There’s more good stuff to watch than ever — if you can afford it. | Image: Amazon Death. Taxes. All your streaming services getting a little more expensive all the time. These are the new certainties in life, it seems.Netflix has raised the cost of its subscription repeatedly in recent years. Disney Plus, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, Peacock — practically any service you can name — charges more per month than it did a few years ago, and many of them have introduced ad breaks. As customers cancel cable more quickly than anyone expected, the studios and distributors are looking for a way to make up the lost revenue. Good shows, live sports, and movies are more in demand — and thus more expensive — than ever. And after a decade of spending money like it was going out of style because all investors cared about were subscriber numbers, companies are looking for any way they can to improve their bottom line. They’re cracking down on password sharing, canceling shows for the tax breaks, and even selling prized content to other platforms. But the most common strategy is simply to charge you, the viewer, more. We’re tracking all the price increases and other changes from streaming services so you can make sure you’re only paying for what you want. (We’ll also include discounts and deals, though those seem to happen less and less.) Here’s the latest: Netflix is raising prices again Amazon Prime Video nearly doubles the price to go ad-free and stream 4K video Crunchyroll is raising prices again Paramount Plus is getting a price hike in early 2026 HBO Max is raising prices for the third year in a row Apple TV Plus is getting more expensive and will cost $12.99 per month Roku’s new ad-free video service only costs $2.99 per month Peacock is raising its prices by $3 Max’s password sharing crackdown is about to get serious. Max is going to make you pay for people you share your password with Plex Pass is going up in price — and now you’ll need it for remote playback Max’s ad-supported tier is losing CNN and the Bleacher Report Amazon Music Unlimited is getting a price hike Netflix won the streaming wars, and we’re all about to pay for it Fubo’s cheapest streaming plan is now $85 per month Amazon’s push to make Prime Video profitable. Remember when Netflix was just $7.99? Netflix is raising prices again, as the standard plan goes up to $17.99 Discovery Plus is raising its prices YouTube TV is letting some subscribers hold off that price hike Sling TV’s streaming TV price goes up by $5.99 next month GeForce Now Founders won’t be subject to Nvidia’s upcoming 100-hour-a-month data cap. YouTube Premium subscribers are reporting price hikes around the globe Disney’s password-sharing crackdown starts ‘in earnest’ this September The price of Disney Plus is about to go up Paramount Plus is getting yet another price hike Max raises prices across its ad-free plans A Disney, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle is on the way Max price hike incoming. Peacock is getting a $2 price increase Netflix is all about the money, not the members What’s up with all the streaming price hikes? The Disney Plus password-sharing crackdown starts in June In 2023, everyone was shopping around on streaming services. Nvidia’s free-tier GeForce Now will soon show ads while you’re waiting to play Netflix confirms it’s cutting off Apple billing for legacy subscribers Amazon Prime Video drops Dolby Vision and Atmos unless you pay extra Funimation is shutting down — and taking your digital library with it Disney Plus will start its password-sharing crackdown this summer Reminder: Amazon Prime Video is getting ads today Netflix is turning into cable TV Netflix is going to take away its cheapest ad-free plan Fubo subscriptions are going up in price. Prime members can now “pre-order” the ad-free version of Prime Video before it goes live on January 29th. Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers That’s one pricey subscription Apple TV Plus is getting a price hike — and other Apple subscriptions are, too Here comes another Netflix price hike Nvidia is raising the price of GeForce Now, but not in the US The ad-free version of Discovery Plus is getting a price hike Netflix is planning to raise prices… again AMC Plus is getting an ad-supported subscription tier Disney, Hulu, and Paramount Plus are all discounted for a limited time You can get three months of Disney Plus for about $6 right now Starz is lowering the price of its annual subscription, unlike everyone else It’s time to rethink our relationships with streaming services Disney Plus and Hulu are about to get even more expensive Peacock adds just 2 million subscribers ahead of price hike Peacock’s prices are going up in August Paramount Plus will raise its prices next month Max is charging more money for 4K, and that means it can’t suck this time This is why streaming Netflix, Disney Plus, and HBO Max keeps getting more expensive Disney Plus and Hulu are getting steep price hikes Why Netflix keeps cranking up its prices

OpenAI ​has paused plans to release a sexualized "adult mode" for ChatGPT, in its latest move to refocus on the company's core ​products. According to The Financial Times, the erotic chatbot has been shelved "indefinitely" after facing pushback from employees and investors due to the problematic and harmful ​effects sexualized AI ​content can have on society.This decision comes in the wake of OpenAI also discontinuing its text-to-video AI platform Sora, citing "internal discussion about our broader research priorities." It's the latest side quest to be dropped by the company after CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" in December, suggestin …Read the full story at The Verge.

