Eliana Willis

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?Best Buy cut the price tag on LG’s Gram Pro More

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNETI’ve been running the iOS 18 betas on my iPhone 16 for weeks, and I’m currently running the betas of iOS 18.1. One thing that’s been a constant companion of mine during that time has been a power bank. Why? Because my iPhone 16’s battery life has been terrible with iOS 18. It turns out I’m not alone. Reddit, Apple’s support forums, and social media are awash with people complaining about battery life. Also: I improved my iPhone’s battery life by changing these 11 settingsReddit user with the creative name of reddit_sucks12 has this to say:I just got the iPhone 16 pro max and I noticed the charge left while idle is way worse than my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Literally within like 3-4 hours of being idle while I sleep it lost about 15-20%, which compared to my iPhone 13 Pro Max is abysmal because it loses only a few percentage points. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue and is it related to iOS 18? I really hope so because I don’t want the phone to have problems like this.I’ve done some digging around to see it there are any commonalities to the complaints. It boils down to an extremely rapid drop in battery — as much as 50% in a few hours — and that is able to happen even when the iPhone is not being used. Reddit user mlaprise did some tests:I did an experiment.I charged my existing 14 Pro and a 16 pro (bought 2 week ago) and used them the exact same way, but they sit mostly unused for 36h. Here’s the result.You can see the 16 Pro discharge going faster in the last 12h. Both have the same background app processing running (none). Not sure what’s going on on the 16 Pro. After 36h, the 14 Pro is at 85%, the 16 Pro at 58%.As usual, people have been turning stuff off, tweaking settings, removing apps and widgets to no avail. No one it seems has come up with a solution. And I’m in the same boat. I’ve tried a bunch of stuff — even turning off the always-on display and killing background refresh on a swathe of apps — and nothing worked. Also: NASA has a problem, and it’s offering up to $3 million if you have a solutionWe’ll have to wait for Apple to fix this for us.So this is why I’m carrying around a power bank — a small 10,000mAh Ugreen unit More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?Although Amazon Prime Day is over, the LG Gram Pro 16 More

Jada Jones/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?The Soundcore Space One More

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop More

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNETWhat’s the deal?HP’s Chromebook Plus x360 More

Get three months of access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a discount right now. Stack Social If you’ve been thinking about trying out Xbox’s subscription gaming service Game Pass, now is a great time to get started: Stack Social is offering a deal to get three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate access for […] More

Don’t miss this Sam’s Club membership to save big on everything from groceries to electronics. Sam’s Club/ZDNETA Sam’s Club membership will get you discounts on groceries, clothing, electronics, and just about everything else you might need. And right now, StackSocial is offering a deal that will get you a Sam’s Club membership for $20 for the year with auto-renew — down from the usual price of $50. That’s 60% off. Your Sam’s Club membership will work at nearly 600 US Sam’s Club locations. This deal is only open to new Sam’s Club members in the US, or those whose membership lapsed more than six months ago. The membership will expire one year from the activation date, and will automatically renew at the full price of $50 per year after that unless you cancel it. To cancel, you can visit SamsClub.com or a club or call 1-888-746-7726. To take advantage of this deal, you’ll redeem your unique code through the link above, and then sign up for the membership. Once you purchase your code, you must redeem it within 30 days. The limit is one membership per person, but you can buy an additional membership as a gift.I signed up for a similar deal for a Costco membership through StackSocial, and can confirm the process was easy, and I’d vouch for the deal. Don’t miss out on 60% off a Sam’s Club membership right now.  More