Editor
Sam Allcock is the editor of Now I Am Updated.
He has spent more than two decades in UK digital marketing, working across digital PR, SEO and content. He founded and sold two agencies - Custard, an SEO firm, in 2018, and the digital PR business PR Fire in 2024 - and wrote How to Sell Digital Assets (2025). He has contributed to HuffPost and HubSpot among others.
He writes here on the running cost of consumer technology: what carriers charge, what changes on a bill and when, and whether the published price is the price you actually pay.
He oversees the site from Dubai and can be reached at sam@nowiamupdated.com.
A $263.88 streaming bundle is free with the right Verizon internet plan, but the fine print on cost and duplicate subscriptions matters more than the headline.
If you pay for AMC+ via Prime Video, your price stays the same but a big chunk of the catalog disappears November 19, 2026, here's what to check before then.
The free 24-hour sports betting channel on Roku, Prime Video and other FAST platforms is on the block, but nothing changes on your screen (or your bill) yet.
Starting next season, Hawks fans in five states can watch 74 local games through a Prime membership they likely already pay for -- or skip streaming entirely and watch free over the air.
No subscription, no credit card, no price hike - Roku's free live TV guide just got bigger, and that matters if you're trying to trim a streaming budget.
A proposed law would push the FTC to police digital game ownership, here's what it could mean for the money you've already spent on your library.
A new T-Mobile promo dangles $30-a-month internet and up to $200 back, but the discount depends on having a T-Mobile phone line, and the rebate takes seven weeks to land.
CNN+, Quibi, T-Vision, PlayStation Vue and Redbox Instant all folded fast, here's what each one charged, and what the pattern means for your own subscription stack.
A $549 price cut puts a whole-home backup battery within reach before winter storm season, but the math on whether it's worth it depends on what you actually need to keep running.
A rare $60 discount brings Samsung's premium earbuds within $20 of the standard model, but the real question is whether the extra features are worth the money.
A mega-merger, a bigger free service, and a Roku bug all landed this week, here's what actually changes what you pay.
A 60% cut brings AMC+'s yearly price to about $3.33 a month, but only if you pick the right plan before Monday.
Amazon ditches its budget Fire tablet playbook for aluminum Android slates starting at $230 and topping out at $550, plus an Alexa+ subscription to unlock the AI features.
A new channel number landed on DirecTV's streaming guide, but with no price change announced and no word on which tiers actually carry it, here's what subscribers need to check before assuming they have access.
Skydance's merger announcement says the two streamers will become one service 'over time,' but no price, date or plan details were given, so don't cancel or combine anything yet.
A flood of SSD, flash drive and hard drive deals is light on hard numbers, but one standout price cut shows what the sale is really worth.
Amazon's new entry-level streaming stick is cheaper to run day-to-day, but locking out sideloaded apps could push some owners toward pricier hardware.
A 15-inch Surface Laptop with AI features is listed at $1,499, down from $2,199, here's what that actually saves you and when it makes sense to buy.
Local TV stations now charge pay-TV providers nearly $5 a month per subscriber to carry their signal, and when talks break down, you're the one staring at a blank screen.
A 15.6-inch Dell laptop with a touchscreen and Windows 11 Pro is down to $750.80, its lowest price in a month, here's what that discount actually buys you.
No new streaming bill required: 77 Kraken games land on antenna TV and Prime Video next season, with only 7 games needing a separate ESPN or TNT subscription.
A cheap first month is real, but the fine print says your bill jumps back up unless you cancel, here's what to check before you sign up.
YouTube TV subscribers got a big chunk of ESPN content this season, but one popular NFL recap show isn't included, and watching it means opening yet another app.
Disney's bundle held at $12.99 but standalone plans and ad-free tiers just got pricier, here's what smaller, cheaper streamers charge instead.
No subscription, no free trial, no credit card - here's what watching all five seasons for free actually costs you and what it doesn't.
Eight new channels just landed on Philo's free tier, a reminder that the biggest savings in streaming right now might be the stuff that costs nothing at all.
A limited-time Amazon sale cuts prices on several Beats models by as much as $180, here's what each one actually costs and whether it's worth buying now.
The Breakdown launches October 2 inside the ESPN App, and it won't add a dime to your bill if you're already subscribed.
A new five-minute test shows Meta AI burns nearly three times the data of Disney+, here's what that means if you're on a capped plan.
Disney has told customers in Europe that even its top-tier plan can now carry trailers and promos, and the fine print leaves room for the same move here.
