You can stream the latest season of The Last of Us on Max while saving if you subscribe to an annual plan.So far, 2025 has been a great year for watching new, must-see TV shows and movies on subscription services. But if you, like many of us, have more concurrent subscriptions than you care to admit, you’ll agree that keeping up with the latest each month is expensive. They may not cost as much as most of the tech we cover, but it adds up.If you’re trying to cut down on your expenses, you might be able to do so while holding onto your precious subscriptions. Several services offer ongoing promos, some of which are even available to new and returning subscribers alike. Below, we’ve curated some of the best deals going on right now, so you can enjoy streaming your favorite show or movie for less than it would typically cost you.The best Disney Plus dealsThe best Hulu dealsThe best Peacock dealsThe best Sling TV dealsThe best Apple TV Plus dealsThe best Max dealsThe best Netflix dealsThe best YouTube TV dealsThe best Paramount Plus and Showtime dealsThe best Starz dealsThe best Amazon Prime Video dealsNote: keep an eye out for free trials and student discountsMost streaming services offer free trials that typically last from a week to a month, whether you sign up for an annual membership or just a monthly subscription. However, you will likely have to provide your credit card information in advance, and you will be charged once your trial is over, so make a note in your calendar if you don’t want to be charged.Some streaming platforms offer student discounts. These include Hulu, Paramount Plus, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime, and more. You’ll have to prove your student eligibility through a sign-up form and typically be enrolled in an accredited Title IV college or university to take advantage of these deals.The best Disney Plus dealsWith Disney Plus, you can stream a wide range of shows and movies, including Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Deadpool & Wolverine, Andor, X-Men ‘97, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film. A monthly subscription currently costs $9.99 a month with ads or $15.99 a month without (or $159.99 annually). The $15.99 per month service includes Dolby Atmos sound, as well as the ability to download TV shows and movies on up to 10 devices.For just a dollar more, Disney offers an ad-supported, $10.99-a-month Duo Basic subscription that brings together Disney Plus and Hulu. To enjoy an ad-free experience across both services, the cost is $19.99 per month.There’s also the $16.99-a-month Disney Bundle Trio Basic bundle, which includes the ad-supported Hulu and ESPN Plus (paying $26.99 a month nets you the ad-free version of Hulu and Disney Plus, though ESPN will still have ads). That’s cheaper than subscribing to all three streaming services individually, and is the wisest route to take if you want all three.That being said, there are other ways to save, particularly with carrier promos. Those currently on one of Verizon’s Unlimited plans, for instance, can get Disney Plus Trio Basic with ads for $10 a month instead of $16.99. If you already subscribe to Verizon’s existing Legacy bundle, you can also continue to enjoy ad-free Disney Plus, as well as ad-supported ESPN Plus and Hulu, for $15 per month ($6 off).The best Hulu dealsHulu offers both ad-supported and ad-free plans. No matter which you buy, you’ll be able to access all of Hulu’s TV shows and movies on multiple devices, including originals like The Handmaid’s Tale and Sand Land, as well as other content, like Shogun, The Bear, Futurama, and The Veil. The service also allows two people to stream simultaneously, and you can have up to six user profiles. However, subscribing to the ad-free plan means you won’t have to deal with commercials; You’ll also be able to watch downloads offline.The ad-supported plan currently costs $9.99 per month, while the ad-free plan costs $18.99 a month. Hulu also sells ad-free and ad-supported bundles that include Disney Plus and / or ESPN Plus, which are cheaper than subscribing to each service individually. With the Hulu with Live TV, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus bundle, you’ll be able to access more than 90 live sports, news, and entertainment channels, as well as content from each of the streaming services. You’ll also be able to record live shows with unlimited DVR storage and take advantage of the same features the standard, ad-free, and ad-supported Hulu plans offer. The ad-supported Hulu with Live TV subscription is $82.99 a month, while the ad-free tier is $95.99 a month (though, it’s worth noting that, of the three