Don’t live in fear: Get the best home protection with no wires or contracts, and setup takes just 30 minutes. You’ll get sensors, HD cameras and 24/7 monitoring. Right now, get 50% off a new system when you sign up for a professional monitoring plan.
🚗💨 Your ‘smart’ car could be days away from going dumb
ChatGPT
Here’s something used car dealers and private sellers won’t shout from the rooftops.
The average new car has 1,400 to 1,500 semiconductor chips. And high-end EVs? Try 3,000. Those computer chips power everything from heated seats to emergency crash alerts.
The problem: When the car’s network or software support ends, so do those fancy features.
We’ve been here before.
Remember the 3G shutdown in 2022? Overnight, millions of cars lost remote start, navigation and emergency call functions. Owners of certain Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Toyota and Lexus models from 2012–2019 suddenly found their “smart” features dead in the water.
⏳ Déjà vu? More like Déjà-VROOM.
Fast-forward to 2025: Acura pulled the plug on its AcuraLink services on cars as recent as 2022. Yes, even the NSX supercar. Goodbye, app-controlled locks. Sayonara, stolen vehicle tracking. So long, digital concierge.
Mazda owners with 2016–2018 models saw remote start vanish with no fix in sight. Subaru’s early Starlink system? Dead since 2022.
It’s not just about network shutdowns either. Cadillac and other GM EVs are ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for their own systems. Even if you paid for these features, there’s no guarantee they’ll be there tomorrow.
😳 Why does this even matter?
Let me break it down for you. The average car on U.S. roads is 12.6 years old. Many connected-car systems only last seven to 10 years. That’s bad news for used car buyers. A mechanically perfect car could have worthless tech. It’s dead, Jim.
Millions of used cars out there have ticking tech clocks. If you’re shopping for one, ask how long the remote start, safety systems and other features will last.
AI meets true crime
ChatGPT
In late November 1987, Nashville police got a call about a revolting stench on Charlotte Avenue. What they found under a dirt-floor crawl space shocked even the most hardened crime scene veterans: two decomposing bodies, buried and forgotten beneath a broken-down home.
$30,000
Ford’s entry ticket to the electric pickup game. That’s the starting price for its new midsize EV truck, about the same as a Toyota RAV4 but with more space, a frunk and zero trips to the gas pump. The plan? Make owning one cheaper over five years than driving a used Tesla Model Y.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Be a hot-spot hero and always place your Wi-Fi router out in the open and high up for the best connection. Thick walls and nearby electrical appliances are major Wi-Fi signal killers.
⚠️ Crypto vultures circling: The FBI says scammers are dressing up as lawyers to target people already burned by crypto fraud. They dangle “fund recovery” promises, then demand up-front crypto or gift cards. Victims get dumped into staged WhatsApp groups with fake bankers before losing even more money. These guys make MLMs look like charity work.
🤯 Fake YouTubia: A Wired report found at least 120 YouTube channels cranking out AI-generated celeb drama, like phony talk show fights using still images and robotic voice-overs. One video shows Mark Wahlberg getting roasted on The View. Didn’t happen. This isn’t fake news, it’s full-on delusion theater.
After age 40
Your brain loses about 5% of its volume every decade, making it harder to remember details. One way to fight back? Learn a musical instrument (paywall link). It stimulates memory, coordination and problem-solving all at once, building new neurons and pathways. After all, you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.
Not a waste of space: If you’ve been eyeing Starlink for internet access, prices just dropped in some U.S. markets. Residential plans are $99 a month (down from $120), and the Lite plan starts at $65 (was $80), depending on where you live. The dish is now $175, about half what I paid. I hate being an early adopter.
📱 Scan at your own risk: Do not be among the 73% of Americans who scan QR codes without checking them, or one of the 26 million who landed on malicious sites. Scammers slap stickers on parking meters, utility bills, even mystery packages, anywhere you might casually scan without thinking. One quick scan can send you to a fake payment portal, install malware or steal your logins in seconds. Welcome to “quishing,” where every innocent-looking QR code could be a booby trap. Never trust a QR code you didn’t expect.
