The rise, fall, and rise of portable MP3 players

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This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the collapse and the resurgence of the portable media player, follow Terrence O'Brien. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started We are spoiled for choice, musically.

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The AirPods Pro 3 are a fantastic deal at $179

AirPods Pro 3 | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good discount on the Apple AirPods Pro 3, but like the latest iPad Mini and the M5 MacBook Airs, a great one is happening now for October Prime Day. You can snag a pair of the noise-canceling earbuds that include five ear tip sizes, live translation, and fantastic sound for $179 at Amazon (originally $249). I expect other retailers to offer a similar price in the coming days. This is the first time the price has gone below $190 since Prime Day in June. Since then, Apple launched the AirPods 5, and

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The MacBook Air M5 is $200 off for the first time in months

Pictured: The 15-inch Apple MacBook Air. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Amazon’s October Prime Day has effectively chopped off Apple’s June price increases. Usually $1,299, the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M5 chip and 512GB of storage is on sale for $1,099 at Amazon. That’s a more palatable price for a machine that’s significantly faster than Apple’s $699 MacBook Neo.

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The iPad Mini is slightly cheaper again during Prime Day

Apple’s iPad Mini is temporarily on sale for its old price. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Apple bumped up prices on several of its devices in June, and we haven’t seen a good discount on the iPad Mini since. Just ahead of Amazon’s October Prime Big Deals Days, however, both Wi-Fi only and cellular-connected models are $100 off. The Wi-Fi version with 128GB of storage is currently $499, the 256GB model is $599, and the cellular model with 128GB of storage is $649. This base configuration of this tablet often sold for around $400 throughout 2025, so we get it if $500 for a tablet from late 2

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The forgotten Chromebook that started it all

Google didn't even call the first Chromebook a "Chromebook." The Cr-48 had no interesting design and no bright logos - it wasn't even designed to be a product you could buy. Instead, it was a portal to a big new idea about computers. In this week's episode of Version History, The Verge's Nilay Patel and MKBHD's Marques Brownlee join David Pierce to help explain the history of ChromeOS and Chromebooks, and discuss whether Google's approach to computer hardware was the right one. View Link This has been an exciting season of Version History, as we've been exploring the most iconic school tech. L

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