If you’re an Apple user who likes to sign up and pay for services through the App Store, you’ll need to scratch Hulu and Disney+ off your list: Disney is no longer allowing new and returning subscribers to its streaming platforms to register through its iOS apps.

According to customer support pages for both Disney+ and Hulu, payment through the App Store is no longer available for users who do not already have an active Apple-billed subscription. Instead, new subscribers and those who are restarting their accounts will have to sign up on DisneyPlus.com and Hulu.com. You’ll be redirected to each respective website from the iOS apps.

This change does not currently affect existing Apple-billed subscribers, who can still manage their accounts via Apple Subscription settings, though it could in the future, as other companies have followed similar paths. Netflix ended new subscriptions via iOS in 2018 and cut off Apple billing for many existing users, including those in the U.S. and Canada, earlier this year. Spotify and Amazon have also limited App Store payments.

Why Disney is ending in-app subscriptions

The move by Disney to cut off Apple-billed subscriptions is likely the same as Netflix and Spotify, which stems from avoiding the up to 30% commission Apple has taken for in-app purchases. Apple has been the subject of numerous legal challenges related to its App Store policies, including an antitrust complaint by Spotify in 2019 and a class action suit comprised of U.S. customers who have made in-app purchases, which accuses the company of inflating prices. The former led to a nearly $2 billion fine from European Union regulators and changes to App Store fee structures for EU developers; the latter is scheduled to go to trial in February 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice has also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple this year.

If you aren’t sure whether you are billed through Apple for your Disney+ or Hulu subscription, check your billing party and payment information in your account settings.

Note that Disney also recently raised subscription prices across the board for its streaming services—those increases took effect earlier this month.

If you’re struggling to pay your bills, there’s some cold comfort in knowing you’re not alone. The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, a number set in 2009. The highest local minimum wage in the country can be found in the District of Columbia, which mandates $17 per hour. That sounds great until you consider that a living wage in 2022 was considered to be $25 per hour for a family of four with two working adults, and the average hourly wage for workers in the U.S. is just $11.21.

So it’s no wonder that so many people find themselves scrambling for cash—and considering payday loans. Payday loans have some superficial advantages for busy, exhausted people: They’re convenient, they’re fast, and they offer small loan amounts that seem manageable in the short term. The problem is that they’re also predatory: Some payday loans have annual percentage rates (APRs) as high as 652%, with many offered by Native American tribes that don’t have to adhere to federal law concerning their loan terms. Even borrowing a small amount from a payday loan can quickly snowball into an untenable debt that drives you to borrow more just to stay afloat.

If you need quick cash and you’re considering a payday loan, don’t. Look into one of these safer alternatives instead.

Payday alternative loans

If you find yourself in need of short-term loans, it might be time to join a credit union. These organizations are member-owned and operated on a not-for-profit basis, and credit unions that are part of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) offer a great option called a Payday Alternative Loan (PAL). There are two kinds of PALs (PAL I and PAL II); the latter is your best bet if you’re not already a member of a credit union, because you’re eligible for it as soon as you join (for a PAL I loan, you need to be a member for at least a month).

PAL loans fund between $200 and $2,000 and charge a maximum application fee of $20 (some credit unions may not charge a fee at all), with terms between one month and a year. The APR will vary depending on your credit, but won’t be higher than 28%. A 28% APR isn’t terrific, of course—but it’s a lot better than a 652%. Members can take out three PAL I loans in a six-month period, but can take out as many PAL II loans as necessary—assuming you qualify.

Bank loan

If you can’t find a credit union in your area, check if local banks offer either Bad Credit Loans or Small Dollar Loans:

• Bad Credit Loans are just what they sound like: loans designed for people with terrible credit. The APRs on these loans will be high (as high as 35.99%) but not nearly as astronomical as a payday loan, and they will fund as little as $300 in some cases. Keep in mind that there may be other fees involved with these loans, and there are predatory lenders offering similar personal loans. Only consider this option from an established, reputable bank.

