Category: Technology

How to watch for free: Today’s bronze final will air for free on global channels like BBC iPlayer/ITV. You can use a VPN like ExpressVPN, our pick for location spoofing, to connect to a UK server to tune in for free. You may also be able to watch for free with a streaming trial from DirecTV, FuboTV, or YouTube TV.

After a month of adrenaline-pumping action, the 2026 FIFA World Cup draws to a close this weekend with two exciting finals. Argentina and Spain will fight for the sport’s ultimate achievement on Sunday, while France take on England in the bronze final today.

There have been debates about whether FIFA should continue its third-place competition, but today we’ll find out whether France or England will take home the bronze. It’s also a chance for France’s Kylian Mbappé, England’s Harry Kane, and Jude Bellingham to still aim for the Golden Boot. Mbappé is tied with Lionel Messi at eight goals, while Kane and Bellingham are just behind with six goals each.

It will be interesting to see if all of them start, as coaches do have a habit of playing rested players for this dead rubber. Whether you’re tuning in to back your team or to see how the Golden Boot race unfolds, here’s how you can watch the France vs. England third-place playoff live using a streaming subscription or for free using a VPN or free trial.

When Is the France vs. England Third-Place Play-Off?

The FIFA World Cup bronze final between France and England kicks off at 5:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 18, at Miami Stadium in Miami, Florida.

How to Watch France vs. England Live in the US

You can watch France vs. England live on Fox or Telemundo. If you don’t have cable and you live in the US, you can watch with a sports streaming subscription, such as DirecTV, Fox One, Fubo, Peacock, Sling, YouTube TV, and more. If you don’t have a live TV or streaming service, you may be able to watch the game with a free trial:

How to Watch France vs. England Online for Free

The France vs. England bronze final will air live for free on several streaming platforms across the globe, including:

These platforms are geo-locked to their respective countries, but you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to watch matches for free from the US or elsewhere. For the France vs. England World Cup bronze final, we recommend ExpressVPN, our top pick for location spoofing. ExpressVPN has servers across the globe, making it easy to mask your actual location so you can access region-locked content. Additionally, ExpressVPN is also an official supporter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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Here’s how you can access the France vs. England match with a VPN using BBC iPlayer as an example:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN).

2. Download the VPN app on your computer, phone, or preferred device.

3. Connect to a server in the UK.

4. Visit BBC iPlayer or ITV to start streaming.

Note: If you’re new to BBC, you may be asked to create an account to access iPlayer. Add a UK postal code on the sign-up page to avoid possible disruptions. I tested this earlier this week to make sure it was still working.

Usually, the top VPNs that let you connect to servers in other countries aren’t free. But if you already have a VPN subscription or qualify for a free trial, you may be able to use one to watch the FIFA World Cup third-place play-off between France and England at no additional cost.

France: Road to Third-Place Playoff, Team News

(Credit: Omar Vega/Getty Images)

France were the team to beat at this World Cup and played every game until the semifinal as if they were here to rule. In the semifinal, however, they were outclassed, outrun, and left stunned by a Spanish team that had mastered the art of moving the ball with pace and accuracy.

That said, they have plenty of positives to take from this campaign, especially with regard to their roster’s potential. Kylian Mbappé, their best player, is still just 27 years old. He is second on the all-time World Cup scorers list, has already won the trophy once, and could end up being the greatest World Cup performer ever. Michael Olise, aged 24, is another young player who set the tournament on fire and could serve the country for many years to come. Similar hopes can be rested on several other young talents, such as Bradley Barcola, Aurélien Tchouaméni, William Saliba, Jules Koundé, Désiré Doué, and Manu Koné.

