Technologies

Don’t Bother Waiting for the iPhone 18. Just Buy the iPhone 17

Commentary: If you want a new iPhone, buy the iPhone 17. The iPhone 18 is still too far away, and we don’t know enough about it to warrant waiting.

The year has barely begun, and there are already plenty of rumors about the next crop of iPhones. From a possible folding model to a brand-new iPhone 18 lineup, 2026 (and beyond) looks to be very interesting for the tech giant’s mobile division.

The iPhone 18 is rumored to have several changes from its predecessor, including variable-aperture cameras, an under-display front-facing camera for Face ID, a smaller Dynamic Island, an updated A20 chip, and new, interesting colors, including a «coffee» brown. The latest rumors suggest that the front-facing camera will be relocated to the top left corner of the screen, and the Camera Control button will be simplified to a pressure-sensing function. The Dynamic Island could also be shrunken in favor of a hole-punch cutout.

But if you’re trying to decide whether to buy an iPhone 17 now or get the iPhone 18, there is one biggest consideration: The iPhone 18 doesn’t exist. Apple hasn’t officially announced it. And rumors say the iPhone 18 won’t come out in September 2026 (to make room for the rumored iPhone Fold) and might be released in early 2027 instead.

Personally, I don’t think you should wait over a year for a new phone, especially if you’re considering an upgrade from an iPhone 14 or earlier model. Here are a few reasons why.

The iPhone 17 is great (and so is the 17 Pro)

If you’re looking to upgrade your phone, there’s a shiny new iPhone available in stores right now, and it’s a pretty good one. The iPhone 17 is a fantastic handset for iPhone devotees, especially for a base model.

Not only does the iPhone 17 offer a slightly larger 6.3-inch display (compared to the iPhone 16’s 6.1-inch screen), but it also features a variable refresh rate of 1 to 120Hz, a first among non-Pro iPhones. This lets you enable an always-on display so you can glance at the time or current sports scores without waking your phone. And, of course, the 120Hz ProMotion display also means increased smoothness and responsiveness overall, whether scrolling through social feeds or playing video games.

Sure, the iPhone 18 might get improved cameras, but the ones on the iPhone 17 aren’t too shabby. It has two 48-megapixel cameras on the back (a wide-angle and an ultrawide), with the ultrawide being a massive upgrade over the one on the iPhone 16 that only had a 12-megapixel sensor. The 18-megapixel selfie camera (which is on the rest of the iPhone 17 line and the Air) is also a great upgrade, especially with its Center Stage feature that zooms out when more people enter the frame or switches from portrait to landscape without you rotating the phone.

On top of that, the iPhone 17 has a sturdy aluminum frame, comes in an array of lovely colors (lavender is my favorite) and has an impressive battery life. In my experience, it lasts more than a day with moderate use, and this seems to align with CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti’s experience as well.

If you want to further bridge the gap between this year’s iPhone and next year’s model, you could, of course, spend more on the iPhone 17 Pro. It has a beefier A19 Pro chip, a much better battery life (17 Pro Max) compared to the iPhone 17 and has that third camera on the back with a telephoto lens, which makes it a lot more versatile by offering a 4x magnification for zooming into distant subjects. I should note that battery life on the iPhone 17 and the regular iPhone 17 Pro are nearly identical.

The iPhone 18’s potential release date

Another significant reason not to wait to upgrade to the iPhone 18 is that it may not even be released next year. Waiting nine months until next fall is bad enough if you have an ailing phone, but there are currently rumors that Apple could be switching up its iPhone release strategy.

Bloomberg has reported that the company plans to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a new foldable in the fall of 2026. However, the iPhone 18, iPhone 18E and a potential Air 2 are set to debut closer to March 2027. That’s over a year away! You could certainly upgrade to one of the 2026 models, but chances are they won’t be as affordable as the spring 2027 releases.

The older your phone, the more reason not to wait

If you have the iPhone 15 or newer, you could get by waiting for another year for the iPhone 18. But if your phone is much older than that and you would like a new iPhone, I see no reason to wait. This is especially the case if you’re experiencing performance and battery issues.

We usually recommend upgrading if your existing model is two generations old, especially if your phone starts having issues with your day-to-day tasks. One general consensus is that if your battery’s maximum capacity has dropped below 80%, and you don’t want to replace the battery, it’s probably wise to upgrade. You can check this by going to your phone’s Settings, selecting Battery and then Battery Health.

