Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has stopped promoting that its upcoming pickup truck will start “under $20,000” following passage of President Trump’s tax cut bill. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Trump on July 4, will cause the federal EV tax credit to end in September — a $7,500 incentive that Slate had counted on to help its all-electric pickup clear that mark.
When Slate came out of stealth mode in April, the startup heavily promoted that its all-electric pickup would start at “under $20,000” with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. That language was still on Slate’s website as recently as yesterday according to the Web Archive.
The change is a potential blow to the young company’s attempt to make a radically affordable electric vehicle.
Slate didn’t provide a precise price for the EV at its launch event; and it has yet to say what the actual starting price of its vehicle will be, sans-credit. A Slate spokesperson declined to comment on the change.
The company won’t start building the truck until the end of 2026 at the earliest. Slate’s business is also built around making this vehicle highly customizable, which means it’s possible that few people will buy the base model to begin with.
The auto industry has “driven prices to a place that most Americans simply can’t afford,” chief commercial officer Jeremy Snyder said during the event. “But we’re here to change that.”
“We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never been delivered,” CEO Chris Barman added at the time.
Actor Michael Madsen was found unresponsive Thursday morning, following a cardiac arrest.
Bruno Vincent/Getty Images Europe
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Bruno Vincent/Getty Images Europe
Michael Madsen, the actor known for his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, has died. He was found unresponsive in his Malibu home Thursday morning after a cardiac arrest. He was 67 years old.
The news was confirmed by his managers, Susan Ferris and Rob Smith, and publicist Liz Rodriguez, who sent a statement stating, “Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”
Madsen had more than 300 credits to his name – across film, television and video games. But he was maybe best known for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. As Mr. Blonde, he was soft-spoken yet terrifying – exemplified by the now-classic scene involving a straight-razor and an ear.
He worked with Tarantino multiple times in Kill Bill and The Hateful Eight.
According to the statement from his representatives, Madsen was “looking forward to the next chapter of his life.” He has multiple feature films upcoming, and he was preparing to release a new book, titled Tears for My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems.
We still think getting a live TV streaming service is a better deal than paying for cable — but the gulf between the two options is narrowing. Now that many of the major providers go for more than $80 per month, it’s not the amazing deal it once was. Still, live TV streaming plans have no contract, offer relatively simpler pricing and need no special equipment beyond your smart TV and an internet connection.
After testing all the major players, we found to be the most well-rounded. But other services have their advantages, too, and there are plenty of free services as well. Here are the best live TV streaming services we tested, along with our advice on how to stream and what to look for.
Editor’s Note: Mergers, restructuring and buyouts continue to change the landscape of the streaming world, which sometimes affects pricing and the options available to viewers. Recently Disney completed its acquisition of Hulu, purchasing the remaining portion of the service from Comcast. There have been no announcements of any changes to Hulu + Live TV as a result yet, which is one of our recommended services, but we’ll update this guide if that changes. Also of note is the recent splitting of Warner Bros. Discovery (owners of HBO, CNN and more) into two entities; one that will hold the movie, TV and game studios, and another that will control the company’s cable channels. When this move changes viewers’ streaming options, we’ll likewise update this guide.
Table of contents
Best live TV streaming services for 2025
YouTube TV
Monthly price: $83/mo. and up | Local channels: Yes | Sports coverage: National, local, international | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: Yes (with an add-on) | Total channels: 100+ (base plan) | DVR limits: Unlimited, 9 mo. expiration | Profiles per account: 6 | Simultaneous at-home streams: 3 | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: Yes (select programming) | Contract: No | Free trial: Yes (length varies)
In mid-December of 2024, subscribers got a bummer of an email letting them know the price of YouTube TV would be going up yet again, this time to $83, which is a $10 hike from the last increase of $8 in March of 2023. Even still, Google’s option makes a strong case for delivering the best streaming service for live TV.
Compared to our top pick for sports, YouTube TV covers major and minor teams, regional games and national matchups almost as well. It gives you clear navigation, a great search function, unlimited DVR and broad network coverage. But, even beyond the price increase, YTTV is financially precarious if you’re not great at resisting temptation.
Upon signup, you’re presented with nearly 50 different add-ons, including 4K resolution, premium channels and themed packages. Even if you fight the urge to roll Max, Shudder and AcornTV into the mix at signup, the enticement remains as it’s dangerously easy to add more to your subscription — when I searched for a program on a network I didn’t have, I was prompted to add it. And of course, you can also rent or buy movies that aren’t currently showing on any channels, just like you can via YouTube. While it’s convenient to be able to order up anything I might want on a whim, I could easily see this pushing one’s bill far above Google’s listed price per month..
Still, it’s nice to have all your entertainment in one place. And if you only want the add-ons, you can actually subscribe to most of the standalone networks without paying for the base plan. Either way, you get a familiar user experience, with navigation you’ll recognize if you’ve spent any time on regular ol’ YouTube. Unsurprisingly, Google’s search function was the best of the bunch, finding the shows and games I searched for quickly and giving me clear choices for how to watch and record.
At signup, you’ll also pick the shows, networks and teams you like, which are added to your library. YouTube TV then automatically records them. You get unlimited cloud DVR space (though recordings expire after nine months) and it’s dead simple to add programming to your library. Like a real cable experience, YouTube TV autoplays your last-watched program upon startup by default, but it was the only service that allowed me to turn that feature off by heading to the settings.
Searching for and recording an upcoming game was easy. Once the game was recorded, I had to hunt a little to find it in my library (turns out single games are listed under the Events heading, not Sports). But after that, playback was simple and included a fascinating extra feature: You can either play a recorded game from the beginning or hit Watch Key Plays. The latter gives you between 12 and 20 highlight snippets, each about 10 seconds long. It focuses on the most impressive shots in an NBA bout and includes every goal in an MLS matchup. The feature was available for NCAA basketball and in-season major American leagues (hockey, soccer and basketball at the time of testing). Foreign and more minor games didn’t have the feature.
Sports fans will also appreciate the new multiview feature that YouTube TV added mid-2024 that lets you pick up to four sports, news and weather channels from a select list and view them all at the same time on your screen. If you find yourself constantly flipping back and forth between games, this could save you some hassle.
YouTube TV also gives you the most in-app settings. You can add parental controls to a profile or pull up a stats menu that shows your buffer health and connection speeds. You can lower playback resolution for slow connections and even send feedback to YouTube. It was also the best at integrating VOD and live programming. For example, when I searched for a show that happened to be playing live, a red badge in the corner of the show’s image let me know it was on right then. I know it makes no difference whether I watch an on-demand recording or a live show, but I like the imagined sense of community knowing someone else might be watching this episode of Portlandia too.
Pros
Intuitive and smooth interface
Accurate search functions
Cool multiview feature
Good coverage of sports, news and linear programming networks
Monthly price: $85/mo. and up | Local channels: Yes | Sports coverage: National, local, international | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: Yes (mid- and high-tier plans) | Total channels: 215 (base plan) | DVR limits: Unlimited, 9 mo. expiration | Profiles per account: 6 | Simultaneous at-home streams: 10 | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: Yes (select programming, Apple TV, Roku) | Contract: No | Free trial: Yes (length varies)
You may have heard about the recent announcement of the merger between Fubo and Hulu + Live TV and find yourself wondering how that’ll affect the two services. For now, the companies plan to operate the two as separate entities, but will use their combined power to leverage carrier and content deals. Shortly after the merger was announced, Fubo raised the price on all of its English-language plans by $5 monthly, putting it two dollars above YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.
