Every year we buy an absurd amount of stuff from Amazon—from techie gear to household items (including for my mom, who lives 2,500 miles away). I also keep a wishlist of items I’m considering, but don’t need immediately, for when they inevitably go on sale, like during this week’s Amazon Prime Day sale.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball makes an explicit call for buying from his Amazon affiliates link, and I figured, if Gruber can do it, why can’t I? So, if you’d like to support this site, click any of the Amazon links on this page and if you buy anything, I get a small percentage of your purchase price, at no extra cost to you. Buy that thing you’ve been eyeing, and we both get rewarded. Or, check out these recommendations, including some of my recent or favorite gear.

Apple

• Much of Apple’s gear is discounted for Prime Day. My top recommendation for a laptop—the 13” M4 MacBook Air—starts at $850 (usually $1,000) for the 16 GB memory/256 GB storage configuration. The 16 GB/512 GB step-up is $1,050 (usually $1,199), and the best available option on Amazon (24 GB/512 GB) is $1,250 (usually $1,400).
• Since the iPadOS 26 beta came out, I’ve been happily using my 13” iPad Pro connected to an Apple Studio Display—it’s terrific. But, I’m tempted to replace it with an A17 Pro-powered iPad mini. I love the idea of amazing portability transforming into a full desktop computing experience, and $380 for the 128 GB model (usually $500) is about as good a deal as I’ve seen. (The iPad Pro isn’t a Prime Day sale, but at $1,185, it’s still less than Apple’s $1,300.)
• My favorite Apple accessory, the AirPods Pro 2, are $149 (usually $250). That’s nearly $38 cheaper than Apple’s own employee discount. I almost always have a pair of these in my ears. The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) ($119, usually $179) or without ANC ($89, usually $129) are also screaming good deals (and also less than Apple employee pricing).

Travel

• I’ve previously mentioned my love of Anker, and I travel with many of their products, several of which are on sale for Prime Day, including:
  • My favorite 3-in-1 travel charger for $63 (usually $90). Charges an iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch via a single cable.
  • A 5,000 mAh Magsafe-compatible charger for $26 (usually $40). We have three, and one is always with me when I’m out for more than a few hours.
  • A 24,000 mAh powerbank with 140W fast charging for $77 (usually $110).
  • A compact power strip/charging station ($40, usually $50).
  • Many, many of their cables.
• I usually pack this GL.iNet portable router. It neatly routes (ahem) around those backwards hotels that insist on limiting the number of devices you can connect to their WiFi. $74 (usually $87).
• I keep these tiny, magnetic charging nubs plugged into any device that isn’t USB-A or USB-C (vanishingly few, thank goodness) and charge them with a single cable. ($13, usually $16). I also use a few of these around the house for devices that need occasional charging, like our Withings bathroom scale ($89, usually $130).

Home

• Airversa air purifier for $74 (usually $87). We run these throughout the house. They’re unobtrusive, quiet, and—the best part—controlled by Apple HomeKit, so I can say Siri, set the dining room air purifier to high. When my wife’s mom was suffering from indoor allergies, this was the purifier we bought for her. It helped tremendously.
• These LED motion sensor lights are in our closets, and are handy when we lose power—which we do regularly. $24 a pair (usually $28). We have six deployed or ready to go at all times.
• This long dressing stick with shoe horn has made it easier for my mom to get dressed ($8, usually $10). Eventually, we all need a wee bit of help.

Stuff

• Elgato Prompter is down to $190 (from its average price of $280). I would have loved having this when I had six video calls a day. It also makes a great second screen.
• Samsung 256 GB USB-C flash drive is $22 (usually $35) and is now in my cart. It turns out all my thumb drives are USB-A.
• This well-regarded HOTO Cordless Rechargeable Electric Screwdriver ($29, usually $50) is also sitting in my cart.

To take advantage of most of these deals you need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber. I’ve been a subscriber for as long as I can remember; the two-day (sometimes same-day) shipping alone is worth it, and Prime Video is the only place I can watch my favorite long-con show, Hustle.

I’ve also been a member of the Amazon Associates program for years (as part of my now-defunct personal blog and my long-dormant-but-working-on-it CostPerGig (consider that an alpha-level soft launch—more on this soon), and now JAG’s Workshop. In his piece, Gruber says that when he posts affiliate links, “they sometimes work out to a nice windfall.” I’ve probably made $100, total, in the fifteen or so years I’ve been an affiliate. (Of course, Gruber has about a billionty more readers than I do. Rounding.)

I sometimes include affiliate links to products I mention in my articles, but I’ve never done a pure affiliate link post before. There are many ways you can show your support for me and this site (including becoming a paid member—when you’re a shill, you’re a shill all the way), but the easiest way for the next couple of days is to click on one of those Amazon links and buy a little something for yourself or a loved one. Anything and everything helps.

(Don’t worry; if this goes well, I have no intention of writing about products just to link to them. I may, however, aggregate links on a “mentioned on JAG’s Workshop” page; let me know what you think about that.)