Technologies

PlayStation Plus Deals: How to Save Cash on Sony’s Gaming Subscriptions

We break down how PlayStation’s multitiered subscription works and the best ways to get signed up for less.

This year brought some big changes to Sony’s gaming subscriptions. In the past, PlayStation users had two different memberships to choose from — PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. But after an overhaul that took place in June, both of those subscriptions have been rolled into a single service with multiple membership tiers, though it still falls under the PlayStation Plus label. To help you get a handle on how things have changed, and find the right membership tier for you, we’ve broken down the different options below.

We haven’t seen many deals since the service was overhauled, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely nonexistent. Below, you’ll find just about the only PlayStation Plus deal available at the moment, but we’re hoping to see some more deals and offers on the updated PS Plus service start to crop up in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check back here often for the best prices available. And for even more savings, be sure to check out our roundup of the best bargains on PlayStation gear and accessories.

What’s changed?

Before the revamp, PlayStation offered users two different subscription services. PlayStation Plus was a $10-per-month service similar to Xbox Live Gold that allowed users to play games online and participate in multiplayer matches. PlayStation Now was a $10-per-month cloud gaming service that gave players access to a huge library of classic titles from the PS2, PS3 and PS4. The revamp, which went live in June, has essentially rolled both memberships into a single, multitiered subscription, though it will still technically fall under the PS Plus label. There are three different membership packages available, combining different features and benefits of both previous subscriptions.

PS Plus: Essential

At $10 per month or $60 for the year, PS Plus: Essential is essentially no different than the previous PS Plus subscription. It offers all the same features, including access to online play, two monthly games for free, cloud storage and exclusive discounts at the PlayStation Store. If you had a PS Plus membership before the revamp went live, it was automatically converted to an Essential membership.

PS Plus: Extra

At $15 per month or $100 for the year, a midtier Extra subscription is somewhat similar to the Game Pass Ultimate membership offered to Xbox users. It includes all the benefits and features of an Essential membership, but also gives you access to a catalog of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games. The selection includes plenty of hit titles like God of War, Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima.

PS Plus: Premium

A Premium membership is the highest tier available, and clocks in at either $18 per month or $120 for a full year. In addition to all the benefits of both an Essential and Extra subscription, it gives you access to a massive library of more than 700 games. That includes the recent PS4 and PS5 hits from the Extra subscription, but also a catalog of more than 300 classics from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 eras (similar to the pervious PS Now subscription). It also allows you to stream many of these classic titles, so you don’t have to worry about them eating up your valuable storage space. You also get access to time-limited game trials, so you can try out new games before you commit to a purchase. If you had a subscription to PS Now before the revamp went live, it was automatically converted to a Premium membership.

PS Plus deals

Things were pretty chaotic leading up to the revamp, with people stacking discounted memberships and racking up hundreds in savings before Sony got wise to the loophole. It’s been closed for a while now, and we haven’t seen too many chances to save on a service since. Sony and retailers appear to have pulled any remaining membership codes to the now-discontinued PS Now service, but if you’re only interested in the Essential-tier membership, there are still a few holdover deals on the original PS Plus.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

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

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult to unscramble so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

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.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now 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 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: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus 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 keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.