services included, ESPN Plus will still have ads, even at this tier). Complicated, right?However, if you just want Hulu and don’t need the live TV version, you can subscribe to the ad-supported Disney Bundle Duo Basic, which includes Disney Plus, for $10.99 a month. You can also add ESPN Plus for $16.99 per month, or get rid of ads and add live sports for $26.99 a month.In terms of deals, students can subscribe to the ad-supported version for $1.99 a month or a bundle that combines Spotify Premium, Showtime, and ad-supported Hulu for $5.99 a month. Some wireless carriers are also offering customers discounts when they buy premium phone plans. As mentioned previously, those currently on one of Verizon’s Unlimited plans can get the Disney Plus Trio Basic with ads for $10 per month instead of $16.99. If you already subscribe to Verizon’s Legacy bundle, you can also continue to stream ad-free Disney Plus and ad-supported ESPN Plus / Hulu for $15 a month ($6 off). T-Mobile, meanwhile, is offers complimentary access to Hulu’s ad-supported tier when you maintain a qualifying Go5G Next line. The best Peacock dealsPeacock is NBCUniversal’s streaming service, one that offers next-day programming from NBC (and Bravo). The platform also provides access to live sports programming, including Sunday Night Football and WWE, as well as movies and shows like The Wild Robot, Conclave, Wicked, Oppenheimer, Yellowstone, Teacup, The Office, Saturday Night Live, and Rian Johnson’s Poker Face.The platform currently offers two plans: an ad-supported Peacock Premium tier for $7.99 a month (or $79.99 a year) or the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus tier for $13.99 a month (or $139.99 a year). Only the latter lets you download content for offline viewing.In terms of deals, you can grab a complimentary subscription when you sign up for a year of Instacart Plus ($99 annually or $9.99 a month). You can also get free access if you’re an Xfinity Internet customer with gigabit speeds or a Diamond or Platinum Rewards member.The best Sling TV dealsSling TV is a streaming service that functions as a more affordable alternative to YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV. With it, you can watch a range of streaming services as well as live and on-demand channels — including ESPN, CNN, Fox, NBC, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network — on multiple devices.Sling offers an ad-supported free tier — Sling Freestream — which provides access to more than 500 live channels as well as more than 40,000 on-demand movies and TV shows. The platform also offers three paid plans, all of which come with 50 hours of DVR storage: Sling Blue ($50.99 a month); Sling Orange ($45.99 a month); and Sling Orange and Blue ($65.99 a month). Sling also lets you subscribe to Max as a Blue-tier add-on for a discount (totaling $57.97 per month), or you can buy an ad-free subscription to Max as a standalone service for $16.99 a month. If you’re into sports, you may want to opt for Sling Orange over Blue as it grants access to ESPN channels — but only on one device. Sling Blue, however, offers a number of channels Sling Orange lacks, including Fox News, MSNBC, E!, Discovery, Bravo, and local NBC or Fox affiliates. You can also subscribe to a bundle that includes both Sling Orange and Sling Blue, which offers all the channels featured in the first two plans.Sling is currently offering new customers a 50 percent discount on their first month of Sling Orange, meaning you’ll pay $23 instead of $45.99. The promo also applies to Sling Blue, although it’s slightly more expensive at $25.50, down from $50.99. You can also get one month of Sling Orange and Sling Blue combined for $33 per month instead of $65.99. In addition to 50 percent off your first month, Sling is also offering free unlimited DVR during that period, along with a $5 discount on Paramount Plus with Showtime, AMC Plus, or Starz.The best Apple TV Plus dealsApple TV Plus is a service operated by Apple that offers original shows and movies in 4K HDR, including Ted Lasso, The Studio, The Morning Show, Silo, Severance, Finch, Coda, For All Mankind, and Napoleon. The platform is also the streaming home to Major League Soccer, and currently costs $9.99 a month. There are no ads whatsoever on Apple TV Plus.There are a couple of promos to make note of when it comes to Apple TV Plus. The service currently offers a weeklong free trial for new subscribers, after which you’ll be charged $9.99 a month. You can also get a free three-month subscription when you buy an Apple device, though you’ll have to redeem the offer within 90 days of purchase.Apple TV Plus is also included in the