📆 Next PS5 Pro pre-order, 🎶 SteelSeries gaming earbuds, 🤓 Meta Orion AR glasses, 📱 New Samsung devices

10 tech stories in the quickest format possible

Friday’s 10-story newsletter ends with discount codes below ⤵️
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🚨 1. Next PS5 Pro pre-order: Walmart will have it and 30th Anniversary Collection

Walmart will open up pre-orders of PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary Edition soon

• 🌟 Walmart starts PS5 Pro & PS Slim 30th Anniversary pre-orders in two weeks

• 📆 The next PS5 Pro pre-order time is October 10 at 10am ET / 7am PT

• 🎮 PS5 DualSense 30th Anniversary wireless controller may also restock

• 🙅‍♂️ None of the 12,300 PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary consoles are expected

• 🎁 Yes, we’ll do a giveaway of a PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Collection for The Shortcut subscribers soon

PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Collection sold out in minutes at PlayStation Direct, even at its $999 price, and the PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary Collection is also out of stock. Only 12,300 of the individually numbered PS5 Pro consoles sold worldwide.

🌟 Excellent news: One thankful paid subscriber of The Shortcut doesn’t want his PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary console, and we’re working to set up a giveaway for our loyal subscribers during Black Friday. Stay tuned!

Good news: my 13-step guide and my alerts on X helped about a dozen subscribers of The Shortcut pre-order the ultra-rare Sony console.

Bad news: many of you didn’t get it. Heck, I didn’t even get it, and I authored the 13-step guide! (truthfully, I’m usually busy helping others get through Sony’s virtual queue faster by answering an avalanche of your questions).

Great news: Walmart will sell the out-of-stock PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary Collection on October 10. It’ll also sell PS5 Pro for the first time. Here’s the pre-order page:

Ask Matt Swider on Twitter or Instagram for hand-picked deals from Walmart / Best Buy / Amazon / B&H / Samsung / Google / GameStop / Xbox / Microsoft Office (PC) deal / MS Office (Mac) deal

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🎶 2. SteelSeries debut gaming earbuds give you 100+ game profiles on the go

• 🎧 SteelSeries debuts its first gaming earbuds, the Gamebuds

• 🔕 Features ANC, transparency mode, and 10 hours of battery life

• 🛜 Connects wirelessly via Bluetooth 5.3 or 2.4GHz wireless USB-C connector

• 🕹️ Over 100 game profiles in the Arctis Mobile app on iOS & Android

• 📆 Preorder today for $159, available on October 29

SteelSeries has introduced its first pair of gaming earbuds fittingly named the Gamebuds. They have all the wireless earbuds features you’d expect plus the 100+ game profiles previously only available to their gaming headsets.

SteelSeries is certainly angling their earbuds as a regular lifestyle product as much as it is for gaming. They come with active noise canceling and a transparency mode you would find on any pair of Apple AirPods 4 or the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

SteelSeries GameBuds work across more devices than your average wireless earbuds (Image credit: Kevin Lee)

What makes them different is there’s a 2.4GHz wireless transmitter stowed away in the charging case. This lets you connect your earbuds to an Xbox Series X, PS5 Pro, PC, gaming handheld, laptop, or anything with a USB-C port.

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💸 3. PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary is being resold for silly money by scalpers

• 🥲 Unsurprisingly, reselling PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary for crazy money

• 🤯 Listings are going for more than 400% over MSRP

• 🤷‍♂️ PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary console is also being resold over MSRP

• 🚨 Walmart pre-orders starts on October 10 for PS5 Pro as well as the 30th Anniversary Collection version of PS5 Slim & DualSense controller

The average price started out as $3,000, a 300% markup, but those sold out before you could click on the eBay listing. We’re now seeing the PS5 Pro go over $5,000.

What’s funny is that people are trying to resell the “PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary Editon (NOT PRO)” as explicitly stated in the headline, though that’ll be in stock at Walmart in two weeks alongside the normal PS5 Pro.

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⌚ 4. Apple Watch 10 vs Ultra 2: which is the best smartwatch?

• ⌚ The new Apple Watch 10 is thin and light – perfect for sleep-tracking

• 🔋 The sporty Ultra 2 has a bigger battery – no need to charge daily

• 📺 Both have larger, upgraded screens vs older Apple Watch models

• 💲 Prices start at $399 (Watch 10) and $799 (Ultra 2)

• 🛍️ Which one should you buy?

Our Apple Watch 10 review notes that the newest smartwatch from Apple is a solid upgrade over previous Apple Watch models, but for anyone conflicting when deciding between the Watch 10 and the Ultra 2, you’re not alone.

