Sometimes, one screen just isn't enough, especially if you're working on a smaller MacBook display. Apple has just the fix, though: the Sidecar feature. Sidecar allows you to turn your iPad into a second display (wired or wireless) for your Mac computer, essentially allowing you to have access to two monitors wherever and whenever you may need them. Not only is this feature super helpful, but it's also super quick to set up.

I discovered the Sidecar feature during the move to online learning in the wake of the pandemic, and it quickly became essential to my school routine. It was really convenient to have a second monitor during online classes: I could easily reference my notes on my iPad while keeping my Mac screen clear so I could focus on my professors' lectures. However, I will note that Sidecar would absolutely tank my iPad's battery, and the iPad display screen would get laggy if my Mac was running a couple of different programs at once.

Before you get started with Sidecar, check to see that both your iPad and Mac meet the Sidecar system requirements. For Macs, Sidecar will work on devices with macOS Catalina or later and for iPads, devices compatible with iOS 13 or later will work with Sidecar. If you are unsure if your devices are compatible, Apple has a list of all of the devices that work.

Your iPad will also need to be connected to your Mac. It can be connected to your Mac with a USB cable, which will keep it from losing power while you are using its Sidecar capabilities. It can also be done wirelessly if both the iPad and Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network. If you are using MacOS Catalina, then the option to connect your iPad to your Mac will be in the AirPlay menu. 

If you are using Sidecar wirelessly, the devices must be within 30 feet (10 meters) of each other. If you are using Sidecar via USB, the iPad must be set to "trust" your Mac. Both devices also must be logged into with the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication. 

Setting Up Sidecar

Getting started with Sidecar is fairly simple. Once your iPad and Mac are connected, move your pointer over the full-screen button of a window on your Mac and hover. A dropdown menu should appear with options to "Enter Full Screen," "Tile Window to Left of Screen," "Tile Window to Right of Screen" and "Move to iPad." To use Sidecar, select Move to iPad.

Using Sidecar

Now that Sidecar is set up, it's time to get started using your iPad as a second display. Once you have moved your Mac screen to your iPad, the Sidebar will appear on your iPad screen. The Sidebar enables you to have access to the most commonly used Mac controls, "Command," "Option" and "Shift." You can choose these commands by tapping with your finger or using an Apple Pencil. 

Using your iPad as a second display also enables you to use multi-touch gestures on your iPad to navigate your second display. For example, if you wish to scroll on your Mac, you can use two fingers to scroll up or down on the page being displayed on your iPad. Apple has a full list of multi-touch gestures if you are interested in navigating your second display with your fingers. 

When using Sidecar on your iPad, you are able to use your Apple Pencil to navigate your display as well. Using your Apple Pencil while displaying your Mac screen can be helpful when drawing or editing photos. If you are mirroring your Mac screen to your iPad, you will be able to see live updates made with your Apple pencil on your Mac. Sidecar also supports the double-tap feature, which allows you to perform custom functions by double-tapping the side of a second-gen Apple Pencil, and this can be enabled in System Preferences. 

Sidecar also enables you to use a MacBook Touch Bar, regardless of whether or not your Mac supports one. As usual, you can tap the Touch Bar controls with your finger or Apple Pencil. However, if the Touch Bar is not appearing when using an app that uses Touch Bar controls, you can activate it by going to the Apple Menu> System Preferences > Mission Control and make sure that "Displays have separate spaces" is selected. 

While you are using Sidecar you can use the keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac, or your iPad's keyboard and mouse. 

Apps on your iPad can also be used as you normally would. When you switch to an iPad app, you will be able to return to your Sidecar screen by using the Sidecar app. The Sidecar app should appear on your iPad's home screen while using Sidecar. 

If you wish to change Sidecar settings, like whether or not the Sidebar or Touch Bar is displayed, you can do so by going to the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Displays and then selecting your iPad under "Displays" if you are running macOS Monterey. If you are running macOS Big Sur or Catalina, then select Apple Menu > System Preferences and click Sidecar. 

If you're wondering what kind of day you'll be having today, 13-year-old pug Noodle says you should treat yourself and seize the day.

Well, Noodle can't talk, of course, but he's part of a new TikTok trend in which he supposedly predicts how your day will go -- in other words, whether it'll be a "bones day" or a "no-bones day." Here's what that means and what to know about the meme that's exploded on TikTok.

What's a 'bones' or 'no-bones' day?

TikToker Jonathan Graziano regularly posts videos of his pug in the morning to see "whether Noodle has bones" -- in other words, whether he stays standing when propped up in his dog bed or flops back down when let go. 

If Noodle stays standing, it's a bones day, meaning you should buy yourself that sushi you've been wanting or finally ask for that raise -- in other words, seize the day! But if he collapses back into his dog bed, it's a no-bones day, meaning you have permission to cancel plans and take it easy. 

Here's Noodle's prediction for Monday. (Spoiler alert: It's a bones day!)

@jongraz

hope you all have the best Monday! 🔮🦴 #nobones#bonesday#pug#noodletok#monday

♬ original sound - Jonathan

When did the videos become popular?

Graziano has been posting videos of Noodle on TikTok since he joined the platform in late 2020, but the clips have really taken off in October, with each garnering millions of views. This one of a "no-bones morning" from Oct. 4 hit over 10 million views. 

"If today was the day you were planning to call your sister and tell her you just hate her husband, today is not the day to do that," Graziano says in a voiceover on the clip.

@jongraz

the Bones have spoken!! ##pug##adoptdontshop##nobones##noodletok##mondaymotivation

♬ original sound - Jonathan

Graziano told Insider he had around 50,000 TikTok followers two weeks ago; he now has 1.7 million.

The creator reportedly met Noodle in 2016 and adopted him after his owner wasn't able to care for him anymore. Since those early days, Graziano would try to get Noodle to get up in the mornings by propping him up, but he'd sometimes melt back into the ground -- "not from an inability to stand up, but seemingly as a choice," Graziano told Insider. He's been sharing pictures of Noodle via his Instagram account @showmenoodz, which has over 50,000 followers.

Software engineer Jake Kaplow also created a notification site that sends a text each morning about whether or not it's a bones day, for anyone who's invested in the trend but doesn't want to hop on TikTok.

Other 'bones day' memes

Noodle has inspired TikTok hashtags like #nobones, which has over 151 million views, and #bonesday, which has over 32 million views. 

"Do I believe in astrology?" one user says in a video. "No. Do I believe in that dog who predicts whether or not it's gonna be a good day based on if they wake up with bones or not? Yes."

