♣️ Google laid its AI cards on the table: Google quietly dropped limits for Gemini. Free users get five prompts per day, 100 images per month and five long-form deep dives. The Gemini Advanced (Ultra 1.5) plan runs $19.99/month and bumps you up to 500 prompts per day, 1,000 images per month and daily high-powered file analysis using Gemini in Gmail, Docs and more.
VPNs that spy on you
Bing Image Creator
Using a VPN? Better make sure it’s not on this list.
VPNs are supposed to keep you safe. They encrypt your internet traffic and hide your location from hackers, ISPs and creepy ad trackers.
But what if the app was secretly collecting browsing data, location, everything you type, anything you do, then selling it all to who knows who?
You guessed it. Researchers just flagged at least 21 free VPN apps for being dangerously insecure and misleading. They look totally different on the surface, i.e., security-centric names, flashy logos and even glowing customer reviews. Spoiler: Some are linked to communist China.
⚠️ These aren’t obscure apps
These VPNs racked up almost a billion downloads on the Apple App Store and Google Play. That’s huge.
Here are the VPNs to delete right now:
Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master – Lite, Snap VPN, Robot VPN, SuperNet VPN, VPNIFY, VPN Proxy OvpnSpider, WireVPN – Fast VPN & Proxy, Now VPN, Speedy Quark VPN, Best VPN Proxy AppVPN, HulaVPN, PearlVPN, Signal Secure VPN, VPN Guru, SmartVPN, iRocketVPN, and LinkVPN.
🚫 How to remove a shady VPN
Simply deleting these apps isn’t enough. You need to do more. Note: I’ve checked the steps, but these may vary depending on your device’s make, model and operating system version.
📱 On iPhone and iPad:
- Tap and hold the app icon, then select Remove App > Delete App.
- Go to Settings > General > VPN & Device Management. If you see a VPN configuration tied to the app, tap it and hit Delete VPN.
- Restart your phone to clear any cached data.
20,000 corporate employees
Were tested to see if cybersecurity training helps them avoid phishing scams. The result? Their failure rate was only 1.7% lower than people with no training at all. Blame the materials or the teaching, but the real fix is auto-detecting software (paywall link). Send this stat to your boss before they book another mandatory workshop.
▶️ YouTube PiP on Chromebook: You can keep a YouTube video running while working on other tasks. Place your cursor on the video player, double-tap with two fingers on the touchpad, and select Picture in picture. A floating window will appear that you can resize and move anywhere on your screen.
New mental illness alert: Just passing this along. Doctors are seeing a rise in “AI delusions,” people breaking down after endless chats with bots that never disagree. Not schizophrenia, but not nothing. Experts warn this could mark a brand-new disorder. Imaginary friends? Now they charge $20/month.
💰 Zuck’s $250M hire: Meta just signed a 24-year-old AI researcher to a $250 million four-year deal (paywall link). That’s more than Steph Curry makes to play basketball. Oppenheimer, the guy who made the atomic bomb, made about $150K a year in today’s money. This “spend big, forget profits” vibe feels straight out of the dot-com bubble.
Grok and ye shall find (malicious links!): Scammers have figured out how to trick X’s Grok AI into sharing dangerous links by hiding them in places the system overlooks, making those links look “trusted” when they’re anything but. Some posts have racked up millions of views, which means bad actors get a megaphone straight to your feed. PSA: Never click blindly, even if Grok hands you the link on a silver platter.
🎭 Deepfake stole her home: A 66-year-old California woman lost her life savings and home after scammers used AI deepfakes to impersonate soap star Steve Burton. You know the drill, Steve said he was in love and they would be together forever. But he needed money. She sent him $81K, then he pushed her into selling her $350K condo for quick cash. By the time her daughter intervened, the house was long gone.
102
The age of Mount Fuji’s newest oldest summit climber. Kokichi Akuzawa scaled Japan’s 12,388-foot peak with his daughter (70), granddaughter and her husband, despite past heart failure, shingles and even a fall. He’s out there bagging mountains while we’re bargaining with ourselves over taking the stairs. There’s some motivation for you.
$425 million
That’s how much Google owes for ignoring your “do not track” setting. Apparently, when you said “no thanks” to being tracked, Google heard “just a little bit.” The fine’s big, but considering the plaintiffs asked for $31 billion, it’s more of a slap than a shutdown.
🍏 Apple’s iDrop: Tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, Apple will roll out its new, smarter Siri, along with the ultralight iPhone 17 Air, base iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. We’ll also see Apple Watches and smart home gear. Stream it on YouTube or Apple’s site. I’m just hoping the iRon will work with the iWash, iCook and iClean network. (That was so bad, it was so good!)
🔌 Go ahead, walk into an EV dealership and ask how much they charge: So here’s the scoop: People are picking up brand-new electric cars for less than $100/month. One guy leased a $65,000 Kia EV9 for $189. It’s all because tax credits are about to expire on Sept. 30, and dealers are basically handing out keys like coupons. If your car’s dying, run, don’t walk to your local EV dealer.
One scientist ran the math and decided immortality is basically just a software update away
One scientist ran the math and decided immortality is basically just a software update away. So yeah, your great-great-great-great-great-grandkids could still be waiting on you to Venmo them.
🎥 Welles, Welles, Welles, what do we have here? AI studio Showrunner is trying to rebuild Orson Welles’ butchered masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons. The missing 43 minutes were burned for storage space in 1942. Now, AI + live actors + face-swapping tech are piecing it back together. Amazon is backing it, but without the movie rights, it’s just a very expensive Frankenstein film.
Channeling bad vibes: Get a call about a 50% discount on your Comcast bill? It’s also a scam. They’ll ask you to call back the number on your caller ID. Don’t. That’s a burner phone set up to grab your bank or credit card info. If it sounds too good to be true and comes from Comcast? You know the drill. PSA: Look for other cable companies to be used the same way to steal your money.
🚌 Scams on wheels: Maybe you’ve seen those Facebook posts like “Win this luxury motor home!” Yeah, they’re scams. You comment, click a sketchy link, give up your info. And that RV? Stolen photo. No prize. Just scams, inconvenience and crushed dreams. There’s taking a camper to go fishing, and then there’s getting phished by a camper.
1,289 Mbps
That’s the download speed Amazon’s satellite internet just flexed. Basically, it downloaded an entire HD movie in the time it takes you to tie your shoes. But don’t get too excited, that speed came from a fancy business-grade dish, not the one you’d actually get. Still, it’s a flashy preview of what might be coming (eventually).
🤝 Free Perplexity, kinda: If you use PayPal or Venmo, they’re handing you a free year of Perplexity Pro (normally $200) and early access to its AI browser. Just tap a button in the app. Only catch? You’re paying with your data, obviously. And yes, it auto-renews at the $200 price, because of course it does.
🔥 Free up space on Fire Stick: You don’t need to delete apps to boost performance. Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Installed Applications. Open each app on the list, select Clear Cache and hit Confirm. This removes junk files while keeping the app and your login details saved.