gen – Earlybirds Invest

gen – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Sun, 07 Sep 2025 19:12:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.7 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 gen – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 Should you wait for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Gen 3? https://earlybirdsinvest.com/should-you-wait-for-the-ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-gen-3/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/should-you-wait-for-the-ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-gen-3/#respond Sun, 07 Sep 2025 19:12:07 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/should-you-wait-for-the-ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses-gen-3/

Looking to pick up a pair of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses this year? You might want to hold off on that decision, as Meta’s annual product conference will kick off on September 17, and we’re expecting the company to unveil new smart glasses.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have been one of Meta’s most successful products to date, garnering tons of attention worldwide and selling millions of units. You may not be aware that these glasses are actually second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses, as the original Ray-Ban Stories weren’t nearly as popular.

Part of the success was greatly improved hardware between the first and second generation, while the other part has been the excitement of Meta AI being built into Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

Since we’re anticipating Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3) to be announced at Meta Connect 2025, my recommendation is to wait and see what Meta will unveil and how much better they might be over Ray-Ban’s current offerings. For now, let’s go over the potential differences based on what we know to help you make a decision now.

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Inspecting the inside of transparent Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with transitions lenses before putting them on — (Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3) are expected to come in two main varieties: sunglasses and prescription glasses. The currently available Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are offered in three different traditional Ray-Ban styles, each with a selection of colors and lens types. However, Meta is unable to offer all types of prescriptions due to the frame styles.

Separating prescription and sunglasses styles would likely allow these prescription glasses users to utilize the new generation of smart glasses. If you’ve already taken a look at the available prescription options for Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and can’t get what you need, you should definitely wait and see what’s available with the new rumored style options.

two pairs of rumored Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — (Image credit: XR Research Institute via UploadVR)

Folks who are looking to primarily take photos or videos with their smart glasses should also wait to see what upgrades Meta will deliver with the camera on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3). The recently released Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses offer a notable camera upgrade for folks recording active video. If you plan to take your smart glasses out for a run, hike, or even while playing sports, waiting for a potential camera upgrade is a good option.

That’s because the higher-resolution camera allows Meta to offer better image stabilization, keeping the video jitter-free and bump-free, almost no matter what you do. We don’t expect any other camera upgrades over what Meta just delivered with Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses, though, but Meta could always surprise us with AI super resolution or something.

Speaking of Meta AI, we’re expecting a big upgrade for Meta AI on all of the company’s upcoming smart glasses. That should include Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3), as it’s likely the company will include a new chipset that’s able to do even more than the two-year-old chipset in the current Ray-Ban Meta product.

This upgraded Meta AI is said to be able to provide longer interaction sessions, including additional live AI time with recording storage. Meta AI will be able to pull up data from your personal recordings on request, helping you remember where you left your car keys, the coffee mug, or even someone’s name whom you previously addressed.

Google’s upcoming Android XR-powered smart glasses are also able to perform these functions, and we fully expect any competing Meta smart glasses to be able to do it, too.

What about the price?

Transparent Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with transitions lenses next to the glasses charging case and the Meta AI app — (Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Of course, any upgrade discussion isn’t complete without a price. While there are currently no rumors regarding the price of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3), we don’t expect Meta to launch them at a wildly different price range than what’s currently available.

At the most, they’ll probably retail for $400-500, just like Oakley Meta HSTN. Meta Hypernova, the other, more advanced smart glasses that we expect to see unveiled at Meta Connect, are rumored to retail for $800, and there’s no expectation that Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Gen 3) will cost anywhere near that price since they aren’t expected to feature any display technology like the Hypernova.

Still, there’s a high chance that they could be more expensive than the $250-300 price tag you would spend on the current Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, but we’ll have to wait and see. At the least, if Meta does release its new smart glasses before the end of the year, you could always pick up a discounted pair of Gen 2s during this year’s Black Friday sales in November.

A render of four different styles of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses stacked atop one another in a white void.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Style meets intelligence with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses! Pick the style you love and get Meta AI-powered smarts, a great first-person camera, Bluetooth speakers, and a nifty charging case that’ll keep your glasses topped up all day long.

