Technologies

Twitter To Charge for SMS Two-Factor Authentication

Twitter users who rely on this method will have until March 20 to change how they secure their account.

Twitter users who secure their accounts using text message will lose the extra layer of security after March 20 unless they change their two-factor authentication method or pay for the platform’s subscription service.

Two-factor authentication allows people to protect their accounts even if someone has stolen their password. Twitter users who have this security process enabled are able to log into their account after they enter their password and a code they receive through a text message or an authenticator app. They can also use a security key.

The company said in a blog post it is no longer allowing «accounts to enroll in the text message/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers.»

«To be clear, two-factor authentication is still not required to log into Twitter, although we highly encourage users to enable it. This change just restricts the 2FA methods available for accounts not subscribed to Twitter Blue,» Twitter Support tweeted on Friday. Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service, costs $8 per month if you subscribe through the web or $11 a month on your mobile device.

Twitter users can change their two-factor authentication app through the account’s settings. Once users click «security and account access,» there’s three different options listed in a section for two-factor authentication.

Twitter’s announcement came hours after Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer tweeted that the social network planned to make this change. It’s another example of how Twitter is trying to entice more users to subscribe to Twitter Blue as advertisers pull back spending after billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company last year. The Information reported earlier this month that Twitter has roughly 180,000 subscribers in the US so the service doesn’t appear to be popular among the platform’s users. The company has tried to get more people to subscribe by offering a coveted blue checkmark, longer tweets and other features.

The change also comes as Twitter faces more scrutiny and whistleblower complaints about how the company isn’t doing enough to safeguard the security of users. Last year, Twitter users complained that two-factor authentication wasn’t working properly and the company said it was looking into instances where SMS codes weren’t being delivered.

Using a text message for two-factor authentication, Twitter said in a blog post, has been «used — and abused — by bad actors.» Hackers have tried to access codes sent through text message by transferring a person’s phone number to another device in what is known as SIM swapping.

Twitter users who disable text message 2FA will not automatically have their phone number disassociated from their account but can update their number in the account’s settings, the company said.

Technologies

Curious About iPhone 17 Rumors and Leaks Ahead of WWDC? Here’s the Scoop

The big question is how much the next iPhone will actually cost. We have a pretty good guess.

Ahead of Apple’s WWDC announcement, the buzz around iPhone 17 rumors and leaks has fans anticipating the release date of the new iPhone line. With the rumored iPhone 17 Pro having better video capabilities and a new slim iPhone 17 Air allegedly having a thin design balanced by improved battery technology, there’s a lot of speculation to cut through.

Not to mention tariffs and how they could potentially affect the price of the new iPhone after President Trump threatened a 25% tariff on all Apple smartphones made outside the US. We’re tracking all the biggest rumors and leaks and sharing what we know so you can have an idea of what’s coming next (and potentially what you won’t see).

iPhone 17 release date: When is the next iPhone coming out?

Over the last several years, Apple has consistently announced its new phones in the first half of September. This will likely be the case with the full iPhone 17 lineup, with the exception of the iPhone 17E, which could arrive in early 2026, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and a report from The Information.

The iPhone 17 lineup may be the last to follow this fall-release model. Starting with the iPhone 18, Apple will reportedly split its phone releases so that lower-cost iPhones launch in the first half of the year and the higher-end Pro models become available later in the year. But that isn’t expected to happen until 2026, so you can likely still expect the iPhone 17 Pro to become available this fall.

Preorders for a new iPhone typically begin the Friday after the announcement, with the phone shipping a week later.

iPhone 17 Price: Will tariffs increase the cost of the next iPhone?

President Donald Trump has raised, lowered and paused tariffs a dizzying number of times since February, all of which could potentially affect the cost of the iPhone 17.

Apple, which could move much of US iPhone production from China to India, has escaped many of the tariff hikes thanks to a reciprocal tariff exemption list that includes many phones, laptops and other electronics that Apple produces.

But all the reprieves appear to be temporary, so tariffs could still potentially affect prices by the time of the iPhone 17 release.

Regardless of how tariffs play out, Apple has plans to raise iPhone prices later this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple apparently plans to ascribe the price increase to better features and design costs so it can avoid pointing the finger at tariffs and incurring the wrath of Trump (like Amazon temporarily did).

CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland, who’s been reviewing phones for CNET since 2016, points out that the iPhone is overdue for a price bump. He noted that Apple has never increased the price for an iPhone Pro ($999) since the iPhone X was first introduced in 2017.

So yes, you should expect to pay more for the iPhone 17, regardless of tariffs.

New iPhone 17 colors

Rumors of a new color for the iPhone started in April, when Twitter user and leaker Majin Bu (not the Dragon Ball Z character) posted that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max could get a sky blue option. The latest MacBook Air models come in sky blue, which could give you some idea of the soft hue we’ll see on the iPhone if it goes in the same direction.

For reference, the iPhone 16 and Plus made a splash last year when they debuted pink, teal and ultramarine color options, alongside the standard white and black. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max introduced a new color, desert titanium — a restrained shade of peach — alongside the classic natural titanium, white titanium and black titanium options.

iPhone 17 Pro camera bump redesign

The iPhone 17 Pro’s camera has been the subject of multiple rumored changes, most notably that Apple could add a horizontal camera bar that spreads across the width of the phone. The front-facing «selfie camera» could also be getting an upgrade.