• Group Games: Beat Senegal 3-1; Beat Iraq 3-0; Beat Norway 4-1

• Round of 32: Beat Sweden, 3-0

• Round of 16: Beat Paraguay, 1-0

• Quarter-final: Beat Morocco, 2-0

• Semi-final: Lost to Spain, 2-0

• Top Scorer: Kylian Mbappé (8 goals) | Most Assists: Michael Olise (5)

Expected lineup: As mentioned earlier, coaches often rotate their squad for this game, so all regulars may not start. That said, this is also Didier Deschamps’ final game as head coach. He is the only Frenchman to win the World Cup both as a player (1998) and a coach (2018), and he may want to wrap up his national career with yet another meaningful achievement.

If that’s the case, he could play Maignan in goal; Koundé, Upamecano, Lacroix, and Hernández/Digne in defense; Tchouaméni/Kone and Rabiot in defensive midfield; Dembélé, Olise, Doué/Barcola as attacking midfielders; and Mbappé as the lone striker.

England: Road to Third-Place Playoff, Team News

(Credit: MAURICE VAN STEEN / ANP via Getty Images)

England put up some stellar performances throughout the tournament, with Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham in the form of their lives. Against Argentina, though, soccer pundits say that coach Thomas Tuchel made some tactical errors that led to their defeat. England took the lead in the 55th minute with a clinical finish from Anthony Gordon, but Tuchel’s substitutions thereafter focused on guarding their narrow lead instead of increasing it. Argentina then attacked persistently and were rewarded with two goals that clinched a spot in the final.

Looking back at England’s campaign, this felt like one of the few World Cups where it indeed looked like “it’s coming home.” If it wasn’t for the genius of Lionel Messi, they probably would be in the final with Spain.

• Group Game 1: Beat Croatia 4-2; Drew Ghana 0-0; Beat Panama 2-0

• Round of 32: Beat DR Congo, 2-1

• Round of 16: Beat Mexico, 3-2

• Quarter-final: Beat Norway, 2-1

• Semi-final: Lost to Argentina, 2-1

• Top Scorers: Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane (6 goals) | Most Assists: Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon (3)

Expected lineup: Tuchel will have the services of Jarell Quansah again, following his two-game suspension for dangerous play against Mexico. If the coach picks Quansah, here’s what the playing XI could look like: Pickford in goal; Quansah, Stones, Guéhi, and Spence in defense; Rice, Anderson, and Bellingham in the midfield; and Rogers, Gordon, and Kane up front.

2026 FIFA World Cup Schedule

The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico. This year, the tournament has expanded to 48 participating nations for a total of 104 games.

• June 11 to June 27: Group stage

• June 28 to July 2: The knockout stage begins with the first-ever Round of 32 at a FIFA World Cup. The eventual champion will have to win five consecutive knockout games, instead of the former four.

• July 3 to July 7: Round of 16

• July 9, 10, 11: Quarterfinals

• July 14-15: Semifinals

• July 18: Bronze final

• July 19: Final

We’ll be following the World Cup through this weekend, so stay tuned for more.

The World Cup Has a Secret AI Command Center

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A bipartisan group of legislators is trying to advance a bill that would essentially put square wheels on Chinese cars in the US. 

The Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 would go miles beyond past moves to make China’s booming auto industry unwelcome in the US and ban the “importation, manufacture, sale, resale, or introduction into interstate commerce” of connected cars made or designed by firms in the PRC as well as Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

Backers of this measure–starting with Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who introduced it as S.4429, and Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and John Moolenaar (R-MI), who then sponsored a companion bill as H.R.8730–invoke the risk of the Chinese Communist Party requiring surveillance through these vehicles and its history of subsidizing its auto industry.

“These cars have enormous amounts of data-collection capabilities,” Moreno said on a panel hosted Monday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, moderated by AEI fellow Chris Miller. “Imagine TikTok, but on steroids.” 

(Allegations of Chinese surveillance via the social platform now controlled by a US-led group of investors remain unproven; the Supreme Court only held those concerns credible last January when it upheld a law banning app-store and hosting transactions with TikTok.)

Citing scenarios of Beijing directing Chinese carmakers to exfiltrate data from connected cars or take control of them remotely, Moreno called these vehicles “obviously an insane national security threat.”

