📉 Pocket, zipped: Mozilla’s Pocket app — yes, the “save it for later” one — is shutting down July 8. Mozilla reasoned it needs to focus on Firefox, of all things. Data vanishes in October. If you’ve got a decade of unread articles, now’s your moment. Or just accept you’ll never finish that 2016 “Rise and Fall of Vine” op-ed.
The truth behind airplane mode (no, it’s not a myth)
ChatGPT
You know the drill. You find your seat, wrestle your carry-on into the overhead bin like it’s a CrossFit challenge, and then, ding! The flight attendant reminds you to switch to airplane mode.
So … what happens if you don’t? Are you going to crash the plane? Trigger the emergency slide midair?
🛑 Da plane, da plane!
Let’s start with the obvious: Your phone isn’t powerful enough to take down a jetliner. Planes are built tough, with shielding and redundant systems to prevent any one gadget from causing a disaster. Your phone? Not that powerful. Sorry, Apple.
But if you and everyone else leave your phones on full blast, the radio noise from all those signals can interfere with the pilots’ communications.
It’s not dramatic. It’s just obnoxious. Think low-level buzzing and static in the pilot’s headset when they’re trying to talk to air traffic control.
It won’t crash the plane. It might make the pilot say, “Can you repeat that?” to air traffic control, which, y’know, isn’t ideal when they’re, oh, coordinating more than a few 900,000-pound hunks of metal going 500 mph across an invisible highway in the sky.
🛩️ It’s not the paint job
This interference is more likely on planes with older electronics, typically ones built before 2005. Some older aircraft have had systems upgraded though. It’s not about the plane’s birthday, it’s about what’s under the hood.
That’s why the rule is still around: It’s easier to just have everyone use airplane mode than risk messing with cockpit comms on the one plane with vintage wiring.
📶 No bars anyway
At 35,000 feet, your phone is desperately pinging towers it flew past five minutes ago. It won’t connect. All it does is kill your battery and waste your time.
Elder fraud is exploding: Your data is making it worse
ChatGPT
I’ve got bad news: Today’s online scammers know everything about you. They’re scraping your info and everyone else’s from the web and buying the rest from data brokers and people-search sites.
Folks age 60-plus are the biggest target. Almost 72% of scams start with personal data grabbed online. Data brokers vacuum up your info like phone numbers, emails, past addresses, income, favorite takeout spots and then auction it off like eBay for creepers.
After 52 years
The U.S. is lifting its ban on supersonic flights over home turf. That means commercial jets faster than the speed of sound could soon take off. Why the ban in the first place? Sonic booms had people complaining. Now the FAA needs to write up new rules for acceptable noise levels. Hope your windows are ready.
The next iPhone? Nope. This one has no screen, no apps, no keyboard
ChatGPT
I always want you to be tech ahead. That’s why I want you to think about what if your next device didn’t have a screen? Or apps? Or a keyboard?
That’s exactly why Sam Altman (OpenAI’s CEO) and Jony Ive (the former Apple design genius behind the iPhone) are working on a new kind of AI gadget that could completely change the way we interact with technology.
Lies, but with filters: Misinformation is mutating harder than Chernobyl deer. AI-made photos, videos and text are now scary good, blurring reality at scale. Nobody knows what’s real … except that picture of aliens in the White House your uncle reposted, saying he told you so.
🚨 Cyberattack hits major food supplier: Might want to stock up on your favorites now. United Natural Foods says hackers got into their systems, so they’ve shut down parts of the network. This means delays with order fulfillment and distribution. FYI: They supply products to over 30,000 stores, including Whole Foods. This one could cause some serious ripple effects.
🍏 Apple’s WWDC sour highlights: Just as I predicted, major disappointment. Apple’s iOS 26 is coming in the fall. Will it have a ton of AI? Will it work on the new Apple flip phone? No on both counts. But there’s the new Liquid Glass theme. The screen and app tiles will become translucent, less reflective. Wowsie. You can have polls in group texts, get live translation in calls and see alerts for spam for incoming calls. And you can have two windows open on your iPad. Finally.
💸 $742 million fortune lost: After 12 years, the guy who tossed a hard drive with 8,000 Bitcoin has to give up the search. It’s buried in a landfill in Wales, but officials won’t allow a dig because of environmental risks. And to top it off? A judge says it likely didn’t survive anyway. At least his story’s getting a documentary.
📺 Rated B for bogus: That $7.99/month YouTube Premium Lite plan is about to get a lot less ad-free. Starting June 30, you’ll see ads on Shorts, music videos and while browsing or searching. It’s all part of the push to get folks on full Premium for $13.99/month with no ads or background play.
EV range lies: Consumer Reports drove 30 EVs dry at 70 mph and found over half underdelivered on range. Some like the Ford Lightning were off by up to 50 miles. BMW and Merc went the extra mile. Reminder: highway range ≠ sticker range. Especially not when it’s 95° and you’re blasting AC.
🚁 Walmart’s drone army: Wing and Walmart are dropping drone deliveries in 100 more stores. If you’re in Atlanta, Charlotte or Orlando, your box of Pop-Tarts might arrive like it’s a military op. Drones now deliver within 30 minutes for orders up to 5 pounds. Those aren’t UFOs, Samantha. That’s your emotional support rotisserie chicken.
Floppy air control: Terrifying fun fact, U.S. air traffic control still partially runs on actual floppy disks and Windows 95. And yep, Newark’s had three major outages in five weeks. The FAA wants a $10B-ish tech glow-up, but politics and duct tape might kill the plan before takeoff. If Clippy pops up mid-landing, we’re all in God’s hands.
📱 Job text scam-a-palooza: Scammers are texting people fake job offers (i.e., Target hiring you to click buttons for $200/hr), and folks are falling for it (paywall link). Losses topped $470 million last year. AI makes these scams dangerously believable, and Gen Z is out here click-click-clicking their way into identity theft.
Every 5 minutes
North Korean phones secretly take a screenshot of whatever you’re doing. A smuggled one showed the images are stored in a hidden folder that authorities can check later. Even crazier? The phone changes your words as you type. Write “South Korea,” and it becomes “puppet state.” Talk about autocorrect from hell.
🐶 Dogs look like their owners? Science says it’s not just in your head. We might subconsciously choose pups that resemble us or our kids. Women have hair similar in length to their dog’s ears. And yep, they match our vibes, too. The longer we’re together, the more they start to copy us. Look at my Bella!
Postural regression therapy: Millennials and Gen Z are now curing “tech neck” by copying babies. The fix? Lying on your stomach like a 6-month-old. Influencers swear it helps their posture, digestion, even core strength. So yeah, we’ve reached the timeline where adulting means scheduled floor flops. I’m looking forward to nap time.
📦 Package delayed scam: This one is spreading fast. You place an order after seeing a tempting ad, but the package never shows. Then comes the excuse: delays due to tariffs or customs. Next thing you know, they’re asking for extra fees after checkout.
🫀 Teen heart hacker: A 14-year-old in Texas built an AI-powered heart screening app that can detect cardiac issues in seven seconds with just a smartphone mic. Yes, seriously. It’s 96% accurate and already in clinical trials. App detects heart failure? I wonder if it can hear mine breaking during tax season.