@www.emma.org

im having a real no bones day #nobones#noodle#noodlethepug#bones

♬ original sound - emma

"And I checked the forecast, and it was a no-bones day," another TikToker says as she lies down. Someone responds, "Well, yeah, if it's a no bones day, I mean what are you supposed to do? It's no bones day!"

@bardbarianboi

##stitch with @_jen_hamilton_ what are you supposed to do? ##nobones##nobonesday##noodletok##bard##bardbarianboi

♬ original sound - BardBarianBoi

Another user poked fun at the pug's fortune-telling abilities (while also jokingly misquoting the catchphrase "Mercury's in retrograde"), saying, "Mercury might be in Gatorade, but the pug had bones. Let's get this bread."

@emmalinechilds

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE BONES 🦴🐶 #nobones#coffeetalk#mercuryretrograde#mercurygatorade#humpday

♬ Nuthin' But A "G" Thang - Dr. Dre

In one video, a TikToker shows how productive a day at work is on a bones day.

@morgandrinkscoffee

I am PUMPED for the day #bonesday#nobones#noodle#barista

♬ original sound - charlotte (is gay)

On the other hand, another user posted a video that reads, "The fact that I literally woke up early, got dressed, and decided to finally be productive just to find out it's a no bones day," as she stares blankly at the camera. 

@abbylmiller11

back to bed I guess #foryoupage#nobones#fyp

♬ Mud Flow "the Sense of me" ( Soundtrack Life is Strange) - DOLKINS

Well, it turns out the weather is no longer the only forecast we should be checking. As one user put it, "My biggest mistake today was that I didn't check the bones forecast this morning."

@mlmclands

learned the hard way that it is, in fact, a no bones day #noodle#nobonesday#nobones#pug#ForYouPizza @jongraz

♬ champagne problems bridge Taylor Swift - Kaylen

So, be sure to add that to your to-do list.

If in 2003 you bet that Goldberg would return to WWE in 2020 and be a world champion, then congratulations. You just made a lot of money. In the main event of WWE Super Showdown, one of WWE's bizarro-world Saudi Arabia shows, Goldberg pinned "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt to become a two-time Universal Champion.

The show was bookended by returning legends, as it opened with The Undertaker being a surprise entrant in the Tuwaiq Trophy gauntlet match. Elsewhere, Brock Lesnar destroyed Ricochet, and Roman Reigns finally, finally, ended his feud with Baron Corbin. I hope.

The main takeaway of Super ShowDown is, of course, 53-year-old Goldberg winning the strap and punching his ticket to WrestleMania. Lesnar's win was expected, but Undertaker pinning AJ Styles wasn't. It appears the rumors they'll have a WrestleMania match are very much true. The best match on the show was the SmackDown tag team title match, but even that wasn't really worth going out of your way to see.

WWE's Saudi Arabia shows are always strange, as the crowd reacts only to big stars and is mostly quiet throughout. That was the case here, and the overwhelming majority of the card was just OK. Not terrible, not good, just there. Full results below.

Goldberg wins the Universal Championship (!) 

Party like it's 1998, because Bill Goldberg is your new world champion. He defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt with a jackhammer to score the Universal Championship.

Very short match. Goldberg hit a spear, Wyatt pops up and grabs the mandible claw. Goldberg powers out, nails three consecutive spears for a two count. The Fiend pops up, mandible claw. Goldberg powers out, jackhammer and new champion.

Rating: 2 stars. It was gripping, even if it was just simple big moves. The decision for Goldberg to beat The Fiend, the most protected new character in years, is sure to rub a lot of the wrestling fandom the wrong way.

Bayley retains her gold

In the second-ever women's match in Saudi Arabia, Bayley defeated Naomi to retain her SmackDown Women's Championship. The finish was creative: Women have to wrestle in T-shirts in Saudi Arabia, and Bayley wrapped Naomi's legs up and trapped them in her shirt before hitting her finish, a Rose Plant driver.

The match was fine. Naomi's offense is fun, but Bayley's offense is often bland and unconvincing -- and Bayley took much of the match.

Rating: 2 stars. No need to go out of your way to see this.

Roman Reigns defeats Baron Corbin in cage match

It's difficult to find something to say about this match. These two have wrestled so many times, and to my knowledge none of their matches have been particularly good. Nor have they been particularly bad. They've just been OK. This match was OK.

Reigns brought out a steel chain, which it turns out he wanted to use only to reinforce the steel cage's door so Corbin couldn't escape. Curious, then, that within 30 seconds Reigns was attempting to climb over the top of the cage. Even the announcers were flummoxed.

The ending came not with a spear, but with a steel chain-wrapped Superman punch. Rest in peace, this feud.

Rating: 2 stars. 

Brock Lesnar kills Ricochet

This was a squash match. Ricochet got in zero offense. He tried a drop kick to start the match off but was swatted out of the air by Lesnar. The Beast hits a few german suplexes, an F5 and retains his title.

Rating: 2 stars. 

Mansoor pins Dolph Ziggler

Super-basic match here. Mansoor, a hometown hero, beat Ziggler, arrogant bad guy. Announcers pump this up as a "miracle" win.

The match was simply Ziggler getting heat on Mansoor, with a few too many headlocks and static holds, leading to a comeback at the end. Standard A to B wrestling match. Crowd was quiet for much of the bout but did fire up for Mansoor's offense and win. Mansoor won the match with a moonsault.

Rating: 1.5 stars. Boring.

Seth Rollins and Murphy retain Raw tag titles

Seth Rollins and Murphy defeated the Street Profits when Murphy pinned Angelo Dawkins following a curb stomp to Dawkins by Rollins.

Like the previous match, the wrestling was well done but struggled to get much of a crowd reaction. There were some "this is awesome" chants toward the end, but mostly silence throughout. Much of the match was Murphy and Rollins cordoning off Montez and slowly beating him down, but there were some nice spots toward the end. The highlight was when Montez, who's a freak athlete, did a huge flip over the top rope to the outside but was caught by Murphy and Rollins and then slammed into the barricade.

Rating: 2 stars. 

Angel Garza beats Humberto Carrillo 

These two did their best. The Saudi crowds tend to only react to the biggest, often oldest stars (see: Undertaker), so these two young bucks were fighting an uphill battle. And it's not really a battle they won: The action was crisp and often spectacular, but the crowd did not care.

The finish came with Garza and Carrillo exchanged roll-up attempts, just like on a recent episode of Raw, leading to a victory for Garza.

Rating: 2 stars. Good wrestling but dead crowd. 

Miz and John Morrison win SmackDown tag titles

In what ended up being a good tag team match, Miz and John Morrison defeated The New Day to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Miz got the W after Morrison hit Kofi with a chair to the ribs and the Miz rolled him up.

