China will by no means accept the “theft” of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab.

Meanwhile, TikTok parent ByteDance told the BBC it was “committed to being a global company,” and that it has been “evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok’s headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users.” The social media app is one of the few originating in China to gain success in the US market.

Hu Xijin, the editor of another state-backed Chinese paper, the Global Times, called the potential sale “open robbery” and tweeted that “President Trump is turning the once great America into an rogue country.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that TikTok was “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Where the US government has a clearer case against Huawei over potential IP theft and other issues, justification for banning TikTok is less so. Further, the White House has yet to explain why the treasury should take a cut of any deal. “I hate to say this but it is kind of almost Mafia-like behavior,” said Charlotte Jee from MIT Technology Review told the BBC. “Threatening a ban which pushes down the price then saying ‘oh we should get a cut of that deal afterwards to say thank you for what we’ve done there.’”

Microsoft has given itself a deadline of September 15th to either complete a sale or abandon the deal.

Epic’s PC game store has kicked off a summer sale of its own — take that, Steam — and it includes a few noteworthy discounts on titles you might not have picked up yet. A game like Remedy’s shooter Control is available for 50 percent off at $30, while indie favorite Disco Elysium is on sale for the same price, which is 25 percent lower than it’s usual cost.

Jedi: Fallen Order and Borderlands 3 are other recent games now available for half-off at $30 each, while Red Dead Redemption 2 got a minor price cut to $48. If you’ve been waiting to pick up Ubisoft titles from series like Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed, The Division or Far Cry then this is another good opportunity — many of them are available for $12 or less. Have a look at the full collection right here before the promotional prices end on August 6th.

On top of being more affordable than most flagship true wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM3 outperforms much of the competition. Sony’s new QN1e noise-cancelling chip blocks out any distractions while using less power than ever to do so. At the same time, Sony brings more sound depth than other true wireless earbuds, with “solid performance across a diverse range of genres,” we wrote in our review. That’s helped by Sony’s “Digital Sound Enhancement Engine” that upscales compressed audio from Spotify and other services, making it more like high-resolution audio.

If the sound doesn’t suit you out of the box, you can always use Sony’s companion app to adjust the EQ, crank the bass and do other tweaks. You don’t have to worry about dropouts, either, as Sony’s latest Bluetooth chip beams sound to both earbuds at once. Finally, battery life is class-leading at six hours on a charge with active noise cancellation enabled, or eight hours if it’s turned off.

The only potential drawbacks are the size, which is larger than Sony’s previous true-wireless WF-SP700N model. However, they should stay put for the most part once you find the right tip. In any case, as long as you’re partial to the silver color, you won’t find them any cheaper.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

If the report is accurate, this wouldn’t be an all-encompassing sale that covers every category. However, it would be a direct response to the hardships sellers have gone through since the pandemic. In the US, Amazon has prioritized essential products like food, personal care and certain technology during the viral outbreak. While crucial, that has also left Amazon’s sellers frustrated as shipments extensive delays, to the point where it might take weeks to receive a product. Now that things are settling down, sellers are eager to make up for lost business — sals like this could theoretically reignite demand.

The only downsides are the lack of water resistance, expandable storage and lower performance, since both phones are equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 670 and not the Snapdragon 845 found on the Pixel 3. That makes it a bit slower for opening apps and processing photos with AI, but we didn’t find that to be a deal-breaker by any means.

We’ve seen the Pixel 3a/3a XL as low as $300 and $380 on Amazon, but the latest discount takes it below that magic $300 barrier, giving you a mid-range phone at a budget price. For now it looks like the Pixel 4a has been delayed until mid-summer, so if you still need a phone during the lockdown, now might be the time to act.

Buy Google Pixel 3a on Amazon – $279

Buy Google Pixel 3a XL on Amazon – $319

When we reviewed the Pixel 3a XL we gave it a score of 88 for its reliable performance, great camera and improved battery life. It packs a 3,700 mAh battery, which isn’t the largest smartphone battery, but it makes the Pixel 3a XL the longest-lasting Pixel we’ve tested. The camera uses the same computational photography features Google pioneered for the Pixel 3, and there is a headphone jack.