larger Apple One suite of apps. The all-in-one service lets you bundle four other Apple services for a single monthly subscription starting at $19.95 a month. New subscribers will get a free month of Apple TV Plus if they include it as part of their Apple One membership. In addition, eligible individuals who sign up for the student Apple Music subscription, which starts at $5.99 per month, can get Apple Music for 50 percent off with a free Apple TV Plus subscription.As far as carrier deals go, T-Mobile offers discounts on Apple TV Plus, as well as other streaming services. For instance, the wireless carrier is currently offering customers in the US complimentary access to Apple TV Plus when they subscribe to a qualifying Go5G Next line. For Verizon Unlimited customers, the option exists to get Apple One (which includes Apple TV Plus) for $10 per month ($9.95 off) for an individual plan, or $20 for a family plan ($5.95 off).The best Max dealsMax, formerly known as HBO Max, is home to Game of Thrones and its spinoff, House of the Dragon, along with shows and movies like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Dune: Prophecy, The Last of Us, Wonka, Euphoria, Hacks, Scavenger’s Reign, The Batman, Succession, and even content from Discovery Plus.The platform offers an ad-supported tier that costs $9.99 a month and two ad-free plans that start at $16.99 a month. Unlike the ad-supported plan, the standard ad-free tier also lets you download 30 shows or movies for offline viewing. Max also offers a $20.99-a-month Premium plan, which allows you to stream in 4K and supports Dolby Atmos with select content. The latter plan also lets you stream on four devices simultaneously and download a maximum of 100 shows or movies to watch on the go.Max offers an annual subscription and various bundles, both of which are cheaper than subscribing on a monthly basis. The ad-supported plan normally costs $99.99 a year, saving you a modest $19 over the course of 12 months, while subscribing to the annual ad-free base plan for $169.99 saves you $33. You can also save about $41 by subscribing to the annual 4K Premium ad-free plan for $209.99. Lastly, you can opt for the ad-supported bundle — which includes Max, Disney Plus, and Hulu — for $16.99 a month, or pay $13 extra to go ad-free. The total cost is cheaper than subscribing to each of the three individually, saving you money in the long run.Fortunately, the streaming platform is running a promotion, allowing you to save even more on the cost of an annual plan. Now through May 7th, Max’s annual ad-supported Basic plan is discounted to $79.99 ($20 off), while the ad-free Standard tier is discounted to $139.99 (also $20 off). You can also subscribe to the Premium tier for $169.99, down from $209.99.Multiple wireless carriers are also offering deals. You can, for instance, get a year of Netflix and Max when you purchase a 5G Home Plus, LTE Home Plus, Fios 1 Gig, or the Fios 2 Gig Verizon Home Internet (VHI) plan. Alternatively, Verizon is offering those with an Unlimited plan the ability to get Netflix and Max (with ads) for $10 a month (about $7 off). AT&T also includes complimentary access to ad-free Max when you subscribe to select AT&T Unlimited Choice or Plus plans, which start at $60 a month. If you opt for Cricket’s Unlimited Plus 15GB Mobile Hotspot phone plan, which starts at $60 a month, you’ll also be able to get the ad-supported version of Max for free. Finally, you can get two months of Max free with DirectTV Stream or Satellite TV services.The best Netflix dealsA Netflix subscription grants you access to thousands of movies and TV shows, as well as a limited number of mobile games. Notable shows and movies include Squid Game, Dan Da Dan, Baby Reindeer, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, Cobra Kai, Stranger Things, The Killer, and Arcane, among countless others.The well-known streaming service currently offers three plans: Standard with ads ($7.99 per month), Standard without ads ($17.99 per month), and Premium ($24.99 per month). The premium tier allows for higher resolution, lets multiple users watch content on four devices at the same time as opposed to just two, and lets you download on six devices at a time as opposed to just two. It’s also the only plan that supports 4K HDR content, as well as spatial audio.Netflix isn’t currently offering a discount, but T-Mobile is offering the ad-supported plan for free to those on qualifying Go5G Next and Go5G Plus lines. This deal is also available to those on qualifying Magenta Max lines, or for those who sign up to two or more Go56 and Magenta lines. As mentioned previously, you can also get a year