even if this sort of thing doesn’t specifically apply to you now, the fact that you can do this is worth data banking somewhere in your brain, as you never know when you’re going to need to deal with extended blackouts or prepare for an incoming storm.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I have so many friends of mine who have doorbells by Ring, that it really annoys me that I just don’t really have an even remotely ideal way to install one of these on my house- My doorbell is on my weirdly narrow door frame, and my exterior walls surrounding my door are this uneven flagstone material that looks cool, but… Well, I guess whoever built my house in the 60’s didn’t have smart doorbells in mind. If you live in a normal house, with normal walls, I highly recommend checking out the Ring Video Doorbell 2 which is on sale today for 20% off, bringing its normal $200 price down to $160. The original Ring Video Doorbell has been hovering at around $100 for a while now, and although it’s functionally very similar, the second generation Ring is basically better in every way: 1080p vs 720p video, the video processing is better as well which assists with night vision and motion detecting. Also, if you can’t hardwire it, the Ring 2 has a removable battery pack which makes charging way easier.

Anyway, if this is the first you’ve heard of these newfangled smart doorbell things, the way they work is by basically combining the basic function of a doorbell with a security camera, two way intercom, and push alerts. I was 110% sold on these kind of products when I was out to lunch with a friend who had one, the postman rang their doorbell to get a signature on a package, and they were able to have a conversation via the Ring app about just bringing the package back the next day when he would be home. At my house, when that happens, I’m left with the annoying “Sorry we missed you!" post card and the exponentially more annoying subsequent trip to the post office.

YouTube is also filled with these kind of videos where these sorts of smart doorbells have been used to either deter or catch package thieves. If you order things from Amazon or other places on the regular, and are in an area with lots of foot traffic, that’s one more reason to get one of these. The only downside to these devices is that there’s a $3/mo subscription to use all the fancy cloud stuff that makes the doorbell and the app all work together. A low-cost subscription like that is fairly standard for all these different video security solutions however.

If I had an even remotely good way to install one of these Ring Video Doorbell 2s at my house, I’d already have one. I’m super jealous of friends of mine who have had these things for years, and, today you’re able to save 20%.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I think you could make a real strong argument that few skills are more important for kids these days to learn than the basic fundamentals of computer programming. Regardless of what they want to be when they grow up, understanding these things will be immensely useful as technology becomes more and more integrated with your life. You could even argue that knowing a programming language is more valuable than knowing a second spoken language. Problem is, as a parent, it’s real difficult to know where to start with all this stuff. The company Kano identified this issue, and has been shipping computer kits specifically for kids to build their own mini-PC and then use it to do a variety of activities to learn the basics of programming. Better yet, their products are based on the Raspberry Pi which is a totally flexible piece of open source hardware that you can just install any number of programmer-centric operating system environments on if they cap out with what Kano offers.

This is relevant today because the Kano Computer Kit is 30% off, bringing it down from its normal price of $149.99 to $104.96 with free shipping. Assembling the kit is the first part of the lessons that Kano packs in, and is incredibly simple. You basically snap a few pieces together, put it in a case, and connect a power wire and a HDMI cable to whatever you’re hooking it up to. This can be a super cheap monitor you have laying around or a TV, everything works.

The above video shows how it all comes together, and is actually based on the older version of the Kano Computer Kit. The new one is a bit faster, and has a few more goodies like some LED lights you can program. Kano’s YouTube channel is unbelievably exhaustive when it comes to different tutorials and troubleshooting guides too. I’ve given Kano Computer Kits to kids as young as seven, and it’s been pretty wild watching them figure it all out. This is the sort of thing I wish existed when I was a kid.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Today we’re not really featuring a single item as much as we’re focusing on an entire category of items that are on sale. Amazon Basics is basically Amazon’s generic brand of stuff- Sort of like how Best Buy has private label products through the Insignia and Geek Squad brand names. In my experience, Amazon Basics are typically priced lower than similar products and are of the same (or sometimes better) quality level. For instance, this $5 Switch case is functionally identical to those that cost twice as much. We even use Amazon dog poo bags, and most of my HDMI cables are these Amazon Basics braided cables which work just fine while being way cheaper. My Amazon Basics spiralizer is no more or less junky than any other one I’ve used at friends’ houses when the low carb thing came heavily into fashion. Oddly enough, the best Amazon Basics product I own is this toiletry bag which I bought to replace a (very) expensive Samsonite bag that was very similar and the Amazon bag is … nicer? I’m not sure how that turned out to be the case.

These category-wide sales on Amazon are always a bit overwhelming as they sell so much stuff, but I guess way to look at the main Amazon Basics section as if you’re wandering down the clearance aisle at Walmart where you ignore $3 mop heads (unless you need one of those?) and zero in on things like $15 Switch AC adapter/charger, a $17 backlit “gaming keyboard", a $6 bag for a SNES Classic and other weird stuff which might be just junk, or intensely useful to you!

While they don’t seem to be included as part of this sale, I’m a huge fan of the Amazon Basics Batteries which are just as cheap and good as Costco brand batteries!

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

One of the best products I’ve picked up recently for shooting video is the DJI Osmo Mobile 2. It’s a camera gimbal for your smartphone, which works frickin’ amazing for capturing steady video.

We’ve been using a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 to capture all of our event videos since GDC, and it’s ridiculous what a difference it has made in actually being able to do longer over-the-shoulder videos without them being a shaky mess. The DJI Osmo Mobile 2 does this using the same gimbal magic they use in their drones to always keep your iPhone pointing at the same thing regardless of how much you bob around.

Check out this basic video on how it all works:

We primarily use these things for what might be the most boring use for a camera gimbal, but people who are more into shooting video utilize the various features of the DJI app to do all their different time lapse and other visual tricks… Including hyperlapse. Here’s another video that demonstrates all these features:

The thing I love most about the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 is it’s one of those devices that is as complicated as you want it to be. For my purposes, I toss my phone in it and just use the basic iOS camera app to record video. This works totally fine, and the controls work over Bluetooth (except for zoom, that only works in the DJI app). Inside the DJI app, you can do complicated things like tracking of a subject to always automatically keep them in frame and all the other things shown off in the above video.

Most of all, it really just blows me away how cheap this technology has become. When I first started shooting iPhone gameplay videos a decade ago the camera setup I had to do it was huge, expensive, and really difficult to move around. Now days? My iPhone X is an incredibly capable video camera, and these gimbal accessories now cost less than $150 compared to this tech a decade ago basically being unaffordable to anyone but professionals. We are living in some pretty neat times!

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

As much as I love my Nintendo Switch, the entire system has one super-stupid design flaw: The only charging port is on the bottom of the device. One of the primary features of the Switch is your ability to remove both controllers, extend the build-in kickstand, and play Mario Kart two player until the cows come home. I typically play my Switch in portable mode, so I’m regularly thrashing the battery by myself. In the situations I’ve been in where someone wants to play two player, I’m often way below 50% battery before we even get started.

By myself, this is no problem as I carry this USB-C battery with me which extends my play time through … well, more than enough for an entire day. When I’m playing by myself, it’s super simple to just plug a USB-C cable in the bottom and keep on going. Two player, with the kickstand? I’ve had to get real creative with making stands out of plastic cups and other dumb things until I discovered the HORI Compact Playstand. Originally, I just picked one up because it solved this silly problem, but in actually using it I’ve found that the adjustable angles puts the Switch at a way more comfortable viewing angle for two people to play something.

For the above reasons, the HORI Compact Playstand basically lives in my backpack, but on a recent flight I discovered another great use for it- I don’t know if I’m beginning to get some sort of carpal tunnel or if this is just a side effect of how absurdly uncomfortable economy air travel is, but the posture I need to sit at to hold my Switch on planes gets super annoying for long flights out to the west coast. I figured, “I’ll just take the joycons off and use the kickstand." Problem there is the Switch is held at such a severe angle that you really just can’t see it. With the HORI Compact Playstand, you can open it up all the way and have it at a real shallow angle which creates the perfect economy seat tray table viewing angle.