The crowd was fairly into both teams, although more so Miz and Morrison. There was a group of fans in front of the hard cam that kept doing the "hey hey, ho ho, Miz and Morrison" chant, which was fun. Some good action in the match, including Kofi's hot tag, a huge powerbomb/foot stomp move by The New Day, a nice back-and-forth between Kofi and Morrison and a false finish after a Skull Crushing Finale to Big E. Kofi also wiped himself out with a brutal over-the-top-rope-dive straight to the floor.

Rating: 3 stars. The crowd gave it a "this is awesome" chant. Not awesome, but good.

Undertaker wins Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet match

Yep. Undertaker won the Tuwaiq Trophy -- which the announcers told us was prestigious almost nonstop -- after pinning AJ Styles with a chokeslam. He didn't even take off his coat!

The gauntlet match itself was sub average. R-Truth was the unlikely hero of the match. He started off with Bobby Lashley, who he got an upset victory over after Lashely missed a spear and collided with the ring post. Afterward, Lashley threw Truth into the steel stairs and cut him down with a spear in the ring. Andrade was in next, but Andrade too fell to R-Truth. The two collided in the middle of the ring, butting heads, and Truth fell atop Andrade for the win. Really.

Rowan was Truth's third opponent/victim. After an over-the-top-rope dive, the two ended outside where Rowan hit Truth with the steel stairs. Rowan was then disqualified. Like Lashley, he took his frustrations out on Truth in the ring afterward, hitting him with a claw slam.

I say R-Truth was the hero of this match because the crowd was dead for everyone except him until this point. They didn't care about Lashley, Andrade or Rowan, but when Truth started mounting a comeback or got offense in they would cheer. AJ Styles was in next though, and the crowd loved him way more than Truth. After some Truth taunting by way of dancing, he submitted R-Truth with a calf crusher.

Rey Mysterio was meant to be the final entrant, but he was assailed backstage by Styles' OC cronies. Styles demands to be declared winner, but is rudely interrupted by none other than The Undertaker. We get an elaborate Undertaker entrance, he enters the ring, chokeslam and 1-2-3.

Rating: 2 stars. Not bad, but definitely not good.

Kickoff Show results

In the sole Kickoof Show match, The OC got a surprise win over The Viking Raiders after they hit a Magic Killer on Ivar.

The new Mac Studio desktop from Apple is geared toward a very specific demographic. It's right in the name: "Studio." Apple designed the machine from the inside out to cater to creators and their creative workspaces. 

As a long-time content creator, I wanted to see how the new Mac Studio and the companion 27-inch Studio Display related to my current setup and workflow, especially as this is Apple's least expensive pro desktop, now that the iMac Pro is no more. 

Read more: Apple Mac Studio review 

Why you should listen to me 

I've been a professional video editor for nearly a decade. I worked in Hollywood for seven years editing and producing sizzle reels and pilots for TV development, worked on a video series for Spotify and edited digital content for America's Got Talent. In the three years prior to joining CNET, I ran my own tech YouTube channel where I edited nearly all my videos.

Ultimately, I'm a Final Cut Pro X editor. I've edited on all major NLEs (nonlinear editing systems) from Avid to Premiere, and I've found Final Cut to be the fastest and most efficient editing software for my needs. In fact, I'll be coming out with a video on the reasons why I choose to use it in the coming weeks.

Final Cut only supports MacOS, so when the Mac Studio was announced it definitely caught my eye. 

My at-home edit station comes first

I always prioritize my at-home video-editing setup because it's where I edit most. I've built an ideal workstation: a standing desk, an ergonomic chair, a large 5K monitor and a nice set of speakers to blast my edits and easily mix projects.

My current setup consists of a 2021 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip. It's connected to a 27-inch LG Ultrafine 5K monitor, and I'm using a Thunderbolt 3 dock to connect all my devices to my laptop with a single cable.

I purchased the 14-inch when it was first released in late 2021, and at the time it felt like my best option. An Intel-powered Mac Pro desktop would have been overkill for my editing needs, not to mention way too expensive for my budget. Had the Mac Studio come out alongside the new MacBook Pros, I most likely would have opted to go for that instead.

The M1 Pro 14-inch cost about $2,500 (with a 1TB storage upgrade). The base model of the Mac Studio, which has the more powerful M1 Max chip, starts at $2,000 and would cost another $200 for the same 1TB upgrade. 

That's a significant price difference, and the fact that I already own a great 5K display, keyboard and mouse means it wouldn't require a lot of extra purchases. It would have been an easy decision to grab a Mac Studio for my home office and use the older 16-inch MacBook Pro (2016) I already owned as an on-the-go editing system.

Now, if you don't already own a monitor, then the Mac Studio may not be as much of a deal as I find it to be. If the purchase of a monitor isn't a deal-breaker, there's the $1,600-and-up Studio Display, but there are less-expensive options as well.

More power, similar price

Most of the sizzle reels I used to edit use ripped 1080p footage plus some multilayered graphics, so I'm not what you would call a "power user." My tech videos are shot in 4K, with two camera angles at most and some simple graphics. Both of these workflows run just fine in Final Cut running at "Better Quality" with my M1 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro. 

Taking a look at CNET's benchmarks, even at the Mac Studio's base level M1 Max, it would outperform my current, and more expensive, 14-inch laptop. On top of that, because of the Mac Studio's intricate cooling system taking up the top half of its internals, CNET's Dan Ackerman says the M1 Max performs slightly better in the Mac Studio than on the MacBook Pro.

I spent a few days editing on the M1 Max Mac Studio at the CNET office. I opened up a project in Final Cut and deleted all the cache files to see how it would run. Editing with unrendered footage and graphics felt more robust than doing it on my MacBook Pro. Final Cut reacted instantaneously to mouse and keyboard clicks, bringing a smile to my face. I was surprised by how much faster the cut played over multilayered graphics and how much faster exports finished. 

For my workflow, I don't see the need for power beyond the M1 Max -- I won't be coming close to editing the 18 streams of 8k video that the M1 Ultra claims to support. The base model would be just fine, and while I don't need the extra speed, it definitely wouldn't hurt. Faster rendering and exports will give me a lot of time back to work on other projects.

Design and desk space

At first glance it's obvious from the Mac Studio's design that it was made for creatives. At the front, there are two USB-C ports (two Thunderbolt 4s on the M1 Ultra chip model) and an SD card slot. There's also a whopping four Thunderbolt 4 ports in the back -- more than enough to connect multiple monitors and drives. Ports are back, baby! 

