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Smartphones are essential to our lives. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans now have a smartphone. We use phones to check email, call or text family and friends, scroll social media and even do our jobs.

But all this activity involves using a lot of data which can be increasingly expensive. A report from the third-party bill payment service Doxo last year found that the average US cellphone bill is $1,342 per year. One solution to reduce your bill is to switch to a prepaid service that gives you the power to only pay for data you actually use.

MobileX is a new wireless service available exclusively at Walmart that leverages AI to provide consumers with hyper-personalized service and avoid unnecessary charges. MobileX offers a variety of plans to fit an array of budgets and data uses, with service starting as low as $4.08 per month. MobileX works with either a SIM card or eSIM and is available on the Apple and Google Play app stores. Currently, when you purchase a starter kit for $9.88, you’ll get a credit up to $10 on a future MobileX bill, covering the initial cost.

Here’s how MobileX works.

What is an eSIM and how does it work?

For your mobile phone to connect to a carrier’s service, it needs to communicate with the carrier via its SIM card. MobileX connects to Verizon’s wireless network for cell service.

SIM stands for subscriber identity module. A SIM comes in two forms, a physical SIM card or an electronic version that is already built into your phone called an eSIM (embedded subscriber identity module).

eSIMs have long been popular for international travel, but the technology is popular for prepaid domestic use, too. When Apple removed the SIM card tray from the US models of the iPhone 14 series, it signaled a shift in eSIM dominance, and other manufacturers like Samsung and Google are following suit. Translation: The physical SIM card’s days are numbered.

MobileX offers both physical SIMs and eSIMs. The service uses AI to learn your data usage and create a personalized plan to help you maximize your data budget.

How is MobileX different from other phone carriers?

MobileX offers users the power to customize their monthly phone bill by giving them the ability to monitor their usage on the MobileX app and choose how much they pay without sacrificing speed or quality.

Contract plans or set pay-as-you-go plans can sometimes throttle your data speeds. MobileX customizes your plan to your unique needs so that you only pay for what you need. The company says that users are not deprioritized compared to customers on other prepaid carrier’s unlimited plans. You’ll also never waste unused data; instead, unused data in Personalized Access plans will roll over to the next month as a data credit so you never lose the data you pay for.

Your first 10 days of MobileX service is free while the AI tool learns about your data habits, after which you’ll receive a recommended personalized plan and price. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can also manually choose how much MobileX data to initially purchase instead. The AI tool continues to learn and make recommendations as your usage evolves, and MobileX’s all-in-one app gives you full control over your service from a convenient interface.

For those more accustomed to traditional plans, there is the option of choosing a Basic Unlimited plan which starts at $14.88/month for 5GB of high-speed data, or $24.88/month for unlimited data including 30GB of high-speed data.

Like other MVNO service providers, MobileX supports devices that are unlocked and paid off. You can check device compatibility on MobileX’s website. When you purchase the MobileX starter kit, you receive a physical SIM card, or you can activate with eSIM if you have a newer phone model that no longer has a SIM card tray.

Get a plan that’s as smart as you

MobileX offers an easy way to personalize and save on wireless. Get your MobileX SIM Card Starter Pack for just $9.88, available only at Walmart.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will take place on June 10, where we expect the company to release the next version of iPhone software: iOS 18.

Apple’s iOS 18 could bring the “biggest” software update in the iPhone’s history, according to the January edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. In the November edition, Gurman wrote that iOS 18 could bring “relatively groundbreaking” updates to the iPhone complete with “major new features and designs.”

The news comes amid the generative AI hype cycle. Last fall, Google debuted its flagship Pixel 8 lineup with souped-up AI tricks and in January, Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 series with Galaxy AI. In light of this, it’s likely Apple will go in the same direction with the rumored iPhone 16 and iOS 18.

To be clear, Apple already has AI features baked into its iPhones like its photo duplication detection feature, but we’ve yet to see how generative AI will factor into the iPhone and iOS. With iOS 17, Apple included a slew of AI-powered features like the ability to clone your own voice on the iPhone and an updated keyboard with better autocorrect. But the company stopped short of unveiling generative AI products along the lines of Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s Chat GPT. Still, the rumor mill points to meaningful changes in iOS 18. Here are the most credible ones.

Read more: Best iPhone of 2024

Smarter Siri

Siri has been around since iOS 5 in 2011, but with iOS 18 Apple’s voice-activated assistant could get a lot smarter.Generative AI technology “should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences,” according to Gurman.