Semi-recently Amazon has also released the AmazonBasics Playstand for Nintendo Switch which looks slightly different and appears to have identical functionality for (as of this writing) a buck less. Given the supremely minimal price discrepancy, I’d say just pick up the HORI Compact Playstand. It’s made by HORI who have been making video game accessories for years, and it’s officially licensed by Nintendo. It’s got the Nintendo Switch logo on it too. Whether or not those things are worth a extra dollar is entirely up to you- but either of these are really good Switch accessories that honestly probably should have just came bundled in the box.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Our favorite Micro SD card for the Nintendo Switch is once again on sale on Amazon. We’re huge fans of the Sandisk Ultra 200GB Micro SDXC UHS-I Card as it has transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s which is more than fast enough for anything you’d ever want to do with the Switch, and being a Sandisk card it’s backed by a real brand name folks respect with a 10 year warranty if anything ever goes bad. And really, after 10 years, we’ll probably have way crazier forms of storage.

The Sandisk Ultra 200GB Micro SDXC UHS-I Card is what I use in my Switch, as I think it’s the best bang for the buck as far as the capacity to cost ratio right now at $49.50 (as of this writing). You can size down to the 128GB card for $29.50, or up to a 256GB card for $71.50. Both of those are good prices too, so it basically comes down to how much eShop games you plan on buying.

I can barely keep up with the pace of great downloadable eShop titles that get released, and to avoid needing to juggle archiving games and only keeping a limited amount of games on your internal system memory, a bigger micro SD card is a great purchase for the Switch. It’s hard to really write too much more about this card as it does exactly what it’s advertised to do: Hold games, read/write fast, and be reliable.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

When it comes to charging, I’m all about packing as many ports into a charger as I can, which has made these mutli-port chargers an absolute necessity both around my house and in my bag of junk I carry with me when I travel. The RAVPower 60W 5-Port USB-C Charging Station is one heck of a multi-tasker, as it features a USB-C port capable of charging the Nintendo Switch, your MacBook, or other USB-C devices and four USB ports that can do 2.4A each. Better yet, for whatever reason, today this is on sale for $20.39 (down from $39.99). For the sake of comparison, I’ve also got a bunch of these very similar Anker chargers that I bought thinking they were a pretty good deal at $49.99. This is an absurd deal.

I have these kind of chargers all over the place at my house, as it seems like everything I use these days charges either over USB or USB-C. I’ve got one in the drawer of my night stand, on my desk, and next to my couch. $20 is pretty nuts too, as that’s what a normal Switch charger will run you, but this one also includes four more USB ports for charging batteries, iPhones, iPads, and any other weirdo thing you plug into a USB port for power. I do wish someone would eventually release a charger like this that has a fold in power plug sort of like MacBook chargers, as the cord is a little annoying for minimal travel packing, but, whatever.

Amazon reviews are overly positive as well, with the few negative reviews coming from folks who just seem like they got a bad unit they could easily just return to Amazon. Additionally, Ravpower offers lifetime warranties on these chargers in case it stops working after your warranty runs out. Really, I can’t say enough good things about these things, and for $20? That’s a frickin’ smokin’ deal.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I am a simpleton who lives in a small, single story ranch house. I’ve got my WiFi router in the center of my house, and really just don’t have any WiFi coverage issues aside from in my garage… Which I don’t really use WiFi from anyway. Friends with larger houses seem to just have constant issues, which becomes a pretty annoying problem with how many things these days require WiFi connectivity. Not long ago I helped a friend of mine solve this exact problem by installing the Linksys Velop Whole Home WiFi Intelligent Mesh System.

It’s shockingly easy to do, as you start by identifying which areas in your house have poor WiFi signal, then just intelligently place the three different access points (with one near your router) so everything is covered and then you just plug them in and let the Linksys app do the rest. I had never set up one of these systems before, and we were both sort of amazed by how simple it is. I still remember the days of when the concept of home routers were new and how weirdly complicated the setup can be, with the Velop system you basically name your network, set a password, and the rest is more or less automatic.

Only a few minutes later, and all the different dead zones and problem areas were gone. It seriously was like magic. I mean, sure, that’s the entire point of these mesh network systems, but having been so use to WiFi being notoriously flaky I have to say I was incredibly skeptical that this setup would work as well as it does. There’s a bunch of different options on Amazon for setups that do simlar things, including the Google WiFi system, but with today’s sale price of $229.97, the Linksys Velop Whole Home WiFi Intelligent Mesh System is the cheapest I’ve seen one of these mesh network setups from a name brand you recognize. If WiFi signal strength is a constant annoyance at your house, this is a fantastic solution.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Anker PowerCore Fusion

All the way back in 2011 we got our first look at the Sphero. Basically, the device is/was an app-enabled ball that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and you can roll it around either by tilting your device or using on-screen controls. I originally thought it was sort of dumb, and the original pre-order price of $129.99 was absurd… Then I played with one at E3 a few months later and bought it on the spot.

It turns out that actually fiddling with one of these things is shockingly fun- Particularly with the obstacle course they had set up. Fast forward a few years and Sphero has grown their brand of Bluetooth controlled balls into something that is featured in the new Star Wars movies. BB-8 is made by them, and the BB-8 Sphero toy was the hottest thing ever when the first of the new Star Wars movies was released.

Well, if you’ve always been curious about Sphero toys but never really wanted to fork out the cash for one, the Sphero Mini is on sale for $36.00 today on Amazon, down from its usual price of $49.99. Specifically, the white ball is on sale, there are other colors, but they’re regular price. The Sphero Mini works with the various Sphero apps, it’s just smaller, and cheaper. As shown in the above video, you can use an app to control the ball, and you can also use the ball to control the few games that support it- For instance, there’s FlappyBall for Sphero (Free) which is basically Flappy Bird controlled with a Sphero.

I primarily use my Sphero to screw with my cat, and the Sphero Mini will definitely do the trick there. He really has no idea what to do when a ball chases him, which is pretty hilarious. This isn’t my cat, but you get the idea:

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

This is a bit of a rerun of a previous item of the day, but it’s for a good reason: Today is the last day to take advantage of Amazon’s better preorder bonus program. Basically, if you’re a member of Amazon Prime and you preorder video games over there you get two pretty substantial benefits: If the price is lower anywhere Amazon adjusts their price and Prime members get 20% off anything they preorder. This took a typical $60 video game down to $48, which is a pretty zany deal as typically new games don’t go on sale and even if you’re looking at buying a reasonably new-ish game used from Game Stop you’re lucky to get much more than $5 off retail. This is the last day to get this discount.

As we mentioned in the previous article, all good things must come to an end, and Amazon recently announced they’re tweaking the way these preorder bonuses work. Instead of getting a flat 20% off, game preorders will be full price and instead you’ll just get $10 in Amazon credit for select games. So, you’re getting slightly less off the price of these game preorders and instead of paying less you’re just getting Amazon credit back. It’s not a huge deal if you do a lot of shopping on Amazon, as that $10 will just roll into your next purchase but if you rarely shop over there it is way better to just get $12 off instead of $10 back to spend later.

Amazon switches over from the 20% off to the $10 back program tomorrow, so as of this writing you’ve got about 12 hours left to look through their list of game preorders and grab whatever you feel like preordering. Historically, Amazon doesn’t actually charge your card until the item is shipped, so you could go nuts just preordering everything you’re even remotely interested in to lock in the discount, then just end up cancelling whatever you decide you don’t actually want to buy as reviews start to trickle out. That doesn’t seem like the worst strategy, provided you’re vigilant about actually following through on the cancelling.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Anker PowerCore Fusion

One of my favorite things about being able to spend time with TouchArcade founder Arnold Kim at WWDC and other events is hearing just how opinionated one person can be on batteries. Arn won’t buy a battery if it isn’t also able to plug directly into the wall to charge itself, which I always though was an unnecessary complication as the space that’s taken up by the plug and charging components is space that isn’t being taken up by battery. Eventually I thought, “Eh, maybe Arn knows what he’s talking about," and I bought an Anker PowerCore Fusion which is their hybrid battery plus wall charger… And as much as I hate to say it, Arn is right, this thing is stupidly useful.

Basically, it works just how you think it would: If you flip the power outlet blades down and plug the Anker PowerCore Fusion into a wall, it’ll start charging itself. When you plug USB devices into it and those devices need to charge, it prioritizes charging connected USB devices before the internal battery. Once things connected are charged, it shifts gears back to recharging itself. The Anker PowerCore Fusion is about the size of a regular MacBook charger, so it’s not a total brick in your bag either.

The interesting thing about this charger is over the spread of about six bucks you really have three pretty interesting options to consider. If you, like Arnold Kim, really like the no fuss of having a battery that can directly plug into a wall, the Anker PowerCore Fusion is for you. The one down side this particular charger has is that 5,000 mAh is a little on the low side when you compare it to the Anker PowerCore II 10000 which is just a battery, and about the same size, with twice the capacity. (I actually love this battery for its great size/weight/capacity balance.) Or, if you want to get really weird, you can check out the RAVPower 2-in-1 Wall Charger and Power Bank which has all the capacity of the previously mentioned Anker battery, but is quite a bit larger due to all the extra charging components onboard.

