Apple Music has hiked its subscription fee for the first time since late 2022, while the Apple One bundle is also getting more expensive.
In the US, Apple Music’s Individual plan jumped to $11.99 per month from $10.99. Apple Music’s Family plan also rose from $16.99 to $19.99, while its Student price increased from $5.99 to $6.99. In a statement to Music Business Worldwide, Apple chalked up the changes to “rising licensing costs.”
An individual subscription to Apple One, which grants you access Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of storage on iCloud+, will remain unchanged at $19.95. But a Family plan will now cost you $27.95, up from $25.95, and a Premier plan will now cost you $39.95, up from $37.95. This is the bundle’s first price hike since October 2023.
Apple also announced similar price rises in the UK and the EU, and it’s expected they will soon apply to other regions as well.
But Apple isn’t the only music streaming giant making price hikes, though it still edges out its closest rival Spotify on price. In February, Spotify raised its Premium plan from $11.99 to $12.99 per month, just one dollar more than Apple Music, and its Student plan moved from $5.99 to $6.99.
Spotify’s Duo and Family plans also saw $2 price hikes. Its Duo plan now costs $18.99 per month, up from $16.99, while its Family plan now costs $21.99 per month, up from $19.99.
YouTube Music’s Individual plan now sits neck and neck with Apple’s offering from a cost perspective. In April, YouTube Music’s individual plan increased from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, and the family plan rose from $16.99 to $18.99 per month.
“Streamflation” remains a serious issue for consumers, prices for streaming services of all kinds are rising faster than the rest of the US economy. Streaming service inflation was 20% in December 2025 according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, higher than any other category, rising over five times faster than essentials like food and utilities. Almost every major streaming service has announced price increases over the past year including Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video and Disney+.
About Our Expert
Experience
I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.
I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
Relying on a single AI model means trusting a single answer. ChatPlayground AI sends a single prompt to multiple models simultaneously and puts their responses side by side, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Deepseek, Llama, and Perplexity. That covers chat, coding help, content drafts, and image ideas in a single workflow, with no copy-pasting between apps to compare outputs.
The All-In-One AI App Includes
Prompt engineering tools to refine and reuse prompts that perform well
Image and PDF uploads, so you can ask questions about a document and see how each model interprets it
Saved chat history to revisit longer projects and past prompts
Support on any desktop running a recent version of Chrome, Edge, or Firefox
The Unlimited Plan included here is a lifetime license with unlimited monthly messages and no cap on sign-in devices, built for prompt engineers, startups, and teams that use AI heavily enough to need room to experiment. It’s also priced below what ChatPlayground charges for the same plan on its own site, so this is the cheapest way to own it outright.
Prices subject to change. PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through StackSocial affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.
About Our Expert
StackCommerce Team (Sponsored)
Experience
Products featured in these stories are selected by our partners at StackCommerce. If you buy something through links on our site, PCMag may earn an affiliate commission.
AI agents are more capable than ever before, and are finally seeing widespread adoption. But even if you’re comfortable with one completing a purchase on your behalf or booking a hotel, do you really want to give them a password? If not, you’re likely not alone—68% of Americans wouldn’t let AI act without their specific approval, according to research from YouGov. AI agents can be manipulated by what are called prompt engineering attacks, and can leave users legally liable for their behaviour.
If you choose not to give an AI agent your password, it’s easy to be trapped in a constant cycle of inputting your details or completing 2FA again and again, potentially defeating the point of having an autonomous agent doing tasks in the background.
Password manager 1Password’s new tool, 1Password for Claude, allows Anthropic’s chatbot to complete browser tasks that require logins and one-time passcodes, without ever requiring you to enter your credentials into the model or store them in its memory. For example, a small business owner could ask Claude to create a revenue summary or to flag any unusual activity using data from popular payment solutions like Stripe.
Claude can then navigate the dashboard independently, and the business owner can approve Claude to use their Stripe login details. 1Password handles the credential and one-time passcode, and the task is completed without ever manually logging into Stripe or handing an LLM your sensitive login details.
The company has also included some security features to mitigate the risks associated with agentic browsers, where an agent could potentially get control of a browser with 1Password already installed.
Recommended by Our Editors
Agentic Mode, a new feature in the 1Password browser extension, means the password manager shuts down when a compatible AI agent takes over, locking down 1Password. With Agentic Mode, the interface is hidden, and the agent can only use the logins and one-time passcodes explicitly approved for the current task.
1Password for Claude is available now for Mac, across its business, family, and individual plans. For instructions on how to get the integration up and running, head to 1Password’s documentation page. You’ll need 1Password for Mac (version 8.12.28 or later), 1Password browser extension (version 8.12.28 or later), the Claude desktop app, and the Claude browser extension.
