Technologies

How Netflix Can Calm the Password-Sharing Outcry

Commentary: We have a quick solution for Netflix’s password sharing woes…

Your mom lives in Ohio. You live in New York but you share a Netflix account. The same is true for the family whose kids are in college and for the couple living apart while one’s stationed on a military base overseas.

I see your stories. I feel you. I’ve been in the same boat.

People are not happy about Netflix’s move to start charging members extra fees to share accounts. The company’s been called out for a 5-year-old tweet: «Love is sharing a password.»

Even the card game Uno joined the Twitter roast to point out the about-face. Swarms of vocal Netflix subscribers are venting on social media — Netflix’s comment sections are really feeling the burn — and vowing to cancel their accounts and questioning why they’re paying for multiple screens.

Netflix has dubbed viewers outside of the primary household as extra members, or subaccounts. In Canada, where the prices are $16.50 for a standard plan and $21 for premium, the cost of adding an extra member is $8 per person. If a single streaming service costing $30 a month to stream on two or four screens sounds like a lot to you, I agree.

In the US, we still don’t know how much it’ll cost each month for extra members. When Netflix finally decides to tell us, I think it should also announce a couple of smart discounts.

Netflix needs a cheaper plan for students

Among those who are unhappy about the new policy are parents and their college kids. If Netflix insists on charging for password sharing, I think it should offer a no-frills student subscription.

College kids love to stream, and they’re often doing it on their parents’ accounts. Not as freeloaders, but as members of the household — even if their school is five states away. When we drop our 17- or 18-year-olds off at college, I bet no one is saying, «Time for me to kick you off Netflix, ya mooch.»

Rather than blocking kids who are attending school far from home, Netflix should offer a student plan that’s priced lower than its basic ad-supported subscription. Hulu, Paramount Plus and Spotify do it, proving that a blueprint exists.

All three platforms use SheerID to verify eligibility for college and university students. Hulu charges eligible students $2 a month for its ad-based plan. Spotify’s Premium Student subscription is $5 per month with the first month free and the added perk of free access to Showtime and Hulu with ads. Paramount Plus provides a 25% discount on its Essential plan for college students that lasts for four years, even if they graduate early.

If Netflix followed suit, it could find the sweet spot between $2 and $5 a month to help a broke college kid out. The company rolled out its $7 ad-based tier in January, joining the ranks of Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock and others who conquered that frontier. Adding a new subscription option aimed at students is reasonably within Netflix’s capabilities. If the streamer wants to keep its subscriber numbers up, why not?

Members of the military should get a discount too

Along with students who spend months — or years — away from home are service members. It’s common for a loved one to be stationed abroad while sharing a single Netflix account with family in their home country or state. Rather than geo-blocking them, or tagging on account-sharing fees, why not offer a military rate for active-duty members? It’s something that streaming services like Disney Plus, Apple TV and Discovery Plus offer for customers.

Why is Netflix charging fees for subaccounts?

For Netflix, everyone has to pay to hit play, specifically if you’re not living under the same roof. From a business perspective, the company wants to tap into opportunities to make money on shared accounts. Meant to fund content creation and overall operations, it was discussed during the company’s first-quarter earnings call in 2022. «Another focus is how best to monetize sharing — the 100M+ households using another household’s account,» the streamer wrote in its letter to shareholders. According to Netflix, more than 30 million of those who believe sharing is caring live in the US and Canada.

The extra costs are currently active in countries including Canada, Spain, New Zealand and Portugal. In some regions, the added fees also come with added steps, like verifying your device is connected to your primary location or sending invites to extra members to use your account.

I like Netflix, but none of the other major streamers is doing this. And as Fox 9 TV host Jason Matheson points out, it’s mighty inconvenient.

Netflix could lose out to the competition

With such a crowded streaming service market, every price hike, add-on fee and inconvenience can make one platform less of a necessity. Netflix is aware that though it was a pioneer in this space, there are rivals that want to be on top. Long ago, it edged out Blockbuster, showing how a business model can make or break a company’s survival.