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The long history of Gen Alpha’s favorite photo pose https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-long-history-of-gen-alphas-favorite-photo-pose/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-long-history-of-gen-alphas-favorite-photo-pose/#respond Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:00:31 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/the-long-history-of-gen-alphas-favorite-photo-pose/

This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions.

My kids were posing for a picture the other day when the older one, like big siblings since time immemorial, threw up a pair of bunny ears behind his little brother’s head.

“That’s not nice,” I told my older kid. He looked at me blankly.

“What?” he said. “It’s just a peace sign.”

I believe him. For at least a year, the peace sign has been my kid’s go-to photo pose. First day of school? Peace sign. Birthday party? Peace sign. Showing off the robot he made out of Legos? Peace sign, obviously. (By contrast, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen him do bunny ears, a common way for kids in my generation to lightly prank one another.)

It’s not just him. Every time his class takes a picture, it’s absolutely prickling with peace signs. An informal poll of kids and parents suggests the practice is widespread. “Everyone does it,” Rhodes, 5, told me. “I started doing it when I was in mid-to-late elementary school,” 17-year-old Allison said by email. Kate Ellen, a mom in the UK said her daughters, 9 and 5, and their friends all pose with the gesture.

The peace sign, or V-sign, is nearly a century old, and has been part of the American cultural lexicon for decades. But the gesture feels more ubiquitous now than in decades past, and it means something new to this generation of kids — even if that meaning is, sometimes, nothing at all.

The origin of the peace sign

The contemporary V-sign — two fingers, palm toward the viewer — originated during World War II as a symbol of victory over Nazism (the V-sign with the palm oriented toward the signer is an older, ruder gesture, whose origins are unclear). Later, in the 1960s, American activists began using it to signify opposition to the Vietnam War.

The repurposing of the gesture was part of a larger movement, said Julia Fell, curator of exhibits at the Museum of Bethel Woods on the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival. “During the 1960s, other cultural expressions, such as clothing, that were associated with the military/war were sometimes turned on their heads by counter culturalists in protest (think army fatigues styled with long hair and adorned with scarves or buttons and patches, a la Country Joe McDonald at Woodstock),” Fell told me by email.

Thus the gesture that had once meant victory came to signify peace (with a bit of a detour thanks to Richard Nixon). Over time, though, the peace sign became more general in its meaning. By the time I was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, it could be a greeting or goodbye, or a way to lend some added character to ubiquitous “hippie” Halloween costumes (other accessories included Lennon glasses, headband, tie-dye). It was not, however, at least in my memory, a go-to photo pose — at least not in the way it is for my kid.

So what’s driving the rise of the peace sign among Gen Z and Gen Alpha? One possible answer is the influence of Japanese pop culture, especially anime.

The peace sign began spreading in Japan as early as the 1970s, potentially popularized by a camera commercial. Japanese young people started using the peace sign in photos, and anime characters started flashing it too.

Today, the gesture often shows up in shonen-style anime shows, when a character celebrates a victory in a battle or tournament, Nicholas Friedman, publisher of Crunchyroll News and host of the podcast The Anime Effect, told me.

This seems closer to the sign’s original meaning. But it’s also common in a more peaceful context. In slice-of-life or romantic comedy anime shows, “people are just hanging out, they’re taking selfies, they’re in photo booths, and they’re throwing up the peace sign,” Friedman said. Especially in the latter context, “it’s often related to the cute or kawaii culture within anime.”

There’s even a Pokémon, Victini, who is essentially a living peace sign.

Anime has been popular for decades, but in some ways, it’s more interwoven into kids’ lives now than in the past. While millennials might have watched Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh on Saturday mornings, kids today are “discovering anime through word of mouth or social media or clips on TikTok,” Friedman said. They have access to thousands of shows rather than one or two. And a lot of the social media trends that form a big part of youth culture today come from anime.

Kawaii aesthetics, especially, are ubiquitous in American kid culture, from stuffies to coloring books. Characters outside anime — on Disney+ shows, for example — now routinely flash huge, dewy, kawaii-style eyes to express sorrow or love.

