The everyday tech stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
T-Mobile customers in New York who were hit by price hikes they did not expect may get money back. People in other states are not covered for now.
Read more: Some T-Mobile customers in New York may get money back for price hikesScam texts claim your voter registration is missing and push a link to a fake page that collects personal details. Check your status yourself instead.
Read more: Text says you're not registered to vote? It may be a scamOrangetheory members can now connect their own Apple Watch to in-class tracking for a one-time $99 fee, with no extra hardware needed.
Read more: Orangetheory now lets members use their own Apple Watch for $99Claude can build charts, tables and a clickable dashboard from a Google Sheet without formulas. A test with a sample budget shows what works and what does not.
Read more: Claude can turn a plain Google Sheet into interactive chartsElon Musk says Tesla could sell 5 million cars a year by 2030, but sales have fallen two years running and the target needs about 25 percent growth every year.
Read more: Tesla says it will sell 5 million cars a year by 2030, but sales are fallingMichigan and other states are raising penalties for gift card scams, just as holiday texts and card purchases make fraud harder to spot.
Read more: Michigan and other states raise penalties for gift card scammersA CNET writer gave AI agents access to her email to handle birthdays. Only one could automate the job, and two of them kept doing things she never asked for.
Read more: A CNET writer let AI agents handle her birthdays and they oversteppedTrackers can also find your phone, settle household arguments and help with a stolen bike. An AirTag costs around $29, so the extra uses add up.
Read more: Five smart uses for AirTags and Android trackers beyond luggageOpenAI now lets businesses in Nigeria and South Africa advertise inside ChatGPT, with a $25 daily minimum that is billed in US dollars.
Read more: ChatGPT now sells ads to businesses in Nigeria and South AfricaA How-To Geek guide lists free Windows 11 settings that can add battery time when you can't plug in, at the cost of some speed and screen smoothness.
Read more: Simple Windows 11 settings that make your laptop battery last longerNetflix cut 1,000 jobs while posting record profits, and Inc. says the bigger error was saying almost nothing about why. Silence can hurt trust.
Read more: Netflix cut 1,000 jobs during record profits and said little whyScammers are using texts, cloned voices and fake QR code stickers on phones, and about one in three people ignore security warnings, a Malwarebytes study found.
Read more: Phone scams are getting harder to spot, and losses keep risingCapcom says an outside party got into 11,774,247 Capcom ID accounts. Expect scam emails that use the exposed details, so be careful what you click.
Read more: Capcom says hackers got into 11.7 million player accountsA writer at How-To Geek used an expired credit card to toggle a bedside lamp from an iPhone, with no special tag and no cost.
Read more: An expired credit card can work as a free smart home buttonUber is moving all 30,000 of its employees onto OpenAI's ChatGPT Work after a 1,000-person test. Here is what the company says it learned and what it has not shared.
Read more: Uber gives all 30,000 employees an AI assistant for workTwo YouTube fold tests of the iPhone Duo found a tough hinge, but a screen crease that grows more visible with use, even under Apple's matte layer.
Read more: iPhone Duo folded 11,500 times: the screen crease gets hard to missA Consumer Reports survey finds rising power bills are straining three in four families, and about one in five are spending less on food to cope.
Read more: Many Families Cut Grocery Spending to Pay Higher Power BillsOpenAI's newest GPT models are heading to Google Cloud, so business customers may soon compare them with Gemini in one place. Everyday users are left out for now.
Read more: OpenAI's GPT models are coming to Google's cloud for businessesA Galaxy Watch 5 Pro owner says the watch burned and blistered their arm overnight. It is a rare report, but it matters if you sleep with a smartwatch.
Read more: Galaxy Watch owner says watch left blisters on their arm overnightMesh Wi-Fi can still stall behind walls and floors. Running one Ethernet cable between nodes can fix it for far less than buying another box.
Read more: One Ethernet cable can fix a weak mesh Wi-Fi connectionKevin Weil, who ran science efforts at OpenAI, has started Warp Sciences with $215 million to use AI to speed up a key step in making new medicines.
Read more: Former OpenAI science chief launches drug startup with $215 millionSearches for Samsung foldables rose 460% during Apple's iPhone Duo launch week, a sign that shoppers are looking at foldables again.
Read more: Samsung foldable searches jump 460% as Apple launches iPhone DuoSpotify is asking Family Plan members to scan a QR code to prove they share a home with the plan manager. Miss the seven-day window and you face a 12-month lockout.
Read more: Spotify now asks Family Plan members to prove they live with youVictoria, Australia, will ban smart glasses in all schools and camps from 2027. U.S. parents should check their own school's rules before buying a pair.
Read more: Australian state bans smart glasses in all schools from 2027
