🐓 Cluckin’ wild: The Minecraft movie is meh, but Jack Black’s unhinged chicken ballad, “Steve’s Lava Chicken,” shot up to # 78 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s now the shortest song ever to hit the famed list, clocking in at 34 seconds, making it both a record and maybe a cry for help for our attention spans. Listen here, you have been warned.
Your phone has a death date
ChatGPT
Your phone is dying as you’re reading this. Many people don’t realize that, like milk, condoms or your favorite hot sauce that’s been in the fridge since 2018, your phone has an expiration date.
Here are the average lifespans for some of today’s most popular phone brands and makes:
- Apple iPhone: 4 to 8 years; iPhones often get 6+ years of iOS updates.
- Samsung: 3 to 6 years. Flagships get 5 years of updates, but budget models tend to peak around 3 years.
- Google Pixel: 3 to 5 years. Pixels now promise up to 7 years of updates (starting with Pixel 8).
To be clear: These are averages. Like dog years or Tinder bios, your mileage may vary.
What’s your number?
Here’s the juicy bit: Your phone’s expiration countdown starts when it’s manufactured, not when you bought it, so knowing when it was built is super important. Here are ways to find out:
- Look around: The manufacture date is often listed on the package. If you tossed it, check the “About” section in your phone’s settings for a date or serial number.
- Serial number: Many manufacturers encode the manufacturing date within these numbers. The site SNDeep.info can help you decode yours.
- Dial secret codes: Special codes and menus can reveal manufacturing information. Dialing *#06# might or might not show your phone’s serial number.
Yeah, I know. This looks like way too much work.
Hallelujah, an easier way
Instead of taking the steps above, head to endoflife.date. This handy site lists the end-of-life (EOL) dates for devices, software programs and others. Some quick links for you to check your phone’s EOL:
The links below aren’t for phones, but I thought you might want to check the EOL for your other tech:
1 billion
The number of humanoids Morgan Stanley expects to exist by 2050. Yes, that’s one bot for every eight people on Earth. So if your coworker gets replaced by a robot, don’t panic, statistically, so will you. If you’re picturing WALL-E with better knees and worse social skills, you’re not far off.
🗣️ ¿Hola, como estas? Live translation is coming to AirPods later this year with the iOS 19 update (paywall link), real-time convo decoding straight into your ears. Your iPhone talks, your AirPods whisper. It’s Google Translate meets sci-fi earpiece meets coffee shop small talk in multiple languages. As the Germans say, das is pretty cool.
NYC wants subway cams to predict trouble: The MTA is piloting AI that watches for risky behavior before a crime happens. If someone’s acting off, it can alert police in real time so they can respond faster. FYI: The new system won’t rely on facial recognition. It’s strictly focused on behavior, not people. Well, at least for now.
🏠 Hackers are targeting homes, not just bank accounts: With just a few clicks, cybercriminals can steal your home title and rack up huge loans in your name. It’s one of the fastest-growing crimes in America. Home Title Lock is your watchdog, monitoring and protecting your most valuable asset. Sign up with code KIM to get a free home title history report and a 14-day trial of their Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection.
🪖 Welcome to drone country, soldier: The Army just launched its biggest makeover since the Cold War, and it’s all about drones. Think 1,000 drones (paywall link) per combat division, replacing aging gear with swarms of flying surveillance bots, delivery drones and attack craft that would make a Call of Duty dev blush.
47%
The drop in total apps on Google Play since early 2024. The Play Store went from 3.4 million apps to 1.8 million in just over a year. Less of a spring cleaning, more of a digital purge. If your flashlight app disappeared, now you know why. It’s not looking so hot for app developers.
Electrician army: AI isn’t just eating jobs, it’s eating power. Google just dropped a cool $10 million to train over 100,000 U.S. electricians, trying to unclog a grid bottleneck slowing its AI expansion. Data centers are guzzling so much electricity that they could triple U.S. power usage in three years.
⚠️ Scammers are back at it: This time using fake Facebook posts about a “missing police officer” named Carolyn Lynch. The goal? Tug at your heartstrings so you’ll share it, unknowingly flagging yourself as an easy target for future scams. Don’t fall for it.
50+
The number of languages Google’s AI podcast tool now supports. NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews can now speak everything from French to Korean, so your AI-generated podcast can sound like NPR in Istanbul or a TED Talk in Mumbai.
🔐 Tired of forgetting passwords? You’re not alone. That’s why I recommend NordPass, the password manager that does the heavy lifting for you. It stores your logins securely, autofills them instantly and even alerts you if your credentials are weak or reused. It’s like having a digital bodyguard for your online life. Use my link for 52% off today!
🚁 End of an era: DJI is grounding its iconic Phantom drone series. Starting June 1, 2025, support for the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced will fly off into the sunset. These drones helped kick off the quadcopter craze in 2013. DJI is shifting its focus to newer birds like the Inspire, Mavic, Air, Mini and the beginner-friendly Flip line.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
Cash dive: It’s happening across the country. The NY Times spotlighted how UNC is turning its diving team into influencers with sponsorships, style guides and TikTok training. It’s all part of the school’s push to make every athlete a content creator. Imagine getting cut from the team for poor engagement and bot followers.
🐭 Ex-Disney worker headed to prison: After getting fired, Michael hacked company servers and messed with restaurant menus. He changed prices, added curse words, locked employees out of their accounts and, the kiss of death, even marked peanut items as “peanut-free.” The penalty? Three years in prison, definitely not the happiest place on Earth.
Lost Social Security card? Starting this summer, the Social Security Administration will let people with “my Social Security” accounts see their full Social Security number online. It keeps your physical card safe from theft, but might open a can of worms courtesy of hackers. Don’t forget to secure it with two-factor authentication!
⛪ Pope picks: Sacrilegious TikTokers made a “Fantasy Pope League” because of course they did. The league got over 2,000 sign-ups on its first day. Here, you can draft cardinals fantasy football style and get points based on the progress of your cardinal on their pursuit of the big hat.
🚨 iPhone alert: Apple sent out a major warning that mercenary spyware is on the loose. This kind of attack targets specific people based on what they do, like journalists or government officials. For the rest of us, it’s a good reminder to update to iOS 18.4.1 for the latest security fixes. Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Robot strawberries: In Virginia, a vertical farm is growing 4 million pounds of strawberries a year indoors, on two-story towers, with no soil, no bees and a whole lot of AI. The system analyzes 10 million+ data points a day. It’s less “Old MacDonald,” more “Black Mirror: Produce Edition.” Can’t wait for my future salad to come with bug patch notes.
1 hour
The weekly amount of weight training needed to gain muscle. One study found just two 30-minute sessions a week helped participants get noticeably stronger and more jacked (paywall link), no five-day grind or bro science required. One set per exercise. Nine moves. That’s it. I hear you: “Instead of calling my bathroom the John, I call it the Jim. That way I can tell people I go to the Jim every morning.”