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🤓 5. Meta Orion glasses offer a glimpse of the future of AR that no one can buy

• 👓  Orion is Meta’s first true augmented reality glasses

• 🪟  70º field of view is the widest on any current AR glasses

• 📽️  Micro-LED projectors beam graphics to your eyes via waveguides

• 🤖  Meta’s generative AI overlays information onto physical objects in your vision

• ⚡  Controlled with neural impulses gathered from an EMG wristband

• 💻  Powered by custom Qualcomm processors housed in a “compute puck”

• 🚫  Likely never something you can actually buy, unlike Apple Vision Pro

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📱 6. Samsung Galaxy AI event reveals Galaxy S24 FE, Tab S10 & Watch 10 FE

• 🟦 Samsung announced new devices at its latest AI launch event

• 📱 $649 Galaxy S24 FE is an affordable 6.7-inch phone (like to S24 Plus)

• ⌚ $249 Galaxy Watch FE LTE (40mm) adds cellular (like Watch 4)

• 📱 $999 Tab S10+ & $1,299 Tab S10 Ultra are powered by MediaTek

• 🤖 All four have Galaxy AI features, as seen in our S24 Ultra review

Samsung announced new devices at its latest AI event, and we sent

Sherri L. Smith

, in her first article for The Shortcut, to go hands-on with everything. This is the time of year when Samsung introduces affordable versions of its prior products.

Galaxy S24 FE phone, Galaxy Tab S10+, Galaxy Watch FE LTE, Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra (Image credit: Kevin Lee)

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (fan edition) takes some of the Galaxy AI features seen in our Galaxy S24 Ultra review and applies them to a $649 phone that’s similar in size to the 6.7-inch Galaxy S24 Plus. The new Galaxy Watch FE is akin to the Galaxy Watch 4, while the Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra are brand-new entries from Samsung.

As always, you can pre-order these devices at a discount after reading Sherri’s hands-on experience with them.

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7. Meta Quest 3S is easily the best upgrade for Meta Quest 2 holdouts

• 🥽 Meta introduces an affordable $299 Meta Quest 3S mixed reality headset

• 💸 It’s $200 cheaper than the Meta Quest 3 flagship headset

• ⚙️ Same processor, 8GB of RAM, touch controllers, and tracking technology

• 🔋 2.5 hours of battery life, the longest out of all of Meta’s headsets

• 👴 Display resolution and lens type is the same as the Meta Quest 2

• 📆 Available to preorder now for $299-399 and ships October 15

Meta introduced its more affordable Quest 3S mixed reality headset at its Meta Connect conference earlier this week, and if you’ve been a Meta Quest 2 die-hard like me, this is definitely the time to upgrade.

While the Meta Quest 3S is a $200 cheaper alternative to the Meta Quest 3, it features essentially the same specs as the more expensive Meta Quest 3 with few trade-offs – but more importantly, big upgrades for Meta Quest 2 owners.

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⌨️ 8. SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 gets thockier with Hall Effect switches

• ⌨️ SteelSeries introduces a new series of Apex Pro Gen 3 gaming keyboards

• 🧲 New OmniPoint 3.0 built around magnetic Hall Effect sensors

• ⚡ Promises to be 11x faster and twice as durable as mechanical switches

• 🏃‍♂️🚶‍♂️ Bind two commands to one key with 2-in-1 Action Keys

• 🕹️ Counter-strafe, crouch-jump, and slide-cancel like a pro with Rapid Tap

• ⬇️ GG Quickset lets you download pro-gamer and community profiles

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🎮 9. New Roku Ultra is faster and has a new remote to rival Google TV Streamer

Roku Ultra has been given a speed boost for 2024 (Image credit: Roku)

• 📺 Roku announced a new version of the Roku Ultra streaming player

• 🏎️ It offers 30% faster performance and ships with a brand-new remote

• 💲 It’s still priced at an affordable $99.99

• 📅 Roku is launching the new Ultra in time for Black Friday

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🪄 10. Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom review roundup: 'A resounding success'

• 👍 Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has a Metacritic score of 86

• 🤩 The game has 91% positive reviews, 7% mixed and 0% negative

• 👸 It’s the first time Zelda has been given the leading role

• 📆 The game is out now for Nintendo Switch

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📺 One more thing: 8K PS5 Pro games: every title running at the highest resolution on Sony's console

• 🤯 The new PS5 Pro is capable of outputting some games at 8K resolution

• 🤞 Sony’s PS5 retail box promises 8K gaming, but it was never realized

• 🙌 PS5 Pro, however, is making 8K video games a real thing

• 👇 Only a few games are supported, but we’ll update this 8K games list often

⬆️ Tap the 🌟 icon button on this page ⬆️

🔒 Bonus: $100 PS, $50 Nintendo & Xbox gift card deals; 50% off Game Pass

• 🟦 $100 PlayStation giftcard for $83

• 🍄 $50 Nintendo Gift Card for $39.99

• 🟩 $50 Xbox Gift Card for $40

• ❎ 50% off Xbox Game Pass for $26 (Microsoft’s MSRP is $60 for 3 months)

We’re expanding our discount codes for paid subscribers as a pack-in. It’s sort of like CD-ROM pack-ins for subscribers of 90s magazines.

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