Until things change further, our top pick for live sports coverage is Fubo. When you first sign up, it asks which teams you follow across all kinds of associations. Pick teams from in-season leagues and you’ll quickly have DVR content to watch. That’s because Fubo records every game your chosen teams play as long as it’s aired on a supported channel – and its sports coverage is vast.
I tested out the top-tier package and the guide said there were 118 sports networks to choose from. In addition to the usual suspects from ESPN, Fox, NBC and CBS, you can watch motorsports, international leagues, adventure sports and even poker. Add-ons give you NBA TV, NHL Network, NFL Red Zone and MLB Network. And if you need access to all one thousand games the NBA plays in a season, you can add the NBA League Pass to your lineup for $17 per month.
Fubo even has its own sports channels. The only notable lack for sports fans is the absence of TBS and TNT which have licensing deals to show some NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA games.
Still, the coverage is comprehensive. The UI designers obviously put effort into making everything easy to find with endless categorization, including breaking down sports offerings by type, giving lots of filtering options for live guide and on-demand content, as well as including interesting groupings on the home page.
Fubo also makes finding and recording your favorite games easy. Searching for an upcoming game was simple, as was sifting through the ample amount of recorded games I ended up with. I particularly liked FanView for live games, which inserts the video into a smaller window and surrounds that window with continually updating stats plus a clickable list of other games currently airing. But, unfortunately, the feature isn’t currently available. Hopefully Fubo will bring it back, as it was a differentiating perk for the service.
Fubo did recently expand its multiview feature, letting you watch up to four live channels at once. This feature used to only be available on Apple TV boxes and only with sports fare, but I used it in January 2025 with a Roku device and was able to have two NCAA men’s games, my local evening news and CSI Miami from ion Mystery all up on the screen at the same time.
Fubo has made an obvious effort to win at sports, but recently it’s tried to deliver on the live TV experience as well. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s certainly made strides. The guide was impressive in the number of ways it let you organize live TV, yet everything felt clean and uncluttered. The Home, Sports, Shows and Movies pages were filled with recommendations and many iterations of categories, with almost all suggestions being live TV.
The focus on live TV can make the VOD and DVR playback functions feel second-rate. The search function wasn’t the best at finding the shows I looked for, and navigating available VOD content wasn’t as breezy as browsing through live programming. The lack of a pop-up preview window as you fast forward or rewind through recordings makes it tough to gauge where you are in a show.
At $85, this is technically the most expensive base package (now that DirectTV offers a 26-channel, sports-only package). And it’s now $2 more than YouTube TV and Hulu+ TV, which are both $83. But if you need all the sports – and want some nicely organized live TV during the few moments when there’s not a game on – this is the way to go.
It’s worth noting that a lapsed Fubo subscription will let you access a truncated version of the service . When my subscription expired after testing, I received an email detailing the content I could still watch without re-upping my payments. It’s similar to other free ad supported TV streamers, with a limited channel selection through the same Fubo interface.
Pros
Best coverage of sports networks
Automatically records your favorite teams
Informative FanView feature
Uncluttered live TV interface
Cons
DVR and VOD experience is inferior to the live component
Monthly price: $83/mo. and up | Local channels: Yes | Sports coverage: National, local, international | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 95+ (base plan) | DVR limits: Unlimited, 9 mo. expiration | Profiles per account: 6 | Simultaneous at-home streams: 2 | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: No | Contract: No | Free trial: Yes (3 days)
When Hulu+ Live TV increased the price of its ad-supported base plan to $83 per month, it was the most expensive option out there. YouTube TV caught up a few months later and now both are the same price. Of course, because the service comes bundled with Disney+, ESPN+ and includes Hulu’s original programming, you get a lot of content you can’t find elsewhere. So if you already subscribe, or plan to get the regular Hulu app and/or Disney+, Hulu’s live component makes a lot of sense. Note that $83 gets you that content with ads — for ad-free Disney+ and Hulu, it’s $96 monthly.
Hulu + Live TV carries your local affiliates and most of the top cable channels. For sports, you get all available ESPN iterations plus FS1, FS2, TBS, USA, NBC Golf, the NFL Network and TNT (Turner Network Television). You can also add on premium VOD channels like Max and Showtime, and it’s the only provider that includes Disney+ at no extra cost.
Navigation isn’t as smooth as most of the other options — as I used Hulu + Live TV, it felt like the live component had been shoehorned into the standard Hulu app. But for viewers who are already comfortable with (and paying for) Hulu and Disney+, this might be the best pick for your live TV subscription.
Monthlyprice: Free to $170/mo. | Localchannels: Yes, with some packages | Sports coverage: National, local, international, with some packages | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: Yes (three channels) | Total channels: 95 (free), 9 – 185 (paid) | DVR limits: Unlimited (9-month expiration, maximum of 30 episodes per series) | Profiles per account: 5 | Simultaneous at-home streams: Unlimited | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: No | Contract: No | Freetrial: Yes (5 days)
In mid-April, DirecTV Stream rebranded. Streaming is now the company’s primary offering and is simply called DirecTV. Customers looking for the original satellite service can still find it, but it’s nested within the streaming option on the website, with a disclaimer that states the dish-enabled plan is only for those who don’t have high-speed internet at home. It’s interesting to see a more traditional satellite provider shift its focus to streaming — a move that’s clearly intended to better compete with YouTube TV and other similar services.
The good news is that streaming with DirecTV requires no contract (the satellite plan still assesses a $20-per-month early termination fee). There’s no special equipment involved unless you want to get the Gemini Air streaming device. The HDMI streaming dongle supports 4K resolution, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, similar to the 4K streaming sticks from Roku or Amazon that cost around $50. But you can’t buy the Gemini Air. Instead, you lease it for $10 per month, which, after five months or so, might start to feel like a bad deal.
It’s still the service that most closely resembles cable, complete with numbered channels and somewhat confusing plan structures. You can go for Signature packages, which range from $85 per month to $170 per month — those are most comparable to YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. Or you can sign up for one of the four Genre Packs which cost $35, $40 or $70 monthly. These slimmed-down channel lineups focus on sports, entertainment, news or Spanish language stations. The entertainment pack reminds me of Philo and the sports offerings have a whiff of Sling’s Orange and Blue plans. Regardless of which plan you end up going with, it’s all based on the DirecTV streaming app, which you can download and watch for free, (like Tubi or Pluto TV), but once you add a plan or pack, the channels you paid for are unlocked.
Comparing the $85-per-month Entertainment Signature Package (not to be confused with the $35 MyEntertainment Genre Pack) to YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV’s $83 base plans, the offerings are pretty similar. You get your area’s five major local channels (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS), nearly all of the 20 most popular channels (with the exception of Ion and the History Channel), sports channels that include ESPN, TNT, and FS1, plus unlimited DVR space with a nine-month expiration.
The navigation and performance of the service remains largely unchanged from when we first started recommending it. I like the experience of flipping from one numbered channel to the next — it reminds me of watching TV as a kid, plus it’s great for serendipitously finding something to watch when you’re bored. The top navigation is pretty simple, with options for search, home, the live TV guide, your DVR library and on-demand content. The guide doesn’t split the channels into a ton of categories, just recent, sports, kids, movies and TV shows. There’s also a favorites channels list, which you can add to from the guide.
