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My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: A Blink Video Doorbell and Amazon Echo Pop

✇Lifehacker
Daniel Oropeza

Prime Da7 2024 is almost here, and early Prime Day deals are going strong. Unsurprisingly, some of the best deals are for Amazon's own products, like this Blink Video Camera Bundle for $59.99 or this 4K Fire TV for $149.99.

If you're a Prime Member looking for a video doorbell deal and you wouldn't mind a free smart speaker too, consider this Blink Video Doorbell and Amazon Echo Pop Bundle, which will run you $34.99 (the same devices would cost $110 if purchased separately).

Blink is owned by Amazon, so it's no surprise to see the doorbell get a big Prime Day discount. However, it is surprising how much you'll get for your $35: The Blink Video Doorbell with the Sync Module 2 alone normally costs $69.99, and the Echo Pop normally goes for $39.99.

The Blink Video Doorbell can be wired or use batteries. It uses your phone as a chime bell, has two-way audio so that you can communicate with guests from your phone, and supports 1080p resolution and infrared night vision. The Sync Module 2 lets you control up to 10 Blink devices with your phone and use local storage for your video files instead of paying for cloud storage, but you'll need to buy a USB flash drive of up to 256 GB. Keep in mind that you will still need a Blink subscription to use all of Blink's features. The Blink subscription plan starts at $30 a year for Blink Basic.

The Echo Pop is Amazon's latest, most budget-friendly Echo smart speaker. It's an "excellent" smart speaker according to PCMag's review. One of its best features has nothing to do with the speaker abilities— if you use the Eero Mesh wifi system, the speaker doubles as a node to expand your wifi coverage.

My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: This Blink Video Camera Bundle

✇Lifehacker
Daniel Oropeza

I've been covering Blink deals on Amazon for some time now, and have seen some good bundle deals before, but none compare to this one.

Right now, you can get a Blink Video Doorbell ($59.99 when bought by itself), a Blink Outdoor 4 camera ($99.99 purchased separately), and a Sync Module 2 ($49.99 purchased separately) for $59.99 with this Blink bundle. This is the lowest price the package deal has reached—by a long shot—according to price-checking tools.

You can also expand your coverage by adding two or three Blink Outdoor 4 cameras and still get a very good discount. This sale is part of Amazon's official early Prime Day deals, according to its press release, which also served as the official announcement that Prime Day 2024 will take place July 16-17.

This bundle has all the basics you need to set up your Blink security system. The Blink Video Doorbell has two-way audio so that you can communicate with guests from your phone, 1080p resolution, and infrared night vision. The Blink Outdoor 4 is the latest Blink outdoor camera and a great budget option that competes well with other outdoor cameras. The Sync Module 2 lets you use local storage for your video files instead of paying for cloud storage.

Note that you will need a Blink subscription to use all of this bundle's features. The Blink subscription plan starts at $30 a year for Blink Basic. For $100/year, you can get Blink Plus, which offers more features, including support for an unlimited number of devices.

Update Your Windows PC to Avoid This Wifi Security Flaw

✇Lifehacker
Jake Peterson

Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday update has a series of fixes for bugs in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. One of these vulnerabilities is particularly troubling though, as it allows bad actors to hack your PC so long as their within wifi range.

As reported by The Register, Microsoft patched 49 security flaws with its latest Patch Tuesday update, but there are really three of key interest: The first, which Microsoft says is public (but not exploited), is tracked as CVE-2023-50868 and can allow a bad actor to push your CPU to the point where it stops functioning correctly. The second, CVE-2024-30080, concerns Microsoft Message Queuing: This flaw allows a remote attacker to send a malicious data packet to a Windows system, and execute arbitrary code on that system. This one doesn't necessarily affect individual users as much, but Microsoft did give it a high severity rating, and while it hasn't necessarily been exploited yet, the company thinks exploitation is more than likely. But the last flaw seems most pressing: CVE-2024-30078 is a vulnerability affecting wifi drivers. The company says a bad actor can send a malicious data packet to a machine using a wifi networking adapter, which would allow them to execute arbitrary code. In practice, this could allow someone within wifi range of another user to hack their computer from that wifi connection alone. And since this affects many different versions of Windows, attackers will likely try to exploit this flaw as soon as possible.

It's a chilling concept: If someone learns how to exploit this flaw, they could use it to attack other Windows PCs in their immediate vicinity. Imagine the field day a hacker could have going to a high-density area of laptop users like a coffee shop or shared workspace. Fortunately, the latest security updates for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 patch these issues, so once you're updated, you're safe to return to your office in the corner of the café.

How to install the latest patches on your Windows PC

If you're running Windows 11, head to Start > Settings > Windows Update. On Windows 10, head to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Either way, hit Check for updates. Once available, download and install it on your PC.

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