Apple Just Quietly Raised Prices for Apple Music and Apple TV Plus

 Apple raises rates for Apple TV and Apple Music.

Everybody mad at Comcast, Direct TV and other cable providers for constantly raising their rates so they cut their TV service and began to stream entertainment.

and here come the increases, Apple TV has increased their Apple TV plus service by 2 dollars to $7/month.  I have been paying $4.99/month and with the increase it is still a bargain.  Apple Music is going up by a dollar.

Apple's bundle service, Apple One, meanwhile, will cost $16.95 per month for an individual, a $2 increase. The Apple One family plan will hit $22.95 per month and its premier plan, $32.95 -- a $3 bump for both. Apple One individual and family plans include Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade cloud gaming and iCloud remote storage services; premier includes those four and both Apple Fitness Plus workouts and Apple News Plus, which unlocks multiple subscription newspapers, magazines and other news outlets.)

However Apple is not alone.  Other streamers, Netflix, Spotify, Disney and YouTube have raised their rates in the past year and the Prime membership jumped from $99 to $119 and now $139/year if you want to keep your Prime Video.

Yesterday both Google and Microsoft reported disappointing numbers on Wall Street so YouTube subscribers may see an increase soon.

FYI... to read more about the increases in streaming services, click the link below,

https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-just-quietly-raised-prices-for-apple-music-and-apple-tv-plus/

T-Mobile Home Internet Redux, 5 best Browsers, Microsoft Patch Tuesday

T-Mobile Home Internet Redux, the last time I'll talk about it.

I so much want to dump Comcast that I called T-Mobile again last Friday to inquire about data plans.  I was paying $50/month.

I found out this, as I stated in the 1st post 2 weeks ago, when I looked up my address online the website said the service was not available at my address but I was able to order the modem anyway.  When I setup the T-Mobile modem the phone app could not connect to the T-Mobile network and I had to set it up manually.  I was pulling 250 mbps download and pretty happy until I received the message that I had used up 80% of 100 GB allotment in 13 days and T-Mo was going to throttle my speed.

T-Mobile Home Internet vs T-Mobile Home Internet Lite

I found out that the modem couldn't connect to their actual 5G Home Internet.  It was connected to their phone networks 5G signal.  They call that Home Internet Lite.

If I could connect to their true 5G Home Internet then I would have had unlimited data for $50/month.  The Home Lite plan allows you to purchase more data but in incremental increases and it's not cost effective.

So now I am on their wait list, waiting for them to install equipment in my neighborhood.

To check your address visit the following link;

Check Eligibility for 5G Internet | T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday - October

Microsoft has released new updates addressing 84 vulnerabilities.  The Redmond company said that one flaw had already been exploited and another has been publicly announced.  Earlier this month patches were released that addressed 12 more CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) found in the Edge browser.

The vulnerability that has been exploited is a Windows COM+ Event System Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain system privileges.

The publicly disclosed vulnerability is a Microsoft Office Information Disclosure Vulnerability. This vulnerability, discovered by Cody Thomas with SpecterOps, puts at risk user tokens and other potentially sensitive information.

If you have not updated your computer this month, please take the time tonight before leaving to start Windows updates installing on your computer.

To read more click on the link below;

https://www.zdnet.com/article/everything-microsoft-announced-at-the-october-surface-event/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=%7B%24external_id%7D&mid=%7B%24MESSAGE_ID%7D&cid=%7B%24contact_id%7D

What is the best browser to use?

The most commonly used browsers are Chrome, Firefox and Edge.  With Cloud services becoming more ubiquitous, cloud service companies have to make sure their products work with these major browser players.  However, which is best to use?... Chrome does not make the top 5.

I  use the Brave browser for Global Administration of client MS365 sites as well as banking activities.  Brave is rated #1 for overall privacy.

It allows me to peruse many newspapers without a subscription.  It comes with Tor browser and VPN built in.  When I launch an in-private windows using Tor however it hides your public IP address via a VPN and often assigns a European Public IP.

If you have heard of it before, Tor is the infamous browser most associated with the Dark Web.

To read more about the best browsers click on this link;

The 5 best secure browsers for privacy in 2022 | ZDNET

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet Update

T-Mobile Gateway sent packing.

As promised I wanted to update you on my experience with the T-Mobile Gateway, (see previous T-Mobile post).  The device was easy to implement and the speed was very good considering I was only getting 3 out of 5 bars signal strength.  I averaged 250 MBPS download speed and the service never faltered even after connecting my main TV along with my Surface Pro notebook.  I do all my TV watching via streaming including news.  I have an internet only subscription, Comcast business, 

I never got around to connecting all my devices which would have been 2 desktops, server, printer and 2 more TVs.  I'm glad I never fully converted since on day 13 of my 15 day trial I received a message from T-Mobile (see below) that I had used 80% of my 100 GB data allotment and they were going to slow down my speed until the next billing cycle.  Sorry T-Mobile, throttling my speed is not an option.

The customer service lady I spoke to was very nice and helpful and said that T-Mobile hopes to be able to provide unlimited data to my area some time in the near future.  If that happens and the price is reasonable, (I was paying $50/month) I'll be back.  In the meantime, bye-bye T-Mo.