Sitting alongside Moreno, Moolenaar backed up his risk assessment. “Their national security laws basically require anyone to do the bidding of the CCP,” he said of Chinese carmakers. 

The Biden administration thought this enough of a risk to issue a regulation in its last days restricting connected-car systems from China. In June, the Commerce Department used that authority to deny Polestar, partly owned by the Chinese automotive giant Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Geely-owned Volvo, permission to sell its EVs in the US after the 2026 model year.

A May 15 AEI report noted a report by Norwegian researchers who found that Chinese-made battery-electric buses in use in that country had a component allowing remote shutoff. That conservative think tank highlighted restrictions imposed on Chinese cars by the UK, Israel, Norway, and Poland–for example, barring them from the vicinity of military bases–but did not call for a ban on their import. 

An Unyielding Statute

The Connected Vehicle Security Act, like the existing connected-car rule, would allow the Secretary of Commerce to issue waivers to the ban. But at AEI, Moolenaar and Moreno did not suggest that any would be forthcoming as long as China’s current government holds power.

“We hermetically seal our market,” the senator said. “We go way beyond the current connected vehicle rule to go through the entire supply chain.”

Moreno brought up Waymo as one company that would have to comply by parking its new Ojai minivans, based on Geely’s Zeekr model. “We’ve had great conversations with Waymo,” he said. “I think as a result of this bill they’re going to shift gears, hopefully […] to a Detroit-based vehicle.” 

Waymo declined to comment on the record, but that Alphabet subsidiary has already emphasized how connected parts in its robotaxis don’t come from or talk back to China.

“The technology that collects data and makes our vehicles autonomous—the software, sensors, and computing systems—is developed in the US,” spokesperson Sandy Karp told PCMag contributor Rakesh Agrawal as part of an Ojai test drive in San Francisco last month. “Waymo installs the autonomous driving technology on stripped-down, disconnected OEM-provided vehicles in our Arizona manufacturing facility.”

The seal that Moreno described would meet land borders with Canada and Mexico, since the statute uses a legal definition of “import” that includes “any bringing in” of a product. The senator said a driver rolling up to a US border crossing in a Chinese vehicle would meet a U-turn sign: “They’ll have to buy another car, because their car will not be allowed in the United States of America.”

A separate bill, the Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act introduced by Slotkin and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), would make that no-crossings rule explicit, but it has yet to draw more sponsors.

Cooling Towards China

Chinese vehicles are off to a fast start in Mexico, with estimates putting the share of PRC-manufactured vehicles in 2025 at 15% to 19% of the total market. But those imports have since plunged after Mexico imposed a 50% tariff starting in January.

In Canada, meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney has responded to US unfriendliness–including tariffs on its exports and repeated threats of annexation by President Trump–by inking new deals with China that include allowing the import of 49,000 Chinese EVs at a 6.1% tariff. 

Moreno called Canada’s slight opening of its EV market a “totally crazy move” but did not mention the things Trump has done to earn Canadian ire.

Canada had begun charging a 100% tariff on Chinese vehicles in 2024, matching President Biden’s imposition of the same rate earlier that year. Governments have usually cited China’s auto subsidies as the reason for these taxes, and Moolenaar and Moreno agreed that they represent unfair competition. “They’ll use trade practices to drive our businesses out of business,” the congressman said.

In Europe, the continued growth of Chinese EVs has recently led to calls for higher tariffs for the same reason.

But China’s progress isn’t just a matter of prices. Automakers like BYD, the largest EV manufacturer in the world, have been doing innovative work that has earned recognition from competitors. Last year, Ford CEO Jim Farley, who had a Xiaomi SU7 sedan specially imported for him to drive–called China’s rapid progress as “the most humbling thing I have ever seen.” 

Moreno, however, suggested that China’s success in EVs was part of a plot to make American expertise in building internal combustion engines irrelevant: “They pulled off the greatest scam on Earth.”

Privacy, Please

The House and Senate versions of the connected-vehicle bill have drawn dozens of co-sponsors, but it’s unclear if that will mean anything in a historically unproductive Congress. Moreno said backers hope to get this measure added to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act spending bill. 