Before his newsletter, a September report from the Information, said Apple plans to use large language models, a crucial part of generative AI, to make Siri smarter. An example detailed in that article explained how Siri can respond to simple voice commands for more complex tasks, such as turning a set of photos into a GIF and then sending them to one of your contacts. If that example is accurate, this represents a significant step forward in the capabilities of Siri.

Read More: Apple Just Teased Its AI Plans. You Really Should Take Notice.

Read More: The Hidden AI Features Available on Your iPhone Right Now

Improved texting with Android

Apple has said it will bring RCS support, the cross-platform messaging standard, to the iPhone. According to a November report by 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson said it’ll be coming to the iPhone “later next year” and will work alongside iMessage.

RCS support should improve the current messaging experience between iPhone and Android users by bringing iMessage-like features. Those upgrades include sending high-quality photos and videos to contacts, read receipt, typing indicators and, most importantly, end-to-end encryption, something SMS messaging lacks. In other words, if you have an Android phone and are texting someone with an iPhone, you’ll be able to text each other over RCS instead of SMS. However, it’s important to remember that iMessage will remain exclusive to the iPhone and other Apple devices. RCS will not bring iMessage to Android phones.

Read More: Apple’s iMessage Will Probably Never Come to Android. And That’s OK.

As mentioned earlier, details are currently sparse on Apple’s plans and we don’t yet know which iPhones will be compatible with iOS 18. We’ll be updating this article as and when we get more details, so make sure to check back. Until then, you can get up to speed with iOS 17.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

There are tons of good reasons to use a VPN. Whether you’re looking for an additional layer of privacy, trying to browse streaming content that’s not available in your country or avoiding ISP tracking — there’s a VPN service for you. However, most people are put off by the month-to-month cost of a subscription. Fortunately, many of the best VPN services regularly offer deals and discounts on long-term plans. Here’s what’s currently available for you, if you’re looking to sign up for a new VPN service.

Looking for more discounts? CNET has the best deals from ExpressVPN, Surfshark and many others, along with promo code offers — all updated and verified daily.

Welcome to CNET Coupons, the first stop before you shop, featuring a multitude of deals and discounts from top online retailers. Simply head over to our coupon page and type in your favorite store or brands to find all the deals available for the week.

When Apple released iOS 17.4 on March 5, the tech giant brought new features and bug fixes to your iPhone, like new emoji for everyone and the ability for people in the EU to download other app stores. But the update also gives you more control over the security of your iPhone by adding more Stolen Device Protection settings.

Read more: You Should Really Download iOS 17.4.1 Right Now

Stolen Device Protection was introduced in iOS 17.3, and as CNET’s David Lumb reported, it puts an extra layer of security on some of your sensitive data. If you’re not in a familiar location like your home, the feature requires you to enter your biometric information once, wait one hour and then enter your information a second time to access and change some information — like changing your Apple ID password or turning Stolen Device Protection off.

However, if you frequent a coffee shop or live in an apartment building and you lose your iPhone at one of these places, your data could still be at risk. Your iPhone might recognize these places as familiar locations and allow another person to bypass this security feature. But with iOS 17.4, you can set your iPhone to always require the one-hour security delay, no matter where you are.

Here’s how to make Stolen Device Protection always on.

How to always require one-hour security delay

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Face ID & Passcode
3. Scroll down and tap Stolen Device Protection
4. Tap the toggle next to Stolen Device Protection if it’s not already enabled. If it’s already enabled go to the next step
5. Tap Always under Require Security Delay

Now, whether or not you’re in a familiar location like your home, your device will always require the one-hour security delay if you or someone else tries to access or change certain settings on your iPhone.

However, Stolen Device Protection only protects a handful of settings, so you still have to take steps to protect your other information. For example, Apple notes you can still use your iPhone’s passcode to make purchases with Apple Pay, so Stolen Device Protection won’t totally protect your finances.

Apple still recommends everyone turn Stolen Device Protection on, even if you don’t always require the one-hour security delay.

For more on Apple, here is what to know about iOS 17.4.1, the other features to land on your iPhone with iOS 17.4 and our iOS 17 cheat sheet.

