📂 What’s up, doc? A TikTokker is going viral with genius advice — make a medical binder. Print out and file all your medical reports, then bring your binder to your next appointment. Need bloodwork? You’ve got recent results and can save potentially weeks of waiting. Got a doctor questioning a diagnosis? No problem, you have the official report. I keep track of everything in Apple Health.
'Beast Games' official trailer
What would you do for $5 million? Contestants on Amazon’s “Beast Games” are taking on giant beer pong, racing in potato sacks, and playing hide and seek with Navy SEALs. YouTuber MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, spent $15 million building “Beast City” in Toronto, where 493 folks are competing for the grand prize. After five episodes, it’s Amazon’s second-most-popular streaming show ever, with 50 million viewers.
$200 million raised
To fund a real-life “Jurassic Park” project. Biotech startup Colossal BioSciences wants to bring back extinct species, including the wooly mammoth, dodo and thylacine, aka the Tasmanian tiger. I saw the new dinosaur in “Jurassic Park” is a hybrid; I guess that makes it Prius-toric.
“Smart” was a dumb choice: Walgreens swapped out their fridge doors for smart screens five years ago, and it’s been such a disaster they’re suing to get out of the $200 million contract. They were supposed to show what’s in stock and run ads, but instead, the screens crash, show the wrong inventory and even catch on fire.
Show me your digits: Engineer Zara Dar fired up an OnlyFans account while she was pursuing a Ph.D. and made $1 million. Now, she’s teaching folks about complex topics like neural networks, probability and integrals full-time online. One of her AI explainer videos has a million views on YouTube. No joke, she posts the same PG videos to Pornhub and makes almost three times the money.
♟️ Caught between a rook and a hard place: International Master Levy Rozman pitted seven popular AI chatbots against chess engine Stockfish. Spoiler: Stockfish crushed ‘em. ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and X’s Grok are great at chatting, not strategizing. They made hilariously bad moves; like breaking the rules, creating patterns, removing random pieces from the board and generating new ones. Chaotic but entertaining.
Attention, website owners: Over 1 million WordPress sites use the SEO and optimization plugin W3 Total Cache. A new flaw lets hackers steal all kinds of sensitive info from the backend of a site. If you use the plugin, download software update 2.8.2 to patch the bug right now.
It’s a bad apple: I wouldn’t want to be the person in charge of this project. Apple is pulling its AI-generated news summaries for pushing fake headlines. The BBC and other outlets called them out for reporting deaths that didn’t happen. This AI needs to work on its core.
🚀 Houston, we have a problem: Elon Musk’s unmanned Starship prototype went boom after launch, lighting up the Caribbean sky like a meteor shower. The debris diverted at least 20 commercial flights. Imagine being on a plane and seeing that. It wasn’t a total disaster, though. The 233-foot-tall booster made it back to the launchpad in one piece. They’re already planning to try again.
Invisible threat: Hackers are hiding malicious code inside images. It loads in your email, and, just like that, your security is compromised. Solid antivirus software can spot malware tricks you can’t. Protect your computer and phone with my pick for just $19 for the first year.
Houston, we have a problem
Elon Musk’s unmanned Starship prototype went boom after launch, lighting up the Caribbean sky like a meteor shower. The debris diverted at least 20 commercial flights. Imagine being on a plane and seeing that. It wasn’t a total disaster, though. The 233-foot-tall booster made it back to the launchpad in one piece. They’re already planning to try again.
Google could stop this, but they don’t: At the top of its search results for Google Ads are fake sites that collect your real login info. Fall for one, and hackers can take over your Google Ads account to post their scam URLs — or just sell your info to other criminals. Make sure 2FA for Google Ads is on to detect strange logins. More smarts like this are coming soon in my small-biz newsletter.
Something new to try: ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks feature is rolling out now for paid accounts. Pick a suggestion (e.g., “Send me a daily horoscope”) or create your own task, like “Give me a weather report on Saturday mornings before my long run.” In the app, go to your profile > Tasks. On a browser, hit the gem icon (top right corner) > Tasks.
Oh, Deere: The FTC and state attorneys general of Illinois and Minnesota are suing John Deere for making their high-tech tractors impossible for farmers and third-party mechanics to fix, even after they promised to in 2023. The machines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and come with massive repair bills as they age. I found a mechanic online saying they charged $12,000 for a $2,000 job.
216% more people
Learning Chinese on Duolingo compared to this time last year. With the TikTok ban looming and so many people running over to another Chinese app, RedNote, they likely need a crash course. RedNote is in Mandarin by default. Duolingo downloads are up 36%, too.
🎮 Nintendo used to make the Wii, but It’s time for a Switch: The Nintendo Switch has sold over 146 million units since its 2017 debut, second only to the Nintendo DS. A new trailer shows the first console morphing into the fancy Nintendo Switch 2. The screen is bigger and the Joy-Cons snap magnetically instead of sliding. There’s no release date yet, so you have time to begin saving.
😡 Throw away the key: This is awful. A woman is in jail for poisoning a one-year-old with old medicine the baby didn’t need and posting social media videos about how much pain the baby was in. She raked in over $37,000 in donations before she was arrested and charged with torture and child exploitation. Police didn’t say if she’s the kid’s mom, but, either way, the little one is safe now.
✈️ No more putting it off: After years of delays, we have a real deadline. Starting May 7, you’ll need a Real ID or an approved alternative (like a U.S. passport or permanent resident card) to pass through TSA checkpoints in the U.S. Pro tip: In some places, you can book a DMV appointment online to avoid the big line.
Steer clear: Willow, a company that fronts bill money to customers, left over 240,000 private records in a non-password-protected database. It included customers’ names, numbers, transaction amounts, bank account details and partial credit card numbers. This is why I never recommend hot, new finance apps.
🚘 Foreign tech crackdown: New cars are rolling computers with cameras, microphones and GPS tracking. Now, think about those features being weaponized to control your vehicle. Hello, national security risk. That’s why the U.S. is banning Chinese and Russian auto software starting with 2027 models and hardware for 2030 vehicles.