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The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3: key information- Releasing on Prime Video in July- Comprised of 11 episodes- No official trailer, but a short teaser from filming- Main cast to return- Season 3 will be the show’s last- Writer/showrunner Jenny Han has vision for more

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 is officially coming to Prime Video in July, but it will also be the show’s last.It should come as no surprise really considering the show is based off the book trilogy by showrunner Jenny Han. So, what's next for one of the best Prime Video shows?Well, there’s plenty of story left to tell and one more dreamy summer in Cousins Beach to endure as the love triangle between Belly and the Fisher brothers plays out. That's one final season to unravel the love shared between the three of them, which so far has been tumultuous at best.And it's up to one of the best streaming services to bring The Summer I Turned Pretty to our screens for the last time. We'll watch on as love, heartbreak, and the touching coming-of-age tale plays out over one final perfect summer. Here's everything we know about The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 from release date, to cast, to plot and more.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3: is there a release date?

A post shared by The Summer I Turned Pretty (@thesummeriturnedpretty)A photo posted by on

While The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 was announced back in August 2023, the show has been officially confirmed to release on Prime Video in July.That’s two years after season 2, but there’s a good reason. When the show was renewed, Prime Video added to their official Instagram post: “Season 3 was greenlit ahead of the strikes and production will not begin until after negotiations are resolved.”Fortunately, Deadline revealed that filming commenced in May 2024 and just over a year later, we'll finally get to enjoy the show's final summer outing in July. Thanks to an update from Jenny Han during Amazon's Upfront presentation (as per Deadline), we also know that this season will be 11-episodes long, which in previous seasons has only been seven and eight respectively.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3: has a trailer been released?

we’re officially rolling on #TheSummerITurnedPretty Season 3. 11 episodes coming your way. see you in Cousins in 2025 🫶 pic.twitter.com/uk7ewxvebrMay 14, 2024

We don’t have a The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 trailer just yet. For now, we have a teaser clip from filming back in May 2024. In just 11 seconds, Lola Tung, who plays Belly, is seen hitting a beach ball around with Steven, Conrad, Jeremiah and Rachel before saying, “See you summer 2025.” That's all we have for now, but we'll be sure to update you with a full trailer once we have one.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3: confirmed cast

The main cast are set to return for one last summer (Image credit: Prime Video)

Thanks to the small teaser seen above, for The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, we know that five of the main cast members will return. We'd also expect two more names to return, especially given flashbacks of previous seasons:

Lola Tung as Belly ConklinChristopher Briney as Conrad FisherGavin Casalegno as Jeremiah FisherSean Kaufman as Steven ConklinRain Spencer as Taylor Madison JewelJackie Chung as Laurel ParkRachel Blanchard as Susannah Fisher

One character definitely not returning is Aunt Julia. Notorious in season 2 for trying to sell the Fisher boys’ late mom’s beach house, Kyra Sedgwick, who played Julia, told People in June 2024, “I’m not in season 3. No, no, no. Spoiler alert.” As to whether Julia’s daughter, Skye, played by Elsie Fisher, will return is still unclear.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3: story synopsis and rumors

Will Belly and Jeremiah's love last the course of season 3? (Image credit: Prime Video)

Full spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty seasons 1 & 2 to follow. Plus, potential spoilers for season 3.

