Welcome to your Wednesday, friend. If you’re a British Airways crew member, put your tray tables up and your ring lights down: Selfies have been grounded. Post a selfie in your uniform, you’re plane wrong and risk being booted from the mile-high club (the employment kind).   

For the rest of us not on British Airways’ W2? The sky’s the limit and no more winging it. I’ve got some top-tier selfie (no mirror required) tips for you at the end.

⭐️💃 If you’ve been enjoying my emails, do the three-step. Step 1: Please move this to your primary inbox. Step 2: “Star” this email. Step 3: Reply with a few words, like, “Love ya, Kim!” This ensures you always get The Current and keeps Big Tech and email providers like Gmail and Yahoo from sending my newsletters to spam. The nerve, right? Thanks a bunch!  — Kim

You know the drill. You find your seat, wrestle your carry-on into the overhead bin like it’s a CrossFit challenge, and then, ding! The flight attendant reminds you to switch to airplane mode. 

So … what happens if you don’t? Are you going to crash the plane? Trigger the emergency slide midair? 

🛑 Da plane, da plane!

Let’s start with the obvious: Your phone isn’t powerful enough to take down a jetliner. Planes are built tough, with shielding and redundant systems to prevent any one gadget from causing a disaster. Your phone? Not that powerful. Sorry, Apple.

But if you and everyone else leave your phones on full blast, the radio noise from all those signals can interfere with the pilots’ communications.

It’s not dramatic. It’s just obnoxious. Think low-level buzzing and static in the pilot’s headset when they’re trying to talk to air traffic control. 

It won’t crash the plane. It might make the pilot say, “Can you repeat that?” to air traffic control, which, y’know, isn’t ideal when they’re, oh, coordinating more than a few 900,000-pound hunks of metal going 500 mph across an invisible highway in the sky.

🛩️ It’s not the paint job

This interference is more likely on planes with older electronics, typically ones built before 2005. Some older aircraft have had systems upgraded though. It’s not about the plane’s birthday, it’s about what’s under the hood.

That’s why the rule is still around: It’s easier to just have everyone use airplane mode than risk messing with cockpit comms on the one plane with vintage wiring.

📶 No bars anyway

At 35,000 feet, your phone is desperately pinging towers it flew past five minutes ago. It won’t connect. All it does is kill your battery and waste your time.

The plane’s Wi-Fi and messaging system? That’s a different beast, totally separate and built for flying.

👍 Now boarding, Kirkland fans

The TSA is officially begging, yes, begging, people to stop using their Costco cards as a REAL ID at airport security. 

In a surprisingly spicy Facebook post (yes, the TSA has Facebook energy now), the agency wrote: “We love hot dogs & rotisserie chickens as much as the next person, but please stop telling people their Costco card counts as a REAL ID because it absolutely does not.”

People are seriously waving around a picture of themselves next to a 48-pack of toilet paper and expecting to board a flight. What a world, right?

🪇 Hit those share icons below to spread the word with your friends and family. I’m sure at least one person thinks airplane mode means running around with their arms spread, making jet engine noises.

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🌀 Bricks, bots and bad intel: When ICE protests broke out in L.A., social media broke with it. Old conspiracy theories, fake Obama quotes and a still from a 1983 helicopter movie (paywall link) all got reposted like it was open mic night at the misinformation improv club. Even a Malaysian brick company got dragged into the chaos. PSA: Verify before you share.

Search cannibalism: I called it three years ago. As the once search giant Google morphs into a chat-style (paywall link) “answer engine,” clicks are drying up and traffic is cratering all over. The Atlantic’s CEO said to assume “Google traffic drops to zero.” Google once said, “Don’t be evil.” Today, it reminds me of Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son.” 

🚨 Fake crypto apps will make you cry: Again, this happened. Over 20 were found posing as popular wallets like SushiSwap, PancakeSwap and more. They asked folks to enter their 12-word mnemonic phrase, which could give hackers full access to their crypto. PSA: App icons can be deceiving; make sure the dev is verified and always double-check those reviews. 

❤️ How about some good news? When a dad needed a kidney, his family started a “Kidney 4 Joe” Facebook page to find a donor. The twist? A complete stranger saw the post through a mutual friend, got tested and turned out to be a match. They met for the first time on surgery day. Proof that one share can change everything.

Dub squad moves: YouTube’s letting creators upload different thumbnails for different languages now. So your Spanish dub can look Spanish, your K-drama recap gets Korean flavor, and MrBeast can act surprised in nine tongues. All powered by AI, but polished by human touch. 

🎤 Going viral: “Pretty Little Baby” is everywhere on TikTok, with over 17 million videos using the song Connie Francis sang in 1962. Now 87 years young, Connie made her first TikTok to thank her fans. Go ahead, listen to the song and remember, “You can ask the flowers, I sit for hours, Tellin’ all the bluebirds, the bill and coo birds, Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you!”

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⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Set up price alerts on Amazon with CamelCamelCamel to avoid paying full price.

Look under the hood: In Chrome, type chrome://flags in the address bar and hit Enter to unlock a hidden menu of beta features. Scroll through and enable what catches your eye. Remember, these are experiments, so proceed with a little caution.

🍋 From lemonade stand to citrus baron: Got a future CEO at home? Check out Shopify’s free guide for kids who want to get started selling online. It’s packed with fun branding and business exercises you can do together as a family. 

Taking a group shot? Don’t just snap one photo (someone’s always blinking or looking away). Hold down your phone’s camera button to use Burst mode, which takes a bunch of pics in seconds. This gives you a better chance of capturing everyone at their best. Neat.

🎙️ Fix bad audio fast: Adobe Podcast uses AI to clean up echo, remove background noise and boost your voice to studio quality. You can also transcribe and export as text or PDF. The best part? It’s all online, so no software downloads are needed. There’s a free tier, or full access for $9.99/month. Unless you’re a full-on podcaster, you don’t need it.

Cash in on your old cell phone: This tip will show you how to get the most money out of your old phone by selling it to reputable companies. to receive smart money tips every day.

📸 Take your best selfie forward: Skip the mirror and try this instead: Face a window for soft, natural light. Golden hour (one hour before sunset or one hour after sunrise) = bonus points. 

Hold your phone slightly above eye level, angle it down just a bit, and extend your arm fully to avoid T. rex angles. Use portrait mode, but tap to focus on your eyes so it doesn’t blur weirdly. Please, check the background: no rogue laundry piles or, heavens forbid, open toilets.

🧑🏻‍🔬 Speaking of … A scientist took a selfie while he was drinking liquid nitrogen. Afterward he said, “That was the coolest shot I ever took!”

😊 The best tech newsletter in the U.S. is always smiling. Why? Because you’re one of my readers. Coming tomorrow, a zero-to-hero guide to fixing annoying everyday tech problems, watching out for new Google scams and riding really bizarre robotic horses. Until then, you’re smarter, safer and in the know. 🎯 — Kim

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