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There are tons of great earbuds on the market that boast impressive noise-cancelling capabilities. But sometimes, tuning out your surroundings can be inconvenient or even downright dangerous. That’s why Sony’s LinkBuds feature a unique open-ear design, which made them one of our favorite pairs for running headphones for 2023. And right now, you can snag a pair for $128 at Amazon, which saves you over $50 and matches the all-time lowest price we’ve seen. There’s no set expiration for this deal, so get your order in sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

These Sony LinkBuds are great for runners, bikers or just about anyone who needs to be aware of their surroundings but still wants to enjoy some tunes during their workout or commute. They have a unique open-ring design that lets in some ambient sound, while still allowing you to hear your music. They even have adaptive volume control, and will automatically adjust the sound based on your environment. They’re also great for voice calls, and have a speak-to-chat function that automatically pauses your music when you start talking. Plus, they feature an IPX4 water-resistance rating, so they’re protected against splashing, and boast a battery life of up to 20 hours on a single charge.

And if you’re in the market for a different pair, you can check out our full roundup of all the best earbuds and headphones deals for even more bargains.

Ahsoka’s Disney Plus premiere date is no longer far, far away.

The Star Wars show following the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano will debut the first two of its eight episodes on Tuesday. It takes place after the fall of the Galactic Empire — more specifically running “along the same timeline” as The Mandalorian’s third season, actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo told SFX magazine — and follows Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy, per a synopsis from Disney.

Tano is known from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, as well as the live-action The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and the new Disney Plus show continues her story.

Rosario Dawson reprises her role as Ahsoka, and the series also stars Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen and Eman Esfandi. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau are executive producers, and Filoni serves as writer and showrunner.

If you want to stream something beforehand, Filoni told Collider that people could revisit season 4 of Star Wars Rebels before watching Ahsoka. But he also said, “I’ve been very aware of the fact that trying to write these things that you don’t need to have seen any of it.” Here’s how to watch Ahsoka, and why you may want to consider using a VPN.

How to watch Star Wars: Ahsoka on Disney Plus

Disney Plus will release the first two episodes of Ahsoka on Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET; 2 a.m. BST, 11 a.m. AEST on Aug. 23). The installments will be available at that time in every country Disney Plus is available in, according to Disney. Following the premiere, a new episode will drop each Tuesday (or Wednesday, depending on your time zone) through Oct. 3.

Price increases are coming to Disney Plus’ ad-free service in the US, but new subscribers can still lock in a year of ad-less Disney Plus for $110 or one month for $11. Starting Oct. 12, the tier will cost $140 a year or $14 a month, and existing subscribers will be charged the new price at their next billing cycle on or after that date.

The streamer also has an ad-based tier that costs $8 per month (there isn’t an option to pay annually), and the price won’t increase in October. Here’s what CNET’s Kourtnee Jackson found when she tested Disney Plus’ ad-supported tier last year.

How to watch Ahsoka from anywhere with a VPN

Perhaps you’re traveling abroad and want to stream Disney Plus 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 series from anywhere in the world. There are other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming too.

A VPN is the best way to encrypt your traffic and stop your ISP from throttling your speeds. Using a VPN is also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network and 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.

Follow the VPN provider’s instructions for installation and choose a country where Ahsoka will be streaming on Disney Plus. Before you open the streaming app, make sure you’re connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream the Star Wars series on more than one device, it’s possible you’ll need to configure each one to ensure you’re 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 Disney Plus 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.

When it comes to making some of the best earbuds available today, the likes of Beats and Apple are never going to be far away. So when you get the chance to pick up a pair of Beats Studio Buds with Apple silicon inside for just $100, it’s a deal you shouldn’t ignore.

These little earbuds would normally retail for around $150 but if you get your order in now you’ll save 33% and pay much, much less. That makes these popular earbuds even better than ever, especially if you like a splash of color in your life.

The AirPods and AirPods Pro are popular earbuds, of course. But they’re only available in boring white. What makes the Beats Studio Buds so cool is the color options with this deal netting you Black, Beats Red, White, Sunset Pink, or Ocean Blue. The Moon Gray color is out of stock at the moment, but with five other colors to choose from we’re sure there’s one for every taste.