The popularity of the peace sign is, at the very least, linked to the larger cultural dominance of kawaii. People do it in photos because “they want to look cute,” Rhodes told me.

Why kids need the peace sign now

In talking to both kids and adults, however, I’ve come to believe there’s another force at play: Kids do the peace sign in photos because, more so than in generations past, they need something to do in photos.

“It just feels more natural than keeping your hands at your sides,” Allison told me. “It also makes the photo a little more interesting to look at, particularly if you’re the main subject.”

Whether because Gen Alpha are too pure to make fun of each other, or because it was never that funny in the first place, the bunny-ears gesture may be over.

Ellen, the UK mom, says her kids told her that no one really knows what the peace sign means, and that “it’s just a pose, like for pictures.” In my experience, the gesture is at least as ubiquitous as saying “cheese,” if not more so.

The process of cultural signifiers losing their specific meaning is a common one in recent years, Friedman told me. While millennials might have thought a lot about their use of gestures or other trends, Gen Z and Gen Alpha “just kind of do it.”

Some of that may be philosophical — an anti-overthinking, it’s-not-that-deep approach. But some of it is also almost certainly aesthetic: Kids are just photographed far more than they were in the ’80s and ’90s, they see photographs of themselves far more, and they’re growing up in a culture that thinks strategically about how to pose in pictures. It’s not odd that they would embrace a particular gesture that’s associated with cuteness — and that, as a bonus, gives them something to do with their hands.

My kid may soon have more options than the standard peace sign. Allison recently completed an exchange trip to Japan, and noted that “the gyaru peace sign, which is named after a popular fashion subculture, has the palm facing up and the fingers pointing out,” and that “a sideways peace sign with the eye framed between the fingers is also popular.”

Meanwhile, whether because Gen Alpha are too pure to make fun of each other, or because it was never that funny in the first place, the bunny-ears gesture may be over. When I asked Rhodes about it, he had no idea what I was talking about.

Dozens of children were already on planes on Sunday night when a judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting them to Guatemala — at least for now.

“AI has transformed my experience of education,” high school senior Ashanty Rosario writes at The Atlantic, adding that “these programs have destroyed much of what tied us together as students.”

A New York City program closes certain streets to car traffic during the summer, and 9-year-old New Yorker Julian M. wrote an op-ed about the joy of being able to bike down the street on his own. “When I got home, I felt pretty happy, like I accomplished something,” he says.

My little kid is currently obsessed with Too Busy Marco, a picture book by genius cartoonist Roz Chast in which a small bird simply cannot go to bed until he has invented invisibility gum, painted a masterpiece underwater, and launched a career as a professional bowler. This is relatable for my child because he cannot go to bed until he has yelled about a lot of things.

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56740

Gen Z Hides AI Use at Work, Fearing It Will Cost Them Their Jobs https://earlybirdsinvest.com/gen-z-hides-ai-use-at-work-fearing-it-will-cost-them-their-jobs/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/gen-z-hides-ai-use-at-work-fearing-it-will-cost-them-their-jobs/#respond Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:53:25 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/gen-z-hides-ai-use-at-work-fearing-it-will-cost-them-their-jobs/

A recent report from Cox Business reveals that younger employees are quietly using artificial intelligence (AI) at work, often without telling their managers.

The study, which surveyed over 1,000 millennial and Gen Z workers in the US, found that nearly half of them rely on artificial intelligence to help complete daily tasks.

These include summarizing meeting notes, drafting ideas, analyzing data, generating reports, and writing or debugging code. However, 47% admitted they hesitate to share how much they depend on AI, mainly because they worry it could put their jobs at risk.

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Another reason for the silence is a lack of clear direction. About 30% of respondents said they either do not know their company’s rules around AI or believe there are none.

The report also points out that more than 60% of younger workers use personal tools and apps for work instead of sticking with the ones officially approved by their company.

At the same time, nearly 70% said they are overwhelmed by all the tech they are expected to use, while just 16% feel they have any real say in how those tools are chosen.

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Jeff Breaux, executive vice president at Cox Communications, said the findings offer businesses insight into how younger employees view technology in the workplace. He noted that companies have an opportunity to improve their approach to tech planning, training, and investment so that it better fits the needs of their future workforce.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk recently confirmed that Tesla has shut down its Dojo AI project. Why? Read the full story.