It’s not often that we see great deals on Nintendo Switch consoles, so when they do pop up, it’s best to act quickly. This Woot deal on the Nintendo Switch OLED is available for a limited time and offers one of our favorite handheld consoles at a steep $30 discount. Both the white and neon red-blue models are available at the reduced price of $320 while supplies last.

Unlike many Woot deals, the Switch OLED models on sale today are offered brand-new, so you don’t have to settle for a preowned or refurbished device. The devices will ship in the regular Nintendo retail packaging with all the accessories you’d expect a brand-new unit to come with. The main downside is that the warranty, provided by Woot, is shorter than you’d usually get, with 90 days of coverage in case of any issues.

The Nintendo Switch OLED is the best Switch console on the market right now. It has a larger screen than both the original Switch and Lite models, with a 7-inch OLED display offering more vivid colors and greater contrast. The device also has a redesigned kickstand and TV dock, along with 64GB of internal storage. Whether you’re investing in a Nintendo Switch for the first time, want to upgrade your current device or are buying a console as a gift, this deal makes it much more affordable — while supplies last.

Phone cameras used to be useless at night, but the best camera phones you can buy today are able to take truly superb photos, even after the sun goes down. Top flagship phones like the iPhone 15 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra have night modes that allow them to take bright, sharp images even in the middle of the night. Even more-affordable phones like the Pixel 8 are equipped with astonishingly capable nighttime photography skills.

This kind of night photography used to require a DSLR on a tripod to take long exposures over the course of several seconds. But today’s phones can take excellent-looking images at night without needing any extra equipment. And that’s great, because it means you don’t need to carry a heavy camera and tripod into town every time you want to get a good-looking shot after sundown.

But getting an image you like enough to print and put on your wall isn’t just a case of waiting for darkness and whipping out your phone. You’ll still need to put in some work to take shots that you’ll want to look back on in years to come.

I’ve been a professional photographer for years and frequently shoot images at night on my pro camera and my phone. Here then are my top tips on how to get great images at night on any phone.

Read more: Best Camera Phone

1. Know how to activate night mode

If your phone has a night mode, it’s important to make sure it’s actually activated before you start shooting. On phones like the iPhone 15 series, or other recent iPhones, night mode will automatically kick in when the phone detects you’re in a low-light situation. Some Android phones have automatic night modes too, while others will require you to use specific night shooting modes (on the Galaxy S24 range it’s called simply Night; on the Pixel 8 it’s Night Sight).

Different phones may have different options or naming conventions, so if you’re unsure how to use yours — or if your phone even has one — then a quick Google search of the model and “night mode” should answer your questions. Night modes have increasingly become a must-have feature on camera phones, so odds are if you’ve bought a new phone in the past couple of years, then it’ll have some kind of night mode built in.

2. Look for the light

Though recent iPhones and Galaxy phones can take amazing low-light images, you still need to have some light in the shot in order to make a compelling image. So, heading into the darkest part of a forest isn’t likely to give you good results. Instead, try going to populated areas like city centers, where you’ll find light sources in the form of street lamps, shop window displays and maybe even some festive lighting during the holidays.

Read more: Best iPhone Camera Accessories

3. Wait for your moment

Great city and street photography often includes a person as a subject in your shot, and nighttime can be an awesome time to take those images. When the light is limited, however, you need to make sure that person is exactly where you want them to be, and that can involve some patience.

For instance, imagine you’re taking a shot on a road lit by streetlamps. Each lamp casts a pool of light, and as someone walks through it, they’re temporarily lit up before becoming effectively invisible again in the darkness. In that situation, my advice is to have your shot ready, with your finger hovering over that shutter button. It may take some minutes waiting, but eventually someone will walk exactly through that pool of light and you can take your shot. Patience can really pay off.

4. Steady yourself

Even though night modes on phones don’t require a tripod in the same way a multisecond exposure on a DSLR would, you’ll still get your best results if you keep the phone as still as possible while taking your image. If you don’t have a tripod with you, then look around for a low wall, a trash can or anything you can steady your phone on while you get your shot.

If there’s nothing nearby, you can help steady the phone by keeping it firmly in both hands, holding it fairly close to your chest and tucking your elbows in toward your stomach. This will help reduce some of the natural wobble in your hands and may make the difference in getting a sharper image.

5. Use Motion modes, if you have them

The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro (as well as the earlier Pixel 7 series) can take excellent regular photos at night, but they also have a long-exposure mode that allows you to get some creative shots that would normally only be achievable using a tripod. While the mode works well in the daytime to blur things like waterfalls, it also works extremely well at night, especially for subjects like cars driving down city streets.

