80,000

September 5, 2025

That’s how many AI-powered cameras Flock has watching U.S. streets. The $7.5B startup’s small surveillance-tech empire is peeking at plates, bumper stickers and dents on cars from Atlanta to Anaheim. Think Big Brother, but solar-powered and subscription-based. Cops say it’s helped nail everything from ATM gangs to would-be shooters, but privacy watchdogs are freaking out.

Tags: cameras, privacy, startup, Surveillance, tech

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Hidden setting lets apps spy on you through Bluetooth

Midjourney

Smart glasses are spyware

Kim Komando

That’s me, virtually trying on Meta’s glasses on their website, doing my best Tom Cruise Risky Business impersonation. Spoiler, I didn’t buy them.

These remind me of Google Glass. Those awkward $1,500 face computers from 2013 that made you look like a cyborg at brunch. They launched with a ton of hype and died just as fast.

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Ring of suspicion: Oura announced a Texas plant to make rings for the Department of Defense. TikTok spiraled into conspiracy theories about Palantir “stealing” user data and Oura suing rivals into extinction. The CEO even hopped on TikTok to debunk them.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: On YouTube, press Shift + > to speed things up or Shift + < to slow them down. Each tap shifts playback by 0.25. I use it for podcasts and slo-mo replays.

🛑 Don’t trust that form: Listen, if a Google Form ever asks for your bank info or logins? Close it immediately. Scammers are churning these out because they look clean, official, even hosted on Google’s real servers. Stanford staff fell for one already. Think of it this way: Forms are for pizza orders, not your Social Security number.

👀 Sofa surprise: This is wild. The Baroque painting “Portrait of a Lady,” stolen by Nazis in 1940, just popped up casually hanging above a couch in a living room photo on an Argentinian real estate site. Doesn’t take a history buff to guess how that happened. Apparently the Zestimate skyrockets when your décor is a war crime.

▶️ Add a channel trailer on YouTube: Give potential subscribers a preview of what to expect. Log in to YouTube and go to YouTube Studio > Customization > Home tab > Layout. Click + Add section > Channel trailer, pick the video you want, and hit Publish. Pro tip: Swap it out every few weeks to keep things fresh.

⚡ Classic cars get plugged in: Imagine your busted Land Rover or the Ferrari 308 from Magnum, P.I., now whisper-quiet as a Tesla. U.K.’s Electric Classic Cars has converted 100+ classics since 2015, swapping gas engines for battery packs without chopping up the vintage shells. Conversions start around $57K, but wild custom builds climb past $190K. I don’t know, I love the roar of my ’67 Corvette that was actually in the movie Con Air.

YouTube’s family freeloader era is over, too: So you’ve been coasting on someone else’s YouTube Premium family plan for years? Well, YouTube just went full Netflix on us. Starting now, every 30 days, it’ll GPS‑scan your butt to make sure you actually live under the same roof as the account holder.

🙏🏻 iPhone saves teen’s life: A 16-year-old in Greenville fell asleep at the wheel and crashed, leaving her with multiple broken bones. Trapped inside her pickup, she couldn’t call for help, but her iPhone did. Crash Detection automatically dialed 911 and got rescuers there. Want the same safety net? Go to Settings > Emergency SOS and toggle on Call After Severe Crash.