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Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Price Drop Summer Sale Google Store

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Price Drop Summer Sale Google Store

Forbes12 hours ago
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, right, and Pixel 9 Pro are on sale once again, with the former getting its ... More biggest discount yet. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Google wants to steal some of Samsung's limelight ahead of its Unpacked event tomorrow, where we will likely see the Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched, with its own major discount for the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 series.
The Google U.S. store has launched its summer sale, as it calls it. But, truthfully, most of these discounts can—and are—found throughout the year. There are two clear differences with this promotion, however. Firstly, all of the company's phones are on sale. Secondly, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has received the biggest discount I've seen yet.
The headline deal here is the $350 discount Google has knocked off the Pixel 9 Pro XL. That specific number is typically reserved for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I cover (almost) all of these deals and I don't recall Google discounting its non-foldable flagship by that much. If you have your eye on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, this is the time to buy it.
The Google Pixel 8 Pro Is Still The Better Deal
The Google Pixel 8 Pro . (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the size of the Pixel 9 Pro XL price drop, I still think the Pixel 8 Pro is the better deal for people on a serious budget. Google and Samsung changed how these older smartphones are viewed with the announcement that 2024 devices—and beyond—will receive seven years of software updates, security patches, and replacement parts.
The Pixel 8 Pro, too, isn't wildly different from the Pixel 9. AI tools like Magic Editor, Best Take, and Video Boost have made it over to last year's Google phone. Formerly exclusive Pixel 9 features, such as the Pixel Weather app, have now migrated over to the Pixel 8. Only the updated hardware separates the two phones. Check out my longer read here on why the Pixel 8 might be the better deal.
If you're dead set on the Pixel 9 Pro XL then it might be best to wait until the Pixel 10 launches, which could be next month. The size of this deal suggests that Google may continue its policy of deep discounts for the previous generation's flagship phone. There will be an instant price drop the moment the Pixel 10 hits the Google Store and then further sales as the year progresses.
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How the One Big Beautiful Bill Will Affect Car Buying and Ownership
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Will Affect Car Buying and Ownership

