#BigChange for Instagram: As of today, you can no longer follow a hashtag (e.g., #healthycooking). Instagram pulled the plug, saying its hashtags are a mess of spam, bots and irrelevant posts. Try the “Explore” tab instead.
What’s next for “Yellowstone”: I’m bummed about the series finale of the mega-hit “Yellowstone” this Sunday, but it’s not the end of the Duttons’ story. Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler will be back for a new spinoff. Every girl needs a Rip in her jeans, just sayin’.
Nervous Amazon driver has a wholesome conversation with a dog
Have you seen this video of a nervous Amazon driver having a conversation with a dog? It’s freakin’ adorable. A doorbell cam captured the wholesome moment an Amazon delivery driver wary of a dog sitting on the porch overcame his fear and approached the pooch for a cute conversation. I’d tell an Amazon joke here, but I’m worried about my delivery.
5,000 Christmas trees
Planted by an Indiana couple 10 years ago. Bruce and Shawn Carpenter’s Christmas tree farm is helping fund college for their eight grandchildren. About 1,000 trees are ready for sale. I wish I lived close enough to go get one!
Microsoft’s very bad advice: Some 240 million active PCs are too old to update to Windows 11. After years of telling us otherwise, Microsoft now says you can go ahead and update your incompatible PC. The big disclaimer: Your computer might not get every security patch and update, so it’s not worth the risk.
$492,561.56
What you would have if you’d invested $1,000 in Netflix 20 years ago. That’s based on the stock’s current price of $925.03. The streaming giant outperformed the market by 28.06% with an annual return of 36.49% over two decades. Does anyone have a time machine?
Look at these numbers! General Motors is calling it quits on its Cruise robo-taxi project. All told, they invested $10 billion in self-driving tech, including $3.48 billion in 2023. Btw, GM was recently fined $500,000 for lying to feds about a crash that happened last year … one of the many reasons I still won’t ride in a robo-taxi.
Can it do CAPTCHAs?
Google’s shiny new AI assistant takes over your Chrome browser to do stuff like book flights, fill out forms and do your shopping. Sounds a little scary knowing how much Gemini has screwed up, but it’ll be handy if it works. It can’t fill out credit card or billing info, fyi. Watch it in action here.
🏴☠️ Yarr, the booty: Bitcoin millionaire Jon Collins-Black set up a real-life treasure hunt to promote his new book, “There’s Treasure Inside.” He buried five treasure chests worth over $2 million across the country. They’re filled with actual treasure, too — items owned by Pablo Picasso and George Washington, shipwreck bounty, gold, and rare Pokémon cards. Such a great marketing idea!
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💿 Let it go: LG is done making Blu-ray players, joining the likes of Samsung and Sony. Some Blu-ray player models are still available until they sell out. If you want a soon-to-be artifact, get moving.
Not a joke: Two teenage boys in Pennsylvania thought it’d be fun to grab nearly 350 videos and photos of their female classmates from social media, use AI to make the girls appear naked, and then spread the pics around. They’re now facing 59 child porn charges. This is just getting worse.
The state of our country: Scumbags are selling merch glorifying the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer. Amazon had the decency to pull “Deny Defend Depose” shirts, but they’re still on eBay, apparently because they don’t break any rules. Really? Trolls review-bombed the McDonald’s where the guy was caught, too, calling workers rats and snitches. What is wrong with people?
$4.25 billion
Estimated worth of meth seized by the Indian Coast Guard. The 13,227-pound stash was found on a “fishing” boat traveling from Myanmar equipped with one of SpaceX’s Starlink systems for navigation. Police are demanding to know who bought it.
🍩 Krispy Kreme’s security hole: The doughnut giant’s fessing up about a Nov. 29 security breach that took down its online ordering system in parts of the U.S. Along with your credit card details, it’s a safe bet your deep, dark secrets (like how many times you bought a doughnut on the way to work) were leaked, too. Sing it with me: “Doughnut go breaking my heart. I couldn’t if I fried.” Yeah, that was bad.
$245 million
Epic Games’ major settlement for Fortnite players. The FTC says a confusing button layout tricked players into making accidental purchases. They’ve already sent 600,000 payments totaling $72 million. You have until Jan. 10 to file a claim.
It’s going to be hard to tell what’s real anymore: TV maker TCL just debuted five fully AI-generated movies at the former Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood … which TCL owns the naming rights to. There’s a rom-com, a sci-fi flick, a documentary, a superhero movie and a film about a woman who turns into a slug (no idea), all streaming free on TCL TVs. I’m surprised the big media outlets aren’t talking about this. It’s a huge blow for any actor (or wannabe).
Eclipse on demand: I thought this was interesting. The European Space Agency launched a high-tech mission to create artificial solar eclipses. Using two satellites flying in perfect formation, scientists can peek at the sun’s outer layer, normally studied only once every 18 months. Bummer … We can’t watch the show from Earth.
1 billion hours
Of YouTube watched every single day. That beats out all other streaming services. It’s the only streaming platform to top 10% of the viewing market share in 2024. In second place? Netflix, with 7.7%.
📱 It’s like Siri went to college: The smart assistant now uses ChatGPT on the iPhone 15 Pro or any iPhone 16. If you grant permission, the iOS 18.2 update allows OpenAI’s GPT-4 to step in if Siri can’t help you. No ChatGPT account, free or paid, is needed. It’s kinda weird. I opened an email and it automatically generated a reply that was pretty damn good.
Another dangerous, dumb TikTok trend: The “Superman Challenge” has kids tossing each other into the air to look like a flying superhero, with many ending up in the hospital with broken bones and contusions. Talk to your kids about it.