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    I used a $20 AI tool to finish 24 days of coding in 12 hours – but there’s a big catch

    Aitor Diago/Moment/Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source<!–> on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways I spent $20 on Codex and saw 16x productivity. Hard usage limits cut off coding in mid-project unexpectedly. Premium tools can cost $800 monthly but give steadier results. We’ve talked before about OpenAI’s Codex, the AI model designed specifically for programming […] More

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    Prepare your iPhone for iOS 26 – 6 things I do before every update

    Maria Diaz/ZDNETApple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 26 — yes, if you’ve not been keeping up, that’s what will come after iOS 18 — is landing real soon (September 15), and it’ll be pushed out to hundreds of millions of compatible iPhones worldwide within a few days. For the most part, the vast majority of these upgrades will be smooth and painless. Also: Every iPhone that can be updated to iOS 26 (and when you can install it)Maybe I’m being overly cautious here, but, as someone who’s experienced a painful upgrade, I like to take a few precautions before I allow a new update to go wild on my system. And it’s not like any of these steps are a huge chore or consume a lot of time.First, will you even get iOS 26?Good question. Every major release, I invariable get messages from people endlessly checking for an update only to find that their iPhone is at the end of the line of upgrades. The good news is that if your iPhone is running iOS 18, then there’s a very good chance that you’ll be getting iOS 26. In fact, everything from the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2nd gen onwards will get iOS 26, and the only iPhones running iOS 18 that won’t get upgraded are the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.Also: Every iPhone that can be updated to iOS 26 (and when you can install it)So, on Monday, the release day of iOS 26, the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR will be the last in the line.With that out of the way, let’s look at how to prepare your iPhone. 1. Declutter your iPhoneWe all have those apps that we downloaded and never used, or the game that lost its appeal once we realized it was going to bombard us with ads every 48 seconds. This is the perfect time to get rid of those apps and free up some space. The same goes for all those videos you shot of that eel in the aquarium and that UFO that turned out to be a drone. Also: How to clear your iPhone cache (and why you should do it before upgrading to iPhone 17)For a full-on, deep declutter of my camera reel, I use CleanMy Phone More

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    iPhone 17 preorders start soon: These carrier deals can get you a free phone

    New to Apple’s most powerful smartwatch is satellite connectivity for emergency messages, pings,  and Find My syncing. The Watch Ultra 3 can last up to 42 hours, the longest rating of any Apple Watch.On the other hand, Apple’s more affordable smartwatch option gets the upgraded S10 chip, the Always On display for the first time, and gesture support like double-tap. New health features include temperature settings and sleep apnea notifications, and the sleep score feature. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 and SE 3 are available to preorder now, and will be officially available on Friday, Sept. 19. The Ultra 3 starts at $799, while the SE 3 watch costs $249 for preorders.  More

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    After coding catastrophe, Replit says its new AI agent checks its own work – here’s how to try it

    SEAN GLADWELL/Moment via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source<!–> on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Replit unveiled Agent 3 on Wednesday. Code-generation is one of the few viable business use cases for AI. However, Replit recently deleted a user’s entire codebase.  On Wednesday, AI startup Replit released Agent 3–>, an autonomous code generation system […] More