As a trilogy, it’s not surprising to hear that The Summer I Turned Pretty is rumored to be based on the third and final book, We'll Always Have Summer, where Belly makes her final choice between Conrad and Jeremiah. Yes, the season 2 finale felt 'final', but it is never quite the case with Belly and the Fisher boys. Belly seemingly made her final choice picking Jeremiah and it all felt very definitive with Conrad dramatically returning the infinity necklace. But, there's always Susannah's final request for Belly to look out for Conrad which means they'll always have a bond.There's certainly more to come for Belly and her rollercoaster ride of emotions in season 3. Speaking at the Teen Vogue Summit in 2024, the show’s writer Jenny Han said of Belly’s final summer: “I’ll tell you guys, season 3 is a lot. She goes through the ringer.”While the love triangle is a major part of the show's plot, there's still Belly's coming-of-age story at its core, which is set to continue in season 3: “We’re just with her every step of the way and hopefully having empathy for her and empathy for ourselves in moments where we have acted less than perfectly. I think it’s hard to see characters really like go through it or make these big mistakes and say those things that they really regret.”So, we know that season 2 ended with Belly and Jeremiah. But, if you take the plot of Han’s final book, there's plot twists and heartfelt moments that steer the tale into its final direction. Without giving too much away, in the book Belly and Jeremiah attend the same college together, Finch University, and their relationship is certainly not linear (but when has it ever been?).If you've not read the book, we won't delve into the storyline too much in fear of ruining season 3, but there's one last thing to add. In the season 2 finale, Susannah is seen during a flashback writing letters before she passed away. This plays a pivotal part in Han's final book and that's all we'll say about that.Of course, there's always potential to steer away from the books. Speaking to Us Weekly, Gavin Casalegno showed support for this bold move: “I do feel like there’s a strong chance that that’s a possibility. I try to keep it as real as possible in that regard. Obviously, I know where he ends up going and what ends up happening. But I don’t emphasize on that. Because I think Jenny writes it so well that I’m able to kind of get there naturally without having to force it a certain direction.”

(Image credit: Prime Video)

And something that doesn't happen in the books is Belly heading to Paris. But, Teen Vogue reported in October 2024 that Lola Tung had been "spotted by fans around Paris shooting varying scenes in train stations, as well as out on random streets around town." So, perhaps a swerve away from the books is in store. Though, at time of writing, no official plot has been revealed.Meanwhile, we also have Steven and Taylor's relationship to enjoy, which again is not part of the books. Officially becoming a couple towards the end of season 2, their relationship has blossomed throughout the show and there's clearly more to explore for the show's other romantic pairing. Speaking to Deadline, Casalegno said: “I’m really excited to see what comes next for all of us in the show itself, especially for Jeremiah and Belly’s final moments in Season 2."

Will there be more seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty?

(Image credit: Prime Video)

While The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 is the show’s last, it's not necessarily the last we'll see of the characters, with scope to move in a different direction.Speaking to Deadline in September 2023, Amazon and MGM Studios head of TV, Vernon Sanders hinted of more to come: "This show is going to continue to be a huge centerpiece for us, and we absolutely have plans to continue building it. Jenny’s got great vision for where she wants to go with all of it, but we’re already hard at work developing complementary pieces."And when asked what complementary pieces means, Sanders added: “I will say stay tuned, but Jenny’s got some exciting surprises. So we’re thrilled about a season 3, and she’s got a vision for more.”It's no new endeavour for Jenny Han to expand on her much-loved books. She has, after all, released three Netflix movies based off of her To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy. From these movies came spin-off TV show XO, Kitty, following the life of Lara Jean's younger sister.Whether Han would take one of the characters in their own direction hasn't been confirmed, but knowing that she has more ideas would certainly prompt us to say, watch this space.

For more Prime Video TV-based coverage, read our guides on The Boys season 5, Mr and Mrs Smith season 2, The Rings of Power season 3, and Fallout season 2.

The Apple Mac mini M4 is arguably the biggest bargain in computing. This (almost) pocket-sized mini Mac is fast, powerful, near-silent and costs around half the price of the cheapest equivalent MacBook Air. It's almost too good to be true.I bought one last month, my first new Mac since the MacBook Air M1 in 2020, and it's given me that same sense of 'how did they do that?' wonder.We described it as "the best small form factor PC" in our Mac mini M4 review – and with good reason. I can't believe how quiet it is, how small it is, how swift it is at doing things that my now-slightly creaking M1 MacBook Air struggles with (such as opening more than 10 Chrome tabs at once).But if you're thinking of buying one – and you totally, definitely, absolutely should – I have one bit of advice for you: do not waste your money on Apple's own internal SSD upgrades.Seriously, don't even consider it. Because while the Mac mini is an undoubted bargain, Apple's storage is so overpriced that it's a joke.Instead, you'll want to buy an external enclosure and NVMe storage. That's exactly what I did, and it's saved me a fortune.