In terms of features, you’ll get the same no matter which color you choose. That means you’ll benefit from built-in microphones, water resistance, and notice-canceling technology. There’s also instant pairing with Apple devices like iPhones, while that Beats sound is present as well. Eight hours of battery life from a charge and up to 24 hours when you use the charging case just puts the icing on the cake. And did you see that Sunset Pink color?

The only negative? We don’t know when this deal will end and the lack of Moon Gray means that other colors might disappear as well. Keep that in mind when planning your order.

Apple is weeks away from its annual fall event, where the next iPhone, which we’re unofficially calling the iPhone 15 series, is set to be unveiled. Although we don’t expect to see a foldable from Apple just yet, the rumor mill is buzzing about the next iPhones departing from their traditional design in a meaningful way.

Some of the big questions people are asking are: Will the iPhone 15 get a USB-C port? Will the iPhone 15 series have slimmer bezels? Will Apple increase iPhone prices in 2023? Will the Pro models receive bigger upgrades?

We won’t know for sure until Apple throws the next iPhone event, which will probably be in September. But here are some of the biggest and most credible rumors to give you an idea of what to expect from the iPhone 15 series.

iPhone 15 design: Hello USB-C, goodbye Lightning

This one has been circulating around the rumor mill for years now, but in 2023 the switch from a Lightning Port to a USB-C port could finally happen. That’s likely driven by pressure from the European Union, which has been pushing for a common charging standard for years. In 2022, the bloc managed to pass legislation requiring Apple to equip its iPhones with USB-C ports by 2024 if it wants to sell them in the EU.

If that happens, the question is whether Apple will switch all iPhone models to USB-C or just those sold in the EU. Apple already modifies iPhone models regionally, as it has done with the iPhone 14: The US version has an electronic SIM, while other variants retain the SIM slot. However, there are good reasons to move all iPhones to USB-C moving forward, according to Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential.

“There are larger ecosystem, security, and accessory considerations with the power/data connector, so I think it is more likely that Apple moves all iPhones [globally] to USB-C in the iPhone 16 timeframe to comply with European regulations,” he told CNET in an email.

According to seasoned Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will receive USB-C ports this year. Perhaps a complete transition could happen next year with the iPhone 16.

Read more: Your Next iPhone Will Probably Need a Different Charging Cable

iPhone 15 design: Dynamic Island expands to all models

Apple is likely to continue selling four iPhone models with the iPhone 15 lineup. Rumors point to a generally similar design across the board, except that the iPhone 14 Pro’s shape-shifting cutout, known as Dynamic Island, is set to make its way across all models.

That rumor comes from display analyst Ross Young, who also said in a September tweet that he’s not expecting base iPhone 15 models to have a higher refresh rate like Apple’s Pro iPhones because the supply chain can’t support it. Gurman also still expects this to pan out as indicated by the Jun. 30 edition of his Power On newsletter.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro’s Most Eye-Catching Feature Feels Like It’s Winking at Something Else

iPhone 15 design: Skinnier bezels

According to Gurman, Apple’s expected to use a new manufacturing technology called “low-injection pressure over-molding” to make the Pro iPhones. This is the same method that’s used for some Apple Watch models. It will help Apple reduce the size of the bezels by fractions of a millimeter, which would in turn allow for an ever-so-slight increase in screen real estate.

iPhone 15 design: Easier repairability

The interiors of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are also slated for a redesign that will make them easier to repair, according to the latest edition of Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman says the inside parts have been changed to match the ones in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, which received the internal changes last year.

“This is the iPhone 14 reborn as a beautiful butterfly — a midframe in the middle, accessible screen on the left, and removable rear glass on the right,” iFixit wrote in a post last September after the iPhone event.

Interestingly, Apple didn’t discuss this internal redesign in its keynote, but the change was spotted by repair experts at iFixit, who said it was evident that Apple went back to the drawing board to rework the internals and integrate them seamlessly into its iPhones.

iPhone 15: Upgraded ultra wideband

According to noted Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 will run on an upgraded Ultra Wideband processor, which Apple calls the U1 chip, to better integrate with the company’s new AR headset, the Vision Pro. UWB is a short-range wireless communication standard often used to track down the location of objects. It can pinpoint your Apple AirTag or unlock your car as you walk up to it with your phone. In a recent post on Twitter, Kuo said this is all part of Apple’s broader strategy to “build a more competitive ecosystem for Vision Pro.”

