iPhone 18 Pro demand cools, GTA VI's radio lineup, and why AI answers make you quit
Apple reportedly trims iPhone 18 Pro orders after a Rs 30,000 India price jump, GTA VI names its radio hosts, plus YouTube's sleep timer, a study on AI and persistence, and a prompt that gives hints instead of answers.
- Long Press · Daily Five11 Oct 202601 / 05
commentaryApple trims iPhone 18 Pro orders after a Rs 30,000 jump
Apple has reportedly asked suppliers to cut October component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by 15-20%, according to Nikkei via MacRumors. In India the 18 Pro starts at Rs 1,64,900, Rs 30,000 more than the 17 Pro launched at, and that seems to be the point where a lot of people decided their current phone was fine. For most buyers this festive season, a discounted 17 Pro is the smarter money.
The problem
Memory chips have become one of the most expensive parts of a phone, mostly because AI data centres are buying up DRAM as fast as it's made. Someone has to absorb that cost, and this year Apple decided it would be the buyer.
What changed
Nikkei reports Apple's October orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are at least 15% below plan, with one source putting the cut at 15-20%. The US prices went up by $100 to $1,199 and $1,299, and in India the jump was steeper: Rs 1,64,900 for the Pro and Rs 1,79,900 for the Pro Max, both Rs 30,000 above last year, per 91mobiles. The regular iPhone 18 has also moved to spring 2027, so fewer people are walking into stores this autumn at all.
The catch
Apple hasn't confirmed any of this, and order cuts to suppliers aren't the same thing as sales figures. The wider picture is grim either way: Fortune cites IDC expecting global smartphone shipments to fall 16.7% this year with average prices up 27.6%, so don't expect a price cut on the 18 Pro to come to your rescue.
What it means for you
If you need a phone now, the 17 Pro at a festive-sale price gets you most of the way for a lot less. On a 15 Pro or newer, skip this year. If you're set on the 18 Pro, wait for bank offers rather than an official price drop.
- Long Press · Daily Five11 Oct 202602 / 05
newsGTA VI's radio: Bad Bunny, Lana Del Rey and Slayer on air
Rockstar has revealed GTA VI's first six radio stations, and the host list is ridiculous in the best way: Bad Bunny on Latin music, Lana Del Rey and Morgan Wallen sharing a country station, Burna Boy on African music, and Slayer's Kerry King and Tom Araya running metal, as Complex laid out. The change that matters more for actually playing is that radio now keeps going when you leave the car. The game is out November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The problem
Radio has always been half the personality of a GTA game, but it cut out the second you stepped out of a car. In a game where you spend a lot of time on foot, that was a strange gap.
What changed
On October 8 Rockstar named six stations: Cocoteo FM (Bad Bunny and RaiNao), Back Country Radio (Morgan Wallen and Lana Del Rey), AfroBank FM (Burna Boy and Palms Trax), The Chamber 106.6 (Kerry King and Tom Araya), a returning Flash FM (Robyn and Alex Consani) and Dirty South Classics (Trick Daddy and Trina). Jason and Lucia can now listen on foot through in-game headphones, and on-demand podcasts are in the series for the first time, per GameTyrant.
The catch
It's still PS5 and Xbox only at launch, so PC players are waiting again. Rockstar says more stations are coming, including classic rock, electronic and talk radio, so this is the opening act rather than the full list.
What it means for you
You can preview the stations now in the Music section of Rockstar's GTA VI site. If you're planning to buy, keep November 19 free and make sure your console has the storage, because a game this size won't be small.
SourcesComplex ↗GameTyrant ↗
- Long Press · Daily Five11 Oct 202603 / 05
tipYouTube has a sleep timer, and it's free
YouTube has a built-in sleep timer that most people never find. Play a video, tap the gear icon in the player, choose Sleep timer and pick 10, 15, 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, or end of video, as Smartprix walks through. The video pauses when the countdown ends, and you don't need Premium.
The problem
Falling asleep to a podcast or a long video means waking up to a hot phone, a drained battery and half your data pack gone on autoplay.
What changed
The sleep timer sits inside the player's settings gear on the YouTube app. Options run from 10 to 60 minutes, or until the current video ends, and a countdown shows in the app and in your notifications. It started as a Premium perk and is now open to everyone, per Smartprix.
The catch
It pauses playback, it doesn't lock your phone or stop other apps, and if you don't see the option yet, updating the YouTube app usually fixes it.
What it means for you
Set it once tonight before you hit play. Pair it with Stable Volume in the same menu and late-night listening gets a lot less annoying.
SourcesSmartprix ↗
- Long Press · Daily Five11 Oct 202604 / 05
hot takeTen minutes of AI answers made people give up sooner
A set of experiments with 1,222 people found that ten minutes of solving maths with GPT-4 left people worse off once the AI was taken away: they solved fewer problems and skipped more of them, according to the paper on arXiv. The people who used the AI for hints showed no real drop. The tool isn't the problem here. Asking it for the answer every time is.
The problem
Everyone assumes AI makes us more productive, and in the moment it does. What nobody measures day to day is what happens to your own ability when the AI isn't there, in an exam, an interview, or a meeting where you can't open a chat window.
What changed
In the first experiment, people who used GPT-4 on fraction problems for about ten minutes and then worked alone solved 57% of the next problems, against 73% for a group that never had AI, and skipped nearly twice as many (20% vs 11%). A reading-comprehension version showed the same pattern, per the summary on alphaXiv. Around 61% of the AI group mostly asked for direct answers and took the biggest hit, while the roughly 27% who asked for hints or clarifications showed no significant impairment.
The catch
These were short online tasks, fractions and SAT-style reading, not months of real work, and the paper measures a short-term dip rather than permanent damage. Still, if ten minutes moves the needle this much, I'd be wary of what a year of copy-paste does.
What it means for you
Use AI the way you'd use a good tutor: ask what you're missing, not what the answer is. Slot 5 today has a prompt that does exactly that.
SourcesarXiv ↗alphaXiv ↗
- Long Press · Daily Five11 Oct 202605 / 05
aiA ChatGPT prompt that gives hints instead of answers
If you use ChatGPT to learn anything, paste this before your question: "Don't give me the answer. Ask what I've already tried, then give me one small hint at a time. Show the full solution only when I type 'show me', and tell me where I went wrong." In the 1,222-person study on arXiv, people who used AI for hints kept their skills while answer-seekers slipped. This prompt forces you into the first group.
The problem
Chatbots are built to be helpful, which in practice means they hand you the full answer instantly. That's great for getting unstuck and bad for actually learning the thing.
What changed
The prompt flips the default: the AI asks what you've tried, drips out the smallest useful hint, and only reveals the solution on request. It lines up with the study's finding, summarised on alphaXiv, that hint-seekers showed no significant drop when the AI was removed, while answer-seekers solved 57% vs 73% for a no-AI group.
The catch
It's slower, and some days you just need the answer. Most chatbots also drift back to their helpful defaults in long chats, so repeat the instruction if it starts solving things for you.
What it means for you
Save it in your notes or set it as a custom instruction for study sessions. It works for maths, code, Excel formulas and exam prep.
SourcesarXiv ↗alphaXiv ↗