Overall, the device offers the best features found in Pixel smartphones, but at a significantly lower price. Fortunately, none of the compromises made to control the cost feel like compromises. The biggest drawbacks are that the device isn’t water resistant, and its screen isn’t quite as crips as the 3XL’s.

Best Buy is also selling the Pixel 3a XL at a discount. If you activate the device immediately, it costs $330. If not, the price goes up to $380. So, if you want more flexibility around how and when you activate the phone, the B&H deal is the way to go. For $350, you’ll get the device and be able to choose between the major US cell phone companies.

The Galaxy Watch Active has all of the key features of the flagship Galaxy Watch, including a bright, beautiful screen, great health and fitness tracking capabilities and Samsung Pay. With the Health app, the smartwatch can track a number of different workouts, from resistance training to elliptical sessions. It will even track your stress levels by monitoring your heart rate and calculating the variance.

To keep the costs down, Samsung did make a few minor sacrifices. The Galaxy Watch Active doesn’t have the rotating bezel. It has a smaller face and shorter battery life. But the sport-friendly body is 20 percent smaller and roughly 60 percent lighter than the Galaxy Watch. And even with less battery power, it should last two to three days, depending on how much activity tracking you ask it to do.

Even at $200, we were impressed with the watch and gave it a score of 83. Now, with a price tag of just $120, the Watch Active is even more impressive. It’s not the latest version — the Watch Active 2 came out late last year — but it’s still a good option for anyone who wants a solid, affordable smartwatch that will work well with Android smartphones.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is also powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 and notes a 6.78-inch 3168 x 1440 QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 48-megapixel quad camera system and a 16-megapixel selfie camera. Like its smaller counterpart, the Pro comes in two variants with 8GB/12GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB of storage. The hefty 4510mAh battery with Warp Charge technology promises 50-percent charge in 30 minutes. It also comes with Android 10 as standard and can be unlocked with a fingerprint.

In the UK, the OnePlus 8 with 8GB of RAM will cost £599 ($573) and the 12GB model will cost £699 ($879). The OnePlus 8 Pro starts at £799 ($1,005), ramping up to £899 ($1,130) for the beefier model.

With this in mind, you’ll be able to watch today’s launch event with some prior knowledge of the devices on show, but there may still be some surprises in store. Watch the event live on YouTube at 8AM PT/11AM EST.

 

It also offers sleep tracking, water resistance down to about 160 feet, a smart alarm that wakes you up at your body’s optimal time and multisport tracking. To top it off, the Steel HR can go for around 25 days between charges, beating most other smartwatches by, oh, about 23 days.

The Steel HR is available with a black or white face, 36 or 40 mm bezel, and leather, silicon and metal bands, in a number of editions (regular, limited, sapphire and sport). Pricing depends on the model, but all are on sale at the moment. For instance, Withings has marked the regular Steel HR from $179.95 down to $143.96, or around $36 off the regular price. However, you can get an additional $30 off all models using the coupon code SPRING-30 — putting the final price at just $113.96. What’s more, this code works not just in the US but most other countries as well.

Buy – Withings Steel HR – $114

Facebook took a meeting with Magic Leap but reportedly isn’t interested in buying it right now, as the social network is still trying to make its Oculus investment work. Johnson & Johnson declined to comment. The company’s other investors include NTT Docomo, AT&T and investment funds in Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

Led by CEO Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap is one of the better financed startups out there, with investors including Google and Alibaba Group. The company has raised around $2.6 billion to develop its augmented reality headset and is valued at up to $8 billion. (The company recently accused rival Nreal of stealing its trade secrets.)

However, the rich investment has yet to translate into commercial success. After years of secrecy-shrouded development and flashy demos, the company released its $2,300 Creator Edition AR headset in 2018. Unlike VR headsets from Oculus or Vive, it has a see-through display that allows virtual objects to interact with the real world. It did have some cool features and showed some potential, but was far from living up to the jaw-dropping FPS/real-world gaming demos it showed earlier.

The company then shifted its focus to business (as Microsoft did with Hololens) with the release of the $2,995 Enterprise Suite that included tools, support, AR-friendly apps and an updated Magic Leap 1 headset. Late last year, after announcing sales of just 6,000 headsets, the company revealed the Magic Leap 2 headset and a new enterprise strategy. Magic Leap’s chief product officer Omar Khan said the next headset would be launched next year, but other sources were more pessimistic.