Google reads your texts

June 27, 2025

🕳️ Google reads your texts: They’re doing it again. Starting July 7, Google’s Gemini AI will tap into your Phone, Messages, WhatsApp and more, even if you’ve opted out of activity tracking. Google calls it “good news.” I found the secret steps to stop this nonsense here. Otherwise, your texts will be stored, scanned and possibly read by a human along with the things, up to and including being sold to who knows who. Not cool.

Tags: Google, messages, steps, tracking, WhatsApp

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Panic fast, fix faster

ChatGPT

You’ve got 13 seconds to undo, unplug, swipe or save your digital dignity. That’s your window to salvage your glitchy app, that accidental “Reply All” email or your phone freezing mid-sentence.

Don’t scream, at least not yet.

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This phone is made in the USA

Adobe Firefly

“Kim, I love my iPhone 16 but hate it’s made in China and apps track everything you do including your bowel movements. Is there a phone made in the USA that doesn’t track you?” — Paul in Tampa, Florida

Well, Paul, there’s exactly one, the $1,999 Liberty Phone from Purism. If the name makes you want to stand up and salute, you might sit right back down when I tell you the rest.

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Over $44 million

That’s how much has been pledged for a new UV printer, making it the most funded Kickstarter ever. The eufyMake E1 prints colorful designs on 300+ materials, including good ol’ fashioned rocks (yes, seriously). Here’s the link.

Improve Netflix quality: If your stream looks pixelated, your video settings might be set too low. Log in to Netflix on desktop, click your profile > Account > Edit settings > Playback settings. Change Data usage per screen to High and hit Save. If it starts buffering, run a speed test and switch back to Auto.

37.4 terabytes

That’s how much junk data one IP got smacked with, in 45 seconds. Taking the crown as the largest cyberattack in history, the DDoS attack was so heavy, it could’ve streamed 10,000 HD movies simultaneously. Somehow, Cloudflare’s clients stayed online.

$300 billion

The payday Ronald Wayne missed by leaving Apple too soon. Wayne bailed on his 10% stake 12 days in, for $800 in 1976 (paywall link), thinking he was dodging a financial bullet. The payout probably could buy him a small country today, or a few months’ rent in a San Francisco studio apartment.

103 mph

That’s how fast Jacob Misiorowski’s fastball has been clocked, in Triple-A. In the majors, he’s averaging just 99.7 mph, nearly 6 mph faster than the league average. That’s a massive gap in baseball speak. The Brewers rookie started his big-league career with 11 hitless innings. Basically, he’s playing MLB on rookie mode, with cheat codes.

27

The number of new Kuiper satellites Amazon just flung into orbit. These are batch two of a planned 3,236, and they’re not just for show. Bezos wants your internet to come from space, like Musk.

That's when 40% of people are already checking work email to prep for the day

That’s when 40% of people are already checking work email to prep for the day. Microsoft says meetings after 8 p.m. are up 16% in the past year. Welcome to the never-ending workday. The fix? Let AI agents handle the boring stuff like routine reports and admin.