Technologies
21 browser extensions and apps that’ll save you money this holiday season
From the Honey extension to OctoShop, these tools will slash your online shopping bills.

The dust and pixels from Black Friday and Cyber Monday have settled (though many of the best deals are still good). And we’re now in the thick of the holiday shopping season. Is your wallet ready?
According to a recent survey from the National Retail Federation, people plan to spend almost $1,000 on gifts, holiday items and non-gift purchases this year despite supply chain issues. If reading that number awakens your inner Scrooge, we found 11 apps and browser extensions to make sure you don’t start the new year with an empty bank account.
Read more: Browser extensions for free books, better privacy and less distraction
A quick privacy note: The extensions on this list work by scanning every site you visit for potential coupons, which could potentially expose you to some security issues. Before installing any of them, it’s worth your while to check out its privacy policy.
Honey
Honey compares prices between Amazon, Amazon’s third-party sellers and other online retailers, factoring in estimated shipping costs and Prime status to find the best deal.
Once you install the browser extension (on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Edge) and navigate to a product page on Amazon, you’ll see the «h» icon appear over the product photo. Clicking it takes you to the Drop List feature, which shows the product’s price history and lets you set an alert for drops. If you see a tag that says «Best deal,» you can be confident that no other Amazon seller offers a lower price.
You can also search for products through the extension or on Honey’s website to see current and historical pricing, coupons and availability on a range of e-commerce sites such as Walmart, JCPenney and Home Depot.
PriceBlink
PriceBlink also offers price comparisons and coupons, but with a slightly different interface. Once installed (on Chrome or Firefox), when you navigate to an online shopping site, a yellow bar will appear at the top of the screen. It will alert you to any available deals and coupons on the site, and if a better price is available elsewhere.
When you navigate to an item on Amazon, click «Compare prices» on the bar at the top to see where else it’s available, along with the base price, shipping costs and total price. If Amazon has the best price, the bar will say «Next best price.» If it doesn’t, it will say «Savings found! Buy this for less» and list the amount and the other site.
PriceBlink also lets you track pricing over time and add items to your wish list, as well as find coupons on its website.
InvisibleHand
InvisibleHand is a browser extension that looks for the lowest prices on rental cars, hotels and flights in addition to coupons and deals from online retailers. That way traveling across the country to see your in-laws won’t break the bank (just your spirits).
Pricescout
Similar to both Honey and PriceBlink, Pricescout can find coupon codes for you, while also comparing prices across different retailers. While you’re shopping, it scans the sites of over 21,000 retailers and will pop up with better prices.
Capital One Shopping
Capital One Shopping is a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. Once installed, the extension will instantly apply the best available coupons and discounts codes to your purchase at checkout.
The expansion does price comparison among other retailers and sellers across Amazon as well, so you can find the best deal possible without having to research it yourself. The extension says it even offers rewards while you shop that can be redeemed as gift cards.
Rakuten
Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, is an e-commerce site that gives customers cash-back for shopping. Former CNET editor Rick Broida described it as «easy to use and comes with no strings attached.» Rakuten, however, does collect data about where you shop and what you buy.
Read more: Surprising ways to get cash back without even trying
Available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari, the Rakuten browser extension alerts you when cash-back savings are available and saves you the detour to Rakuten’s site when actively purchasing. It sometimes finds coupon codes for you as well.
Octoshop
The OctoShop browser extension compares prices across retailers, but it also has the ability to notify you when a product, like the Xbox Series X, Playstation 5 or Nintendo Switch OLED, restocks. You can set restock notifications for different retailers as well as price drop alerts. It also compares shipping speeds so you aren’t waiting until next year for your order.
OctoShop is available on Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
RetailMeNot
RetailMeNot’s Deal Finder browser extension automatically applies the best available discount codes and cash-back options at checkout. The extension is supported by more than 20,000 retailers, including Target, Macy’s, Lenovo and DoorDash. CNET has been singing the tool’s praises since 2010 for making online coupon hunting less annoying.
Piggy
Piggy finds the lowest prices available and automatically applies coupon slides and cash-back options at checkout. The extension works at over 6,000 online stores including Amazon and eBay. According to Piggy, the extension can save you up to 55% on select hotels as well.