iPhone 15: Wireless charging upgrade

According to a May report by ChargerLab, a power specialist website with a steady track record, all iPhone 15 models will support 15-watt wireless charging using the Qi2 open standard. If this turns out to be true, it’ll mean the iPhone 15 could open up a whole new world of wireless charging devices that can replenish the device at its full speed. Apple had previously limited open wireless charging standards to 7.5W, leaving the full 15W charge speed for Apple MagSafe licensed accessories.

iPhone 15 camera: Periscope-style telephoto lens arrives

Noted Apple observer Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, forecasts that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive a periscope-style telephoto lens. This sort of telephoto lens allows for higher optical zoom levels, with Kuo forecasting a 6x optical zoom could arrive in the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The optical zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is limited to 3x, which lags rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom. This rumor was recently bolstered by well-known leak source and Twitter user Unknownz21, who stated that the Pro Max model will come with the special lens.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro Cameras Are a Major Upgrade

iPhone 15 design: Solid-state buttons come to pro iPhone 15 models

Kuo expects Apple to differentiate further between its base and Pro models in the coming years. One way he’s expecting that to happen is by way of solid-state volume and power buttons of the iPhone 15 Pro models instead of the standard keys present on today’s devices.

(1/6)
My latest survey indicates that the volume button and power button of two high-end iPhone 15/2H23 new iPhone models may adopt a solid-state button design (similar to the home button design of iPhone 7/8/SE2 & 3) to replace the physical/mechanical button design.

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 28, 2022

The solid-state buttons, which Kuo says will be similar to the home button found on the iPhone SE and iPhone 7, mimic the tactile feel of pressing a button with the help of haptic feedback. The apparent advantage of this type of button is that it also protects against water ingress.

iPhone 15 Power: Increased RAM for pro models

According to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, Pro models of the iPhone 15 lineup will get a bump up in RAM to 8GB from 6GB to complement the anticipated A17 Bionic chipset. Base models will continue to receive 6GB RAM, according to TrendForce. This rumor is also apparently backed up by a research report from analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities, according to a MacRumors article, which referenced Pu’s report.

iPhone 15 price: Up, up and away?

iPhone 15 prices are tipped to increase in the US for the first time in years. Last year, Apple already increased prices in select countries outside the US.

According to a MacRumors report, citing Barclays analyst Tim Long, the iPhone 15 Pro could cost $100 more than the iPhone 14 Pro, while the iPhone Pro Max price hike could be in the range of $100 to $200 more. A similar claim has been made by Jeff Pu, of investment firm Haitong International Securities, who explicity said the iPhone 15 Pro Max specifically is due for a price increase, according to another MacRumors report. This is based on the assumption that Apple will add more features and components to the Pro models, such as a new periscope camera, a titanium frame and a 3nm A17 Bionic chip.

US prices currently range from $829 for the entry-level iPhone 14 model (128GB) all the way up to $1,599 for the highest-end iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage.

Another possibility is the upper limit of the price range could be pushed higher if rumors about a luxe iPhone 15 Ultra turn out to be true. The rumored Ultra model could potentially replace the iPhone 15 Pro Max next year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in September last year. This falls in line with predictions from Kuo, who expects Apple to differentiate further between the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models. However, in his June 30 newsletter, Gurman made no mention of the iPhone 15 Ultra. Other rumors suggest that the iPhone 15 Ultra will be a step up from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Read more: What Apple Could Do With iPhone 15 Prices in 2023

iPhone 15 Ultra camera: Variable zoom

According to tipster Revengus, the iPhone 15 Ultra will feature a telephoto camera with a variable zoom lens, which is the camera setup rumored to feature on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. Variable optical zoom (continuous zoom) cameras aren’t commonly found on smartphones for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the size and design of phone cameras restricts the type of lenses that can be used.

iPhone 15: Launch and release timeline

Apple holds its annual iPhone event in September almost every year, so we’d expect the timeline to remain the same for the iPhone 15. New iPhones typically get released shortly thereafter, usually the Friday of the following week. Sometimes Apple will stagger release dates for specific models, especially when introducing a new design or size. So it’s possible that the iPhone 15 lineup will have more than one release date.

Here’s what we know:

• Apple tends to hold its events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Apple’s iPhone 14 event was held on Wednesday Sept. 7, while its iPhone 13 event was held on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
• iPhone release dates are typically a week and a half after Apple’s announcements.
• In general, new iPhones are released on a Friday, around the third week of September. For the iPhone 13, preorders began Sept. 17 and the phones went on sale Sept. 24.