The long exposure blurs the headlights and taillights, turning them from static balls of light into ethereal lines, snaking their way through the scene. You’ll need to use the phone’s Motion mode to get this effect, and make sure that Long Exposure is toggled on. Long-exposure photos like this work best when you keep the camera still and take a photo that includes both static subjects (like buildings and streetlamps) and moving subjects (like cars, buses or cyclists). It can take some practice — and results can be hit and miss — but when it works, it works really well and adds an extra creative element to your night shots.

Not every phone has this as standard, though, and though there are some third-party apps that aim to replicate it, I haven’t found many that really work or that come close to the quality I’ve achieved with the Pixels.

6. Edit your shots

As with any good photo, taking the shot is only half the story; it’s how you edit it that can be the biggest way to transform it into a real piece of art. I use Adobe Lightroom Mobile for most of my editing, but Google’s Snapseed is really powerful as well and is totally free on iOS and Android.

By their nature, night photos may well be dark, so it’s possible you might want to start by lifting the exposure. Be careful though; low-light images, even good night mode shots, will have image noise (a fuzzy grain) that will look worse and worse the more you brighten the image. You may need to reduce some of the highlights (especially if you’ve captured bright street lights) and boost the shadows a touch to balance things out. Pay attention to the details and make sure you’re not pushing it too far.

From then on, it’s entirely down to what you feel looks good, so spend some time playing around with the tools available and see what you can come up with. I personally find that nighttime scenes can often look great as black and white images, because the natural contrast of bright lights and dark backgrounds lends itself well to a monochrome conversion.

Elon Musk is making his company’s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot available to more people who pay a monthly subscription for X, his social media network.

In a statement published on X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk said he intends to make Grok available to all premium subscribers of the social media site who pay $8 per month. Previously, Grok access had been limited to subscribers who pay $16 per month for X’s premium plus subscription, which removes ads from parts of the website, among other benefits. Musk gave no exact date for the release.

The move is the latest way Musk appears to be ramping up his competition against AI companies, OpenAI in particular. Musk has a long history of both supporting the technology and warning of its destructive possibilities.

In February, Musk sued OpenAI, which he had initially helped to found, accusing the company of breach of contract. In the suit, he said OpenAI was intended to be an open-source, “non-profit lab that would try to catch up to Google in the race for AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), but it would be the opposite of Google.” Instead, OpenAI has become one of the hottest AI companies in the world, and charges $20 per month for access to advanced versions of its popular ChatGPT technology.

In the meantime, Musk has been investing heavily in a competing AI called Grok. The technology, which he said is part of a new effort announced last year called xAI. Grok is currently built into Musk’s X social network, which he bought in 2022 for more than $44 billion.

Why the name Grok?

Grok is an unusual technology, and not just because it has an unusual name. The word “grok” is a term coined by sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein, who used it in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land about a human raised by aliens on Mars and then brought back to Earth. Grok is a Martian term, meaning to understand something to the point where it becomes a part of you.

What does this have to do with Musk? Well, grok is a popular term among sci-fi fans, computer programmers and hackers alike, so it’s no surprise he would appropriate the term.

What Musk wants Grok to be

During Grok’s launch in November, Musk positioned the technology as a philosophical rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s CoPilot, Facebook’s LLama and Google’s Gemini (then called Bard). Musk posted on X that Grok would be “funny” and that it would be “politically neutral,” unlike, as he called it, “WokeGPT.”

Musk’s posts were in response to political commentators, who’d begun testing the publicly available AI chatbots that were becoming increasingly popular. In their tests, the commentators noticed that many of these technologies would sometimes respond with true statements about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and the overwhelming proof that the 2020 US election was legitimately conducted.

The internet quickly learned, though, that Grok answered questions in ways of which Musk may not approve. In one instance, a user asked Grok a question about people who are transgender, a population Musk has repeatedly spoken negatively about. (Musk also has a trans daughter who publicly criticizes his statements and actions.) Grok’s response effectively supported transgender people’s right to identify themselves, upsetting people who believed Grok’s neutrality would not support such a stance.

Grok similarly criticized racist conspiracy theories. It also described the word “woke” as “a call to action to stay informed and fight against discrimination,” adding that arguments against it were “a load of BS.”

