Technologies

I Tried Turning My Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pink. Here’s What Happened

There are reports that some orange iPhone 17s are turning pink. I tried to recreate it myself. Because pink is great.

There are reports on Reddit of the Cosmic Orange version of the iPhone 17 Pro turning pink. As PCMag’s Eric Zeman noted, it’s likely that the phone came into contact with cleaning substances that affected the finish, turning it from vibrant orange to an equally outrageous pink. I love pink phones and the idea of a hot pink iPhone 17 Pro filled me with joy so I wanted to see if I could test the theory and see just what cleaning with the wrong products can do to your phone.

It’s important to note here that the iPhone 17 Pro I used was bought by CNET for the purposes of testing. Had I paid over $1,000 of my own money I wouldn’t be so reckless in intentionally smearing it in chemicals that could harm to such an expensive device. And you shouldn’t either. If you need to clean your phone, do it safely. Disclaimer aside, let’s dive in.

The chemicals

I bought two chemicals to test this out. Zeman explains that it may be oxidation that caused the color to change and that hydrogen peroxide could do this. I couldn’t find this over the counter in the UK, so I instead bought an ‘oxy-active’ stain remover spray that, among other things, contains «oxygen-based bleaching agents» which sounded ideal. Apple also clearly states «don’t use products containing bleach or hydrogen peroxide» on its support page so, naturally, I bought some thick bleach too.

Oxy application

I started by spraying the oxy cleaner on a microfiber cloth until it was noticeably wet from the liquid and then liberally applied this all over the rear of the iPhone. The Reddit user with the affected phone showed that it only affected the metal parts, not the glass back panel, so I made sure to focus my attention on the sides and camera bar.

With the phone well and truly doused in chemicals that have no business being anywhere near a phone, I left it to sit and think about what it’s done for 30 minutes — after which time I wiped it dry and took a close inspection. Disappointingly, my phone was still factory orange, rather than ‘what the hell have you done to your phone’ pink. Time to move on.

Bleach blast

I opened the bleach and trying hard not to think about my days as a middle school cleaner, applied a liberal blob of the stuff to a cloth and smeared it over the defenceless phone, concentrating again on the metal areas. I definitely should have worn protective gloves for all of this so please make sure you take better care of yourself than I do if you do anything with bleach.

Again, I gave it a 30-minute settling in period before cleaning it off and inspecting the results.

The phone remained as orange as ever, looking as box fresh as it was the day before when it was, indeed, box fresh. The orange color hadn’t changed and now almost 24 hours later there’s still no sign of discoloration of any kind.

Is the pink iPhone 17 real?

I can’t say with any certainty whether the Reddit user’s images of a pink iPhone 17 Pro are real or not. The cuddly human side of me wants to take them at their word, while the journalist in me is sceptical. What I can say with certainty is that putting your orange iPhone into close contact with household cleaning products isn’t going to win you a funky, ultra-rare pink hue that you could sell on eBay for a small fortune.

It’s possible that using pure peroxide could be the thing that does it, but to be honest, if you’re going out of your way to throw industrial-grade chemicals at your phone then you may as well just directly try and dye it. My goal here was to see how susceptible the orange model is to everyday household cleaners such as kitchen cleaner or bathroom bleach — the sort of things it might naturally come into contact with in routine use. And what I’ve found is that, no, it won’t ruin the nice orange color. But it’s probably still not good for your phone.

Technologies

Google, Meta and Amazon Join Global Pact to Fight Rising Online Scams

The companies will share fraud intelligence and coordinate responses as AI makes scams faster, cheaper and harder to detect.

Modern online scams operate across multiple platforms, perhaps spanning social media, messaging apps, email and online marketplaces. Google, Meta and Amazon are among 11 tech, retail and payments companies that have signed a new agreement to combat online scams by sharing threat intelligence across platforms, Axios first reported Monday.

The initiative, called the Industry Accord Against Online Scams & Fraud, is designed to improve how companies detect and respond to fraud that spans multiple services. Participants say they will exchange signals, such as scam-linked accounts and fraudulent domains, and coordinate enforcement actions.

By sharing intelligence in near real time, companies hope to identify these scams earlier and stop them before they spread.

The effort reflects how modern scams operate. A victim might encounter a fake celebrity investment ad on social media, move to a messaging app where the scammer builds trust, then faces prompts to send money through a fraudulent website, payment app or crypto wallet — spanning multiple companies’ ecosystems.