Meanwhile, people already have good reasons to worry about the privacy of connected cars regardless of the national flag on the sticker. 

A 2023 report by Mozilla flunked all 25 car brands evaluated on privacy standards, and a 2024 investigation by researchers for Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ed Markey (D-MA) found weak data-protection practices across the industry, including at American automakers. 

Neither lawmaker at AEI mentioned this, so I asked if they had plans to address those anxieties.

“We should have guardrails to make sure we’re protecting people’s privacy,” Moolenaar said. “But there’s a huge difference between the American government and the Chinese government.”

Moreno decried defaults that require a customer to “go through 17 different screens” to opt out of having their data circulated. “It should be no unless I actually say yes,” he said. “Let the person choose.”

Congress as a whole has not acted as if that is a priority, year after year failing to enact any sort of comprehensive privacy statute. This year’s attempt, a Republican-written measure called the SECURE Data Act, is narrower than previous tries, has only been introduced in the House so far, and has only eight co-sponsors listed. Moolenaar is not among them.

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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.

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TL;DR: New users can lock in one year of Rosetta Stone Sapphire—access to all 25 languages—for $127.20 (MSRP $159).

Rosetta Stone recently launched its new Sapphire platform, and a one-year subscription is 20% off right now. New users can explore languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Mandarin through immersion learning rather than drills and flashcards.

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As long as we’ve had smartphones, we’ve wanted to charge them faster. Each year, the newest phones come out with incredible advancements in fast charging technology. While a 30W charger used to feel incredibly fast, it’s now a pretty standard charging speed, replaced by blistering figures over 100W in the fastest phones. A few years back, Realme debuted a 150W phone capable of charging to 50% in just five minutes. The iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 40W charger can reach a 50% charge in 20 minutes.

But as phone makers experiment with faster charging, concerns about overheating and battery degradation have risen. Is the device in my pocket just one fast charge away from exploding? In short: probably not, but there are still a few things to know.

Read more: Stop Stressing About Your Phone Battery

Why Phone Batteries Lose Charge Capacity Over Time

Ever wonder how a phone actually charges? Lithium-ion batteries (the type used in iPhone and Android devices) have two layers—lithium cobalt oxide and graphite. When lithium ions move from the graphite layer to the lithium cobalt layer through an electrolyte solution, electrons get released. When you charge the battery, the ions move back in the other direction and are stored to be released later.

Your Phone’s Battery Sucks. Here’s How to Fix It

That release of energy creates the heat you may feel radiating from the back of your phone after a long charging session or heavy use. And, yes, that heat can damage the battery in the long term. However, I need to stress that li-ion batteries have become smaller and more efficient over the years. They can handle more charge cycles—going from depleted, to full, and back down again—before they begin to lose their charge capacity.

For a visual breakdown, I think the below video from tech YouTube channel Branch Education offers a helpful representation.

As your smartphone goes through charge cycle after charge cycle, it degrades naturally. This is unavoidable. Over time, the salts in the electrolyte solution within the battery can crystallize, forming solids that block the transmission of ions through the solution. If fewer ions get through, fewer electrons are released, and the battery can’t provide as much power as it did when it was new. 

Additionally, if you put more power into the battery than it’s designed to accept, it can disrupt the delicate balance inside a Li-ion cell. This can remove too many lithium ions from the battery’s internal structure. And once that lithium’s gone, you can’t really put it back.

These processes can happen more quickly if your phone is exposed to excessive heat, such as when you draw a lot of power from the battery at once with a fast charger. However, it’s worth noting that the same thing can happen just by leaving your phone in a car on a hot summer day.

(Credit: Samsung)

How Phones Mitigate Battery Damage

In the early days of fast charging, batteries got very hot when charging quickly. Phones weren’t built to vent excess heat from the battery effectively, so they were more prone to overheating. But guess what? Current phones are now much better at ventilation and don’t have this issue. For instance, phones now have heat shields, thermal layers, and even cooling pipes to move heat away from the battery. I’ve even seen some gaming phones with cooling fans.

