Once upon a time, yours truly flat-out refused to even consider a streaming music service. Pay a monthly fee? For life? No way. Then a few things changed. First, I grew disenchanted with the huge hassle of maintaining a library of MP3s, ripped CDs and countless song and album downloads. Second, my kids got older …

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page. In case you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out my evaluation of Amazon’s new Music Unlimited service. It sounds like a …

Google News is adding a new Fact Check tag to articles it indexes, to point readers toward articles that offer to substantiate or debunk claims. It joins other news tags, such as In-Depth, Highly Cited and Opinion, that Google News already adds to some articles. Enlarge Image Google News’ fact-check feature weighs in on news stories in the UK. Google …

The next Galaxy S phone keeps getting closer to reality. According to a new report, Samsung has already started work on the firmware of the Galaxy S8. Samsung’s been in the spotlight for the past few weeks for its Note 7 debacle as well as other unfortunate events. If the company wants to recover from its losses, it will have …

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is no longer flight ready. A group of US regulators on Friday banned of the device from all flights to, from or within the country, describing the phone as a “forbidden hazardous material” under federal regulations. The ban, which goes into effect on Saturday at noon Eastern Time, is a significant expansion of a previous …

Verizon Wireless stopped offering an unlimited data plan way back in 2011, but it’s now letting some customers buy a taste of that data freedom. The carrier’s new PopData program, currently available in beta, lets customers use a link in the My Verizon mobile app to purchase unlimited data — either 30 minutes for $2 or 1 hour for $3. …

As it has for previous iPhone models, Apple is now offering a sim-free version of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. For the first few weeks since the new iPhones were announced, only units tied to specific carriers were available. With an unlocked phone, it’s your responsibility to contact a wireless carrier such as AT&T or Verizon, secure …

With iOS 10, Apple redesigned the lock screen and got rid of the slide-to-unlock gesture. Now, instead of unlocking your phone, swiping right takes you to the Today view where you can glance at and interact with widgets. You can also access these same widgets on an unlocked phone by swiping right on your home screen, but they are most …

Now playing: Watch this: Tick, tock, Apple Watch: Google’s new watches may land… 1:17 One of the cooler variations on the new Apple Watch S2 shown off in September was the Apple Watch Nike+ edition. That model has a unique strap and some built-in software features for runners, but had no firm release date beyond sometime in October. A check …

The newest stuff online Your browser does not support the audio element. Every week, you’ll get a quick roundup (in about a minute) of the newest video to hit the major online streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and wherever else we can dig something up. For more information on what’s available to watch online, check out CNET.com/Netpicks or …