There’s still no way to stop whatever is playing as you browse the guide — something I find irritating, but it might not bother everyone. As you watch a show in the live guide, you can press your remote’s right D-pad button to advance to the next numbered channel and hitting the left button takes you to the preceding channel. If you want to rewind or fast forward, you have to first hit the center/enter/OK button and then you can control playback. That took me a minute to get used to, but wasn’t a huge learning curve. Pressing up shows you a few recent channels and the down button creates an inset of the show you’re watching alongside some suggested similar programming, popular channels, your continue-watching content and more browsing categories.
I found it pretty simple to navigate DirecTV once I got the hang of it. That simplicity extends to the way it looks as well, with plain grids in grey and blue tones. Some might find that minimalism refreshing and clean. I found it a little uninspired — I wasn’t as excited to browse as I’ve been with other apps. Navigation is also a little slow. Compared to watching other live content (on the same TV with the same internet connection), DirecTV channels always took a second or two longer to load.
The search function requires you to input your entire query then hit Done to see your results. Other services start showing findings as you type. Again, the results are organized into three categories: shows, movies or all. If there’s something on a channel you’re not subscribed to, it’ll prompt you to go online and sign up for the channel. You can’t do it through the app, like you can with some services. You might find that annoying or be thankful for the slight bit of friction it adds to spending more money.
Monthly price: $46/mo. and up | Local channels: Yes (ABC, FOX, NBC in 20 markets) | Sports coverage: National, local | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: Yes (in 16 markets) | Total channels: 35 or 46 (base plans) | DVR limits: 50 hrs, no expiration | Profiles per account: 4 | Simultaneous at-home streams: 1 (Orange), 3 (Blue) | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: No | Contract: No | Free trial: No
To me, the idea of spending time fine-tuning channel choices sounds exhausting. But if you’re the type who wants to get exactly what you want without paying for too much of what you don’t, Sling TV may be your best bet. It breaks its base plan into two packages, Blue and Orange, with different channels on each.
Sling snuck in a price increase at the tail end of 2024 and now Blue costs $51 a month. It carries a larger number of networks, while Orange seems to have spent its lineup dollars on ESPN and ESPN 2. But even at the new $46 monthly, Sling Orange is still the cheapest way to get those two sports outlets (ESPN+ is only $12 monthly, but doesn’t show all of ESPN’s content.)
After picking a plan, you can choose from a stable of add-on packages, with monthly prices ranging from $6 to $11. These include blocks of sports or lifestyle channels, kid-friendly fare, the Discovery+ bundle and a news package. There are 29 individual premium offerings, including AMC+, Starz, MGM+, Shudder and Acorn, which go for between $2 and $10 per month. Sling has pay-per-view movies, too.
As far as local coverage, Sling Blue grants access to ABC, Fox and NBC local affiliates in about 20 of the larger US markets including Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, NYC, Miami and DC. ABC coverage began in March 2023. That raised the price of Sling Blue in supported markets from $40 to $45. For people not in those areas (or who opt for Orange) Sling suggests getting an HD antenna to catch local stations for free.
Sling now offers select sports in 4K. You’ll need a Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV device that supports 4K (and a compatible TV) but for no extra charge, you’ll get to certain sports events with a bump in resolution.
Sling’s navigation is speedy and the interface is nicely organized, putting an emphasis on what you like to watch, with recommendations that are pretty accurate. The UI also makes the add-ons you’ve chosen easy to find. In my tests, though, the app froze a number of times as I navigated. While most services froze once or twice, it happened enough times with Sling to frustrate me. I had to force quit or back out of the app and start over five or six times during the three weeks of testing. Compared to others, Sling’s DVR allowance is on the stingy side, only giving you 50 hours of recordings, though they won’t expire. You can pay for more DVR storage, but that will increase your overall costs.
I tried not to wander too far off-path during testing, but I feel it’s my duty to inform you that Sling has an Elvis channel, a Bob Ross channel and ALF TV (yes, an entire station devoted to the ‘80s sitcom starring a puppet). There’s also a Dog TV network intended to be played for your dogs when you leave the house, which you can add to Sling or get as a standalone app for $10 per month.
Monthly price: $28/mo. and up | Local channels: No | Sports coverage: No | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 70+ (base plan), 100+ (free) | DVR limits: Unlimited, 1 yr. expiration | Profiles per account: 10 | Simultaneous at-home streams: 3 | Picture-in-picture: Yes (mobile and computer) | Multiview: No | Contract: No | Free trial: Yes (7 days)
Philo held out at $25 monthly for a few years but increased to $28 in 2024 — though they did add AMC+ to the channel lineup to lessen the blow (and it has some goodshows!). Despite the bump, it’s still one of the cheapest ways to get a cordless live TV experience. Philo’s free offerings recently increased as well, bumping up to more than 100 channels.
The biggest caveat is that you won’t find any local stations or sports programming on Philo. If that’s not an issue, the service is great, with a clean, streamlined interface and generous DVR limits.
I’m a fan of minimalist design, so I appreciated presentation of the menus and guide. There are just four top navigation headings: Home, Guide, Saved and Search. And instead of the usual guide layout that stretches out or shortens a show’s listing to represent its air time, Philo’s guide features monospaced squares in chronological order with the duration of the program inside the square. Another nice touch is when you navigate to a square, it fills with a live video of the show or movie.
Philo doesn’t limit the amount of programming you can DVR and lets you keep recordings for a full year, which is more than the nine months other providers allow. Like all live TV streamers, Philo won’t let you fast forward VOD programming. If skipping commercials is important to you, I recommend taking advantage of that unlimited DVR policy and hitting “Save” on any show or movie you think you may want to watch, then fast forwarding it on playback (you can do this with all the services we tried).
As far as channels, Philo covers many of the top cable networks, with notable exceptions including Fox News, CNN, ESPN and MSNBC. Anyone looking for great news coverage should look elsewhere anyway, but the lack of a few must-have entertainment outlets like Bravo and Freeform was a little disappointing.
The 100 or so channels in Philo’s free service are baked into the paid plan, bringing the total to 170, which is a pretty good deal for under $30 monthly.
There are plenty of ways to get free TV these days. To start, many standard streaming apps have added live components to their lineups. You’re paying for the service, so it’s not technically “free,” but you can get a dose of live TV without spending more than necessary. Peacock includes some regional NBC stations, and notably access to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Paramount+ subscribers can watch on-air CBS programming. The standard Hulu app has a live ABC news channel and Max now includes a live CNN outlet with its service, along with cable-like linear channels.
The smart TV operating system (OS) you use likely provides free live content too: Amazon’s Fire TV interface has a live tab and Roku’s built-in Roku Channel includes hundreds of live channels at no extra cost. The same goes for Samsung TV Plus, which added a trove of K-dramas to its free live and on-demand lineup in 2024. The PBS app offers local live streams of its channels — even NASA has a free streaming service with live coverage.
