Jio hands creators free Canva, Apple sweetens iCloud+ (and India wins)
Today: Jio turns Canva Pro into a recharge perk, Apple quietly bundles TV + Arcade into iCloud+ in 100+ countries with India in and the US out, a Safari trick to declutter any webpage, a cloud-subscription face-off, and a Techtember myth worth busting.
- Long Press · Daily Five16 Sept 202601 / 05
commentaryJio just made Canva Pro free for a year
🎨 Jio has turned Canva Pro into a recharge perk. Recharge the ₹399 plan and you get Canva Pro free for 12 months; the ₹349 plan and any 2GB/day plan above it get Canva Pro Lite. You claim it inside the MyJio app, it's live from today, and there's no hidden charge — the benefit is valued at up to ₹4,000. For anyone making thumbnails, posts or decks, a full design suite now effectively comes bundled with your phone bill.
The problem
Paid design tools like Canva Pro are a recurring cost most Indian creators and small sellers quietly resent — useful, but another ₹4,000-a-year subscription on top of everything else.
What changed
Jio and Canva announced a partnership on Sept 15: recharge the ₹399 plan for Canva Pro free for 12 months, or the ₹349 and any 2GB/day+ plan for Canva Pro Lite. It goes live Sept 16, claimable in the MyJio app, with the benefit valued at up to ₹4,000.
The catch
It's tied to specific recharge plans, and it's Canva Pro Lite (not full Pro) on the cheaper tiers — so check exactly which plan you're on before assuming you get the top benefit.
What it means for you
If you already recharge around these plans, this is close to free money — open MyJio and claim it. If you pay separately for Canva, see whether switching plans nets out cheaper.
- Long Press · Daily Five16 Sept 202602 / 05
newsiCloud+ now includes Apple TV & Arcade free
📺 Apple has quietly made iCloud+ more valuable: every paid tier now bundles Apple TV and Apple Arcade at no extra cost — same price, more stuff. The wrinkle is geographic. It's rolling out to over 100 countries, India included, but explicitly not the US, UK, Canada, Australia or the EU. For once, India lands on the winning side of Apple's pricing math.
The problem
iCloud+ has long felt like a storage bill you tolerate rather than value, while Apple TV and Arcade sat behind separate subscriptions few people wanted to stack.
What changed
On Sept 15 Apple folded Apple TV and Apple Arcade into every paid iCloud+ plan at no extra cost across 100+ countries including India, Singapore, UAE, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. Apple TV alone is expanding to 59 new countries.
The catch
The bundle deliberately skips the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the EU — so the 'free entertainment' upgrade depends entirely on where your Apple ID is registered.
What it means for you
If you pay for iCloud+ in India, you just got Apple TV and Arcade for nothing — worth checking your subscription and actually using them before paying for a rival service.
- Long Press · Daily Five16 Sept 202603 / 05
tipDeclutter any messy website in Safari, in seconds
💡 A hidden iPhone trick: in Safari, tap 'aA' in the address bar, choose Hide Distracting Items, then tap the cookie banners, newsletter popups and sticky headers you can't stand — they vanish. Want them back? Tap the eye-slash icon and pick Show Hidden Items. It won't kill ads that constantly reload, but for the static junk cluttering a page, it's genuinely magic.
The problem
Modern webpages are buried under cookie prompts, floating newsletter popups and sticky headers that eat half your screen on a phone.
What changed
Safari's Distraction Control (iOS 18 and later) lets you tap 'aA' → Hide Distracting Items, then tap any static element to remove it from the page; the eye-slash icon → Show Hidden Items brings everything back.
The catch
It's designed for items that don't change — it won't permanently block ads or content that reloads, so it's a declutter tool, not an ad blocker.
What it means for you
Spend 30 seconds hiding the junk on the sites you read daily and every future visit is cleaner — no app or extension needed.
- Long Press · Daily Five16 Sept 202604 / 05
comparisoniCloud+ vs Google One: which cloud bundle earns your money?
☁️ With iCloud+ now throwing in Apple TV and Arcade, the cloud-subscription question is worth a fresh look. iCloud+ in India starts around ₹75/mo for 50GB and now leans on free entertainment. Google One starts around ₹130/mo for 100GB, and its AI Plus tier (₹399) adds Gemini 3 Pro plus 200GB. The honest verdict: Apple bundles entertainment, Google bundles AI. Don't switch for the perks — pick the ecosystem you already live in.
The problem
Both Apple and Google are quietly turning simple cloud storage into all-you-can-eat bundles, making it hard to tell which subscription is actually the better spend.
What changed
iCloud+ now packs Apple TV + Arcade into plans from ~₹75/mo (50GB) in India; Google One runs from ~₹130/mo (100GB), with its ₹399 AI Plus tier adding Gemini 3 Pro and 200GB. Each is bundling in a different direction — entertainment vs AI.
The catch
Prices and included perks vary by region and change often, and the value only lands if you actually use what's bundled — free TV or AI you never open is just a bigger bill.
What it means for you
Match the bundle to your phone: iPhone-first and watch a lot? iCloud+. Android-first and lean on Gemini? Google One. Switching purely for the extras rarely pays off.
- Long Press · Daily Five16 Sept 202605 / 05
myth busterMyth: more megapixels means better photos
🔥 Techtember phones are flexing 200MP and even 250MP sensors, and the number is doing a lot of marketing work. Here's the truth: almost every shot gets pixel-binned down to roughly 12-16MP anyway, so the full-resolution mode is a headline, not your daily photo. What actually decides image quality is sensor size, image processing, the lens and the light. Chasing the megapixel count is just how brands upsell you.
The problem
Phone marketing has trained buyers to read a bigger megapixel number as a better camera, and the Techtember flood of 200-250MP phones leans hard on that.
What changed
In practice these sensors combine many tiny pixels into one (pixel-binning), outputting ~12-16MP images; real-world quality is driven by sensor size, processing pipeline, lens quality and lighting — not the peak megapixel figure.
The catch
High-res modes aren't useless — they can help in bright light or heavy cropping — but they're situational, not the everyday default, and come with bigger files.
What it means for you
Ignore the megapixel headline when choosing a phone; compare real sample photos, sensor size and processing instead, and leave your camera in the standard (binned) mode day to day.