Looking for more iPhone advice? Check out our iPhone upgrade guide, our list of the best iPhones and our roundup of the best cases for your iPhone 14 or 14 Pro.

It’s finally gotten easier to find the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in stock, but the Xbox Series S is still the most affordable next-gen console on the market. This disk-free console lists for $300, $200 less than its full-size counterpart, and it’s an even better value when you pick it up from Best Buy right now. As an added bonus, the tech retailer is including a free digital copy of Madden NFL 24 — a $70 value and the latest entry in the series — with the purchase of this compact Microsoft console.

There’s no code or other steps needed to take advantage of this offer. Just add the Xbox Series S to your cart, and a free copy of the game will be added as well. This offers comes with a few other bonuses too, including three free months of Apple TV Plus and 30 free days of Fubo TV, as long as you’re a new subscriber. There’s also not a set expiration for this deal, so there’s no guaranteeing how long it will be available. We’d recommend getting your order in sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

You can read all about the sleek and compact Xbox Series S in our review, and you can check out our roundup of all the best Xbox deals for even more great bargains on games and accessories.

Learning a new language is one of the best ways to enrich your life, but it can be a challenge if you don’t have native speakers to practice with. Fortunately there are tons of language learning apps out there these days that can help you become fluent all on your own. Babbel is our favorite for those who prefer an online school-type experience, and right now, you can score a lifetime subscription at a serious discount. This CNET-exclusive offer at StackSocial saves you $449 on a lifetime membership, which drops the price down to just $150. This deal is only available through Aug. 23, so be sure to get signed up before then if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

Being able to speak more than one language has some huge benefits, whether it’s just a basic understanding of a language that can help you get around when you travel abroad or total fluency that will help you land a new job. In our globally connected world, people are communicating across borders for all sorts of reasons, and mastering a foreign language can be a valuable skill for anyone to have — and you can do it from the comfort of your own home.

Babbel’s extensive language software includes Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Swedish, Indonesian and Portuguese. The lessons are short and to the point, allowing you to practice in 10- to 15-minute intervals that can fit into any schedule. Real-life topics include travel, family, business, food and more. There are also a variety of skill levels available, ranging from beginner to advanced, so the program can grow with you as you improve.

Using the speech-recognition technology will give you immediate feedback on pronunciation so that you don’t just learn to read and write, but to listen and speak, as well. You’ll also get personalized review sessions to reinforce what you’ve learned. The program works across desktop and mobile devices. And though the internet is required most of the time, there is also an offline mode available where you can access courses, lessons and reviews without Wi-Fi, so long as you download them beforehand. Babbel also syncs your progress across your devices so that you can jump in from wherever is most convenient.

Becoming fluent in a new language is a great way to stay engaged in learning, and the transferrable skills you gain can open a lot of doors for leisure, work and beyond. Note that while you can access this program on as many devices as you want, this subscription offer is only available for new users.

Babbel is a great value when compared to other online courses, especially with this current discount. So whether you’re a lifelong learner or just want to pick up some basics for your globetrotting adventures, this is a solid deal.

Read more: 11 Items to Add to Your Travel Checklist for a Smooth Trip

T-Mobile is the latest carrier to change how it gives out auto pay discounts: Starting in July, customers are required to pay their bills using either a linked bank account or a debit card in order to receive a $5 per line discount on their service.

However, if you already set up auto pay with a credit card, not complying with this policy change is effectively a price hike. And as a result, if you were paying for your phone bill using a credit card, you’ll now have to evaluate if the $5 per line cost is worth the convenience and perks that come with paying for your phone bill using that method. That’s not even including the need to use a debit card or give T-Mobile, which has a poor track record of data security, a bank account number.

For myself, I rely on having cellphone insurance provided by a World Elite Mastercard that I pay my family’s cell phone bill with. While I haven’t yet had to file a claim with it, the perk allowed me to skip paying for AppleCare or my carrier’s phone insurance entirely. The benefit lets customers get reimbursed for cellphone repairs, up to $1,000 per year ($800 per claim, with a max of two claims per year).

I’ve been hoping to at least use the options when replacing my iPhone 12 Pro Max’s battery after its capacity falls under 80% (an $89 cost), and it would be especially clutch if my phone ever required a major repair like a charging port failure (as expensive as $599).