The problem: Apple SSD storage is too expensive

(Image credit: Apple)

The simple fact is that Apple charges too much for SSD storage. Like way too much.The base Mac mini M4, with 16GB RAM and a paltry 256GB SSD, costs $599 / £599. And while it really is one of the best bargains in computing history, that's despite the storage on offer, rather than because of it.Doubling it to 512GB costs another $200 / £200, and bumping it up to 1TB doubles that again.The maximum SSD size available on the base M4 is 2TB – and for that you'd pay a whopping $1,399 / £1,399. That's $800 / £800 extra for another 1.75TB of SSD storage.There's no 4TB model available on the base M4, but if you step up to the M4 Pro – which has other benefits, such as a more powerful 12- or 14-core CPU and 16- or 20-core GPU – you can upgrade to a 4TB or 8TB SSD.For that privilege, you would pay an astonishing $600 / £600 extra for the jump from 2TB to 4TB, and then a further $1,200 / £1,200 to take you to 8TB.

You can easily calculate what Apple is charging per GB for its upgrades, so I did just that.

So, leaving aside the jump from 256GB to 512GB – which is just ridiculously bad value at 0.78 US dollars or pounds per gigabyte extra – you're generally paying 30-40 cents/pence per GB.How does that compare to third-party storage? Not well.Our best SSD buying guide lists nine options, that have all been thoroughly tested and TechRadar-approved.Number one in the list, the Samsung 990 Pro, currently costs $100/£90 for 1TB – which works out at around 10 cents / 9 pence per GB. Jump up to the 4TB model and the price per GB drops to 7.5 cents, or 6 pence.Factor in that the 990 Pro is one of the most expensive options and you can see the difference here – it's roughly a quarter of the price of going direct with Apple.The flipside is that you will need to buy an external enclosure too, but these are not expensive.And nor do you need to worry about it being a difficult installation process. The most complicated thing about all of this, if you're not particularly techie, is simply the terminology around it all.

The solution: What you need to buy

(Image credit: Future)

You have two options for upgrading your Mac mini's storage: a portable SSD or an internal SSD plus an external enclosure.The former is simpler, in that you just buy one off the shelf and plug it in to a port on the mini, but they're generally more expensive per GB and almost certainly slower.Still, if you want to take your storage on the road with you, this might be your best bet; our guide to the best portable SSDs has plenty of options.I took the other route, which involved buying an internal SSD and a separate enclosure, or case, to put it in; I'll go into details on that below.This has the advantage of being fast enough to rival the mini's internal SSD – well, so long as you buy the right one.

Know your ports

(Image credit: Future)

If you're coming to the Mac mini M4 from a MacBook, the ports on offer will be a welcome surprise: you get two USB-C 3 ports and a 3mm headphone socket on the front, plus three Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C 4 ports, HDMI and Ethernet on the rear.

Jargon busterM.2: The SSD's form factor; small, rectangular, like a stick of gumNVMe: The SSD type; massively faster than the older SATAPCie 4.0: The interface bus standard the SSD will connect to. For the fastest speeds this would be 4.0, but the older 3.0 will also do just fineThunderbolt 4: The connectivity standard used by the Mac mini 4's rear ports. It can charge devices, handle two 4K displays and transfer data via USBUSB 4: The USB protocol used by Thunderbolt 4, enabling speeds of up to 40Gb/sUSB 3.2: The previous generation of USB standard has a maximum speed of 10Gb/s. The mini's two front USB-C ports have this spec

External storage can plug into any of those five USB-C ports, but you'll get the fastest speeds from the Thunderbolt 4 options on the rear. These use USB 4, and have a maximum data transfer speed of 40Gb/s, compared to 10Gb/s for the front ports.(The Mac mini M4 Pro, meanwhile, has Thunderbolt 5, which can handle up to 120Gb/s. That's arguably overkill, but then so is the CPU…)Theoretically, the absolute fastest speeds will come from an SSD that can take advantage of USB 4 – look for SSDs listed as PCIe 4.0 or 'Gen4', with above 7,000MB/s read and 6,000MB/s write. The Samsung 990 Pro mentioned above is one such SSD.That said, you won't get those kind of speeds in real-world use, due to USB 4's 40Gb/s limit. You could therefore buy a cheaper PCIe 3.0 card such as the Samsung 970 EVO Plus. It might be a tiny bit slower than a 4.0 SSD, but you won't notice it outside of benchmarks.In terms of form factor and type, meanwhile, there's a dizzying array of jargon associated with SSDs – but there's no need to be confused by it all.Simply make sure you buy an M.2 NVMe SSD, ideally Gen4 / PCIe 4.0 if you can afford it, and all will be well.

