Twenty-five years ago, millions of Americans picked up the phone at the same moment, and most of them couldn’t get through. The network wasn’t destroyed. It was busy. That continues to happen in hurricanes and blackouts, and there are four things you can set up tonight that make you reachable when everyone else isn’t.
Prime Video doubled its ad load since launch. HBO Max went up and never announced it. But the service that feels the worst isn’t the one taking most of your time. Here are the stopwatch numbers and the one upgrade worth your $10 a month.
After 20 years of marriage, Dave and his wife agree on one thing: $200 a month for two phones feels wrong. The same signal sells for half. There’s a catch, friend. Three, actually. All smaller than the one they’re living with.
Stanford tested seven fitness trackers against lab gear. Heart rate passed. Calories missed by up to 93%, friend. Your ring is guessing at sleep stages and blood oxygen. Here’s how to stop it from fooling you.
Cameron in Houston figures identity protection is a lost cause when even Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license hit the dark web. Kim’s answer: Leaked data is only step one. Here’s where you still win.
We lost Dolly Parton last month, friend. So the Labor Day watch list starts with her: seven shows and movies about work, Succession to the GameStop story, with a trailer for each and directions to find streaming.
A new AI model called Atlas can take footage from just a few regular cameras and turn it into a full 3D scene you can spin around and view from any angle. One demo used nothing but phones on tripods filming a watermelon drop, and honestly, the results look like something out of a big budget movie. I get this 5-star-rated newsletter.
Apple’s biggest launch in years lands Sept. 9: the iPhone 18 Pro, the first foldable, new Watches and AirPods. Buy anything Apple before then, friend, and you’re paying the impatience tax. Full wait list below.
Nine out of 10 people don’t floss regularly, so Dyson responded in the most Dyson way possible: engineering around human laziness and charging a fortune for it.
Crooks stole a password manager’s vaults in 2022. Here’s what happened next, friend: The strong master passwords held. The weak ones funded a $150 million heist. These safeguards decide which side you land on.
Google and Apple pulled a list of more than 75 apps for stealing money, bank logins and more. Removal doesn’t reach your phone. Here’s the list and the 5-minute check.
Twenty-eight of them sold the same scam under one name. Five of them quietly installed a bank account thief. Fifty of them planted a rootkit that survives a factory reset. Google and Apple pulled every one of these apps this year, but removal doesn’t reach the copy on your phone. Here’s the list, the one rule that catches most of them and the five-minute check.
Americans reported $20.9 billion in scam losses last year. Seniors lost $584 million to romance scams, averaging $38,500 per victim. One reader’s brother is $45,000 deep with a fake pop star. The fix isn’t arguing. It’s a two-minute video call test and knowing the blackmail email is usually a bluff.
Comcast made Wi-Fi motion sensing a headline feature on millions of Xfinity gateways. It reads the ripples your body makes in the signal, through walls, no camera. Here’s the five-minute check, friend.
There’s a button on the back of your phone you’ve never pressed. Your AirPods are an FDA-cleared hearing aid. Your carrier will route calls over Wi-Fi, so the basement isn’t a dead zone anymore. And these short phrases get you past any phone tree. Seven tricks, all free, all already on the phone in your hand.
Two arrests, two weeks, two states. Neither man had met the woman he’s accused of stalking. Each saw her on social media and tracked her down. Here’s how strangers do that and how to stop it.
A Google Form, a calendar invite, a “Google Security” call, an AI Overview phone number. Four scams wear Google’s logo, friend, but the company insists it will never call you about security
Fake utility payment websites are getting harder to spot. Learn the one place to check before you enter your credit card, plus the warning signs that can save you from a costly mistake.
Paul in Indiana set up passkeys and wonders why he still needs a password manager. Fair question. Passkeys cover maybe a dozen accounts. The other 150 are still running on “Fluffy2019!” Here’s how the two work together and the one move that ends password chaos for good.
USC researchers found you overpay on nearly 1 in 4 prescriptions, because a middleman sets your copay higher than the drug’s real price and pockets the difference. Pharmacists couldn’t tell you until 2018, and still aren’t required to bring it up. The six-word question, price-check apps and no-middleman pharmacies inside.