Apple’s iPhone has battery optimization settings (Credit: Apple)

Plus, phones are now built with features that manage the flow of power going to the battery during a charge. Your phone will stop taking in power once the battery is full, even if it remains plugged in, which is why I’m not worried about my phone bursting into flames when I charge it overnight.

Adaptive charging features also help optimize things by “learning” your behavior so the phone holds off on charging to 100% until closer to when you actually need it. Multi-stage charging means more power is directed into the battery at first, but trickles off as it approaches 100%, so you’re not getting 80W of power the entire time. 

Manufacturers are also always developing new charging protocols and battery designs to help get more juice to phone batteries in less time. In recent years, Apple has added a collection of battery performance settings and Google introduced a Battery Health Assistant to its line of Pixel phones that can automatically adjust voltage and charging speeds. More advanced batteries, cables, and power supplies will help manage heat and cut down on any adverse effects, too. So, really, don’t worry about using fast charging.

How to Check Your Phone’s Battery Health

Don’t believe me? Your iPhone should let you check for yourself by showing the current health of your battery, including maximum capacity, if a replacement is recommended, cycle count, and more, under Settings > Battery > Battery Health.

Older phones have fewer options, but if you have an iPhone 15 or later running iOS 17.4, I recommend checking Cycle Count, which can help you track how heavily the battery’s capacity has been used up. On iOS 26, you also get a redesigned Battery Settings page with improved battery usage statistics and a new feature to extend battery life.

Android users have fewer options. To see cycle counts, open Settings > About phone > Battery information on Google’s Pixel 8a and later. Samsung users will need the Samsung Members app to see cycle counts and other battery health information. If your device isn’t compatible, I recommend using one of several third-party diagnostic apps to find the information you need.

(Credit: Apple)

Should You Use Fast Charging?

So, is fast charging really that bad for your phone? Well, yes and no. It can be hard on your battery, especially if it runs for a long time at high power. But modern phones are now designed with battery charging management features to make serious damage far less likely. But keep in mind that, as YouTuber Marques Brownlee points out, a lot of these advancements are still too new to know whether they work the way they should in the long term.

Right now, I’m comfortable knowing my phone has features that are supposed to help keep it running as intended. However, I’ll admit that we do ultimately need more data to answer the question definitively, and not just take the manufacturer’s word for it. For now, if you take care of the battery (and follow our advice), this degradation will happen more slowly. Just remember this happens to all Li-ion batteries eventually, no matter what you do, so don’t beat yourself up too much over it. 

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John is a writer/photographer currently based in Houston, Texas. He’s written on everything from politics to crypto wallets and worked as a photojournalist covering notable events like the Astros Victory Parade and the Day for Night Music Festival. Current hobbies include learning to shoot 35mm film, building Spotify playlists, and working his way through that menacing TBR stack on the nightstand.

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TL;DR: Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus is now $54.99 (MSRP $249.99), giving you the newest desktop version of Office with no monthly fees.

Paying for Microsoft 365 every month is unnecessary. Microsoft Office 2024 Professional Plus offers a stupidly cheap route with a one-time purchase, installed directly on your PC, for less than $60.

Office 2024 Includes

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For anyone still deciding between renting Office each year and owning it outright, this is as low as the newest version gets.

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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+.

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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.

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TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to ChatPlayground AI is on sale for $59.97 (reg. $619) through July 19. It runs the same prompt through more than 20 AI models at once, so you can compare answers without juggling tabs.

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

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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.

Get a ChatPlayground AI lifetime subscription for $59.97, down from $619, before the deal ends July 19.

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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.

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.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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.

Read Full Bio

The hunt for electronics deals is a constantly changing one, as retailers and brands raise and lower prices in response to all sorts of factors. At the core, though, are the detailed reviews that PCMag’s experts write daily. I refuse to recommend a product that hasn’t been extensively tested by my co-workers, because I know that they are thorough, unbiased, and have decades of experience. It’s my job to take those high-quality items and find the deepest discounts, and that’s what we have here: five great products at price cuts of up to 50% off.

