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Today’s best deals include AirPods with Wireless Charging Case for $150, plus Mac mini sees $150 discount, and third-party Apple Watch bands are on sale. Hit the jump for all that and more in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

AirPods return to Amazon all-time low

Amazon offers Apple’s AirPods with Wireless Charging Case for $150. As a comparison, you’d typically pay $199 with Amazon often charging around $179. Today’s deal is a match of the best price we’ve tracked at this retailer. Apple’s AirPods feature a sleek design and the brand’s H1 chip for access to various features like Hey Siri. This model ships with the wireless charging case, too. You’ll be able to toss your AirPods on a compatible Qi charger and power up without having any pesky wires to worry about.

Mac mini is $150 off

Amazon offers the latest Apple Mac mini 3GHz/8GB/512GB for $949. Price reflected at checkout. That’s down $150 from the regular going rate and the best we’ve ever seen. The latest Mac mini sports an eighth-generation quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, along with speedy SSD storage and a wide range of I/O including four Thunderbolt 3 ports. You’ll also find Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI output, and USB 3.0 connectivity here. 

Apple Watch band deals from $8

Amazon offers a Stainless Steel Apple Watch in various colors and sizes for $14. Regularly $20, we’ve previously seen this band around $16 on sale. Today’s deal is a new Amazon all-time low. This model arrives in various colors, so you can match your style as needed. It also features an adjustable design that can be changed for those that need a tighter fit. More here from $8.

Ring’s Video Doorbell Pro drops to all-time low

Amazon is offering the Ring Video Doorbell Pro in certified refurbished condition for $119. Originally $249, it’s on sale for $160 in new condition right now and today’s deal is a match for its all-time low. Ring’s high-end Video Doorbell Pro is one of the best the company has to offer. It packs 1080p video, is battery-powered, has two-way talking capabilities, and only takes around 5-minutes to install.

Amazon’s Echo Show 5 + 8 pair great together

HSN is offering the Amazon Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 bundled for $140. For comparison, the Echo Show 5 retails for $90 and is on sale for $70 right now, while the Echo Show 8 goes for $130 regularly and is down to $100 right now. Combined, these two cost up to $220 and you’re saving up to 36% with today’s sale. These Alexa-powered smart displays are perfect for any smart home. They offer a unique display-based operating system that responds to both touch or voice commands.

Best trade-in deals

9to5Mac also keeps tabs on all the best trade-in deals on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, and more every month. Be sure to check out this month’s best trade-in deals when you decide it’s time to upgrade your device. Or simply head over to our trade-in partner directly if you want to recycle, trade, or sell your used devices for cash and support 9to5Mac along the way!

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Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

New Photos Offer Better Look at iPhone 12 Color Options

As we wait for the iPhone 12 review embargo to lift later today, more pictures are circulating of the devices in real-world lighting conditions, providing a better look at the different colors available. Leaker DuanRui has shared images on Twitter of the iPhone 12 in white, black, blue, green, and (PRODUCT)RED. The black and white colors are similar to the iPhone 11 colors, but the other…

Last year at WWDC MacStadium announced the beta of its new Orka platform, and just in time for this year’s event they are announcing the release of Orka clouds built on the latest Mac mini hardware. MacStadium is also offering 9to5Mac readers a special 50% off the first six months of an individual Gen3 Mac mini subscription with code WWDC2020.

Head below for more info on the Mac mini subscriptions and a live demo of MacStadium’s new Orka platform.

With work-from-home trends creating an increase in remote server demand, MacStadium’s cloud-hosted Mac mini subscriptions have become necessary for many looking for a solution to offer access to apps and servers for students and staff stuck at home.

Dedicated entirely to Macs in the cloud, MacStadium offers a number of different Mac private cloud options that can be used for iOS/Mac development, remote servers, and other workloads that require macOS. MacStadium’s private clouds are always built on genuine Apple Mac hardware and are trusted by iOS developers and mobile testing teams around the globe, including the hosts of the popular developer-focused Stacktrace podcast here on 9to5Mac.

ORKA

Orka is MacStadium’s new virtualization platform based on standard cloud orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes but built specifically for Apple hardware. That means a reliable, software-driven, and high-performance experience for devs testing iOS and Mac apps that require a large pool of Macs to run CI-driven development.

Homebrew, a beta user of Orka, recently published his experience with the new platform:

“Everyone who has to deal with macOS automation would love a Google Cloud or AWS for macOS,” said Mike McQuaid of Homebrew. “I feel like Orka is the closest thing that you can get to that. You’re able to, spin up, spin down VMs using an easy-to-use CLI or API.”

Orka clouds can be built on Mac Pros or on the latest T2 Mac minis and come with plugins for CI tools including Jenkins, GitHub, GitLab, Buildkite, and TeamCity.

You can try an Orka demo now, including a two-hour Orka playground environment for free at tryorka.com.

And get 50% off the first six months of a hosted Gen3 Mac mini subscription with code WWDC2020.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Update: B&H is now taking up to $350 off select 2018 Mac mini configurations from $679.