• Small Dollar Loans are regular bank loans, but they’re made in much smaller amounts than typical personal loans. For example, Wells Fargo offers existing customers a Flex Loan up to $500 for a flat fee, paid back over four months, and U.S. Bank allows its customers to borrow $100-$1000 for a flat fee of $6 per $100 borrowed, paid back over three months. It might be worth it to check if your bank offers a small dollar loan, as it’s a much cheaper option than a payday loan.

Peer-to-peer loans

Peer-to-peer (P2P) loans are funded by investors, and are typically easier to get than bank loans, although they often charge an origination fee just like a bank. Lending Club is a popular P2P lender that offers loans as small as $1,000 at rates that top out at 35.99%.

Lending circles are another form of P2P loan to consider, although they can take longer to get and thus might not be suited for emergencies. A lending circle is a private group that contributes money to a fund and then offers either zero-interest loans or regular payouts to its members. There is a regular cost to membership, and you have to already be a member to get access to loans from a lending circle, but it can be a good alternative if you have a regular need for small loans.

Salary advance

Finally, you could consider asking your employer for a small advance against your wages. However, you should avoid wage access apps like DailyPay or EarnIn (which some employers already offer as a “benefit”). These kinds of loans have some of the same drawbacks as payday loans—they can trap you in a bad cycle of always being a little short on your bills and constantly borrowing more, and they charge fees and can lead to overdrafts on your accounts. If your employer offers advances with no fee (or a nominal fee), it might work for a one-time emergency need as long as you make a plan for the smaller paycheck coming your way so you don’t have to borrow again.

The positive follow-on effects of getting exercise are well known: In addition to the traditional boosts in stamina and strength most gym-goers are pursuing, exercising can improve your mood, contribute to better sleep, and even help lower feelings of anxiety over time.

These benefits are generally there whenever you work out, but timing when you take your walk, hit the gym, or otherwise move your body can have implications for how those positive results will show up in your day. Personally, I noticed some big changes in my focus and productivity when I shifted to early-morning workouts. Here’s how you can find the workout schedule that will be most beneficial to you.

The benefits of an early workout (according to me)

Last year, I wrote about how exercising before you study can help you focus and process information better. Of course, no matter how much research backs something up, not every consensus conclusion applies to every individual, but I found my deep dive into the broad benefits of pre-study workouts edifying anyway.

Still, I wrote them off. I liked my routine of afternoon and evening workouts a lot. They gave me a feeling of peace and accomplishment before bed, plus they made me sleepy. Plus, I am hardly the kind of person who wakes up early and leaves the comfort of my bed just to sweat before I start work. Or so I thought: About a year ago, I started teaching one spin class a week at 7 a.m.

Beyond earning a little extra money, I started getting something surprising out of this early-rising workout routine: On the days I taught the early spin class, I was more energetic and focused at work. It took a shockingly long time for me to connect this to my earlier research about the benefits of exercise before a study session (blame my bias against rising early), but it does suggest that you can think of workouts as one more tool to increase your productivity.

While studies show it can take as long as six months to realize the full brain-boosting benefits of exercise, including improved memory, my experience suggests that timing your workouts can allow you to feel some of those positives in the short term as well.

The benefits of an early workout, according to a pro

I’m just one person with one experience, so I decided to consult someone with more evidence to draw on. According to Teddy Savage, the national lead trainer for Planet Fitness, “Working out before work can have profound impacts on increasing your mental focus, brain function, and ability to sustain a high level of energy to power through those long meetings.”

The pros and cons of morning and evening workouts

It’s important, then, to commit to finding the right time for your schedule and your needs, then stick to it so you get into a routine. Still, there are some pros and cons to keep in mind.