But for a full suite of live TV networks, and don’t want to sign up for any paid service, there are a number of free ad-supported TV services that have live TV. Even cable company DirecTV has joined the crowd with MyFree, and Fubo Free lets customers with a lapsed subscription keep watching some content. Here’s the best of the live TV streaming services we tried:
Tubi
Local channels: A few | Sports coverage: Replays and shows about sports | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 260 | Profiles per account: 1 | Picture-in-picture: No | Multiview: No | Contract: No
You don’t have to make an account or give Tubi any of your information to start watching live content. Though the service likely had an huge influx of account signups just before Super Bowl 2025, when the service allowed anyone with a Tubi account to live stream the game for free in 4K.
Tubi also grants access to your local ABC and Fox station and includes the news-stream channels that other similar services carry, like NBC News Now, Fox Live Now and ABC News Live. Fox is Tubi’s parent company so you get picks like Fox Sports, Fox Soul and over a dozen regional Fox networks.
The live TV component lives within the Home menu and, from there, the stations are organized by category, making it easy to browse the more than 200 live channels. Navigation is speedy and, along with a good library of on-demand movies, shows and kids’ stuff, Tubi has a few regional news stations plus at least five regional Fox News stations.
Despite being billed as a live TV service, TUBI has a wide range of VOD movies and series. Whenever I flipped on the app, there were at least a few movies I was interested in. If you like the idea of fine-tuned browsing, you’ll probably appreciate Tubi’s Categories tab, which includes such hyper-specific topics as “shonen anime,” “vampire romance,” “black independent cinema” and “heist films.” In fact, I prefer Tubi’s on-demand experience over its live TV competency — the live TV guide only stays open for 10 seconds if you’re not actively clicking around and, like PlutoTV, your current show keeps playing as you browse the guide.
Local channels: No | Sports coverage: Replays and shows about sports | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 800+ | Profiles per account: 15 (with a free Plex Home acct) | Picture-in-picture: No | Multiview: No | Contract: No
I test lots of gadgets and services but only a few make their way into my off-hours life. Plex feels likely to be one of those rarities. The FAST service has around 800 live TV channels that are organized fairly granularly and you can have up to 15 profiles. You can also rent a good selection of new-release and popular older movies directly from the app. There was once a nifty integration with notable music streaming service Tidal, but that collaboration sadly came to an end late in 2024.
But the reason I’ll keep using Plex is the search function. It not only lets you hunt for shows and movies on its own platform, it also tells you which other services are currently carrying a particular title. I searched for Glass Onion, Get Out, Buckaroo Banzai and Billy Eichner’s Bros and found out I could watch those movies with my subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video and Starz, respectively.
Searching by an actor’s name, like Jamie Lee Curtis or Donald Glover, will give you a list of movies and shows they’ve been in. You can then find out that Halloween 1978 is available for free on Plex and Atlanta is included with a Hulu subscription. Recently, Plex added movie and show reviews culled from other Plex users and professional critics — users can even share their reviews with friends on the service, creating a Letterboxd-like social media element.
It’s also quite easy to add any title to your Watchlist — together with the search feature, that could be a unifying way to organize your streaming aspirations. I checked every service Plex indicated for the titles I searched for and, so far, it’s been correct every time. My only real complaint is how painfully slow the search can be at times, but the results are spot-on.
So, yes, you can watch a linear stream of old episodes like the BBC’s The Office or NCIS:New Orleans for free, but you can also find out which streamer is currently playing Joker: Folie à Deux (it’s Max).
Pros
Good selection of free live channels
Helpful and accurate search for any title
Detailed organization that’s not overly complicated
Local channels: A few | Sports coverage: Replays and shows about sports | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 400+ | Profiles per account: 4 (with sign-up) | Picture-in-picture: Yes | Multiview: No | Contract: No
When I first tried out Freestream, it was tough to find out where the free content was. It uses the same app as the paid Sling service, and I only found the prompt to watch for free when I was about to close the app. It has since become far easier to find the gratis option and, once you do, you get access to over 400 channels of free stuff, including a good deal of national and global news networks, such as BBC News, CBS News 24/7, USA Today, ABC News Live and Bloomberg. Yes, many of these are already available for free at their respective websites, but it’s nice to have a one-stop location to browse them all.
Since the last time I tried Sling’s free service, the navigation has improved greatly. Where once there were just a few organizational options, now you’ll find categories for sports, movies, comedies, true crime, kids, documentaries, science and nature, classic TV and more. When you flip back to the guide, what you’re watching pops into a picture-in-picture window — but if you don’t like that, it’s easy to close it so you can browse in peace.
Pros
Good national news network selection
Nicely organized interface
Your current show becomes a pop-out as you browse and is easily closed
Local channels: A few | Sports coverage: Replays and shows about sports | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 400+ | Profiles per account: 1 | Picture-in-picture: No | Multiview: No | Contract: No
Editor’s Note: Amazon recently announced it was and integrating the free content into its Prime Video subscription. People who don’t pay for Prime will still be able to access some of the free content through that app. But as of this writing, the Freevee app was available to download and use.
It was first called IMDbTV, but Amazon changed the name of its free streaming option to Freevee to better hint at its price. What’s available is pretty similar to the Live TV menu option you’ll find within the Prime Video app — in fact, the interface on that app is actually better organized, with listings by category. Freevee’s live TV menu is just a long, single list of channels. Prime’s version is speedier, too.
However, Freevee is, true to its name, completely free. You don’t even have to sign in, though you’ll be prompted to do so when you first open the app (just select “Watch as a guest” in the lower corner to bypass that). There are currently around 400 channels with news networks like ABC News Live, Fox Live Now and NBC News Now. Sports showcases include the MLB Channel, NBC Sports and Fubo Sports. Tons of reality, true crime and current and classic TV avenues round out the offerings.
For original content that you can’t watch elsewhere, you not only get Freevee’s own shows like Jury Duty, but you can also watch select episodes of Prime shows like Fallout and Outer Range. Plus there are plenty of live channels arranged around specific classic shows including Saved by the Bell, Sailor Moon, The Addams Family and Murder, She Wrote.
It’s possible Freevee has the most regional news channels of any other FAST service too, but it’s almost impossible to find them without scrolling endlessly through the guide. You can’t search for them and there’s no way to organize the channels by category as you can with the live TV section in the Prime Video app (which almost gives you the impression Amazon would rather you just pay for the membership). But while flipping through the guide, I saw NBC Chicago, Philadelphia and New York affiliates, Fox in Milwaukee, LA and Tampa Bay, and the Bay Area’s ABC station.
Local channels: A few | Sports coverage: Replays and shows about sports | On-demand: Yes | 4K live streams: No | Total channels: 250+ | Profiles per account: 1 | Picture-in-picture: No | Multiview: No | Contract: No
Pluto TV is granularly organized, separating out nearly two dozen categories for its live content — including local news, kids, sports, daytime TV along with more specific topics like anime, competition reality, and history/science. The service also has a slew of its own stations such as Pluto Sports, Pluto News, Pluto True Crime and Pluto Star Trek.
Actually, much of Pluto’s service is made up of content owned by its parent company, Paramount, who owns, in addition to Star Trek properties, CBS, Nickelodeon and MTV brands. Thanks to that affiliation, you’ll get access to a bunch of original content here. Regional news options are, however, limited to about a dozen CBS stations, but the live news-stream selection is pretty good and includes NBC News Live, BBC Headlines, Bloomberg Television, Cheddar News and others.