We saw this with the latest MacBook Pros and we see it here: Apple is putting function over form at last and bringing ports back to its devices. This seems to be a change of direction from when Jony Ive, former chief design officer of Apple, put an emphasis on design and size over ports we creatives valued.

As someone who is constantly running back and forth between shooting footage and throwing it onto my computer, the luxury of having an SD card slot right in the front is an instant win. I recreated this for my current workspace using a Thunderbolt dock -- which cost about $300 at the time. 

The Mac Studio provides the same advantages as my current Thunderbolt dock. I can connect my monitor, hard drives and speakers through the back and have a clean, wire-free desk. 

I also love its minimal design -- it's small for a pro desktop machine. There was a time when I literally packed my 5K iMac into its box and brought it with me on trips. The Mac Studio is the perfect size to throw into your carry-on or in a pelican case and use as a portable machine. Grab yourself a portable monitor and I'll see you at the Delta lounge.

What about the Studio Display?

When The Studio Display was first announced, I was very excited, but since then my excitement has faded. It goes for $1,600, significantly less than Apple's Pro XDR Display, which starts at $5,000 and infamously adds another $1,000 for the stand. Still, I don't think the Studio Display offers enough value, especially when you compare it to other monitors on the market. 

Yes, the Studio Display includes a stand, which is a great start, but it doesn't have height adjustment by default. After sitting down for an editing session with it, it felt too low and I found myself craning my neck. I prefer to look slightly upward or directly at my monitor. Personally, I would swap the stand for the VESA mount (at no extra cost) and attach it to a monitor arm. The other option available is a stand with height adjustment, but that costs an extra $400.

That said, there are other monitors that offer nearly the same visual quality as the Studio Display at a fraction of the cost and with height adjustment included.

Read more: Apple Studio Display review

As far as 5K goes, I love my 27-inch LG Ultrafine ($1,299, also available in a 24-inch). The main differences are that the LG monitor is made of plastic and its peak brightness is 500 nits versus the 600 nits of the Studio Display. There are lots of other 4K monitors that would work just fine for me, including the Dell UltraSharp U2720Q ($600), which has almost the same specs, just at a lower resolution and a peak brightness of 320 nits.

And you may be saying, "But Justin, the Studio Display has great speakers!" That's true -- for a monitor. It has a six-speaker system, which Apple says is the highest-fidelity speaker system ever created for Mac. The speakers sound great, but as a video creator, I prefer much better sound quality in my edit bay and would still opt to use my professional monitor speakers.

Should creators buy this? 

If you're a power user, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio may be a great option. If your workflow is similar to mine, you probably don't need anything stronger than the base M1 Max model. 

If you already have a video editing laptop but are looking for your next upgrade, this could be the one to go for. Keep your older laptop as an on-the-go machine and when necessary, you can edit with low-res proxy files, then up-res them on the Mac Studio at home.

Personally, I'm happy with my current M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and I don't need a Mac Studio in addition to it just yet. If I was deciding between the two, I would probably go for the Mac Studio at home and a less-expensive MacBook Pro or MacBook Air for travel and proxy editing.

Facebook's internal research into Instagram has raised serious concerns about the photo-sharing app's impact on the mental health of teens, prompting US lawmakers to press the world's largest social network for more answers.

"As the internet -- and social media specifically -- becomes increasingly engrained in children and teens' lives, we are deeply concerned that your company continues to fail in its obligation to protect young users," says a letter sent Wednesday to Facebook by three Democrats. In the letter, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Lori Trahan from Massachusetts and Rep. Kathy Castor from Florida urge the company to "cease all efforts" to launch a version of Instagram for kids under 13 years old. 

The heightened scrutiny comes after The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Facebook researchers conducted studies over the past three years and found that Instagram is "harmful for a sizable percentage" of young users, particularly teenage girls. Research presented in 2019 reportedly found that Instagram makes body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. Teens also said Instagram increased rates of anxiety and depression, the Journal reported, citing internal company documents.

On Tuesday, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said it stands by its research to understand young people's experiences on the app. 

"The question on many people's minds is if social media is good or bad for people," Karina Newton, head of public policy at Instagram, wrote in a blog post. "The research on this is mixed; it can be both. At Instagram, we look at the benefits and the risks of what we do." 

Newton added that Instagram has done "extensive work around bullying, suicide and self-injury, and eating disorders" to make the app a safe place for everyone. The company is also focused on addressing negative social comparison and body image, said Newton, and is developing ways to "jump in if we see people dwelling on certain types of content." 

For years, people have called out apps like Instagram for taking a toll on people's mental well-being. Instagram has been criticized by users, advocacy groups and lawmakers for harboring harmful content and fostering anxiety and depression, particularly among younger audiences. 

The Journal report also drew criticism of Facebook from lawmakers on Tuesday. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said they'd be launching a probe into Facebook's knowledge of Instagram's reported negative impact on teens. 

"It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable," the senators said in a statement. "When given the opportunity to come clean to us about their knowledge of Instagram's impact on young users, Facebook provided evasive answers that were misleading and covered up clear evidence of significant harm."

Blackburn and Blumenthal said they're in touch with the Facebook whistleblower and will be "seeking further documents and pursuing witness testimony."

The Instagram research is part of a "trove of internal communications" reviewed by the Journal. On Monday, the publication reported that Facebook exempted millions of high-profile users, including celebrities and politicians, from some or all of its community standards as part of a program called XCheck. A Facebook spokesman said the program was meant to give certain Facebook pages a "second layer of review to make sure we've applied our policies correctly." 

On Wednesday, the Journal reported that Facebook's researchers found the company's efforts to boost more "meaningful social interactions" between family and friends rewarded content that fueled outrage and misinformation. The social network then rolled out changes to address that problem, including reducing the amount of political content users see on its News Feed.  

Facebook has reportedly abandoned its plan to sell ads in messaging platform WhatsApp, according to a Thursday report by The Wall Street Journal. The company's decision to bring ads to the app is reportedly what led to the departure of WhatsApp's creators around two years ago. 

In recent months, WhatsApp dissolved a team dedicated to figuring out how to best integrate ads into the platform, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. That team's work was reportedly removed from WhatsApp's code. 

Facebook still plans to potentially bring ads to WhatsApp's Status feature, a company representative confirmed, though they didn't share a specific timeline for the move. The social media giant has been grappling with how to monetize WhatsApp, which it acquired in 2014 for $19 billion. Facebook says it's currently focused on features that let businesses connect with customers.  

First published Jan. 16, 2:36 p.m. PT.
Update, 2:54 p.m.: Adds comment from Facebook. 