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MEXC finds that 67% of Gen Z crypto traders use AI tools, resulting in fewer panic sells https://earlybirdsinvest.com/mexc-finds-that-67-of-gen-z-crypto-traders-use-ai-tools-resulting-in-fewer-panic-sells/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/mexc-finds-that-67-of-gen-z-crypto-traders-use-ai-tools-resulting-in-fewer-panic-sells/#respond Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:39:25 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/mexc-finds-that-67-of-gen-z-crypto-traders-use-ai-tools-resulting-in-fewer-panic-sells/

A growing majority of Gen Z crypto traders are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to guide their strategies and it’s making them less prone to panic selling.

According to a July 24 report from MEXC Research, which analyzed over 780,000 Gen Z trading accounts in the second quarter, found that 67% of users aged 18 to 27 had deployed at least one AI-powered bot or strategy in the past 90 days.

Traders using AI-driven tools recorded 47% fewer panic-sell incidents during periods of market stress compared to those trading manually.

A tactical ‘on–off’ relationship

Gen Z’s engagement with AI isn’t passive. The cohort averaged 11.4 days per month using AI tools, which is more than double users over 30. Furthermore, they accounted for 60% of all AI bot activations on the exchange.

Yet, they don’t leave bots running indefinitely, as 73% switched them on during volatility or news spikes and turned them off during low-volume, sideways markets. Overall, 58% of Gen Z AI interactions occurred during periods of elevated readings on MEXC’s internal volatility index.

This behavior points to fluid control rather than full delegation. Gen Z configures conditions and lets automation execute when emotions are most likely to interfere. They also check AI-generated signals 2.4 times more often than traditional indicators, suggesting they view machine output as the primary decision feed in fast markets.=

Generational differences

MEXC’s data indicates that AI is serving as both a risk-management layer and a convenience feature. Gen Z traders using bots were 1.9x less likely to trade reactively in the first three minutes of major events, a window that MEXC flags as prone to costly errors.

They were also 2.4x more likely to employ structured stop-loss and take-profit rules, reinforcing that automation is being used to maintain absolute boundaries, not just identify entries.

Cross-generational comparisons reveal that millennials continue to lean toward thesis-driven, chart- and report-heavy workflows, treating AI as a supplement to pre-set strategies.

Only 22% of millennials and 7% of Gen X reported turning to AI during high-volatility windows, versus Gen Z’s 73%.

Psychologically, millennials seek a sense of persistent manual control. Gen Z toggles autonomy based on stress, noise, and attention bandwidth, a pattern mirroring those seen in gaming and social platforms.

MEXC projects that by 2028, more than 80% of Gen Z traders will rely on AI for full-cycle portfolio management, from dynamic rebalancing to tax automation.

That demand aligns with broader forecasts, putting the AI trading platform market at nearly $70 billion by 2034, growing over 20% CAGR from 2025 to 2034.

Mentioned in this article

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49547

Crypto Goes Mainstream in South Korea, Especially for Gen X https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-goes-mainstream-in-south-korea-especially-for-gen-x/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-goes-mainstream-in-south-korea-especially-for-gen-x/#respond Tue, 01 Jul 2025 04:14:58 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-goes-mainstream-in-south-korea-especially-for-gen-x/

A new report from the Hana Institute of Finance has shown that digital assets have become a common part of personal finances in South Korea.

Among people aged 20 to 50, around 27% now hold some form of cryptocurrency. On average, these assets make up 14% of their total financial holdings.

The report found that people in their 40s were the most involved. About 31% of them owned crypto, followed by 28% of people in their 30s and 25% in their 50s.

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Many in their 50s reported investing for long-term goals, 78% said they were building funds, and more than half were planning for retirement.

Most investors were motivated by a mix of reasons. Many said they saw crypto as a way to grow their money, spread out their risk, and follow a savings plan.

Seven in ten said they were likely to increase their crypto holdings. For 42% of them, stronger involvement from regular banks would increase their confidence. Only 35% said legal protections were a top concern.