Of the three, what’s the best one to get? It all depends on your uses. That being said, I’ve found the Anker PowerCore Fusion to be ridiculously handy to bring on quick overnight trips where I really only need a way to charge my iPhone and Apple Watch, and maybe a bit of extra battery in case I get caught in a pinch.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

As far as a Switch case is concerned, the Tomtoc Slim Hard Case has everything you need and nothing you don’t. There’s just enough room for your Switch, a flap that you can keep some game cards in, and enough room to weasel some ear buds in as well along with maybe one other cord if it’s pretty short. The outer shell is also designed in a way that prevents having direct pressure on the analog sticks, which I really like.

The Amazon reviews are overwhelmingly positive, aside from a few one off negative reviews mentioning the case … smells bad? I’m usually pretty sensitive to that sort of thing and don’t have any problem with the Tomtoc Slim Hard Case. If I close it up around my nose and breathe deep, sure, there’s a bit of a plastic-y smell but I have no idea why you’d ever do this. So, I guess it comes down to this: If you want a reasonably priced super slim no frills Nintendo Switch case that provides good protection and your primary use for it isn’t breathing deep with it zippered around your face… I’m super happy with the Tomtoc Slim Hard Case. Also, it’s worth mentioning that if you want to opt for the grey color it’s a couple bucks cheaper, but, I like the black with the red zipper pulls.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I’ve thought these smart speaker devices were super stupid for the longest time, largely because of my experiences with Siri. Well, last time the Amazon Echo Dot was on sale I decided, “Eh, Alexa is turning into a meme I’ll spend $40 and try this out, it can’t be worse than Siri." …Which rapidly turned into me strategically placing these things throughout my house because I use them so much. The Echo Dot I have in my bedroom I use as an alarm clock and to ask what the weather is going to be like when I’m getting dressed. The one in my bathroom (yes, I have one in my bathroom) I use to get “flash briefings" (quick news reports) to hear what’s going on during the day when I’m brushing my teeth. The Echo Dot in my kitchen is great for unit conversions and timers when cooking, and the list just goes on and on.

I think what makes Alexa so much more useful than Siri is it’s connected to Amazon’s larger cloud infrastructure which allow you to add “skills" to Alexa. For instance, if you enable the skills to do it, you can have it suggest wine pairings, order pizza, and even call people for you. My favorite killer feature is by using the Amazon Echo Dot as a poor man’s Sonos setup. I can say, “Alexa, play Spotify everywhere," and my music will play all over my house. There’s an AUX output on the back too, so I’ve got a couple of them hooked up to older Bluetooth speakers I had laying around for better audio quality.

The Amazon Echo Dot has been fairly surprising, as I was almost certain it was going to be super dumb or not very useful when I first ordered it, and my experience has been the exact opposite. If you’ve never fiddled with Alexa before, $39.99 (as of this writing) is a super low barrier to entry with giving it a go- Just beware, if you find it as useful as I have you’ll probably be buying way more than one.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Alright, so todays’s Amazon Item of the Day isn’t one specific item as much as it’s raising awareness of Amazon tweaking the way their discount structure works on video game preorders. Basically, if you’re a member of Amazon Prime and you preorder video games over there you get two pretty substantial benefits: If the price is lower anywhere Amazon adjusts their price and Prime members get 20% off anything they preorder. This took a typical $60 video game down to $48, which is a pretty zany deal as typically new games don’t go on sale and even if you’re looking at buying a reasonably new-ish game used from Game Stop you’re lucky to get much more than $5 off retail.

Well, all good things must come to an end, and Amazon recently announced they’re tweaking the way these preorder bonuses work. Instead of getting a flat 20% off, game preorders will be full price and instead you’ll just get $10 in Amazon credit for select games. So, you’re getting slightly less off the price of these game preorders and instead of paying less you’re just getting Amazon credit back. It’s not a huge deal if you do a lot of shopping on Amazon, as that $10 will just roll into your next purchase but if you rarely shop over there it is way better to just get $12 off instead of $10 back to spend later.

Amazon switches over from the 20% off to the $10 back program on August 28th, so as of this writing you’ve got a week left to look through their list of game preorders and grab whatever you feel like preordering. Historically, Amazon doesn’t actually charge your card until the item is shipped, so you could go nuts just preordering everything you’re even remotely interested in to lock in the discount, then just end up cancelling whatever you decide you don’t actually want to buy as reviews start to trickle out. That doesn’t seem like the worst strategy, provided you’re vigilant about actually following through on the cancelling.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

There’s a bunch of different examples of this across the internet, but last year MacRumors did a test on these different charging options and found that if you’ve got an iPhone X, iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus and charge either via a 12W USB port or a 18W USB-C port your overall charge speed doubles over using just the normal 5W USB charger that you’re probably rocking if you didn’t specifically look for a high speed charger.

Anyway, I’m a pretty hardcore Anker fanboy, and I’ve been super happy with the Anker PowerDrive II which both has a traditional USB port capable of fast charging anything that can be fast charged and a USB-C port that conforms to the USB-PD standard so it’ll not only charge your iPhone as quick as an iPhone can be charged but it’ll also work with MacBooks, the Nintendo Switch, and anything else that uses USB-C.

Upgrading a Anker PowerDrive II been pretty significant for me, as I can actually get a meaningful charge out of having my iPhone plugged in for quick trips. The one annoying part of the current USB-C iPhone charging situation is that Apple hasn’t MFi certified any third party USB-C to Lightning cables yet, so you’re stuck buying expensive official cables from Apple, or much cheaper “used" ones on Amazon. Hopefully the situation surrounding this changes, but, it is what it is. Apple wouldn’t be Apple without being real dumb about cables.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

The thing that sucked about the AirPods release last year was that, like most Apple products, demand vastly outpaced supply. I follow the Apple scene pretty closely so I was able to order mine as soon as they went up for sale, but if you missed that brief window you were stuck haunting an Apple store for a restock- Which also often sold out instantly. Friends of mine who managed to buy AirPods in Q1 of this year basically only managed to buy a set because they just happened to be at an Apple Store when their daily shipment came in. Well, now they’re readily available everywhere, and Amazon even has AirPods for (as of this writing) $14 cheaper than you’d buy them from Apple for, $145 vs $160.

I use my AirPods for absolutely everything across all my iOS and Mac devices. They’ve got Apple’s fancy W1 chip, so swapping between devices is incredibly graceful- Particularly if you’ve only used Bluetooth audio devices and have dealt with the awkward process of constantly unpairing and repairing if you use old school Bluetooth stuff across an iPad and an iPhone. Instead of all that, you just pull down the iOS control center and select your AirPods . It’s seriously borderline magical comparatively.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, audio quality and fit are the same as the EarPods Apple throws in with your iPhone, so the one dealbreaker of AirPods is if you’re one of those people who have ears shaped in a way that just don’t work that great with Apple’s headphones. There’s a few different solutions like EarBuddyz that help… But any of the covers are going to be real awkward as a big part of using AirPods is popping them in and out of their charging case all the time, which you’d need to remove these covers for every time to have them fit.

Yes, $145 (or $160 if you pay full price) is expensive for headphones, particularly those of the ear bud style, but if I had to estimate my overall cost per use of these things it’d be under a penny. AirPods are so friggin’ convenient that they’ll just live in your pocket and you’ll find yourself using them all the time. I absolutely cannot say enough good things about these, I’d go as far as saying AirPods are my favorite Apple product they’ve released in a long, long time.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Rolling the clock back to the early days of iOS, the iPhones and iPads of hardcore users seemed to be semi-permanently tethered to your computer. Backing up to iTunes, managing music, dealing with apps, and even things like your home screen layout could all be done through iTunes. This was the primary way I loaded content on my device, as most of the early iOS product user flow was just mirrored directly from how you dealt with your iPod. Apple has walked practically all of that back now, and I haven’t even plugged my iPhone X into a computer. You just don’t need to anymore. But, there was a time where I would have killed for something like the CordDock as I was constantly syncing, charging, playing, and dealing with my iPhone plugged into my machine.

