Apple Refurbished Products and Office Supplies Offer Savings Opportunities
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Apple’s refurbished products can save you up to 15% from the list price. These are cleaned, tested and also include a one‑year warranty with accessories and cables repackaged in a brand‑new box. The MacBook Neo is sold refurbished and is listed at $599, which happens to be the same price you’d get with an education discount.
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EngadgetIt could be wise to wait, or settle for a cheaper model. MacBooks are never considered "cheap," a refurbished model or the new Neo excepted. Apple products in general often come at premium pricing but attract a loyal legion of followers, present company included. However, with the latest price hikes on MacBook models, including the top line MacBook Pro M5, it's even tougher to stomach. It's not just the MacBook: Apple hiked pricing for most of its hardware in June 2026, largely due to the memory shortage and rising prices for important computer components that are now trickling down to customers.
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The right band can make it comfortable enough to wear all day and night for sleep tracking. A charging stand will remind you to keep it topped up, and a protective case could save you from a shattered screen. To help upgrade your Apple Watch setup, I, along with a few of my WIRED colleagues, tested chargers, bands, cases, and more to find the accessories worth the money. I’d also recommend getting AppleCare, which is the company's extended warranty plan, given that service pricing for watch repairs is exorbitant.
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EngadgetSpending the $99 it typically costs to fix the watch through Apple can be worth it to get more usage from a wearable that cost you hundreds of dollars — assuming it still has life left it in otherwise. You'll have to determine if that money is better spent on an upgrade for the refined design and exclusive features of a more recent model, keeping watchOS compatibility in mind.
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Best Apple Watch Band When you buy your Apple Watch, you get to choose a band at checkout. I find textile and metal (stainless steel or titanium) bands to be more comfortable and fashionable than fluoroelastomer bands, which tend to be rigid and can irritate your skin. I love the Nike Sport Loop so much that it's been my everyday band for six years, and I ended up buying it in two colors: navy blue and black. Made from recycled polyester, Spandex, and nylon, it's soft, breathable, and easy to hand-wash. The Velcro pull tab makes it as adjustable as a band can get, and it's easy to fasten with one hand. Apple doesn't advertise any water resistance, but I've swum with it multiple times; after rinsing it off and letting it air dry, it looked brand new.
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Acer has a wide selection of monitors available, too, whether that’s a massive 49-incher or a more modest 27-inch gaming workhorse. One of my favorite discounts I saw right now was the Acer Nitro XV2, a 27-inch 1440p display with a 300 Hz refresh rate. It’s 44% off at the time of writing, bringing the price down to just $250. Because these discounts are swapped out on a weekly basis, it’s worth checking back to see if the product you’re eyeing has a new discount.
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Columbia Military Discount: 10% Off Active and retired military members, as well as first responders, are also eligible for a 10% discount. You must log in directly to ID.me and verify your status to receive the Columbia promo code.
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Get the Best Office Depot Back to School Deals The early bird gets the worm, and although the start of the school year is several months away, you can save big on school supplies and essentials when you buy early. Office Depot school supplies have hundreds of supplies for under three dollars, in-store pick up available in minutes, and a handy school landing page where everything is categorized to make it easy to shop by grade, need, and price range. There are deals for 20% off JanSport backpacks, $98 Texas Instruments graphing calculators, BOGO deals on Sharpies, Scotch tape, Post-Its, and more essentials, and tons more deals (too many to include here!)
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CNETThe back-to-school laptop sales just don’t hit the same this year with price spikes and inventory shortages. You won’t typically find sales at Apple Stores, but there are some deals now for back-to-school shopping — beyond the always-available education discount.
6 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 The Verge I told myself I wouldn’t buy an OhSnap accessory for my phone. Every one I’d tested was nice, but felt overpriced and slightly flawed. After I weighed in on the $40 Snap Grip 5 last year, I wound up sticking with my $25 Syncwire instead. But OhSnap’s $50 Snap Grip Stand finally got me. To have a truly useful vertical stand and grip always attached to my phone, ready at a moment’s notice? Heck yes.
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02 Engadget The new Apple Upgrade program makes the monthly cost of an iPhone even cheaper than before.
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03 TechCrunch After trying and failing to delay the matter, Apple on Thursday submitted its proposal for the commissions it wants to charge on purchases made using external links inside apps on its iOS devices.
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04 Wired If you have an iPhone, you've probably considered buying an Apple Watch—and with good reason. It's the best smartwatch and best fitness tracker for iPhone owners, and it allows you to make calls, send texts, pay for purchases, and more without reaching for your phone. That said, I’m a firm believer that your Apple Watch is only as good as the accessories that support it.
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05 Ars Technica Google began offering third-party app store downloads in the Play Store earlier this week, but US District Judge James Donato says the company isn’t doing enough. After reviewing the process for accessing the first non-Google store, Donato ruled that Google has added unnecessary “anticompetitive friction,” ordering the company to rectify the issues.
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06 CNET In this week’s episode of One More Thing, embedded below, I explain all the fine print of Apple’s Back to School gift card promotion, which has been extended to Sept. 24. If you’re hoping to take advantage of it, be warned: Apple now requires validation through a portal called Unidays to prove you qualify for the student and educator discount. (Sorry, no more honor system for online shoppers.)
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Sources (6)
- techcrunch
- verge
- wired
- cnet
- engadget
- arstechnica