Motor Trend

timean hour ago

  • Motor Trend

How the One Big Beautiful Bill Will Affect Car Buying and Ownership

On July 4, President Trump signed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Act into law. The budget reconciliation bill made big changes to federal spending, taxes, and regulation, some of which will have big effects on car owners, enthusiasts, and the automotive industry. We've read through the 879-page bill and outlined the parts that'll affect your next car purchase, the price of gas, and your commute. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" affects car buying by altering tax deductions on auto loans, ending EV tax credits, reducing CAFE penalties to zero, and cutting grants for clean vehicles. It also impacts gas and power prices by changing drilling and energy policies. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next Because this is a reconciliation bill, which modifies existing budget legislation rather than starting from scratch, there are limits to what can be included in the legislation. Everything in the bill has to be directly related to government spending and taxation, so some of the changes are creatively written in order to make the cut. (As always, please consult your tax professional before making financial decisions. The below is provided for information purposes only and is not tax or financial advice.) 'No' Tax on Car Loan Interest This one is confusing, and 'no' is in quotation marks because it's misleading. Car buyers looking to finance their next purchase may be able to write off some—but not all—of the interest charged on the loan each calendar year on their taxes. That's not the same as abolishing or suspending the tax altogether, as the claim implies. There are also a number of rules for qualifying which will cut off a lot of buyers. First and foremost, the vehicle you're buying has to be assembled in the U.S. That will be confusing for some buyers, because some of the bestselling vehicles in the U.S, such as the Toyota RAV4 and Chevrolet Silverado, are built in multiple plants, not all of them in the U.S. The IRS will know where your vehicle is made because you have to supply the VIN when claiming the tax deduction, and that number includes a digit that represents the country of origin. The tax deduction doesn't apply to leases, either, only purchases. It appears to apply to both new and used vehicle purchases, as the legislation makes no distinction. Vehicles with salvage titles and parts cars don't count, either. Similarly, it doesn't apply to anything with a gross vehicle weight rating over 14,000 pounds (which is the rating of a Ford F-350, as an example). Commercial vehicles qualify but only if they're for personal use, not business use. Business fleet purchases don't qualify, so be careful if you're planning to register your vehicle to your small business in order to take advantage of other tax incentives. If your purchase qualifies, there are still more rules. The tax deduction is capped at $10,000 per calendar year, so if you pay more than that in interest, the balance will still be taxed. If you make more than $100,000 per year as an individual or $200,000 per year as a joint filer (married or similar), the amount of interest you're able to deduct goes down by $200 for every $1,000 of income you earn over $100,000 (individual, or $200,000 combined). Do the math and it means no tax credit for anyone making over $150,000 individually or $250,000 combined. Finally, the tax credit is only available for a limited time. You can't start counting interest payments towards a deduction until January 1, 2026, so the rest of this year doesn't count. The tax credit will expire on December 31, 2029 unless Congress extends it. EV Tax Credits End September 30 The (up to) $7,500 federal tax credit for new and used EVs now expires on September 30 of this year. Previously, both tax credits were scheduled to expire on December 31, 2032. Likewise, the tax credit for commercial EVs expires the same day. State tax credits are not affected. On a related note, the federal tax credit for installing an EV charger or renewable fuel dispenser at your home or business will expire even sooner, on July 30 of this year. Tax credits have been a huge driver of EV sales to date, so the end of them could cause final vehicle sale prices to rise and sales to plummet. A large drop in sales could lead automakers to discontinue some or all of their EVs, reducing choice in the market. Lower cost EVs with smaller profit margins would be vulnerable, which could lead to only more expensive EVs on the market. Less Help With Bad Auto Loans Stopping predatory auto loans had been a major focus for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during the Biden administration, but enforcement is likely to drop off substantially after the passage of this bill. Funding for the bureau is cut by 54 percent, which will drastically reduce the number of investigations and actions it's able to execute. No Penalties for CAFE Violations Because this is a reconciliation bill, Congress could not make changes to vehicle emissions and fuel economy laws. Rather than replace or abolish the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program (CAFE), this bill keeps all the existing rules in place but reduces the penalties for breaking them to $0.00. This means automakers are free to ignore federal fuel economy regulations as the EPA cannot meaningfully enforce them. This could potentially affect consumers in multiple ways. If automakers stop following CAFE rules, fuel economy could go down and emissions could go up. Any savings on R&D could then be passed on to the consumer. This is unlikely, however. Automakers plan as much as a decade in advance, so vehicles for sale today were engineered years ago and the money already spent. Future iterations of Congress and future presidents could also reinstate the penalties in a few years, which would wipe out any savings and put automakers behind on R&D. Fuel economy regulations elsewhere in the world aren't changing, so there's little incentive for automakers to cut R&D spending regardless, meaning no reduction in pricing is likely. No More Money for Clean Commercial Vehicles Businesses and local governments around the country have taken advantage of federal grants to help offset the cost of replacing older heavy duty commercial vehicles with EVs. These grants were commonly used to replace old, diesel school busses with new, electric versions and also covered installation of chargers and training employees to work on those vehicles and chargers. Any grant money not already spent has been taken away. Similarly, grants for reducing diesel exhaust emissions in low income and disadvantaged areas have been cut, with all unspent money withdrawn. Funding has also been cut for an EPA program which studies the health and environmental effects of fuel additives. Reduction in Tax Credits for Commuters If your employer provides a transit passes, vanpool reimbursement, parking passes, or a bicycle commuting reimbursement, the amount you're able to deduct on your taxes is going down. Previously, you could deduct up to $175 per month each for your vanpool, transit pass, or parking pass. Now, you can only deduct up to $175 total per month for any combination of those services. The deduction for bicycle commuting has been eliminated entirely. No More Money or Credits For Home Solar and Battery Backups This is tangential to car buying and ownership, but if you were planning to take advantage of tax credits to install solar panels and battery backups in your home to offset the cost of charging an EV, you're out of luck. Any money not already spent on those grants and tax credits has been rescinded. Likewise, the business tax credit for building specifically energy efficient new homes has been cut, along with business tax credits for training contractors to install solar panels, batteries, and more efficient appliances. Gas and Power Prices Could Be Affected Portions of the bill addressing oil drilling and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve may have a small impact on gas prices in the future. Various provisions restart new oil and gas drilling leases both in the U.S. and offshore in its oceans, which would eventually add to the global oil supply and potentially push down prices. However, it will take years for any new leases to be acquired, explored, drilled, and turned into production wells, and oil companies are already sitting on a large number of unexplored leases. Because oil is a globally traded commodity, adding more supply doesn't necessarily change the price of a barrel of oil, nor the price of a gallon of gas. The bill also requires the government to abandon a plan introduced during Trump's first term to sell down part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Instead, it requires the government to buy more oil it can store for future emergencies. Presidents like to draw on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during times of high gas prices, but the quantities withdrawn are typically so small they have little to no impact on lowering the price at the pump. With regard to electricity generation, the bill paves the way to reopen old, closed power plants and cuts tax credits for wind and solar farms. Old power plants will now be able to reopen without any retrofitting of modern pollution controls, which could make them economically viable, although it depends on the individual plant. New wind and solar farms now have a shorter window to begin operations before the tax credits are cut off, and the lack of credits is expected to make new such farms economically unviable in the future. Fewer wind and solar farms means energy prices are less likely to go down or remain flat, while old power plants coming back online could partially offset their absence at the cost of greater air pollution in those communities. The bill also undoes several provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided loans and grants for electrical infrastructure improvements nationally, including transmission line improvements in particular, as well as integrating offshore wind farms into the power grid and improving electrical infrastructure on tribal land. Any reductions in electricity prices or increases in reliability these improvements may have provided are off the table. Similarly, by cutting the clean hydrogen production credit several years earlier than planned, the bill will likely slow or halt the adoption of clean sources of hydrogen and slow or stall the nascent hydrogen vehicle industry, both for private and commercial vehicles. Most hydrogen today is produced from gas and oil, which is both cheaper and dirtier than clean alternatives.