You might not have heard of phone maker Vivo, but if you're seriously into your selfies, then its latest phone, the V5 Plus, could be just the thing for you.

It packs a 20-megapixel image sensor on the front, and right alongside is an additional 8-megapixel sensor. The smaller sensor captures depth information about the scene, allowing it to create shallow depth-of-field effects with your face.

We've seen similar effects already from the iPhone 7's portrait mode, but that uses the rear camera only. By using the front camera, the Vivo 5 Plus could let you capture artfully focused selfies that look like they were taken on a DSLR.

Elsewhere, the phone is pretty standard, with a 5.5-inch full HD display, 16-megapixel rear camera, Qualcomm 625 processor and a design that looks remarkably like an iPhone.

The Vivo V5 Plus will go on sale across Asia and India, available now for preorder via the Malaysian tech retailer DirectD. Whether it will see a wider release isn't yet known.

New products from CES 2017: The CNET team shows you the latest gear from the Las Vegas tech show.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.

A somber mood enveloped Stephenie Buchanan's family after her brother Tarrence's funeral.

Following the service in May, family and friends gathered in a hall to celebrate the life of the deceased 37-year-old. Buchanan grabbed a microphone, with a surprise for the packed room.

"I asked everybody if they had Snapchat," Buchanan, 33, said in a phone interview three months after the funeral. "I told them to go ahead and take a picture, and then scroll across."

Those who had Snapchat loaded the app, snapped a photo and swiped until they saw the words "T's World" on the top and "We love you Tarrence, rest in Heaven" on the bottom, superimposed over the picture. Snapchat calls the effect a geofilter, typically silly or cartoony digital images and words that highlight your location.

Buchanan created a custom one for her brother's funeral.

But rather than be offended, people began taking selfies. Most of Buchanan's friends and family members were excited about it, with only a handful of older folks confused about it all.

"They said, 'Oh my god, he has a filter, how did they do that?'" Buchanan said. "No one knew until I got on the microphone. My mom was sad, but she smiled about it."

Funeral geofilters are just the latest example of how Snapchat -- an app that many people still struggle to figure out -- has invaded the most intimate times of our lives. Custom geofilters are one of the hottest aspects of the young social network, where people can create templates to go over their temporary photos and videos to commemorate a significant moment in their lives. Snap Inc. said it offers on-demand filters for occasions like weddings, birthdays and graduations, but you can create geofilters for pretty much anything.

As morbid as it sounds, Snapchat filters for funerals are starting to pop up. The idea of using your phone to take selfies with an app that has features like a dancing hot dog and puppy-faced filters seems to go against the etiquette of a funeral. In 2013, Jason Feifer, now editor-in-chief at Entrepreneur magazine, even set up a blog called "Selfies at Funerals" to call out the tacky tech faux pas.

But others say the geofilters are actually another way people can pay their respects to the deceased. On average, Buy Custom Geofilters gets about 300 requests a month for geofilters. The majority of them are for birthdays and weddings, and less than 1 percent are for funerals, said Andrew Lee, the company's founder.

Over the last three months, however, requests for funeral geofilters have been on the rise, Lee said. When he received his first funeral request in August 2016, he never expected that his geofilters would be tributes to the dead.

"I just had never seen that before. It was kind of shocking," Lee said. His company has made a handful of funeral geofilters since that first request, acknowledging they're another form of celebration.

"The whole, 'sad funeral' and 'everybody wearing black' isn't as common these days," he said. "People are using the funeral to celebrate the lives. Geofilters are just another step to doing that."

Social media in the afterlife

If you pay between $60 and $120, you can get a funeral geofilter made, too. Lee's company requests four days' notice, and you  specify what you want, with what color, text and design. If you pay extra, you can also get a little caricature of the deceased on the geofilter.

Lee said the cartoons of deceased friends and family members are often seen as tributes. That's how Buchanan saw it when she ordered a geofilter for her brother's funeral.

Before he passed away, Buchanan said, her brother was constantly on Snapchat, sending photos of himself, his newborn daughter and his fiancee around the clock. She even nicknamed her brother "the Snapchat King," something his friends remember fondly.

When Buchanan's friends and family saw the surprise geofilter, they thought it was the perfect way to celebrate Tarrence's life, and she received hundreds of pictures and videos using the filter. Buchanan is thinking about putting together a book with all the filter snaps sent to her.

"It's like a photo that represents that person," Buchanan said. "The filter represents them, and their day. It's special, because it's theirs, even if it's a funeral."

A history of selfies and death

Selfies have so permeated our culture that they've even spread to moments of grief.

At first, people were appalled that selfies were being taken at funerals, said Feifer, whose blog cataloged all these offending instances. He would get messages criticizing "these awful millennials" and how obsessed they were with taking photos.

Feifer recognizes how weird geofilters for funerals might seem, but he doesn't have a problem with them, or with selfies at funerals either, despite his discontinued blog. He looks at a generation that grew up on social media, with a camera always within reach, and notes that it's the easiest way for them to communicate.

From his perspective, the funeral selfies aren't much different from Victorian death photos. In the mid-1800s, when cameras were new on the scene, families would take photos with a deceased loved one, propped up to look like they're still alive. The idea was to capture a person's last image in their final moments.

People have always wanted to take photos of their family around death, Feifer noted. The technology's just become advanced enough now that you can include a dancing hot dog, if that's what you're into.

"Technology shapes how we interact with the world, though I don't think it changes our basic desires," Feifer said.

'Virtual community of support'

The growth of social media doesn't mean the death of decorum at funerals, though.

Walker Posey's family has been operating a funeral home in South Carolina since 1879. Posey, the funeral director there, knows the important role that social media plays in helping people deal with death.

He's seen people on their phones at funerals, and a few who take pictures for social media during services. Posey's not bothered by it. Social media can help create a "virtual community of support" for people mourning, and he said the key is making sure the technology doesn't distract from the funeral itself.

"I don't see a lot of people taking pictures at the moment, but I think we're heading there," he said. "It's evolving, and just like we use Facebook all the time, we've seen an uptick in baby boomers using social media at funerals."

He's yet to run into any Snapchat geofilters at his funeral home, but he understands why people would have them. While social media at funerals is here to stay, Posey noted that people are going to have to figure out when they're going too far.

For now, Feifer doesn't see Snapchat photos at funerals crossing that line.

"People using social media to express themselves at funerals does not mean that the door's opened up for the circus to walk in," he said. "There is an earnest purpose to this. It's not just people screwing around." 

Logging Out : Welcome to the crossroads of online life and the afterlife.

