Amazon will begin charging a $1 fee for some returns made through UPS, the online retail giant confirmed Friday.
You can continue making Amazon returns for free at Whole Foods, Kohl’s and Amazon Fresh stores, however.
“We offer convenient, easy returns to Amazon customers, with one or more options for label-free, box-free returns at no cost,” Eileen Hards, Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement emailed to CNET.
If you instead choose to return your item at a UPS Store “when there is a free option closer” to your delivery address, that’s when you could be hit with the fee, Amazon says.
Apple plans to be using more recycled materials in its products by 2025, the company said Thursday. Apple’s plans include using 100% recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries and 100% recycled tin soldering and gold plating for all Apple-designed circuit boards. The company also said it plans for the magnets in all Apple devices to be made from recycled rare earth elements by then, too.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, said in a news release that this plan aligns with Apple’s goal of producing carbon-neutral products by 2030.
“We’re working toward both goals with urgency and advancing innovation across our entire industry in the process,” Jackson said in the release.
Apple also said it’s made progress in eliminating plastic from the company’s packaging by 2025. Apple said only 4% of its packaging comes from plastic now.
Apple employs a number of robots to help in its efforts to extract and recycle these materials from older devices. Since 2019, the company’s iPhone disassembly robot, Daisy, has helped extract about 24,250 pounds (about 11,000 kilograms) of cobalt from batteries, Apple says. In 2022, the company introduced a recycling robot, named Taz, to help recover rare earth elements like magnets from products.
I’ve previously highlighted this deal on the Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe HS, a set of inexpensive open earbuds that perform surprisingly well — but it’s worth highlighting again. Their list price is $50, but after you apply the instant 15% off coupon on Amazon and then use the CNET-exclusive code DCCNETSP at checkout, you get an additional 13% discount, dropping the price to $36. It’s unclear how long the code will be active for, but it should be good for a few weeks.
What makes these Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe HS buds special is that they sound surprisingly good for open earbuds — they’re pretty close to what you get from Apple’s AirPods 3 for sound. On top of that, they support Sony’s LDAC audio codec for devices that offer it. Not too many cheap open earbuds have good sound but these Soundpeats have good bass response and clarity. They’re also good for making calls and have a low-latency gaming mode.
Battery life is rated at 5 hours at moderate volume levels, and these are IPX4 splash-proof. At $36, they’re a very good deal if you’re looking for open-style buds, and they now come in multiple colors.
Apple’s Notes app is one of the most powerful note-taking tools in the mobile world. It’s clutch for shopping lists, on-the-fly reminders and even the occasional celebrity apology letter.
There are an abundance of ways to use the Notes app to track everything in your life. But if you’ve had an iPhone for a long time, there’s a good chance you’ve built up a large collection of notes, which can make it tricky to track down the notes you actually need on a regular basis.
One of the handiest solutions came in the form of tags, which were added to iOS 15 in 2021.
Tags, which are similar to the hashtags used on social media sites such as Instagram or TikTok, can be added anywhere on a note, including the title. You can add them at any time, even retroactively. You can also organize your notes into regular folders, but that requires a bit of forward planning and thought work.
To add a tag to a note, type # then enter a new tag name, or choose an existing tag from the suggestions menu.
Three tags I regularly use are the #recipe, #grocerylist and #receipt tags. When I tap on the #recipe tag, Notes will pull up a collection of recipes I’ve tagged irrespective of the folder they’re stored in. I’ll hit up my #grocerylist tag, which will serve up all my previous grocery lists, when it’s time for me to restock. And I’ll refer to my #receipt tag, which brings up tagged receipts, when I’m reconciling expenses against my credit card statement.
Tags don’t need to be one continuous word, but they can’t contain spaces. You can use hyphens, numbers and underscores — for example #receipts-feb2023 or #grocerylist-vegan. You can also add multiple tags to a single note or use tags to create smart folders, which is essentially a collection of notes assembled by tag regardless of which folder they’re stored in.
Using tags, like the travel one in this image, is a great way to organize your iPhone notes and avoid losing them.