Now days, the CordDock makes a really great bed-side charger. My normal usage of my iPhone at night might be kind of weird, but, whatever. I use these headphones paired with my iPhone, and often listen to podcasts. A lot of the time though, I use this pre-sleep laying in bed time to catch up on Netflix shows. For a while I was trying to use wireless chargers everywhere, but what’d happen is I’d be watching Netflix, fall asleep, and wake up the next morning with my iPhone not in the charger dock and mostly dead from auto-playing shows for hours.

With the CordDock, I am able to combine the functionality of a dock I can just rest my iPhone in effortlessly along with a larger charging cable that I can pull out when I need to keep it connected. Someone in the Amazon reviews mentioned this dock being great for the car, which I could also see- Particularly if you’re lucky enough to have a newer car with Apple CarPlay and need to keep your iPhone connected for it to work. The CordDock is an interesting product from Elevation Lab as for me it solves one very specific problem with how I like to use my iPhone, but it probably isn’t for everyone.

I guess that’s why they’re not bashful about calling this an “experimental" charger.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Now, there’s close to as many different iPhone docks on Amazon as there are iPhone cases, but what I really love about the Elevation Dock 4 are the various defining features of Elevation Lab’s docks. First off, you can put your phone in and take it out one-handed. Most (if not all?) of the cheaper docks out there might look great on your desk, but are super light and kind of awkward to use. The Elevation Dock 4 is about as close as you can get to just using a wireless charging dock when it comes to how easy it is to put your iPhone in it, except being hard wired, it charges way faster. The Elevation Dock 4 is both heftier than your typical cheapie dock and has grippy material at the bottom that keeps it stuck to your desk, to further help the one handed use.

Also, unlike most (all?) docks I’ve seen, the Elevation Dock 4 is totally adjustable and works with cases. There’s two stainless steel knobs on the back that you can turn to adjust the depth of the back rest as well as how much the lightning connector protrudes from the base. Any normal, non-ultra thick Otterbox-style case should just effortlessly work with a little adjustment unlike a lot of docks that require your iPhone to be naked to work. It’s also MFi certified, which doesn’t mean a whole lot anymore, but the certification means you don’t run the risk of buying something, having iOS update, and all the sudden getting the alert that it’s not a supported accessory. (This recently happened to me with a super cheap Lightning to 3.5mm adapter I have.)

At $59.95 (as of this writing), the Elevation Dock 4 is on the higher end of what you’d pay for a iPhone dock, but Elevation Lab as a company has positioned themselves fairly similar to Twelve South in that their products are designed in a way that they fit right in with Apple’s overall style and don’t stick out at all if you’ve got a desk full of fancy Mac stuff. They also have the CordDock which I’ll review tomorrow that has some interesting features I’ll dig into as well.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Like most of Elevation Lab’s stuff, the beauty of The Anchor is its simplicity. It’s made of a flexible rubber-ish material with space on each side to hold things. I’m using wireless headphones now, but before that I used one side to hold my headphones and the other to wrap the cord around loosely. It sticks to the underside of your desk with the same super sticky 3M adhesive that GoPro uses for their helmet mounts, so it’s more than capable of holding a pair of headphones.

More than anything else, I just love that The Anchor gives me a spot to put these giant headphones I use at my computer without them just going in a pile of whatever other things I’m working on at the time. Folks in Amazon reviews have even mentioned that it works just as well sticking it on the side of your desk too, which makes sense. As far as criticism in Amazon reviews is concerned, it seems the only problem people really have is it falling off, but I’d be very curious how many people who had those problems also followed the instructions where they very clearly tell you to stick it on and let the adhesive cure for 24 hours before using it. (I made this mistake with a GoPro mount.)

There’s a bunch of other headphone holders on Amazon but oddly enough the original The Anchor seems to be the cheapest. As of this writing it’s on sale for almost half off, getting the price down to $10.95.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

When I read about this in some of the early hands-on pieces, I came to the conclusion that a screen protector for the switch is a must-have, which I wasn’t super happy about. Historically, my experience with screen protectors is … sub-optimal to say the least. I gave up on them back when everyone was using transparent plastic film which required the hands of a god-tier ocular surgeon who specializes on operating on baby eyes (I’m not even sure this is a thing that exists but I’d imagine if it did they’d need supreme precision) to apply both with proper alignment and without air bubbles. In my entire adult life I’ve been happy with exactly one film screen protector application.

The amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch is the first tempered glass screen protector I’ve used, and wow, what a difference. Instead of the soapy water solution, and all the other incredibly stupid stuff you had to do with plastic film screen protectors, the process of installing this is absurdly simple.

Basically, you clean your Switch screen super well and precisely position where you want it on top of the screen. Then, you use two included pieces of tape to tape one side of it, effectively creating a flap of sorts, so when you lift up one side and put it back down it’s always in the same place. This totally solves the positioning problem. Then, you once again really, really make sure your Switch screen is completely dust free, peel off the back piece of plastic on the screen protector, (AGAIN MAKING SURE YOUR SWITCH SCREEN IS DUST FREE) and then you just let go of it. Thanks to the taping and positioning you already did, it lands perfectly in place, and since it’s just one smooth application you completely miss the opportunity to get tiny air bubbles. Make sure the center of the screen protector contacts first, then you can use the included squeegee to seat the rest of it which will push any of the bigger air pockets out.

This was so unbelievably easy it’s borderline stupid. Additionally, they include two screen protectors in the pack so you effectively get a do over if you screw the first one up for “free." I’ve had a amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector on my Switch for over a year now, and it still looks great. Also, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a whole bunch of similar products on Amazon. The amFilm variety is just the one I have direct experience with, presumably they all work the same, although the price difference is incredibly minimal (basically a spread of a dollar as of this writing).

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

So, why do you need these external batteries? Well, as you’re likely fully aware, smart phones are getting faster and faster, while manufacturers like Apple insist on making them slimmer and slimmer each year. I think all of us would be totally happy with a few millimeters of thickness for the additional battery capacity that they could pack in, but, that’s not the world we live in. Instead, these kind of external batteries are a completely necessary accessory for anyone who plays games a lot or just spends a bunch of time using the various social network apps, which at times seem even more battery intensive. Today’s deals involve three different batteries, each with slightly different features and capacities:

First up is the RAVPower 16750mAh Power Bank. Its regular price is $34.99, but if you use coupon code TOUCHPB010, it goes down to $21.99, which is the cheapest this battery has ever been. With 16,750mAh of charging capacity, you can charge an iPhone 8 Plus 3.6 times. Also, it can output 4.5A, so it can charge two devices at full speed, at once. This battery weighs 10.7 ounces, making it a great overall battery pack to carry around with you daily.

Next up is the RAVPower 26800mAh 3-Port Power Bank. Normally this battery pack will run you $56.99, but using coupon code TOUCHPB41 at check out brings it down to $39.99. Primary differences between this and the previous battery are that this one has three USB ports up from two, and 26,800mAh of power storage which according to RavPower is enough battery capacity to keep your iPhone charged for upwards of nine days of normal usage, charging it to full over six times. It’s also capable of 2.4A per USB port for fast charging, but the additional ports and power capacity come at a cost: This pack weighs 1lb, making it a bit more of a brick in your bag than smaller capacity batteries.

Last, but not least is the RAVPower 20100mAh USB-C Power Bank. Normally priced at $51.99, using the coupon code TOUCHPB043 also brings it down to $39.99. With “only" 20,100mAh of onboard power, its capacity is slightly less than the previous battery but what it loses in capacity it gains in futureproofing with the addition of a USB-C port capable of charging things like laptops, the Nintendo Switch, and other USB-C devices. It also weighs 1lb, and is probably the better buy of these two batteries unless you just really have nothing that uses USB-C and want that slight bump in capacity. Additionally, it’s the only one with a QuickCharge 3.0 port on it, which probably means nothing to you unless you have a newer Android phone that supports the QC3.0 standard.

I’m a big believer that you can really never have too many batteries, particularly with how many things charge over USB now. I’ve collected an embarrassing amount of them, and as new batteries come out that support things like USB-C or have other fancy features, my older ones get relegated to living in places like the glove box of my car or in random bags I use so I’m never somewhere that I can’t charge my phone. Additionally, if you’ve got a battery already, these companies have made some oddly huge advancements in maintaining the same capacity (or in some cases even more) with way less weight. I found the first Mophie battery pack I bought ages ago while cleaning out my closet and that thing was a brick compared to these.