of both Netflix and Max when you purchase one of the following Verizon Home internet plans: a 5G Home Plus, LTE Home Plus, Fios 1 Gig, or the Fios 2 Gig Verizon Home Internet (VHI) plan. Alternatively, Verizon is offering those with an Unlimited plan the ability to get Netflix and Max (with ads) for $10 per month ($6.98 off). The best YouTube TV dealsYouTube TV grants subscribers access to live sports and a number of major news and entertainment channels, including PBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, NBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, and more. It also comes with unlimited recording for a maximum of six accounts, all for $82.99 per month. You can buy optional add-ons as well, which range between $2 and $65 a month and include access to services like Max, Starz, and NBA League Pass. The service also offers a separate Spanish-only plan.Now through July 31st, new subscribers can sign up for the YouTube TV Base Plan for $59.99 ($23 off) a month for the first two months. It’ll be free for 21 days as a trial.The best Paramount Plus and Showtime dealsParamount Plus and Showtime provides access to live sports and 24/7 live news with CBS News. It also grants access to the entire Paramount Plus catalog, including shows like Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yellowstone spinoff 1923, as well as films like Gladiator II and Top Gun: Maverick. You’ll also get access to Showtime’s library, which includes originals like Billions, Dexter: Resurrection, and Yellowjackets, as well as movies like Talk To Me and Past Lives.If you want to subscribe to both Paramount Plus and Showtime, you can sign up for the ad-free Paramount Plus with Showtime package for $12.99 a month (it comes with a one-week trial). Alternatively, if you’re willing to pay upfront, you can save about $36 over the course of a year when you subscribe to the annual plan for $119.99 per year.Alternatively, you can subscribe to Paramount Plus as a standalone service when you pay for Paramount Plus’ ad-supported Essential plan, which costs $7.99 per month (it, too, comes with a one-week trial for new subscribers). The annual plan, meanwhile, costs $59.99 per year, saving you $36 over the course of 12 months if you’re willing to pay upfront. Just bear in mind this plan offers fewer live sporting events than the Paramount Plus with Showtime package, and won’t let you download content for offline viewing.In terms of deals, Walmart Plus subscribers can currently get the Essential plan for free as part of their subscription. College students can also subscribe to the Essential plan for $5.99 ($2 off) a month, while seniors with an AARP membership can get a 10 percent discount on the Essential plan or Paramount Plus with Showtime plan. Lastly, military members can get a 50 percent discount on a year of the Essential or Paramount Plus with Showtime plans.The best Starz dealsWith Starz, you can stream a variety of shows and movies, including John Wick: Chapter 4, M3GAN, and Asteroid City, as well as originals like Outlander and Sweetpea. The platform offers a single ad-free plan for $10.99 per month, which allows you to stream on up to four devices simultaneously and download content for offline viewing. Right now, however, new subscribers can get three months of Starz for $4.99 per month. Alternatively, you can sign up for a six-month plan for $17.99, a savings of $28.The best Amazon Prime Video dealsAmazon Prime Video is an on-demand streaming service owned by Amazon. Its library includes a range of movies, some live content, and shows like Fallout, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and more. Through the service, you can watch certain titles in 4K and take advantage of deals on rentals and purchases not included in the subscription. There’s also an option to add extra channels with Prime Video channels, or go ad-free for an additional $2.99 a month.Amazon Prime Video is included with an Amazon Prime membership, though you can sign up for the service without a membership for $8.99 a month with ads or $11.98 without. Right now, customers of Metro By T-Mobile’s unlimited plan can also get a free Amazon Prime membership, which provides access to Prime Video and other benefits, for free.Update, May 1st: Adjusted relevant pricing details and added a new Max promo.

Anyone that was looking forward to playing Lost Soul Aside on PC and PlayStation 5 may need to have more patience. The developer Ultizero Games has decided to push the release of the game back a few months, changing the release date from May 29th to August 29th, 2025. For some, the delay is only a minor setback for a highly anticipated game.