Let’s not forget that content availability plays a huge role too, because if there’s nothing to watch to justify the monthly rate you’re paying, it’s time to drop something. We rotate our streaming services to save money or if we’ve run out of stuff to stream. If the extra cost is too high, especially in the US, Netflix should expect customers to churn for months at a time. That’s not to say services like HBO Max and Disney Plus are immune to being dropped, because they’ve had to contend with frustrated customers over price increases and show cancellations too.

However, the cost of password-sharing fees may be too high. Only time will tell if this new setup is worth it to Netflix, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to get customers around the world on board. One discount plan could help cushion the blow.

Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

See at Netflix

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Feb. 1, #1688

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Sunday, Feb. 1, No. 1,688.

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

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a tough one, with some unusual letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer means full of prickles.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is SPINY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 31, No. 1,687, was ALLOT.

Recent Wordle answers

Jan. 27, No. 1,683: DUSKY

Jan. 28, No. 1,684: CRUEL

Jan. 29, No. 1,685: FLAKY

Jan. 30, No. 1,686: JUMBO

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 1 #700

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Sunday, Feb. 1, No. 700.

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.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a bit of a challenge. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, and a couple are kind of long, 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: It’s a gift.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: For me, really?

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:

BONE, GONE, BONNET, NOTE, PRIDE, RING, TING, SENT, RENT, WARD, DRAW, SEEN, SEER, TORE, RANT, TRYING, DONATE, SIRE

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:

AWARD, BONUS, GRANT, PRESENT, DONATION, OFFERING

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is GENEROSITY. To find it, start with the G that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

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Technologies

I Tested the New AirTag and Found That Apple More Than Doubled Its Range

Review: Apple’s «AirTag 2» gets better at its job. The familiar white and chrome disc is a little louder, higher-pitched and easier to find.

While nearly everyone I know has been freezing and shoveling snow, I spent the past few days under San Francisco’s sunny skies, hiding and finding Apple’s new AirTag. I’m happy to report that it succeeded at its main job: I was able to locate it every time. The second-generation Bluetooth tracker looks and acts identical to the original AirTag, which debuted in 2021, but internal upgrades make it even easier to find.

Over the past five years, the AirTag has become a popular way to track your luggage, keys, car, bike, pets (though you really shouldn’t clip one to Mr. Cupcakes) and nearly anything else you can attach the tiny white and silver disc to. The AirTag also sparked a conversation about privacy, specifically around Apple’s built-in safeguards that prevent it from being used to track someone unwillingly. Apple later expanded those features to protect both iPhone and Android phone owners.

Do we really need a new AirTag? No. But its new features are nice.

This isn’t your typical yearly tech upgrade, like a new phone with a faster processor. The first AirTag is already great. Yeah, it has shortcomings, like not having a hole for a key ring, which forces you to buy a holder to attach it to things. But its best feature is Apple’s Find My network, an encrypted, invisible service connecting over 1 billion devices, including iPhones, Macs and trackers. The AirTag is your key to the Find My kingdom.

In my time testing the second-gen AirTag, I discovered that the latest iteration is also great. It has shortcomings like that missing key ring hole, but the Find My network is still the star. Apple improved the tracker’s ability to be found. The chime is higher-pitched and louder.

When trying to locate it in the Find My app, Precision Finding picked up the new AirTag over twice as far away as it did the old AirTag. The AirTag 2, as we’ve nicknamed it, also supports Precision Finding on my Apple Watch, though setting it up isn’t straightforward.

The second-gen AirTag is on sale now: $29 for one and $99 for a four-pack. And just like the OG version, if you order online directly from Apple, you can get it engraved.

AirTag 1 vs. AirTag 2

When I first unboxed the second-gen AirTag, I was surprised to see that it had the same bulbous Mento design as the original. This allows the new AirTag to be used with the gazillion accessories people already have. But there are differences. The white shell’s resin is now made of 85% recycled plastic. I’m curious to see whether the white casing scuffs as easily as the original.

(That fine print etched on the back? That’s how you can identify a second-gen AirTag from an original: The new one has its text printed in ALL CAPS — except «AirTag,» because Apple presumably wants to keep the intercap.)