The Hidden Cost of OpenAI's Genius
The Hidden Cost of OpenAI's Genius

Gizmodo

timean hour ago

  • Gizmodo

The Hidden Cost of OpenAI's Genius

OpenAI is the undisputed poster child of the AI revolution, the company that forced the world to pay attention with the launch of ChatGPT. But behind the scenes, a desperate and wildly expensive battle is raging, and the cost of keeping the company's geniuses in-house is becoming astronomical. According to a recent report from The Information, OpenAI revealed to investors that its stock-based compensation for employees surged more than fivefold last year to an astonishing $4.4 billion. That figure isn't just large; it's more than the company's entire revenue for the year, accounting for a staggering 119% of its $3.7 billion in total revenue. This is an unheard-of figure, even for Silicon Valley. For comparison, Google's stock compensation was just 16% of its revenue the year before its IPO. For Facebook, it was 6%. So what's going on? In short, OpenAI is fighting for its life in an unprecedented talent war, and its chief rival, Meta, is on the offensive. Mark Zuckerberg has been personally courting top AI researchers with massive compensation packages, successfully poaching several key minds from OpenAI's core teams. This has reportedly prompted a crisis at OpenAI, forcing it to 'recalibrate compensation' and promise even more rewarding pay packages to prevent a catastrophic brain drain. While stock-based compensation doesn't immediately burn through a company's cash reserves, it creates a major risk by diluting the value of shares held by investors. Every billion dollars in stock handed to employees means the slices of the pie owned by major backers like Microsoft and other venture capital firms get smaller. OpenAI is trying to sell this strategy as a long-term vision. The company projects that this massive expense will fall to 45% of revenue this year, and below 10% by 2030. Furthermore, OpenAI has reportedly discussed a future plan where its employees would collectively own roughly one-third of the restructured company, with Microsoft also owning another third. The goal is to turn employees into deeply invested partners who have a massive incentive to stay and build. But the 'Meta effect' is throwing a wrench in those neat projections. The aggressive poaching and the ensuing pay bumps mean OpenAI's costs are likely to remain sky-high. This high-stakes financial strategy puts OpenAI in a precarious position. The company is already spending billions of dollars a year as it spends heavily on the computing power needed to run its models. Adding billions more in stock compensation puts immense pressure on the company to dramatically increase revenue and find a path to profitability before its investors get spooked. While Microsoft seems locked in for the long haul, other investors may grow weary of having their ownership diluted so heavily. It forces a countdown timer on the company to deliver a massive financial return to justify the cost. OpenAI was founded with a mission to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) that 'benefits all of humanity.' This costly talent war, fueled by capitalist competition, puts immense pressure on that founding ideal. It becomes harder to prioritize safety and ethics when you're burning billions to keep your top minds from joining the competition. Ultimately, OpenAI is betting these billions to ensure it has the best talent to win the race to create the world's first true superintelligence. If they succeed, the financial cost will seem trivial. If they fail, or if a competitor gets there first, they will have spent themselves into a hole for nothing. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This Under-$10 Stock Soars 585% in a Year. What Analysts Think Will Happen Next.
This Under-$10 Stock Soars 585% in a Year. What Analysts Think Will Happen Next.