In Amazon’s Q1 2025 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy touched on the potential impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs, and he seems to think that Amazon won’t be affected too harshly.People are “buying a lot of their everyday essentials at Amazon” and the company has “extremely large selections” and “hundreds of millions of SKUs,” Jassy says, which means that “we’re often able to weather challenging conditions better than others.”While “none of us knows exactly where tariffs will settle or when,” Jassy says that “we haven’t seen any attenuation of demand yet.” The company has also seen “some heightened buying in certain categories that may indicate stocking up in advance of any potential tariff impact.” And, according to Jassy, the “company hasn’t seen “the average selling price of retail items appreciably go up yet” and that “most sellers just haven’t changed pricing yet.”Here’s Jassy’s full statement on tariffs from his opening earnings remarks.I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the prospect of heightened tariffs on our stores business. Obviously, none of us knows exactly where tariffs will settle or when. We haven’t seen any attenuation of demand yet. To some extent, we’ve seen some heightened buying in certain categories that may indicate stocking up in advance of any potential tariff impact.We also have not seen the average selling price of retail items appreciably go up yet. Some of this reflects some forward buying we did in our first party selling, but some of that reflects some advanced inbounding our third party sellers have done. But a fair amount of this is that most sellers just haven’t changed pricing yet. Again, this could change, depending on where tariffs settle.Amazon is not uniquely susceptible to tariffs, as it relates to China, retailers who aren’t flying directly from China are typically buying from companies who themselves are buying from China, marking these items up, rebranding, and selling to US consumers. These retailers are buying the product at a higher price than Chinese sellers selling directly to US consumers in our marketplace, so the total tariff will be higher for these retailers than for China direct sellers.It’s also sometimes easy to forget what Amazon sells. We’re not mostly selling high average selling price items, though we certainly sell a bunch. In the first quarter, our everyday essentials grew more than twice as fast as the rest of our business, and represented one out of every three units sold in the US on Amazon. Even if you exclude Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, Amazon is one of the largest grocers in the US with over $100 billion in gross sales last year. People are buying a lot of their everyday essentials at Amazon.We also have extremely large selections, hundreds of millions of unique SKUs, which means we’re often able to weather challenging conditions better than others. When there are periods of discontinuity, substantial, unexpected product trends emerge. Think about the pandemic, when items like masks and sanitizer became big sellers. When you have the broadest selection like we do, and two million plus global sellers like we do, you’re better positioned to help customers find whatever items matter to them and lower price points than elsewhere.Finally, when there are uncertain environments, customers tend to choose the provider they trust most. Given our really broad selection, low pricing, and speedy delivery, we have emerged from these uncertain arrows with more relative market segment share than we started, and better set up for the future. I’m optimistic this could happen again.

During Wednesday’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook went into the most detail yet on how the company is responding to the far-reaching US tariffs imposed by President Trump — and the potential impacts on its business. “Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs,” Cook said. “This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters, as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter,” he clarified. Once the call moved on to the Q&A section, Cook expanded quite a bit further, and I’ve transcribed that entire answer below:For the June quarter, we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin, and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products also sold in the US. China would continue to be the country or original for the vast majority of total product sales outside the US. If you look at the categories of tariffs that are applicable of us today, for the June quarter, most of our tariff exposure relates to the February IEEPA-related tariff at the rate of 20 percent, which applies to imports to the US for products that have China as their country of original. In addition, for China, there was an additional 125 percent tariff for imports of certain categories of products announced in April. For us, that’s some of our US AppleCare and accessories business, and brings the total rate in China for these products to at least 145 percent.Also, for transparency and clarity, the vast majority of our products including iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro are currently not subject to the global reciprocal tariffs that were announced in April, as the Commerce Department has initiated a Section 232 investigation into imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and downstream products that contain semiconductors. For the June quarter, as I talked about in my opening comments, we estimate the impact — assuming that the current global tariff rates, policies, and applications don’t change for the balance of the quarter — to be $900 million to our costs. I wouldn’t want to predict the mix of production in the future, but I wanted to give you clarity for the June quarter.So there you have it. It sounds as though Apple believes tariff costs might rise once those “unique factors” at play in the June quarter no longer apply, but the company isn’t yet confirming as much. “For our part, we will manage the company the way we always have, with thoughtful and deliberate decisions,” Cook said.

We've called DJI's baby steadicam "almost everything I wanted my iPhone camera to be" and one of our favorite gadgets of 2023, but it's just become a harder product to recommend. In April, DJI quietly hiked the US price of the camera from $519 to $619. Now, DJI has hiked the price again, officially listing the camera at $799 in the US.That's a $280 price hike in just two months, a 54 percent increase, and the company says it's not a mistake. "The price you saw today is the current price," DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong tells The Verge. We're seeing that US retailers have already updated their listings.DJI's "Creator Combo" has risen in price even more. The kit, which adds loads of useful accessories including a modular extended battery handle and one of the company's excellent Mic 2 wireless lav microphones, is now listed at $979, up from the original $669 list price it had maintained before April. (It quietly rose to $799 around the beginning of April.)Is this the impact of Trump's tariffs on China? DJI is a Chinese company, after all, but it says things aren't as clear-cut as that. Tariffs "are certainly among the key considerations," the company tells The Verge by email, but …Read the full story at The Verge.