Roku is bundling niche and premium streaming apps into single monthly bills, and the savings depend entirely on which ones you'd actually watch.
Apple's entry-level earbuds are $30 off list price right now, but the countdown-clock urgency is doing more work than the discount is.
AMC+, BritBox, MGM+, PBS Masterpiece and STARZ now come as one add-on inside Prime Video, here's what it actually saves versus buying each on its own.
The app that tells you where to watch is about to let you watch, too, with free movies and rentals now and a paid ad-free tier still unpriced.
A Copilot+ PC with 1TB of storage and a Snapdragon X Elite chip is 27% off at Amazon, here's whether that price actually saves you money over time.
Two limited-time offers promise cheaper phone service or a combined wireless-and-home-internet bill, here's what they actually cost after the promo period ends.
Amazon's house-brand Ember TVs are discounted across four lines right now, but the headline number matters less than which model actually fits your room and budget.
Nielsen says cable's share of TV time just fell to 18.7%, but that has nothing to do with what you're still paying for it.
No new fees yet, but a deeper antitrust review of Fox's $22 billion Roku buyout could shape what shows up on your TV screen and how much competing apps have to pay to get there.
Sportsnet+, Citytv+ and Discovery+ are all getting pricier this fall, a preview of where U.S. streaming bundles may be headed next.
A bill requiring AM radio in every new car, including EVs, heads to a House vote this month, automakers warn it could raise costs, though no price tag has been set.
Disney and Optimum struck a new deal ahead of football season, so your bill won't jump from a blackout, and some subscribers get a streaming perk thrown in for free, eventually.
With Fox, Paramount, Disney and NBCUniversal all locked in through 2025 and 2026, YouTube TV is using its newfound stability to sell smaller, cheaper bundles, but the full package still isn't cheap.
DAZN is launching a team-branded Magic streaming plan this fall, but most fans can still watch for free with an antenna.
A veteran-owned carrier is offering any plan, including unlimited, for $15 a month, but only for a limited time and only for new customers.
A Labor Day promo cuts CNN's streaming news service to $1.99 monthly for two months, but the discount expires fast and the price triples after that.
The team is building a direct-to-fan streaming service for the 2026-27 season, but the price tag that actually matters to your wallet hasn't been set yet.
DISH's Chapter 11 filing hasn't changed Sling's price tag yet, but the pioneer of cheap live TV is now a restructuring asset that could change hands.
A small group of holdout streamers who've paid the same discounted add-on prices for seven-plus years will finally see their bills jump to current rates next month.
Visible is combining phone and home internet on one bill for the first time, but the deal is only for households sitting on an unused Fios connection.
A memory-chip shortage tied to AI demand just made your next Echo Dot or Kindle noticeably pricier, here's what actually changed and by how much.
Five new networks just landed in YouTube TV's genre packages, and current subscribers on those plans don't pay a dime more.
Cable companies lost 185,000 broadband customers last quarter as fiber and 5G home internet rivals undercut them by hundreds of dollars a year, here's the real math.
ESPN's standalone streaming plans get their first price hike since launch, though most bundle subscribers won't feel it.
The rebranded MSNBC spinoff is adding a paid membership tier on September 9, here's what it costs and what you actually get.
Apple's second-gen over-ear headphones are $120 cheaper than list right now, here's what that actually saves you and whether it's the right time to buy.
Comcast's streamer is raising prices on every tier for the fourth year running, and this time even the ad-free-lite plan without sports is getting more expensive.
Another cable operator is killing traditional TV for a streaming bundle, and the company still hasn't said what it will cost you.
A $34.5 billion deal makes Spectrum the largest cable and broadband provider in the country - here's what Cox customers can expect on their bill and when.
A limited free trial lets Android users sample up to two episodes before hitting the paywall, but existing subscribers won't see their bill move.
The average tariff on consumer technology jumped from 1% to 7% through 2025, and importers paid five times as much duty as the year before. That bill does not stay with the importer - it lands on the shelf price of your next handset.
Every US tier went up in late March. The ad-free Standard plan crossed $20 a year in cost - and the cheapest way to keep watching is now the ad tier at $8.99, less than half the price. Here is the annual maths.
More than 640,000 people are getting a check or a PayPal payment from a 2024 settlement. There is a clock on both, and a scam to watch for. Here is what the money is, and what you have to do to keep it.
Microsoft will keep patching Windows 10 until October 2027. It costs $30, or 1,000 Rewards points, or a Microsoft account and your settings in its cloud. The third option is the one worth reading twice.