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Amazon Prime Day is in the home stretch. We've spent about 50 hours keeping tabs on Amazon's annual summer sale, sharing sage shopping advice, spotting trends, and, yes, getting excited about incoming deals on gear we've tested and approved.
We maintain a list of the best Amazon Prime Day deals of 2025, which currently numbers 270. This is not that. Rather, it's where our team of 15, mostly hardened Prime Day veterans—including a handful of staffers who have covered every single Prime Day—riffs a bit on the event and the state of the nation and/or world. Quick reminder that you do need a Prime membership to get most of the deals, but there are plenty of perks beyond free shipping, it's free for the first 30 days, and can be canceled.
Top Deals
- Google's best phone, the Pixel 9 Pro XL (30% off)
- A Chromebook for $328 that's actually worth buying
- Our very favorite Dyson stick vacuum for $570
- A razor-sharp HENCKELS kitchen knife for $46
- A WIRED-approved pet camera for just $25 (62% off)
- A DNA test for your cat (50% off)
- A guaranteed kid-proof Fire tablet for just $75 (50% off)
- An insane discount on the K1 Air Purifier — now less than $100
Your live blog hosts for Thursday, July 10: Martin Cizmar and Louryn Strampe from 4 am-noon EDT, Adrienne So and Molly Higgins from 11 am-7 pm EDT, Matthew Korfhage from 6 pm-close.
Pod Cocktails Are Better than Pod Coffee
Bartesian
Cocktail Machine
My colleague Louryn Strampe has tested a whole bunch of pod coffee makers, some of which are on quite nice sales for Prime Day. But you hear a lot less about pod cocktail makers—a much more useful thing, in my humble and slightly tipsy opinion.
Because here’s the thing: I don’t actually want to keep a library of mixers at home. I say I want to, but then I just kinda don’t do it. Juice goes bad. Limes go bad. Tonic goes flat.
This Bartesian cocktail machine, which goes viral here and there, isn’t the solution to any kind of connoisseurship. Mostly this machine is here to make you silly, passable margaritas from pods that cost about $2 a pop. It’s a party trick, even if the “party” is just you at home with your wife/husband/life partner/frenemy, just bored enough to want to try the difference between a regular margarita and a mango margarita.
Basically, you fill the bottle with the right kind of liquor, make sure there’s water in the reservoir, put the pod in the machine, and press the button. A cocktail will pour into your waiting glass. The cocktail will be fine. If it’s a margarita, it is as good as margarita made with drink mix. “Regular” is quite strong, and “Strong” is really strong. A pod Manhattan, in particular, is not going to be in the top 50% of Manhattans you’ve drunk. But it does beat going to the store.
Anyway, this Bartesian is on its biggest sale of the year—which is how you want to buy it.
Just me at home, straight chilling and staring at my frenemy (my dog)
Spice Up Your Date Night With This Adventure Book
Photograph: Amazon
The Adventure Challenge
Couples Edition
One of the first in the now exceedingly popular date night genre, this nifty book has 50 date ideas to keep things interesting for you and your boo. Inside, the date ideas are covered by a gray box and you need to scratch off the box to reveal the date beneath (like a scratch-off lottery ticket). Dates include things like an outdoor homemade movie screening, baking blindly only using your partner's instructions, creating a memory box of sentimental items, and tons more. While some of the dates can be a little cheesy, it really is a great way to spend intentional time together and do things together you wouldn’t normally do—it can also be a great jumping off point for other date ideas in the future. It's now $20 off for Amazon Prime Day.
English (US) ·