If you have the original AirTag, there’s no reason to get rid of it and buy the new version. I can see swapping out an existing AirTag with a second-gen one if you frequently use Precision Finding for important items like keys and everyday bags — and especially if you want to access that feature on your Apple Watch.

If you can choose between the second-gen AirTag and the first-gen model at a discount, I’d go with the discounted original for most items. The first AirTag model does nearly everything the new one can do.

The new AirTag can be found farther away

The new tracker has upgraded Bluetooth connectivity, making it more discoverable to nearby iPhones, which can piggyback its location information anonymously back to its owner. A second-generation Ultra Wideband chip gives the new AirTag a longer range for Precision Finding.

CNET’s Social Media Producer Faith Chihil and I made the trek to Salesforce Park, a green space atop a San Francisco bus station, to run an AirTag test. I gave Faith my old AirTag that I use for traveling, aptly named Patrick’s Luggage, and the new one, named New AirTag. I then walked a few hundred feet away and opened the Find My app on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. I looked for the New AirTag first. I hit the Find button and then got to walking. My iPhone started picking it up 110 feet away. The green «you’re going the right way» screen with an arrow appeared 85 feet away from the new AirTag.

I repeated the test with the Patrick’s Luggage AirTag, and my iPhone started picking it up 42 feet away, and the green screen appeared 37 feet away. In this simple test, the second-gen AirTag was findable at over twice the distance away as my first-gen Apple tracker.

I should note that there are a lot of factors that come into play when trying to find your AirTag. Our range testing was done around lunchtime, so there were a lot of people with iPhones walking by to pick up the tag’s initial location so that my phone could use the Find My network to zero in on it. Also, we were outdoors along a walking path, so we didn’t have walls, rugs or furniture to contend with for the Precision Finding.

The new AirTag supports Precision Finding on the Apple Watch

The second-gen Ultra Wideband chip on the new AirTag also supports Precision Finding for the first time on certain Apple Watch models running WatchOS 26.2.1 or later:

Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Apple Watch Ultra 3

But getting it set up isn’t straightforward.

To use Precision Finding on the iPhone, you go to the Items tab in the Find My app and select your AirTag. But when I went to the Find Items app on the watch, I could select the new AirTag, but there wasn’t a Precision Finding option.

A quick online search later, I found an Apple Support page that explained how the Apple Watch uses the Control Center to do it. I had to add a new Find Items button, called Find AirTag, to the Control Center and then tap it to put my watch into Precision Finding mode. Indoors, it found my AirTag from 65 feet away. It might go farther, but our office isn’t that big.

My Apple Watch doesn’t have cellular data, so when I was indoors on Wi-Fi, it worked fantastic. When I was outdoors, connected to my iPhone, it worked mostly fine, but at times it took longer to update my AirTag’s location.

The new AirTag is louder

If you’ve ever used the AirTag’s Play Sound feature through the iPhone’s Find My app, you know that Apple «I’m over here» chime. The new AirTag plays the same tune but is higher-pitched and louder, making it easier to find.

I tested the second-gen AirTag’s chime against the first one using an iPhone audio meter app (not the most scientific, but I wanted to visualize the difference). The original AirTag’s chime peaked at 67.3 dBA, while the new AirTag’s hit 77.5 dBA, more than twice as loud as the old model (remember, decibels are logarithmic).

The new AirTag final thoughts

When I set out to test the AirTag, I was concerned there wouldn’t be much to talk about. But after my time with it, I’ve discovered a lot to share. Namely, I’m a fan. I was already a fan of the first one, and that’s the key. Apple kept all the best aspects of the original AirTag while adding slight improvements. There was no dramatic redesign or price increase. It’s just the familiar white and chrome disc that is a little louder, higher-pitched and easier to find from quite a bit farther away.

I know some people hoped Apple would launch a credit card-style AirTag or one in different colors. It seems that Apple is more than happy to have other companies do that and participate in its Works with Apple Find My program. And I’m OK with that, too.