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iPhone Battery Draining Fast? You Might Need to Undo These 3 Settings

If battery life is your priority, consider turning off features like haptic vibration.

It’s not just your imagination: Your iPhone’s battery doesn’t last as long as it used to. That’s because every phone’s battery gradually loses its ability to hold a charge. But even if your iPhone is a few years old, you shouldn’t have to keep it in Low Power Mode all day. By making a few small changes, you can give your battery life a big boost.

Whether you’re using your phone to get directions, stream music or send that one last text, the last thing you want is for it to shut down at the worst possible moment. Instead of scrambling for a charger or switching on Low Power Mode every few hours, take a minute to check your iPhone settings. Turning off a few power-draining features could be the fix your battery desperately needs-and it only takes seconds to do.

You can also keep an eye on your Battery Health menu — it’ll tell you your battery health percentage (80% or higher is considered good), as well as show you how many times you’ve cycled your battery and whether or not your battery is «normal.»

We’ll explain three iOS features that put a strain on your iPhone’s battery to varying degrees, and show how you can turn them off to help preserve battery life. Here’s what you need to know.

Turn off widgets on your iPhone lock screen

All the widgets on your lock screen force your apps to automatically run in the background, constantly fetching data to update the information the widgets display, like sports scores or the weather. Because these apps are constantly running in the background due to your widgets, that means they continuously drain power.

If you want to help preserve some battery on iOS 18, the best thing to do is simply avoid widgets on your lock screen (and home screen). The easiest way to do this is to switch to another lock screen profile: Press your finger down on your existing lock screen and then swipe around to choose one that doesn’t have any widgets.

If you want to just remove the widgets from your existing lock screen, press down on your lock screen, hit Customize, choose the Lock Screen option, tap on the widget box and then hit the «—« button on each widget to remove them.

Reduce the motion of your iPhone UI

Your iPhone user interface has some fun, sleek animations. There’s the fluid motion of opening and closing apps, and the burst of color that appears when you activate Siri with Apple Intelligence, just to name a couple. These visual tricks help bring the slab of metal and glass in your hand to life. Unfortunately, they can also reduce your phone’s battery life.

If you want subtler animations across iOS, you can enable the Reduce Motion setting. To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and toggle on Reduce Motion.

Switch off your iPhone’s keyboard vibration

Surprisingly, the keyboard on the iPhone has never had the ability to vibrate as you type, an addition called «haptic feedback» that was added to iPhones with iOS 16. Instead of just hearing click-clack sounds, haptic feedback gives each key a vibration, providing a more immersive experience as you type. According to Apple, the very same feature may also affect battery life.

According to this Apple support page about the keyboard, haptic feedback «might affect the battery life of your iPhone.» No specifics are given as to how much battery life the keyboard feature drains, but if you want to conserve battery, it’s best to keep this feature disabled.

Fortunately, it is not enabled by default. If you’ve enabled it yourself, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and toggle off Haptic to turn off haptic feedback for your keyboard.

For more tips on iOS, read about how to access your Control Center more easily and why you might want to only charge your iPhone to 95%.

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Technologies

ChatGPT Ads Coming Soon for Free and New $8 Go Tier Users

OpenAI says that it won’t serve ads based on sensitive topics like mental health or politics.

OpenAI has announced that it’s testing ads for its free tier and new $8-per-month Go memberships, and the ads will be based on a user’s current conversation.

OpenAI says the ads will be clearly marked and appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers «when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.»

Meanwhile, the company says the new Go tier enables 10 times as many messages, file uploads, and image creations as the free tier, and also remembers more details about you over time. The new $8 Go tier joins ChatGPT Plus at $ 20 per month and ChatGPT Pro at $ 200 per month.

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The company says it won’t show ads on «sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics.» It also said it won’t show ads to users who tell the chatbot they are under 18 or to users the system predicts are minors. Furthermore, the company says it will keep individual conversations private from advertisers and never sell user data to advertisers.

The company also says that users can turn off personalization and can clear the data used for ads at any time. 

Last week, OpenAI announced a new ChatGPT Health service, which enables users to upload their health data. However, privacy experts warned that the company wasn’t covered by a health provider’s privacy protections.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

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Technologies

How to Use Double XP Tokens in Black Ops 7 and Warzone

Double XP is a must, whether you’re grinding Black Ops 7 prestiges or leveling up your Warzone weapons. Here’s how to use your shiny new double XP tokens.

If you’re looking for your next hit of double experience in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, you’re not alone. While developer Treyarch frequently runs double XP weekends for the most recent Call of Duty game, not every player can take advantage of the full event.

When the weekend is over, players are often left looking for ways to keep the speedy XP gain they grew accustomed to. The solution is double XP tokens, which can help gamers level up their player level, weapon levels and battle pass tiers twice as fast.

Many players have an ample supply of Black Ops 7 double XP tokens, thanks to the carryover from previous Call of Duty games. But if you’re a new player, you might feel like you’re falling behind on leveling during Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded. If you know where to look, there are giveaways and promotions that will help you get a head start in the latest Call of Duty game.

With more unlockable guns and melee weapons to catch up on than ever before, and the introduction of the new XP-based Warzone Armory, players will be benefiting from double weapon XP across their entire Call of Duty account.

