Hackers love your zombie accounts
How many online accounts have you made over the years? 50? 100? More? That’s enough to fill a digital graveyard.
A new study shows that 25% of all online accounts are never used again, but they don’t just disappear. They sit there, wide open, with your email address and password attached. These forgotten logins are called “zombie accounts,” and hackers love them.
💥 3D guts and glory: Caltech’s researchers built PillTrek, a tiny 3D-printed smart capsule that monitors your gut like a biochemical Fitbit. It tracks pH, glucose, serotonin, you name it, by crawling through your insides like a nerdy spy. It’s cheap, wireless, and eventually, yes, it comes out the old-school way. Consider it a poop diary with WiFi.
Hidden Facebook messages: If you’ve been on the app a while, chances are you’ve got tons of unread DMs sitting in your Message requests folder. That’s where Meta sends chats from people you’re not friends with. To check, tap the Messenger icon > Settings > Message requests > You may know.
31%
That’s how many pet owners said they’d date their dog, if it were human. Yes, this is real. Thanks to TikTok and a little too much ChatGPT, people are anthropomorphizing their pets … and catching feelings. Yeah … it’s less weird if you don’t think about it.
🎬 Where can I watch that? These sites have the answer
You know the feeling. You want to watch a specific movie, maybe an old favorite (hello, 1999’s The Mummy) or that buzzworthy show everyone’s talking about, but you have no clue where to find it.
Instead of spending those precious moments actually watching it, you’re playing streaming detective: Netflix? Hulu? Prime Video? Is it free? Rentable?
⚡ Office apps get speed boost: Microsoft’s new Startup Boost preloads Office apps like Word and Excel in the background at boot. Apps chill in a paused state until you open them, shaving seconds off launch time. It’s already live for some Word users and will hit everyone by September. Your PC: now preheating like an oven.
Uber’s new girl mode rolling out: Women Uber riders in LA, SF and Detroit can request women-only drivers. The Women Preferences initiative is already live in 40+ countries (paywall link) and has logged 100M rides. Such a great idea.
🧠 Mind over mouse: Meta just unveiled a wristband that reads your muscle signals to control devices. No touching, no implants. It decodes electrical pulses (paywall link) in your arm to move cursors, open apps and type midair. Write your name in space and watch it appear on your phone. I accidentally thought about Slack, and now I’m in six meetings.
Prop and circumstance: A Pennsylvania couple sold a floor buffer on Facebook Marketplace to a guy who paid with cash from the set of a movie. Literally. The bills said “for motion picture purposes” where “The United States of America” should’ve been. He took the floor buffer, blocked them and vanished like he had a Marvel budget. Cops are investigating.
🗣️ Prove you’re a human: OpenAI’s Sam Altman warned the Fed that we’re teetering on a “fraud crisis” due to AI tools that can impersonate you, your voice or your kid’s. AI fakes are calling parents and diplomats. The White House is prepping an “AI Action Plan.” Altman pitched The Orb for human verification. I told you all about this months ago.