People’s habits around investing are also shifting. More users buy crypto regularly, with that group growing from 10% to 34%. Mid-term holding periods also went up, from 26% to 47%. Meanwhile, short-term trades became a bit less common.

The way people obtain information is also changing. Fewer rely on advice from friends or online forums. Instead, they use official exchange sites and data tools to make decisions.

Furthermore, six out of ten crypto investors include Bitcoin
BTC

$107,113.87

in their portfolio. However, as users gain experience, they tend to branch out into other digital currencies, such as altcoins or stablecoins.

Recently, a report by Gemini

$238.92M

and Glassnode revealed that centralized treasuries hold 30.9% of all Bitcoin in circulation. What did the report say? Read the full story.

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45086

Millions of Gen Z are jobless – are useless university degrees to blame? https://earlybirdsinvest.com/millions-of-gen-z-are-jobless-are-useless-university-degrees-to-blame/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/millions-of-gen-z-are-jobless-are-useless-university-degrees-to-blame/#respond Thu, 27 Mar 2025 13:12:19 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/millions-of-gen-z-are-jobless-are-useless-university-degrees-to-blame/

In a nutshell: Generation Z, typically defined as those born between 1997 and 2012 (give or take), is a group struggling to find jobs. Statistics show that over 4 million people in this demographic are not in school, training, or work in the US. And while many blame laziness or selectiveness, some experts say the fault lies with universities that offer worthless degrees.

It’s estimated that more than 4.3 million young people in the US are classified as NEETs – not in employment, education, or training. The UK is facing a similar situation, where 100,000 more Gen Zs found themselves in this category last year alone.

Worldwide, about a fifth of people aged between 15 and 24 in 2023 are currently NEETs.

In the UK, political commentator, broadcaster, and author Peter Hitchens said much of the blame should be placed on universities offering worthless degrees.

Hitchens said that Gen Z would have been better off becoming apprentices to plumbers or electricians than doing these types of courses.

To find which degrees are less likely to lead to good jobs, or any employment, Georgetown University analyzed wages for 137 college majors. It found that at the entry level, health majors earn $41,000 annually. At the other end of the scale, humanities and liberal arts majors earn $29,000 annually.

Health-related degrees seem like an even better choice these days. Because of generative AI, computing and coding degrees aren’t the guarantee of a lucrative career that they used to be, and it’s expected that over a million new jobs will be created among home health aides, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners across the next decade. Nurse practitioner is the third-fastest-growing job in the US, with a median annual pay of over $126,260 in 2023.

Some of the degrees less likely to lead to a well-paid job include Ethnic and Gender Studies, Music/Performance Arts, Art History, Fashion Design, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Photography, Sociology, English Literature, Communications, History, Anthropology, Liberal Arts, and Culinary Arts.

It’s not just degrees with less obvious career paths that are having an impact on Gen Z’s job prospects. AI is having a big effect, and the rising costs of everyday goods are pricing some young people out of work, leaving them unable to afford transport, commuting, or other essentials.

There’s the other argument, of course. Some claim many Gen Zers refuse to take jobs that they consider beneath them, or expect to walk straight into a well-paid position rather than working their way up from the bottom.

Masthead: Yunus Tuğ

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27508

Why Gen X women are having the best sex of their lives https://earlybirdsinvest.com/why-gen-x-women-are-having-the-best-sex-of-their-lives/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/why-gen-x-women-are-having-the-best-sex-of-their-lives/#respond Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:36:31 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/why-gen-x-women-are-having-the-best-sex-of-their-lives/

If you’ve read the news lately, you’ve probably heard that Americans may be in the middle of a sex recession. But at least one demographic of people are having the best sex of their lives: Gen X women. At least that’s the argument writer Mireille Silcoff makes in her most recent piece in the New York Times magazine.

In it, she explores her own middle-aged sexual awakening. “I was trying to explain a moment that I was really seeing everywhere,” she told Vox. Between her own life, her friends’ experiences, and the portrayals in pop culture that were popping up everywhere, she sensed a trend emerging. “There seems to be something new in the air having to do with 50-year-old women, their bodies, sex, and relationships.”