Netflix's prices just went up, with its cheapest, ad-supported tier now reaching $8.99 / month (up from $7.99 / month), according to an updated support page spotted earlier by Android Authority. The standard and premium plans are also getting a hike, going from $17.99 to $19.99 / month and $24.99 to $26.99 / month, respectively.The streaming giant last raised its prices in January 2025 and has made several updates to its platform since then, including launching video podcasts, continuing a push into live events, rolling out new TV games, and revamping its interface on both its TV app and mobile. It also nearly acquired the Warner Bros. stu …Read the full story at The Verge.

I was doing a routine network audit last month to trim unwanted devices from my router, and I noticed something odd. Besides the phones, computers, smart TV, and smart speakers, the list carried several ESP32 devices in the kitchen, front door, living room, bedroom, and other locations.

The more time you spend working on a computer, the more you realize some tasks are repeated ad nauseam and take up valuable chunks of time. That can add up, and tools for scripting and automating processes are designed to help address this, but there's one kind of tool that doesn't get enough credit: clipboard managers.

When Nvidia unveiled DLSS 5 to the world at GTC 2026, the internet was set ablaze. It was difficult to find a positive take on the technology, with sentiment among gamers almost universally negative towards what they would call an "AI-slop filter for games."

Uber is joining forces with two companies, China's Pony AI and Croatia's Verne, to launch what it claims will be Europe's first commercially available robotaxi service. The vehicles are already being tested in Zagreb, Croatia, where Verne is headquartered, and will soon be available to customers on Uber's ridehail network. The announcement is the latest move by Uber to shield itself from the financial blowback of robotaxis potentially overtaking the traditional ridehail business. The company has allied itself with dozens of autonomous vehicle developers over the past year in an attempt to persuade investors that it can survive the impendin …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Avata 360 looks a lot like the previous Avata 2. DJI's Avata 360 finds the company at an odd time. For one, it's been beaten to the punch - upstart Antigravity's A1 became the first 360-degree drone when it launched last December, and DJI is playing catchup. But this is also the last DJI drone you may ever be able to legally buy in the US, in the wake of the FCC's de facto ban, and even then it won't actually see an official release in the country.It means that if you're in the US, the Antigravity A1 remains the best (and only) option for a flying 360-degree camera. But in the rest of the world, the Avata 360 makes a good case for itself: it's faster than the A1, doubles as both a 360 dr …Read the full story at The Verge.

My home network setup has been the most permanent of temporary solutions, but that's about to end. However, I'm not going to a combo router like one of my colleagues; instead, I'm splitting everything up into dedicated network appliances. My mesh system is being retired, and in its place is a shiny network rack, with a router, switches, backup power, and wired access points throughout the house.

Buying a high-end graphics card is never easy for most of us. It's a significant investment that may even force you to upgrade other parts of the build to fully use the GPU's potential. After using the RTX 3080 for around three years, I wanted to switch to the RTX 5080 last year. It had launched with an MSRP of $999, which was lower than I had expected, and it promised a considerable performance uplift over my Ampere card. Before I could make the decision, however, the AI-induced DRAM crisis hit us all and sent the prices of RAM, SSDs, and GPUs through the roof. The RTX 5080 that was available for under $1,000 soared to $1,500, and my GPU upgrade plans were shelved. However, I had already saved up for the upgrade, and decided that an OLED gaming monitor would still enhance my gaming experience, possibly even more than a new GPU. I had been using a 1440p 144Hz IPS display for around four years, and desperately wanted to experience gaming on an OLED monitor.

Home Assistant is the backbone of our smart home. It manages everything, allows us to track our energy usage, and interacts with all our smart home hardware. It's brilliant, but depending on how it's configured, Home Assistant can quickly become quite the beast to tame. This is largely due to the dashboard, which can quickly outgrow the single view, especially when you have countless smart home devices and registered entries. Even the Home Assistant developers have attempted to address this issue with recent updates.

When people get into self-hosting, the conversation almost naturally starts at the hardware level. Old office PCs, mini PCs, NAS boxes, rack servers, power-efficient CPUs, and drive capacity are all tangible parts of the hobby, so it makes total sense. They are easy to compare, easy to look at, and a logical starting point.