You can certainly keep your phone for longer, and Apple often provides software and security support for the iPhone for well over five years. However, you’ll also want to keep an eye out in case there are newer features that don’t work on your device, or if a newer iPhone’s camera hardware would provide enough of an upgrade to be a noticeable improvement.

But if you are thinking that you’d like to get a new base-level iPhone anytime in the next 12 months, there’s little reason to stick it out for the iPhone 18 when the iPhone 17 offers so many features.

Technologies

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt Trade Blows in Latest AI Slop Video, and Hollywood Won’t Stand for It

While some Hollywood icons are feeling doom and gloom over the AI-generated clip, labor unions are fighting back with legal threats.

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are trading blows in a viral AI-generated clip on social media, sparking backlash from the film industry. Chinese company ByteDance’s new video generation model, Seedance 2.0, allowed people to create fictional videos of real likenesses with short prompts. Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson used two lines to generate the clip of Pitt and Cruise fighting.

If ByteDance sounds familiar to you, it’s because the company also owns TikTok internationally, though it recently sold its US ownership of the social media and video-sharing platform to US companies. Oracle, MGX and Silver Lake each hold a 15% stake.

The actors in this latest viral AI slop video still don’t look like perfect re-creations — close-up shots of the fake Brad Pitt’s face, especially, have an «uncanny valley,» dreamlike AI look where the cuts blend into his flesh a little too smoothly. However, a CNET survey from earlier Tuesday showed that while 94% of US adults believe they encounter AI slop on social media, just 44% say they’re confident they can tell real videos from AI-generated ones.

One of the most inflammatory parts of the Pitt-Cruise video is the dialogue, as the computerized facsimiles of the actors fight over a supposed assassination plot regarding Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who maintained ties to rich and powerful people worldwide. The two actors’ likenesses became a vehicle to push conspiracy theories that have been picking up steam as the millions of pages of redacted emails, receipts and other documents that make up the Epstein files continue to trickle out of the US Department of Justice.

Hollywood is fighting back as AI-generated content consumes and spits out actor likenesses and copyrighted content alike. Major studios and their labor forces alike have united to push back against the precedent set by the viral AI video.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Motion Picture Association demanded that ByteDance «immediately cease its infringing activity» through Seedance. SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents Hollywood performers, released a statement on Friday saying it «stands with the studios» in condemning the Seedance video generation model.

The Screen Actors Guild specifically pointed to Seedance’s unauthorized use of members’ faces, likenesses and voices as a threat that could put actors out of work.

«Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent,» the actors’ guild said in its statement.

Representatives for the MPA and SAG-AFTRA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Similar videos generated by Seedance have depicted Star Wars characters dueling with lightsabers as well as Marvel superheroes Spider-Man and Captain America brawling. Disney issued a cease-and-desist order to ByteDance on Friday in response to these videos, which it alleges constitute copyright infringement, according to the BBC.

A representative for ByteDance didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment, but issued a statement to the BBC saying it is «taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.»

Following the viral incident, ByteDance updated its tool to prevent people from uploading images of real people for AI-generated content, but it remains to be seen how effective that policy will be. Certainly, it won’t curb the output of videos depicting fictional masked or anthropomorphic characters like Spider-Man or Mickey Mouse.

As AI models continue to create mediocre copies of cultural icons, this won’t be the first — or last — legal battleground for AI video generation.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 18, #983

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 18 #983.

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.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle was great fun for me, as I’m the co-author of two pop-culture encyclopedias, one about the 1970s, and 1980s and the other about the 1990s. Two of the categories are retro-themed! Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times 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: Farrah hair.

Green group hint: Totally tubular!

Blue group hint: Bock-bock!

Purple group hint: Can refer to a dairy product or a cosmetic.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Retro hair directives.

Green group: Retro slang for cool.

Blue group: Chicken descriptors.

Purple group: ____ cream.

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 retro hair directives. The four answers are crimp, curl, feather and tease.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is retro slang for cool. The four answers are bad, fly, rad and wicked.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is chicken descriptors. The four answers are bantam, crested, free-range and leghorn.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ cream. The four answers are heavy, shaving, sour and topical.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Feb. 18, #1705

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Feb. 18, No. 1,705.

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 answer is a word I thought I’d seen in Wordle before, but I guess not. The letters aren’t super common, so it may take a few guesses. 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.