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October 202612 articles

Which Spotify plan includes what: US prices from Spotify’s Premium page, read 13 October 2026. Every Premium plan here has ad-free music and downloads. Individual, $12.99 a month: 1 account, 15 audiobook hours a month. Student, $6.99: 1 verified student account, no audiobook hours. Duo, $18.99: 2 accounts at the same address, 15 hours for the manager only. Family, $21.99: up to 6 accounts at the same address, 15 hours for the manager only. Premium streams lossless audio up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz. Free is ad-supported. Student includes Hulu (With Ads) for eligible college students.
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Spotify Premium Is $12.99; Family Covers 6 for $21.99

Duo is $18.99 for two at one address and Student $6.99 with Hulu. Individual and plan managers get 15 audiobook hours a month.

What YouTube Premium Lite leaves out: US prices and features from YouTube’s own pages, read 13 October 2026. Premium Lite, $8.99 a month; Premium, $15.99 a month. Ad-free videos: most on Lite, all on Premium. Background play and downloads: most on Lite, all on Premium. YouTube Music Premium: no on Lite, yes on Premium. Jump ahead, queuing and continue watching: no on Lite, yes on Premium. “Most” excludes music content and Shorts; Lite may still show ads in search and browse. Also in the US: Premium Family $26.99, Student $8.99, annual $159.99.
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YouTube Premium Lite Keeps Ads on Music and Shorts

At $8.99 a month against $15.99, Lite also leaves out the YouTube Music app and downloads or background play for songs.

Apple One against its parts bought alone: US prices from Apple’s Apple One page, 13 October 2026; differences are our arithmetic. Individual, $21.95 a month: Music, TV and Arcade, iCloud+ 50GB; $34.96 separately; $13.01 a month less. Family, $27.95: the same three services, iCloud+ 200GB, for six people; $44.96 separately; $17.01 a month less. Premier, $39.95: adds News+ and Fitness+, iCloud+ 2TB, for six people; $74.94 separately; $34.99 a month less. Separately means Apple’s own monthly price for each service in the plan.
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Apple One Costs $13 to $35 a Month Less Than Its Parts

Individual $21.95: Music, TV, Arcade, 50GB. Family $27.95: the same with 200GB, for six. Premier $39.95 adds News+, Fitness+, 2TB.

Paying to share a streaming plan outside your home, from each service’s US help pages, read 13 October 2026. Netflix: $7.99 a month with ads or $9.99 without, on Standard or Premium only. Disney+: $6.99 to $14.99 a month depending on plan, one per account. Hulu: $6.99 to $14.99 a month depending on plan, one per account. HBO Max: $7.99 a month, if billed by HBO Max directly. Peacock: no add-on on its help pages; outsiders get their own account. Prices are before tax, and an extra member gets one profile and one stream at a time.
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Four Streamers Sell Out-of-Home Sharing, From $6.99 a Month

Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max let the account owner pay for someone who lives elsewhere. Peacock’s answer is a separate account.

What a VPN hides, and from whom. Who can see what, from EFF, Mullvad and Proton VPN, read 9 October 2026. Your internet provider: without a VPN, the sites you visit and when; with a VPN, a VPN server, not the sites. The Wi-Fi operator: without a VPN, the sites you visit and when; with a VPN, a VPN server, not the sites. The VPN provider: without a VPN, nothing; with a VPN, the sites you visit, and your IP address. The website you visit: without a VPN, your IP address; with a VPN, the VPN’s IP address, and cookies still track you. A VPN moves trust to the provider. It does not make you anonymous.
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A VPN Hides Your Traffic From Your ISP, Not From the VPN

Sites see the VPN’s address, not yours. Logins, cookies and fingerprinting can still identify you, and the provider sees where you go.

What each free VPN plan limits, from the makers’ own pages, read 7 October 2026. Proton VPN Free: no data cap, 10 countries, 1 device. Windscribe Free: 10GB a month with an email, 10 countries, unlimited devices. TunnelBear Free: 2GB a month, choosing a country is a paid feature, devices not stated. hide.me Free: no data cap, 8 locations, 1 device. PrivadoVPN Free: 10GB per 30 days then 1 Mbps, 12 or 13 locations, 1 device at a time. Cloudflare WARP keeps your approximate location: it does not change your country.
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What a Free VPN Limits: Data, Countries, Devices

Proton has no data cap but one device and 10 countries; TunnelBear gives 2GB a month. Six free plans, each from its maker’s own pages.

Split tunneling: some apps skip the VPN. From the VPN makers' own pages, read 7 October 2026. Through the tunnel: sites see the VPN server's IP address, not yours. Excluded from the tunnel: your own IP address, and your internet provider can see the traffic. On iPhone, of four makers only ExpressVPN documents it, and only for IPv4 addresses; for Proton VPN, Mullvad and NordVPN it is not offered or not listed.
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Split Tunneling Lets Chosen Apps Skip Your VPN

Turn it on to fix one app that breaks on the VPN. Excluded traffic uses your real IP, and on iPhone the feature is mostly missing.