According to Savage, morning workouts can help with increasing alertness, cognitive brain function, and focus, improve mood and energy, positively impact your metabolism, and help regulate your circadian rhythm to improve your sleep quality. The big con of a morning routine is that it requires you to get up every morning and work out. If you find it hard to commit and start skipping workouts to sleep in, or you feel rushed for time and pressured to skip crucial parts of your workout (like a warmup), you may need to find another time.

Evening workouts, in comparison, allow you more freedom, which can make your workouts more effective. Plus, since your internal body temp is higher in the evening, you may reduce the risk of injury due to stiffness or cold muscles. Speaking from experience, it’s also a great way to sweat out any stress you built up during the day. Medical conditions can also be a factor: Savage notes that studies suggest individuals with Type II Diabetes should consider evening workouts, since they can improve insulin sensitivity.

On the other hand, if you’re feeling listless or lethargic after a long day of work, you may not feel like going to the gym, and an adrenaline spike a vigorous evening workout can keep you up at night if you do it too close to bedtime.

How to find your own ideal workout timing

As I said, I do love my evening workouts too—and that’s fine. According to Savage, it’s less important when you work out throughout the day than that you work out at all. He says he frequently reminds gym members that their fitness journey is unique to them, which means everyone is free to find their best time to exercise, which could just mean a time when they will actually be able to follow through with it.

The key here is to experiment. Try shifting when you work out to see if different timing produces different results. Consider the benefits and drawbacks of each—and most of all, consider the long-term viability of the schedule you settle on.

“The goal is to create self-efficacy which speaks to building confidence in the member knowing that they can stick to their routine without it feeling like a chore, which will take them too far outside of their normal lives,” Savage says. “This strategy usually helps them discover a more enjoyable sense of working out, and helps them enjoy the full scope of wellness benefits that come from consistency.”

Apple made a big deal of Apple Intelligence when the iPhone 16 launched late last month. And yet, the iPhone maker’s first foray into AI, exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and above, has yet to arrive. That’s set to change next week, according to reporting from The Verge and the Wall Street Journal, when iOS 18.1 releases to the public. Based on the currently accessible iOS 18.1 beta, we already know what to expect from Apple’s debut AI offerings, so here’s a quick breakdown of what will be coming to compatible iPhones in just a few days. Even if you don’t have an Apple Intelligence-compatible phone, it’s worth reading on: There are some non-AI features, too.

Writing Tools

With Writing Tools, you can use AI to rewrite, proofread, and summarize your text. These features offer assistance with crafting emails that sound more professional, correcting grammar mistakes, and making your drafts more concise. You’ll also get a bulleted list or table with key points from your draft.

An upgraded Siri

Siri will get a new look in iOS 18.1, plus the ability to accept written prompts. The digital assistant will also get a new language model that should make it better at understanding natural language, in addition to the ability to send more difficult requests to the cloud for more help. (Apple promises that it won’t keep your data.) Lifehacker will also get some competition, as Siri will be able to offer some tech support for certain Apple products.

Smart Reply

Smart Reply will give you contextual reply suggestions when texting or writing an e-mail. This is nothing new for many email users: Gmail, for example, offers contextual replies based on the content of the original message. If you’re really pressed for time, and want to give a quick answer and move on, these replies can be useful, but for complex emails without easy responses, they’re likely not so convenient.

Call transcriptions

iOS finally gets call recording in iOS 18.1, and it looks a bit more generous than expected. Despite initially billed only for the iPhone 15 Pro and above, the most recent iOS 18.1 beta showed it working on iPhone models as far back as the XS. That’s a bit surprising, as it’s supposed to use Apple Intelligence, which should exclude iPhone 15 and older.

Regardless, Call Recording adds a button to the Phone app that notifies all parties that you’ve started recording, then saves your call’s audio for you and generates a transcript of your call. The iPhone 15 Pro and above will also be able to summarize calls, as well as transcribe them live, thanks to Voice Recording in the Notes app.