About Our Expert
Experience
I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.
I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
A glitch at Amazon’s cloud services division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), left consumers all over the world with bills that would bankrupt even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
According to a post on X, first spotted by The Guardian, a user in India named Bharath got hit with a particularly astounding bill.
“I just saw $1.5tn on my AWS bill and my soul left my body,” he told his followers.
Dan Harvey, who leads marketing at UK company Learning Through Landscapes, found that his cloud hosting bill had skyrocketed from 43 cents to $7.8 billion, a jump of roughly 1.8 trillion percent.
He told The Guardian he “almost had a heart attack” when he received the notification.
Meanwhile, one user on Reddit said his bill was over $7 trillion, higher than the GDP of the UK and Canada combined.
Amazon confirmed that the bills were mistaken in a post on X earlier today, and users were not expected to take any action to correct the issue. Amazon confirmed it was working on fixing the problem, but that it may take some time for the bills to show up correctly in user’s accounts.
The tech giant didn’t give many hints as to the true cause of the fault, but according to Amazon’s Service Health page, the issue was due to a problem “affecting estimated cost and usage data displayed in the Billing and Cost Management Console, including the Cost and Usage Report.”
If you’d like to prevent issues like this from happening in the future, AWS CEO Matt Garman has gone on record to say that the division will continue to hire developers amid the AI boom, and that demand is “really accelerating”. It plans to hire 10,000 this year.
About Our Expert
Experience
I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.
I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.
Timed to coincide with one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year, the latest in Disney’s extensive collection of merch and brand partnerships takes off as families juggle back-to-school preparations with the final stretch of summer vacation. Those are also the moments when backpacks, luggage, wallets, passports, strollers and other must-have items are most likely to be misplaced.
With the Starter Pack, fans get two trackers for keeping tabs on everyday essentials. The Tile Slim’s credit card-thin design makes it the thinnest Bluetooth tracker on the market. It can fit into wallets and passport covers, while the standard Tile can be used on bags, keys or a belt loop.
The Mickey Mouse Tile features a 350-foot Bluetooth range, a long-lasting three-year battery and a built-in ring function. Setup on the Life360 app takes just minutes on a phone of tablet, where you can view family, pets and Tile-tracked items together on one map. The app includes 24/7 emergency dispatch, and a silent SOS button sends your location to first responders and family.
Amazon
Minnie Mouse Tile Starter Pack
Complete with a Tile Slim for wallets and a standard Tile featuring Minnie Mouse’s autograph.
Designed for everyday convenience, these Minnie Mouse trackers similarly offer up to 350 feet of Bluetooth coverage and a battery that lasts for three years. They’re also fully compatible with Apple and Android phones and tablets through the Life360 app. Whether you’re organizing school supplies for the new semester, packing for a family vacation or spending the day at a Disney Resort, the two-tracker bundle helps track multiple items.
Amazon
Just the tile
Mickey Mouse Tile
A compact Tile in white with extensive safety features.
Tracked via the Life360 app on a phone or tablet, the Mickey Mouse Tile tracker keeps your belongings on the same map as your Circle, while unlocking features like real-time location sharing, crash detection and emergency support. Unlike its direct competitor, Apple AirTag, each Tile comes with a ring for attaching to a keyring, or carabiner and belt loop, so parents have ease of mind when kids are running wild at a Disney Resort.
Two character stills of Priyanka Chopra Jonas from S.S. Rajamouli‘s “Varanasi” were released Saturday to mark the actor’s birthday.
“Varanasi” spans thousands of years and traverses multiple continents, with locations ranging from Antarctica to Africa to the titular Indian city. Mahesh Babu plays the dual roles of the protagonist Rudhra and Hindu God Rama, Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays a character named Mandakini and the main antagonist Kumbha is played by Prithviraj Sukumaran.
The character of Mandakini required specific qualities that Rajamouli believes Chopra Jonas uniquely possesses. “She can be a really kick-ass girl, and she has to be really vulnerable. [There are] very few actors who can do both in the same character,” he had told Variety. “She did a fantastic job, and I’m so happy that I have her on board.”
Priyanka Chopra Jonas – “Varanasi”
Sri Durga Arts/Showing Business
The film marks Chopra Jonas’ return to Indian cinema after a run of Hollywood projects including “Citadel” and “The Matrix Resurrections.” She has described the production as career-defining. “If there was any way of coming back to Indian cinema, it would be with the biggest Indian movie being made, and that undertaking is this film,” she says. “I think Sir’s vision is unlike anyone in this country or abroad. His cohort, if I may say so, is the Spielbergs of the world, the Nolans of the world, the Finchers of the world.”
