When they’re not discharging sewage into rivers and the sea, or failing to fix leaks, the water companies seem poised to launch a hosepipe ban. To be fair, it’s been an extremely hot and dry summer for most of the country.

If you’re one of the millions of affected households, then you don’t have to sit back and watch your garden die, as there are some legal ways to keep your plants fresh and watered.

For this article, I’m focusing on established gardens; most water companies allow hosepipe watering of food crops and new plants and lawns under certain conditions. For example, Thames Water has this rule for new lawns and plants: “You can only use a hose or sprinkler if the laying, sowing or planting was completed by a business as a service. In this case, hose use is allowed for the first 28 days from the day of planting, sowing or turf laying. The hosepipe must only be used on the new planting, and not elsewhere.”

Of course, before you do anything, it’s worth checking with your specific water company if an activity is allowed or not.

Drip watering system

You can’t spray wildly, but drip irrigation systems, such as those sold by Hozelock, are typically allowed during most hosepipe bans. Rather than spraying water, these systems drip water exactly where it’s needed. Even outside of a hosepipe ban, these systems are more efficient and will save you money.

You’ll need to check compatibility with your water company, but to stay compliant with a hosepipe ban, most systems need to have a pressure-reducing valve and a timer. Be careful of the adaptors that you use: you can’t use ones that use a jet or mist, and the system must drip water directly onto or beneath the surface.

You’ll also need a timer, which can be a smart one, such as the Eve Aqua.

Use a cordless pressure washer with a water butt

In most hosepipe ban areas, you can still use buckets and watering cans for the garden, but this can be a faff. However, if you have a water butt, then a cordless pressure washer could help make the job easier.

Provided your cordless pressure washer, such as the Stihl RCA 20, can work with alternative water sources, such as water butts, you can use this to draw the water directly out, and spray it where you want.

With the RCA 20, the end of the hose can be dropped into a water butt, with a filter used to prevent any bits of debris being sucked up.

As you haven’t connected the pressure washer to the mains water, you’re not breaking any rules. Just remember, you can’t use mains water to top up your water source, and have to rely on either rain water or grey water harvesting.

Turn down the pressure, so that you’re lightly sprinkling water, rather than jetting it out, and target the roots of your plants to make the most of this method.

Securities firm Rosenblatt is still bearish on Apple’s future, seeing short term supply problems as well as difficulties matching the iPhone 17 range’s success. Just the same, it has raised its price target to a still-underwater $300.

Following Apple’s latest earnings call, the company’s shares took their usual inexplicable dip, but investment and securities firms are looking further ahead. Rosenblatt, which remains amongst the most bearish on Apple, has told investors that it is raising its price target by $24 to $300.

In an note to investors seen by AppleInsider, the company says that it has decided to do this by focusing on how it believes Apple will be faring in a year’s time. Even then, it says the reason for only raising the target by what it calls a modest amount, is down to the volatile financial environment.

That includes economic factors that affect all firms, such as tariffs and inflation. But with Apple, it notes what Tim Cook has said about supply constraints across the company’s product ranges.

Beyond that, Rosenblatt also believes that Apple is going to have difficulty with the iPhone 18 range simply because the iPhone 17 range was such a huge success. Calling it a big test, the company speculates that Apple will have a tough comparison as it tries to continue growing.

As a result of that, the securities firm thinks that iPhone sales will slow substantially. It also says that European Union-drive legislation and regulation could decrease Apple’s value.

All of this means that Rosenblatt has raised its target price but kept a neutral rating for the company. Even as it does so, though, it notes that there is a possibility that the new Apple Intelligence will drive more sales than it expects.

JP Morgan, has been bullish overall, and has the same short term questions. But that investment firm trimmed its Apple price target to $340 after earnings.

They’re above water, at least. Apple stock got hammered after earnings, falling to $307.80 on Thursday, despite record-breaking results again.

AAPL has been on a tear as of late. It’s been above $300 since July 2. It touched the $5 trillion valuation mark on on July 28.

Separately, in April 2026, Rosenblatt was one of the analyst firms praising the appointment of John Ternus as the new Apple CEO. It described that as Apple continuing what already works, but also “leaning into its hardware successes.”

Following price hikes across the rest of Apple’s product lineup, one analyst believes that the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could be hit with a massive $300 increase, a bump that might not be out of the question considering other recent price changes.

Apple increased the price of its Macs, iPads, and other products in June 2025 as a result of increasing RAM and storage costs. Some Mac models saw four-digit price hikes, although the iPhone lineup was left unscathed.

That has long been rumored to change when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro models launch this fall. A report from July 2026 hinted that a price increase of up to 10% was in the cards.

But analyst Jeff Pu has blown that prediction out of the water. According to a post on the X social network, Pu believes iPhone 18 Pro buyers could pay $250 to $300 more than the iPhone 17 Pro price at debut in 2026.

If Pu turns out to be right, the iPhone 18 Pro could start at $1,399. Buyers of the iPhone 18 Pro Max could expect to fork out at least $1,499 for their new handset.

Simply passing on the costs

While some will no doubt accuse Apple of increasing prices to boost its balance sheet, Pu doesn’t expect that to be the case. He cites the increased costs of components like RAM and NAND storage as key reasons behind the price increase.

The use of TSMC’s 2nm manufacturing process for the iPhone 18 Pro’s A20-series chip is also thought to be a factor in the price bump.

Pu believes that while recent Apple earnings show the iPhone to still be a key driver of growth, iPhone 18 Pro demand could be hampered by the price increases.

However, it’s also important to remember that Pu’s track record is far from impeccable, with plenty of misses in recent years. While a price increase seems likely, $300 is more than has been previously rumored.

Dire expectations

Price hikes on the iPhone 18 Pro versus the iPhone 17 Pro are inevitable. It’s just a question of how much.

Pu isn’t the only one to have dire pricing concerns. Analysts at Counterpoint Research suggested the iPhone 18 Pro Max could cost on average $200 more than its predecessor.

While not quite the same, we can use Apple’s previous price increases as a guide. The 11-inch iPad Pro increased from $999 to $1,099, a $100 bump. But the 13-inch iPad Pro saw a $200 price increase to $1,499.

With that in mind, maybe a $250-$300 iPhone price increase isn’t out of the question after all.

Those hoping for a silver lining should note that the 13-inch iPad Pro saw a 15% price increase. A $300 price hike on the iPhone 18 Pro Max would represent a 25% increase depending on the storage configuration.

There’s even more promising news to be found in a July 2026 report that Apple has sought to lessen the impact of increasing costs. It was reported that Apple had pushed display manufacturers for lower prices in an attempt to offset the higher costs of RAM and storage.

The Apple Upgrade program has been revealed, so it’s time to discuss what leasing your Apple products actually means. Plus, your hosts discuss Apple’s plan to combat the chip shortage on the AppleInsider Podcast.

Apple Upgrade is no longer a rumor and the details match up with what was expected. While Apple won’t be remotely locking iPhones when people miss payments, the lease terms are straightforward about where fees might appear.

AI-driven RAM shortages have pushed Apple to look to Chinese suppliers for China-made products. However, the US government isn’t excited by the prospect and expect it’ll create a slippery slope to more problems in the future.

Your hosts also discuss how Apple might handle smart glasses and privacy. Plus, they share more thoughts on Home Hub, Apple TV, and a new game called Character Limit.

BONUS: Subscribe via Patreon or Apple Podcasts to hear AppleInsider+, the extended edition. This time, it’s the near future and your hosts have been chosen to decide how Apple needs to be broken up to comply with government regulation.

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We’re now well past the point where it’s very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to tell AI-generated photos and videos from the real thing. That means it’s now important to treat everything you see online from untrusted sources with a big dose of skepticism.

A newly rolled out Google Earth feature has apparently made AI-generated misinformation even more of a problem — and it highlights the scary potential of the technology, as well as the need for stronger guardrails to block the efforts of those who will instantly try and find the most subversive and harmful ways to use a new product.

A top seller that’s priced at a 30-day low, Amazon’s M4 Pro Mac mini deal is both on sale and available to ship in 1-2 days.

With increased demand for headless machines to run AI agents, Apple’s M4 Pro Mac mini has been sold out for much of the year. But Amazon has the M4 Pro configuration with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage back in stock, and it’s $30 off, bringing the price down to $1,569.99.

Buy M4 Pro Mac mini for $1,569.99

Priced at a 30-day low, it appears stock is limited as Amazon states the compact desktop is available to ship in 1-2 days with delivery dates the first week of August to many locations. This puts Amazon’s delivery window a full month ahead of Apple’s, which is Sept. 8-15 at press time.

For the latest pricing and availability, check out our Mac mini Price Guide.

OFFBEAT

Tom Evslin on Bill Gates, the birth of Exchange, and dragging Ma Bell onto the web

Tom Evslin drove the WorldNet project at AT&T and helped develop what became Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. He was at Microsoft when the company was still working out what to do about this newfangled internet thing.

Evslin describes himself as one of Microsoft’s “internet radicals” in the early 1990s, when the company was developing Exchange Server to fend off the threat from Lotus Notes.

“Bill Gates was willing to put lots of effort and money into Exchange because he was very afraid of Lotus Notes,” Evslin says. “He felt that Lotus Notes could become a platform the way that Windows was, which would be an enormous threat to Microsoft. And so he saw Exchange as a Notes killer.”

Evslin saw Exchange differently “because I was an email guy.” He and Microsoft’s other “internet radicals” wanted the upcoming products delayed until they had been made relevant to the internet. Gates disagreed.

“Bill said, with some truth, that we were probably behind schedule anyway, always looking for an excuse to be late. So we go ahead with the next launch of products, including Office, Exchange, and NT, then worry about the internet afterward, which I thought was a mistake.”

Evslin was fascinated by the internet’s potential and disappointed by Gates’ stance. He was responsible for gateways in Exchange, services that connect one mail system to another. Some did things like connecting to CompuServe. Others linked to MCI Mail, one of the first commercial email services in the US, “which I had done a client for,” Evslin says.

“We had one little gateway that we hadn’t put much work into, which was called an SMTP gateway, which connected SMTP mail, which was used on the internet. Which itself wasn’t widely used.”

So, was Gates right? Only briefly. While Microsoft’s corporate clients insisted communication over the internet was “not safe” and “not secure,” Evslin says: “All of a sudden we got a huge number of requests for this SMTP gateway. And when I looked into it, I found that more and more email was going over the internet.”

The official corporate stance might have been one of “nope,” but employees had other ideas. “Their engineers were communicating on the internet, and they never understood that, or didn’t understand that at the time,” Evslin says.

And then there was what would become Outlook. “From the beginning, we wanted the client for Exchange to be able to support graphics, to be able to support fonts, so that you could format an email in the same way that you could format a Word document.

“Where we didn’t go far enough is we still had two separate formatting engines, so the Word and Outlook client never merged as I thought they should have.”

Soon after Gates chose to launch the products before adding deeper internet integration, AT&T invited Evslin “to come and develop their internet strategy.” Back then, Evslin says, AT&T didn’t really have a clear plan for the internet. The company had tinkered with proprietary networks, but Evslin reckoned AT&T should become an ISP. “AT&T always had illusions about being a content provider,” he says.

Evslin also favored all-you-can-eat pricing, which smaller providers had attempted but AT&T had yet to try. “There was a lot of debate internally, people saying ‘you can’t launch a new service in less than seven years.’”

Considering how quickly things were moving – and still are – seven years was a lifetime. “I said, ‘the solution to that is launch it fast and then adapt.’”

WorldNet offered straightforward internet access to customers accustomed to portals, proprietary networks, and some heart-stopping telephone bills. Demand grew so quickly that AT&T had to control sign-ups lest the service earn the “America On Hold” nickname occasionally and unkindly applied to America Online.

With the internet in the ascendant, Evslin became interested in another technology: voice over IP. This, he acknowledges, “was an impossible sale inside AT&T.”

And so, in 1997, Evslin moved on again to found ITXC, a wholesale VoIP carrier. ®

On the first evening of GenCon 2026, in a venerable theater that Wizards of the Coast took over for a weekend’s worth of Dungeons & Dragons activities, the team behind the biggest tabletop roleplaying game in the world revealed its next year of upcoming adventures. 

There was plenty of news to look forward to, including the triumphant return of D&D legends to contribute to classic D&D settings like R.A. Salvatore (The Legend of Drizzt), Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis (Dragonlance) and Luke Gygax (Greyhawk, one of the earliest D&D settings created by his father, Gary Gygax). Among the banquet of table offerings was outreach to other corners of nerd culture — including new sets for World of Warcraft and Star Wars planned for this year and next.

The new series, Universes Beyond, works much like the same-named subset of Magic: The Gathering releases: adapting fan-favorite franchises to the game’s system. In D&D’s case, this means adapting the iconic signature, villains, boss fights and regions for D20 rules. Yes, that means you can fight the Lich King in D&D — that’s the objective of the Warcraft set’s first adventure, plotted out so players can jump in right out of the box. 

But the big virtue of Universes Beyond is kicking off custom adventures to explore the corners of these franchises with characters that players can grow at their own pace. With all the information Wizards of the Coast has revealed, CNET’s brain trust of dice-rollers has come together to theorycraft exactly what we want to play first in these exciting new collaborations.

The only problem? The D&D team shared plenty about the World of Warcraft set, which will come out in the fourth quarter of 2026, but shared almost nothing about Star Wars. Still, we let our imaginations run wild for how we’d play to see what happens in Azeroth and a galaxy far, far away.

How CNET would explore the World of Warcraft, one dice roll at a time

The D&D team rolled out a small family of products that will debut with the World of Warcraft set toward the end of the year, including a 265-page sourcebook (along with special and hobby store-exclusive editions), the aforementioned adventure called Icecrown Citadel for character levels 16-20, a map pack for said adventure, miniature packs and a dungeon master’s screen adorned with famous characters from the MMORPG. All of those are available for preorder right now with a full release later this year on Nov. 17.

On stage during the D&D keynote, presenters laid out what the set adds to the broader tabletop RPG. You’ll be able to play virtually any species you can in the online game, including 11 that are wholly new to D&D, such as Dracthyr, Earthen and Pandaren. There are nine subclasses in the sourcebook, six of which are new, like the iconic Death Knight, Demon Hunter and Shadow Priest. There are also stat blocks for the MMORPG’s most famous characters, like Arthas Menethil, Jaina Proudmoore, Anduin Lothar, Thrall and Sylvanas.  

Here’s what CNET’s editors would play first:

It’s been over 20 years since I last played World of Warcraft – I reluctantly canceled my subscription when I started college. But as soon as I read D&D’s news, my mind immediately cast back to my time roaming the Barrens of Kalimdor as a troll shaman, braving the frontier for the Horde. Before smartphones and doomscrolling and Twitter and all the modern escapes in your pocket, entering the Dark Portal on World of Warcraft’s login screen was how I left my mundane reality behind.

I never got to a high enough level to participate in a raid, the large-group efforts that bundled 10, 25 or even 40 players together to take on the biggest bosses in the game. From Ragnaros to the Lich King himself, the sourcebook has stat blocks for 30 of these classic World of Warcraft baddies, though they’ve been scaled down so that a D&D-friendly three-to-five-person party can take them on. I’d love to tackle the worst of the worst, explore the seven dungeons in the new sourcebook, and more — undertaking the challenges I missed out on to prevent me bungling my college career.

• David Lumb, Managing Editor

I’ve been WoW-curious for about as long as the game has been around, but I’ve always been a bit too intimidated by the prospect of investing hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into a game when I already feel like I can’t keep up with new releases and my existing library. So World of Warcraft coming to Dungeons & Dragons is exciting because it’s an opportunity for me to interact with the world without tumbling into a seemingly bottomless pit.

I enjoy casting spells and controlling battlefields, so my mind immediately goes to a couple of different builds. If my group wants to go the Alliance route, a Frost Mage Void Elf sounds like a fun time, and fairly straightforward to build with existing D&D Wizard rules. If we’re feeling more Horde, I’d probably check out the new Shadow Priest subclass, maybe as a shifty Vulpera. I’m excited about the high-level Lich King adventure, but I’m hoping the book also gives us options for things like a political intrigue campaign set in the maritime island nation of Kul Tiras, which is the kind of campaign I might brew up if I were in the DM seat.

• Adam Benjamin, Managing Editor

Forecasting fights and the Force in Star Wars D&D

While the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast had a lot to share about the upcoming World of Warcraft set due out later this year, they were tight-lipped about what’s coming with Star Wars. Despite prodding, the team deigned not to reveal anything just yet — not even whether there will be starship flight and combat systems in the game. And no, they didn’t confirm what challenge rating the Death Star will be (we’re betting it’s in the triple digits). 

Without even a hint at what’s to come, we speculated on what we want most from exploring the expansive Star Wars universe, one dice roll at a time. 

I’ve been playing Star Wars TTRPGs for an entire decade at this point, and having the franchise officially come to D&D is an exciting proposition. It’s going to be interesting to see how they deal with the more technical aspects of space combat, and I’m looking forward to seeing what era of Star Wars they start in.

I like the concept of a Force User droid. Potentially like General Grievous (a biological/droid mix), but as a Wizard-style class. His familiar could be a mouse droid from the Death Star. I’m not sure if “Droid” will be a race in the new campaign, but D&D already has a Warforged race from Eberron, so it doesn’t feel like a big stretch to add them here. Droids are such a large part of the Star Wars Universe and I would enjoy the roleplay challenges they would bring to the table.

• James Bricknell, Managing Editor

We don’t know what we don’t know yet when it comes to Star Wars played through a D&D lens, but the Star Wars universe is more than big enough to speculate on what would be cool to have. My genuine hope is that the rules being built for this little expansion make it relatively easy to play in any era of Star Wars. As much fun as it would be to roleplay through a big battle with Darth Vader or a space dogfight against a Star Destroyer, I’d love to see some of the flexibility from the High Republic era as well. From repair and hacker focused roles like Mekneks to the greater diversity of Force powers of the era, it’s a bigger sandbox to play in. 

This doesn’t mean there needs to be a core book for each era of Star Wars, just a set of rules that encourage adaptation. This is something Wizards of the Coast has demonstrated as a core strength since the release of the 2024 rules. The tools for supporting the creativity of players have been well established, but adapting the massive and decidedly not high-fantasy vibes of Star Wars presents some fun challenges. I genuinely can’t wait to play. 

• Russell Holly, Content Director

What’s the first thing D&D’s developers will play?

Ahead of the GenCon keynote, I chatted with several game developers from Wizards of the Coast to get the full scope of the World of Warcraft set. From development to new mechanics to how the Universes Beyond sets would play with broader D&D, I plied them with many questions — including what they would do first in their new worlds. While they couldn’t comment on Star Wars, they did have answers for World of Warcraft.

“For me, it’s the Icecrown Citadel adventure,” said Laura Hohman, product architect for D&D. Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft’s second expansion, was what really got her hooked, even though she spent most of the time collecting owls, she admitted with a laugh. But the climactic raid at the end, where players take on the Lich King, holds a special place in memory and nostalgia for her. 

“I can’t wait, once this is out there, to play this with my friends [and] recreate those moments again in a new way on tabletop,” Hohman said.

Jeff Turiff, director of product management for D&D Beyond, the online character creator and portal for resources, talked about updates coming to the service as well as to its mobile app version. Fittingly, the self-avowed Horde player is going to “probably start by rolling up some characters.”

“I love character builds. Hop on D&D Beyond, of course, and make some characters to test drive in a setting — maybe in a standard D&D setting would be kind of cool,” Turiff said. 

D&D Game Design Director Justice Arman is most excited about the mounts, an iconic element from the MMORPG that enables players to speedily travel (and show off with more exotic beasts of burden). 

“I’m from Tennessee originally, so maybe it’s the cowboy in me, but the idea of having a direwolf or gryphon mount is pretty cool,” said Arman.

But as with Hohman, Arman turned to his memories of playing the MMORPG back in the day. It’s less about what race or class he plays, but who he plays tabletop games with, he said. 

“Back in undergrad, I had two roommates who were wrestlers and they loved World of Warcraft, and we were playing it so often,” Arman said. “I would love to sit down with them and reconnect.” 

David Lumb

Managing Editor, Mobile

David Lumb is a managing editor for the mobile team, covering mobile and gaming spaces. Before CNET, he covered tech, gaming, and culture for TechRadar, Engadget, Popular Mechanics, NBC Asian America, Increment, Fast Company and others. As a true Californian, he lives for coffee, beaches and burritos.

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James Bricknell

Managing Editor

James’ job is Managing Editor of Commerce, but he loves all things “maker”, from 3D printers to Cricut machines.

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Russell Holly is a Managing Editor on the Commerce team at CNET. He works with all of CNET to assemble top recommendations as well as helping everyone find the best way to buy anything at the best price. When not writing for CNET you can find him riding a bike, running around in Jedi robes, or contributing to WOSU public radio’s Tech Tuesday segment.

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Adam Benjamin

Managing Editor

Adam Benjamin has helped people navigate complex problems for the past decade. The former digital services editor for Reviews.com, Adam now leads CNET’s services and software team and contributes to its game coverage.

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Siri AI is coming soon. The redesign of Apple’s voice assistant was first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June. Since then, the buzz has been all about what to expect from the new Siri 2.0. 

But Siri AI may cost you, at least if you use it a lot.

Outgoing CEO Tim Cook hinted at a possible upcharge during Apple’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday. 

Cook was asked about iOS 27, Apple Intelligence, feedback from the public beta and how Apple is thinking about compute costs and the ability to recover those costs through iCloud Plus. He suggested the possibility of charging for Siri AI as a part of the iCloud Plus application stack. 

“We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud Plus,” Cook said. 

He added that those ideas are in the early stages and did not discuss a complete plan. Apple’s team is “off-the-charts excited about Siri AI,” he added, saying feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far. 

The earnings call, Cook’s last before John Ternus takes over as CEO, comes weeks after Apple announced price increases for Apple Music and Apple One subscription bundle. 

Apple has said the new AI-powered virtual assistant will be available on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, MacOS 27 and VisionOS 27. You can expect Siri AI to have its own app, customization, Visual Intelligence and a new design.

Examples of Siri’s new capabilities include being able to find out about the latest concert, how to get tickets and remind you when it’s time to buy them. Other features include finding information in your messages (e.g. “Call the eye doctor who messaged me”), creating a photo album specifically for a loved one that includes photos of them, and even identifying a place from a picture. 

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dashia is the consumer insights editor for CNET. She specializes in data-driven analysis and news at the intersection of tech, personal finance and consumer sentiment. Dashia investigates economic shifts and everyday challenges to help readers make well-informed decisions, and she covers a range of topics, including technology, security, energy and money. Dashia graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She loves baking, teaching spinning and spending time with her family.

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