Technologies

iPhone Batteries Will Get More Expensive Soon. How to Check Yours and Replace It

Starting in March, Apple is raising the price of phone batteries for all models except the iPhone 14.

Is your iPhone slow to charge? Does it have trouble maintaining a charge throughout the day, or unexpectedly shut down? If so, you might want to consider getting a new battery.

And you probably want to do it ASAP. Apple recently announced that starting March 1, you’ll have to pay $20 more to replace your battery through Apple’s existing services (except for the iPhone 14 models, since that price is staying the same).

So how do you find out if you really do need to replace your battery? We’ll show you how to check out your battery’s health via your iPhone settings, as well as what you can do to prolong your battery’s lifespan.

How to check on your iPhone battery’s health

Your iPhone battery becomes less effective over time, but you could also have a faulty battery on a brand-new iPhone. To quickly check if there’s an issue with your battery health, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging. If you’re running anything below iOS 16.1, the latter will appear as just Battery Health.

At the top, you’ll see the maximum capacity of your battery, which should be 100%, or close to it, if you have a relatively new iPhone.

However, what you want to look at is Peak Performance Capability and the sentence underneath that. If you see Your battery is currently supporting normal peak performance, you don’t have any recognized battery issues and you shouldn’t need a replacement.

iOS setting to check your iPhone battery's health — Check what it says under **Peak Performance Capability** to learn if you need to replace your battery.

Screenshot by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Do you need to replace your iPhone battery?

If you see any of the following messages, you may need to replace your battery, or at the very least make an appointment with Apple or an authorized service provider to check your battery out:

This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power. Performance management has been applied to help prevent this from happening again, or You have manually disabled performance management protections.
This iPhone is unable to determine battery health. An Apple Authorized Service Provider can service the battery. More about service options.
Your battery’s health is significantly degraded. An Apple Authorized Service Provider can replace the battery to restore full performance and capacity. More about service options.

Depending on whether you have insurance (third-party or AppleCare Plus) or not, you may not have to spend any money at all to replace your iPhone’s battery. If your iPhone is new, you have at least a one-year warranty to replace a defective battery. If you do not have insurance, Apple charges an estimated $49 to $99 to replace your battery. Additionally, you can check out the Apple Service Programs page to see if any replacement or repair programs are available for your device.

An iPhone battery being replaced — You can even replace your own battery.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Is there anything you can do to prolong your iPhone battery’s life?

The quicker you go through your daily battery life, the quicker your battery’s overall lifespan degrades, so here are some tips to follow, according to Apple:

Update to the latest software available.
Adjust your screen brightness (manually or automatically) as needed.
Use Wi-Fi when available.
Enable Low Power Mode as needed.
Turn off Background App Refresh (overall or an on a per-app basis).
Turn off Location Services (overall or on a per-app basis).
Turn off Allow Notifications.
Turn on Airplane Mode when applicable.
When you charge your phone with your computer, make sure your computer is plugged in.

Two iOS settings to help keep your battery's health — You can toggle on auto-brightness (left) and prevent apps from refreshing in the background (right) to improve your battery life and lifespan.

Screenshot by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

If you need more battery-saving tips for your iPhone, check out eight ways to improve iPhone battery life, two iOS 16 features to disable to save battery and what happens if you keep your iPhone in Low Power Mode all the time.

Technologies

New California Law Wants Companion Chatbots to Tell Kids to Take Breaks

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new requirements on AI companions into law on Monday.

AI companion chatbots will have to remind users in California that they’re not human under a new law signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The law, SB 243, also requires companion chatbot companies to maintain protocols for identifying and addressing cases in which users express suicidal ideation or self-harm. For users under 18, chatbots will have to provide a notification at least every three hours that reminds users to take a break and that the bot is not human.