So what is in the air right now? And what’s behind these later-in-life sexual revelations? We talked to Silfcoff to find out exactly what’s going on here in this week’s episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in show. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to Explain It to Me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@vox.com or call 1-800-618-8545.

What prompted you to write about this in the first place?

I split up from my ex in my late 40s, after a very long relationship of 21 years. When I came out of it, I just thought that what lay ahead of me would be a pretty spinster-ish existence. I was really, really sick for a long time in my adulthood, and my marriage was very long and there were two children. I just felt like, “Well, who is going to want this bag of problems? Now I’m 50.” Life is going to be orange pekoe tea, Masterpiece Theater, taking care of my kids, and hopefully remobilizing my writing, and that’s it. And then instead what happened was I had a lot of wonderful new relationships with a lot of wonderful men and the kind of sex that I don’t think I had even had in my 20s: a total new world of openness, exploration, interest, comfort in myself, self-knowledge and even, I daresay, wisdom. It felt revelatory.

And at first, I felt like this was my weird, cool story. But then, as stuff started coming out of the culture, some of my other friends divorced and had similar situations to mine, I realized that what I had been doing or what I had experienced post-marriage was really part of a much larger cultural story that might ring true for many women in America and beyond today.

What do you think the factors are in this mid-life sexual revitalization?

The women who are middle-aged now are — for the most part — Gen X. You’re starting to get some millennial middle-aged people as well. And Gen X women had a really interesting formative experience when it comes to sex in the 90s. Divorce is also happening later than ever.

Divorce and sexual exploration for women is a very old story: You get divorced and suddenly find a little piece of yourself sexually. I feel like that’s kind of a big part of the story as well. So women having a bit of this sexual rediscovery later and finding when they’re 47 or 55 that desire is still there, that sexual function is still there, that — thanks to the amazing strides that Gen Z and millennials have made opening up what’s acceptable sexually — acceptance is still there.

So Gen X women are more comfortable in their bodies. They may be more into figuring out kinks and things like that. Why do you think this is happening with Gen X women in particular? Why is this generation so different from boomers?

Boomers were constricted by a lot of societal norms that were, for lack of a better way of putting it, very mid-century. There was an open attitude toward sex, and free love was a boomer construct. But what happened with all of that stuff is that when all of those ideas really came to roost in the late ’80s and the early ’90s — when women were suddenly working but men were still the bosses — it created a tough situation for the people who inherited that very open sexual culture.

I see Gen X as being a generation of women who really were plunked into an extremely sexualized landscape and were needing to fend for themselves. There wasn’t a lot of support for how to navigate bosses who were sexually predatory. There weren’t a lot of roadmaps for how to have sex or how to be a sexual person. That was both good and bad, because, for instance, many women didn’t experience orgasms because they just couldn’t figure out how and their male partners couldn’t figure out how so it just didn’t happen. I feel like that wouldn’t happen now. You’ve got things like OMG Yes, which is a website where you can find out how to have a female orgasm. It’s a much more open environment now in order to find out about sex. But at the same time among the younger generations, there is a bit of a cliff that’s happened with sexual frequency.

I want to talk about that a little bit. There are so many conversations right now about how young people are having less and less sex. It seems like there’s a backlash to sex positivity. Do you think millennials and Gen Z women take these sexual freedoms for granted?

You do take it for granted, as you should. The parents create the situation, and the young people take it for granted.

I think that the culture has basically conspired in every way imaginable against intimacy, against having an open and easy sexuality, against relationships. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you really see the sexual drop off starting to happen in the same years that the iPhone was introduced. It’s in the same years that social media really got going.

“The culture has basically conspired in every way imaginable against intimacy, against having an open and easy sexuality, against relationships.”

People go out less, they hang out less. They do things together less in weird spaces where things can get weird. There was a lot more natural weirdness back in the day. And natural weirdness can lead to intimate moments which can lead to sex. I just feel like there’s a certain cleanliness of experience in the culture right now where people are so afraid to intermingle in those old ways. It has had a big effect on people’s ability to hook up or have casual sex or go from one boyfriend to another to another until you find one that you like. In some ways, I think it’s wonderful for middle-aged people who already had that socialization.

