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Your phone is listening
Are apps secretly using your microphone? Here’s how to find out and stop them.
Corporate playground: I want to see this thing IRL. There’s a $2.5 billion office called The Round being built in London to lure the youngest of Gen Z workers. It’ll have nap pods, space for breathwork classes, a gym and all sorts of other luxuries (paywall link). It probably comes with participation trophies, too.
Severance — Official Trailer | Apple TV+
One more place to watch out for TV spoilers: A podcast about the dystopian TV series “Severance” on AppleTV+ included an ad for an episode that hadn’t aired yet. Director Ben Stiller dropped a bombshell (paywall link). Yeah, fans are peeved. “Severance” is fantastic and weird. Here’s the spoiler-free trailer if you need a new show.
Less than $50
What an antique collector paid for a suspected Van Gogh painting. It was the deal of the century at a garage sale in Minnesota. Specialists are trying to prove the portrait of a fisherman, “Elimar,” is authentic. If so, it’s worth at least $15 million (paywall link). Speaking of … My Van doesn’t Gogh. It’s out of Degas. (I saw you smile right there.)
💸 Budget iPhone? Rumor has it Apple will drop the iPhone SE 4 next week for around $429. It’s packing a 6.1-inch OLED screen, a 48 MP camera, an A18 chip and 8GB of RAM, and it can even run Apple Intelligence. Pretty tempting, but I’d still wait for reviews to see how well it actually performs. For all the bells and whistles, consider spending a little more on a renewed iPhone 15 Pro instead.
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I’m not switching: Microsoft Edge’s new scareware blocker spots pop-ups that try to trick you into downloading malware or giving hackers remote access. Sounds great … until you realize it works by scanning every page you visit. Want real-time protection you can trust? My pick is TotalAV.
🎭 Hate getting ready for video calls? What a world. Pickle AI lets you create an AI body double to sit in on your Zoom and Teams meetings. Record a five-minute video of yourself, upload it and let AI train your digital clone. Plans start at $24 per month. I wonder how often they glitch mid-presentation.
🎓 This makes cents: Tech is moving so quickly, the firms in Silicon Valley are hiring prodigies without college degrees. Not just that, but they’re handing out $100,000 checks just to get them to drop out. If you know someone struggling in college or not going because they can’t afford it, pass this one along.
📍 Bad form: Do you and your sweetie track each other? If you’re looking for love, not wanting to be tracked could be a relationship dealbreaker. Just ask Mihika (paywall link), who broke up with her boyfriend because he refused to share his GPS whereabouts. I like that Barry knows where I am and vice-versa, but, then again, we’ve been together forever.
$1.39 billion
How much Americans are expected to bet on the Super Bowl. That’s an 11.2% increase from last year’s big game. If you want to play, use code KIM to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Play online or download the DraftKings Sportsbook app for iPhone or Android. Fingers crossed for you!
$2.5 decillion
What Russia wanted to fine Google. That’s 33 zeros, and it’s about 237,000 times more than all the money in the world. Why? YouTube blocked some of Russia’s state-owned TV channels. A court just stepped in and blocked it. You know, in case Google was checking the couch cushions.