I manage three lines on my T-Mobile account, and as a result, continuing to pay with my credit card will lead to a $15 monthly increase on my rate when using autopay. So I began crunching the numbers in order to figure out whether it would be worthwhile to absorb the price increase to keep the credit card benefit, to forgo the benefit entirely or to consider a third-party phone insurance option. I also discovered a workaround, which should keep the benefit intact with a little bit of planning.

Should I just join T-Mobile’s Protection 360?

When I began researching my options for maintaining a phone insurance option, I first wondered if I could join T-Mobile’s Protection 360. T-Mobile’s phone insurance plan allows for phone service through AppleCare — which otherwise isn’t joinable past 60 days of buying an iPhone. Covering my line would be about $18 per month — more than the $15 per month that covers my family plan — but I could receive these repairs without having to file for reimbursement.

Regardless, T-Mobile’s Protection 360 isn’t an option right now. Similar to health insurance, Protection 360 allows for enrollment either when you buy a new device or when a special enrollment period opens. I saw that there was an enrollment period open in June, but right now it’s closed, and T-Mobile doesn’t provide a cadence for how often it reopens.

What if I paid the price increase?

While I don’t want to pay the extra $15 per month, it is a cost effective option if I insist on maintaining a level of phone insurance. As I covered in the Protection 360 section, paying $15 for three lines is less than paying $18 for a single line under T-Mobile’s option when it’s available. This would allow me to continue to be eligible for reimbursement after paying for a phone repair and help me avoid paying a high price should there be a catastrophic damage incident.

However, I think there’s simply better ways to use that $15, especially when the main repair I inevitably see is an $89 battery repair. I could create a slush fund where I set aside that $15, and in six months that would build up to cover the $89 battery replacement that I foresee needing. I also just finished paying off my iPhone 12 Pro Max and could roll that amount into the fund. I currently plan on keeping my phone for two more years, and those savings could go toward my next phone purchase.

But this option has a big vulnerability: If my iPhone suffered a major malfunction, a repair could cost $599 or result in being forced to buy a new phone earlier than I’d prefer.

Could I go with a third-party insurance option?

There are other companies that offer insurance on phones or other electronics, without going through either the phone manufacturer or the phone carrier. One option that I looked into is SquareTrade, which is owned by insurance provider AllState. Through SquareTrade, I can get a plan for myself at $9 per month or a plan for the family (up to four lines) at $20 a month.

Like my credit card’s phone protection plan, SquareTrade offers reimbursement for repair costs at Apple’s Genius Bar along with options for in-person or mail-away phone repair. That’s appealing because it will essentially allow for AppleCare’s support for a repair, albeit by paying upfront for it.

However, SquareTrade’s deductible for all phone claims is rather high at $149. This is still a substantial discount from having to pay $599 for an equipment failure repair or $329 for a cracked screen replacement, but for a battery replacement I’d be better off paying Apple’s $89 repair cost.

On the other hand, SquareTrade’s phone insurance remains flexible since I don’t need to have recently purchased my device to have it. It’s an option I can leave on the back burner, and if it seems appealing (or if I can tell that my phone is on the precipice of breaking), I could perhaps purchase it at a more strategic time.

SquareTrade’s policy also doesn’t cover theft or loss, which are important possibilities to consider when choosing a phone insurance plan. My credit card benefit does cover that possibility, as does T-Mobile’s Protection 360.

Why I’m waiting it out with a workaround

While I’m not thrilled about T-Mobile’s choice to eliminate auto pay discounts for paying with a credit card, I’d also rather not be rushed into choosing a new phone insurance option. For now, begrudgingly, I am linking my bank account to pay for my bill in the interest of controlling costs while I evaluate these options.

However, after I first published this story in July, I received several tweets from readers that offered a simple workaround that I verified with both my personal experience and confirmed with a T-Mobile representative. While I do now have my bank account linked to retain the autopay discount, I have not yet paid my bill using that account. Instead, I manually pay my bill using my credit card before the autopay date hits, and the discounts will remain on my bill. This is a small inconvenience since it will now require some conscious effort, but it’s more than worth it to keep the free cell phone insurance benefit.

I will also start taking the monthly installment money I now have after paying off my phone, and start a new phone slush fund with it. Ideally, I’ll be able to get two more years out of my current iPhone and then use the savings toward a new device.