Anyway, thanks a ton to RavPower for the coupon codes, I always love passing along stuff like this to our readers. These coupon codes last through the end of the month, but I have no idea what RavPower’s stock is like on Amazon so I wouldn’t wait too long if you’re interested in any of these.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Anecdotally, I’ve found tablets like today’s Fire HD 8 to be way more durable than iPads when it comes to bumps, bangs, and drops, but whenever I buy one for a kid, I also grab this $17 case which not only adds a handle but I’m pretty sure it’d allow the tablet to survive a nuclear blast. I’ve seen a Fire HD 8 in that case literally thrown down a flight of stairs and escape unscathed.

Now, being an Amazon device with “special offers," there’s a few caveats to be aware of here which you may or may not care about. By default, you’ll be getting all your apps the Amazon App Store, which means you won’t have access to any of the “core" Google apps like Gmail or Google Maps. Thankfully, it’s an Android tablet and side-loading these things is not difficult. The “special offers," like the Kindle with special offers basically is just another way Amazon has figured out how to reduce the price of these devices even further by subsidizing their cost through displaying ads on the lock screen. These ads are incredibly innocuous, but if you really don’t like looking at them you can either pay Amazon $15 or go digging around on various Android sites looking for guides like this one to hack the device. Honestly though, it seems like just paying $15 is less of a hassle as I’m sure Amazon will tell you to pound sand if you have any support issues after you’ve hacked it.

Things are so cross platform now that with few rare exceptions, you (or whoever you give this to) are going to be able to find basically everything they’d ever want on the Amazon App Store. While the 1.3ghz processor isn’t going to win any awards for its amazing performance, mobile apps in general are developed with a very low base spec in mind, and the Fire HD 8 vastly exceeds that. As long as you’re not aiming to use this as a desktop replacement or play the latest and greatest 3D games, you won’t find anything that the Fire HD 8 can’t do- Which is a pretty cool thing to say for today’s price of $59.99.

$59.99 is the cheapest the Fire HD 8 has ever been with the only sale price that was anywhere near this being $79.99. If you’re in the market for a super cheap general use tablet to watch some movies, play some games, or give to someone else who is interested in those kind of things… Do not miss today’s Fire HD 8 sale.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I used to avoid things like the stuff 5.11 makes, figuring unless you’re an actual soldier or something similar you just sort of look like a tacticool mall ninja rocking it. What does someone like me need a bag covered in MOLLE webbing for, anyway? The answer, it turns out, is using carabiner clips to clip absolutely anything and everything anywhere you decide you want to put it. Flying somewhere and bringing your travel pillow which otherwise is annoying to carry by itself and takes up half your bag? Clip it to the side. Don’t know where to put your water bottle while you wander around? CLIP IT. Additionally, there’s a whole ecosystem of other stuff that works with standard MOLLE webbing like this, so you can really create the perfect bag for whatever you’re using it for.

The above video does a great job of showing all the pockets and different places to put things, and here’s how I typically roll out: In the “hydration pack" (the first thing they show) I keep my 13" MacBook Pro and iPad, although when I’ve taken it to beer events I use that pocket for what it’s meant for: One of these. On the front of the bag, in the lower pouch I keep two battery packs, a spare phone (I’m weird.), a couple sharpies, my Magic Mouse, and anything else that might need to be immediately accessible. The top front pocket I keep my passport in, and is where I shove all the junk in my pockets when I need to go through airport security. On the top of the bag there’s another small zippered pocket you’re supposed to put your sunglasses in that I use for tiny things like my AirPods, gum, chapstick, and other similar junk.

Inside the bag there’s two large mesh pockets on the front flap, the top I keep all my cables in and the bottom I keep all my MacBook charger, a small power strip, an Anker multi-port USB charger and other things like that. Then i’ve got the whole main compartment for basically anything I want. My Switch is usually in there, a light jacket, random snacks, etc. One super cool feature about this bag that I discovered that I absolutely love is that the front opens all the way, instead of the zippers stopping at the half way point like a lot of backpacks I’ve had.

This turned out to be a killer feature as when I put my bag through the airport X-Ray machine, I open it up all the way so the security people can see that it’s a bunch of cables and chargers. Before I started doing this, it seemed like my bag was getting checked a good 50% of the time because on the X-Ray screen it just looked like densely packed wires and batteries.

All in all, the thing I’ve been most impressed with though is the durability of this bag. I abuse my backpacks, and because of that they’ve just sort of always occupied this very temporary “wear item" space in my head. I’m not sure what magic 5.11 employed with the construction or materials of this particular pack, but I’ve been totally blown away.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. Additionally, if you’re ever thinking of signing up for any Amazon services, we’d really appreciate if if you’d do it through these links:
 

• Amazon Prime Free Trial – Free shipping, Amazon Prime video, Kindle books, Twitch goodies, and a bunch of other stuff bundled into one subscription.
• Amazon Prime Student 6-month Trial – A slightly different flavor of Amazon Prime, exclusive to students that costs half as much.
• AmazonFresh Free Trial – Amazon’s grocery delivery service.
• Amazon Home Services – Amazon vetted handymen, house cleaning, and similar.
• Amazon Music Unlimited Free Trial – Amazon’s answe to Spotify, Apple Music, and other similar services.
• Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks – If you’re even remotely interested in audiobooks, Audible is the best.
• Join Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited – Basically the text equivalent of an Audible membership.
• Download the free Kindle app – The best ebook platform, largely because unlike iBooks, your library is totally cross platform.
• Shop Amazon Cell Phones – Wireless phones and service plans without the hassle of dealing with going to a store.

If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

By myself, this is no problem as I carry this USB-C battery with me which extends my play time through … well, more than enough for an entire day. When I’m playing by myself, it’s super simple to just plug a USB-C cable in the bottom and keep on going. Two player, with the kickstand? I’ve had to get real creative with making stands out of plastic cups and other dumb things until I discovered the HORI Compact Playstand. Originally, I just picked one up because it solved this silly problem, but in actually using it I’ve found that the adjustable angles puts the Switch at a way more comfortable viewing angle for two people to play something.

For the above reasons, the HORI Compact Playstand basically lives in my backpack, but on a recent flight I discovered another great use for it- I don’t know if I’m beginning to get some sort of carpal tunnel or if this is just a side effect of how absurdly uncomfortable economy air travel is, but the posture I need to sit at to hold my Switch on planes gets super annoying for long flights out to the west coast. I figured, “I’ll just take the joycons off and use the kickstand." Problem there is the Switch is held at such a severe angle that you really just can’t see it. With the HORI Compact Playstand, you can open it up all the way and have it at a real shallow angle which creates the perfect economy seat tray table viewing angle.

Semi-recently Amazon has also released the AmazonBasics Playstand for Nintendo Switch which looks slightly different and appears to have identical functionality for (as of this writing) a buck less. Given the supremely minimal price discrepancy, I’d say just pick up the HORI Compact Playstand. It’s made by HORI who have been making video game accessories for years, and it’s officially licensed by Nintendo. It’s got the Nintendo Switch logo on it too. Whether or not those things are worth a extra dollar is entirely up to you- but either of these are really good Switch accessories that honestly probably should have just came bundled in the box.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Continuing Friday’s theme of cool products to use to cram more podcast listening into your life is the Anker SoundCore Sport XL Outdoor Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker. I actually got this ages ago to go on vacation where we were going to be spending a long weekend at a place with a beach and pool. The original idea was I didn’t want to bring my Big Jambox (Anyone remember when THOSE were the hottest Bluetooth speaker to have?) somewhere wet and sandy, which led to a search for something more appropriate. I’ve always had great luck with Anker stuff in general, so when I’m looking for something new inside of the ecosystem of stuff that they might sell, I usually check their listings first. Well, the Anker SoundCore Sport XL worked like a charm as it’s both IP67 waterproof rated (so it can be submerged up to 1m deep) and the same protections keep it dust-tight. It also has a totally rubberized exterior that has taken a number of careless drops over the years and it’s still working great.

This speaker got a ton of use on vacation, but when I got back I had a serious eureka moment: I can actually put this thing in the shower and sneak some additional podcast listening while getting ready in the morning. My Anker SoundCore Sport XL has lived on the wire rack we have hanging from the shower pipe, getting drenched daily, for well over a year now, and it still works like a charm. Anker claims the speaker gets 15 hours of play time, which seems about right based on my usage where I end up charging it around once a month. Cooler yet, under a rubber flap on the back of the speaker it not only has a micro USB port for charging itself and a 3.5mm line-in port, there’s also a full sized USB port which allows you to charge whatever you want off of it. With enough battery onboard for 15 hours of speaker use, you can charge a heck of a lot of phones and still have enough power left over to keep the speaker playing all day.