Slickdeals
Like many other browser extensions on this list, Slickdeals shows customers the best deals, coupons and cash-back options available at the time of purchase from the online retailers that support it.
Cently for Chrome
Cently, formerly known as Coupons at Checkout, is a Chrome extension that finds coupon codes for thousands of online retailers and shows you the best ones at checkout. Cently also has a feature called Amazon Best Price which tells you when a product is cheaper from another Amazon seller.
Amazon Assistant for Chrome
If you’re an Amazon fanatic, you’ll love this extension. The Amazon Assistant for Chrome is Amazon’s official browser extension. It finds you the Deal of the Day, offers product and price comparisons and saves products from any website to your Amazon wish list.
The Camelizer from Camelcamelcamel
Most savvy shoppers know that shopping at certain times can snag you the best deals. The Camelizer is an extension that shows you the price history of an item you’re browsing on Amazon to help you decide whether to buy now or wait for a better deal. It will also send you price drop alerts via email or Twitter, and you can import your Amazon wish list so that you’ll know when your heart’s desire goes on sale.
Pro tip: If The Camelizer graph looks a little funny, right-click it and open it in a new tab.
Offers.com
Offers.com is a place to check for special deals such as free shipping, buy-one-get-one-free and other perks that can save you money when shopping online. This Firefox extension also finds coupon codes. When it finds a code, it saves it for you and adds it to your shopping cart. The extension also opens another browser page and displays all of the sales for the site you’re viewing, so you never miss a great deal.
Fakespot
User reviews give you an idea of the quality of a product before you buy. The problem is, many companies hire people to post good reviews for bad products on sites like Amazon. Fakespot is an extension that analyzes reviews to see which ones are baloney and which you can trust so you’re less likely to waste your money on a dud.
CouponCabin
CouponCabin is different from other money-saving browser extensions because it gives you little tips every time you do a search on Google, whether you’re wanting to buy or not. Say you’re Googling information on the latest Stephen King book. CouponCabin will give you a little alert in your search results that it’s on sale. You can also earn 10% cash back by using this extension.
ShopSavvy
The ShopSavvy app uses your phone’s camera to scan barcodes to find the best price from physical and digital retailers. Its website also offers «Best Time to Buy» guides, which chart price fluctuations on products like computers, cameras and televisions over the past 90 days.
ShopSavvy is free to download in the App Store and the Play store.
Affirm
Affirm helps you pay off more expensive purchases — like the Apple Watch Series 7 or a new gaming console — in smaller installments. Affirm offers financing plans that range between three months to two years, with interest rates between zero and 30%. There are no late fees, but missing payments could hurt your credit score. Not all retailers accept Affirm, but Amazon and more than 11,000 other online retailers do.
Affirm is free to download in the App Store and the Play store.
AfterPay
AfterPay is another buy now, pay later option. While other apps might let you make smaller payments over a longer period of time, with AfterPay you only make four payments. The first payment is due upon checkout, and usually the other payments are due every other week. There’s also an option to make payments once a month. As long as you make your payments, you won’t be charged any late fees or interest. If you miss a payment, you’re charged $10, and if you don’t make the payment within seven days, you’re charged another $7. AfterPay isn’t accepted at Amazon, but it is accepted by more than 85,000 online retailers.
AfterPay is free to download in the App Store and the Play store.
Splitwise
Splitwise is an app that makes splitting any bills over the holidays easy. The app lets you create groups and add people by name or email. Enter the price of a group dinner or a hotel room and then split the cost among the group members. You can split the cost evenly or you can enter different amounts for people in your group. Splitwise Pro can also scan receipts and recognize different items on the receipt so they can be assigned to members of your group. The Pro version can also convert bills using exchange rates on international trips. One downside to Splitwise is you can’t settle up in the app. You either pay in cash or use another app like Venmo.
Splitwise is free to download in the App Store and the Play store. Splitwise Pro costs $3 a month or $30 annually.
Venmo
The Venmo app makes it easy to give cash for the holidays, and who doesn’t like cash? The app also lets you split bills from retailers that accept Venmo as payment. Otherwise, you have to do the math and request money from people through the app. Using Venmo in conjunction with Splitwise could help alleviate that stress.
Venmo is free to download in the App Store and the Play store.
