Labor Day is back and this year the sales are better than ever. It’s as if retailers took a look at the summer we’ve had and said, collectively, “these guys need a break,” and have offered some terrific Labor Day sales. As we look toward going back to school, or just to upgrade our tech in the home, some of the handiest gear in 2020 takes the form of tablets, which are solving more problems than ever before. Fortunately, there are oodles of fantastic Labor Day tablet deals just waiting to be snapped up today.
Like any piece of computing equipment, tablets come in all sizes and have vastly different features. It’s important not to get overwhelmed by bright shiny features that you’re never going to use, and instead narrow your search by asking yourself what you’ll actually be using this tablet for. Say you’re getting something to keep the kids mesmerized during car trips; in that case, you probably don’t need to spend a great deal of money on the tablet with the best camera. Any tablet is going to be able to stream Netflix or other streaming services, and kids are not careful by nature, so don’t break the bank on an iPad Pro when a Samsung Galaxy will do the same job at a fraction of the cost. On the other hand, if this tablet is going to be your work life for the next while, you might want to search out a tablet with a top-notch camera to help with all your Zoom and Skype calls.
Another thing to consider is the operating system on all your other devices. If everything else in your life is Apple (Apple Watch, MacBook, HomePod, et cetera), you’ll probably want to begin and end your search with iPads. Make your life easier, not the opposite.
Some other features to consider: Storage is a big one. If you’re using your tablet for work (or every day) and that work involves a good deal of documents, photos, videos, and multimedia assets that you’ll want to have on your at all times, as opposed to in the cloud, look for a tablet with upwards of 1TB of storage. Battery life is another; they range from 3,000 mAh to 8,000 mAh, which is obviously more than twice the battery. If you’re going to be doing lots of Skype or Zoom, pay attention to where the camera is located (front-facing tend to be better for this kind of communication; rear cameras are better for scanning). When it comes to the processor, again, ask yourself how big an engine you need. If you’re doing basic things like prepping documents and watching videos, any chip will be fine. If you’ve been blown away by ads of people drawing on their tablet, and typing with a detachable keyboard, make sure your tablet supports these features. And finally, if you’re planning on using your tablet far away from Wi-Fi, make sure it has LTE capabilities. If you want to use your tablet in this way, you will of course need to add your tablet to your wireless provider’s plan.
Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.
Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage