Uber’s new Costco energy: You might want to check out using prepaid passes for routes you take often, so you save money up front. You can buy bundles of five, 10, 15 or 20 rides, and the bigger the bundle, the bigger the discount (5%‑20% off), which means no surge price surprise for your daily commute.
Guess who’s spying from your bookshelf
ChatGPT
With more than 500 million Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide, odds are you’ve got one sitting on your counter or desk, quietly glowing, always listening. Ever mutter something like, “I need new jeans,” and suddenly your phone’s serving up Levi’s ads? Creepy coincidence or hot mic in action?
Alexa is always in listening mode, waiting for the wake word. Then, she starts recording, and that audio gets shipped off to the cloud. By the way, you might’ve said “a lecture,” “erector” or “I’d like a snack,” but Alexa still perks up like it’s her cue to record the next few seconds of your life for her memoir.
🧑⚖️ Alexa, mind your business
Those recordings get stored, reviewed and sometimes even shared. One couple in Portland, Oregon, had their private conversation recorded by Alexa … and it was automatically sent to one of their contacts. That person worked at their company. Awkward.
Another time, Amazon turned over Alexa recordings as evidence in a murder investigation. So yes, your smart speaker might actually testify against you.
🔊 On the record
Unless you’ve changed your settings, there’s a running log of everything you’ve ever asked. The good, the bad and the weird. Want to hear them for yourself?
In the Alexa app: Tap More (three lines at the bottom) > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice and Text History. You can play them back, delete them or pretend you never asked what you just asked.
🤫 Alexa’s problem friends
Some third-party skills and apps can access your mic, calendar and contacts without much oversight. Some have been caught secretly storing data or exploiting commands, all without your knowledge.
These add-ons don’t get vetted like App Store or Play Store apps. So you’re trusting Alexa to vet her friends, and she’s a terrible bouncer.
🛡️ Your privacy checklist
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📱 Disable Android bloatware: Some preinstalled apps can’t be uninstalled, but they’ll still update and eat resources in the background. If you don’t use them, shut them down. Go to Settings > Apps > [App name] > Disable > Disable app. Handy if your phone’s running low on storage space.
🍏 Stop iPhone from switching audio: Ever had your AirPods cut out because your iPhone jumped to your car’s Bluetooth or a speaker? iOS 26 has a fix. Go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity and toggle on Keep Audio with Headphones. Lovely.
🐢 Speed up old PCs: On Windows 11, flashy animations and effects can slow down an older computer. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects and toggle off Transparency effects and Animation effects. Apps will open more basic and your desktop will look plainer, but you’ll get a snappier system in return.
💻 Customize the Mac menu bar: One big change in macOS Tahoe 26 is the fully transparent menu bar. Don’t like it? Go to System Settings > Menu Bar and toggle on Show menu bar background. While you’re there, you can also untick items like Bluetooth or Weather, or remove tools like ChatGPTHelper.
🧠 Siri’s gone fluent: Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 are like having a robot interpreter whispering in your head, translating languages live, right in your ears. You speak one, they hear another. Now I can finally learn why my favorite taco spot keeps calling me a grassy ass.
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🤖 Change ChatGPT’s vibe: You’re not stuck with the default tone. Go to Settings > Personalization > ChatGPT personality. Cynic is sarcastic, Robot is efficient, Listener is supportive, and Nerd is playful. FYI: Leave it on Default if you’d rather keep it neutral and adaptive. Or prompt “reply in a friendly tone” whenever you need.
📚 Stop accidental taps on Kindle: If random screen touches keep messing with your reading, you can disable them. Inside a book, tap the three-dot menu in the top right and select Disable Touchscreen, then hit OK. You’ll still swipe to turn pages. To bring taps back, just restart your Kindle.
📋 Recover text on Windows 11: I sometimes lose links I’ve copied, so I keep Clipboard History on. Go to Settings > System > Clipboard and toggle it on. Next time you need something back, press Windows key + V and your recent text copies pop up, ready to paste. Total lifesaver.
📱 Switch layouts in Phone app: In iOS 26, the Phone app looks a little different. Tap the Filter button (three lines) in the top-right corner and choose between the Classic layout or the new Unified view. Unified puts your recent calls, voicemails and contacts on a single screen so everything’s together.
🔔 Flash alerts on Android: Waiting for an important message? You can make your phone’s camera LED flash along with the screen. Go to Settings > Notifications > Flash Notifications, then toggle on Camera flash and/or Screen flash. FYI: For each one, you can choose whether it applies to all apps or only a specific app.
🍏 iPadOS 26: The Journal app has landed on iPad. To create an entry, open the app and tap the (+) next to Journals in the left sidebar. Name it, pick a color and choose an icon. Then tap (+) at the top of the screen, add a title and start writing. You can also insert photos, record audio or draw with markup tools.
📱 iOS 26: Go to Settings > Battery and you’ll see new tricks. When charging, your iPhone now shows how long it’ll take to hit 80% and 100%. Scroll down to Power Mode and try Adaptive Power. Instead of Low Power Mode, it automatically makes small performance tweaks during heavy use to stretch battery life.
⌚ watchOS 26: The Notes app is finally on the Apple Watch. Open it and you’ll see all your synced notes. Pinned notes show up first, then everything else is sorted by date. To create a new one, tap the Note button in the bottom right, dictate with Siri and hit Done. It’ll appear in Today and sync across your devices.
🖥️ macOS 26: In Messages, set a background if the person you’re talking with is also on the latest Apple OS. Click the chat name at the top, go to the sidebar on the right and select Backgrounds. Choose from solid colors, themes, photos from your library, or generate one with AI.
Lock it down: ExpressVPN is my go-to for online privacy. With one click, everything you do is hidden from hackers, snoops, even your internet provider. Right now, you’ll get 4 months FREE!
📄 Delete PDF pages for free: Using the basic version of Acrobat? You can’t remove pages directly, but there’s a loophole. Go to Menu > Print, set the Printer to Microsoft Print to PDF (Windows) or Save as PDF (Mac). Under Pages to Print, choose the range you want (like 5–12), then hit Print and save your new file.