Thursday, August 28, 2025

Monthly Mini-Bytes - August 2025

 

The Increasing Cost of Streaming

Apple just raised the monthly price of its AppleTV+ streaming service by 30% from $9.99 to $12.99. Considering it launched at $4.99 back in 2019, this latest increase is a trend that we are seeing across many streaming services. The top Netflix plan is a whopping $24.99 a month before taxes. If you add up all the other streamers it's quite apparent that cord-cutting is becoming just as expensive as cable and satellite services. But there is no reason to pay for each and every streamer every single month. Here is a strategy that you can employ to save some money.


Verify Your Subscriptions

The first thing is to determine what services for which you have subscriptions. The easiest way to do this is on your iPhone by going to Settings -> [Your Name] ->Subscriptions. Here you can see any active subscription that you have under your AppleID. No, it won't show you Netflix or other services that don't fall under what you can link to your AppleID, but it will at least give you an idea on what you are paying for each and every month to Apple.


Implement Periodization

The easiest way to save money with cord-cutting is to only subscribe to the services that you are actually using at any given time. If a show comes out on Paramount+ that you like, subscribe to it and watch things from their catalog. After the run of the show, you can cancel your subscription. It's not a big deal as you can just sign up again at any time. I'm not a big fan of Disney+, but I wanted to see Season 2 of Andor. So, I subscribed, watched the run of the show, and then cancelled my subscription. And no, we didn't finish Season 3 of The Mandalorian.


Take Advantage of Family Sharing

If you have family sharing enabled, your family members can share any active streaming subscription under your AppleID. This is a great way to cancel duplicate accounts to save a little cash.

New iPhone 17 Will Be Here Soon!

It's that time of year again when Apple will refresh the iPhone X (again) with a new chip, even bigger cameras, and new colors that you can obscure with the obligatory case. Yes, I am a little pessimistic. I, along with many in the tech universe, have been disappointed with Apple's lack of innovation over the past several years, and the current leaks about the updated iPhones don't sound all that exciting. Still, from a privacy, security, and usability perspective the iPhone has no equal. And although my eyes may wander to the Galaxy Fold and new Google Pixel, I know that I need something secure and reliable, and that is something that Apple does far better than anyone else. With the iPhone, security is simple to manage, it works across all my devices, and it is protected by Apple's stringent practices in accepting apps that can run on the platform.


And if it is time for you to get a new iPhone, we recommend waiting until after the launch of the 17. It's not that you want to pay for the flagship model, but the current crop of phones will be discounted -- some heavily. 


Which one to get? Well, we will wait and see. Stay tuned and we promise to cover the phones in an upcoming newsletter.

PayPal Scams Aplenty

Not a day has gone by over the past month where I haven't received one of those PayPal scam emails that claim I just bought an iPhone, a boat, a car, or three Bitcoin. They are annoying and not even convincing in the way that they are laid out, but do bring up something that we all need to be aware of -- old PayPal accounts.


Just about all of us have had at least one or more PayPal accounts over the years, and with the rise of Venmo maybe you set up a new account and abandoned an old one. Well, these old PayPal accounts are a vulnerability. They contain financial information that you don't want to fall into the wrong hands.


If you have an old PayPal account that you no longer need, then here is what to do:

  1. Log into the account -- recover or reset the password if needed
  2. Reset the password... if you didn't already do it along with Step 1
  3. Remove any saved Credit Cards or Bank Accounts
  4. Delete the Account


Remember that you may have set up accounts under old emails -- even ones that you no longer use. So, a little detective work may be needed. Still, it is time well spent to secure your information.