“Thank you, God”
After Casey Colvin’s home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he went looking for his rescue dogs. A firefighter found Tika Tika Tika, but little Oreo ran away. Luckily, Casey was smart and had an AirTag on the pup’s collar. He tracked her down near the rubble of his home. Grab some tissues before you watch the heartwarming video.
Fill ‘er up: The free Upside app gives you cash back on gas, groceries and dining out. Download Upside and use promo code Kim to get an extra $0.25 back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.
Disney’s employee troubles: A former Disney employee will plead guilty to computer fraud and identity theft. The guy was fired and charged after hacking restaurant menus. He added fake allergy-safe labels to items that contained things like peanuts and dairy, and he snuck in a swastika and references to mass shootings. Jail’s gonna be a whole new world for him.
More like Fakebook: If you see a Facebook post about an armed serial killer on the loose, specifically one with this guy’s face, don’t believe it. Right now, the hoax is spreading around Missouri, but posts just like this one have been shared in Facebook groups in California, Colorado, Georgia, Texas and Arizona. The guy whose face keeps getting reused? Already in jail.
Talk about great coverage: The state of Texas sued Allstate. They say the insurance company paid app developers millions of dollars to sneak in their code, then tracked 45 million folks’ locations. The apps the lawsuit names include Fuel Rewards, GasBuddy, Life360 and Allstate-owned Routely. I’m sure this happened in all states, not just Texas.
🚌 Hackers will school you: Hackers broke into book publisher Scholastic’s employee portal and stole 8 million records, including parent, teacher and school admin names, emails, phone numbers and addresses. Some data relates to kids, too. The hackers say they won’t share the info publicly. Yeah, right.
👨🚒 DIY firefighting: A 60-year-old man saved his home from the Palisades fire with special equipment he’d purchased in advance. He soaked his house with water pumps, sprinklers and a hydrogel retardant he mixed in his backyard hot tub. Sadly, the homes surrounding him weren’t as lucky. Here’s the video showing how he did it.
🦖 No, thanks, Dad: Alex Volkov, an “AI enthusiast,” gave his six-year-old daughter a $200 AI-powered dinosaur from Magical Toys. He showed her how to make the dinosaur talk using AI. She turned it off. Using the app, parents can view their kid’s chat history and give the toy’s AI topics to talk about. I’d never buy it; AI hallucinates, and just think of all the data being collected.
Amazon’s shutting down Prime Try Before You Buy: It’s all over at the end of this month. Now, they’re pushing AI features like Virtual Try-on AR, which lets you see 3D renders of shoes on your feet, for example, using just your smartphone camera.
🤢 This is gross: Creepy AI apps are allowing folks to create videos of real people making out without their consent, like this one, which uses a picture of a young girl and her older male crush. These videos can be generated in seconds. The worst part? Most of these apps are listed as safe for teens in the app stores. YouCam, Fotorama and Mova AI are just a few examples.