As for sports, you get CBS Sports HQ, a version of Fox Sports and league-specific sports shows from the NFL, MLB, and Golf Channels. Though, as with any free live TV streaming service, you won’t find much in the way of live games.
One thing I have to point out is that whatever you’re watching keeps playing when you browse the guide, and after searching the settings in the app and forums online, I could find no way to turn this off. If, like me, hearing your currently playing show natter on as you look for something else to watch drives you insane, you’ll have to hit mute.
Streaming live TV is a lot like using Netflix. You get access through apps on your phone, tablet, smart TV or streaming device and the signal arrives over the internet. A faster and more stable connection tends to give you a better experience. Most live TV apps require you to sign up and pay via a web browser. After that, you can activate the app on all of your devices.
Monthly Price
When I started testing these cord-cutting alternatives, I was struck by the price difference between live TV and a standard video streaming app. Where the latter cost between $5 and $20 per month, most live TV services hit the $80 mark and can go higher than $200 with additional perks, channel packages and premium extras. The higher starting price is mostly due to the cost of providing multiple networks — particularly sports and local stations. And, in the past year or so, every service except Sling has raised base plan prices.
Local channels
Only two of the services I tried don’t include full local channel coverage for subscribers and one of those makes no effort to carry sports at all. That would be Philo and, as you might guess, it’s the cheapest. The next most affordable option, Sling, only carries three local stations — and only in larger markets — but it still manages to include some of the top sports channels.
When you sign up with any provider that handles local TV, you’ll enter your zip code, ensuring you get your area’s broadcast affiliates for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Of course, you can also get those stations for free. Nearly all modern television sets support a radio frequency (RF) connection, also known as the coaxial port, which means if you buy an HD antenna, you’ll receive locally broadcast stations like ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX and NBC. And since the signal is digital, reception is much improved over the staticky rabbit-ears era.
But local channel access is another area where traditional streaming services, like Netflix, are bleeding into broadcast territory. For example, you can watch your local NBC station with a Peacock subscription and you can tune into your area’s CBS station through your Paramount+ subscription. Netflix is even getting into the mix with a recently announced deal with one of France’s broadcast companies, TF1. The streaming service will now air TF1’s live TV channels and on-demand content inside the Netflix app. No word if the concept will expand to other regions, but it’s an interesting move to anyone interested in the future of streaming.
Live sports coverage
One reality that spun my head was the sheer number and iterations of sports networks in existence. Trying to figure out which network will carry the match-up you want to see can be tricky. I found that Google makes it a little easier for sports fans by listing out upcoming games (just swap in NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and so on in the search bar). When you click an event, the “TV & streaming” button will tell you which network is covering it.
That just leaves figuring out if your chosen service carries the RSNs (regional sports networks) you want. Unfortunately, even with add-ons and extra packages, some providers simply don’t have certain channels in their lineups. It would take a lawyer to understand the ins and outs of streaming rights negotiations, and networks leave and return to live TV carriers all the time. That said, most major sporting events in the US are covered by ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, USA and local affiliates.
I should also point out that traditional streaming services have started adding live sports to their lineups. Peacock carries live Premier League matches, Sunday Night Football games and aired the 2024 Olympic Games from Paris. Thursday Night Football as well as NBA and WNBA games are on Amazon Prime and Christmas Day Football aired on Netflix. Max (formerly HBO Max) now airs select, regular season games from the NHL, MLB, NCAA and NBA with a $10-per-month add-on. You can watch MLS games with an add-on through the Apple TV app, and Apple TV+ includes some MLB games. Roku users can watch the just-added free sports channel and those who subscribe to Paramount Plus can see many of the matches aired on CBS Sports, including live NFL games. This year, even the Super Bowl was live-streamed for free on Tubi. While all of these alternatives may not cover as much ground as live TV streamers, they could end up being cheaper avenues to the sports you want.
And if sports is all you’re after, there are sports-only plans that are a touch cheaper, too. The promised sports streaming service from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. called Venu was cancelled early this year. But in May, ESPN confirmed it will launch its own streaming service that will include all ESPN channels, though a start date hasn’t been confirmed. DirecTV recently announced a $70-per-month, sports-only streaming package called MySports and Comcast now has a sports and news bundle for the same price (as long as you’re an Xfinity customer with auto-pay, otherwise it’s more expensive).
Traditional cable networks
Dozens of linear programming networks were once only available with cable TV, like Bravo, BET, Food Network, HGTV, CNN, Lifetime, SYFY and MTV. If you only subscribe to, say, Netflix or Apple TV+, you won’t have access to those. But as with sports, standard streamers are starting to incorporate this content into their offerings. After the Warner Bros. merger, Max incorporated some content from HGTV, Discovery and TLC. Peacock has Bravo and Hallmark shows, and Paramount+ has material from Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.
Other channels like AMC+ have stand-alone apps. The Discovery+ app gives you 15 channels ad-free for $9 per month (or with ads for $5 monthly). And a service called Frndly TV starts at a mere $7 per month and streams A&E, Lifetime, Game Show Network, Outdoor Channel and about 35 others. Of course, most live TV streaming options will deliver more sizable lists of cable networks, but just note that you may already be paying for some of them — and if all you need is a certain channel, you could get it cheaper by subscribing directly.
On-demand streaming
Most live TV subscriptions include access to a selection of video-on-demand (VOD) content, like you would get with a traditional streaming service. Much of this content is made up of the movies and TV series that have recently aired on your subscribed networks. This typically doesn’t cover live events and news programming, but I was able to watch specific episodes of ongoing shows like Top Chef or BET’s Diarra from Detroit. Just search the on-demand library for the program, pick an episode and hit play.
Partnerships, like Hulu’s relationship with Disney, and add-ons, such as bundling Max with your YouTube TV subscription or Starz with your Sling plan, will let you watch even larger libraries of on-demand content. But again, if VOD is all you’re after, paying for those networks directly instead of through a live TV plan will be far cheaper.
Digital video recordings (DVR) limits
Every option I tried offers some cloud DVR storage without needing a separate physical device. You’ll either get unlimited storage for recordings that expires after nine months or a year, or you’ll get a set number of hours (between 50 and 1,000) that you can keep indefinitely. Typically, all you need to do is designate what ongoing TV series you want to record and the DVR component will do all the hard work of saving subsequent episodes for you to watch later. You can do the same thing with sports events.
Aside from being able to watch whenever it’s most convenient, you can also fast-forward through commercials in recorded content. In contrast, you can’t skip them on live TV or VOD.
Simultaneous streams and profiles per account
Each plan gives you a certain number of simultaneous streams, aka how many screens can play content at the same time. And while most providers will let you travel with your subscription, there are usually location restrictions that require you to sign in from your home IP address periodically. Stream allowances range from one at a time to unlimited screens (or as many as your ISP’s bandwidth can handle). Some plans require add-ons to get more screens.
Most services also let you set up a few profiles so I was able to give different people in my family the ability to build their own watch histories and libraries, set their favorite channels and get individual recommendations.
Picture-in-picture mode and multiview
Picture-in-picture (PiP) usually refers to shrinking a video window on a mobile device or computer browser so you can watch it while using other apps. Sling, YouTube TV, FuboTV, Philo, DirecTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV all have PiP modes on computers and mobile devices. Another feature, multiview, lets you view multiple live sports games at once on your TV screen. YouTube TV and FuboTV are the only live TV streamers that let you do this. With YouTube TV, you can select up to four views from a few preset selection of streams. FuboTV offers the same feature, but only if you’re using an Apple TV or Roku streaming device.