By using that strategy for buying my next phone, I could then perhaps take advantage of a different credit card benefit: Some cards offer an extended warranty benefit that would provide an additional year of coverage beyond what’s provided with a purchase.

At the same time, I’ll keep an eye out in case I later want to swap my auto pay back to a credit card and forego the discount, grab a SquareTrade plan or — when available — sign up for T-Mobile’s Protection 360.

Goodreads is one of the biggest online platforms for readers, counting 125 million members, and 3.5 million books on its shelves. The site lets users make digital bookcases where they can rate and review books and connect with friends, fellow readers, librarians and authors.

Despite being one of the biggest reader hubs, Goodreads is far from perfect. Its bare-bones site can be frustrating to navigate, with some features only available depending on whether you’re using the website or app. And then there are the tumultuous review sections, which have recently prompted complaints from authors about users’ so-called review bombings.

As an avid reader, I started using Goodreads because the platform made it easy for me to set and track my annual reading goals. But after using it for more than a year, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find creative workarounds to customize my account. With these tried-and-tested tips, I’ll show you how to keep better track of your ever-growing to-be-read lists, stay up to date on new releases in your favorite genres, and navigate reviews like a pro.

Here’s how to get the most out of your Goodreads account.

Create custom shelves and tags

Stacking your Want to Read Goodreads shelf is a great way to keep track of titles you might be interested in. But if you’re like me and that list is over 200 books long, it isn’t likely you’ll scroll through all those titles to find your next read.

Instead, use one of the two options Goodreads has for creating custom collections: shelves and tags. You can name shelves and tags however you want and use them to track anything from a did-not-finish list to new releases to any book characteristic you want.

Goodreads sets up every account with three exclusive shelves: Want to Read, Currently Reading and Read. Books that are shelved on one can’t also be shelved on another; they belong to only one of those places.

There’s a way, though, to create a new custom shelf that isn’t exclusive: tags. A tag is a type of shelf that’s inclusive, meaning you can add multiple tags to a book, and the book will be seen under each tag.

If you want to create new exclusive shelves, you can do that only on your desktop. But you can make new tags on your desktop or in the app. I recommend doing both on your desktop for a cleaner experience overall, but I’ll guide you through both processes.

Here’s how to create a new shelf or tag on desktop:

1. Open Goodreads and click on My Books in the upper-left menu.
2. On the left-side menu, next to Bookshelves, click Edit. This should pull up a grid of all your shelves and tags, along with several options across the top: feature, sortable, sticky, exclusive and recs.
3. To create a new shelf, type in the name in the top search bar and click Add.
4. For shelves: If you want this new shelf to be an exclusive shelf instead of an inclusive tag, you need to ensure that the box under that shelf for Exclusive is checked. It’s unchecked by default.
5. For tags: If you want to create a tag, follow the same process to add a new shelf and then make sure the box under Exclusive is unchecked.
6. Click I’m Done to save your changes.
7. When you’ve found a book you want to add to a new shelf, click the downward arrow next to Want to Read and then select the shelf. After you’ve picked a shelf to add the book to, click Continue to tags to add tags to a book.

Here’s how to create a new tag in the app:

1. Open Goodreads and tap the My Books tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap the green + Create a new shelf button below your existing shelves. Remember, Goodreads considers all tags to be a type of shelf.
3. Type in the name you want.
4. Tap Create Shelf. In the app, Goodreads automatically categorizes all new shelves to be inclusive, so you don’t have to worry about adjusting the settings for a tag.
5. When you want to add a book to a new shelf, click the downward arrow next to Want to Read and select the shelf you want. If you don’t see the new tags, click More Shelves to show them.

If you later decide you want to change the exclusivity of a shelf or tag, you can always change the settings under the exclusive column from your desktop.

Bookmark your favorite genres

Help out Goodreads (and yourself) by bookmarking your favorite genres, and watch as Goodreads’ recommendations for you go from random to helpful. Even if you have wildly diverse reading tastes, marking your top genres can help Goodreads understand what books might be of interest to you instead of taking a shot in the dark.

Here’s how to bookmark your favorite genres on desktop:

1. Open Goodreads and click on your profile picture in the top-right corner.
2. Select Favorite genres.
3. Check (or uncheck) your favorite genres.
4. Click Continue.
5. Goodreads will then prompt you to rate some of the popular books in those genres. Shelve and rate as many or as few books as you’d like.