The enclosure

Once you've chosen your SSD you'll need something to put it into. It is technically possible to upgrade the Mac mini's internal storage, but this would void your warranty, and given how easy it is to use an enclosure I'm not sure it's worth it.There are dozens of suitable enclosures for SSDs, but all simply provide a home for the storage to slot into, plus a cable to connect to a USB port.Some have active cooling fans, some use passive cooling; given that the Mac mini is almost silent, I hated the idea of spoiling that quiet, so went with a passive option.Once again, you'll need to ensure the enclosure can handle the speed of your SSD and then transfer that speed to the Mac.Therefore, searching for 'M.2 enclosure' will not suffice – you might end up with something that only works with USB 3.2.Instead, you specifically need an M.2 NVMe USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 enclosure. You can use USB 3.2 if you want, but you'll be limited to about a third of the speed.

What I bought

(Image credit: Samsung)

SSD: Samsung 990 Pro M.2 NVMe 4TBIn terms of the SSD, I ended up buying the Samsung 990 Pro M2 NVMe in its 4TB guise. This cost me £257 – which works out at 6 pence per GB.This is definitely overkill for the Mac mini M4, in that I'm only getting about half of its potential speed, with USB 4 being the bottleneck.However, I figured that I may well upgrade the Mac in the next couple of years, and if I do the Samsung SSD can come along for the ride. Plus, we gave it 5 stars in our Samsung 990 Pro SSD review, so it would seem rude not to pick this.As I said above, you could spend less on a PCIe 3.0 SSD and not lose too much in terms of performance. Either way, you will definitely save money over taking the Apple upgrade.

Enclosure: OWC Express 1M2For the enclosure, I went with the OWC Express 1M2, which cost another £149.This is one of the highest-rated USB 4 enclosures around; we awarded it 4.5 stars in our OWC Express 1M2 review, and on Amazon it has the same score from more than 200 user reviews.It's a beautifully made thing, with an entirely metal body covered with fins that make possible its passive cooling. It's not small – about the length of the Mac mini itself, albeit much more narrow – and weighs about 250g, but that didn't worry me as it isn't something I'll be moving around very much.

(Image credit: Future)

More importantly (to me), it looks great next to the Mac mini; many of the cheaper enclosures are black plastic affairs, but I would rather pay slightly extra for the aesthetics.It also has rubber feet on the bottom that keep it stable, plus a USB-C port in which to plug the all-important (and supplied) data cable. I can't praise it enough.

Putting it all together

I'm no stranger to SSD or RAM upgrades, but even a complete novice will find the OWC Express 1M2 easy to set up – not least because there's a super-helpful video tutorial on the OWC website.You'll need to remove a couple of screws, then slide off the bottom of the case to reveal the NVMe slot inside. Remove one more screw, insert the SSD, push down to make contact with the thermal pads, put the screws back in and you're away.The whole thing takes about five minutes, max; it's really not a complicated process.Next, you'll need to hook it up to one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back of the Mac mini, then format the drive for use.Make sure you choose APFS, unless you want to also use it with Macs running an older version of macOS (in which case go for Mac OS Extended) or Windows (ExFAT, generally).

(Image credit: Future)

Performance gains

(Image credit: Future)

Any SSD will be fast enough for most people, particularly if you're used to an old-school hard drive. However, if you're going down the external route rather than buying an Apple upgrade, you'll want your solution to be at least comparable to the internal SSD.It's worth noting that the SSDs in Apple's mac Mini M4s vary in speed depending on the size; the 512GB SSD is about 30% faster than the 256GB model, according to discussions on Reddit at least, and the 1TB model is faster still.I'm only using the 256GB model, of course, and get a speed of around 2,000 MB/s write and 2,800 MB/s read, based on BlackMagicDesign's Disk Speed Test.The Samsung 990 Pro plus OWC 1M2 combo, meanwhile, gives me 3,100 for both write and read – so, slightly faster than the internal SSD.Nor does it get too hot. The 1M2 does a fantastic job of keeping it cool whilst in use, and while you can feel it heating up, it's never uncomfortably warm.