What do you hope for middle-aged women moving forward? Especially when it comes to sex, desire, and relationships?

Now is the time for them to seize the moment, to see that we are living in an era where a number of factors have come together in a perfect storm to create a truly interesting, generative, wonderful, and joyful possibility for women to be sexual at the age of 50. I want women to know that it is fleeting because things don’t last forever. What I would love to see is women who are able to indulge in this moment, whether they are married, whether they’re not married. If you’re not married, go out there and have confidence that there are people that want you, that there are people that are interested in you. And for women who aren’t into having sex, or who can’t have a very active sex life at the age of 50 to still bask in the glory of the fact that for the first time in, I would say, all of humanity, the middle-aged female body has grown important.

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Best iPad (A16) and iPad (10th gen) deals March 2025 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/best-ipad-a16-and-ipad-10th-gen-deals-march-2025/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/best-ipad-a16-and-ipad-10th-gen-deals-march-2025/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:49:22 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/best-ipad-a16-and-ipad-10th-gen-deals-march-2025/

Apple sells four kinds of iPad: the iPad Pro; the iPad Air; the iPad mini; and the standard, cheapest iPad. In this roundup, we’ve got all the best deals on Apple’s cheapest iPad, which is currently the iPad A16 model introduced in March 2025.

The 2025 A16 iPad is the 11th-generation model, replacing the 2022 iPad (10th generation) which ran on an A14 chip. The main selling point of the 2025 iPad is that it has double the storage at the entry level, so it’s a better deal than ever.

The processor has leapt from the A14 to A16, which might sound good, but this is also the main disadvantage of the 2025 iPad. The A16 is not compatible with Apple Intelligence, the new AI features Apple is making quite a fuss about.

It will be a while before you can get money off the A16 iPad, which goes on sale on March 12, but you can save money on an older iPad, which isn’t all that different to the new one. Just beware that the older model had half the storage for the same price, so the deal will have to take that into account to be worth it. For that reason we will be clear about what the newer model would cost when listing the deals on the older model below.

We’ve checked all the best places to pick up the iPad at the best price for you so that you can get a bargain.

If you’d like to see the best prices for the standard iPad’s more expensive siblings, including iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad Pro, click those links for dedicated deals roundups. Also, have a look at our iPad buying buide if you’re not sure which model you want. You may also like to read our best iPad for kids, best iPad for students, and best iPad for seniors guides. You can also check out our roundup of the best Apple deals.

How to buy an iPad A16

If you want to pre-order the iPad from Apple you can do so now. However, if you wait until March 12, when the iPad Air becomes available from other resellers including Amazon, you may find that there are slight discounts. For example, if you are shopping from the U.K. KRCS usually knocks a few pounds off Apple’s price at launch.

Best standard iPad deals right now

The main difference between the 2025 iPad and the 2022 iPad is that you will get more storage for your money with the newer models. The entry-level 2022 iPad had 64GB storage, while the 2025 iPad has double that storage for the same price. So is is crucial to keep that in mind if you are concidering buying a 10th-gen iPad, or you risk spending more on an older iPad.

We will include any good deals on the older iPad models below.

U.S.

These U.S. deals are not recommended, we share them to demontrate what should be avoided.

Amazon, 10th gen iPad (64GB): $319 – The 2025 iPad (128GB) costs $349 so spend $30 more to get the new iPad.
Amazon, 10th-gen iPad (256GB): $429 – The 2025 iPad (256GB) costs $449 so spend $20 more to get the new iPad.

U.K.

Amazon, 10th-gen iPad (2022, 256GB): £379 (£100 off, RRP was £479–Clearance. Note that the 256GB version of the 2025 iPad costs £429 so it may be worth spending extra for the newer model.)
Argos, 9th-gen iPad (2021, 64GB): £289 (£80 off, RRP was £369–Clearance)

Check below to see other deals that are available, including the cellular models.

Best deals for the iPad (2025, A16)

Below you will find the the best prices at various resellers once the iPad goes on sale on March 12.

iPad (A16, 128GB, Wi-Fi): $349/£329

$349

Discontinued iPads

You may find older iPads on sale, just make sure you compare the price to that of the 2025 iPad.

