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For football players Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason. “New Heights” recently hit No. 4 on the podcast charts. Hope they thanked Taylor Swift for the boost. Amazon’s podcast division, Wondery, will host the livestream and give paying subs early ad-free access. Jeff, call me. I’ll do it for $50 million.
Tags: ad-free, Amazon, Livestream, podcasts
I see fake people: Celebs like Victoria Beckham, Margot Robbie and Kate Moss are endorsing $660 LED beauty masks. The light rays supposedly stimulate collagen production and blood circulation to make your skin look younger and firmer. Research shows they can’t even reach the dermis, which is the second layer of skin where regeneration takes place.
They blue it! LG is cooking up a PHOLED screen to sell next year. Blue phosphor OLED is more efficient, brighter and longer-lasting. The catch? OLEDs are already expensive to produce, so these may cost a fortune.
Death march: Starting with some 2023 models and those released in March 2024, Samsung TVs get seven years of free updates to keep them safe from hackers. No specifics on which models yet, but it’s likely to cover those with AI features. PSA: Before you buy any used electronics, know the EOL (end-of-life) date. More about that here.
Jeff needs the money: Amazon’s revamped voice assistant is coming in October. For $10 a month, you’ll get a Smart Briefing feature, aka daily AI-generated news summaries; a recipe helper (e.g., “What should I make for dinner with chicken and broccoli?); shopping assistance; and a chatbot for kids (paywall link).
Forget polite vacation autoreplies: Folks are getting sassy with their out-of-office messages (paywall link), like, “I’m out having way more fun than emailing you back. I’ll probably forget to reply.” The whole point? No fake promises to get back to you ASAP … which none of us can do after a trip, anyway!
🚨 Book ‘em, Danno! The FBI caught a cyber kingpin who scammed millions of Americans. He’s behind notorious schemes like “scareware ads” — fake virus warnings that trick you into downloading software. He and his crew extorted around $400,000 a month from 2012 to 2014. Now they face decades in prison.
“My children and I have lived in hell for months”: After her cable company, Xfinity, ignored her, a woman shared a now-viral TikTok video with evidence of hackers infiltrating her smart TV. The footage shows a search box on screen and someone typing in her passcode. I’ll bet either her Wi-Fi password is weak, her smart TV allows remote access, or her gear and TV both need firmware updates.
🙏 Holy shroud: A blood analysis of the Shroud of Turin might back the biblical story of Jesus’ crucifixion. An engineer used modern tech on samples from the 1970s and found signs of organ failure, trauma, disease and radiation. The blood contained earthen materials typically found in Jerusalem. Isn’t this amazing?!
I’d rather watch a movie at home: Apple is rethinking its movie strategy after a string of box-office flops. The new plan: Limited theatrical runs before streaming on Apple TV+. Take “Napoleon,” which cost $200 million to make but grossed $221 million. “The Instigators,” streaming this month, pulled in about 50,000 new subs.
I got a kick out of this: Football player Travis Kelce’s dad is banned for life on X. He posted (on Facebook!) about the hypocrisy of arms dealers in Yemen selling weapons on the platform when all he really did was follow sports reporters. X hasn’t given him a clear reason — just a generic Terms of Service violation.