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

This Under-$10 Stock Soars 585% in a Year. What Analysts Think Will Happen Next.

Shares of CommScope (COMM) are on an impressive run, rising more than 585% in a year. This strong rally reflects the company's solid position as a provider of essential infrastructure solutions for communication, data centers, and entertainment networks. CommScope's growth is likely to be supported by the strength of its three core business segments. The Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) segment provides essential fiber optic and copper connectivity solutions, serving a diverse range of sectors, from data centers to residential broadband networks. Meanwhile, the Networking, Intelligent Cellular, and Security Solutions (NICS) segment focuses on wireless networks crucial for both enterprises and service providers. Lastly, the Access Network Solutions (ANS) segment offers essential products, including cable modem termination systems, video infrastructure, and cloud solutions. This Analyst Just Raised His Broadcom Stock Price Target by 70%. Should You Buy AVGO Now? Why Alibaba Stock Looks Like a Screaming Buy After Falling 27% From Its 2025 Highs 2 ETFs Offering Juicy Dividend Yields of 20% or Higher Stop Missing Market Moves: Get the FREE Barchart Brief – your midday dose of stock movers, trending sectors, and actionable trade ideas, delivered right to your inbox. Sign Up Now! CommScope is poised to capitalize on the robust growth in the data center market, driven by increasing investments from hyperscale and cloud customers as they expand their AI infrastructure. Moreover, the rebound in its NICS and ANS segments sets a promising trajectory for future growth. In addition, the company's strategic move to divest non-core businesses further enhances its operational efficiency. Despite these positives, the stock's recent rally has sparked concerns about its valuation. Moreover, its high leverage ratio remains a risk. Against this background, let's explore what analysts are forecasting for CommScope stock. CommScope is entering the second half of 2025 with strong momentum, signaling a promising outlook. Its CCS business will continue to benefit from the AI-led tailwinds. Moreover, normalized channel inventory in the NICS and ANS segments, new product launches, and its focus on adding incremental selling resources will support its growth. The company's CCS segment is experiencing impressive momentum, particularly in its enterprise fiber business, which caters to the rapidly growing data center market. First-quarter revenue from this business soared 88% year-over-year to $213 million, now accounting for 29% of CCS revenue, up from 19% a year ago. The growth is fueled not only by the expansion of data centers, but also by the increasing demand from new generative AI architectures. These next-gen AI clusters require more fiber connectivity than traditional systems, pushing up demand for CommScope's fiber solutions. Furthermore, CommScope is accelerating new product development and investing in additional production capacity to capitalize on the rising demand. Its broadband products within CCS are also seeing stronger demand as customer inventories stabilize. In the NICS segment, which includes the RUCKUS product line, Q1 revenue jumped 51% year-over-year, supported by the launch of Wi-Fi 7 products and the RUCKUS Edge platform. This platform enhances networking and security solutions for sectors such as education, where CommScope has recently secured a significant contract. With channel inventory now normalized, NICS is set up for substantial gains in the second half of 2025. ANS, CommScope's access network segment, also delivered solid results, with Q1 sales up 20% and EBITDA up 177% year-over-year, thanks to new node and amplifier products, as well as higher legacy license sales. With a robust pipeline of new offerings and improving market conditions, ANS is expected to keep growing. In summary, CommScope's solid performance across all three business segments, improving industry conditions, and focus on new product launches and profitability improvements set the stage for strong growth in the quarters ahead and could potentially boost its share price. CommScope is poised to deliver solid growth and has been focusing on strengthening its balance sheet, notably paying off its 2026 debt maturities ahead of schedule in the first quarter of 2025. However, despite this progress, CommScope's net leverage remains elevated, at 7.8 times as of March 31, raising some concerns. Furthermore, the stock's recent surge has kept analysts bearish. COMM stock holds a 'Moderate Sell' consensus rating. Adding to the concern, the average analyst price target of $5.10 suggests a potential downside of about 36% from current levels. This indicates that analysts believe the stock may be due for a significant pullback, even as the company works to improve its financial health. CommScope's remarkable rally over the past year reflects the strength of its core businesses and its exposure to rapidly growing sectors, such as data centers and AI infrastructure. Moreover, a rebound in its NICS and ANS segments augurs well for growth. However, elevated debt levels and stretched valuations warrant caution. On the date of publication, Amit Singh did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

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