The Smartest Stuff : Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you, and the things around you, smarter.

Look around the next time you're at a coffee shop or airport. Although it's possible I haven't been looking hard enough, I don't think I've ever spotted an Android tablet out in the wild, much less a tablet that runs HarmonyOS, the operating system Huawei built to run on its devices in place of Google's Android. 

That changed when I tested the slender new Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 -- the tablet Huawei is positioning as a competitor to Apple's iPad Pro. The Huawei brand has been making inroads around the world, but because of its fraught, often litigious relationship with the US government, the electronics manufacturer hasn't struck gold in American markets.

The end result is that, for now, this device runs HarmonyOS, which looks and acts a good deal like Android, but is not. In practical terms, it can run many Android apps, but you lose the Google Play Store and key Google-made apps like Maps, Gmail and YouTube. Instead, the main app store is Huawei's own App Gallery (more on that later).

Big screen, but not quite a laptop

Like Apple, Huawei has outfitted the 12.6-inch MatePad Pro with a processor built in-house. The Kirin 9000E chip does its job, and it does it quite well. I scrolled on TikTok, played Angry Birds 2, typed in Huawei's Notepad app, doodled in a drawing app -- and not once did the tablet lag or keep me waiting. Adding to the tablet's functionality is the helpful Optimizer app, which enables you to quickly close apps and clean up storage. 

Coupled with the tablet's processing power is a user experience smooth as butter, courtesy of HarmonyOS 2. All the swipes and scrolls are remarkably intuitive to the point that I, a physical home-button devotee, didn't find the absence of a home button too bothersome. (In fact, its absence is what enables the screen to take up virtually the entire tablet with a gorgeous OLED display.) The productivity setups are also worth noting: App Multiplier lets you open up two side-by-side windows in the same app when in landscape mode, and you can sync up your tablet with a PC.

You'd think a tablet with a great screen and multitasking would suck up a battery, but that's not what I found. In anecdotal testing, it lasted about 13 hours on a battery-drain test in which I continuously looped a streaming video. The tablet also features wireless charging and, on top of that, reverse wireless charging, which means you can place your Qi device on the back and get some charge on it. 

As with most modern phones or tablets, there are three camera sensors on the back: a 13-megapixel primary lens, an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 3D depth-sensing sensor. Photos come out sharp and vibrant, if not at the same level as an iPad Pro. If you get this tablet for any reason, get it for the cameras, its customizable aperture and its features like portrait mode, night mode, light painting and AR. Notably, the front-facing camera is halfway down the tablet on the right side. It won't work for Snapchat users or vertical-selfie takers: When you look at the screen as you take a pic, it looks like you're looking up and to the side. But if you're using it for video calls (You can side-load Zoom) or landscape photos, it's perfect. 

As for the device's exterior (available in matte-gray and olive green), it's long. Almost a foot long. Held vertically, it's 7.3 inches across and 11.3 inches tall. Huawei's website calls the tablet "sleek" and "compact," and although it's certainly sleek with a thickness of 6.7mm (just barely thicker than the iPad Pro) and a weight of 609 grams (just barely lighter than the iPad Pro), I wouldn't call it compact. Holding it portrait style, I found myself having to hold it against my stomach. It's a little awkward to hold and type on, and your thumbs don't quite meet in the middle in vertical view nor in horizontal view.

But fortunately for those who use their tablets to write, the hybrid keyboard-case, which Huawei says is sold separately "depending on markets," makes the setup conducive to heavy-duty typing. The case is unbelievably magnetic, snapping easily to the tablet's body for a secure fit. The pen, whose tip is so razor-sharp it's mind-blowing that it doesn't puncture the screen, charges when magnetically attached to the side of the tablet, similar to the Apple Pencil. 

The app equation 

Huawei is proposing the MatePad Pro as an outlet for creativity -- and in order to be creative on a tablet, you need apps. That's where things get dicey. Like everything else on this tablet, Huawei's AppGallery has a user-friendly, navigable interface. But although you can get a few mainstream apps, there is a whole lot you can't get. In some regards, AppGallery is a bit like the wild west. The first option under "top-rated apps" is something called "OfficeSuite - Office, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint." Sounds pretty legit -- until you click on it and realize there's one rating, and it's one star. (But you can also download the real Microsoft Office.) Other options include the Chinese online retailer Alibaba and Spotify competitor Deezer. The severed partnership with Google is pretty noticeable: no Google Play Store, no Google Maps, no Google Drive, no Google Photos. Huawei seems to have developed an alternative called Petal, with Petal Search, Petal Maps, etc. Petal Se arch is organized quite nicely, with a feed, news, weather, music and easy access to Petal Translate and currency converter. Petal can also help find and install APK files for Android apps, not in the official app store, but as always, exercise caution when sideloading apps.

For the apps you can get, you can arrange them beautifully. You can make a "large folder" where you can categorize the apps but still open them without opening the folder first. While you're in one app, you can swipe from the side to access others. 

For sale, somewhere

Regardless of how you weigh the pros and cons, you might not even have the opportunity to make a purchase decision about the MatePad Pro. It's for sale in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Europe, for prices that translate to around $900. We don't know when or if it'll be available in the US, and a Huawei spokesperson tells us it'll likely only be available for now through third-party resellers on sites like Amazon. 

You might recall the iconic moment from the 2004 teen flick Mean Girls when, after Gretchen Wieners tries to introduce "fetch" as a new slang word for the umpteenth time, queen bee Regina George finally snaps: "Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen. It's not going to happen." 

Regarding Huawei's efforts to make Huawei or HarmonyOS happen in the US, I share Regina's sentiment. But just as Gretchen's "fetch" is a pretty cool term despite its failure to catch on, Huawei's products themselves deliver on the hardware level. This new tablet is well-made, but it's near-impossible to buy in the English-speaking world, and it requires too many compromises with app choices to justify switching from an Apple or Android tablet right now. 

After internal research surrounding the impact of Instagram on teenagers was made public in a Wall Street Journal report, Facebook has hit back, arguing that the report misunderstood not only the purpose of the report, but the results of the research itself. 

The Wall Street Journal report in question said that Facebook, via its own internal research, was well aware of the harm Instagram was having on teenagers (particularly teenage girls) -- an impact Facebook played down in public. The story, based on a "trove of internal communications" reviewed by the Journal, raised concerns around the photo-sharing app, prompting US lawmakers to press the world's largest social network for more answers. 

But Monday, in a lengthy blog entry titled "What Our Research Really Says About Teen Well-Being and Instagram," Facebook pushed back against that reporting. According to Facebook, the internal research cited by the Wall Street Journal shows that teenagers actually reported benefits from using Instagram.

