Ah, Tuesday again, friend. I’m happy to see you. In 1998, NASA launched a shiny new spacecraft. But it never really “landed” the assignment… Why? Because someone forgot to check if the units used in navigational calculations were imperial or metric. 

🚀 Guess which infamous 1990s NASA project bit the cosmic dust due to this simple math mistake: A) Mars Pathfinder, B) Hubble Space Telescope lens, C) Mars Climate Orbiter or D) Apollo 13 simulator? Answer’s at the end! 

‼️ Hey there, quick heads-up! I’m switching email providers for my newsletter, and that means Big Tech might get a little jumpy. To make sure you keep getting my email front and center, not in spam or the promotions tab, click at least five links inside each newsletter this week. That tells the algorithms: “Hey, I actually want this!” Thanks for sticking with me! — Kim

I read a geeky article that I think you’ll also find amazing. 

Google quietly used its Android operating system to turn billions of phones into the largest earthquake detection network in human history.

Your Android phone can warn you about an earthquake before the shaking even starts. It’s built right in. You can do the same with your iPhone, too.

🌎 How it works 

Earthquakes begin with fast, subtle P-waves. Those are the early rumbles most people don’t feel at all. But your phone’s accelerometer (yep, the same sensor that knows when you turn your phone sideways) can detect those waves. 

When enough Android phones in the same area sense the same motion, Google’s system kicks in and sends early alerts to people who are about to get hit by the stronger, slower S-waves. Those are the ones that actually cause damage.

This gives you 15 to 60 seconds of warning. Not much time, but enough to move away from windows, duck under a desk or stop that ladder climb. Seconds matter when the ground starts rolling.

🫨 This isn’t just theoretical

According to a study in Science, the Android-based earthquake detection network caught over 11,000 real earthquakes between 2021 and 2024. 

It covers 98 countries and pushes out around 18 million alerts a month. 

In some cases, people had over a minute’s notice before the shaking started. And false alarms? Just three total across more than 1,300 confirmed events. Try getting those odds from your weather app. That’s incredible for a free feature hiding in your phone.

📲 Even if you don’t live on the San Andreas fault, make sure the setting is on in case you travel to an area where you need it:

• Open Settings, tap Safety & emergency.
• Tap Earthquake Alerts. Make sure it’s turned on.
• Tap Test Alert to preview what it sounds like.

Got a Wear OS smartwatch? It’ll buzz your wrist, too, even if your phone’s in another room.

🍏 What about iPhones?

Apple hasn’t enrolled in Quake University (yet). Though iPhones have accelerometers, too, Apple doesn’t use them for earthquake detection. If you’re on Team iPhone, I use the free MyShake app to get alerts from official seismic networks.

Know someone who can use this info? Use the share icons below to send it off or post on your social media accounts.

🔒 Ready for those “uh-oh” moments? Start here.

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🧨 Microsoft’s China copilot: Microsoft’s finally getting rid of communist China-based engineers on U.S. military cloud projects after a ProPublica report triggered a Pentagon freak-out. Turns out so-called “digital escorts,” security-cleared U.S. babysitters, didn’t understand the tech they were supposed to be safeguarding. Now the defense secretary’s ordered a full supply chain scrub. Microsoft swears it disclosed everything. The military is now triple-checking everything for leaks and spies.

AI faked her daughter: A Florida woman lost $15K after scammers used AI to mimic her daughter’s voice in a fake car crash call. They even called back asking for $30K more, claiming her daughter lost a baby in the accident. Her real daughter was at work the whole time. Have a secret family code word to thwart these crimes. Next up, AI is doing method acting on Broadway.

🏝️ Tropic like it’s hot: Mark Zuckerberg just expanded his Kauai compound to over 2,300 acres, making him one of Hawaii’s biggest landowners. The property includes known Native Hawaiian burial sites, which are being preserved, but locals worry about what might stay hidden under NDA-heavy construction. His $300M+ Hawaiian fortress also includes macadamia-fed cattle that moo in cursive. 

Hacked, packed and resold: A startup called Farnsworth Intelligence is taking hacked data (yep, from infostealer malware) and selling it to divorce lawyers, debt collectors and your competitor’s sales team. Over 50 million computers’ worth of stolen info. Passwords, browsing habits, embarrassing accounts and more up for grabs for about $50 each. How is this legal?

🦟 Phone vs. mosquito bites: A bug bite zapper that plugs into your phone is going viral. It’s called Heat It, and it uses heat (not creams or chemicals) to destroy the proteins in bug spit that cause itching. Bonus: It works in two minutes, is app-controlled and hits the dermatologist-approved sweet spot of 124°F. Technology, baby. 

🧬 Three-parent baby drop: UK scientists have pulled off a medical hat trick: eight babies born using DNA from three people — mom, dad and a donor — to dodge deadly mitochondrial diseases. The donor’s part is just 0.1% but makes all the difference. The science is wild, but the result is healthy kids. 

🤓 OpenAI cracks world’s hardest math test: Its new model solved 5 out of 6 problems on the International Mathematical Olympiad, earning a gold-level score. That’s huge. It takes sustained creative thinking (paywall link), something AI has struggled with until now. The bot could go public in a few months. PSA: Not all math jokes are bad. Just sum.

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⚡️ 3-second tech genius: That 🙂 emoji? It’s now seen as fake nice. Skip it. Use 😃, 😁 or 🤗 instead. Unless, of course, you’re aiming for “I’m smiling, but I hate you.”

Speed up an old PC: Running Windows 11 on older hardware? Try this. Open Start, type “sysdm.cpl” and press Enter. In System Properties, go to Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects. Choose Adjust for best performance and click Apply. It’ll disable flashy animations, but your system will feel much snappier.

📄 Send docs to Kindle: You’ve got two easy ways. First, find your Send-to-Kindle email under Settings > Your Account on your Kindle. Email your documents there, and they’ll show up in your Library. Or go to amazon.com/sendtokindle and drag and drop the files. Both work like a charm.

📺 Netflix secret codes: If you’re using a web browser, try Netflix’s hidden category codes. Just type “netflix⁠.com/browse/genre/” followed by the number. Two of my favorites: 81466194 for 90-minute films and 2013975 for family movie night. Want more? Here’s a full list you can try.

Stop WhatsApp from eating data: Group chats can auto-download tons of photos and videos in the background. Go to Settings > Storage and data > Media auto-download and uncheck all file types under Mobile data, Wi-Fi and Roaming. FYI: You can still download what you need later.

📩 Swap Gmail icons for text: You know those little icons above your emails? You can change them to plain text. Go to Settings > See all settings, scroll down to Button labels, switch to Text, and click Save Changes. Now you’ll see clear labels like Archive, Spam and Delete. Yay, no more mystery buttons.

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Answer: C) Mars Climate Orbiter. Yup, a $327 million NASA mission accidentally pulled an Icarus because one team used imperial units and another used metric. The mismatch sent the spacecraft diving into the Martian atmosphere like it was auditioning for Fast & Furious: Interplanetary Drift. Talk about a crash course in conversions.

🎯 Fun fact: NASA now requires all projects to use metric units only, thanks to this cosmic oopsie. America hasn’t adopted the metric system yet, but we’re slowly inching toward it.

This is the #1 tech newsletter in the United States wishing you a great rest of your Tuesday. Tomorrow, your router’s finally ready to reveal its secrets, and they’re kind of embarrassing. 

Until then, remember tech is cool. You’re cooler. 😎 — Kim

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