Apple/Screenshot by Sareena Dayaram
Don’t worry if you’ve never used tags before, and want to start organizing your notes. You can tag multiple notes retroactively — here’s how.
1. Go to the folder with the list of notes 2. Tap the More button (three dots), then select Notes 3. Select the notes you want tagged, then tap Tags at the bottom of the screen. If you already have a collection of tags, the iPhone will pull up the ones you already have for you to choose from. (So when selecting notes, its more efficient to choose the ones that have similar topics if possible so you can tag them in one fell swoop.) If you don’t have any pre-existing tags, the iPhone will serve up tag suggestions for you to choose from. 4. Select the tags you want to add to the notes, then tap Done.
The smart folder act like a filter and collects all notes with specific hashtags.
Apple/Screenshot by Sareena Dayaram
If you want to collect your tagged notes into a folder, use the Smart Folder feature (introduced alongside tags in iOS 15) like so:
1. Tap the New Folder button 2. Enter a name and tap Make Into Smart Folder 3. Choose which filters you want — certain tags, when notes were created, when they were last edited and more — those notes will automatically be included in the folder 4. Tap Done, and your Smart Folder is created
You can also convert a regular folder into a Smart Folder by tapping the More button and choosing the “convert” option.
Cocaine Bear, the horror comedy about a drugged-up bear that goes on a killing spree in a Georgia forest, only hit theaters in late February. But the mammal’s murdery exploits are already coming to Peacock.
The film is directed by Elizabeth Banks and stars a large cast that includes Keri Russell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Margo Martindale and Ray Liotta. It’s “inspired by true events.” (A black bear, a drug smuggler and cocaine are involved, but the bear isn’t known to have laid a hand on any humans.)
Cocaine Bear is the latest film from Universal’s film studios to stream on Peacock shortly after debuting in theaters. Read on for the release date, and why you might want to use a virtual private network while you stream.
When to watch Cocaine Bear on Peacock
Ready to face the bear? The film starts streaming on Peacock on Friday at 6 a.m. ET. People in the Pacific time zone can start watching at 3 a.m., while those in the Central time zone can do so beginning at 5 a.m.
Someone picked a bad time to go hiking.
Universal
Don’t already have access to the streaming service? Peacock offers an ad-supported Premium plan and ad-free Premium Plus plan. There’s also a free tier available to existing Peacock customers.
If you don’t want to subscribe, you can watch Cocaine Bear in theaters or rent it for $20.
Peacock’s ad-supported Premium plan costs $5 per month or $50 annually. Its ad-free Premium Plus plan costs $10 per month or $100 annually. If you’re a Spectrum or Xfinity customer, you may have free access to the platform right now (the deal expires for Xfinity customers in June). Read our Peacock review.
How to watch Cocaine Bear from anywhere with a VPN
Perhaps you’re traveling abroad and want to stream Peacock while away from home. With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the movie from anywhere in the world. There are other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming, too.
A VPN is the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds by encrypting your traffic. Using a VPN is also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins. Streaming TV can be a bit smoother with a reliable, quality VPN that’s passed our tests and security standards.
You can use a VPN to stream content legally as long as VPNs are allowed in your country and you have a valid subscription to the streaming service you’re using. The US and Canada are among the countries where VPNs are legal, but we advise against streaming or downloading content on illegal torrent sites. We recommend ExpressVPN, but you may opt for another provider from our best list such as Surfshark or NordVPN.
If you’re looking for a secure and dependable VPN, our Editors’ Choice is ExpressVPN. It’s fast, works on multiple devices, and provides stable streams. It’s normally $13 per month, but you can sign up for ExpressVPN and save 35% — the equivalent of $8.32 per month — if you get an annual subscription.
Follow the VPN provider’s instructions for installation, and choose the United States, where Cocaine Bear will be streaming on Peacock. Before you open the streaming app, make sure you are connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream Cocaine Bear on more than one device, it’s possible you’ll need to configure each one to ensure you are signed in. Go to settings and check your network connections to verify you’re logged in and connected to your VPN account. Now you’re ready to open Peacock to stream.
If you run into issues with streaming, first make sure your VPN is up and running on its encrypted IP address. Double-check that you’ve followed installation instructions correctly and you’ve picked the right geographical area for viewing. If you still encounter connection problems, you may need to reboot your device. Close all apps and windows, restart your device and connect to your VPN first. Note that some streaming services have restrictions on VPN access.
I always need a reliable, high-speed internet connection on my iPhone, whether it’s for work or pleasure. It’s why I always seek out Wi-Fi when my cellular connection is weak. Besides my home network, I connect to Wi-Fi at friends’ houses, coffee shops, restaurants, airports and libraries, but with so many networks, it’s impossible to remember all these passwords.
For the most part, I don’t need to remember any Wi-Fi passwords — once I connect to a network, my iPhone automatically reconnects to it when it’s nearby.
But there are times when I do need to know the actual password, if, for example, a friend or family member wants to connect to that same network and there’s no other way to share the password with them.
Helpfully, iPhones store the passwords of all the Wi-Fi networks you connect to — you just need to know where to find them.
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View password for Wi-Fi network you’re currently connected to
This first method allows you to view the password of the Wi-Fi network you’re either currently connected to or have connected to in the past and are near enough to the router for the network to appear in your settings.
If you meet these requirements, go to Settings>Wi-Fi, find the Wi-Fi network you want the password for and tap the information icon. Next, tap Password and use Face ID, Touch ID or enter your passcode to view the Wi-Fi network password. Finally, hit Copy to save the password to your clipboard.
You can view passwords for any Wi-Fi networks you’ve ever connected to, as long as you’re currently connected to it or near enough that it appears under My Networks.
Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET
However, as mentioned, this only works for Wi-Fi networks you’re currently connected to or near to, but there is a way to find the passwords to all the other Wi-Fi networks you’ve connected to in the past.
Find the rest of your saved Wi-Fi passwords
If you want to view every single stored Wi-Fi password on your iPhone, go to Settings>Wi-Fi andtap the Edit button on the top right. A list of your known networks, or every single Wi-Fi network you’ve ever connected to, will appear in alphabetical and numerical order.
To view a password, tap the information icon and then hit Password.
You can copy the password to your clipboard or have the password spoken out loud to you.
If you’re looking to install Windows 11 Pro on a custom PC that you’ve just built or want to dual-boot another computer you have, here’s an affordable way to do just that. This is the cheapest that’s currently available and beats Microsoft’s price by quite a bit.
Building a new PC is a lot of fun, but one expense you may not be thinking of is the cost of Windows — the operating system — itself. It generally costs between $160 and $200 to add Windows to a new computer, but we have a way to help you reduce that expense. Windows 11 is Microsoft’s latest and greatest, and in many cases Microsoft is still offering the free upgrade for Windows 10 users as long as you meet certain requirements. Not everyone will meet those, and if you’re one who doesn’t, you’ll want this offer from StackSocial.
Right now, you can save $140 on the license cost, making Windows 11 Pro just $60 for a limited time. This is best-of-web pricing right now, and very close to a one-off deal we saw at Woot earlier this year. However, not every single computer out there is able to run Windows 11, so before making the purchase you’re going to want to ensure that your computer will meet the requirements that Microsoft has set out for the OS. Additionally, the listing says that if you have a PC that’s already running Windows 10 and Windows Update does not let you install the free Windows 11 upgrade, your computer will not be compatible with this version either.
The activation key that is provided following your purchase can be used to install and activate Windows 11 Pro on three computers. To be clear, purchases like this are generally intended for advanced users — those who are building a new computer or who want to dual-boot an existing computer with a second OS. To that end, you will need a secondary PC to access and download the files following your purchase, so be sure you can access everything from another computer in your home or you have a friend’s machine that you can use temporarily. (You’ll also want to have a USB thumb drive on hand to transfer the file.) Microsoft provides three ways to access Windows 11 Pro following your purchase, so you can pick the one that will work best for your situation.
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