4K live streams
Right now, just FuboTV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream offer 4K live streams — but with caveats. YouTube TV requires a $20-per-month add-on, after which you’ll only be able to watch certain live content in 4K. DirecTV Stream has three channels that show live 4K content — one with shows and original series, and two with occasional sporting events. You don’t have to pay extra for these but you do need to have either DirecTV’s Gemini receiver, or a device from Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku. You’ll need those same streaming devices to watch the select 4K programming on Sling as well. FuboTV shows certain live events in 4K but access is limited to the Elite and Premier packages, not the base-level Pro plan.
Of course, watching any 4K content also requires equipment that can handle it: a 4K smart TV or 4K streaming device paired with a cord and screen that can handle 4K resolution.
Tiers, packages and add-ons
Comparing price-to-offering ratios is a task for a spreadsheet. I… made three. The base plans range from $28 to $85 per month. From there, you can add packages, which are usually groups of live TV channels bundled by themes like news, sports, entertainment or international content. Premium VOD extras like Max, AMC+ and Starz are also available. Add-ons cost an extra $5 to $20 each per month and simply show up in the guide where you find the rest of your live TV. This is where streaming can quickly get expensive, pushing an $80 subscription to $200 monthly, depending on what you choose.
How to stream live TV for free
I also downloaded and tried out a few apps that offer free ad-supported TV (FAST) including Freevee, Tubi, PlutoTV and Sling Freestream. These let you drop in and watch a more limited selection of live networks at zero cost. Most don’t even require an email address, let alone a credit card. And if you have a Roku device, an Amazon Fire TV or Stick, a Samsung TV, a Chromecast device or a Google TV, you already have access to hundreds of live channels via the Roku Channel, the live tab in Fire TV, through the Samsung TV Plus app or through Google TV.
When I begin testing for a guide, I research the most popular and well-reviewed players in the category and narrow down which are worth trying. For the paid plans, just six services dominate so I tried them all. There are considerably more free live TV contenders so I tested the four most popular. After getting accounts set up using my laptop, I downloaded the apps on a Samsung smart TV running the latest version of Tizen OS. I counted the local stations and regional sports coverage, and noted how many of the top cable networks were available. I then weighed the prices, base packages and available add-ons.
I then looked at how the programming was organized in each app’s UI and judged how easy everything was to navigate, from the top navigation to the settings. To test the search function, I searched for the same few TV shows on BET, Food Network, HGTV and Comedy Central, since all six providers carry those channels. I noted how helpful the searches were and how quickly they got me to season 6, episode 13 of Home Town.
I used DVR to record entire series and single movies and watched VOD shows, making sure to test the pause and scan functions. On each service with sports, I searched for the same four upcoming NHL, NBA, MLS and NCAA basketball matches and used the record option to save the games and play them back a day or two later. Finally, I noted any extra perks or irritating quirks.
Streaming simply refers to video content that is delivered to your screen over the internet. Live streaming can be split into two categories: linear programming and simultaneous transmission. That first one is similar to what you get with cable or broadcast TV, with channels that play a constant flow of movies and shows (sort of what TV looked like before Netflix). Simultaneous streaming lets you watch live events (like a basketball game) or a program (like the evening news) as they happen.
What is the difference between streaming and live streaming?
Standard streaming, the most popular example being Netflix, lets you pick what you want to watch from a menu of choices. It’s also referred to as “video on demand.” Live streaming refers to sports and news events that you can stream as they happen in real time. It also refers to channels that show a continuous, linear flow of programming.
What streaming service is best for live TV?
FuboTV does the best job of letting you organize live channels to help you find just what you want to watch. The interface is uncluttered and when you search for something, the UI clearly tells you whether something is live now or on-demand. YouTube TV also does a good job making that info clear. Both have just over 100 live channels on offer.
What is the most cost effective TV streaming service?
Free TV streaming services like PlutoTV, Plex, Tubi and FreeVee show plenty of ad-supported TV shows and movies without charging you anything. Of course, they won’t have the same channels or content that more premium subscriptions have. Ultimately it depends on what you want to watch and finding the service that can supply that to you in the most streamlined form so you’re not paying for stuff you don’t need.
Is it cheaper to have cable or streaming?
A basic cable package used to be more expensive than the base-level live TV streaming service. But now that nearly all major providers have raised their prices to over $75 per month, that’s no longer the case. And with add-ons and other premiums, you can easily pay over $200 a month for either cable or a live TV streaming service.
What streaming service has all the TV channels?
No service that we tested had every available channel. Hulu + Live TV and DirecTV Stream carry the the highest number of the top rated channels, according to Neilsen. Hulu’s service also gets you Disney+ fare, which you can’t get elsewhere. FuboTV has the most sports channels and YouTube TV gives you the widest selection of add-ons.
What is the most popular live TV streaming platform?
YouTube TV has the most paying customers. According to 2024’s letter from the CEO, the service has over eight million subscribers. Disney’s 2024 third quarter earnings put the Hulu + Live TV viewer count at 4.6 million. Sling’s customer count dipped from two million to about 1.9 million in 2024 and FuboTV grew its subscriber list to 1.6 million.
How safe are free streaming services and websites?
You may have heard certain sites that provide free content can be dangerous, leading to stolen info and/or exposing you to malware. That’s likely in reference to certain peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and file-sharing sites that let people download free movies and series — which can come bundled with malicious code.
But if you’re talking about the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services listed here, from providers like PlutoTV, Tubi and Freevee, they are just as safe as any other streaming service. Since you sometimes don’t even have to provide your email address or credit card info, they can even be more anonymous than apps that require login credentials.
January 31, 2025: Added information about which streaming service would live-stream the Super Bowl, including Tubi’s free option. Updated Fubo’s pricing. Added details about DirectTV Stream’s sports-only package and Comcast’s sports and news bundle.
January 16, 2025: Included higher prices for Sling’s Orange and Blue plans. Noted the demise of the never-launched Venu sports streaming service and mentioned the inclusion of DirecTV’s new sports package.
December 31, 2024: Noted increased pricing for YouTube TV, Hulu+ Live TV and DirecTV. Updated information for 4K streaming capabilities and requirements for multiple services. Reported on the upcoming shut down of Amazon’s Freevee service and the addition of DirecTV’s free service.
August 6, 2024: Updated with the addition of Plex as a free live TV streaming recommendation and mentioned the additional free channels Philo is now including with the free version of its service. Added pricing information for ESPN’s new sports-only streaming service, Venu.
June 12, 2024: Updated with more information about 4K live streaming, picture-in-picture and multiview modes, as well as video on-demand options. We expanded our recommendations around free live TV streaming services and added a FAQ query about the safety of free streaming services and clarified the difference between standard and live streaming. More traditional streaming services have added live and sports components, so we revised that section accordingly.
Welcome to episode 60 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will talk through Nothing’s latest launch event, including the company’s first flagship Android phone, the Nothing Phone (3). From its divisive design to its new Glyph Matrix display, there’s a lot to take in, as the company seemingly pivots towards a more premium market.
The trio also speculate on what Gemini’s new four-color icon could mean for the future of Google as a company. Is this simply about aligning the logo with Google’s standard theming, or does it tell us something about where Search and Gemini are headed in the future?