Notification summaries

Notification summaries can be customized to group related notifications together and use AI to quickly share key details from all of them at once. For instance, you might get a single notification letting you know about your electrical bill, your payment receipt, and payment received confirmation, rather than having to scroll through each individually.

Summaries in Mail and Messages

Similar to the above, the Mail and Messages apps will summarize long threads for you, so you can get caught up more quickly. One beta tester in particular went viral after they found out how notification summaries handles being broken up with over text.

Photos updates

The Photos app is getting a number of AI-powered updates, including the ability to “Clean Up” photos by removing unwanted objects from them (similar to Google’s Magic Eraser), search through your photo library using natural language, and create a “Memory movie” by prompting Apple Intelligence to create a custom collage based on a natural language description.

Intelligent interruption in Focus mode

Apple Intelligence can surface alerts it deems important even when you’re in Focus mode.

Non-AI features in iOS 18.1

Even if you don’t have an Apple Intelligence compatible iPhone (again, iPhone 15 and older), there are still a number of upgrades to look forward to in iOS 18.1. Beyond Call Recording, which seems to be coming to older phones despite its use of AI, there’s a new reset option for the fully customizable Control Center, in case you’re not happy with the changes you’ve made, as well as dedicated tiles for connectivity options like wifi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, and cellular data; the ability to drag and drop files when mirroring your iPhone to a Mac; and greater access to your phone’s NFC chip for third-party apps, opening it up for use with transit cards or hotel room keys.

iPhone 16 models can also use the Camera Control capacitive button to quickly swap to selfie mode.

What’s not quite ready yet

iOS 18.1 is just an exploratory dip into AI on Apple’s part, so expect more features to come down the line. These include image generation features like Image Playground and Genmoji, ChatGPT integration, an even more contextual Siri, the ability for Siri to help you out in third-party apps, and Visual Intelligence, which offers useful context about your surroundings just by snapping a photo of where you are.

Apple Intelligence will also be limited to U.S. English at launch, and currently has no timetable for an official release in the EU or mainland China.

If you’re looking for a TV that streams high-quality content and is also gaming-friendly, the 85” Hisense U6N might just be your “two birds with one stone” solution. It has a 4K display resolution, a mini-LED backlight system, a 60Hz refresh rate, and reportedly, an input lag of about 3.6ms—and it’s currently on sale for $1,097.99, down from $1,398. You can either set it up on its V-shaped legs or mount it on the wall for a more streamlined look.

Its multiple HDMI ports—including one with eARC for better audio—and hands-free access to Google Assistant through its built-in far-field mics make it especially appealing if you’re into a smart home setup. There’s even a mute switch for the mic if you don’t want it on all the time, giving you extra privacy whenever you need it. That said, reviewers mention the bright yellow LED lights on the TV panel when the mic is muted can be irritating—though a little black tape can solve that problem if you don’t mind a DIY fix.

The U6N’s Google TV integration pretty much covers all the big streaming services you’d expect—plus, you can stream from your phone, tablet, or any other smart device using Google Cast or AirPlay. It also comes with a remote with dedicated buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, and a few others so you can jump straight into your shows for your content fix. And, even with its 60Hz refresh rate, the U6N’s input lag is impressively low at 3.6 milliseconds, which is way below the 10ms mark typically considered good for gaming, according to this PCMag review. So, if you’re into gaming, this TV should still hold its own.

In comparison to other models, the U6N is positioned competitively. While Amazon’s 75” Fire TV Omni is slightly faster in terms of input lag (2.6ms) and cheaper at $829.99 (down from $1,049.99), the U6N offers superior HDR support with Dolby Vision and mini-LED backlighting, which can provide a better overall viewing experience.

Life has a way of throwing unexpected challenges our way, particularly when it comes to finances. Understanding the most common financial emergencies can help you better prepare and build an appropriate emergency fund. Here are some of the most common emergencies you should be saving for, as well as my tips for how to build those savings in the first place.