While my Anker SoundCore Sport XL‘s primary home is the shower caddy, we’ve also taken it up to a friend’s lake house where we made a little platform out of half an old pool noodle and just had it floating in the water with us most of the day. It’s really, really neat just not needing to worry about something like this getting damaged in the water- A lot like how when Apple started adding waterproofing to their iPhones, using your phone in the rain became a lot less daring.

Are there cheaper Bluetooth speakers on Amazon that claim to be waterproof? Yes, there’s tons of them. I’ve always been of the mind that when it comes to Anker accessories you really get what you pay for, and really just haven’t been satisfied when it comes to using any of the super cheap no-name Bluetooth speakers out there. It seems like everyone I know just buys cheap pieces of junk, then wonder why they either don’t sound good, or stop working. Anyway, if you have a need in your life for a Bluetooth speaker that seems like it could survive the apocalypse, the Anker SoundCore Sport XL Outdoor Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker is the one I have and I love it.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Working from home is cool and all, but it comes with a significant drawback: Without any sort of commute, it’s real hard for me to slot time into my day for things people normally do while commuting. I have friends who are always talking about podcasts, like when Serial was red hot and everyone was talking about whether or not he did it, I was like “who did what?" I also happen to be one of those people who really can’t listen to podcasts while doing mentally intensive things. Like I can either write this article, or listen to a podcast. Not both at the same time. I listen to podcasts while doing yard work, but, I cut the grass once a week, so it’s hard to listen to that many. This had me analyze my day and realize laying in bed is the perfect time to listen to podcasts. It takes me a while to go to sleep, this was perfect- Or so it seemed.

Problem is, laying in bed with headphones on unless you’re just totally on your back like a corpse (I’m more of a side sleeper) is super uncomfortable. I did this for a few weeks, it worked in practice, but wasn’t that amazing because you have no idea how irritating drifting off and waking up to the pain of an earbud shoving its way deeper into your ear is. That led me to discovering SleepPhones, headphones specifically made to wear while you sleep. I started out with the classic corded version, and holy cow, absolute life changer. I used these for nearly a year, and the corded version is great but it has one significant drawback: If you toss and turn in your sleep you’d literally wake up with the cord wrapped around your neck. Seemed … less than ideal. SleepPhones also makes a cordless version, but I always wrote them off as being too expensive.

Well, Christmas rolled around last year and my girlfriend bought me a pair of the AcousticSheep SleepPhones Bluetooth Sleep Headphones and they have become an absolute staple in my life. I like them so much that it’s one of those situations where I felt dumb buying the cheaper ones, and holding on to the whole “Ehh, I don’t want to spend more money" thing for so long. For this use case, the cordless element makes so much more sense- Particularly when plugging the corded ones in at night while I charged my iPhone X required not one but two different stupid dongles. I’ve even used these headphones on airplanes and the headband doubles as an eye mask if you pull it down a bit off your forehead.

Now, the Amazon reviews of these aren’t perfect, but I’d describe most of the complaints as flaws but not dealbreakers (and some of the flaws are sort of a necessity of the functionality). So the way these headphones are constructed is a fleece band that’s constructed like a tube with a velcro closure on the back. Inside, the right and left speakers both sit on each side and have a cord that attaches to the battery module which you connect then close the velcro flap. None of this is affixed anywhere inside of the fleece band, so the innards do tend to move around a bit. This is super easy to adjust as you just weasel your finger inside and move stuff around. I only find myself adjusting the positioning of the speakers every couple weeks, as they seem to shift most when you’re taking it on and off. To charge the battery you need to remove it from the band and plug it in to the included micro USB cable.

It’s designed with these different removable components because the fleece band itself is washable. If the speakers or battery was sewn in, and you’re a sweaty sleeper, your SleepPhones would rapidly just get pretty gross. So, yes, I totally see where some of the more negative Amazon reviews are coming from but it’s a functional element of the design. The other complaint is some of the negative reviews has to do with durability, but again, I’ve been using these daily since Christmas last year and haven’t had an issue.

AcousticSheep SleepPhones Bluetooth Sleep Headphones have become a vital part of my night time ritual, and when I travel somewhere and leave them at home it really puts me on tilt. My normal usage is to listen to one podcast a night, and charge the battery every 3-4 days, and I’ve never had battery issues. If you don’t want to worry about managing another battery, or this sounds cool but you don’t want to spend all the money, the corded version is still good- but you really don’t realize how annoying the wire was until you go wireless.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

We’ve talked about our EDC (everyday carry, for people who don’t follow dumb internet lingo) on The TouchArcade Show quite a bit, and after a ton of trying out different things, I’ve officially settled on my favorite wallet: The Decadent Minimalist DM1 Aluminum Wallet. It’s actually a product that started as a Kickstarter, and is now available on Amazon. It comes in a bunch of different colors, which oddly seem to be priced differently ranging from (as of this writing) $69.00 for black on the high end and $59.00 for blue on the low end. I really don’t understand the pricing discrepancy, but, hey, whatever. Maybe no one buys the blue one.

So the way this wallet works is unlike any wallet I’ve ever had before. It’s basically like if you took the idea of a money clip, but re-imagined the concept specifically for credit cards. I roll out with a couple different credit cards I use, my debit card, an insurance card, and drivers license, so for me the 8-card size is perfect with some room to spare for hotel keys, a Costco card, an RFID keycard badge thingamajig, or whatever else I might need that day. If you’re a super minimalist there’s also a 4-card size, or if you need to carry around more stuff there’s a 12-card size.

Here’s the original Kickstarter video, that shows how it’s made and how it works:

Basically, you slide your cards straight in and out when you need them, and the wallet gives you this nice satisfying click when everything is locked in and secured. It’s really sort of wild how well this system all works, as the design is actually unbelievably simple. To pull out a card that’s not on the immediate front or back, you just slide the first one out a tiny bit to disengage the clipping mechanism, and then you can easily shuffle the other cards out underneath. It’s so much easier than every other super minimal wallet I’ve tried.

If you’re super hardcore, it’s also available in titanium starting at $129, but I can’t really think of many benefits of having the titanium model other than if you like geeking out over metals. I really can’t even tell you guys how much I love this wallet, particularly as it seems going to be real hard to find something more minimal than this unless I just decide to downgrade to a rubber band or one of these binder clip things. If you’ve got a George Costanza wallet, this isn’t the wallet for you… Or maybe it is, as it’ll force you to finally get rid of that Showbiz Pizza coupon you’ve had in your back pocket since 1988.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

This vaguely crosses into PSA territory, but did you know in the USA that any cell phone that can connect to a cellular network can call 911 for emergencies without having any kind of cellular plan attached to it? While you can use any ol’ cell phone as a backup, I’m super partial to the SpareOne Emergency Cell Phone, which I keep in the glove box of my car and have gifted this to many different family members to do the same. There’s so much I like about this phone I don’t know where to start. Sure, you can totally just throw an old iPhone in your glove box, but then you need to worry about whether or not the battery inside of it is still good, has a charge, or whatever else. The SpareOne runs on two AA’s, and comes with two Energizer Lithium batteries which are far and away the best battery for long-term storage.

Also, if you’re using an old iPhone as your backup, it does a lot of stuff that you honestly just really don’t need as the only time you’d be using your spare phone with no SIM or associated cellular plan is in a serious sh*t hit the fan situation. All the SpareOne does is turn on, connect to the AT&T network, and let you call 911. In an era of ultra complicated smartphones with software updates and all sorts of other jazz, I really appreciate the simplicity. This is kinda sorta exploiting a “loophole" of sorts in that any phone that can connect to a cellular network must be able to call 911 using that network without any kind of plan.

There was a time where you could spend $25 a year you can subscribe to AT&T’s MySpareOne service which gives you a super limited amount of talk time to call other non-911 numbers and some sort of GPS beacon locator functionality. This not only seems to not exist anymore, but also felt like overkill, particularly when you consider the $9.95 price of the phone, but, hey, you do you. These phones are so cheap because they completely bombed at retail. They originally sold for $59.99, which was a tall ask for a device that’s likely only going to be used in rare emergencies. Understandably, this subscription service is to blame for the majority of the negative reviews of the device.

Target and other retailers eventually put the SpareOne on a fire sale clearance, Amazon resellers bought them up, and now they’re available to buy for ten bucks. Personally, I think it’s worth the peace of mind to roll with something like this in your car, as if you ever leave your house, forget your phone, and get in an accident or something and need to call for help- It could be the best $9.95 you ever spent if you need to call 911 and don’t have another phone nearby to do it.