Here’s how to bookmark your favorite genres through the app:

1. Open Goodreads and tap the My Books tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. Below your shelves and your reading challenges, there’s a section named Add Books from Favorite Genres.
3. Click Edit.
4. Select your favorite genres.
5. Tap Save in the upper-right corner.

Though there isn’t much public information about Goodreads’ recommendation processes, one Goodreads Help page from 2020 notes that leaving star ratings, creating shelves, and marking books you aren’t interested in as such are also helpful ways to steer your recommendations in the right direction.

Understand how Goodreads reviews work

As with any platform that lets people leave reviews, the book reviews on Goodreads are a mix of helpful, irrelevant and, sometimes, hot garbage. For popular authors or newly released books especially, thousands of reviews — of varying degrees of usefulness — can clutter the review section and make it hard to understand whether a book might be right for you.

Though there’s only so much you can do on your end to block out some of the noise, there are ways to sort through and find credible, trustworthy reviews.

Here are some tips for navigating reader reviews on Goodreads:

• Compare the star rating to the number of reviews. This quick test can give you an idea of how widely read and well received a book is. The more ratings there are, the more robust the rating is.
• Check to see if a reviewer has disclosed whether their review was sponsored by an author or publisher. Under Goodreads’ review guidelines, reviewers who receive a free copy of a book are required to disclose that in their reviews.
• Change the way reviews are sorted. I recommend sorting by the popular reviews — while reviews with more likes or comments aren’t inherently more trustworthy, they tend to be more helpful than others.

To change the way reviews are sorted on your desktop, find the book you’re looking for, scroll down to Reviews > Filters > Sort Order > Popular Reviews.

In the app, the only way to sort reviews is by star rating. Scroll down to the reviews section, click on the graph of star ratings, then on the individual bar you want to see, to show only reviews that gave the book that number of stars.

Another way to navigate reviews is to look at the reviewers themselves. Goodreads keeps a running list of the top reviewers, as well as the most popular reviewers. Top reviewers have posted the greatest number of reviews in a specific time period, while the most popular reviewers have received the most likes and comments on their reviews.

Here’s how to find the most popular and top reviewers on desktop:

1. Open Goodreads and click on the Community tab in the top menu.
2. Click People.
3. Using the menu on the right, you can now navigate through Goodreads’ list of top readers, top reviewers, most popular reviewers, most followers and top librarians.

Though you’re only able to find the top and most popular reviewers on desktop, if you find reviewers whose work you like or want to see more of, you can follow their accounts. Then their reviews will appear on your main home page on the desktop and in the app.

For more, check out how to read ebooks for free from your local library, the best e-readers of 2023 and 6 tips to get through a reading slump.

We gave Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro a CNET Editors’ Choice award for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest was its awesome triple camera system. It can take beautiful photos that comfortably rival shots from the best camera phones out there, including Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google’s recent Pixel 7 Pro. It takes great photos at night, too.

The iPhone’s powerful combination of gorgeous image quality, software processing and advanced features, such as Apple’s own ProRaw image format, means the iPhone’s images can look like they were taken on a professional-level camera.

Then there’s the wide array of amazing photo editing apps available on iOS that can help turn even a regular image into an eye-catching piece of digital art.

But simply having a great camera isn’t the only thing you need to take award-worthy images. Knowing the tricks of the trade will make the difference between coming home with some fun snaps and coming back with beautiful photos you can’t wait to print and frame for your wall.

Here, then, are my top tips for better images, techniques that I use every day as a professional photographer, from working with the light to using more-creative angles to polishing up your shots in editing apps. Many of these tips will apply on any recent phone you may have, including the base iPhone 14 or older models like the iPhone 13 and iPhone SE and even many Android phones. Looking for a new phone for taking photos? Check out our guide to the best camera phones.

Know when to use the different lenses

It’s easy to stand in front of a picturesque scene and flick between the normal, super wide and zoomed views on the phone, but it’s more difficult to understand exactly why one might be better than the other for a particular composition. To figure it out, you need to take an extra moment to look at what’s important in the scene in front of you.

