“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.
“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.
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.
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.
👨🚒 DIY firefighting: A 60-year-old man saved his home from the Palisades fire with special equipment he’d purchased in advance. He soaked his house with water pumps, sprinklers and a hydrogel retardant he mixed in his backyard hot tub. Sadly, the homes surrounding him weren’t as lucky. Here’s the video showing how he did it.
🦖 No, thanks, Dad: Alex Volkov, an “AI enthusiast,” gave his six-year-old daughter a $200 AI-powered dinosaur from Magical Toys. He showed her how to make the dinosaur talk using AI. She turned it off. Using the app, parents can view their kid’s chat history and give the toy’s AI topics to talk about. I’d never buy it; AI hallucinates, and just think of all the data being collected.
Amazon’s shutting down Prime Try Before You Buy: It’s all over at the end of this month. Now, they’re pushing AI features like Virtual Try-on AR, which lets you see 3D renders of shoes on your feet, for example, using just your smartphone camera.
157 million users
Watching ads on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. About half of all new Disney+ subscribers picked the cheaper ad-supported option. That’s helping the streamer rake in $321 million in operating income, a huge turnaround from their reported $387 million loss a year ago.
🤢 This is gross: Creepy AI apps are allowing folks to create videos of real people making out without their consent, like this one, which uses a picture of a young girl and her older male crush. These videos can be generated in seconds. The worst part? Most of these apps are listed as safe for teens in the app stores. YouCam, Fotorama and Mova AI are just a few examples.
Mining my own business: I’ve followed this story for years. A British judge just said no to a man’s plan to dig up a landfill in search of his hard drive holding the equivalent of $765 million in bitcoin. Why? First, the landfill legally owns the trash. Second, excavating it could release harmful substances and endanger local residents. Oh, and it’s been over 11 years, so there’s no guarantee the data is even recoverable.