Connect with us

Technologies

CNET’s Daily Tariff Price Tracker: Xbox Up, Other Prices Steady

Check out CNET’s price tracker for details on how things are shaping up for several popular products, including recent jumps for Xbox Series X game consoles.

The Trump administration this week backtracked somewhat on its tariffs against China, dropping the overall rates from 145% to 30% for 90 days — till Aug. 10 — while deeper trade negotiations continue, and cutting the «de minimis» rate for smaller orders. While these moves will go some way to averting an economic war, the rates against China are still historically high and likely to cause painful price hikes for everyday consumers.

In this article, we’re closely tracking the effect of Presdient Donald Trump’s tariffs on the prices of 11 popular products you might want or need to buy, whether it be a new phone, laptop or your daily coffee. So far, we’ve seen notable price hikes for the flagship Xbox game console, while everything else has either remained steady or occasionally dropped in price for a sale. That sort of consistency is far from certain, however, especially with new reports emerging that Apple might be looking to make iPhones more expensive this year.

The China agreement is the second deal touted by the White House, following one last week with the UK that was scant on details and unlikely to affect the prices most relevant to everyday shoppers. Alongside the US deescalating rates against Chinese-made products, Beijing is dropping its rates against the US from 115% to 10% for the 90-day period. Still, the continuing 30% rate against Chinese imports is likely to cause major financial strains. The de minimis rate — most relevant to shoppers on discount Chinese shopping portals like Temu and Shein — has been cut from 120% to 54%, per a new executive order.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. 

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree. 

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes given its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

In April, Apple flew bulk shipments of iPhones into the US to get a stockpile here ahead of tariffs kicking in. In recent weeks, reports have indicated that the company is working on moving all manufacturing of US-bound iPhones out of China to India to evade the worst of Trump’s tariff agenda. However, it’s also been reported that the iPhone 19, planned for release in 2027, will need to stay in China, because of the level of complexity planned for its design, tied to the iPhone line’s 20th anniversary. On May 12, further reports emerged suggesting that Apple plans to raise the price of the iPhone with the forthcoming iPhone 17 line, but that it also plans to avoid attributing this to Trump’s tariffs.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if for any given household, they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. This model briefly saw a spike on Amazon from $400 to $470, but was back down the following day.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories were also affected, and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. The AirPods Pro 2 have hovered steadily around $200 on Amazon in 2025, but were on sale for $169 the first few days of May before jumping back up.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. While the price has remained steady throughout the year, it is currently on sale for $16 on Amazon, but only for Prime members.

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 2, #967

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 2 #967

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.


Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one for fans of Agatha Christie, as the last name of one of her detectives shows up in the grid. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Time.

Green group hint: Need to get in.

Blue group hint: Characters in a certain genre of books.

Purple group hint: They grow in the forest, sometimes, but there’s a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Duration.

Green group: Credentials for entry.

Blue group: Modern crime series protagonists.

Purple group: Trees plus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is duration. The four answers are interval, period, span and stretch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is credentials for entry. The four answers are lanyard, pass, stamp and wristband.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is modern crime series protagonists. The four answers are Bosch, Cross, Reacher and Ryan.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is trees plus a letter. The four answers are fair (fir), Marple (maple), popular (poplar) and psalm (palm).


Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.


Continue Reading

Technologies

I Found the 9 Best Gifts for Someone Who Isn’t Gonna Watch the Super Bowl

Here are some great gifts for loved ones who see Super Bowl Sunday as just a regular Sunday.

Super Bowl LX is this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET, and a lot of us are excited to watch the game, the halftime or both. But let’s face it, NFL games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. If you know someone whose birthday falls around now or want to show a non-football fan how much you appreciate them, we’ve got a list of gifts that’ll do the trick.

Continue Reading

Technologies

NordVPN Software Blocked 92% of Phishing Emails in Independent Testing

Phishing attempts continue to grow with help from generative AI and its believable deepfakes and voice impersonations.

NordVPN’s anti-malware software Threat Protection Pro blocked 92% of phishing websites in an independent lab test of several antivirus products, browsers and VPNs in results released this week. 

AV-Comparatives, based in Austria, attacked 15 products with 250 websites — all verified to be valid phishing URLs — in a test that ran Jan. 7 to 19. The lab said the products were tested in parallel and with active internet/cloud access. The Google Chrome browser was used for antivirus and VPN testing.


Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.


Phishing is a form of cyberattack in which a malicious actor tries to get someone to go «fishing,» with malicious URLs as bait. These phishing attempts might be sent in emails, but they also appear on websites, in texts and in voicemails.

You might get an email that says your bank account has been hacked and you should click on a URL to solve the problem. Or an email says you’ve won a big prize, instructing you to click on a URL to redeem. During tax season, the amount of scam emails and texts increases dramatically, with AI often used to ramp up the numbers. CNET offers tips for how to detect phishing attempts on even the most sophisticated of emails.

«By creating a sense of trust and urgency, cybercriminals hope to prevent you from thinking critically about their bait message so that they can gain access to your sensitive or personal information like your password, credit card numbers, user data, etc,» warns the US State Department website. «These cybercriminals may target specific individuals, known as spear phishing, or cast a wide net to attempt to catch as many victims as possible.»

In the AV-Comparatives test, which evaluated phishing-page detection and false-positive rates, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro ranked fourth among security products, blocking 92% of the 250 phishing URLs tested. The highest scoring included:

  • Avast Free Antivirus 95%
  • Norton Antivirus Plus 95%
  • Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus 93%

On its website, NordVPN says Threat Protection Pro protects devices even when they are not connected to a VPN. The company says the software can thwart phishing attempts and prevent malware from infecting your computer in several ways — alerts about malicious websites; blocking cookies that can learn about your browsing habits; and stopping pop-ups and intrusive ads.

According to cybersecurity company Hoxhunt, the total volume of phishing attacks has skyrocketed by 4,151% since the advent of ChatGPT in 2022, with a cost to companies of $4.88 million per phishing breach. 

With the rapid expansion of AI across the internet, the volume of phishing attacks is growing. Some AI-generated phishing scams are able to get past email filters, but Hoxhunt found that only 0.7% to 4.7% of phishing emails were written by AI. However, cybercriminals are using AI to expand their phishing tools. AI can create deepfake videos and voice-impersonation phone calls to redirect payments or gain access to sensitive data.

AI scams will be tough to root out. CNET reported that 62% of executives had been targets of phishing attempts, including voice- and text-based scams, with 37% reporting invoice or payment fraud, all from generative AI.

Although NordVPN’s product might be effective at preventing malware from infecting your computer, it can’t eliminate malware that may already be on it. To clean up those issues, CNET lists the best antivirus software of 2026 and the best free antivirus apps. Those products can scan your computer and hopefully eradicate any malware and viruses that might be there.

More from CNETBest VPN Service for 2026: Our Top Picks in a Tight Race

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Verum World Media