Is there a particular subject — perhaps a statue or an impressive building — that’s surrounded by lots of other elements like trees, sign posts or street lights? Using the iPhone 14 Pro’s 3x telephoto zoom here is a great way of isolating your subject and eliminating all those distractions. You may need to move back a bit and then zoom in to keep it in frame, but simplifying your scene like this will help your subject stand out.

But perhaps it’s those extra surrounding elements that really add to the scene and provide context for where you are. In that case, using the standard zoom will allow you to keep those items in the shot. Switching to the super wide view will capture even more of the surroundings. So to avoid your subject getting lost in the frame, you might want to move closer and find interesting foreground objects (a patch of flowers, a cool-looking rock) to add to the composition.

Revisit at different times of day

The awesome low-light skills of the iPhone 14 Pro mean you’re not limited to only taking photos at midday when the sun is at its highest. Sunrises and sunsets will typically be darker, but may reward you with beautiful colors in the sky and great contrast in the light being cast. Landscape photographers know that getting up before dawn can often yield the best results and it’s something that’s always worth keeping in mind, if you can stomach the early rises.

If you’re willing to try a sunrise shoot at least once, visit the spots you’ve already shot and see how they’re transformed by the different light. It’s this that will separate your images from the hundreds of others on Instagram who just took a snap after their morning coffee.

Don’t be afraid of the dark

Don’t think that once the light goes altogether you need to stop shooting. The iPhone 14 Pro has one of the best night modes on any phone and can take astonishing night-time photos. City scenes, with car headlights, vibrant shop window displays and even festive holiday decorations can provide superb fodder for night shots. And don’t worry if it rains. Those wet streets will now reflect all of those lights, which can look amazing.

Check out our tutorial If you want to get even better results from your night-time phone photography.

Shoot in ProRaw, edit your shots later

A few careful tweaks in editing apps like Adobe Lightroom can make all the difference between an everyday snap and a beautiful piece of art. Thankfully, Apple has made this even better with the introduction of ProRaw.

ProRaw is much the same as shooting in raw on regular DSLRs; it doesn’t save all the image data, allowing you to change white balance and alter colors much more accurately after you’ve taken your shot.

It also captures more detail in the shadows and highlights of your images, giving more scope for rescuing those bright skies with the highlights slider or bringing back a bit more visible detail in the darker shadows. You’ll see the raw button in the top corner of your screen when you’re in the camera, so make sure it doesn’t have a line through it if you’re taking an image that you know you’ll want to polish up later to look its best. You can edit JPEG images too. I’s just that you won’t have quite the same level of flexibility.

I use Adobe Lightroom Mobile for most of my phone editing. It’s a professional tool and has a lot of granular control over color and exposure, while also syncing my images to the cloud so I can pick up my edits later on my iPad or my desktop computer. If you don’t fancy the monthly fees, Google’s Snapseed is free and also has a lot of superb features for getting the best from your shots, including a variety of film effects that give some beautiful color toning to your photos.

If you want to get a bit more wild and creative, you should check out apps like Bazaart and PicsArt, which provide a variety of tools and effects for compositing images to turn them from photos into often bizarre pieces of modern art. Take a look at my roundup of image editing apps for more ideas.

Remember that there is no right or wrong way to edit your images, and applying creative effects doesn’t mean deleting the original file — so you can always go back and try again if you don’t like the result. My advice is to get a cup of tea, sit back in a comfy chair and spend some time playing with your editing app of choice and seeing what you can create. You may be surprised at what you can come up with, even from images you took some time ago.

There are plenty of pricey multi-speaker setups out there that can provide immersive surround sound for all your shows and movies. But you don’t have to rearrange your entire living room — or break the bank — to upgrade your TV’s audio. The LG Eclair is a compact all-in-one soundbar that packs a big punch, and for today only, you can pick it up for $200 off. That drops the price down to just $250. However, this deal is only available through 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET) tonight, so be sure to get your order in before then if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

This convenient single-piece LG soundbar provides powerful sound without taking up too much space. It’s a 3.0-channel soundbar, and it’s equipped with four passive radiators for rich sound and deep bass tones without needing a separate subwoofer. It also features Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support for immersive spatial audio that fills the entire room. Plus, it even allows you to play sound through the soundbar and your TV’s speakers simultaneously for a serious home theater experience. And it has Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 built-in, so you can easily stream music and other audio from your phone, tablet or laptop wirelessly.

And if you’re in the market for a different model or setup, you can check out our full roundup of all the best soundbar deals for even more bargains.