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As a parent, it can be daunting to hand over a smart device to their tween when a myriad of online dangers exist. Pinwheel, a kid-friendly tech company, is introducing a new solution for parents who want to stay connected with their children without giving them a phone.
The Pinwheel Watch is a recently launched smartwatch designed specifically for kids aged 7 to 14, offering a child-safe alternative that prevents access to social media and the internet. It features parental management tools, GPS tracking, a camera, voice-to-text messaging, fun mini-games, and — here’s a surprise — an AI chatbot.
The smartwatch itself features a sleek black design and a screen that is slightly larger than that of an Apple Watch. It’s currently priced at $160, with a $15 monthly subscription. It became available for purchase on Pinwheel.com last week, and we’ve been testing it over the past few days.
In addition to a more standard set of parental controls, the feature some parents might be wary of is the watch’s AI assistant, “PinwheelGPT.”
PinwheelGPT is designed as a safer alternative to typical AI chatbots, enabling kids to ask questions about various topics, including everyday curiosities, social interactions, and homework-related questions, the company claims.
However, parents may already be cautious about AI chatbots, as they can produce misinformation. Parents could also argue that the friendly nature of chatbots can lead to unhealthy patterns, where children rely on these digital companions for interaction instead of engaging in face-to-face interactions with family and friends.
Image Credits:Pinwheel
The company explained to us that safeguards are in place; the AI is trained to recognize topics that may be sensitive or inappropriate for children, opting out of these conversations and encouraging kids to discuss such matters with a trusted adult instead. During our limited testing, we confirmed that PinwheelGPT successfully avoided answering inappropriate or violent questions.
Additionally, parents have full visibility into all interactions with the chatbot, including both current and previously deleted chats, so they can step in if any red flags arise.
“We have not received any pushback from parents because it’s possible, if they are concerned, to remove the PinwheelGPT from the watch or turn it off via your own controls,” said founder Dane Witbeck, who is a father of four. “We do not use any personal data provided by any users, minors, or adults, in training AI models,” he noted.
Witbeck’s company launched its first child-safe phone in 2020 and, four years later, ranked No. 212 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America for 2024.
Entering the smartwatch market seems like a natural progression, allowing the company to better compete in the approximately $100 billion smart wearable market against major brands like Apple and Fitbit. Pinwheel believes it’s strategically positioning itself by focusing specifically on the kids category.
It also differentiates itself from other similar devices, such as Fitbit’s Ace LTE, which focuses more on tracking location and health metrics.
Image Credits:Pinwheel
In addition to the AI feature, kids and tweens can make calls and send texts on the watch by using voice commands or a keyboard. There’s also a camera for video calls and selfies, along with a voice recorder app. Other apps include an alarm, calendar, calculator, and mini-games, such as a Tetris-like game.
The parent monitoring features are available through the “Caregiver” app. This allows parents to create a “Safelist” of contacts that their children are permitted to talk to, as well as reject certain phone numbers from being added to the list.
Additionally, a Schedule tab lets parents set up different modes to ensure that kids stay off their devices during specific times, like when they’re at school or summer camp. For instance, they can choose to limit contacts to only emergency numbers during the day and switch to “All mode” later in the day, allowing their kids to access everything freely.
If desired, parents have the option to monitor text messages, which could be particularly useful for those with younger children. Here, an AI text summary feature offers parents concise overviews of kids’ text message threads.
The Pinwheel Watch is available now in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K., with plans to expand into additional markets soon. It will be available on Amazon later this summer, though the company has not provided a specific date.
A good fast charger can make a world of difference when you’re low on battery and short on time. With more devices — from smartphones to laptops — supporting quick-charging tech, having an accessory that can deliver serious power in minutes is almost essential. Many newer phones no longer come with charging bricks in the box, so picking up a reliable fast charger will be essential for most people. Whether you’re at home, at work or on the move, the right charger can help keep your gear topped up without wasting time.
Today’s fast chargers come in all shapes and sizes. You’ll find compact wall plugs perfect for travel, multi-port hubs for charging several devices at once and GaN (gallium nitride) chargers that offer powerful performance in a smaller footprint. Some support multiple charging standards like USB Power Delivery (PD) and Qualcomm Quick Charge, making them great for everything from iPhones to Android phones, tablets and even some laptops. In this guide, we’ll help you find the best fast chargers for your setup, so you can spend less time tethered to an outlet and more time getting things done.
Best fast chargers for 2025
Anker
If you just need an extra power adapter that you can put in a convenient location (like next to your bed or a couch), you can’t go wrong with Anker’s 30W Nano Charger. It’s exceedingly affordable at under $20 while providing excellent charging speeds for its size. And because it’s so small, it can fit pretty much anywhere. The folding prongs are a nice touch as well.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly two-port adapter, consider Plugable’s 40W Dual USB-C Charger. At $60, it is pricer, but it gives you the ability to power up a couple of devices at the same time like a tablet and a phone. Like a lot of other bricks, its 40W output is shared across both ports. Keep that in mind if you have two devices plugged in at the same time, since charging times will be slower.
If I were trying to pack light and could only choose one fast charger to bring with me, it would be Anker’s 67W three-port wall charger. Not only is it even more compact than the previous model, it has three ports (including one USB-A) and a max output of 67 watts. That’s enough to support most ultraportable laptops. And thanks to Anker’s PowerIQ 4.0 tech, the brick can detect which device plugged into its USB-C ports has the lowest battery before allocating additional juice to that gadget. For anyone who likes this design but wants something with a higher power output, Anker has a 100W model that’s also really compact.
For anyone who puts a premium on thinness, UGreen’s 65W Nexode Ultra-Slim fast charger is another excellent contender. Like Anker’s model, it has three ports (one of which is USB-A) and a similar max power output. To maintain its super sleek dimensions, Ugreen thoughtfully included folding prongs. The one small issue is that it may block adjacent outlets if plugged into a crowded power strip due to its thin yet wide design.
One thing I really appreciate about Plugable is that the company is great at making simple, affordable gadgets, and its 140W USB-C GaN power adapter is a great example of that. Sure, it only has a single port, but with a max output of 140 watts and price of just $50, it’s one of the most powerful chargers for the money on sale today. This amount of juice is enough to support all but the biggest and most powerful laptops on the market, while the charger is also smaller than many first-party bricks.
If you just want a single charger that can handle pretty much any device, Anker’s 140W laptop charger is it. It provides enough juice to satisfy all but the most power-hungry gadgets (like 18-inch gaming notebooks) and it comes with four ports (three USB-C and one USB-A) for simple simultaneous charging. While it might seem unnecessary, Anker’s built-in display makes it easy to see exactly how much electricity is being sent to each device. Unlike a lot of less expensive bricks, this one comes with an included 140W cable as an added bonus.
I carried Razer’s USB-C GaN charger around for years because it was one of the first 140W adapters on the market, and I love the combination of a sturdy metal housing and support for interchangeable plugs when traveling abroad. However, at $180, it’s a bit too expensive to wholeheartedly recommend. That’s where Satechi’s 145W travel charger comes in, because it offers a similar power output along with swappable international plugs for $60 less. You also get four USB-C ports (though nothing in the way of USB-C) and a less premium plastic body, but those are very reasonable trade-offs for something with a more affordable price of $120.