Looking for more deals? Check out how to take advantage of Amazon Warehouse Deals, the best budget app for 2021, some TikTok money-saving tips, how to make your budget recession-proof and all of the deals we collect daily on CNET. We also have a list of ways to save money every day on things around your home and streaming services, as well as gas, electric and water bills.
Technologies
Camera Champions Face Off: iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra
When photo quality is a top consideration, the best phones from Apple and Samsung are amazing. But which is better? It’s time to find out.

When you’re looking for the best camera to carry in your pocket, you need to consider today’s top-tier phones. The imaging capabilities of the iPhone 16 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra are among the best money can buy. And with travel season ramping up, carrying a phone may be the most convenient camera. But for photo details how do these two mobile titans compare?
To find out, I shot hundreds of photos using both phones in a variety of conditions to see which phone takes the best-looking images. What’s «best» is often down to personal perspective so while I’ll be giving my personal take on each test as a professional photographer and giving my reasons why I prefer one over the other, you may well find that you prefer the other. So have a look through the range of examples here and see if you come to a different conclusion.
Read more: Best Camera Phone of 2025
All images shown have been taken using each phone’s default camera mode using default settings, unless otherwise stated. While images from the Galaxy S25 have been uploaded as taken, the iPhone’s images have had to be converted through Adobe Lightroom as our publishing platform doesn’t support Apple’s default HEIF image format. This process doesn’t affect the image in any way.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Starting out with an easy outdoor scene. Both phones have done a great job capturing an even exposure here and both images are packed with detail. It’s difficult to choose between them, but the iPhone has the edge for me as it’s achieved a slightly warmer image with more natural-looking tones. The S25 Ultra’s image looks too saturated, especially in the blue sky, which I find quite distracting.
It’s much the same story when we switch to the ultrawide lenses on both phones. I prefer the warmer tones in the iPhone’s shot, which makes the S25 Ultra’s look quite cold by comparison. I also prefer the lighter shadows on the iPhone’s image, making it an easy win for the iPhone here. Notably, both phones are doing a good job of compensating for the ultrawide lenses at the edges (a function turned on by default on both phones); the railing remains straight in each shot and not curving as you’d typically see using a lens this wide.
There’s almost no difference between these two outdoor scenes. The blossom looks crisp on both images, with excellent overall exposure. The iPhone’s image is again slightly warmer in tone but it’s negligible.
The Galaxy S25 takes an easy win with this image of bluebells. The colors are much more vibrant, especially in the greens on the blades of grass, which look quite washed out on the iPhone’s image. It actually looks like the S25’s camera lens is slightly polarized to reduce reflections and increase saturation, but I don’t know if that’s the case. Either way, Samsung takes the win here.
At 5x zoom things get worse for the iPhone. Despite the bluebells being reasonably far away, the phone seemed unable to achieve a sharp focus on the flowers. The S25 Ultra, meanwhile, managed to achieve a sharp image with richer colors.
I prefer the iPhone’s image here though. It’s brighter and the warmer colors on the bricks on the surrounding buildings look much more true to life.
The iPhone’s image is again brighter here and I prefer its colors too. The Galaxy S25 Ultra does have the edge in fine detail, though. You really need to zoom in to see it but the tiny lines on the building are slightly sharper on the S25.
The S25 Ultra does have a physical advantage over the iPhone with its 10x optical zoom lens, which allows it to zoom in even further while still maintaining a pin-sharp image.
You can still digitally zoom in with the iPhone to 10x, and the results aren’t bad. I prefer the colors of the S25 Ultra’s shot here, but the difference in detail isn’t that noticeable.
Zooming in close to see the fine details, the S25 Ultra’s optical zoom image definitely has a bit more clarity but the digital upscaling on the iPhone’s shot has done a great job here, as the difference isn’t immense.
iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Night modes compared
At first glance, the only real difference between the iPhone’s 5x shot and the S25 Ultra’s 5x shot is the color balance. And honestly, I don’t have a preference between the warmer tone of the iPhone or the more magenta bias of the S25.
However, when you zoom in close to the details, the iPhone has produced a sharper image here, with an odd sort of digital blurring around the lamp post in the S25 Ultra’s image. So sometimes the S25 Ultra’s zoom is sharper, other times it’s the iPhone’s. I’m glad they’re making this easy for me.