Also, seemingly no one knows about these phones, so you could look like a real safety wizard buying one for your grandma or similar elderly family member.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I’ve been pretty wishy washy on Apple Watch charger stands, as most of them seem weirdly expensive and honestly don’t provide a ton of functionality that your normal Apple Watch charging cable doesn’t also provide. That is, until I discovered the Elago W3 Vintage Mac Apple Watch Charging Stand. Like most (all?) other Apple Watch charging stands, you take your Apple Watch charging cable and snake it up inside of the stand so that when you slide your Apple Watch into it, you’re really just sliding it up against the original charger. The difference here is look at how friggin’ cute that thing is.

When you plop your Apple Watch in the charger at night, it looks like a Classic Mac! The novelty is seriously sky high, as everyone who sees this thing at my house asks where I got it. It also comes in a black version but I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just go with the Classic O.G. White model. There’s really nothing to it, it’s just a piece of rubber-y plastic, but, come on, it looks like a Classic Mac!

Yes, you’re paying $9.99 for the sheer novelty of this all, but, come on, you’ve probably spent more money on dumber things. I know I have, and those dumber things aren’t this cute. JUST LOOK AT IT!

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I originally bought the Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand for a weirdly specific purpose: To play the Nintendo Switch while I exercised on my elliptical machine. I’ve got a junky hand-me-down elliptical I got for free that I use every day, which is fine for exercising but the thing was made before exercise equipment manufacturers started considering people might use tablets or similar devices while exercising. My plan was to use a stand like this to hold the tablet portion of the Nintendo Switch while I played with a JoyCon in each hand. Surprisingly, it ended up working way better than I expected, so much so that I bought a second one for watching movies in bed on my iPad, but it’s also sized to work with the iPhone too.

You more or less screw down the base of the Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand anywhere that’s strong enough to support the weight of your device, then squeeze the actual device itself inside of the springy clamps on the other end. The gooseneck in between lets you bend the stand in any orientation, which is really far more handy than you’d think. I ended up giving one of these to a friend as a gift who uses an iPad in the kitchen often, and they just clamp it to the underside of their cabinets.

At $17.99 the Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand is a great value, as it’s really wild just how many different ways something like this can be useful- Particularly considering how universal it is, being able to hold so many things. The Amazon reviews are overwhelmingly positive, with many folks coming up with crazy ways to use this stand to lay and watch or play something, with loads of people describing it as the “ultimate in laziness." I call it the ultimate is convenience!

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Following along with yesterday’s post featuring the Wiha Precision Pentalobe Screwdriver Set for repairing Apple products is a 9-Piece Anti-Static Precision Tweezer Set, as just opening up your Apple device is only half the battle. Once you get in there, things are frickin’ tiny. Unless you’ve got similar ultra-tiny fingers, you’re going to have a real tough time navigating the mess of ribbon cables and other innards.

This 9-Piece Anti-Static Precision Tweezer Set has a bunch of different tweezers to choose from, which should easily allow you to extract any kind of screw, unplug any ribbon table, or position anything else inside of whatever gizmo it is that you’re taking apart. They’ve got a special coating that prevents transmitting static electricity down to whatever you’re working on too, which is super important.

If you’re bad about keeping sets of stuff together like I am, this particular 9-Piece Anti-Static Precision Tweezer Set also comes with a nice case to keep everything in and rubber caps to keep the tweezer tips nice and sharp. $10.45 as of this writing also seems like a pretty decent value for so many high quality tools.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

For as many cool things as Apple does, they sure do a lot of dumb things which you could look at as vaguely anti-consumer… Like how they’ve switched over most (all?) of the screws they use to these redonkulous pentalobe screws that require special screwdrivers. Our favorite set that comes with all the common sizes to fix Apple products is the Wiha Precision Pentalobe Screwdriver Set, which is a little on the expensive side at $34.98 as of this writing, but when it comes to tools, you really get what you pay for. I can’t even tell you guys how many super crappy precision screwdriver sets I’ve used that just end up stripping screws as they’re made with trash-tier metal. These are made of CRM72 premium tool steel, which will go a long way in not ruining your screws or the screwdrivers themselves.

The Wiha Precision Pentalobe Screwdriver Set cxomes with a 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, 5PL and 6PL pentalobe screwdriver which is what you need to get into iPhones and MacBooks, but what actually lead me to buy these screwdrivers in the first place was tightening the ultra-tiny pentalobe screws of my leather Apple Watch band. They had somehow wiggled loose, the band broke, and thanks to Apple using weird-ass screws, I had to spend $35 to screw it back in. Truly an amazing future we’re living in!

Anyway, Apple has doubled down pretty hard on using these pentalobe screws, so the Wiha Precision Pentalobe Screwdriver Set seems like a fairly future-proof purchase and a good addition to your existing toolkit if you’ve got a lot of Apple devices laying around. Definitely don’t cheap out on things like these, as when it comes to tools, I’m a huge believer of buy once cry once. You’ll end up spending more money re-buying crappy tools and replacing screws you stripped using them.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

While I like the stand-up style wireless charger at my desk, I’ve gone absolutely hog wild with placing other wireless charging pads around my house in most places that I end up setting my iPhone down. For example, on my night stand I’ve got a wireless charger. On my bathroom counter where I set my phone to listen to podcasts when I get ready in the morning, I’ve got another wireless charger. On the end table next to me when I watch TV? You guessed it, wireless charger.

It’s really cool to just always seamlessly being charging your iPhone, particularly if you’re a power-user like most of us around TouchArcade. By constantly being topped off by wireless chargers, it really seems like my overall reliance on external batteries has been significantly reduced as I’m always always leaving the house with my iPhone at 100%- Really without even thinking about it.

Today we’ve got a wireless charger from Cheotech that we’re featuring, and it works like pretty much every other wireless charger: If you’ve got an iOS device, it’ll charge it at 7.5W, but it supports the higher 10W spec for Android devices that support it. (And presumably future iOS devices will as well?) It’s really hard to differentiate these different chargers from each other, as they all largely do the same thing, so they just come down to price.

Using coupon code 9I7M6HRL when you check out gets the price of the Cheotech wireless charging pad down to $9.99, making it one of the cheapest charging pads capable of doing 10W of power deliver from a actual recognizable accessory brand. Of course, like many ultra-cheap wireless chargers, it does not come with an AC adapter, but you can plug it into any open USB port on your computer or any other USB AC adapter you’ve got laying around. If you want a cheap one that’s still reliable, I’ve got a bunch of these Amazon Basics chargers powering random stuff around my house, which again, are sort of hard to beat for under $7 from a brand you recognize.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

As a conference I was at a while ago I got a pretty neat piece of swag: This charging cable that had multiple ends, but like most pieces of swag, it was a total piece of junk and quickly broke. Regardless, the idea was super cool, so I scoured Amazon for similar items that didn’t look like they’d self destruct after a couple uses. That’s when I took a leap of faith on this 3 in 1 charging cable, and have been super satisfied with it ever since.

I really try to avoid no-name cables, but due to the way Apple handles licensing of Lightning cables, it’s hard to ever imagine a reality where there’s an official MFi certified multi-headed cable like this- Leaving us in weirdo no-name cable purgatory if we want similar functionality. As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I’m big on minimalist packing when it comes to the cables and chargers I bring, but I have a bunch of different devices I carry that all get charged in a bunch of different ways.

My Switch charges over USB-C, my iPhone charges over Lightning, and my various USB battery packs charge via Micro USB. Instead of three different cables, I now just bring these. The cable itself seems to be of decent quality, as the ends are all reasonably constructed and the cable itself is nylon braided. It’s short enough that it can’t really get tangled, which is nice too. The Amazon description shows someone charging multiple devices at the same time, but this doesn’t seem like the best idea to me as at best, both things are charging half as fast? I just carry two instead, and limit the cables to charging one thing at a time.

At $7.89 as of this writing, this 3 in 1 charging cable is in line with what you’d normally pay for a generic charging cable anyway, and I really like what a multi-tasker this particular cable is. It really has helped me simplified what I carry, as rarely does everything I have need to be charged at once, but it’s real nice having a cable that can charge everything I carry, if it needs it.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

If you’ve got an iPhone X and aren’t onboard with wireless charging yet, you really need to solve that problem. I love this Anker Wireless Charger Phone Stand specifically, as if you have it on your desk between your keyboard and your monitor, it holds your iPhone at the perfect angle to unlock via Face ID, without even picking it up. Also, since it uses the Qi standard, it will work with anything else that supports it like Android devices and (presumably) future iPhones provided Apple doesn’t do something lame like lock down the charging method they use.

