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Ever get the feeling someone knows too much about what you’re doing online?
I don’t know about you, but when Friday hits, the last thing I want to do is scroll for an hour trying to find something to watch.
Breaking news and tips
Remove yourself from the internet
Michelle in Phoenix asks: “Hello, Kim, do you have recommendations for services that remove your phone number, home address off Google? My son is getting extremely harassing texts and vandalism at his home. We want to remove all our phone numbers and addresses from public viewing.”
Michelle, you’re not alone.
Googling yourself used to be fun. Now it’s like opening the front door and finding your Social Security number spray-painted on your garage.
It’s not just creepy, it’s a big-time privacy and safety risk.
Google finally lets you do something about it.
You can request the removal of personal info from search results. It won’t erase the data from the internet entirely, but it can stop it from popping up on Google.
🔎 How to find out what’s out there
Start by Googling your full name, phone number and home address in quotes. For example: “Johnny Hottie” “555-555-5555” “123 Main Street”
If anything pops up, take a screenshot or jot down the URL. You need that next.
✏️ Request removal directly from Google
Visit Google’s “Remove Personal Info” tool and fill out a form. Choose the type of info you want removed, paste the link and submit it.
You can also do this directly from search results. Click the three dots next to a link and choose “Remove result.” Hopefully, the mighty Google will get rid of it.
Talk is cheap
📱 And these phone goodies for under $30 are calling your name.
- Apple or Android? This portable charger (33% off) has the juice for both.
- Blast your jams on a phone stand (25% off) that doubles as a speaker.
- Bring your older ride up to speed with a Bluetooth adapter (31% off).
- Travel light with a cross-body phone bag (26% off) to carry just the basics.
- Keep your family’s phones splash-free with waterproof pouches (15% off).
✨ Tech it or leave it: Swing by my page for even more of my handpicked tech faves.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
Read this before your laptop or e-bike becomes fireworks
Maybe this photo is a little bit dramatic. BUT, electronics are exploding.
Everything from your phone to your e-bike runs on lithium-ion. While batteries are small energy wonders, they’re also tiny explosives just begging for an excuse to ruin your day. Or your house. Or your entire block.
🌳 Grow like a pro: Fast Growing Trees makes it simple to plant like a pro. They’ll recommend the best trees and shrubs for your exact location and ship them straight to your door. No hauling, no guesswork. Use promo code KIM to save an extra 15%. I got an avocado tree, and it’s thriving!
🤡 Chinese factories are trolling Americans: On TikTok, they’re telling us to cut out the middleman and get brand-name products straight from the source, like Birkenstocks for $10 instead of $165. Follow the link to AliExpress, and you’ll see these are cheap knockoffs. You saved $150 only to lose all feeling in your arches by noon.
The Satanic space flight
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket launch with Katy Perry and Gayle King is under fire online. Not for science, but for satanic symbols and staged space drama.
6 hours
Per day with family. That’s part of a scientific formula for the perfect day (paywall link). You should also spend two hours with friends, two hours exercising and one hour eating and drinking. Work? Keep it under six hours, and screen time under one. It might not be realistic, but hey, life’s supposed to be about balance, right?
100% critics’ score for Netflix’s new comedy series
That’s the critics’ score for Netflix’s new comedy series North of North. It follows a young Inuk mom who moves back to her small hometown after leaving her husband. It’s like Gilmore Girls meets snow meets 9,000 percent more gossip. The trailer looks pretty good.
Something in the water
🥤 Whether it’s hot tea or chilled wine, these are gadgets you’ll actually use.
- This tumbler (33% off) clips right to your key chain when you’re on the go.
- Pop your bottles in a pinch with an electric wine opener set (34% off).
- No stove? No prob, grab an electric kettle (20% off) to boil your water fast.
- A portable countertop ice maker (22% off) always keeps you stocked up. Perfect for summer!
- Toss these chilling stones (5% off) into your drink without watering it down.
🔥 Hot n’ cold: Bring a portable cooler and warmer (14% off) on your road trips to flip between 130 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the press of a button.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
🏡 Safe & sound: Protecting your home takes more than just locking the front door. I trust SimpliSafe, the award-winning security system that’s actually easy to set up and use. Don’t wait for a break-in to get serious about your family’s safety.
The QR code scam hiding in your mailbox
Get a diamond ring in the mail? No, it’s not from a secret admirer. It’s from a scammer trying to loot all your money.
🧠 OpenAI’s new models: The recently released o3 and o4-mini aren’t your typical chatbots. They’re trained to think deeply and come up with their own experiments. So, perfect for science, tech, engineering and math. The kicker? It might cost $20,000 a month!
💔 Tinder swindler alert: A Portland woman lost over $40,000 after falling for a scammer she met on the app. They talked for a week before he asked for money, saying he had no family to help, sealing the con with a fake photo of himself in a hospital bed. Tinder’s basically a financial thriller with worse dialogue than a Lifetime movie.
☠️ Windows update gone wild: Microsoft confirmed this week that updates since March have been crashing some Windows 11 devices with a terrifying 0x18B SECURE_KERNEL_ERROR. For those not versed in digital Hogwarts spells, that’s a full stop blue screen of death. And yes, it kicks in right after the update + restart combo. Oof.
Can’t focus lately? It might be brain rot
Endless scrolling wrecks your attention span. There’s a fix, but you might not like it.
$7 billion
What Universal’s new theme park in Florida cost to build. This one’s a little different, with fewer roller coasters and more immersive worlds using augmented reality. When it opens in May, you’ll be able to see Harry Potter and How to Train Your Dragon brought to life. The kicker? Entry is $139 (paywall link). Uh, Daniel Radcliffe better greet me at the gate.
$2,100 to $2,300
The price tag of the long-rumored iPhone Fold. That’s well above most foldable phones like the $1,899 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6. And it’s almost triple the cost of a regular $799 iPhone 16. At those prices, it’s also going to fold your bank account, too. You have a couple of years to save up.
Restore old photos with AI
Scratched, faded, or torn family photos? AI tools can restore them in seconds. Here’s how to do it yourself.