Who keeps Old Reddit, and when RSS ends, from Reddit's own announcements, read 7 October 2026. Logged out: must log in, already in force. Logged in and used Old Reddit in the past 6 months: keeps access. Logged in with no Old Reddit use in the past 6 months: loses access, no date set. Logged-in moderators: keep access, no usage rule. Reddit RSS feeds: retired 13 November 2026. Footnote: redditstatus.com RSS continues; public API access closes March 2027.
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Reddit Ends RSS on 13 November; Old Reddit Needs Recent Use

Logged-in mods keep old.reddit.com. Others will need Old Reddit use in the past six months, from a date Reddit has not yet set.

AppleCare One vs three AppleCare+ plans, US monthly prices from apple.com/applecare, read 5 October 2026. iPhone 17, Apple Watch Series 12 and AirPods Pro 3: AppleCare+ $19.97 a month, One $19.99, 2 cents more. iPhone 18 Pro, iPad Air 11-inch and Apple Watch Series 12: AppleCare+ $26.47, One $19.99, $6.48 less. iPhone 18 Pro, MacBook Pro 14-inch and iPad Pro 13-inch: AppleCare+ $36.97, One $19.99, $16.98 less. Billed yearly, the first trio's AppleCare+ is $39.91 a year cheaper. Extra devices on One Individual cost $5.99 a month each; One Family is $49.99 a month.
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AppleCare One Pays Off on Pricey Devices, Not Cheap Ones

Apple’s US prices, 5 October: annual AppleCare+ undercuts One on a budget trio, and One pools theft claims at three a year.

NYC’s Click to Cancel rule, in force 1 October 2026, from the city’s rule text and DCWP pages, read 5 October 2026. Cancel: by the same medium you used to sign up, as easily, and online too if you signed up in person. Notice before: an annual renewal, a price or terms change, and a trial of over a month starting to charge. Fines and refunds: $525, then $1,050, then $3,500, plus charges made after your first attempt to cancel. To complain: NYC311 online, or nyc.gov/click-to-cancel.
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In NYC, You Can Now Cancel the Way You Signed Up

A city rule in force since 1 October adds online cancellation, renewal reminders and fines from $525. Complaints go to DCWP through 311.

Which ChatGPT plans include dots: US monthly prices from OpenAI’s pricing and help pages, read 5 October 2026. Free at $0 and Go at $8: no GPT-6.1 Sol and no dots. Plus at $20: GPT-6.1 Sol in ChatGPT Work and Codex, not yet in Chat, and no dots. Pro at $100 to $500: first dot included at no extra cost, except in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. New at DevDay: Pro 500 at $500, with Ultrafast. New Pro 200 subscriptions get less usage at the same $200.
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ChatGPT’s Dots Agent Comes With Pro, From $100, Not Plus

Business Premium gets dots too. DevDay also added a $500 Pro tier, and new Pro 200 plans get less usage at the same price.

September 20265 articles

A bar chart of Meta One plans for individuals, monthly US prices from Meta's announcement of 15 September 2026: WhatsApp Plus $2.99, Instagram Plus $3.99, Facebook Plus $3.99, the Core bundle of all three plus more AI use at $7.99, and the Premium bundle with the most AI use at $19.99. The three single plans add up to $10.97, against $7.99 for Core. No plan in the announcement mentions removing ads.
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Meta One Starts at $2.99, and No Plan Says It Removes Ads

Meta priced nine plans on 15 September. Core at $7.99 undercuts its three apps bought singly, and none promises an ad-free feed.

The FTC’s click-to-cancel rule is gone, and what still covers cancelling a subscription in the US, from the FTC, govinfo.gov and California’s code, read 6 October 2026. The federal rule: October 2024, the FTC announces Click-to-Cancel; 2025, the Eighth Circuit vacates it; February 2026, the FTC restores its pre-2024 rule; March to April 2026, the FTC asks for comments, closed 13 April. Still in force: since 2010, the federal ROSCA law requires “simple mechanisms” to stop recurring charges on online sign-ups; since July 2025, California requires an online cancel link, button or email for online sign-ups; since 1 October 2026, New York City’s own rule: cancel the way you signed up, complaints through 311. No US-wide rule now says cancelling must be as easy as signing up, in every medium. The FTC counts more than 100,000 complaints about these practices in five years.
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The FTC’s Click-to-Cancel Rule Is Gone. Other Laws Are Not

A court vacated the 2024 rule and the FTC restored the old one. A 2010 law and California’s cancel-online rule still cover web sign-ups.

A year of subscriptions at the cheapest tier: Nintendo Switch Online $19.99, Ring Solo $49.99, Google AI Plus $59.88, ExpressVPN Basic on renewal $99.95, HBO Max Basic With Ads $109.99, totalling $339.80.
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Everything in the House That Needs a Subscription

One console, one doorbell, one VPN, one streaming service and entry-tier phone AI comes to $339.80 a year.

Introductory against renewal monthly rates: ExpressVPN Basic $2.99 then $8.33, Advanced $4.49 then $10.00, Pro $7.49 then $16.66; NordVPN Basic $3.49 then $11.59, Complete $4.49 then $18.29, Prime $7.49 then $24.69.
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The VPN Price You See Is Not the One You Pay

NordVPN's $3.49 a month renews at $139.08 a year. ExpressVPN's $2.99 renews at $99.95. Both say so on the page.