📦 Prime and pause: Don’t click “Buy Now.” Amazon just announced a big hardware event for Sept. 30 in New York City, where it’s going to unveil new Echo speakers, Fire TV gear and a colorful Kindle that you can write on. Alexa’s gonna be smarter, too. Maybe it will ask me, “Kim, why am I unplugged?”
Your new router might be a waste of money
Midjourney
You’ve probably seen the sales pitches. “Get blazing-fast Wi-Fi 7 with internet speeds like you’ve never seen before. Just $600 for a new state-of-the-art router!” Let me save you money.
🤑 The reality check
Yes, Wi-Fi 7 is fast. Theoretical speeds reach up to 46 Gbps. That’s 46,000 Mbps, compared to Wi-Fi 6, which tops out around 9.6 Gbps (9,600 Mbps). Here’s what that means in real life.
A 4K movie is about 15 GB.
- Wi-Fi 6 downloads that in 12–15 seconds.
- Wi-Fi 7 does it in about three seconds.
Yea, you’ll never notice the difference.
🐌 The real bottleneck
Most Americans’ internet maxes out between 200 to 1,000 Mbps. That’s 0.2 to 1 Gbps. This isn’t even close to what your router or phone can handle. Not sure? Look at those numbers above again. I’ll wait.
About your phone, it’s limited by your internet connection, not your router.
🏎️ Who can use Wi-Fi 7?
When you fall into one of these categories, it’s worth getting.
- Video editors moving 100 GB+ files wirelessly between computers.
- Gamers or engineers with a high-end NAS (network-attached storage).
- Power users with super fast fiber connections (2 Gbps and up).
Tractors, TVs and tyranny
Bing Image Creator
Picture this. A farmer is out in the fields when his $300,000 John Deere tractor shuts off with an error code. He knows what’s wrong. But he can’t touch it. An authorized (pricey) technician must come to his farm, unlock the tractor’s operating system and fix it.
Over 500 million
That’s how many images have already been edited with Nano Banana. The AI tool is part of Google’s Gemini, which is the #1 iPhone app in the U.S. App Store. The hook? It keeps character likeness and lets you mash multiple pics together, like putting your face into a suit. Try it now on iOS and Android. You can generate or edit up to 100 images per day.
📂 Kindle maintenance: If your Kindle feels slow, it might be time to free up space. Go to Settings > Device options > Storage management > Manual removal. From there, browse the Books, Docs, Audible or Others folders. Scroll through the lists, pick what you no longer need and tap Remove.
Health data, now with ad targeting
Bing Image Creator
Your smartwatch is great for counting steps and buzzing you when you’ve been sitting on your butt too long. But have you ever stopped to think where all that personal data is going?
From sleep patterns to how stressed you are on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s all being logged in a digital diary. And guess what? That diary is worth big money to advertisers, insurance companies and, of course, hackers.
AI ads incoming: Roku is rolling out generative AI tools so even the tiniest business can slap together an ad in minutes. Roku has hundreds of advertisers, but they want 100,000+. Streaming’s booming, ad slots are open, and AI sludge is about to fill the void.
⚡ Meta’s new toybox: Zuck is taking the stage tomorrow for Meta Connect, where he’s expected to drop two new smart glasses (one with a tiny display), an $800 Prada tie-in, plus fresh Meta AI bots. No new headsets, but Meta’s VR games, apps and third-party VR gear should get airtime. Think less “metaverse utopia,” more “notifications on your face.”
📱 Bars from space: So Elon Musk wants Starlink to be your phone provider. Instead of towers, satellites beam calls straight to your pocket. Texts are working now for some. Starlink just locked down spectrum rights from Globalstar, the same radio lanes carriers use. Verizon’s sweating, FCC’s nervous, and you might finally get service in that one Target parking lot black hole.
⏱️ Pressure’s on: Apple Watches that track hypertension just got FDA approval and start rolling out today. The watch monitors your cardiovascular patterns over 30 days and alerts you if your blood pressure looks like it’s creeping too high. It’s not a replacement for a doctor or a real cuff, but it could be a game changer for the millions who don’t know they’re at risk. The feature is coming to Series 9, Ultra 2 and all future models, and yes, your wrist might just save your life.
💬 World’s first telepathic wearable: MIT researchers have built AlterEgo, a headpiece that lets you communicate without speaking. No implant needed, it sits around your ears and uses bone conduction to pick up tiny movements in your mouth, face and vocal cords, then software turns them into words. Imagine what it will do for speech disorders. Amazing.
🚚 See-through Prime: Amazon’s cooking up AR glasses for the masses, but drivers get the beta first. Their version has turn-by-turn directions glowing in the lens. Sure, your package might land three houses over, but at least the driver got to feel like Iron Man on the way. Consumer release? 2027.
🔒 Big iPhone 17 security upgrade: Apple’s adding a new feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement to take on spyware. It’s always running in the background, protecting the kernel and 70+ processes, which makes stealing your data a lot tougher. The catch? It only works on the new A19 chips. Older iPhones will still get a memory safety update, but not like this.
600,000 miles
That’s how long the world’s biggest battery maker, CATL, says its new EV battery will last. For context, that’s like driving to the moon and back … then back again. Your EV will give up long before the battery does. Oh, and it also only takes 10 minutes to charge it from 10% to 80%. Wild.
More than 80%
That was Tesla’s share of the U.S. EV market back in the day. They’re down to just 38% of sales, the lowest since 2017. Why? While other automakers pump out shiny new EVs, Tesla’s busy dreaming about robotaxis and humanoid robots. Their last “new” model was the Cybertruck in 2023.
📱 Apple’s skinny era: First, no foldables. Apple dropped the iPhone 17 lineup, headlined by the ultra-thin iPhone Air (5.6mm, titanium, 48MP camera). AirPods Pro 3 now translate languages in real time and, get this, track your heart rate mid-squat. New Watches got blood pressure and even sleep apnea detection. Preorders open, shipping Sept. 19.
👂 Struggling to hear? Custom-fit hearing aids with expert guidance and a 45-day risk-free trial help you hear clearly, follow every conversation and reconnect with friends and family, so you never miss a moment again.
♣️ 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.
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.
🍏 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!)