For anyone who wants a power adapter with a bit of personality, Ugreen’s 100W Uno Charger is surprisingly charming. Not only does it have a max output of 100 watts, which is more than enough to cover a wide range of devices, it has a built-in screen that can make various faces at you depending on the situation. It also features four ports and has magnetic feet so you can attach it to something ferrous like a filing cabinet or even the lid of your laptop.
Before you start looking at specific chargers, it’s critical to determine three things: how many devices do you need to charge, how much power do they require and whether or not you’re planning on traveling with any of them.
The reason for the first question is simple. If you only need to charge a single device, like an iPhone or Android phone, it’s cheaper and usually more space-efficient to get a lower-wattage phone charger with one port instead of two or three. Next, it’s critical to figure out how much electricity your gadgets need because it doesn’t make sense to buy a power brick that pushes out more juice than your device can actually use. This may sound a bit tricky, but most major manufacturers will list a product’s max charging speeds in its tech specs, which is typically denoted by a specific wattage (15W, for example) or a quick-charge rating.
Unfortunately, very powerful or large laptops like gaming notebooks can suck a ton of juice (more than 140 watts), which means they may rely on more traditional power adapters with barrel plugs. This may result in them not being compatible with universal chargers. Some of these PCs may also support charging over USB-C, so even if a specific adapter can’t deliver its full power draw, it can still send over some energy — but it will do so at a slower rate compared to the laptop’s included charger. To get the best performance, using a fast charging cable, such as a USB-C cable, can make a big difference in maintaining consistent power delivery.
For frequent travelers, size and weight are often important considerations, because the bigger and heavier a charger is, the more annoying it will be to lug around. You’ll also want to think about other factors like support for international plugs, which can be a big help to anyone who regularly visits other countries. If you’re already traveling with power banks or a charging station, choosing a compact GaN charger can help streamline your gear.
Finally, you’ll want to figure out if your smartphone uses a proprietary charging standard or if it’s compatible with the USB Power Delivery spec (USB PD). For example, the OnePlus 13’s included SuperVOOC power adapter can send up to 100 watts to the phone. However, if you use a generic USB-PD charger, speeds top out at 45 watts. That’s still pretty quick, but not nearly as fast as OnePlus’ brick — and the same applies to devices with super fast charging support. Also, make sure your charging cable and connector are up to spec, as lower-quality accessories can bottleneck your charging speeds.
What is GaN?
When looking for chargers, you may notice that some are marked as GaN, which stands for gallium nitride. This is an important distinction because, when compared to older adapters that use silicon switches, GaN-based devices support increased power efficiency and output, allowing manufacturers to create more compact bricks that run cooler and support higher wattages.
Depending on the specific power output, GaN adapters can be 30 to 50 percent smaller and lighter than silicon-based alternatives. That might not sound like much, but when they’re sitting in a bag alongside a laptop and a half dozen other accessories you might have, cutting down on excess bulk and weight goes a long way.
Veo 3, Google’s latest video generation model, is now available around the world in the Gemini app for AI Pro subscribers.
Google’s Josh Woodward announced on Wednesday evening that subscribers in “India, Indonesia, all of Europe, and more are starting to get access to create videos right now.” The full list includes 159 countries.
Announced at I/O 2025 in May, Veo 3 can generate videos with audio like dialogue, background noise, nature sounds, and more. One use case is including a short story in your prompt. Google touts “real-world physics and accurate lip syncing.”
Veo 3 was first announced for AI Ultra ($249.99 per month) subscribers, and Google brought it to the AI Pro ($19.99) tier with “Veo 3 Fast” in June. The 720p clips continue to be 8 seconds long. It’s 2x faster (to generate) with various serving optimizations.
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The Gemini app will allow Pro subscribers to generate three Veo 3 Fast videos per day. After hitting that limit, you’re back to Veo 2.
Google also says there are now “fewer blocks when generating.” Looking ahead, photo-to-video generation is coming.
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MassLive released its boys volleyball All-Western Mass. on July 3.
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In late May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appeared to kick open the door on a sensitive topic, warning that half of entry-level jobs could vanish within five years because of AI and push U.S. unemployment up to 20%. But Amodei is far from alone in sharing aloud that he foresees a workforce bloodbath. A new WSJ story highlights how other CEOs are also issuing dire predictions about AI’s job impact, turning employment doom into something of a competitive sport.
Several of these predictions came before Amodei’s comments. For example, at JPMorgan’s annual investor day earlier in May, its consumer banking chief Marianne Lake projected AI would “enable” a 10% workforce reduction. But they’ve been coming fast, and growing more stark, ever since. In a note last month, Amazon’s Andy Jassy warned employees to expect a smaller workforce due to the “once-in-a-lifetime” technological shift that’s afoot. ThredUp’s CEO said at a conference last month that AI will destroy “way more jobs than the average person thinks.” Not to be outdone, Ford’s Jim Farley delivered perhaps the most sweeping claim yet, saying last week that AI will “literally replace half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.”
It’s a dramatic shift from executives’ previous cautious public statements about job displacement, notes the Journal. Indeed, the outlet notes that while some tech leaders — including from powerful AI companies — have proposed that fears are overblown, the growing string of warnings suggests massive restructurings are coming, whether people are ready for them or not.
Renowned social psychologist James Maas was on a mission to get Americans to take sleep more seriously. The longtime Cornell professor credited with coining the term “power nap” died last week at 86.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
James Maas, a psychologist and sleep researcher, died last week at the age of 86.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
He spent decades teaching at Cornell University studying the link between sleep and human health.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JAMES MAAS: We have to value sleep because sleep is the best predictor of general health and longevity, as well as being essential for learning, for problem solving.
SUMMERS: That’s Maas speaking with NPR back in 2003.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
MAAS: If you want to be a good athlete, if you want to be a good golfer, if you want to be a good pianist and you need hand-eye coordination, hand-foot coordination, all those connections are formed very late in the night in stage 2 sleep and in REM sleep.
CHANG: So that’s my problem. Maas often spoke about how Americans do not get enough sleep, and his research linked sleep deprivation to a range of health issues like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and stress.
SUMMERS: He told NPR that even a little drowsiness can be dangerous.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
MAAS: They don’t notice it when they’re at work if the adrenaline is rushing. But the minute they go back to the office to sit down or they, God forbid, get behind the wheel of a car, you can have a sleep seizure in a second, going from having your eyes wide open to your thinking brain totally turned off within 80 feet of driving. And that’s why we have a tremendous number of car accidents due to drowsy driving.
CHANG: Maas cowrote the 1998 bestseller “Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind For Peak Performance.”
SUMMERS: It helped popularize the term power nap, and Maas jokingly said it helped people sleep better.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAAS: And as my students know here, the world’s greatest cure for insomnia these days is to read “Power Sleep.” Any two pages you’ve told me will put you right out.
CHANG: That’s a clip from a lecture that Maas gave at Cornell University, where he taught for almost 50 years.
SUMMERS: He lectured to more than 65,000 students while there, touting the benefits of good health.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAAS: If you learn nothing else, I want you to know, obviously, that sleep is a necessity. It’s not a luxury. It is the quantity and quality of your sleep that in large measure is going to determine your success in your waking life.
CHANG: That was Professor James Maas. He died last week at the age of 86.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