After years of testing and validation, Aurora says its first fully autonomous tractor-trailers are operating on public highways in Texas. The company’s Class 8 trucks are now making customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston, having already completed 1,200 miles “without a driver,” Aurora said. The clients for these initial trips are Uber Freight, the ridehailing company’s trucking brokerage, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a carrier that delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said he rode in the backseat during the first truck’s inaugural ride, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.”“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly,” Urmson said in a statement. “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads.”Aurora said it plans to expand its driverless service to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.Driverless trucks were once expected to precede robotaxis and personally owned autonomous vehicles in mass adoption, considering that highways are vastly less complex than city and residential streets. But self-driving truck operators have run into hurdles involving the technology and regulation that have delayed their public debut. Some companies, like Embark Trucks, TuSimple, and Locomation, have gone out of business, while others have cut plans to deploy driverless trucks as timelines have stretched into the future and funding has dried up.Moreover, public opinion toward autonomous vehicles has trended downward, thanks in part to missteps of companies like Tesla and Cruise. But like Waymo, Aurora has placed its hopes on a measured, conservative approach to commercialization, as well as an emphasis on safety. Founded in 2017 by alumni of Uber, Tesla, and Waymo, Aurora had planned to deploy its fully autonomous trucks in 2024. But those plans got delayed until this year, with the company continuing to tweak its autonomous system for surface-street driving and construction sites. Aurora says its technology presents a possible solution to the challenges currently facing the trucking industry, such as a trucker shortage, high turnover rates, and increasingly expensive operating costs. The company says its system can address these specific problems, while also reducing labor costs and heightening safety on the highway. Aurora has spent four years conducting supervised pilot hauls, mostly in Texas, where it delivered over 10,000 customer loads across 3 million autonomous miles. The company says it has also demonstrated capabilities, such as predicting red light runners, avoiding collisions, and detecting pedestrians in the dark hundreds of meters away. And it has forged partnerships with a bunch of leading players in the trucking industry, including Continental, Volvo, Uber, and others. The need to start charging customers for deliveries is evident if you look at Aurora’s earnings. In its most recent report, the company reported a net loss of $748 million for 2024, down from $796 million the previous year. While the loss decreased, Aurora’s revenue estimates have declined. Aurora expects to report its first quarter earnings on May 8th.

Docking stations are going to be the go-to solution if you're looking to expand the connectivity of your laptop. Not only do you get access to plenty of ports, but it also makes it much simpler to connect to multiple displays and keep your connected devices charged.

Apple reported its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday under the backdrop of a court ruling that’s poised to upend the company’s App Store business and tariff uncertainty that could spur price increases for devices including the iPhone. At least on this occasion, Apple’s revenue numbers weren’t top of mind for tech industry onlookers like they ordinarily would be. Still, overall revenue in fiscal Q2 2025 was $95.4 billion — a 5 percent jump compared to the year-ago quater — and services reached another all-time high. The iPhone, Mac, and iPad businesses all performed well thanks to new products; the iPad was particularly strong, with revenue up 15 percent year over year.In recent months, Apple has released hardware including new MacBook Airs, a more powerful Mac Studio, and the refreshed iPad Air tablet. And the iPhone 16E, designed to compete with lower-cost smartphones, debuted in February. But Apple’s software team has been going through a rough patch following a series of stumbles and embarrassments. The company’s attempts to build out its own artificial intelligence capabilities that rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other leaders in the category have been slow going. In early March, long-promised improvements to the company’s Siri assistant were delayed. Apple is rumored to be integrating Google’s Gemini to its Apple Intelligence software suite this fall to help keep pace.Meanwhile, the effect of President Trump’s tariffs are already reverberating across many industries, but Cook downplayed any major impacts in an interview with CNBC. He pointed to Apple’s well-distributed supply chain and manufacturing operation as a potential buffer. “If you look at the US, over half of the US sales of iPhone come from India,” he said. “If you look at the other products, Mac and iPad and AirPods and the Watch, almost all of the country of origin is Vietnam.” Much has been made about the possibility of Apple’s next iPhone lineup getting a price hike. “With an iPhone, you really have to go a step lower and look at the individual parts and where they come from,” he said.  Apple is also navigating significant legal battles. In a Wednesday ruling, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers excoriated Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook for deliberately trying to limit and mollify a 2021 ruling intended to loosen the iPhone maker’s grip over the App Store. Apple has appealed Rogers’ order, but if it holds, companies including Epic, Spotify, and Patreon are planning to seize the opportunity to more freely sidestep Apple’s in-app payments and steer users to the web.

