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April 19, 2025

🚨 Gmail warning: Scammers are sending fake emails that look like legit Google security alerts. Click the link, and you’ll land on a phony sign-in page built to steal your login details. This one’s extra sneaky because it looks like it’s coming from “no-reply@accounts.google.com.” The red flag? Check the “mailed-by” field. If it says “privateemail.com,” it’s a trap.

🤯 No cure for brain rot: If your brain feels fried from endless scrolling, folks are turning to a dumb phone (paywall link). We’re talking only the basics, i.e., phone calls and texts. The trade-off? Anxiety and fear you’re missing out. Basically, you’re screwed either way.

🤖 OpenAI is building a social network: It’ll be its own version of X. The prototype apparently has a social feed focused on image generation using ChatGPT. No word yet if it’ll be a new app or built into the current one. Why do this? Real-time user data = more fuel to train their models.

🍏 Big changes coming to iPadOS: Apple’s making the new iPadOS 19 feel more like a Mac with smoother multitasking and app window management. It won’t be macOS on an iPad, but it’s getting closer. Expect details at WWDC 2025 in June, with a release later this year. I’ll keep you posted. iPads are slowly becoming Macs the same way your house cat slowly becomes your boss.

💍 Heard of The Knot? It’s that wedding planning site where you find vendors like photographers and dressmakers for your big day. Vendors pay thousands to advertise on it, and now they’re saying The Knot is sending them fake leads, aka “brides” who don’t exist (paywall link). That’s how you end up on Santa’s knotty list.

🍿 Minecraft mayhem: Minecraft meets real-life survival mode. Teens are going wild for the new Minecraft movie, shouting, tossing snacks, spraying lotion on seats and someone even let live chickens loose. Why? Many kids got hooked on the game during the pandemic. Now they’re letting all that nostalgia loose in the form of chaos. Talk about a block party!

😑 Feeling left behind? Download NetSuite’s free knowledge drop, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.”* No matter what you do, you should know more about AI. It’s not going anywhere.

🌲 Moose on the loose: A Swedish TV station is livestreaming moose as they cross the Ångerman River to warmer spots for summer. Over 30 cameras show peaceful forests and rivers (with night vision, too). Sometimes a moose strolls by. Sometimes … nothing happens for hours. It’s like Netflix for people who breathe essential oils. Watch it here.

7 miles

How far a lost 2-year-old boy walked to safety. He wandered from his home in rural Arizona and spent the night alone in mountain lion territory. After 16 tense hours, a rancher spotted him safe with his dog, Buford. Turns out, the shaggy companion guided him out of the wilderness. Imagine getting out-hiked by someone who can’t say or spell “hike.” Amazing.

👮 Stop, it’s the police: DJI made new drone accessories that let cops yell at you from the sky. The Zenmuse V1 speaker blasts voices at up to 127 decibels, which is about as loud as a jet taking off. Nothing says “subtle police presence” like a screaming metal bird. There’s also a spotlight that beams light up to 500 meters (that’s 0.3 miles for the rest of us).

Hackers want your home: Cybercriminals can steal your home title, take out massive loans in your name and leave you stuck with the fallout. It’s one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes. Get peace of mind with a free home title history report when you sign up with Home Title Lock using code KIM. You’ll also get a free 14-day trial of their Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection.

😴 Schools are teaching kids how to sleep: Forget band and robotics. Most teens are getting just six hours of sleep a night, way below the recommended eight for developing brains. Blame late-night scrolling and heavy schedules. The fix? Classes that teach time management, no phones before bed and skipping midnight snacks. Next up: teaching Gen A how to blink between TikToks.

🪐 A fishy planet: Scientists just got a whiff of something suspicious on K2-18b, a distant “hycean” world 120 light-years away. While scanning its atmosphere, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope picked up dimethyl sulfide, a gas that, here on Earth, only comes from living things like plankton. Looks like SpongeBob’s nemesis finally made it to the big time.

100%

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.

🚨 Life insurance data breach alert: Landmark Admin, which works with life insurance and annuities, got hacked last year with an estimated 800,000 people hit. Yeah, we’re just hearing about it now. Surprise, it was actually over 1.6 million. If you’re one of them, you’ll get a letter. Watch out for sketchy calls, texts or emails to be safe. At this point, getting hacked is just America’s newest rite of passage.

🧨 Judge rocks Google’s ad empire: He says Google illegally dominated two major online ad markets: its publisher ad server and ad exchange. The feds say it’s time to sell off Google Ad Manager. Meanwhile, another antitrust trial is heating up next week that could force Google to also offload Chrome.

Over 50%

Of internet traffic now comes from bots. You can thank AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini for making it way easier to build them. The bad news? Hackers are using that same tech to pump out malicious bots that spam, scam and take down websites. Cybersecurity’s not optional anymore, folks.