“Varanasi” is Rajamouli’s follow-up to the Academy Award-winning “RRR”. MM Keeravani, who won the Oscar for “RRR’s” “Naatu Naatu,” is returning to score the new film.
“Varanasi” opens in theaters worldwide on April 7, 2027.
The years that directly succeeded the COVID pandemic were marked by a dire, almost apocalyptic view on the future of cinemagoing. Audiences who were already thinning out before global lockdowns became even scarcer, with streamers growing their market share and smaller arthouse cinemas closing down as audiences failed to return through their doors once they reopened.
Yet, in the last two years, this sentiment of sheer doom has slowly and steadily begun to give way to a tentative yet very much present hope. The same pandemic years that decimated older arthouse audiences have brewed a new generation driven by a cinephilia built upon internet archives, social media and platforms like Letterboxd, with young film fans queuing up for repertory screenings and special events in major U.S. capitals and other cities around the world.
Speaking at the Costa Rica Media Market, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Business Development at Utopia Distribution, Charlie Sextro, explained how this phenomenon helped reshape Utopia’s release strategy in the last year.
Sextro, who served as Sundance Film Festival’s senior film programmer and curator for 13 years before joining Utopia in March of 2025, said it is a “very difficult time right now” for releasing films. “In the United States, it is maybe as tough as it’s ever been to really connect and get traction, but I feel like everything is being destroyed right now to be rebuilt into something new.”
“What I love is that it really feels like it’s based on young audiences falling in love with arthouse movies and going to independent films,” he added. “The independent film world has always been driven by older audiences — that was the cornerstone of releasing a foreign language or arthouse film. But that went away with COVID, and we now have this young generation that is driving arthouse, which, to me, is the dream. It’s what I’ve always wanted in my life. Young cinephiles are the greatest thing in the world, so I am incredibly hopeful about what’s coming.”
The exec brought up the success of films like Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” to exemplify how everyone these days is looking for “fandom that can help drive excitement.” This notion has helped shape a recent pivot for Utopia Distribution, which will shrink its number of yearly releases in favor of dedicating more time to each film with heavily curated, event-driven strategies.
“Backrooms,” courtesy of Neon
“We’re a small company,” Sextro pointed out. “We’ve been around for about seven years, which is really long for an indie distributor. We used to release nine to ten movies a year, it was pretty regular, one campaign after another in that old school way of just putting a really well-reviewed film in theaters. That doesn’t happen anymore. So our pivot is that we’re pulling back on numbers because it’s not sustainable. We want to be transparent, and we need to change the way we release.”
Sextro said that, although it remains incredibly hard to “stick in movie theaters” with a small indie run, they can have success in “creating really cool events and eventivizing releases.” “What we’re doing now as a company is that we are going to release about four to five movies a year, where we are releasing only one movie at a time, and we’re willing to do a complicated roadshow style of release that most companies similar to us won’t do because it takes a lot of work. But we know that if you build something pure for an audience and don’t just fall into traditional ways, people show up and they love it. They love having something created especially for them.”
The veteran exemplified the strategy by bringing up their recent release of the Chloe Sevigny-produced doc “Summer Tour,” directed by Mischa Richter. Utopia decided to tour the documentary about The Grateful Dead fans for six weeks ahead of general release, playing solely in music venues and followed by a 90-minute live concert by the Grateful Dead cover band featured in the film.
“We’re creating material for six weeks before we go into art houses,” he said. “We use the first six weeks to promote the art house instead of just spending money. We’re creating revenue by generating events that [sell.] I always believe the movies are great, and there are audiences. The thing that needs fixing right now is how [films] are being connected to audiences.” How audiences are being engaged with movies is what needs to change from the old-school, traditional ways.”
Courtesy of Rafa Sales Ross
This shift is also a direct response to another industry-changing phenomenon: a dramatic decrease in VOD licensing. “In the past year alone, we’ve gotten no major streaming licensing deals from any of the streamers,” he said. “Every time they see our movies, they say [they] are too small. They’ve kind of given up on independent film, on arthouse film, and that has taken away a major point of money that was going to come into the release.”
“VOD and streaming like rentals, Amazon, Apple get smaller and smaller every year,” he went on. “There is no discovery of arthouse movies on Apple and Amazon.”
Asked by Variety about the reason for his visit to Costa Rica, particularly given Utopia has a varied catalogue but still almost no Latin American titles, Sextro emphasized the company is “agnostic.” “We release documentaries; we release foreign language films; we do release a lot of American indies.”