Back in January, Bu posted a leaked image on X suggesting that the phone could feature a pill-shaped camera bar that looks a lot like the camera bar on Google’s Pixel 9 phone.

That raised the question of whether the iPhone 17 Pro would align the three camera lenses in a single row or leave them stacked in a pyramid design, as it did with the iPhone 16 Pro.

In February, Bu posted CAD renders of what could be the iPhone 17 lineup, and Front Page Tech also shared iPhone 17 Pro renders in a video. Both showed horizontal camera bars for the iPhone 17 Pro models that keep the stacked lens layout.

And as for your selfies: The front-facing camera will reportedly be upgraded from the iPhone 16’s 12 megapixels to 24 megapixels on all iPhone 17 models, according to analyst Jeff Pu.

Pu wrote in March that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will feature a 48-megapixel telephoto rear camera, up from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16 Pro models. That would mean all three cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro models — Fusion, ultrawide and telephoto — would be 48 megapixels.

Leaked Specs: iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Pro vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max

Specs for the iPhone 17 are more grist for the rumor mill.

Display

After the backlash over Apple not updating the 60Hz display on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, rumors of a 120Hz display (Pro Motion) on all iPhone 17 models could be welcome news, along with possibly adding the always-on display to the baseline model.

One feature you likely won’t see with the new iPhone 17 Pro models is an antireflective display, which CNET’s Patrick Holland called one of the best attributes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. A source told MacRumors that Apple had to scrap plans for a more scratch-resistant display because of scaling issues with the coating process.

Additionally, Pu said the iPhone 17 Pro Max may reduce the size of its Face ID sensor, so it could have a narrower Dynamic Island, but the other iPhone 17 models would likely stay the same size.

Memory

Apple Intelligence and AI are likely to play more prominent roles with the iPhone 17. To support the new features, all the iPhone 17 models will step up to 12GB of RAM, tipster Digital Chat Station reported in April. Kuo has also suggested this could happen, according to Digital Trends.

Considering that the iPhone 16 lineup had 8GB of RAM across all models, this could be a big upgrade for the iPhone 17.

Frame

There’s been plenty of discussion about whether the iPhone 17 Pro will ditch its titanium alloy frame for an aluminum one. The most recent rumors predict the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all have aluminum frames, according to Pu.

iPhone 17 battery life

The iPhone 17 Air might have to scale back on battery life to make a thinner design possible, although the latest rumor from AppleInsider is that it might use a silicon-anode battery that could help extend the battery life. However, rumors are that the iPhone 17 Pro will likely get a battery boost.

In May, Pu said the baseline iPhone 17 will likely feature Apple’s in-house A19 chip, while the Pro could have the A19 Pro chip. The iPhone 16 is powered by an A18 chip, which offers improved efficiency for better battery life.

Are new iPhone rumors and leaks to be trusted?

Here’s the part where I come in and say: Everything’s a rumor until Apple officially releases the next iPhone. Rumors and speculation leading up to the iPhone’s release are often based on insider knowledge or leaked information from teams working on the iPhone’s designs, but those designs are works in progress — not necessarily the final product.

Technologies

I Didn’t Expect a Refund From Amazon After All These Years, but It Happened

Amazon’s internal review led to a surprise deposit in my bank account.

Did you get a random refund from Amazon recently? You aren’t alone. Several customers have reported they received a variety of amounts of money from products they ordered months or even years ago, with one customer on LinkedIn saying he received a refund of $1,800 for a smart TV bought seven years ago. Others made similar comments about products bought long ago.

According to Bloomberg, it all ties back to an internal review Amazon did, possibly in response to a 2023 lawsuit. That suit claimed Amazon had quietly reversed legit return-related refunds for some shoppers. Now, it looks like Amazon’s making good — and if you’ve ever had a return go sideways, you might see a little money show up too.

A representative for Amazon told CNET that only a small number of customers would be affected.

«Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued,» an Amazon representative said. «There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue.»

In its latest earnings call, Amazon reported a one-time expense of $1 billion connected to refunds that the company had not yet sent out. These earmarked funds could be responsible for the sudden updates that shoppers are now seeing regarding purchases as far back as 2018.

Read more: I’ve Been Tracking Tariff Price Impacts Every Day and Here’s What I’ve Found So Far

If you receive an email about a surprise refund from Amazon orders, it may be related to these changes Amazon has made behind the scenes. You may still want to confirm it’s not fraud by logging into your Amazon account or making a quick service call, especially if it’s a larger amount like a payment for a TV. Scammers may be taking advantage of this news, too, so be wary of any notification that asks you for financial information, which Amazon should already have.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, May 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 25.

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.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword isn’t too tough. I was stumped right away though, with 1-Across, but when I read it to my teen daughter, she knew it immediately. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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 at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Good for a bike route, bad for a bike tire
Answer: FLAT

5A clue: Rolling in it
Answer: RICH

6A clue: Internet company with a purple logo
Answer: YAHOO

8A clue: McIlroy who won the 2025 Masters
Answer: RORY

9A clue: Mumford & ___ (rock band)
Answer: SONS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Food item dipped in ketchup
Answer: FRY

2D clue: Apt rhyme of «falsifiers»
Answer: LIARS

3D clue: Sneezing sound
Answer: ACHOO

4D clue: Plant’s defense against herbivores, perhaps
Answer: THORN

7D clue: Yiddish exclamations of woe
Answer: OYS

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.