I spend a lot of time on my iPhone. Like most people, it’s how I communicate with friends and family. However, as technology has progressed, keeping certain conversations private has become more difficult. There are times I want to talk about something personal or plan a surprise party for a friend, and in those cases I want to ensure nobody else can see what I’m saying. 

I used to think I needed a special app for private chats, but then I found a super simple workaround — the iPhone Notes app. Yep, that basic little app turns out to be a great way to message someone quietly without downloading anything new. Signal and WhatsApp are solid for privacy, but sometimes the best tools are the ones already sitting on your home screen.

The built-in Notes app for iOS is a secret weapon for private conversations. It’s always fun to use an app in an unintended way — almost like you’re bending the rules. But everything you need is built in, making it a simple way to have private conversations. We’ll lay it all out for you below. 

For more iOS tips, check out the new features in iOS 17.5 and how easy it is to view and copy Wi-Fi passwords on your iPhone or iPad.

Create a note in the Notes app

On your iPhone, launch the Notes app, and tap the compose button on the bottom right to create a new note. Next, type anything into the note to keep it, or else it’ll automatically be deleted when you exit from the note. You can also just go into an existing note, but it’s better to start fresh with a new one.

Adjust your note’s share options to add collaborators

Once your note is up and ready to go, you can begin the process of adding another person as a collaborator, which means they can read and edit whatever is in the note. To start, tap the More button on the top right, and then hit Share Note.

Now tap Share Options and make sure the Can make changes option is selected under Permission. You should also toggle off Anyone can add people in case you want to be the only person who can add collaborators to your note. Go back to the last page when you’re finished configuring these settings.

Add people and share the link

Next, choose a method to share the note: You can send it via text message, email, social media and more. If you swipe on the share options, you can also select Copy Link, which copies the note link to your clipboard and allows you to paste it wherever you want. 

For this example, I’ll choose the Copy Link option to share the note.

At the top of the Copy Link page, enter the email address or phone number of the person you want to access the note. You can also tap the Add icon to search through your contacts. Adding a contact to the note is required. If you share the link without adding a contact, the other person won’t be able to see or edit the note, even with the link.

Lastly, hit Copy Link to copy the note link to your clipboard and share it with your collaborator.

Send secret messages using Notes

The person on the receiving end must now open the note link and accept the invitation. If they accept, they’ll be redirected to the Notes app and to the collaborative note you just created.

To communicate, simply type something into the note, which the other person will be able to see in real-time without you having to hit send. They’ll also receive a notification any time the note is altered. 

Each person in the note will have a corresponding color appear (only for a moment) so that everyone else knows who typed what. You can also swipe right from the middle of the note to see the name of who wrote the message, as well as a time stamp for when the message was written and any corresponding colors. 

You can also tap the Share Note button (with the check mark icon), go to Manage Shared Note and then toggle on Highlight All Changes. That way, all messages will stay permanently highlighted in their corresponding color, making it easier to read the conversation.

If you want to keep your communications more low-key, delete your message or the other person’s message to strike it from the note. That way your conversation is more like it would be on Snapchat, with ephemeral or short-lived messages that outsiders can’t see if they snoop through your notes. You can do this with any text in the notes, as well as photos, videos, links, drawings or any other attachments you add to the note.

Delete your secret chat for good

Not all secret conversations can go on forever, so it’s time now to end it. 

If you’re the owner of the note and want to keep the note intact for everyone but prevent them from editing it, you can easily do so. On the top right, tap the View Participants button and then hit Manage Shared Note. To remove a participant, you can either swipe left on their name and then hit Remove or you can tap on their name and then tap Remove Access.

Additionally, you can tap the Stop Sharing option, which will not only remove participants from the note but also delete the note from all of their devices.

If you’re not the owner of the note, you can just delete the note from the Notes application.

For more tech tips, don’t miss how to save money by borrowing an Airtag for travel and the two settings to change on your iPhone to go to sleep faster.

Dexcom customers, listen up: Certain continuous glucose monitoring receivers have been recalled due to speaker malfunctions, which can cause you to miss alerts or alarms for dangerous blood sugar levels. Since May 2025, there have been 112 complaints globally, with 56 reported injuries. 

Missing an alert from your continuous glucose monitor may result in health consequences like vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness and hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic symptoms. 

Certain Dexcom G6, G7, One and One Plus receivers are included in this recall. The One and One Plus receivers are available outside of the US. 

Dexcom is one of the most popular continuous glucose monitor brands, and many people with diabetes use Dexcom devices to track their glucose levels in real time.

According to Dexcom’s update, even without the audio output from the speaker, your receiver will still alert you through vibration and visual prompts. However, that’s only so helpful when many people keep their receivers in their pockets or bags. People who use the mobile app for glucose values, alerts and alarms will still be able to do so without interruption.

What you should do right now

A continuous glucose monitoring system has three parts: the glucose sensor you wear, a transmitter and the small receiver you keep for alerts. The receiver is being recalled, not the sensor you wear, so you shouldn’t expect the readings you get from your device to be inaccurate.

If you use a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, check the complete list of affected devices for the model and serial number. You can also go to Dexcom’s website to see if your device is affected. These numbers are on the back of your receiver.

If your device is affected, contact Dexcom immediately for a free replacement. Continuous glucose monitors aren’t something you can just stop using, so it’s essential to get in your replacement order as soon as possible. Remember, while you wait, that there’s a chance your receiver speaker isn’t working correctly and you will not be alerted with a sound to spikes or drops in your blood sugar.

You should regularly test the speakers each time you charge your receiver. When you plug the receiver in, the Speaker Test screen will appear for a few seconds. To test your sound, follow the directions on the screen. If it doesn’t beep, then it’s time to contact Dexcom. Remember that it’s important to continue testing your speaker over time. Checking it once doesn’t mean it can’t fail in the future. Even if your device isn’t under recall, this is a good habit to have.

You can also test your receiver’s speaker at any time through the device’s menu. For support during this recall, contact Dexcom technical support at 1-844-478-1600.

Throughout the second Trump administration, tariffs have become the defining aspect of the president’s economic agenda, and while they might have been an obscure subject before, now consumers and businesses alike are worrying: will they cause prices to increase? It’s a question more relevant than ever, as President Donald Trump punts another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary showing that inflation was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February.

Amid those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by tariff-induced price increases, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.

To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products — including Apple’s popular AirPods — have gone on sale for brief periods. 

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. 

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree. 

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

• iPhone 16, 128GB
• Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
• Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
• Xbox Series X
• Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
• HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
• Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
• Bose TV speaker
• Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
• Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. 

After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While Prime Day might be in the rearview mirror at this point, you can grab a pair of these earbuds for $169, a $30 discount from where they’ve been most of the year.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. 

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. 

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. 

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

This product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there’s still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we’ll have to see how long that actually lasts.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn’t seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come.

Other products

As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

• Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
• Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

• Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
• Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.