“In the United States, there is a massive Spanish-language-driven audience,” he added. “There are a lot of films where that is the highest percentage of ticket buyers, so there’s a massive space for it. We are open to the movies that we love, that we believe in, and that we see a potential audience for. That is the thing we are looking for in a movie, something where there is going to be passion within the release.”
The exec noted Utopia is looking for films led by filmmakers with a wealth of ideas. “We rely heavily on filmmakers to be partners in the release, generating ideas, helping us with the creative. The filmmakers are the ones with the best ideas because they’ve been living with these movies for years and years and years. Yes, I think there’s incredible potential in releasing Latin American films, even Spanish-language films in general, in the United States. It’s such a strong cause.”
ARK Invest stated that despite Bitcoin losing approximately 14% of its value in the second quarter of 2026, on-chain data is signaling the end of selling pressure. The company considered the record-high amount of Bitcoin held by long-term investors as a significant indicator pointing to a potential market bottom.
According to ARK Invest’s second-quarter Bitcoin report, $BTC closed June at approximately $58,544. During this period, the Bitcoin price fell below the short-term investor realization price of around $70,327, the 200-day moving average of $75,371, and the on-chain average of around $76,660.
The report stated that Bitcoin remaining below all three key moving averages is historically linked to bearish market conditions. Therefore, it argued that the technical outlook has not yet significantly improved.
However, on-chain indicators suggest that the sell-off may be nearing its final stages. For the first time in this cycle, the percentage of Bitcoin supply at a loss has surpassed the percentage at a profit, reaching approximately 54%. The percentage of Bitcoin at a profit, meanwhile, has fallen to 46%.
ARK Invest noted that the supply of shares in losses exceeding the supply of shares in profits has generally been observed in past market cycles near bottom levels. The fact that the rate of realized losses briefly surpassed the rate of realized profits, and that the ratio fell to 0.82, was also considered a sign of exhaustion in selling pressure.
Another key finding in the report was the amount of Bitcoin held by long-term investors. The supply of Bitcoin held by long-term investors increased by approximately 313,000 $BTC in the second quarter, reaching an all-time high of 14.85 million $BTC.
According to ARK Invest, long-term investors with high levels of conviction continued to accumulate Bitcoin distributed in the market during the price decline. The company noted that the increase in the supply from long-term investors during the price drop constituted a positive divergence in terms of the fundamental outlook of the market.
However, the report noted that Bitcoin has not yet fallen back to its historically low on-chain cost levels. It stated that Bitcoin’s current price is approximately $53,000, while its investor price is around $49,000.
ARK Invest stated that the downside risks have not completely disappeared, as Bitcoin has not yet tested this cost range between $49,000 and $53,000. According to the company, the process of returning to the average, which has accompanied global market lows in the past, has not yet occurred.
The report also stated that outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs traded in the US increased pressure on the market. The funds recorded net outflows for seven consecutive weeks towards the end of the quarter, losing approximately 71,000 $BTC in assets throughout the second quarter.
Related NewsNet Inflows into Cryptocurrency Investment Products Have Begun Again: Is This a Sign of a Bitcoin Rally?
During the worst week of late June, approximately 30,000 $BTC were withdrawn from ETFs. ARK Invest stated that the weakening spot ETF demand indicates that one of the most important marginal demand sources supporting the Bitcoin price has lost strength.
Signs of stress were also seen in the funding conditions of Bitcoin treasury companies. Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, codenamed “Stretch,” fell from its nominal value of $100 to as low as $74.57 during the quarter. STRC finished the second quarter at approximately $84.86.
ARK Invest stated that STRC trading below its face value could indicate an increase in the cost of capital for leveraged companies building Bitcoin treasuries.
Bitcoin’s three-month futures base rate remained low but positive at an average of 2.3% throughout the quarter. The fact that the rate occasionally approached backwardation indicated that demand for leveraged long positions and speculative appetite were limited.
ARK Invest evaluated technical and on-chain indicators as well as the macroeconomic environment. The report argued that technology-driven productivity increases limited inflationary pressures.
It was stated that although unit labor costs increased by 0.5 percent, productivity rose by 2.8 percent, and core consumer inflation remained at around 2.9 percent despite the increase in oil prices.
The company also argued that the flattening of the yield curve reflected deflationary trends rather than recession. It stated that artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure, deregulation, and regulations allowing investments to be expensed directly supported capital expenditures.
According to ARK Invest, new orders for core capital goods hitting a record high and surpassing a 25-year resistance level indicates the formation of a sustained growth cycle driven by technology and energy investments.
Ahead of the World Cup final, Lionel Messi says growing up playing football taught him to enjoy the game rather than fear the pressure, reflecting on the mindset that has guided his career.
