Presidents Day brought a wave of lingering discounts on various gadgets and tech, while also seeing a major AI model release and a potential shakeup in the media landscape. Deals on items like earbuds, speakers, TVs, and smart home tech were still available, according to The Verge. Simultaneously, Anthropic launched its Claude Sonnet 4.6 AI model, offering near-flagship intelligence at a significantly reduced cost, as reported by VentureBeat. In other news, Warner Bros. Discovery is giving Paramount one more week to make its best and final offer, potentially impacting its merger agreement with Netflix, as detailed by Ars Technica.
The Verge reported that discounts were still available on a range of products, with the Sonos Era 100 smart speaker being one example, still on sale in white for $179. Additionally, The Verge noted that the Alienware 27-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor was 23 percent off. Several Switch games were also discounted, some as low as $30, along with Criterion's collection of films, which were 30 percent off.
Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 model, released on Tuesday, represents a significant shift in the AI industry, according to VentureBeat. The model offers near-flagship intelligence at a mid-tier cost, which is expected to accelerate enterprise adoption of AI agents and automated coding tools. The model is an upgrade across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design, and features a 1M token context window in beta. The pricing remains steady at $315 per million tokens, the same as its predecessor, Sonnet 4.5, a key factor in its potential impact.
In the media sector, Warner Bros. Discovery is giving Paramount one more week to make its best and final offer, as reported by Ars Technica. While Warner Bros. is officially committed to its merger agreement with Netflix and has scheduled a special meeting for March 20, it is also opening negotiations with Paramount. Netflix has provided a limited waiver, allowing Warner Bros. to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance for a seven-day period.
In other tech news, Ars Technica reported that Valve's Steam Deck is experiencing intermittent availability in some regions due to memory and storage shortages that have been affecting the PC industry since late 2025. None of the listed Steam Deck configurations are currently available to buy, nor are any of the certified refurbished configurations that Valve sometimes offers.
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