Within days, Musk said his team was “taking immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral,” though it’s unclear how he’s defining that term.

Musk didn’t respond to a request comment about whether Grok is currently perceived as “woke.”

Musk, Grok and X

xAI released the source code for Grok in March and has said it plans further releases in the future.

Musk, meanwhile, has discussed planned changes for Grok, including modes like “normal,” “fun” and “unhinged.” Microsoft, by contrast, offers a different set of distinctions: “more creative,” “more precise” and “more balanced.”

Musk has also said a “Super Grok” is planned for premium plus subscribers. OpenAI and Google have followed similar approaches, restricting access for their more advanced AIs to subscribers who pay about $20 per month.

The first weekend of March Madness, known as the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, is in the books. After the first round saw some remarkable performances and shocking upsets from the likes of No. 14 Oakland, No. 13 Yale and No. 11 Oregon, the second round largely went to the favorites.

Heading into this Thursday and Friday’s Sweet 16, only one double-digit seed remains in the men’s bracket: No. 11 NC State, which will take on No. 2 Marquette on Friday. In the first batch of games that kick off on Thursday, the lowest-ranked seed will be No. 6 Clemson took down No. 2 Arizona to pull off the weekend’s first upset.

With No. 1 UConn holding serve against No. 5 San Diego State, two games remain for Thursday’s slate. Tip-off for the next game, No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 1 North Carolina, is now called for 9:54 p.m. ET on CBS.

Here’s everything you need to know for this year’s March Madness, from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four and the National Championship game. The short of it is you need only two apps costing $22 per month combined to stream every game of the tournament: Max (with Ads) and Paramount Plus with Showtime.

Read More: Women’s March Madness 2024: How to Watch Caitlin Clark Today and Every Tournament Game

How can I watch or stream March Madness?

As in past years, the tournament will be shown across four channels: CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV. The time has come again to find TruTV on your dial.

You can watch these channels with a cable subscription or a live TV streaming service, but the most affordable option is signing up for a pair of streaming services for a month: Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime. If you have the cheaper Paramount Plus Essential plan, you won’t be able to watch March Madness unless you step up to the pricier option.

For just $22, you can watch every March Madness game live. With the cheaper, ad-supported $10-a-month Max streaming service, you can watch the games broadcast on TBS, TNT and TruTV. With the $12-per-month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan, you’ll be able to watch the CBS games.

You’ll have to juggle between both apps but this is the cheapest way to catch all the action.

Which devices can I use to watch March Madness?

You’ll find an app for each service to watch on an iPhone or Android phone as well as an iPad, Android tablet or Amazon Fire tablet. Max and Paramount Plus are also available on mainstream streaming platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Android TV/Google TV and Fire TV, as well as smart televisions from major manufacturers LG, Samsung and Vizio. Both services are also accessible through Xbox and PlayStation game consoles.

For more specifics, check out the full list of supported devices for Max and Paramount Plus.

Can I stream March Madness for free?

Go to the NCAA’s March Madness Live site or use its March Madness Live app and you’ll be able to watch games for free. You can watch March Madness Live on iOS and Android devices along with Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and Xbox. The app also supports AirPlay and Chromecast.

As with most things that are free, there’s a catch. Without proving you’re a pay TV subscriber, you get only a three-hour preview, after which point you’ll need to log in to continue watching.

What is the March Madness schedule for the Sweet 16?

Here is the schedule for this weekend’s remaining second-round games (all times ET).

Thursday, March 28

• No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 1 UConn, 7:39 p.m. on TBS/TruTV
• No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 1 North Carolina, 9:54 p.m. on CBS
• No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 2 Iowa State, 10:10 p.m. on TBS/TruTV

Friday, March 29

• No. 11 NC State vs. No. 2 Marquette, 7:09 p.m. on CBS
• No. 5 Gonzaga vs. No. 1 Purdue, 7:39 p.m. on TBS/TruTV
• No. 4 Duke vs. No. 1 Houston, 9:39 p.m. on CBS
• No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 2 Tennessee 10:09 p.m. on TBS/TruTV

What is the March Madness tournament schedule?

Here’s the remaining schedule, round by round:

• Sweet 16: March 28 to 29
• Elite Eight: March 30 to 31
• Final Four: Saturday, April 6
• NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8

What does the March Madness bracket look like?

You can check out the official bracket to see all the matchups and attempt to identify potential upsets and which teams will make it to the Final Four.