Why you need an emergency fund

An emergency fund is your financial safety net—it’s not a question of if you’ll need it, but when. As opposed to other savings vehicles, your emergency fund is the cash reserve set aside for unplanned expenses or financial hardship, like job loss, medical emergencies, or unexpected but urgent car or house repairs.

Aside from the upfront costs of specific emergencies, having dedicated savings for unexpected expenses helps you:

• Prevent high-interest debt accumulation

• Reduce financial stress and anxiety

• Maintain your standard of living during difficult times

• Provide time to make thoughtful decisions rather than rushed ones

• Keep small emergencies from becoming major financial crises

The most common financial emergencies

Digital personal finance company Achieve asked consumers about their various financial issues in the past year. According to their survey results, here are the ten most common financial hardships, and what those emergencies looked like financially.

Medical Issues

What to expect: Even with insurance, medical emergencies can cost thousands of dollars in deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket expenses. Chronic conditions may require ongoing care and medication.

Typical costs: $1,000-$5,000+ for emergency room visits; $2,000-$10,000+ for surgical procedures

Job loss or reduced income

What to expect: Beyond immediate loss of income, job transitions often involve gaps in health insurance coverage and additional expenses like COBRA payments or job-search costs.

Typical costs: Three to six months of living expenses; potentially more in specialized fields or during economic downturns

Vehicle problems

What to expect: Cars can require unexpected repairs or replacement, affecting your ability to work and manage daily responsibilities.

Typical costs: $500-$2,000 for major repairs; $5,000+ for replacement

Banking fees and penalties

What to expect: Overdraft fees and late payment penalties can quickly cascade into significant expenses.

Typical costs: $30-$100 per incident; can multiply if multiple bills are affected

Home repairs and appliance replacement

What to expect: Essential systems like HVAC, plumbing, or major appliances can fail without warning.

Typical costs: $250-$1,000 for appliances; $1,000-$10,000+ for major home repairs

Death of a family member

What to expect: Beyond emotional trauma, deaths can bring unexpected funeral costs and potential loss of household income.

Typical costs: $7,000-$12,000 for funeral expenses

Becoming a caretaker

What to expect: Taking care of an adult family member can involve reduced work hours, medical equipment, and home modifications.

Typical costs: Varies widely; often includes both direct costs and lost income

Legal issues

What to expect: Legal representation, court fees, and potential settlements can create sudden financial burden.

Typical costs: $2,000-$10,000+ depending on complexity

Victim of a crime

What to expect: Property damage, theft, or fraud can result in immediate expenses and long-term recovery costs.

Typical costs: Varies widely; may include insurance deductibles and security upgrades

Divorce or separation

What to expect: Legal fees, separate housing costs, and division of assets can strain finances.

Typical costs: $15,000+ for contested divorces; additional costs for separate households

How to build your emergency fund

The typical rule of thumb is to aim for six months’ worth of living expenses in your emergency fund. If that sounds too unrealistic a goal for your current financial situation, another guideline for what counts as a “starter” emergency fund is around one month of rent plus your insurance deductible. When you’re figuring out that number, factor in expenses like housing, food, utilities, insurance, transportation, and debt payments. Non-essential expenses like vacations, entertainment, or dining out don’t belong in your “emergency” calculations.

My number one tip for building your emergency fund is automating your contributions. Use a high-yield savings account separate from regular checking—this is the best mix of building interest without sacrificing access to your funds. Here’s our guide to choosing a high-yield savings account.

Try to make saving a priority by treating those automated contributions as a fixed expense. Protect your funds by defining what constitutes a true emergency. This is money you’ve set aside in case the unthinkable happens, not because you need a vacation (no matter how sympathetic I am to that cause).

Remember, building an emergency fund is a journey, not a sprint. Even small regular contributions add up over time. The peace of mind that comes with having a financial buffer is worth the effort of building and maintaining your emergency fund. Start small, but start now.