If you don’t know how to get more double XP tokens to keep leveling up quickly after double XP weekends, we’re here to help. Here’s every way you can use double XP tokens in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 right now.

Can you use double XP tokens on Double XP Weekend?

Black Ops 7 and Warzone players aren’t able to activate double XP tokens during a double XP weekend. When attempting to open the double XP token menu to activate your tokens, they’ll be grayed out and unable to be interacted with for the duration of the event.

Any double XP time that players had activated before the double XP weekend will be frozen and will reactivate once the universal double XP boost comes to an end.

How to earn free XP tokens in Black Ops 7

Most of the ways to earn Black Ops 7’s double XP tokens involve microtransactions or external marketing campaigns, but there are still some ways to earn the boosts without spending a single cent.

Multiplayer prestige

While there are no double XP tokens available for reaching new prestiges in Black Ops 7, there’s still a roundabout way to earn double XP tokens by prestiging your Black Ops 6 account.

Reaching max rank and choosing to prestige your account is the most reliable way to earn double XP tokens in Black Ops 6. Each time you enter a new prestige level, you’ll be rewarded with a 1-hour token for double player XP. Since there are 10 player prestige levels, you can gain a maximum of 10 hours’ worth of double XP tokens through the prestige system — these tokens are automatically carried forward to Black Ops 7, where you can use them in the multiplayer, zombies and Endgame modes.

Seasonal battle pass

As Black Ops 7 enters Season 1 Reloaded, we know that the battle pass will offer double player XP and double weapon XP tokens on multiple unlockable tiers. The premium battle pass requires a Call of Duty point investment from players, but there are double XP tokens on free battle pass tiers that anyone can earn by just playing the game.

Giveaways through official channels

Occasionally, codes for double XP tokens are shared on official Call of Duty communication channels. The best social media account to watch is the Call of Duty X account, which usually runs giveaways before big Black Ops 7 update announcements. It’s worth keeping an eye on Call of Duty’s social media pages to spot future double XP token giveaways.

Paying for XP tokens in Black Ops 7

Opening your wallet and shelling out some cash is the quickest way to nab some double XP tokens to level up your Call of Duty gameplay. These are the most reliable ways to secure some tokens for your account.

Microtransactions

Double XP tokens are included in certain purchasable bundles in Black Ops 7. Bundles contain player and weapon skins, but also include a variety of double player XP and double weapon XP tokens that you can activate as you play Black Ops 7 game modes.

External promotions

Call of Duty is partnered with external brands, including Monster Energy and Little Caesars, which can bring special campaigns to Black Ops 7 players. Buying products from these brands and redeeming reward codes allows gamers to earn Call of Duty Points, exclusive operator skins, weapon skins, weapon blueprints, weapon vinyls, calling cards and emblems. Most importantly, you’ll have a chance to earn double XP tokens to use in the multiplayer and zombies modes in Black Ops 7. There’s currently a Monster Energy promotion running for Black Ops 7 — we’ve included the details below.

How to earn Black Ops 7 double XP tokens now

Monster Energy has partnered with Call of Duty to put together a promotion that will look very familiar to Black Ops 6 fans. Specially marked cans of Monster Energy include codes that unlock Black Ops 7 rewards, including operator skins, weapon blueprints, decals and sweet, sweet double XP tokens. Here’s the order in which you’ll earn Call of Duty Black Ops 7 rewards by redeeming Monster Energy codes.

  • Energy Flash decal and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the first code.

  • Peacekeeper MK1 Hyper Green weapon blueprint and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the second code.
  • Green Fury operator skin and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the third code.
  • VS Recon Green Thunder weapon blueprint and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the fourth code.
  • Daylight Ripper operator skin and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the fifth code.

There are no unique cosmetic rewards to be gained after redeeming the first five codes, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Every subsequent code redemption unlocks an additional 15-minute double XP token to use on your Black Ops 7 account. These promotional codes must be used by March 31 in order to provide the rewards listed above.

When in doubt, use your Black Ops 6 double XP tokens

Black Ops 7 players are able to use any double XP tokens and GobbleGums they kept from Black Ops 6 — so take advantage of that carry forward and utilize these tokens now.

Double XP tokens don’t necessarily carry over forever — Modern Warfare 3 double XP tokens never properly carried over to Black Ops 6 and were only accessible through a Warzone activation loophole. No skins and cosmetics carried over from Black Ops 6 to Black Ops 7. It’s entirely up to Activision whether you’ll keep your double XP tokens for the next Call of Duty game that comes out.

It might be worth using your hoard of Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 double XP tokens early and often, just in case they don’t carry over to the next game in the series.

Black Ops 7 double XP token FAQs

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 17, #481

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 17, No. 481.

Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. The blue group is a bit funny, once you recognize the connection. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Leading the pack.

Green group hint: Football division.

Blue group hint: Like Bridges or Goldblum.

Purple group hint: Blast off.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: In No. 1 position.

Green group: AFC East teams.

Blue group: Jeffs.

Purple group: Rockets.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is in No. 1 position. The four answers are first, front, lead and pole.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is AFC East teams. The four answers are Buffalo, Miami, New England and New York.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Jeffs. The four answers are Bagwell, Kent, Saturday and Van Gundy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Rockets. The four answers are Clemens, Houston, Richard and Toledo.

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