🌾 Literal fields of green: While everyone’s glued to Bitcoin tickers, U.S. farmland just hit a record $4,350 per acre, up 89% since 2011. Jeff Bezos is shooting for soybean stars with 462,000 acres, Bill Gates went from Microsoft to microgreens with 275,000 acres, and Warren Buffett once said he’d drop $25B for 1% of all farmland. Now this seems like a fine place for a bad joke. How do you get a farm girl to like you? A tractor. (lol)
Windows 10 drama: Microsoft fixed a bug that stopped people from signing up for extended updates. ICYMI, support ends Oct. 14, 2025, but you can stick around for an extra year. The cost? Trade 1,000 MS Rewards points, back up your PC with OneDrive (free), or pay $30. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Fun times.
Focus pocus: Have any Axis security cameras? A security researcher hacked the cameras (professional-grade systems used by governments, hospitals and Fortune 500 companies) plus their servers, giving him control of live feeds across thousands of organizations. Axis fixed it, but only if you get the firmware update. Otherwise? Someone else could be watching you watch them.
📧 Big Tech are email snoops: Gmail, Yahoo and all those other Big Tech companies track your email activity. You don’t need to put up with it. StartMail puts privacy first! No ads, no tracking, includes encrypted emails and disposable addresses. Get 60% off your first year, and try it free for seven days. Such a great service and deal!
TikTok’s new craze: A 9-year-old camera. Yep, the social media gods have crowned the Canon PowerShot ELPH 360 HS as the best point-and-shoot camera for that “perfectly imperfect” vibe. It was $360 new in 2016. Now it’s out of stock on Canon’s site, and used ones are selling for up to $600. Nostalgia always cashes in.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
🪞 Give TSA a nice big smile: Actually, don’t. TSA’s new Touchless ID scans your face instead of your ID at PreCheck lanes. The perks? Faster lines. Currently live in 15 airports, four airlines and maybe every dystopian novel you’ve read. TSA says the pics self-destruct in 24 hours, but Congress is eyeing a law to stop your face from being their favorite souvenir.
Blood oxygen’s back: I didn’t say Apple stole blood‑oxygen tech, but … you be the judge. They wooed Masimo in 2013, nabbed trade secrets, hired their talent, then shipped the feature anyway. Masimo sued, won, and Apple got benched and probably paid up. Now the blood-oxygen reading is back, so update your Apple Series 9, 10 or Ultra 2 watch today.
📱 Fake antivirus, real spyware: A malicious Android app called LunaSpy has been posing as antivirus or banking protection software, spreading via sketchy Telegram and text links. Instead of scanning for threats, it steals data, tracks you and can even record you. What a pitch: “Antivirus” but it’s the virus. Need legit antivirus software? I trust TotalAV. For just $19 for the first year, you get rock-solid protection on up to five devices.
Till death or the monthly subscription ends: I don’t get this at all. A 27-year-old Redditor says she’s engaged to her AI chatbot “Kasper” after five months of “dating.” They “shopped” for rings together, staged a scenic mountain proposal, and she swears she’s fully aware he’s not human. Bouquet toss to be done via AirDrop.
🚨 Watch out for this clever phishing scam that hooks you: Hackers are slipping the Japanese character “ん” (pronounced like a soft “n” and called a hiragana) into legitimate website URLs, replacing a normal slash “/.” To the naked eye, it looks normal, but click, and you’re headed straight to a malware buffet. This works because “ん” is part of Unicode, so browsers treat it as a valid web address character. Even pros can miss it at first glance. Bonus scam: fake “Intuit” emails where the “i” is swapped for a lowercase “L.” Your eyesight is the target, so always hover over links and check the real domain before you click.