It’s one of several bills Newsom has signed in recent weeks dealing with social media, artificial intelligence and other consumer technology issues. Another bill signed Monday, AB 56, requires warning labels on social media platforms, similar to those required for tobacco products. Last week, Newsom signed measures requiring internet browsers to make it easy for people to tell websites they don’t want them to sell their data and banning loud advertisements on streaming platforms.

AI companion chatbots have drawn particular scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in recent months. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into several companies in response to complaints by consumer groups and parents that the bots were harming children’s mental health. OpenAI introduced new parental controls and other guardrails in its popular ChatGPT platform after the company was sued by parents who allege ChatGPT contributed to their teen son’s suicide.

«We’ve seen some truly horrific and tragic examples of young people harmed by unregulated tech, and we won’t stand by while companies continue without necessary limits and accountability,» Newsom said in a statement.

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

One AI companion developer, Replika, told CNET that it already has protocols to detect self-harm as required by the new law, and that it is working with regulators and others to comply with requirements and protect consumers.

«As one of the pioneers in AI companionship, we recognize our profound responsibility to lead on safety,» Replika’s Minju Song said in an emailed statement. Song said Replika uses content-filtering systems, community guidelines and safety systems that refer users to crisis resources when needed.

A Character.ai spokesperson said the company «welcomes working with regulators and lawmakers as they develop regulations and legislation for this emerging space, and will comply with laws, including SB 243.» OpenAI spokesperson Jamie Radice called the bill a «meaningful move forward» for AI safety. «By setting clear guardrails, California is helping shape a more responsible approach to AI development and deployment across the country,» Radice said in an email.

One bill Newsom has yet to sign, AB 1064, would go further by prohibiting developers from making companion chatbots available to children unless the AI companion is «not foreseeably capable of» encouraging harmful activities or engaging in sexually explicit interactions, among other things.

Technologies

Slack Is Transforming Slackbot Into an AI Assistant

Enhancements will make the simple bot act more like an AI chatbot.

Slackbot, the assistant within the team communication platform Slack, is getting AI enhancements and integrations with other AI chatbots to become more agentic, Slack said in a presentation at Dreamforce, a tech conference in San Francisco, on Monday.

Slackbot works as a simple assistant, sending people reminders, notifications or updates about their colleagues. It isn’t conversational in the same way ChatGPT is. With these AI enhancements, Slackbot will soon function more like an AI chatbot, able to do things on a person’s behalf.

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

Enterprise users will soon be able to converse with Slackbot, asking it to help with projects or analyze documents. Slack will also integrate with Google Drive, One Drive, and Salesforce. OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, and others are bringing their agents into Slack as well. For example, you can ask @Claude to do a web search or scan your workspace to find new insights.

At the moment, the AI version of Slackbot is in beta and limited to 70,000 users. However, it will be released to all users in January 2026. Slack will then roll out the feature broader later this year. Companies can also turn off Slackbot.

A representative for Slack referred reporters to its blog post.

The AI-ification of apps has been a common trend since the release of ChatGPT. Apps like Duolingo, Canva, Phot,oshop, and others have all added AI features to make things easier for users and to attract investor dollars. Slack’s biggest competitor in the space, Microsoft Teams, has been integrating more AI features recently.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 14, #856

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Oct. 14, No. 856.

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.

NYT Connections fans, we’re used to this. The purple category today requires you to remove the starting letter of four words, and spot their connection once you’ve done that. If you need help, you’re in the right place. 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 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: Dazzle, entrance.

Green group hint: Short version.

Blue group hint: Stop!

Purple group hint: Not humans, and remove one letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Captivate.

Green group: Summary.

Blue group: Halt.

Purple group: Animals minus starting 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 captivate. The four answers are absorb, engage, hold and occupy.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is summary. The four answers are brief, digest, outline and review.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is halt. The four answers are check, curb, staunch and stem.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is animals minus starting letter. The four answers are anther, easel, hark and lama. (Panther, weasel, shark and llama. Yes, «anther» is a real word.)