At $17.99 as of this writing, the Anker Wireless Charger Phone Stand is pretty much in line with what a lot of these chargers cost, if not being a little on the low end. It’s also made by Anker, which we’re huge fans of. This particular charging stand does not come with an AC adapter, so you’ll either need to plug it in to your computer (which is what I’m doing) or use literally any USB charger you have laying around with it. Amazon recommends pairing it with this charger, but I doubt it makes much difference- Wireless charging is pretty slow anyway.

Using this charger stand while I work means my iPhone X is pretty much always full on battery, and if I get a call or need to use my iPhone I just grab it off the stand and put it back when I’m done. It’s a super cool setup, and one I can’t recommend enough. Oh, also, it’ll charge your iPhone X both horizontally or vertically, so if you’re the kind of person who watches movies or plays some auto-play game during the day, it works that way too.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

I’ve been a corded headphone guy basically forever. Over the years I’ve tried a few different wireless gaming headsets and eventually ended up just returning them all because either the sound quality was bad, the battery life was bad, the range was bad, or a combination of the three. After having a few friends pick up a pair of the SteelSeries Arctic Pros and consistently tell me how great they are, I took the plunge and skeptically ordered a pair myself. I’ve been using these things daily for a while now, and I’m never going back to wired headphones.

I primarily use my set of SteelSeries Arctic Pros hooked up to my PC both for gaming and just general day to day tasks. On a single charge, they’ll last an entire day of working, and then a whole night of gaming- All while using Discord or whatever else without issue. You really never need to worry about the charge level of the battery either, as the wireless transmitter that it comes with also serves as a battery charging dock. It comes with two batteries, so whenever you’re running low you just slide the one out of the charger, swap the battery from the right side of the headphones, and put the low battery in the charger. Alternatively, if you’re in the middle of a game or something else where you can’t handle a few seconds of interruption you can just connect a micro USB cable and it’ll charge while you’re wearing them.

The range of the SteelSeries Arctic Pros is seriously just bonkers. I live in a 1,400ish square foot single story ranch house and I keep my computer in the basement. I can walk around my entire house and never lose signal, which is actually super useful when you need to go AFK for a minute while you’re doing something like playing Sea of Thieves, which is a game that has a bit of downtime. While you’re taking the dog out or whatever else, you can totally hear your crewmates yell something along the lines of “Oh crap, galleon on the horizon!" and hurry back to your computer. Also, if you’re on a Skype call or something else, you can pace around or do any other thing you can do without a wire keeping you chained to your desk.

The SteelSeries Arctic Pro comes with a ridiculous amount of ways you can connect them to different devices. Aside from a traditional USB plug (how I’m using them) the base station also has a normal 3.5mm line in and line out, along with an optical in and optical out. Also, they’re a Bluetooth device, so if you want to pair them with your iPhone, iPad, PS4, or whatever else, you can go right ahead. I only ever use them on my PC, but, it’s neat to have that flexibility.

At $329.00 as of this writing, the SteelSeries Arctic Pro is in line with what “high end" wireless gaming headphones will run you. Of course there’s a lot of lower priced alternatives out there, but as mentioned, I’ve always managed to find a reason to not like the ones I’ve tried. Considering I used the last pair of headphones I had for my PC for well over five years, so while the initial purchase price is a bit high, the cost per use over time is quite low. Or maybe that’s just me rationalizing. Either way, I really like ’em and if you’re looking to upgrade your gaming headphones, these are a great set to consider.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

While mobile devices are getting faster all the time, it seems like year over year I become more and more dependent on different charging solutions to keep my batteries charged. While you probably have a bunch of the iPhone chargers that the iPhone comes with laying around, this charger sucks for a couple of reasons: First off, while it’s reasonably small compared to other chargers, the prongs don’t fold in which just seems like a poor design choice. Secondly, modern mobile devices are capable of charging way faster than the standard charger allows. (This has been true for years.) There’s a ton of better chargers out there, but most of them are way bigger than the default iPhone charger which really just conflicts with how minimal I like my charging load-out to be when I’m traveling. I just dealt with the slower charge rates of the iPhone charger to fill this need until I discovered the Aukey Ultra Compact Dual Port 2.4A USB Wall Charger.

It’s barely larger then the traditional iPhone charger, but has three awesome benefits that totally makes the upgrade worthwhile:

1. The prongs fold in.
2. It has TWO USB ports.
3. It charges at 2.4A, juicing up your gadgets way faster.

Even though it’s ever-so-slightly bigger, the prongs folding in makes for a smaller overall space requirement in your bag. I’m a firm believer that you can never have too many USB ports to go around, and with 2.4A of power delivery it’ll charge whatever you’ve got plugged into it much quicker than the default charger. It’s also a great buy too, with the Aukey Ultra Compact Dual Port 2.4A USB Wall Charger priced at $9.99 as of this writing. I’d really recommend picking up the two pack for $16.99 though, as you can really never have too many chargers and you’re getting a bit of a discount by buying two instead of one.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.

Our inaugural Amazon Item of the Day is the Nebula Capsule Smart Mini Projector by Anker, which is by far the coolest gizmo I’ve added to my arsenal lately. I’ve been captivated by the pico projector market for years now, as my cousin owned a (very expensive and very crappy) first generation unit years ago. It was real neat on paper, but the early pico projectors weren’t very bright, didn’t have onboard speakers, required a video source, and basically were really not conducive to bringing anywhere because you had to bring so much extra junk to actually use it.

The Nebula Capsule, on the other hand, is completely self-contained and is the same size as a soda can. It’s one of those things you really can’t believe how small it actually is until you see it in person, as none of the photos really do it justice. When I say “self-contained," I mean self contained. It has onboard speakers, an onboard battery good for four hours of play time, and runs Android. This means if you’ve got any sort of nearby WiFi connectivity, you just connect to a network and you don’t need to do anything other than turn the thing on and start streaming Netflix. Additionally, if there’s no WiFi nearby, there’s micro SD card slot that you can load up with media and play locally. It even works as an AirPlay receiver, so you can mirror your iOS device’s screen or shoot other video to it via AirPlay.

Whenever I pull this thing out of my bag at any kind of get together, the reaction is always along the lines of, “Holy crap." I just have it tethered to my iPhone, and thanks to a Verizon “unlimited" data plan, I just stream whatever I feel like. As long as I have any kind of surface to project on and enough cellular signal to stream, we’re rocking and rolling. I’ve used this sitting at hotel pools before and I felt like an Anker salesman, as it was almost annoying the amount of questions we were getting from other people.

Now, the down-sides: As a pico projector, you’re always going to be limited by brightness. The Nebula Capsule is 100 ANSI lumens which basically means you need to either use it indoors, or at night without a ton of ambient light nearby. At night with ambient light (like my pool example) is totally workable, the picture just gets a bit washed out. That being said, it’s hard to imagine using a device like this to have some serious cinephile movie night where you’re expecting top-tier audio/visual quality, so as long as those are your expectations going in you’re really going to like this projector.

The other knock I’ve got is the remote is … sort of junky. It feels really light and plastic-y, and I managed to break the battery door the first time I used it by pulling the plastic tab that was insulating the battery from making contact on the first use. I’ve got it “fixed" with some tape, but it looks crappy. Thankfully, the only time you ever really need to use the remote is when you’re first pairing your phone as the Capsule Control app (Free) is far, far more functional and what I end up using anyway.

At $256.99 (as of this writing) the Nebula Capsule is on the lower end of what you’d pay for an actual projector and about in the middle of the road for what other pico projectors cost. I’ve had nothing but good luck with Anker products over the years, which makes this one another easy recommendation.

Thanks for checking out today’s Amazon Item of the Day, and as mentioned before, even if you’re not interested in this particular product, buying things from Amazon by first visiting toucharcade.com/amazon is immensely helpful in supporting the site at no additional cost to you. If you want to take things a step further, you can check out our Patreon, but either way we just appreciate you sticking with us and continuing to both visit and contribute to the TouchArcade community over the years! If you’ve got a product you’re interested in seeing featured in an Amazon Item of the Day, don’t hesitate to reach out. The best way to get in contact with us is via email at tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include “Amazon Item of the Day" in the subject.