"It is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is 'toxic' for teen girls," said Pratiti Raychoudhury, vice president and head of research at Facebook, said in the blog post. "The research actually demonstrated that many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced."

Facebook also rebutted "implied" claims it was hiding this research, claiming it has spoken openly about the negatives of social media as well as its benefits for over a decade. 

"Our internal research is part of our effort to minimize the bad on our platforms and maximize the good," Raychoudhury wrote. "We have a long track record of using our research -- as well as external research and close collaboration with our Safety Advisory Board, Youth Advisors and additional experts and organizations -- to inform changes to our apps and provide resources for the people who use them."

Regardless, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, plan to  launch a probe into Facebook's knowledge of Instagram's reported risks for teens. 

"It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable," the senators said in a statement earlier this month. "When given the opportunity to come clean to us about their knowledge of Instagram's impact on young users, Facebook provided evasive answers that were misleading and covered up clear evidence of significant harm."

Reports from earlier this summer suggested that Ford may trim a number of jobs from its ranks as the company looks to restructure for the future. Now, a memo sent to employees confirms that the layoffs have indeed begun.

Ford will lay off approximately 3,000 people, The Wall Street Journal reports. These layoffs will see a reduction of about 2,000 internal salaried positions, in addition to about 1,000 agency positions. Representatives for Ford did not immediately return a request for comment, but a spokesperson told The Verge that the layoffs will focus more on the company's Ford Blue division, which covers the automaker's internal-combustion projects, as it remains the larger side of Ford's business.

"We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business," wrote Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley in a jointly written memo to employees, which The Verge posted in full in its report. The memo states that Ford will provide "significant help to find new career opportunities."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Ford is looking to cut approximately $3 billion in annual costs by 2026 with the goal of reaching a pretax profit margin of 10%. Last year, Ford's pretax profit margins hovered around 7.3%.

In March, Ford reorganized its business into two halves, which the automaker called its Ford Plus plan. Ford Blue will continue to focus on internal-combustion vehicles and reducing their development costs, while Ford Model E looks to the future with an eye toward EVs, software and connected-car tech. This is in addition to the Ford Pro division, which covers the automaker's commercial efforts. 

China's crackdown on big tech continues. As Beijing rails against internet addiction, TikTok parent company ByteDance on Saturday announced a new set of rules designed to limit the use of its Douyin platform by kids aged under 14 in China. 

People under the age of 14 will access the app via Youth Mode, where their usage will be limited to 40 minutes a day, ByteDance said in a blog post. Additionally, this age group will only be able to access the Douyin app between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. 

Douyin is almost identical to TikTok, except that it has much stricter content moderation. Politically sensitive clips, like ones that reference Tiananmen Square or the treatment of Uighur muslims in Xinjiang, are scrubbed immediately. Douyin has over 600 million daily users.

Previous regulation requires ByteDance and similar companies to verify its users' real names and ages. Those users are required to hand over phone numbers and other personally identifying information to access certain apps and online games. 

China has spent the past 10 months cracking down on its big tech companies, drawing up new regulations and tightening its control of the energetic sector. It started dramatically last October: Jack Ma's Ant Group was planning to raise billions in the world's biggest IPO, which was expected to value the company at over $300 billion. The day before the planned IPO, Chinese regulators pulled the plug, and the fintech company has since been restructured to come more directly under state control.

Jack Ma is China's most known business figure, but he's far from the only one to be targeted. Two days after the New York IPO of Didi, a Uber-like ride hailer, Chinese regulators ordered Didi to stop signing up new customers and demanded app stores kick Didi off their platforms. Online tutoring companies were targeted in July, before regulators moved to tackling video game addiction in August by limiting the time kids can spend playing games.

ByteDance has in recent years been one of China's tech darlings, being called the world's most valuable startup last year before getting embroiled in a geopolitical spat between the Chinese government and the Trump administration. China's willingness to crack down on its champion companies was displayed in July, when Alibaba and Tencent were among several companies fined for hosting content deemed harmful to minors. 

"In the youth mode, we have also prepared wonderful content for everyone, such as novel and interesting science experiments, exhibitions in museums and galleries, beautiful scenery across the country, explanations of historical knowledge and so on," the ByteDance blog reads. 

Correction 12:35 p.m. PT: The headline on this story initially misstated which app the time limit in China applies to. The 40-minute limit affects Douyin and its users.

The cold winds of crypto winter keep blowing. On Tuesday, cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest crypto company to falter since the market began to crash in April. A buying, trading and lending platform, Voyager Digital is estimated to have between $1 billion and $10 billion in both assets and liabilities.

Voyager Digital CEO Stephen Ehrlich said in the filing that the company's bad financial state was caused by two issues. First, high inflation and rising interest rates have caused crypto prices to dump, with bitcoin down 60% from its all-time-high in 2021. Second, Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund, defaulted on a $650 million loan issued by Voyager in March. 

It's an example of the contagion effect that's helped drive down crypto in recent months. The contagion began with Luna, a cryptocurrency that collapsed in May after its associated TerraUSD stablecoin depegged. That crash wiped around $14 billion from the market, inflicting huge losses on firms holding TerraUSD and Luna. Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital is one such firm. The hedge fund filed for Charter 15 bankruptcy last week -- just days after Voyager Digital issued a notice of default on the $650 million it had loaned 3AC.

The past few weeks have seen Peter Thiel-backed crypto lender Vauld suspend withdrawals, crypto broker Genesis reportedly lose hundreds of millions due to the bankruptcy of 3AC, and news that a Korean investment fund lost 99% of its customers funds due to the Luna collapse. 

Three Arrows Capital managed a fund estimated to be worth $10 billion back in March, reported Fortune. Three Arrows Capital was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond. 

While 3AC is in the process of court-ordered liquidation, Voyager Digital's leaders hope the bankruptcy filing is the first part of a turnaround. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures allow companies to plan restructures and turnaround strategies while protecting them from civil litigation. New Jersey-based Voyager Digital was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange before trading of its stocks were suspended following the bankruptcy filing. 

"This is not a 'free-fall' filing without direction," the filing reads. "On the contrary, Voyager has a path forward and a plan to swiftly bring these chapter 11 cases to an appropriate conclusion." A plan outlined by Ehrlich, subject to change and pending court approval, would see Voyager customers with crypto in their wallets recieve proceeds from 3AC's ecovery, shares in the reorganized Voyager Digital company, as well as Voyager crypto tokens.

Voyager Digital's bankruptcy filing comes days after it suspended withdrawals and trading on its platform last Friday. 