Which are the top teams in college basketball this year?

Looking for help in filling out your bracket? I can offer no such assistance for a single-elimination tournament as wild and unpredictable as March Madness.

What I can tell you is that online wagering site FanDuel currently lists defending champion UConn as the favorite, followed by Houston and Purdue. In the next tier are Arizona, North Carolina and Tennessee. Rounding out the top 10 betting favorites are Auburn, Creighton, Marquette and Iowa State.

What’s the best live TV streaming service for March Madness?

Three of the five live TV streaming services offer the four channels needed to watch every tournament game but keep in mind that not every service carries every local network, so check each one using the links below to make sure it carries CBS in your area.

We recommend YouTube TV to college basketball fans for its relatively low monthly charge and multi-view capability that lets you watch multiple games at once. It’s also one of the three services that offer all four of the channels needed to watch every game. At $73 per month, it’s significantly pricier than getting Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime.

Sling TV lacks CBS but is a good, low-cost option if you don’t need to watch every game of the tournament but want to be sure you can watch the Final Four and national championship game. At $40 per month, it costs nearly twice as much as it would to sign up for a month of Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime which would let you watch every game.

Hulu with Live TV and DirecTV Stream have every channel needed as well, but both are pricier than YouTube TV and lack features like multi-view. Fubo offers multi-view but doesn’t offer the Turner networks (TNT, TBS and TruTV), making it a poor choice for March Madness.

All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials, allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

The current iPad lineup is a cluttered and confusing mess. There are two sizes of iPad Pro, a single iPad Air, two generations of the regular iPad and the iPad Mini that’s still alive and kicking. It’s hit or miss with which Apple Pencil works with which iPad, and only one iPad has the camera on the side for landscape FaceTime calls.

Not only are the current iPad offerings confounding, but they are also getting state. Apple didn’t release any iPads last year, making it the first calendar year without a new iPad since Apple’s tablet was first released in 2010. If the rumors are true, the long wait for new iPads is almost over. New iPad Pro and Air models are expected in early May, according to the latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Apple needs to do something with the iPad to keep consumers interested in its device that’s neither iPhone nor MacBook. The iPad has always occupied the middle ground between the company’s phones and laptops, and now it has company in this in-between zone with the arrival of the Vision Pro. CNET’s Scott Stein said the Vision Pro feels like “an iPad exploded into space.” The Vision Pro is far too expensive right now to cannibalize iPad sales, but as its price comes down in the years to come, it will compete with the iPad for our third-screen needs and dollars.

We will soon get confirmation to which direction Apple is taking its tablets. Here’s what the rumored updates will look like for each iPad line.

OLED coming to iPad Pro

OLED is the big news with Apple’s top-end iPad Pro. The new models will reportedly ditch mini-LED screens for OLED displays that will deliver more vibrant colors, true black levels and superior contrast. The OLED panels could also support a wider range of refresh rates. The newer iPhone Pro models feature always-on OLED displays that can operate as slow as 1Hz to extend battery life.

The updated iPad Pros will come in 11- and 13-inch sizes, with the latter being slightly larger than the current big Pro at 12.9 inches. The new Pros are also expected to upgrade from Apple’s M2 chip of the current models to the M3 chip. Other rumored changes include USB-C and MagSafe wireless charging along with an updated Magic Keyboard with an aluminum cover and larger trackpad.

iPad Air expanding to 12.9 inches

A larger iPad Air is expected to be added to the line this spring. The current, fifth-gen iPad Air is based on a 10.9-inch display and an M1 chip. The new lineup will be based on M2 chips and available in both 10.9-inch and 12.9-inch models. A 12.9-inch Air would give tablet buyers the ability to get a larger screen without needing to pay the premium for a Pro model.

The new iPad Airs are not expected to move to mini-LED or OLED displays and will keep their LED-based liquid retina panels. The rear camera, according to 9to5Mac, is expected to be housed in a new camera bump that includes a flash, a feature not offered on the current Air. The new models are also expected to work with the current Magic Keyboard and not the keyboard update that will be exclusive to the new Pro models.

iPad and iPad Mini updates later this year

The rumors are foggier for the entry-level iPad and iPad Mini. Each could get a processor bump, with the 11th-gen iPad moving to the A15 chip and the seventh-gen iPad Mini getting the A16 chip. With the arrival of the 11th-gen iPad, Apple will likely keep the 10th-gen iPad as its budget offering and phase out the ninth-gen model, which is the last remaining model with the home button. These updates are expected not this spring but later in the year.