High-temperature 3D printing lets you create parts that withstand severe heat, wear, and chemical exposure. The capabilities of materials like polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polyether amide (PEI, or Ultem), and carbon fiber-filled nylons go far beyond what PLA or PETG can offer. No wonder more makers are starting to explore this side of the hobby.

Spotify says it has submitted an update to its iOS app that would, among other things, let US customers use payment options that aren’t Apple’s, according to a blog post. The update submission follows Wednesday’s major Epic Games v. Apple ruling that forces Apple not to take a cut of payments on non-Apple payment systems and stops Apple from dictating how developers can tell users about outside payments.“While other governments around the world have taken steps against Apple’s harmful practices, this is, by far, the most consequential action to date – and it delivers the benefits that all consumers deserve around the world,” Spotify says.If Apple approves the update, Spotify says that US users:Can finally see how much something costs in our app, including pricing details on subscriptions and information about promotions that will save money; Can click a link to purchase the subscription of choice, upgrading from a Free account to one of our Premium plans;Can seamlessly click the link and easily change Premium subscriptions from Individual to a Student, Duo, or Family plan; Can use other payment options beyond just  Apple’s payment system—we provide a wider range of options on our website; and Going forward, this opens the door to other seamless buying opportunities that will directly benefit creators (think easy-to-purchase audiobooks) “If all of this seems obvious and user-friendly, you’re right, and we agree – these are the kinds of improvements that any app should offer its users,” Spotify says. “The fact that we haven’t been able to deliver these basic services, which were permitted by the judge’s order four years ago, is absurd.”Now, we have to wait and see if Apple will approve the app update — which has been a bone of contention between Spotify and Apple in the past.Patreon announced earlier today that it plans to submit an update for its iOS app to Apple that will let creators accept payments  outside of Apple’s payment system.

Turning a Raspberry Pi into a home automation powerhouse wasn’t something I expected to enjoy as much as I do. But once I got started, I couldn’t stop adding new ways to control and customize the surrounding environment. These five projects have become daily tools I rely on, not just cool tech experiments. They save time, add convenience, and give me total control over my space, all without tying me to any cloud services or monthly fees.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers remarks to the press during a meeting with UK Defense Secretary John Healey at the Pentagon on March 6th, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia.The Pentagon Inspector General is expanding an inquiry into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s questionable Signal group chats. According to the Wall Street Journal, the investigation is now also looking into a second chat, as well as exactly how classified information was transferred from a secure government computer onto Hegseth’s account on his personal devices.Beyond the “Houthi PC Small Group” that inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to discussions about an upcoming military strike in Yemen, the existence of a second chat was reported by the New York Times in April. According to the Times, Hegseth sent the same information about the Yemeni strike to a chat called “Defense | Group Huddle,” which included his wife, brother, personal lawyer, and several personal friends. The Wall Street Journal reports, based on anonymous sources, that the inquiry is investigating who moved classified information off a secure government computer onto a personal device “moments” after it was sent. By design, it’s “impossible to quickly copy and paste information from a classified system to an unclassified one,” writes the Journal. Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, has repeatedly downplayed the significance of the first chat but has remained relatively quiet about the second chat. President Donald Trump has publicly backed Hegseth, but on Thursday, Michael Waltz, the National Security Advisor who mistakenly added the editor to the group chat, was “purged” from the White House and reassigned as Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations.