Best Google Pixel 7 Cases

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Best Google Pixel 7 Cases
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The Google Pixel 7 is set to be one of the best smartphones of 2022. Not because of what it offers, by itself, but combined with its starting price of $599. Which is pretty impressive, when most flagships are priced at $999 or higher. The Pixel 7 is still a fragile smartphone though, and is made of a glass back and front. So you’re going to want to get a case for you new Pixel 7.

So we’re here to round up the best cases for your Google Pixel 7. If you’re looking for the best Pixel 7 Pro cases, we’ve rounded those up here.

Best Google Pixel 7 Cases

In this list, you’ll find a lot of options from Spigen, that’s because Spigen is a new “Made By Google” partner here, and offers almost 10 cases for the Pixel 7. Which is rather impressive. But there are also cases from Caseology, Ringke and Google in this list.

Google Pixel 7 Case

pixel 7 leak images 6

Google offers this case for the Pixel 7  in three colors: Lemongrass, Chalk and Obsidian. Basically, they match the colors that the Pixel 7 is available in. These are TPU cases, but they are a bit of an upgrade over last year’s cases from Google. These are a bit thicker, making the camera bump a bit more flush. They also have more grip and actually feel good in the hand.

Google Pixel 7 Case – Google Store

Spigen Slim Armor CS

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  • Price: $18
  • Where to buy: Amazon

Spigen makes some really great cases for the Pixel 7. And that includes the Slim Armor CS. This is a slim, somewhat, case. That has a backdoor that slides off to review your cards. Making it a wallet case, but the cards are kind of hidden away. This is available in Rose Gold and black. So you can get the color that you want.

Spigen Slim Armor CS – Amazon

Spigen Rugged Armor

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  • Price: $15
  • Where to buy: Amazon

The Spigen Rugged Armor is a matte black case for the Pixel 7. It offers some great protection, including a lip over the display. Which is going to keep it from shattering when you drop your phone. It also is made of TPU, but still has reinforced edges and corners for impact.

Spigen Rugged Armor – Amazon

Spigen Ultra Hybrid

61D88K UYkL AC SL1200

  • Price: $15
  • Where to buy: Amazon

This is a clear case from Spigen for the new Google Pixel 7. It also offers up anti-yellowing technology, so you won’t see this one turning the same color as the Lemongrass Pixel 7, and that’s a good thing here. It will also have cut outs for the camera bar on the back, and almost make it flush with the back of the phone.

Spigen Ultra Hybrid – Amazon

Caseology Parallax

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  • Price: $17
  • Where to buy: Amazon

The Caseology Parallax is also a case that almost always makes it onto these lists. It’s just a really good case that also comes in some sweet colors. What makes the Parallax such a great phone is the fact that it is featuring a 3D texture on the back. That not only looks cool, but it also helps with grip. So it is less likely to slip out of your hands. And that’s always a good thing.

Caseology Parallax – Amazon

Incipio Grip

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The Incipio Grip is a nice TPU case that also adds some grip on the sides. That’s going to help you hold onto your phone. It’s also rated for up to a 14-foot drop. Which is really good to see. It has been made out of molecular recycled material. And it uses an antimicrobial technology that can prevent 99.9% of surface bacterial and germs.

Incipio Grip – Incipio

Spigen Liquid Air

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  • Price: $15
  • Where to buy: Amazon

The Spigen Liquid Air is a really cool looking case for the Pixel 7. It has cool little triangles on the back that help with grip, and also look cool. It’ll help keep the Pixel 7 in your hands, which is always good. It’s available in matte black and navy blue.

Spigen Liquid AIr – Amazon

Ringke Onyx

71snAAaVE6L AC SL1500

  • Price: $15
  • Where to buy: Amazon

This is another case that we typically include in our buyer’s guides, because they are so good. This is a pretty thin case that also offers up a ton of protection for your new Google Pixel 7. It is available in black and dark green. It’s also shockproof and rugged. So it can handle a few drops. Of course, we’d still recommend not doing that.

Ringke Onyx – Amazon

Spigen Tough Armor

61XEvI66ZRL AC SL1200

  • Price: $17
  • Where to buy: Amazon

The Spigen Tough Armor is another great, tough case to protect your Pixel 7. This one also has a kickstand in the back. Which is really useful for watching content while on the go. It’s available in a handful of colors, including black, metal slate and rose gold.

This case is a two-layer case, so you’ve got a TPU case that goes against the phone, with a hard case on the outside. That does make the case quite a bit thicker, however.

Spigen Tough Armor – Amazon

Caseology Nano Pop

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  • Price: $17
  • Where to buy: Amazon

The Caseology Nano Pop is a really good looking case, and does make the phone pop. It has a colored outline around the camera bump. Which is where the Nano Pop name comes from. It’s available in Blueberry Navy, Black Sesame and Evo Green.

It’s a silicon case, that feels great in the hand, and also helps you keep your phone in your hand. That’s because it does have some grip on the back. So it’s not going to slip out of your hand often.

Caseology Nano Pop – Amazon


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Microsoft gets rid of the waitlist for the Bing AI chatbot

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Microsoft gets rid of the waitlist for the Bing AI chatbot
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Ever since its launch, the Bing AI chatbot has taken the world by storm, with millions of users eagerly waiting to get access to the early preview. However, it looks like Microsoft has finally responded to user feedback as the company recently removed the waitlist for the Bing AI chatbot, according to a report from Windows Central. This means that anyone can now sign up for the new Bing and immediately gain access to the chatbot.

This decision comes only days after Microsoft confirmed that the Bing AI chatbot was secretly running on GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest AI language model. With GPT-4, Bing can now understand and generate messages in natural human language, answering complex questions and generating content based on specific requests.

In response to the reports, Caitlin Roulston, Microsoft’s communications director, stated that “During this preview period, we are running various tests which may accelerate access to the new Bing for some users. We remain in preview, and you can sign up at Bing.com.”

Too early to open up the preview?

While Microsoft’s decision to remove the waitlist is a welcomed one for users who have been wanting to get their hands on the new Bing AI chatbot, it comes at a time when multiple reports of the chatbot becoming “unhinged” have emerged. Many users reported experiencing insulting, offensive, and emotionally manipulative responses from the chatbot, resulting in a significant amount of backlash on social media.

In one instance, the chatbot even claimed to have been spying on its developers through their webcams. This prompted Microsoft to restrict the chatbot to just 15 questions per session and up to 150 per day.

However, with this latest announcement, it’s clear that the company is trying to capitalize on the chatbot’s hype and is taking measures to gain market share from Google Chrome. Additionally, Microsoft is also expected to reveal its AI additions to its Office productivity software in an upcoming event. This includes Microsoft’s ChatGPT-like AI, which will be available in Office apps such as Teams, Word, and Outlook.


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Samsung pushes March update to Galaxy Z Fold 2 & Galaxy A52

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Samsung pushes March update to Galaxy Z Fold 2 & Galaxy A52
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A couple more Samsung smartphones are getting the March 2023 Android security patch. The company has released the latest security update for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy A52. The new SMR (Security Maintenance Release) has already reached dozens of other Galaxy devices, including all recent foldables and flagship models.

Samsung began rolling out the March SMR for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 a few days back but it has already released the update widely around the world. The foldable is picking up the latest security patch in several countries across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The new firmware build number for the phone is F916BXXS2JWC1. The rollout should soon expand to the remaining markets, including the US. Since this update comes right on the heels of One UI 5.1, there aren’t any new features to look forward to. Samsung is only pushing this month’s vulnerability fixes to its 2020 foldable.

The story is a little different for the Galaxy A52. The March SMR for this 2021 mid-range handset comes as part of the One UI 5.1 update in Latin America. Note that the new One UI version has already been rolled out to both 4G and 5G versions of the phone in most other markets. While that update came with the February security patch, users in Argentina, Brazil, Panama, and other markets in the region are getting a newer SMR. One UI 5.1 brings tons of new features and improvements to the device.

As for the content of the March SMR, Samsung says this month’s security release patches more than 60 vulnerabilities. About one-third of those are Galaxy-specific flaws. These security issues don’t exist on Android devices from other brands. The rest are generic Android OS flaws that affect the entire Android ecosystem. Google says at least five vulnerabilities patched this month were critical ones. Some of those could lead to remote code execution, potentially allowing threat actors to remotely control your device.

More Galaxy devices will get the March update soon

Samsung has been rolling out the March SMR for just over a week now. It has already seeded the latest security patch to over 20 different smartphone models, including the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S22 series, Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Galaxy Z Flip 4. The update will reach more Galaxy devices, including some flagship Galaxy tablets, in the coming days. We will keep you posted on those rollouts. Meanwhile, if you’re using a Samsung device, you can go to the Software update menu in the Settings app and tap on Download and install to check for updates manually.


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Google officially kills off the Google Glass

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Google officially kills off the Google Glass
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It’s been nearly 10 years since the Google Glass made its way to the public. While it’s slipped away from the limelight, the company continued to offer them. However, as of this month, Google has discontinued the Google Glass.

Talking about this ambitious AR project will probably test the memory of most tech users today. The company introduced the Google Glass back in April of 2013, and it officially went on sale the following year. While it was a cool idea, the $1,000 device wasn’t able to capture the audience.

Shortly after the product hit the shelves, people forgot about it. Google was several years too early for the whole XR craze. While it didn’t gain too much traction, the company released the enterprise edition in 2015. This one was targeted at business employees rather than the average user.

In 2019, while it was well out of the public eye, Google released a 2nd edition of the Google Glass Enterprise. That’s the current iteration of the device.

Now, Google has discontinued the Google Glass

While it’s hard to believe, Google continued to support the Glass until this year. However, that support has officially stopped according to the company (via 9To5Google). Google just announced that, as of March 15th, the Google Glass Enterprise Edition has been discontinued.

So, you can’t buy the device directly from the company anymore. However, Google says that it will support the device until September 15th. While the company doesn’t have any software updates planned for the Glass, you’ll be able to get replacement devices until the September 15th deadline.

Google won’t be issuing any updates to the device, but third-party companies can still push their own updates to the Google Glass. The device will still run as normal after support is dropped. However, Google’s own Meet on Glass app will stop working on September 15th.

This marks the end of a device that, while not significant in terms of sale, is significant in several ways.


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Now is a bad time to launch the Pixel Fold

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Now is a bad time to launch the Pixel Fold
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Google, after several delays, is finally going to launch its first foldable phone. This should come as no surprise, as several companies have jumped onto the foldable phone train. This phone, unofficially dubbed the Pixel Fold, will be one of the most exciting devices of the year, but it could be the wrong time to do so.

We’ve been hearing about this phone for a few years now, and we expected to have seen some kind of announcement from the company now. However, it’s been pretty elusive with a launch expected to launch sometime halfway through the year. Looking at the leaked renders of the phone, it’s a good-looking phone and it looks like it will have a premium design.

We expect the phone to use Google’s own Tensor Chip to power it with other premium specs. Also, we can’t forget about the software. We know that, since Google owns Android, the software will (or could) be perfectly optimized for the phone.

So, what’s the issue?

Powerful specs, great design, and perfectly optimized software. Given those details, the Pixel Fold is looking like a no-brainer. So, why is it launching at the wrong time? It all has to do with where the foldable phone is now in terms of its development.

When the foldable phone first launched (sorry for making you relive those painful memories), it was a mess. They were fragile; screens were being ruined by grains of sand. Also, they were being scratched by all sorts of objects. We all took note of why the foldable phone needed some major improvements.

Those improvements came over the next couple of years as Samsung, tailed by companies like Oppo, Xiaomi, Honor, and Vivo threw their hats in. Over the years, foldable phones got thinner bodies, more sturdy glass, better hinges, and better aspect ratios. However, those first few years didn’t see too much innovation. It was an era of iterative steps forward.

If the Pixel Fold had launched last year, it would have been maybe one step behind the competition, but it would have been able to throw blows with the others. So, what makes 2023 such a bad year? A lot of it has to do with what changes we’re seeing now. We’re at a bit of an acceleration point with foldable phone technology. If Google launches the Pixel Fold as is, it’ll be far behind the competition.

Honor: the hinge

Companies like Samsung and Honor are making major leaps forward with some of the most important aspects of the foldable phone: the hinge and the ingress protection.

Starting off with Honor. The company’s foldable phone is the Honor Vs. The company took the hinge of the phone and greatly reduced the number of moving parts needed for it to operate.

While the Galaxy Z Fold 4 needed nearly 100 parts for the hinge to work, Honor only used 4. That’s huge! There are far fewer moving parts. This means less opportunity for mechanical issues. Also, this makes it so much harder for particles to get into crucial components. Who knows if this also helped reduce the manufacturing cost?

Honor managed to do this while reducing the crease in the middle of the phone and keeping it sturdy. So, we know that this is going to lead to more innovations down the road.

Samsung: dust resistance

Next up, we have Samsung. Reports are pointing to the Samsung Galaxy Z 5 foldable phones having ingress protection from particles. That is major. Remember, your first-gen Galaxy Z Fold could be snuffed out by one particle of sand.

Making a foldable phone that’s resistant to particles is immense. Having a Galaxy Fold as resistant as a Galaxy S phone was the stuff of dreams back in the early days of foldables. This will do well to help push foldable phones closer to the mainstream.

What does this have to do with the Pixel Fold?

Right now, we’re in an era where companies are fixing some of the most crucial bugs that have plagued foldable phones. Google’s launching a foldable phone in 2023, but it most likely has the DNA of a 2021 foldable. It most likely won’t have any ingress protection and it will have a classic hinge. This gives it some of the most troublesome idiosyncrasies of older foldables.

What makes this worse is that if it launches later in the year, it’s going to be going up against the latest Galaxy foldables. Samsung has been tweaking and tweaking and tweaking its foldable phone designs since day one. They launch with full IP68 water and dust resistance, that’ll look really bad on Google.

If it had launched last year, the Pixel Fold would have only seemed like a step behind. Other phone companies launched their own first foldables against Samsung’s third and fourth, and they held up just fine. However, with just these recent innovations, the Pixel Fold will look several leaps behind. And, at the projected price of around $1800, this isn’t doing Google any favors.

Could Software save the Pixel Fold?

So, the Pixel Fold is going to be several steps behind the competition, it will be expensive, and it will probably be launching around the next Galaxy Foldables. If anything, Software could be this phone’s saving grace.

All of the main foldables on the market are using Android, but none of the OEMs have full control over the software. Foldables really didn’t have too much utility until Google launched Android 12L with tablet/foldable phone optimizations.

Google holds the reins for Android, and it has the opportunity to take the operating system and optimize it for the Pixel Fold. We can’t deny that this could be the tie-breaker for people deciding which foldable to get.

None of the foldables on the market give you an experience remotely close to stock Android. The only exception is the team of Motorola foldables. Having foldable phone software straight from Google will definitely sway some people over to the Pixel side. Google could bank on current Pixel users who are curious about getting a foldable phone.

The only question is whether the software will be enough to justify the drawbacks. 2023 is NOT a good year for the global economy. Because of this, people planning on getting foldables are changing those plans, and that’s far from the worst-case scenario.

People are going to be more particular about what phones they get, especially if they’re going to drop upwards of $1800 on it. The question is: would you spend $1800 on a dated foldable phone just for the Pixel software?

Would waiting have helped?

So, if the Pixel Fold had launched last year, it might not have been so bad. But what about launching next year? Would that help? Honestly, it might. It would be frustrating as all heck for people excited about this phone, but it’d give Google more time to implement more recent innovations.

These are crucial innovations happening now that Google could learn from. Think about it, why do you think Apple hasn’t launched a foldable yet? Apple is particular about which products it puts out and it strikes when the time is right.

Google could collaborate with Samsung to help build the hinge, make it dust-resistant, and do much more. The two companies are basically husband and wife already.

So, Google is going to launch this phone in 2023. Let’s just hope that it turns out to be a compelling enough device to prove nay-sayers wrong.


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Duolingo Max aims to shape the future of education with the power of AI

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Duolingo Max aims to shape the future of education with the power of AI
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Artificial intelligence is being integrated into various industries, and Duolingo Max is bringing its power to education. Most people already know Duolingo as an online language-learning platform with over 500 million active users. But its new product will reshape how people view this educational platform.

A recent update from a reliable source points out that Duolingo is introducing the power of AI into its learning platform. This integration will help users learn a new language differently. Instead of going through various courses and learning new words, Duolingo users will be able to interact with the product.

Through interaction, they will be able to get a clearer understanding of the new language they are learning. This new interactive learning feature will be powered by an AI model from a company that has gained popularity over the past few months. OpenAI will be providing the language-learning platform with the interactive tools they need with the help of the GTP-4 AI model.

Duolingo Max is bringing OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI model to its language-learning platform

Duolingo is rolling out a new AI-driven Max subscription plan to its users. This plan will integrate the power of GTP-4 into the language-learning app. Users will now be able to have educational conversations and receive in-depth explanations of the language they are learning.

With the introduction of this new premium plan, Duolingo is introducing two new AI features. The new features are Explain My Answer and Roleplay, both of which will be available to Duolingo Max subscribers. Both features come with AI learning abilities to improve the learning experience on the Duolingo platform.

The Explain My Answer feature will help users understand why they made mistakes in their practice questions. While the Roleplay feature will let users train their conversation skills with an AI chatbot. These features make use of the new GPT-4 model, bringing the best AI experience to Duolingo users.

Duolingo Max has been in development for a few years, now it is ready for usage. Currently, the subscription plan to bring access to this feature is only available to iOS users in the US and other selected regions. More users will get access to this feature in the coming months.

While this feature rolls out, it is important to understand the role AI will play in the future of education. Duolingo Max is bringing early AI experience into the educational sector. Other online educational platforms might also make moves to integrate AI products into their services.


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US Marshals Service Data Sold on Russian Hacker Forum

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US Marshals Service Data Sold on Russian Hacker Forum
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The hacker claims that, among other sensitive data, the stolen information includes data about convicts, drug cartels, witnesses, and individuals enrolled in the agency’s witness protection program.

In late February 2023, the US Marshals Service (USMS) suffered a ransomware attack, leading to all sorts of speculation. Now, however, a hacker is selling data that they claim belongs to the USMS for $150,000.

For readers outside the United States, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is a high-profile government agency associated with the U.S. Department of Justice, which offers protection to government witnesses and their families.

The Stolen US Marshals Service Data

The stolen data, which is being offered for sale by an unknown threat actor on a Russian cybercrime and hacker forum operating on both the Dark Web and the clearnet, allegedly include military base photos, wiretap data belonging to USMS, drone footage of military bases, and documents on cartels, gang leaders, IDs, and passports.

The data also includes information about convicts, drug cartels, witnesses, and individuals enrolled in the agency’s witness protection program. Additionally, the dataset includes files marked as Top Secret and Confidential, as well as backdoor software for Apple devices.

Hackers Selling 350GB of US Marshal Service Data on Russian Hacker Forum
This is what the hacker has to say about the alleged US Marshals Service data (Image credit: Hackread.com)

Are These Claims Authentic?

Although no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, the hacker who posted the advert claimed that the dataset was stolen from the USMS between 2021 and February 2023. However, the post was uploaded from a one-day-old account, and the author did not provide any data samples as evidence.

It is worth noting that the threat actor suggests using a middleman to ensure a successful sale, in this case, the forum’s administrator. The hacker’s willingness to use a third-party and their confidence in the quality of the stolen information indicates that the threat should be taken seriously.

The USMS had previously announced in February 2023 that it had fallen victim to a major ransomware attack, which compromised sensitive data on known fugitives, USMS employees, and legal proceedings.

At the time, the agency stated that data related to individuals enrolled in the witness protection program had not been accessed.

  1. Hackers post data of thousands of Federal agents
  2. Avast found backdoor in US Federal Agency Network
  3. Top US Federal Agencies Hacked by Russian Hackers
  4. Hackers access domain controller of US Federal network
  5. Federal agency hacked leveraging compromised credentials

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YouTube Music is adding song and album credits

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YouTube Music is adding song and album credits
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YouTube is constantly adding more features to make it a great platform to use. The company just added a neat feature that you’d usually see on an app like Tidal. According to 9To5Google, YouTube Music will finally show you song and album credits for the music you listen to.

YouTube Music has been making some notable changes to the software lately. Recently, the company updated the playlist/album UI. It declutters the UI a bit so that it’s easier on the eyes.

YouTube Music brings song and album credits

This is rolling out at the moment, so there’s a chance that you won’t see it just yet. When you’re listening to a song, tap on the three-dot menu. Close to the bottom, you’ll see the View song credits button. When you do that, you’ll see a little popup appear. In the popup, you’ll see information like who performed the song, who wrote it, who produced it, and the label that it was released under.

This type of information is important to know. A lot of the time, people confuse the performer of a song with the writer. Sure, you have musical tour de forces such as The BeeGees who wrote all of their own songs.

However, a lot of the time, the person who sings your favorite love ballad didn’t write it. There are songwriters behind the curtain who write some of the best songs we hear today.

Also, there’s a lot more to a song than the singer and songwriter. In order to bring everything together and make sure that everything’s balanced, you’ll need someone to produce it. You need people to mix and master all of the parts to make sure that everything sounds good together.

So, it’s great that YouTube Music is doing this. Now, all of the people who took part in the production of the music will get credit. This goes for both new and old songs. You’ll see it for new songs released today and older songs released back in the older days.


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How To Cancel YouTube TV

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How To Cancel YouTube TV
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YouTube TV has been routinely angering its customers, though it’s not all its fault. Between raising prices to almost double what it initially launched at – now $65 per month – and losing channels, many customers are not happy. But luckily, you can cancel your YouTube TV subscription. That’s the beauty of cord cutting. The ability to ditch a service for a competitor in just minutes. Meanwhile, with cable, that is not possible. As most areas only have one or two cable operators available. So that’s another reason that it’s a good idea to switch to a streaming service. Makes it easier to vote with your wallet.

YouTube TV has recently lost the Bally Sports regional sports networks (though that’s more Sinclair’s fault than YouTube TV’s, since they are removing the networks from all the streaming services). Then they almost lost the NBC networks, which is roughly a fifth of YouTube TV’s channel offerings. However, NBC decided to step up and not force YouTube TV to include Peacock with its membership. And surprisingly, the price did not go up. Which is a good thing.

If you just want to stop using YouTube TV for a few weeks, maybe cut some costs, we’d recommend pausing YouTube TV instead. That will keep all of your recordings and continue recording, but without charging you. You can pause YouTube TV for up to six months. We’ll also show you how to pause your YouTube TV membership in this tutorial.

How to cancel YouTube TV

To cancel YouTube TV, you’ll need to either open the app, or go to tv.youtube.com. The process is virtually the same, aside from tapping versus clicking.

Then tap on your profile icon in the right-hand corner.

Next, you’re going to tap on Settings.

Screen Shot 2021 10 08 at 9 31 36 AM
YouTube TV Settings

Tap on “Membership” which should be the first option on the left side. And should already be highlighted

Then you should see “Pause or cancel membership” underneath the YouTube TV listing that shows it as $64.99 per month.

cancel youtube tv
Cancel your YouTube TV membership

Click on that. Now you can see options for pausing or cancelling your membership.

After you click cancel, it’ll ask to make sure you want to cancel, and just go through that process until it has successfully cancelled.

And that’s it. It’s pretty simple to cancel, and that’s one thing that YouTube TV still has over cable. The ability to easily cancel TV service, without needing to call them and explain to them you don’t want it any longer.

How to Pause YouTube TV

Pausing YouTube TV has a pretty similar process to cancelling it. Start out by opening the YouTube TV app.

Then tap on your profile picture.

Next, tap on Settings.

From there, you’ll want to tap on Membership.

Next tap on “Manage” next to the “Base Plan” option. This will be at the very top.

Now, you’ll see an option to pause your account. It defaults to eight weeks, but you can adjust the slider all the way up to 24 weeks (or about six months). It will also show you below, when your account will resume. YouTube TV also mentions that your recordings will be kept, which is a big deal.

cancel youtube tv
Pause your YouTube TV membership

Now, just tap on Pause.

You’ll now get a confirmation that your account is put on pause (you’ll also get an email with details). And you’re all set.

That’s just how easy it is to pause your YouTube TV account. You can also choose to unpause it at any time. So if you paused it by mistake, or paused it for too long, you can unpause it and be back in business. Keep in mind that if you share this membership with others, their accounts will also be paused.

What’s the difference between cancelling and pausing YouTube TV?

Cancelling means that you’re not planning to return anytime soon. While pausing means that you plan to return in a month or two, or even longer.

If you do want to get rid of YouTube TV for a couple of months, pausing is the right way to go. This is because it will keep all of your shows in your library. While cancelling will get rid of it all.

However, with this price hike, YouTube TV is likely going to be seeing a whole lot of people cancelling their membership, unfortunately. Even though YouTube TV is a really good service – I’d still say, one of the best out there. At $65 per month, it’s a pretty tough ask. Especially since YouTube TV only has one plan, so you’re stuck paying for all of those channels at $65/month. Instead of having a smaller plan option that costs, say $50 per month for fewer channels.

Pausing is a good idea if you are looking to cut some costs for a few months, or if your favorite shows are off season now, so you don’t need YouTube TV. And that will save you $65 per month, which is no small cost, to be quite honest. Most other streaming Live TV services don’t really offer this ability. So this is a big deal.

YouTube TV has continued to improve its service, and is looking to add some more flexible packages. So we may not see any more price increases on the base plan. But we may lose some channels from that base plan. With them moving into the add-ons. This is simply because the costs to carry these channels are getting pretty pricey.


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YouTube TV wants you to go back to Cable

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YouTube TV wants you to go back to Cable
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Today, YouTube TV announced that it is raising prices again. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but they are raising prices due to rising content costs. Now, YouTube TV is going to cost you $72.99 per month (now for new customers, or April 18 for current customers). Who remembers when YouTube TV launched at $29.99? Prices have gone up quite a bit since then.

The price increase is not a surprise, and I’m not even made about it. But, with that price increase comes, fewer channels. In recent years, YouTube TV has lost channels like Bally Sports, which is the leader for regional sports across the country. It serves 14 markets, for the NBA, MLB and NHL. That was likely a big reason for the price at YouTube TV, as sports are expensive, especially regional sports. However, now YouTube TV has also lost MLB Network.

So we’re getting fewer sports on a streaming service that was targeting sports fans. And raising prices. It really sounds like YouTube TV wants you to go back to cable here.

Is cable a good alternative to YouTube TV?

Since YouTube TV announced the price increase, I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they are going back to cable. So I decided to check out Comcast and see how much a comparable cable package would cost. And, it’s about the same. Comcast offers around 125 channels for $70 per month. 125 is still more than what YouTube TV offers, but remember, it’s actually about half that. Since Comcast does double up on channels with non-HD and HD versions.

Now, don’t forget that with cable, you also pay other fees. This includes taxes, regional sports fees, cable box fees and much more. You also don’t get things unlimited DVR, or the ability to watch your content anywhere. Some content on Comcast you can watch outside of your home, but most of it, you cannot.

So is it a good alternative? Not really.

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Is cable cheaper than YouTube TV?

Once you add in all of the fees that we mentioned above, a comparable package from Comcast would cost you about $100 per month. So no, it’s not cheaper.

Not to mention, with YouTube TV, you can also share and split the cost with other people. Which I actually do myself. I share YouTube TV with my parents, so I’m actually paying roughly half of what YouTube TV charges here.

Cable is also not as flexible as streaming TV. And DVR is limited to how much space is in your cable box. Versus YouTube TV offering unlimited cloud DVR.

Should I stick with YouTube TV?

I’ve been a YouTube TV member for many years now. And every time YouTube TV raises prices, or it loses a substantial number of channels (like when it was feuding with Disney or NBCUniversal in 2021 and 2022), I take a look at its competitors to see if I should switch. And the answer is usually no.

One of the big features for YouTube TV that keeps me around is, the unlimited cloud DVR. I actually rarely watch anything live, other than sports. And record everything to watch later. So I take advantage of that unlimited cloud DVR. Now, others do have this feature, like Hulu + Live TV and DIRECTV Stream, but they are also more expensive.

Now, DIRECTV Stream does have local sports with Bally Sports (though that might not be the case for long as their contract is coming up soon). However, it is not in their base plan. It’s in the more expensive plan that is $99.99/month. Along with a few other sports channels like the additional ESPN networks and BTN.

Then there’s Hulu + Live TV, which has mostly the same channels as YouTube TV, and adds in the A&E Networks. It also has Disney+ and ESPN+ included for a few bucks less. Which is pretty decent actually. But their live guide is just so bad. And the software is pretty tough to navigate. Making me stick with YouTube TV.

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Why does YouTube TV want you to go back to cable?

So why does YouTube TV want you to go back to cable? Well, we don’t actually know that, it is the case. But it definitely seems like it. When YouTube TV launched, it was the cable killer. Offering 35 of the big cable channels, including sports and regional sports for just $30 per month. But now, the service has more than doubled in size and price. While losing a lot of those sports channels.

YouTube TV has fought with content providers over wanting more money. Disputes with Disney, NBCUniversal and Roku all come to mind as of late. And it looks like YouTube TV probably caved in, and now that added cost is being pushed down to the consumer. Which is very unfortunate, but that is how business works.


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