The term “forever chemicals” is floating around more than ever. If you’re wondering why folks are so worried about them, the clue’s in the name.
These substances stick around for a long, long time, and it’s not clear how safe they are. They’re also everywhere, from your phone and smartwatch tech to carpets to nail polish.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, are synthetic chemicals, so they’re not found in nature. And now, both Apple and Samsung are being sued for wearables that release high levels of PFAS.
So, what’s the deal and how worried should you be? I’ve got the intel.
In gadgets, they waterproof circuits, keep down the heat levels and add durability. They make your cooking pans nonstick, strengthen cardboard and keep mascara from running. In factories, they keep equipment running smoothly and corrosion-free, and in firefighting foam, they suppress and cool flames.
We’re talking about thousands of chemicals here, made on demand to do specific (and valuable) jobs. No wonder it took so long for us to start asking about the health and safety trade-offs of using PFAS. (Ahem, anyone else thinking about asbestos?)
There’s no direct link between PFAS and disease, but there are a lot of warning signs. I did some digging, and scientific studies associate these forever chemicals with cancer risks, kidney disease and fertility problems. Something’s not right.
Scientists are still figuring out how PFAS damage the body and what level of exposure is dangerous. Until then, what are you supposed to do?
Know the big offenders: Smartwatches, fitness trackers and water-resistant phones use PFAS for durability and waterproofing. Letting a PFAS-loaded band sit on your wrist all day probably isn’t the best idea. A recent study showed cheaper bands contained fewer “forever chemicals” than the expensive name-brand bands. All the under-$15 bands were cleared. Here are safe options for Apple Watch and Fitbit.
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I 🫶 this: Apple’s new $250 Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds have built-in heart rate monitoring that kicks in when you start working out. Whoa, no more clicking buttons on a watch to track a run? Its battery life is good, too, at 45 hours with the charging case and 10 more hours if you turn off noise cancellation.
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As massive as Jupiter. That’s the size of an exoplanet spotted by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft. Some context: Jupiter is equal to about 318 Earths, so this thing is huge. The exoplanet, Gaia 4b, is 244 light-years away and 64% as big as the sun. A year there? About 570 Earth days.
Not backing down: Plastic surgeon Elisabeth Potter went public about UnitedHealthcare calling her mid-surgery to deny a breast cancer patient’s hospital stay. After her post went viral, she got a letter from UnitedHealthcare’s big-time lawyers demanding a retraction and an apology. In a post on X, Potter said, “I will continue to speak up for my patients because they deserve better.” Good for her.
🎈 American tech spying on Americans: It turns out the 200-foot-tall Chinese spy balloon shot down two years ago was packed with U.S. tech from at least five American companies, including Iridium Communications, Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors and Onsemi. China claims it was a weather research airship that accidentally strayed into U.S. territory. Yeah, right.
Cost to remove saggy skin. People who lose a ton of weight on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy are booking “360-degree” body lifts (paywall link). Lower-body procedures are up by 28% and upper-body surgeries have spiked by 86%. Most new patients are in their 20s and 30s. I just have no appetite for this.
🎣 Gone phishing: I’ve done this with my team. It’s just smart. More companies are phishing their own employees to see how easily they fall for scams. Some are scary, like fake Ebola outbreaks, and others are just plain mean, like a “lost puppy” in the parking lot (paywall link). A weak link can cost you your entire company, so you need to know who needs cybersecurity training.
On the tip of my tongue: Researchers are developing a lickable lollipop that lets you “taste” in virtual reality games. It’s packed with small gel pouches that mix with your saliva to create flavors like salt, sugar, cherry and even milk. (Ew.) An electrical current triggers the flavors, and the voltage controls how much you get. That means game designers can mix and match for custom tastes.
🧬 Evolution ain’t finished: Scientists think we’ll look a lot different in 1,000 years. Theories include darker skin, better-looking faces from selective dating, smaller brains, freakishly long arms, shorter statures, and big eyes made for low gravity and dim light. Oh, and let’s not forget the biohacking and cybernetic upgrades. Here are a few pics.
Hours wasted on reCAPTCHA. Choosing images (like which ones have a bike or a bridge) stopped bots years ago, but now they’re useless. So, why do they still exist? When you interact with the boxes, Google gets access to your browsing data to sell to advertisers. They’ve collected $6.1 billion just by making you click. Sneaky dogs.
Heads-up, fellow pet owners: Microchipping company Save This Life shut down, so your furry friend’s chip might not be registered anymore. If you’re unsure, take them to a vet or shelter to get scanned. If a number pops up, you should be good to go. Plug it into the AAHA lookup tool to double-check. If the chip is invalid, ask your vet for an alternative.
💻 The nerd in me loves this: The world’s fastest supercomputer just went online at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The $600 million El Capitan is powered by 44,544 AMD chips. Its job is to secure the U.S. nuclear stockpile, run national security research and crunch other classified tasks. How fast is it? Its peak performance is 2.746 exaflops. That’s about 69 million times faster than a top-of-the-line MacBook.
Almost three years after the iPad 10: Apple’s new base model iPad 11 is coming this spring with a chip upgrade from the A14 Bionic to A17 Pro (about 40% faster), double the RAM (4GB to 8GB) and Apple Intelligence. If you don’t care about AI, the 10th-gen iPad is 20% off right now.
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This is a Pisa work: Scammers created a deepfake voice of Italy’s defense minister to call big names like Giorgio Armani and Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli (paywall link). The fake minister said journalists had been kidnapped and they needed cash to pay the ransom. At least one fell for it, wiring over $1 million to scammers.
😡 Justice, served: This is horrifying. A woman received a webpage filled with deepfake porn of herself, along with detailed, disgusting fantasies, and the page included her phone number, address and other private info. She went into full detective mode. The culprit? A close friend from college. A judge threw the sicko in prison for nine years.
What Elon Musk offered to buy OpenAI yesterday. He’s in a battle with Sam Altman, who wants OpenAI to turn a profit. Altman responded to Musk on X, writing, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Ouch.
The Jevons paradox principle, which now applies to AI. Basically, it says that as efficiency increases, so does usage. With AI models becoming more efficient and cheaper (like DeepSeek), more people will start using them every day. This is probably good news if your Nvidia stock earnings are in the toilet like mine.
No longer enough to play PC games. For open-world games that rely on visuals, the new standard is 32GB for shorter loading times, fewer stutters and smoother streaming. Here are affordable upgrade kits for DDR4 and DDR5 systems.
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🤝 I want to be your secret helper and mentor: I’ve been around tech forever. My business has thrived for over 20 years without debt or investors. If you have an issue, problem or question about your life or business, I’d love to help you. Ask me here on my site. I read every single note.
💡 Watt a good idea: Apple is working on a new robot that could one day replace your HomePod, Amazon Echo or smart speaker. It looks and moves exactly like the Pixar lamp. Apple wants to make robots interact more naturally with us. Ask “How’s the weather?” and it’ll literally turn its head toward the window before answering. Here’s the video.
