Technologies

Disney Plus, Netflix, Max: How to Pay Less for Your Streaming Services

If you spend more than $100 on Hulu, Max, Sling, Netflix and others, there’s a way to save cash.

Netflix’s account-sharing fees are here, and HBO Max’s relaunch as Max introduced a new $20 tier. With a wave of new costs and streaming service price hikes (like YouTube TV’s $73 plan), it may feel like a luxury to stream. If you add up the prices of each platform, you may discover you’re spending $100 or more a month. You can lighten your load, however.

Let’s say you’re subscribed to multiple streaming services, you watch one or two of them until your favorite series ends its season, then look for the next thing. But is it worth keeping all those accounts active if you’re not watching anything on them? I don’t think so.

Have a look at this budget-conscious strategy to help you save on your streaming TV expenses.

Best Live TV Streaming Service for Cord Cutters in 2023 See at Cnet

Rotate all your streaming service subscriptions

For cord-cutters, shifting from cable to streaming can be a wise financial move. Because you’re able to sign up for monthly plans, it’s easy to jump into a streaming service and jump out when prices increase or content gets dull. But according to Deloitte’s 2023 Media Trends report, the main reasons people cancel their streaming subscriptions are due to economic pressures and lack of fresh content. Media companies call this behavior «churn.» We’re calling this the rotation method, and you should try it.

The incentive? You save your coin and avoid content droughts. Let’s say a popular show like Secret Invasion or Love Island is set to premiere on a streaming service. Find the total episode count and wait until they’re all available at once on a platform. You cancel Hulu, Disney Plus or other service and then, once all the episodes are available, resubscribe to catch up. Alternatively, you can start streaming a show midseason to cut costs. My monthly guide on which streaming services to cancel can help you keep up.

The downside? You won’t have immediate access to every show you want to watch and will have to wait until the full season airs. And since many streaming services release new episodes weekly, you might not be caught up at the same time as your friends. If you’re someone who prefers to watch episodes immediately when they drop, you may decide it’s worth it to have multiple subscriptions at a time. If you have patience, however, you can save some money.

The strategy can also work if you have a live TV streaming service to watch a particular sport or major event like the NBA championship. Once the season wraps, cancel the service or move to a cheaper platform with fewer channels, like Sling TV.

Need help figuring out the best way to rotate? Follow the tips below to learn how to churn streaming platforms until your wallet feels content.

Best Streaming Device for 2023: Picks From Roku, Google, Amazon and Apple See at CNET

Ted lasso standing in the locker room — Why pay for three months of Disney Plus to watch season 1 of Secret Invasion can watch all episodes in August or September for the price of one month?

Marvel Studios/Disney+

Tip No. 1: Cancel your subscription before getting charged

Set calendar reminders for your billing cycle and upcoming TV show or movie release dates. Give yourself enough warning to begin or end a subscription. Apps such as JustWatch, TV Time and Hobi help you track when and where TV shows and movies appear on a streaming service. And JustWatch added a tracker specifically for sports. If you have a smart home device from Google or Amazon, you can set reminders for specific dates and allow a voice assistant like Alexa to notify you of an upcoming bill or streaming release date.

Tip No. 2: Sign up for streaming service deals

Look for discounts on streaming services. For example, Starz is now $3 per month for three months, a drop from its regular $9-a-month rate. You can also take advantage of the Disney Bundle, which provides access to Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus in a single package for a reduced price. And eligible Hulu subscribers can add on Disney Plus for $2. Lastly, be sure to check with your mobile carrier to see which ones offer free streaming subscriptions.

Best Streaming Service Deals From Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile See at Cnet

Tip No. 3: Pick one or two default streaming services

Subscribe to one or two must-have services for the year, and select only one or two more options to fit your monthly budget. Rotate the bonus service(s) according to what you want to watch, ensuring you don’t miss your favorite shows while sticking to your monthly spending cap.

Tip No. 4: Use monthly billing only

Avoid annual subscriptions and pay attention to your auto-renewal payment dates. Your billing cycle can help determine when it’s the best time to quit a service, even if you’ve only signed up for a free trial. The only advantage to signing up for an annual plan is when the price is drastically cut down.

Tip No. 5: Don’t cancel your subscription, pause it

Hulu allows you to pause your subscription for up to 12 weeks, and Sling has a similar option with stipulations. Check with your streaming provider to see if you can take a temporary break without canceling.

