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With a new year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to take stock of your finances. A budgeting app can help with that, and right now you can get 50 percent off your first year of a Monarch Money plan. All you need to do is enter the code MONARCHVIP at checkout and you'll pay $50 for the initial 12 months instead of the regular price of $100. Note that the offer only applies to new users.
Monarch Money was the runner-up in our guide to the best budgeting apps in 2025, and it was definitely a grower. Initially we found the experience of using the app to be needlessly complicated compared to some of its rivals, but get over that hurdle and it's impressively fully-featured. There are plenty of customization options, a helpful "goals" feature and a thorough month-in-review recap that beats out similar features from some of its competitors. We also like how you can grant account access to others.
Besides the steep learning curve, we also noted that the mobile app is less intuitive to use
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There are way too many online services and subscriptions to keep track of these days, but the flip side is there's a tool for just about everything. Time is just about up to get a physical gift shipped in time for the holidays, so below we've pulled together some of our favorite digital gifts and subscriptions, including time-tested video, music and gaming services as well as tools to clear your mental space and learn new skills. There are also a few subscriptions that provide ongoing, IRL deliveries, if you think your giftee will appreciate the nostalgic charm of a physical object.
Best digital gifts and subscription gifts
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 OpenAI added several new features to its flagship ChatGPT product today, introducing Apple Music support and upgraded image generation capabilities.
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Following the release of GPT-5.2 last week, OpenAI has begun rolling out a new image generation model. The company says the updated ChatGPT Images is four times faster than its predecessor. If you're a frequent ChatGPT user, you'll know it can sometimes take a while for OpenAI's servers to create images, particularly during peak times and if you're not paying for ChatGPT Plus. In that respect, any improvement in speed is welcome.
The new version is also better at following instructions, including when you want to edit something the new model just generated. You can ask the system to add, subtract, combine, blend and even transpose elements. At the same time, OpenAI says the update offers better text rendering. That's something many image models have traditionally struggled with, but according to the company, the new ChatGPT Images is capable of handling denser and smaller text. As part of the today's model update, OpenAI is additionally adding a dedicated Images section to the ChatGPT sidebar. Here you'll find preset filters and prompts you can look to for inspiration.
The new ChatGPT Images arrives just as Nano Banana Pro is responsible for a surge in Gemini usage. In October, Google said its chatbot had 650 million users, up from 450 million just a few months earlier in July. Nano Banana Pro has proven so popular, the company recently
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The 8-core, 16-thread 7800X3D was the sweet spot for gaming performance and price a couple of years ago, though it's been superseded by the Zen 5-based 9800X3D (which can be installed in the same AM5 motherboards). That said, the newer chip is $460 from various retailers right now and only about 5 percent faster in higher-end games.
That makes this deal on the older 7800X3D a no-brainer. Put that extra budget towards your GPU or a bigger SSD and your upcoming PC build will be a lot more capable. Oh, and remember that the X3D processors don't come with coolers—as AMD assumes you'll want something a little beefier—so make sure to include one in your PCPartPicker list.
Grab the Ryzen 7 7800X3D for $319.99 on Amazon while you still can. There's no indication of how long this particular deal will last, but Walmart is also selling it on sale, which you can snag if the Amazon deal runs out. (In fact, depending on where you are in relation to the nearest distribution center, you could get the
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