Outsmarting the smart homes

February 15, 2024

📶 Outsmarting the smart homes: Burglars in Edina, Minnesota, are using $40 Wi-Fi jammers to put security systems like Ring, Blink and Nest into a deep sleep. Yup, your high-tech home defenses could be useless. Pro tip: Set up signal-loss alerts in your system’s app. Better yet, get a real security system from SimpliSafe.

Tags: security, Wi-Fi

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📶 No bars: When your cell service is wonky, switch your phone to Airplane mode, wait a few seconds, then change it back. This will reconnect you to the nearest cell tower. Sweet!

What’s the most expensive phone number ever sold: A.) 222-2222, B.) 555-5555, C.) 666-6666 or D.) 8888-8888?

Find the answer here →

$100 and Louis Vuitton is what the tooth fairy leaves these days

OK, not all parents are going all out, but 20% of kids now get money and a gift for each lost tooth. I got 50 cents!

Speed up your phone

Is your phone’s browser a complete mess? Those tabs running in the background eat up valuable memory. There’s a quicker fix than closing tabs one at a time.

On iPhone:

Open Safari. Tap and hold the icon that looks like two overlapping squares. From the pop-up, choose Close All Tabs. Done!

On Android:

It’s even easier if you use Chrome. Just say, “Hey, Google, close all tabs.” If you’re using a different browser, there’s usually a menu in the top right corner. Look for the Close All Tabs option. That’s it!

🏁 Speed Rx: Do this once a week to keep your phone’s performance top-notch.

Relationships are like smartphones. You look at your iPhone 8 and think, “It used to be a lot quicker to turn this thing on.”

🤣 I accidentally deleted all my German friends’ phone numbers. Now my iPhone is Hans-free.

📍 Where am I? You can ask your smartphone that — really! So handy on vacation or if you’re lost. You’ll get your address and location on a map, which you can then share. Just say, “Hey, Siri” or “Hey, Google,” followed by, “Where am I?”

4% make $100K

We’re talking online content creators, aka influencers. Someone tell this to Gen Z; 57% want to do this as a full-time career.

$2B is what Walmart is willing to pay for Vizio

Why a TV company? That sweet, sweet ad and data tracking revenue. They’d control more than one-fifth of the U.S. TV market.

Must-dos BEFORE your phone goes missing

There are built-in tools to help you locate it using another phone or computer. Here’s the caveat: You have to make sure the feature is enabled ahead of time for it to work. Do it now!

Turn on Find My for your iPhone

Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My.
Tap Find My iPhone, then turn on Find My iPhone.
To see your device even when it’s offline, turn on Find My network.
To have the location of your device sent to Apple when the battery is low, turn on Send Last Location.

Turn on Find My Device for your Android

Go to Settings > Security > Find My Device. Or try Security & location or Google > Security.
Make sure Find My Device is turned on.

✏️ You can even erase your phone remotely if it’s really gone. Here’s how.

The domain name for YouTube.com was registered on February 14 in which year: A.) 1995, B.) 2000, C.) 2005 or D.) 2012?

Find the answer here →