Google said it now blocks hundreds of millions of scam-related results every day using AI, underscoring how both attackers and defenders are increasingly relying on the same technology. Meta removed more than 159 million scam ads in 2025 and is expanding AI tools to detect impersonation and warn users.

Online scams are growing rapidly, in part because generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry. AI can be used not only to produce realistic phishing emails but also to clone voices and deepfake videos that impersonate executives, public figures and even family members.

The agreement is voluntary and doesn’t create new legal obligations, but it comes after regulators’ increased pressure on tech platforms to address fraud more aggressively. The companies say they will begin building frameworks for reporting and intelligence-sharing, though it’s not yet clear how quickly those systems will be deployed or how effective they will be in practice.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 18.

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a fairly easy one, but read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Word before «card,» flood» or «photography»
Answer: FLASH

6A clue: Joust weapon
Answer: LANCE

7A clue: Brain, heart or lungs
Answer: ORGAN

8A clue: «Frozen» reindeer
Answer: SVEN

9A clue: What can be found on frozen roads or frozen margaritas
Answer: SALT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Follow a dentist’s recommendation
Answer: FLOSS

2D clue: Baby bug
Answer: LARVA

3D clue: Shape made in the snow
Answer: ANGEL

4D clue: Very little
Answer: SCANT

5D clue: Egg layer
Answer: HEN

Technologies

Amazon Speeds Up Delivery Even More With 1- and 3-Hour Options

The retailer says the one-hour option is available in hundreds of cities, with discounted shipping for Prime members.

Same-day delivery apparently isn’t fast enough for some Amazon shoppers. The retail giant said on Tuesday it’s adding new shipping options that will get products to front doors within a one- or three-hour window.

The company said in its announcement that the one-hour option is available in hundreds of cities across the US, while the three-hour option is now live in more than 2,000 areas. Amazon’s web page at amazon.com/getitfast shows whether those options are available to shoppers for their location. More than 90,000 products will be available for those shipping windows, the company said.

For those who can’t get those services (including the author of this post, who lives between Austin and San Antonio in Texas), a message will display: «3-hour delivery is currently unavailable. Check back at a later time or shop products with Same-Day delivery below.»

Pricing for the faster delivery options is not cheap: It’ll cost you $20 for one-hour delivery and $15 for three-hour delivery for those without an Amazon Prime account, or $10 and $5 for customers who subscribe to Prime.

Last year, the company rolled out faster Amazon delivery options to 4,000 additional areas.

In a video of the podcast Learn and Be Curious with Doug Herrington, hosted by Amazon’s CEO of worldwide stores, Kandace Kapps, the director of the company’s same-day strategy team, spoke in more detail about the challenges of fast shipping. Kapps discussed shifts in customer buying habits over the last few years, such as more people buying household essentials like toilet paper on Amazon.

She said that Amazon can deliver so quickly by placing same-day delivery hubs close to customers in metro areas and by getting products ready to ship within 15 minutes, aided by warehouse robots.

«I think customers are going to continue to get magically surprised by how fast we can deliver to their doorstop,» Kapps said.

Herrington said fast shipping increases sales: «When we speed up the service, the probability that somebody buys a product from us goes up.»

Other retailers, including Walmart, have been adding same-day delivery options or exploring other ways to speed up shipping times to compete with Amazon.

Removing buyers’ moments of hesitation

Part of Amazon’s strategy, which has involved a massive buildout of locations, deployment of thousands of trucks, deals with other delivery services and investment in logistics software, is actually pretty simple: being there when people need last-minute items or make impulse buys.

«It’s about removing the last moment where you would’ve reconsidered the purchase,» said Stephanie Carls, retail insights expert at coupon and promotional-code website RetailMeNot, a sibling site of CNET. «It changes how you shop, not just how fast you get things.»

Carls said that Amazon’s super-fast delivery is removing the timeframe when people might change their minds about a purchase.

«There used to be a gap between deciding to buy something and actually having it. That’s when you’d price check, rethink it, or decide you didn’t need it after all,» she said. «This closes that gap.»

The retail expert said that competitors, including Walmart and Target, have been speeding up delivery times in some markets. Still, they’re not matching Amazon’s scale or product range at those speeds or levels of consistency.

«And that’s what starts to make everyone else feel slow,» Carls said. «Amazon’s advantage is how tightly connected its technology, inventory and delivery networks are, which makes this level of speed more repeatable.»