Garmin Venu Sq Smartwatch

1.41-inch AMOLED display, Android, iOS, 8 days battery life

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$149.99
at Amazon

$249.99
Save $100.00

Get Deal

There are plenty of smartwatch brands on the market, but one that often runs under the radar is Garmin, which made its name in GPS before venturing into wearables. We gave the Venu Sq an Editors’ Choice award in our review, with watch expert Angela Moscaritolo saying it easily lapped the similarly-priced Apple Watch SE and Galaxy Watch 5, with better battery life, tons of fitness tracking tools, and a big, bright display. Geolocation is a big part of the feature set, with over 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps to track a wide variety of exercises, as well as preloaded and customizable workout routines. Even if you’re not a health nut, cool features like mobile payments, weather forecasts, and other stuff make it worth the cash.

TCL QM8L 65-inch 4K SQD-Mini LED Smart TV

65-inch display, 4K, 144Hz refresh rate, Google TV

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$1,747.82
at Best Buy

$2,499.99
Save $752.17

Get Deal

One of the most important metrics we evaluate in our TV reviews is brightness. Without a potent enough backlight, your screen can be washed out or even unusable when the sun is out. That’s why we were so dazzled by the TCL QM8L in our review that we gave it an Editors’ Choice award and a first-ever Lab Test Winner award. This is the brightest TV we’ve ever tested, with color quality and contrast to match, even when viewing from the diagonal. It’s a powerhouse that excels for streaming, gaming, and sports. We even praised the remote control, which has backlighting, a customizable shortcut button, and a rocker switch that adjusts brightness without opening a menu. Best Buy has it on sale for 30% off.

Nothing Phone (3)

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$599.00
at Amazon

$799.00
Save $200.00

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There’s no mobile device that looks like the Nothing Phone (3), and it packs enough cool functionality to match its design. Made by a British company looking to stand out as an alternative to the big brands, it’s made from 100% recycled aluminum with Gorilla Glass 7i protecting the 6.67-inch AMOLED display. Peak brightness of 4,500 nits is outrageously good. On the back, there are solid cameras and the unique Glyph Matrix, an array of 489 micro-LEDs that display text and visualizations. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor is powerful enough for high-end mobile gaming, and both battery life and charging time also impressed us. You can read our full review for all the details.

Roborock Saros Z70 Robot Vacuum

Vacuum / mop, 111 minutes battery life,

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$999.99
at Best Buy

$1,999.99
Save $1,000.00

Get Deal

We love it when companies take big swings, and the Saros Z70 is an absolutely wild take on the traditional robot vacuum, with a five-axis robotic arm protruding from the top. That mechanical limb is used for all kinds of things while it cleans your floor. It can pick up objects as heavy as 10.58 ounces and deposit them in pre-selected areas, so if you leave your socks everywhere, it’ll take them back to the bin. You can also manually control the robot arm while it’s cleaning, using the onboard camera with an app on your phone to target items. In our review, we were impressed by how well it navigated, never getting stuck in all of our tests, as well as having good battery life.

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro Gaming Headset

USB, Bluetooth, active noise cancellation, 12 hours battery life

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$169.94
at Amazon

$329.99
Save $160.05

Get Deal

If audio quality is just as important as visuals in your gaming life, you should really pick up a high-quality headset. Luckily for you, the excellent Turtle Beach Stealth Pro is on sale for 49% off right now at Amazon. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen it. We have a detailed review of this model, with high praise for its exceptional active noise cancellation, which effectively blots out the world to give you peak concentration. We also liked the dual swappable batteries, letting you charge and play at the same time, and the microphone was clear and responsive. At almost half off, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Want to keep even more money in your pocket? Our deals page saves you tons on top tech.

About Our Expert

K. Thor Jensen

Contributing Writer

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Experience

K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, Cloud Stories, was released in 2017.

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