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“Thank you, God”
After Casey Colvin’s home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he went looking for his rescue dogs. A firefighter found Tika Tika Tika, but little Oreo ran away. Luckily, Casey was smart and had an AirTag on the pup’s collar. He tracked her down near the rubble of his home. Grab some tissues before you watch the heartwarming video.
$1,875,000 severance
For Patrick Spence, the canned Sonos CEO. Spence also will get $7,500 a month for “strategic advisory” until June. The drama started in May 2024 with Sonos’ buggy app that got pushed out way too early so they could sell fancy headphones. Sales numbers were awful, employees quit, and it spiraled into a full-on PR disaster. Way to go, Mr. CEO!
💊 He takes 54 pills a day: Tech millionaire Bryan Johnson, on a mission to reverse aging, figured out one of his daily supplements was actually making him older. The culprit was rapamycin, which comes with rough side effects like a higher resting heart rate and skin infections. Catch my podcast with Bryan here.
Red Note is No. 1 in the App Store: It’s kind of like Instagram but with a Pinterest-style layout and 300 million monthly active members. Why is it suddenly so popular? TikTok creators who are worried their audiences will evaporate with the possible ban don’t realize this app is also Communist China-owned, too. D’oh.
🚨 Don’t reply to spam — ever: Hackers have a workaround to get phishing links past Apple’s iMessage security measures: Tricking you into replying. Links from unknown senders are disabled, so they send frantic texts about shipping issues or unpaid road tolls that push you to send “stop” or “yes.” The moment you respond, the link goes live and you’re screwed.
💔 A woman sent $850,000 to “Brad Pitt”: A scammer posing as the actor hit her up on social media with love poems and selfies. Later, after she spilled about a hefty divorce settlement, the fake Brad said he needed money for cancer treatments and couldn’t access his cash because of his divorce from Angelina Jolie. This jerk even cooked up phony hospital photos and videos with AI. The woman knew it was fake when she saw pics of the real Brad happy and healthy with his new girlfriend.
Almost $1,600 a year
What Gen Z adults pay on average for basic DIY tasks. A survey of 2,000 18- to 27-year-olds showed they’d rather pay someone to clean their car or hang a picture frame. About 30% can’t even identify a flathead screwdriver. How many Gen Zers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just one … to call the handyman.
“Thank you, God”: After Casey Colvin’s home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he went looking for his rescue dogs. A firefighter found Tika Tika Tika, but little Oreo ran away. Luckily, Casey was smart and had an AirTag on his pup’s collar. He tracked her down near the rubble of his home. Grab some tissues before you watch the heartwarming video.
Ex marks the spot: Kevin and Sally Reid were civil after their 20-year relationship ended … until Sally started dating again. That’s when Kevin secretly changed her phone’s location settings to track her and stuck an AirTag on her car. She took the tracking device to the police, who found the guy’s prints. Smart move, Sally. He’ll be sentenced in April.
⏰ Wake up, Apple: The iPhone alarm clock function has been iffy since last April, when a bug fix didn’t work for a lot of folks. The glitch has made thousands of alarms not ring or go off hours late. If you’ve overslept, just show this to your boss. Pro tip: Double-check your alarm volume under Settings > Sound and Haptic. Move the slider all the way to the right.
Fill ‘er up: The free Upside app gives you cash back on gas, groceries and dining out. Download Upside and use promo code Kim to get an extra $0.25 back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.
Disney’s employee troubles: A former Disney employee will plead guilty to computer fraud and identity theft. The guy was fired and charged after hacking restaurant menus. He added fake allergy-safe labels to items that contained things like peanuts and dairy, and he snuck in a swastika and references to mass shootings. Jail’s gonna be a whole new world for him.
More like Fakebook: If you see a Facebook post about an armed serial killer on the loose, specifically one with this guy’s face, don’t believe it. Right now, the hoax is spreading around Missouri, but posts just like this one have been shared in Facebook groups in California, Colorado, Georgia, Texas and Arizona. The guy whose face keeps getting reused? Already in jail.
Talk about great coverage: The state of Texas sued Allstate. They say the insurance company paid app developers millions of dollars to sneak in their code, then tracked 45 million folks’ locations. The apps the lawsuit names include Fuel Rewards, GasBuddy, Life360 and Allstate-owned Routely. I’m sure this happened in all states, not just Texas.
🚌 Hackers will school you: Hackers broke into book publisher Scholastic’s employee portal and stole 8 million records, including parent, teacher and school admin names, emails, phone numbers and addresses. Some data relates to kids, too. The hackers say they won’t share the info publicly. Yeah, right.
$50 per month
Starlink’s cheaper internet service plan. The catch? You have to keep your data usage under 50GB, then you’re cut off. The regular plan is $120 per month, so it’s a good price if you use it as a backup and don’t do much that’s data-heavy. Starlink is my backup, and I’d be over 50GB way too fast with my show and podcast recordings!
41% lower risk
Of head and neck cancer by drinking three to four cups of coffee per day. Researchers dug into 14 studies with over 25,000 people. They found heavy coffee drinkers had a 30% lower risk of oral cancer. Even decaf helps. For tea drinkers like me, there’s a 9% risk reduction for both and 29% lower for hypopharyngeal (lower throat) cancer. I hate cancer.