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April 8, 2025

🚨 Fake toll payment texts are back: And up by over 600%. Scammers are once again impersonating E-ZPass and others to steal your info and money. They’ll hit you with a text telling you to pay now or risk fines and a license suspension. Block the number, and don’t click the link. Next up: fake texts from “I-95” asking for child support.

Verizon’s new price lock policy: With all the economic chaos going on, Verizon’s offering a three-year price guarantee on certain plans. Sounds great, right? Not so fast. This “deal” only covers the base charge. Fees aren’t included, so your bill can still go up. Oh, and they can also cut your monthly autopay discount in half. Cute, Verizon. Real cute.

🧠 AI is changing radiology: Over 75% of AI software approved by the FDA for medical use is built for radiology. These tools scan hundreds of images and spot things like cancer, strokes and pneumonia (paywall link). Yep, that means doctors can catch urgent cases faster and treat patients sooner. They just have to watch out for the false reports, of course.

Feeling the sting of sky-high cloud costs: Here’s a smart move — switch to Oracle. Companies are saving up to 50% on their cloud bills without sacrificing performance. Want to see how much you could save? Check it out for yourself.*

👎 Downleveling: It’s the new tech hiring trend. You crush the interview … and then they offer a lower-level role than the one you applied for. Congrats! You nailed the interview for a job you didn’t want. Why? Companies have so many candidates, they’re not taking chances on anyone who doesn’t check every single box. Say no? Cool, there are a hundred others behind you ready to take it. Rude.

▶️ TikTok, who? YouTube wants you to watch more Shorts later this spring. They’re updating its video editor to automatically sync cuts to the beat of the music and AI stickers. Plus, no more minimum watch time. Views will be counted the second you press play. Cool, but we all know TikTok’s secret sauce is its algorithm.

🛰️ Mark your calendars: Amazon’s finally launching its first internet satellites tomorrow, April 9 at 12 p.m. ET. It’s their shot at taking on SpaceX’s Starlink and bringing high-speed internet to the whole planet. Sure, Starlink already has thousands of satellites up there, but Amazon’s betting it can win you over by cranking out cheaper terminals. Fingers crossed the satellite doesn’t come with “some assembly required.”

🪀 RIP, cheap stuff: The days of filling carts with $2 eyebrow stamp kits and glow-in-the-dark toilet lights might be numbered. Global trade crackdowns (like killing the “de minimis” tax loophole) are making it harder for cheap imports from places like Temu and SHEIN to flood U.S. markets. Goodbye, weird little gadgets. You served … some purpose.

$301 million

What A Minecraft Movie raked in over its opening weekend. It’s the biggest debut ever of a video game adaptation, even surpassing The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Critics are split, but with numbers like these, it’s a blockbuster.

35%

Adults who say AI will negatively impact the U.S. over the next 20 years. Only 17% feel optimistic. They’re worried about losing their jobs and having less privacy. On the flip side, 56% of AI experts think it’ll have a positive effect. Moral of the story: No one knows anything, but we’re all nervous.

👀 Smile, you’re on 15 different cameras: A journalist drove 300 miles across rural Virginia, then filed public records requests to see how often his car was caught on surveillance. The short answer: a lot, proof that even on the quiet backroads, Big Brother is watching and judging your late-night Taco Bell runs.

🖼️ Midjourney V7 is here: It’s the first big update for the image generator in nearly a year, and apparently the AI is much smarter at understanding text prompts, sharper and slightly less cursed when it comes to hands. FYI: It’s an early release, so features like upscaling and retexturing are still missing but should roll out in about two months.

😱 Airbnb nightmare: A couple on vacation found a hidden camera above their bed after a steamy evening. Turns out it was disguised as a smoke detector, complete with night vision and remote access. When they opened it, they found an SD card full of other people’s, uh, vacation memories dating back to 2020. No surprise they’re now suing Airbnb. This hidden camera detector ($39.97, 20% off) is essential.

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3+ hours

Length of Avatar: Fire and Ash. James Cameron says the third film will be way longer than The Way of Water, which was three hours and 12 minutes. And no, he doesn’t believe in intermissions. Bring snacks. Bring a charger. Bring a change of clothes.

💾 Blast from the past: Bill Gates is in his nostalgia feels. To mark Microsoft’s 50th, Bill is letting you download the OG operating system he and Paul Allen whipped up. Fire up your nostalgia engines and see what computing was like when disco was king.

📺 Make your own Netflix? Vimeo just launched a new tool that lets you build your own subscription-based streaming service (no coding required). Because clearly, what the internet needs is one more subscription service. You can offer tiered memberships, stream live events, sell merch and customize the whole thing. They say it’s to give us more control and cash instead of relying on the algorithm, but remember, Vimeo’s still taking their cut.

📱 Does your kid have a burner phone? We’ve reached the era of middle schoolers running black market tech ops. A dad posted to Reddit after he found out his 12-year-old son was hiding one in a pillow to access apps he wasn’t supposed to be on. Signs to watch for: They’re ignoring the phone you know about, there are sudden dips in data usage, or you notice new devices using the Wi-Fi.