Give it a shot, and if you don’t like it you can always resubscribe. For more excellent tips on streaming TV, check out this guide to Netflix’s hidden tricks and our tips on the best VPNs.

2023’s Best TV and Streaming Shows You Can’t Miss on Netflix, HBO, Disney Plus and More

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 9 #767

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 9, No. 767.

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 could be tough, unless you’re an artist. Even then, some of the answers are 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: In the paint.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hand me a brush.

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:

COME, PATS, SPAT, SLOE, MEAN, LEAN, MANE, RATE, PEER, LATE, RATER

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:

FRESCO, PASTEL, ENAMEL, ACRYLIC, TEMPERA, WATERCOLOR

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is MEDIUM, the art term! To find it, start with the M that’s four letters down on the far-left vertical row, and travel straight across.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for April 9, #1755

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for April 9, No. 1,755.

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 doesn’t have unusual letters, but it’s not a word that springs to my mind that often, so it might be a struggle to solve. 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 two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with L.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with N.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to something that is heavily weighted down.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is LADEN.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, April 8, No. 1754, was INLET.

Recent Wordle answers

April 4, No. 1750: SANDY

April 5, No. 1751: ENVOY

April 6, No. 1752: SWORN

April 7, No. 1753: DENSE

Technologies

Did You Download the White House App? Here Are Its Hidden Security Risks

Cybersecurity researchers have serious concerns about how the app was built.

The White House mobile app has been available for both Android and iOS users for over a week now, and the Trump administration is proudly touting that the app has received 2 million downloads on the White House Instagram page. However, the app’s threats to your personal data, online security and privacy concerns make it something you should think twice about downloading.

The White House announcement says the app’s goal is to deliver «unparalleled access to the Trump administration.» However, there are many security concerns, including location tracking and sketchy features. The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

The big question is, should you download it? I don’t recommend it. Here’s why.

What’s in The White House App?

When I downloaded it soon after its release, the app opened with music and a brief collage video of President Donald Trump. It has pages on affordability, including the prices of things like eggs and milk (but not gas). There’s an overtime calculator. And there are links to articles from Trump’s favored news outlets, like Fox News and Newsmax, along with White House press releases.

The app also features livestreams and videos of press briefings, links to the White House’s social feeds and photos of the president.

Why I deleted The White House app so fast

Behind all those tabs are hair-raising privacy and security issues that have the internet and experts alarmed.

One X user, @Thereallo1026, decompiled the White House app and blogged about it, reporting that the Android app tracks your location as often as every 4.5 minutes and shares a lot of other information, like your notifications and perhaps even your phone number, with a third-party server.

Another red flag is that the code for YouTube embeds comes from a personal GitHub account. Thereallo said that if that GitHub account gets compromised, it can affect every user of the White House’s app.

Another cybersecurity researcher, Atomic Computer Services, posted similar concerns about the iOS app. The researchers found that the app reported to the App Store that it did not collect location data, when in fact it included the capability to do GPS tracking. It’s unclear whether that tracking actually happens, but the code is there, Atomic Computer said.

Other concerns identified by Atomic Computer included the removal of privacy consent banners from third-party content viewed in the app and minimal security protections. «We’ve audited apps for startups with three employees that had better security than this,» Atomic Computer wrote.

Pieter Arntz, a researcher at the cybersecurity software provider Malwarebytes, said in an email to CNET that the White House app relies heavily on third-party sources for things like notifications and widgets.

«In practical terms, that means external providers can influence what data is collected and when features like location‑based messaging are enabled, because much of that logic is configured on their servers rather than baked into the app code itself,» Arntz said. «For a high‑profile government app, the more these decisions sit with outside companies, the harder it is to guarantee strict data‑minimization and full transparency to users about how their information is handled.»

Government-sponsored apps to inform people are commonplace, but this one poses significant risks, experts said. A spokesperson for the Center for Democracy and Technology, which advocates for transparency and privacy in government technology, told CNET that «mobile apps can be a helpful tool for making government more accessible. But this administration has given people a lot of reasons to worry about their privacy, and this app only raises more questions about what the federal government is doing with our personal data.»

For me, this app is a hard pass. I deleted it 10 minutes after downloading it.