This story is part of Recession Help Desk, CNET's coverage of how to make smart money moves in an uncertain economy.

Despite a slight slowdown in July, inflation remains sky high as prices continue climbing, making everything from the groceries you buy to the rent you pay each month more expensive. But how does inflation impact student loan borrowers?

The answer will vary depending on what type of loans you hold -- federal or private -- and whether or not you're eligible for loan forgiveness. In a general sense, however, inflation will make it harder for borrowers to repay existing debt and will continue to drive up rates on private student loans.

The current pause on federal student loan repayments expires at the end of August. The moratorium was extended six times since the start of the pandemic and has offered borrowers temporary relief. Yet when repayments begin, high prices can make it more difficult for borrowers to restart monthly student loan payments.

How exactly does inflation impact the student loan debt you hold? We sat down with student loans expert Mark Kantrowitz, author of How to Appeal for More College Financial Aid, to discuss the specifics of what inflation means for student loan holders.

The role inflation plays in student loans

The Federal Reserve has raised the federal funds rate four times in an effort to slow rampant inflation. But while prices haven't dropped from record-high levels, these hikes in the federal funds rate have indirectly led to more burdensome interest rates on consumer products, such as credit cards, mortgages and loans.

The Fed's rate increases won't impact any fixed-rate student loans you currently hold, for example, federal loans. But private loans with adjustable-rates (interest rates that can rise and fall along with the economy) may see their rates increase, making them more expensive for borrowers to repay.

If your wages were to rise alongside inflation at the same rate or higher, it could make paying back your debt a little bit easier and counter higher interest rates. "Inflation dictates that a dollar ten years ago is worth more than a dollar today. So, as long as your wages are rising along with inflation, the debt for a loan borrowed in the past will hold less value today," said Kantrowitz. 

However, average wage increases are not keeping up with inflation. As of June, wages have only increased 5.1% over the past 12 months, making it more difficult for borrowers to chip away at their debt on top of covering daily expenses.

Here's a breakdown on how inflation might impact you depending on your loan type and whether or not you're still in school:

If you hold federal student loans: 

Federal student loans are always fixed-rate loans, so the interest rate will stay the same over its lifetime.   

If you hold a federal student loan, inflation could work in your favor because it effectively devalues your debt, but that only helps if your wages kept up or surpassed the inflation rate. 

If, like for most Americans, your wages haven't increased substantially and your budget is stretched even thinner than before, this devalued debt won't help you -- and you might even find it more difficult to repay your loans when the federal loan repayment freeze ends.

If you hold private student loans: 

Private student loans can be either variable or fixed rate, and payments for either type of private loan have not been on hold during the pandemic. 

For those with fixed-rate private loans, the interest rate of your existing student debt won't go up. However, since inflation is making everyday purchases pricier, you might find yourself with less cash overall to set aside for paying off debt.  

If you have adjustable-rate loans, your interest rates could definitely rise -- and may have already. As inflation rates go up, interest rates usually follow. Variable-rate private loans holders could see even higher interest rates in the future.

If you're a new borrower in 2022:

Both federal and private student loan interest rates will be higher for the 2022-23 academic year, Kantrowitz said. The new federal student loan interest rates for the 2022-23 school year are as follows:

• Undergraduate loans: 4.99%
• Graduate Direct Unsubsidized loans: 6.54%
• PLUS loans: 7.54%

This is a big jump up for students. For reference, last year an undergraduate federal student loan had an interest rate of 3.73% -- around 1.25% lower than the rate for the coming academic year. 

Private student loan rates have also increased. Fixed-rate private student loans range from 3.22% to 13.95%, and variable-rate private student loans range from 1.29% to 12.99%, according to Bankrate, which is owned by the same parent company as CNET.

Will inflation make loan repayment more difficult after the federal payment pause ends?

Kantrowitz said he predicts that the student loan repayment pause will be extended again, with renewed payments beginning after the 2022 midterms. Whether or not the student loan freeze is prolonged could hinge on the White House's decision on widespread federal student loan forgiveness. In any case, since the federal payment pause is set to expire in a couple weeks and no official announcements have been made, it's best to prepare for repayment now.

For many, repaying student loan debt in a time of high inflation is a real concern. According to the Student Debt Crisis Center, out of 23,532 borrowers, 92% of those who were fully employed are concerned about affording payments in the face of skyrocketing inflation.  

"I personally have not been able to save for student loan repayment, and I don't think I could have given the growing disparity between wages and the national cost of living," said Jonathan Casson, a recent graduate of Cornell University.

If you're worried about repaying your student debt, here are some tips to plan ahead:

How can you prepare to repay federal loans?

1. Look into income-driven repayment plans

The government offers four income-driven repayment plans that can help make monthly payments more affordable for borrowers who need to keep payment sizes small. Each IDR plan caps payments at between 10% to 20% of your discretionary income (income after taxes and necessities are paid), and forgives your loan balance after 20 or 25 years of payment. Eligibility for these plans is dependent upon family size and discretionary income. 

2. Check if you're eligible for loan forgiveness

If you're a teacher, first responder, public servant or government worker, you may be eligible for federal student loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. You must be in a qualifying position, hold eligible federal student loans and have made 120 qualifying payments to receive forgiveness (each paused month during the federal payment freeze counts as one qualifying payment). 

The PSLF has temporarily expanded its benefits to include forgiveness for more federal loan types and IDR plans, and could make some applicants now eligible who had been denied loan cancellation in the past. The expanded forgiveness waiver application is due by Oct. 31, so it's important to find out if you're eligible now. In some cases, you may need to consolidate your loans into federal Direct Loans, a process that can take 45 days. 

While your monthly payment may not change if you haven't reached the 120 payment goal yet, you'll at least be a step closer toward student loan forgiveness.

3. Refinance private loans

With many interest rate hikes expected this year, refinancing your private adjustable-rate student loans into fixed-rate student loans could help you save hundreds to thousands in interest -- and may even reduce your monthly payment. You should only refinance if you receive better payment terms or a lower rate. Otherwise it generally won't be worth the hassle and could cost you more in interest.

4. Review your budget

If a student loan payment is not feasible with your current budget, see if there are any ways to cut expenses or pay down high-interest debt now to free up funds. While adjusting your budget may seem daunting, there are multiple resources and apps to help you calculate and identify expenses you can reduce or eliminate. 

5. Consider a side hustle

A part-time gig outside of your primary job may help supplement your income as inflation skyrockets. Currently, 31% of American adults have a side hustle, according to a 2022 Bankrate survey. Having an additional source of money can help bridge a gap in your budget and offer you a bit of breathing room.