And by the end of the year, perhaps we will finally see the long-rumored foldable iPad.

With the total solar eclipse just over a week away, time is running out on finding both eye protection and camera lens protection. But there’s a device-app combo that could solve that problem in one fell swoop.

Solar Snap is designed to help you both protect your eyes when viewing a solar eclipse, as well as take photos of the eclipse while it’s happening. The bundle comes with a Solar Snap camera filter that attaches to the back of an iPhone or Android phone, along with solar eclipse glasses for protecting your eyesight during the event.

After you attach the filter to your phone, you can use the free Solar Snap Eclipse app to zoom in on the eclipse, adjust exposure and other camera settings, and ultimately capture photos of an eclipse.

Solar Snap was founded by Douglas Duncan, a former Hubble Space Telescope astronomer, who wanted to take better pictures of a solar eclipse using only a phone’s camera. However, when Duncan, who currently serves as an emeritus faculty member at the University of Colorado and was the former director of the university’s Fiske Planetarium, sought a solution, he couldn’t find one.

“At recent eclipses, I saw lots of people trying to take souvenir photos with their phones, but failing,” Duncan told me. “Something needed to be done! I spent the pandemic inventing and testing Solar Snap.”

Here’s what you need to know about the app about it, as well as some general tips for photographing the eclipse.

Solar Snap app

Since Solar Snap has a very specific purpose, it isn’t necessarily useful day to day. However, it should be especially useful on April 8, when the moon passes between Earth and the sun and causes a total solar eclipse over North America. The Great American Eclipse, as it’s become known, will reach the Mexican Pacific coast at 2:07 p.m. ET on April 8 and then traverse from Texas to Maine until it moves off the Eastern coast of North America at 3:35 p.m. ET.

As exciting (and rare — the next total solar eclipse over North America won’t occur until 2044) as that may be, solar eclipses carry their fair share of risks. During the eclipse, and especially just before and after totality, or when the moon completely shrouds the sun, looking at the eclipse without protective eye gear can cause severe eye damage. You can similarly suffer significant eye damage if you look at the eclipse through binoculars, telescopes or, yes, the lens on a camera or smartphone without a filter.

Solar Snap aims at solving that problem by providing filters for both the camera and eyes, making it possible to look at the eclipse and take photos of it without worrying about eye safety. And with its app settings designed to optimize image quality, it promises to deliver nice-looking views of the eclipse for you to enjoy long after it’s over.

“I built automation into Solar Snap,” Duncan said. “If you put your phone on a tripod, at the start of totality, you can take the filter off (don’t bump the phone!), push the ‘totality’ button, and it will take photos all during totality, while you watch the eclipse.”

The $19 Solar Snap kit is available now. The kit comes with two pairs each of the phone filter and protective eyewear, along with two Velcro sets for attaching the filter to a phone. Solar Snap’s app is available in both Apple’s App Store and in Android app marketplaces like Google Play.

General eclipse-photography tips

Space.com reports that over 44 million people will experience totality during the April 8 eclipse, and it’s likely that most of them will try to capture a photo or two. Here are a few tips.

• Whether you’re digging out the fancy camera gear or keeping it simple, practice your setup before eclipse day. If anything goes wrong, or you forget an accessory you needed, you don’t want to learn that once the eclipse has already begun. Depending where you’re watching from, it’s only 3 to 5 minutes long. NASA suggests practicing by photographing the moon.
• You likely want to get yourself a certified solar filter to attach to your camera. It’ll protect your eyes and let you take photos while viewing the eclipse through your lens.
• The best photos will be taken with DSLR cameras, or what we old-timers used to just call “cameras.” But let’s be real: Many of us are just going to do the best we can with our phone cameras. NASA suggests you don’t count on your phone’s autofocus — you’ll have to do it manually, by tapping the screen, holding your finger on the moon to lock the focus, and then dragging your finger up and down to adjust the exposure.
• You also may want to buy an inexpensive zoom lens that clips on directly to your smart phone camera. “Digital zoom will not work to create a magnified, clear image,” NASA warns.
• Remember, however, that you don’t want to get too busy taking eclipse photos that you forget to enjoy the experience itself. After all, there won’t be another chance until 2044.

CNET’s Gael Cooper contributed to this article.