(Image credit: Future)

In real life, the difference in speed between the internal and external drives is irrelevant; either one can copy a 5GB file in a matter of seconds. But psychologically, it's great – not only have I saved myself at least £400, but I've even improved the performance, too.The result is that I can treat my external storage almost as if it's internal. I have folders on it, I have applications running from it, I have lots and lots of music and photos stored on it – and I'd never know it wasn't sitting inside the Mac mini itself if I didn't look at it. It's one of the best upgrades I've ever made.

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At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Signify (the company behind Philips Hue) announced that the Hue ecosystem will soon have its own generative AI assistant to make lighting your home easier.Details are quite scant so far, but we know that it will be possible to control the tool using typed or spoken commands, and that it will create "personalized lighting scenes based on mood, occasion, or style." You'll also be able to give feedback to help improve the assistant's output in the future.There's no word on exactly when the assistant will be released, but late last month, the editor of fan site Hueblog.com noticed that the usual magnifying glass icon in the Hue app's search box had been replaced by the cluster of stars that typically represent AI features.The launch could happen at any time, but what exactly will it bring? Will it just focus on changing the colors of your lights, or will it change how you use your whole Philips Hue system?As someone with a complete set of Hue lights at home, I'm intrigued to see what's coming, and I've got a wish list of things I'd love to see when the assistant eventually lands.

1. No subscription fee

This might be too much to ask, considering the time and cost of developing and running AI tools. Even so, Philips Hue products are already among the most expensive smart lights on the market, and adding an extra subscription fee for AI features might put off some potential customers - even if those tools are optional.The backlash against the AI-powered Garmin Connect+ subscription demonstrates how angry customers can become if new features are locked behind a paywall after paying for the hardware.I won't hold my breath. After all, the Philips Hue ecosystem already has various subscription options for those who want extra features, including Philips Hue Secure for security cameras and an optional monthly fee for the Philips Hue Sync app on LG and Samsung smart TVs (as an alternative to a one-off payment).The fact that the default search icon changed to an 'AI' symbol without any payment being made gives me hope that it will be available free to everyone. However, a free AI assistant might be very limited in scope, so i'm a little torn about this.

It's possible that the Philips Hue AI assistant could work not only with lights, but with cameras and sensors as well (Image credit: Signify)

2. More than moods

The Philips Hue ecosystem includes some of the best smart lights around, and they can do a lot more than just create mood lighting. So, it would be great if the upcoming AI assistant could capitalize on that.For example, if you could tell the assistant "I'm going away for a week", it might enable a seven-day 'mimic presence' automation that switches lights on in different rooms throughout the day to create the impression that someone is home.A more sophisticated assistant might also be able to create a full morning routine that gradually wakes you by increasing the brightness of your lights and an evening routine that dims them (and changes the colors to sunset tones) after dark and turns off your smart plugs and switches, all without tinkering with settings manually.

3. Compatibility with cameras and more

Signify says that the upcoming AI assistant will be able to control your lights, but it would be even better if it also worked with other Hue devices. After all, the ecosystem includes some of the best smart switches and best home security cameras, so it makes sense to incorporate these.If the assistant worked with devices other than lights, you could also use it to arm and disarm your security devices. For example, telling it, "I'm going to work," might arm your security system and turn off all lights until you're due home (or it senses that you're back).

I'd like to see an AI assistant that knows when to arm my security system (Image credit: Signify)

4. Simple search

A few weeks ago, Ring announced a new feature for subscribers: the ability to search their video recordings for specific events using AI. The Smart Video Search function lets you find a specific moment using natural language. Just type your request into the app (such as 'show me when the package was delivered' or 'show me the deliver driver in the brown uniform'), and the tool will find and display that snippet of footage.If you already have a Philips Hue Secure subscription, something similar would be a great addition that would save you time scrubbing through footage to find out when something happened.

5. Energy-saving suggestions

The fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat monitors how you heat and cool your house and uses AI to suggest changes that you could make to reduce your energy consumption - so why not something similar for your lights and devices connected to Philips Hue smart plugs?Granted, lights use much less energy than an HVAC system, but it would still be nice if your bulbs, sensors, and cameras worked together to determine optimal times to turn off your lights to conserve a little power.It's even possible that one day your Philips Hue light bulbs may be able to act as presence sensors, so you wouldn't even need any extra devices to determine whether you're in the room, or you've left and it's fine to switch off the lights.

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