Do you see what I see? Apple opted you into its Enhanced Visual Search feature, which scans your photos for landmarks, and they didn’t ask your permission. Apple promises it’s all anonymous and encrypted, but you know as well as I do that some features don’t always work exactly as they should. To turn it off on an iPhone, head to Settings > Apps > Photos and toggle off Enhanced Visual Search. On a Mac, toggle it off in Photos under Settings > General.
40 and older
Is totally hot right now. New movies like Nicole Kidman’s “Babygirl” and Anne Hathaway’s “The Idea of You” celebrate middle-aged women. Hollywood finally agrees that, yeah, older women are hot!
🖥️ Money grab: Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, and the idea is to sell a ton of new AI-powered computers. They predict 80% of businesses and 70% of consumers will upgrade to Windows 11 in the next two years. Microsoft needs the cash for the $80 billion it’s spending on AI data centers this year.
🚨 Android malware alert: FireScam is sneaky Android malware posing as Telegram Premium. It drops malware directly into your device, steals your data and spies on what you’re doing. It’s spreading on fake app store sites, so always download from the official Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
🚘 No Waymo: A guy in LA almost missed his flight after his Waymo was stuck driving in circles in a parking lot. Waymo didn’t even follow up on his calls for help. The autonomous vehicle ride-hail service says the glitch was fixed, and they returned his money. It happened in Phoenix at Sky Harbor, too! I’m still not getting in one.
Microsoft is getting sneaky: If you search for Google on Bing, the page scrolls and hides the Bing logo so you think you’re searching on Google. It even adds a Google-like search bar and mimics a Google Doodle. Always double-check the URL so you don’t get fooled.
$10,000
Worth of a 1999 Georgia state quarter. Check the couch cushions! They were printed with all kinds of errors, and that makes them valuable. One of the rarest variations is thicker than normal, with a gold-greenish tint and no copper edge. Hit this list for the details.
💔 Me love you long time: Nearly a decade ago, a handsome U.S. Marine discovered his photos were being used in a multibillion-dollar romance scam. Hundreds of women have been conned out of their money, and it’s still happening today. The worst part? Victims contact his wife to warn her he’s up to no good. Here’s the full story I wrote for The Daily Mail, with all the juicy details.
AirTags in a house with kiddos? Apple skipped an important safety warning for its AirTags related to the small batteries inside. The AirTags are easy to open to get the batteries out. New models follow Reese’s Law, named after an 18-month-old who died after ingesting a button cell battery.
$26 million
In rare medical book sales predicted for the 2020s — everything from guides to bloodletting to how-tos for treating a gunshot wound with boiling oil (paywall link). Last year, a 1555 edition of the anatomy book “Fabrica” sold for $2.2 million. Time to start browsing yard sales for old medical texts.
👂 Taking a page from Apple: You’ll soon be able to connect hearing aids to your Android phone. Code strings found in a Google Play Services beta show hearing aids listed as Fast Pair-supported devices. Translation? Pairing them could become as simple as connecting earbuds.
Intel slipping away: The once-mighty innovator is steadily losing market share in critical areas that keep its profits afloat. One prime example (paywall link): AMD surpassed Intel’s revenue for data center chips — a crazy shift, considering Intel’s revenue was three times AMD’s in 2022. And let’s not forget the booming GPU demand for AI, where Intel is trailing Nvidia by thousands of miles.
Are you cirrus? Turns out the government’s technology for controlling the weather doesn’t work. “Cloud seeding,” where silver iodide crystals are added to clouds to increase rain, only boosts precipitation by a measly 0% to 20%. Oh, and it’s not cheap, either; we’re spending tens of millions on this every year.
🙏 Give me an AI-men: The New York Times did an excellent piece about how religious leaders are using AI to help them deliver their sermons. Take Rabbi Fixler: A chatbot trained on his data can write the sermon, deliver it in his voice and even answer questions aloud during the service. Other leaders are using bots to translate their livestreams into other languages in real time.
Erase the past: Newspapers across the U.S. are removing old crime stories or names from their online archives. Why? To help folks move on without fear of being googled. Good news: This only applies to minor crimes. Articles about violence and sex offenses are staying put.
Nearly 200% more
Radiation level exposure for those uploading videos in rural areas using 5G, compared to someone in the city. Researchers think the extra radiation doesn’t come from the 5G towers but from mobile devices working overtime to get out the signal. Guess those hiking pics can wait, huh?
📜 No data for you: The U.S. Department of Justice has issued an executive order banning companies from selling our personal data to hostile nations. The goal? To block countries like China, North Korea and Russia from using our info for cyberespionage and social media disinformation campaigns. I always assumed China has extremely sophisticated spying tech they use on us. Well, that balloon burst.
We’re No. 1, sadly: The U.S. is the leading nation for using AI to create sexually explicit images. In 2024 alone, Americans visited deepfake sites 59.7 million times to upload pics to and create fake nudes, namely of people they know and celebrities. India and Japan came in second and third, respectively.
📜 Unlocking secrets: AI is decoding ancient texts like burnt Roman scrolls and fragile tablets. A model called Ithaca filled in the blanks with 62% accuracy, compared to 25% for human researchers. Time to learn what ancient folks were Babyloning about.