Cyber Monday weekend has come to a close. But there are still plenty of Cyber Monday deals on picture frame TVs from your favorite retailers that you can shop right now.
Plus, we’ve found a wide selection of top-rated TVs on sale now. Browse our selection of on-sale, top-rated smart TVs, including picture frame TVs, from Samsung, Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy.
Our bestselling Samsung “The Frame” smart TV is back on sale for Cyber Monday. The CBS Essentials bestseller is marked down at most retailers. But one retailer — Walmart — has a better deal than the others on this most-wanted picture frame TV.
Get the Samsung ‘The Frame’ TV (2022) for $1,100 off at Walmart
Samsung
When you’re not streaming shows or movies on “The Frame,” the 4K set displays preprogrammed artwork, from Picasso to Basquiat, on its matte screen. It can also display family vacation photos that you’ve uploaded to “The Frame” from your phone or USB flash drive. So, yes, this TV puts on a show whether it’s on — or off.
The 2022 model has the same gorgeous quantum-dot picture as the 2021 model. And like the 2021 model, the latest version upscales TV and movies to 4K. The 2022 “The Frame” boasts a new matte display with anti-glare, anti-reflection and anti-fingerprint properties.
Amazon has Cyber Monday deals on the older slight older model, the 2021 Samsung “The Frame.” This screen can transform into a piece of art when you’re not streaming your favorite TV shows.
“The Frame” smart TV has a built-in motion sensor that activates your device to display your favorite pieces of art in 4K resolution whenever you enter the room. This QLED TV produces 100% color volume in the DCI-P3 color space, which is the format for most cinema screens and HDR movies for television. (Translation: Colors on this TV will be more vivid and true-to-life.)
According to the brand, this LG TV designed to compete with Samsung’s “The Frame,” features a gallery design that “hugs the wall.” This smart TV is meant to blend in seamlessly with any other wall art you might have.
The OLED TV features 4K-upscaling, a Filmmaker Mode to enhance your viewing experience with Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, plus built-in access to Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV plus, Disney plus and LG channels.
An Amazon customer called the TV “the best 4K panel I’ve ever owned.” “The panel actually does look like wall art hanging in my viewing room,” they commented.
Hurry — this Black Friday/Cyber Monday TV deal is running out of stock.
We’ve found even more TVs on sale for Cyber Monday that you can buy right now. Below, discover deals on TVs from Samsung, LG, Amazon Fire, Sony and more that suit a variety of budgets.
55″ Samsung The Terrace QLED outdoor 4K smart TV: $2,798
Samsung
Walmart is offering a Cyber Monday discount on the best-in-class, 4.6-star-rated Samsung Terrace outdoor TV. The 4K smart TV boasts a wide viewing angle, and an anti-glare screen that looks bright even in daylight. Rated IP55 water- and dust-resistant.
Unlike LED and QLED TVs, OLED TVs don’t have a backlight layer. Instead, each pixel is its own teeny-tiny LED light that can independently adjust luminosity and even turn off completely. Because each pixel functions independently, the TV offers elite image quality — and the darkest shadows. OLED televisions also tend to be ultra thin. This particular LG set measures just 1.8 inches thick. It features 4K upscaling, plus built-in Google Assistant and Alexa.
The Amazon Fire TV offers a 4K experience with support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and HLG. This smart TV is a must-have for Alexa owners. You can go entirely remote free and ask Alexa to play live TV, stream your favorite TV shows and movies, check sports scores, set timers and reminders, start video calls and more.
The Amazon Fire TV Omni series gives you access to over 1 million movies and TV episodes, plus the streaming platforms you subscribe to. Want to broadcast whatever’s on your phone right into your living room? Use the TV’s Airplay function to share videos, photos and music from your compatible smart devices to your Fire TV.
The Amazon Fire TV Omni series is available in multiple sizes. Prices vary.
This smart television automatically upscales your favorite TV shows and movies to 4K. It features a clear, crisp picture with HDR and an auto game mode that minimizes input lag.
This 4K smart TV with Alexa built in has a 65-inch OLED display. The LG TV adjusts your viewing and audio settings automatically to provide the best viewing experience, no matter what you are watching.
It’s also a popular choice for gaming due to its 120 Hz refresh rate and gaming mode feature.
Upgrade to a QLED 4K TV on the cheap this Cyber Monday. Walmart is offering a 50-inch Roku QLED by Onn for just $288. It features Dolby Vision HDR, local dimming and a 120 Hz effective refresh rate (which is ideal for gaming). A Roku voice remote is included.
This IP55 weatherproof TV with HDR10 is designed for outdoor use in all seasons — it works in temperatures from -4ºF to 104ºF. It features a tempered, anti-glare screen that’s bright enough for use in partial sun.
This Samsung smart TV features a crystal UHD with 4K resolution and advanced color accuracy. It is compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay.
This is a great affordable option if you want a high-quality smart TV at a decent price — and it’s even more affordable right now.
The 55-inch Sony Bravia XR OLED TV features a cognitive processor meant to deliver intense contrast with pure blacks, high peak brightness and natural colors. Thanks to its Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology, the screen is the speaker.
This smart TV comes with access to Google TV, and works with most voice assistants.
Curved TVs, such as this 55-inch Samsung 4K TV model, tend to provide a more immersive experience while gaming. It’s not an OLED, but the LCD still displays vivid colors.
The Samsung TU-8300 is a budget-friendly option with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. While 120 Hz is ideal for current-generation gaming systems, this TV still provides good performance for casual gamers.
This Samsung TV lets you rotate your screen just like you rotate your phone for mobile content and apps. Stream TV and movies from a horizontal position, or turn the TV vertically to mirror your phone and play mobile content and apps. If you want, let your phone take over your entire screen. “The Sero” displays an optimized aspect ratio so you can enjoy content, apps and social media full-screen (without those pesky black bars that typically appear when you pair your phone with your TV).
If 4K isn’t enough for you, try an 8K TV. Though very little content is available in native 8K (for now), the Samsung Neo QLED 8K uses AI to intelligently upscale whatever content you’re watching to 7,680 × 4,320 pixels.
These 8K smart TVs also feature anti-glare screens, Dolby Atmos sound and 100% color accuracy. The Neo smart 8K TV is on sale at Amazon in a range of sizes.
This smart TV with 4K-upscaling offers Samsung Smart Hub. The feature shows you all your favorite movies, TV shows, music, apps and games in one place.
Samsung’s highly-rated Neo QLED 4K smart TV is on sale at both Amazon and Samsung right now.
If you want to enjoy Samsung’s QLED display and gaming features, but don’t want to break the bank, try this budget-friendly offering from Samsung. This model features a dual LED display that provides higher contrast by using both warm and cool LED backlights. It also features a quantum dot HDR display, which allows colors to appear more vibrant and lifelike on screen.
The Q60A model includes Samsung’s gaming features, super ultra-wide game-view and game bar. It also includes auto low latency mode, which automatically detects when you are playing games and reduces lag time in response.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