The 10th-gen iPad, with its larger 10.9-inch display, launched in October 2022.

10th-gen iPad (A14, 64GB, Wi-Fi): $349/£329

$269

$269

$295

$296

$349

$349.99

iPad 10.9 (2022) 64GB – Blue – (Wi-Fi)

$265

iPad 10.9 (2022) 64GB – Silver – (Wi-Fi)

$299.99

10th-gen iPad (A14, 256GB, Wi-Fi): $499/£479

$399

$429

$429

$479

$499

$499.99

iPad 10.9 (2022) 256GB – Yellow – (Wi-Fi)

$394.57

iPad 10.9 (2022) 256GB – Silver – (Wi-Fi)

$399

iPad 10.9 (2022) 256GB – Blue – (Wi-Fi)

$429

9th-gen iPad (A13, 64GB, Wi-Fi): MSRP was $329/£369 (now discontinued)

$258

$269.99

$289.99

$298.95

$329.99

iPad 10.2 (2021) 64GB – Space Gray – (Wi-Fi)

$179

iPad 10.2 (2021) 64GB – Silver – (Wi-Fi)

$204.84

9th-gen iPad (A13, 256GB, Wi-Fi): MSRP was $479/£549 (now discontinued)

$299

$399.99

$449

$459.99

$464

$479.99

iPad 10.2 (2021) 64GB – Space Gray – (Wi-Fi + 4G)

$178

iPad 10.2 (2021) 64GB – Silver – (Wi-Fi + 4G)

$229

iPad 10.2 (2021) 256GB – Space Gray – (Wi-Fi)

$264

iPad 10.2 (2021) 256GB – Silver – (Wi-Fi)

$272.81

$319.99

Where to buy the iPad

U.S. retailers

U.K. retailers

Apple has a number of Apple Premium Resellers who stock iPads in the U.K., and also offer other services, try the following:

Where to buy the iPad on contract

If you want to buy the iPad on contract you could try these networks:

U.S. network carriers

U.K. network carriers

Best refurbished iPad deals

The deals you will see above are generally from Apple resellers rather than Apple itself, which very rarely drops the prices. Apple does, however, sell reconditioned iPads in its refurbished store. So you might be able to grab a bargain.

The iPads in Apple’s refurbished store may be ex-display stock, or they may have been returned to Apple due to a fault, but they are fully reconditioned now and come with a full year’s warranty. It’s not like buying secondhand.

The U.S. refurbished store has a selection that includes:

Standard iPad (8th and 9th generation)
iPad Air (4th generation)
11-inch iPad Pro (2nd and 3rd generation)
12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th and 5th generation)
iPad mini (5th and 6th generation)

Compared to the original price, you can save as much as $320 on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

In the U.K. you’ll find a similar selection of iPads available from Apple’s refurbished store. You’ll find the following:

Standard iPad (9th generation)
iPad Air (4th generation)
11-inch iPad Pro (2nd and 3rd generation)
12.9-inch iPad Pro (5th generation)
iPad mini (5th and 6th generation)

There are savings of £480 on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, compared to the original price.

Another place to look is BackMarket US and BackMarket UK, which sells refurbished Macs and other Apple products. Amazon also has a certified refurbished store for Apple products, but we would advise against buying any products that are older than five years. Most of the products we see on the Amazon refurbished store are unfortunately very old.

There is a large refurbished market for the iPad. We’d recommend taking a look at these refurbished resellers for iPad offers:

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Best deals for the iPad (2025, A16)

iPad (A16, 128GB, Wi-Fi): $349/£329

10th-gen iPad (A14, 64GB, Wi-Fi): $349/£329

10th-gen iPad (A14, 256GB, Wi-Fi): $499/£479

9th-gen iPad (A13, 64GB, Wi-Fi): MSRP was $329/£369 (now discontinued)

9th-gen iPad (A13, 256GB, Wi-Fi): MSRP was $479/£549 (now discontinued)

Where to buy the iPad

Where to buy the iPad on contract

Best refurbished iPad deals