Again, the only real difference here is in the color balance and I don’t really know which I prefer. The exposure, noise levels and amount of detail are practically identical.
Things changed when I switched to the ultrawide lenses, though. The S25 Ultra’s shot is definitely brighter, capturing more detail in the cobblestones in the foreground and in the buildings in the distance. The iPhone’s image is much darker overall.
Just to confuse things further, the iPhone’s nighttime image with its ultrawide lens is noticeably brighter than the S25 Ultra’s in this example that I shot in the Arctic. I actually had to double-check the image metadata to make sure I hadn’t mixed these up, but I haven’t. The iPhone’s image has captured more light information here and produced more detail on the ice door to the right.
The iPhone’s nighttime image is again slightly brighter here but it’s also kept the bright highlights on the pub sign under control. On the S25 Ultra’s image, those highlights are almost lost to pure white but the lovely green and yellow tones have been retained in the iPhone’s image. The colors overall are noticeably warmer on the iPhone’s shot, however, which may not be to your taste. Here, I think they work well.
But in this example, the iPhone has produced a weirdly warm-looking image that I really don’t like. Those warm colors were not present at the time of capture and it doesn’t work for the scene, especially not with such strong orange tones in the sky. The S25 Ultra’s image is much more balanced overall and it’s a slightly sharper image too. It’s a very easy win for Samsung here.
Things don’t improve for the iPhone when using the ultra-wide lens. Its image is again plagued by overly warm tones, while the S25 Ultra’s shot is both more color-accurate and brighter.
iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which takes better selfies?
While the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s selfie is slightly brighter, I don’t like what it’s done with the colors. My face has been made a weird shade of orange and my denim jacket is a much deeper blue than it really is. The skin tones on the iPhone’s shot are much more accurate, and its shot is sharper as well.
Both phones have a wider-angle mode for the selfie camera, although the iPhone’s seems to be a lot wider. That’s definitely worth keeping in mind if you frequently like to cram lots of friends into your group pics. You could probably squeeze at least one or two extra friends in if you used the iPhone, or have to decide who you like least and leave them out of frame if you used the S25 Ultra. Otherwise, the image differences are the same as before.
iPhone 16 Pro Vs Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which camera is better?
I’ve written many of these comparison pieces on various generations of phones in my 14 years at CNET and I don’t remember having done one that’s felt this close. The problem is that neither phone excels consistently in one area; the iPhone 16 Pro’s ultra-wide shots aren’t as bright as the S25 Ultra’s, except on those occasions when they actually are, confusingly. I’ve taken many more images not included here that both support some of my conclusions and argue against them. Go figure.
But there are some takeaways I can give with confidence. Generally speaking, the iPhone’s colors are more natural than the S25 Ultra’s, which can sometimes look overly saturated. This has been the case with almost every Samsung phone since the company started putting cameras in them and it’s still the case today. Those looking for a more natural base image to apply your own filters and effects over will be better suited with the iPhone 16 Pro.
But that’s less the case at night, when the iPhone more consistently delivers warmer tones that look less natural than the S25 Ultra’s. So, if night photography is important to you, the S25 Ultra may be the better option. Overall, its night mode images from all lenses were brighter and sharper.
Sure, the S25 Ultra has the extended zoom range but you’d really need to know you’ll make the most of a 10x zoom to justify picking one over the other. Personally, I find the 5x zoom level a perfect sweet spot and here the phones are pretty much on par. And on those rare occasions you may want to push things further, the iPhone’s digital zoom can still deliver sharp results.
There are other things for photographers to consider too: Apple’s ProRaw is superb and while the company’s Photographic Styles can be good for adding a creative look to your images, Samsung’s new tool for mimicking the color grade from example photos you feed it works surprisingly well — I actually think I might get more use out of that overall. I haven’t even gone into video quality either, which is a whole other article, especially when you consider both phones shoot Log video, although only the iPhone uses ProRes.
Deciding between the phones based solely on the cameras is nigh on impossible. Which one you should get will instead come down to the bigger question of iOS versus Android; which platform you’re already using and which one will work best with other pieces of tech in your life. But for simple picture quality, you may as well toss a coin.
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Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
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