B&H is currently taking up to $300 off Apple’s 2018 Mac mini with some configurations being matched at Amazon. One standout is the entry-level i3/8GB/128GB model at $648 shipped. Good for a $151 discount from its original going rate, today’s offer is $1 under our previous mention and a new Amazon all-time low. Apple’s compact Mac delivers desktop performance with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, as well as two USB 3.1 Type A slots, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, and more. It’s a more than capable workstation machine for creative tasks and the like, or versatile enough to leverage as a Plex server. For a more in-depth look, swing by our hands-on review.

Elevate your Mac mini’s functionality by using some of your savings towards the Satechi USB-C Stand and Hub at $80. Adding this accessory into your setup supplements the machine’s already impressive list of I/O with even more connectivity. There’s four extra USB 3.0 slots alongside memory card readers and a front-facing USB-C port. Plus, a matching space gray finish completes the package.

Right now you can still save up to $700 on Apple’s prev-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro alongside some additional machines from $899. Or if you’re looking to take iPadOS for a spin, this morning we spotted iPad mini 5 in both Wi-Fi and cellar configurations at $50 off.

Mac mini features:

Apple has re-engineered the Mac mini (Late 2018) to drive tasks ranging from home automation to giant render farms, Xcode servers, industrial-grade operations, live concert sound engines, digital art and signage, testing iOS apps, and more. Upgraded with an 8th Generation Intel Core processor, the Mac mini features a more efficient thermal architecture, all-flash storage, a bigger fan, expanded vents, a redesigned power supply, and Apple’s T2 security chip.

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Apple on Tuesday began the approval process for its Developer Transition Kit, a Mac mini with specialized software that stands ready to usher in a new era of Macs powered by the tech giant’s own custom-designed silicon.

Apple’s virtual Worldwide Developers Conference for 2020 started Monday, and while it was a given the online-only WWDC would bring updates to the company’s operating systems such as iOS 14, new hardware announcements are rare. This year, though, we got news about Apple’s home-grown processor, an Arm-based variant of chips like its A13 Bionic that’s intended to run MacOS instead of iOS or iPadOS like its iPhones and iPads. A new Mac Mini desktop for developers will be available this week running Apple’s A12Z processor so devs can start changing over their apps to run on the new processors.

Apple’s new chips promise to use less power while delivering the highest performance for the Mac, just as its in-house mobile processors have done for the iPhone and iPad. The Developer Transition Kit will include a Mac Mini powered by the A12Z processor, a 64-bit ARM-based system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and found in the current iPad Pro. The kit will also have 16GB of memory and 512GB SSD for storage with a developer beta version of the company’s upcoming MacOS Big Sur, plus Xcode. 

There will be a complete family of SoCs to run Mac laptops and desktops. Software like Microsoft’s Office suite and Adobe’s Creative Cloud will be able to run on both Intel- and Apple silicon-based Macs using Rosetta 2. Apple also said Apple silicon-based Macs will be able to run iPadOS and iOS apps natively.

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Despite the almost universal rumormongering about a new iMac coming out at Apple’s WWDC 2020, there was absolutely no mention of new hardware products.

Well, except for one.

Apple did, in fact, announce the quite well underway migration of MacOS to what Apple calls “Apple Silicon,” and which most of us call the Arm platform. The company spent the last 30 minutes of its slightly surreal, socially-isolated WWDC presentation time discussing exactly how MacOS will migrate to Arm.

Much of that migration is as expected. Like the migration from PowerPC to Intel a decade and a half ago, there will be a Rosetta translation/migration engine that will allow Intel-based apps to run in emulation on Apple’s chips.

Apple’s Craig Federighi shared that all the apps and demos shown on the Mac during the WWDC keynote were, in fact, Arm apps. And he and Tim Cook announced that Final Cut Pro X was running already on Arm, with work actively being done by Microsoft on Office and Adobe on Creative Cloud.

Of particular note is the fact that Big Sur, the new upcoming MacOS version, will contain support for Apple Silicon when it’s shipped this fall. More to the point, there’s a developer beta of Big Sur available now, and it also has support for Mac Silicon. Apple is readying a set of developer migration resources, including documentation, sample code, and more.

Apple

But here’s where it gets interesting. How do you develop for a new processor architecture when you don’t have it in hand? In years past, we emulated it or built using virtual machines. But Apple is apparently far enough along in this migration to be able to offer Developer Transition Kits, which include a Mac mini “enclosure” with an Apple Silicon-based motherboard inside.

At $500, the price for the DTK Arm Mac mini is surprisingly reasonable. One downside, though. Apple says, “The DTK … must be returned to Apple at the end of the program.” The company says the machine will include 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and run on the A12Z SoC (system on a chip).

Apple has a long track record of seeding developer units to key developers. I was a recipient way back in the day. They weren’t particularly aggressive about return schedules, but they liked to require seed units to be returned as an incentive to get developers actually coding before the return deadline. That might be part of Apple’s reasoning here.

Also: One developer’s favorite Mac coding tools for PHP and web development 

The key point here is this statement from Federighi: “Developers will be able to apply to the program at developer.apple.com today. We will be shipping units starting out this week, so you can get to work.”

So, yeah. Federighi didn’t specify what he meant by “apply” and what criteria would be used to determine who got units, but since this was announced publicly, we can be pretty sure Apple is expecting to send out Mac mini DTK units in quantity.

Are you planning to code for the new Mac architecture? Will you stick with the Mac after it transitions to new silicon? Let us know in the comments below.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.